editor, Author at Mediastreet

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How to master the basics of Google Bard

December 18, 2023 No Comments

This guide is designed to show you how to master the basics of Google Bard.

Bard is a large language model (LLM) chatbot developed by Google AI, trained on a massive dataset of text and code. It can generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.

Bard is still under development, but it has learned to perform many kinds of tasks, including:

Following instructions and completing requests thoughtfully.
Using its knowledge to answer questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange.
Generating different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. It will try its best to fulfil all your requirements.

To master the basics of Google Bard, you need to understand its capabilities and limitations, and how to use it effectively. Here are some tips:

Understand what Bard can and cannot do

Bard is a powerful tool, but it is not perfect. It can sometimes generate inaccurate or misleading information, especially when asked about complex or controversial topics. It is important to be critical of Bard’s responses and to verify them with other sources.

Bard is also not a replacement for human creativity. It can generate new text formats, but it cannot come up with original ideas. It is important to provide Bard with clear and concise instructions on what you want it to do.

Use natural language prompts

Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, so it can understand natural language prompts. When asking Bard a question or giving it a task, try to use the same kind of language that you would use when talking to a human.

For example, instead of saying “Write a poem about a cat,” try saying “Can you please write a poem about a cat?” This will help Bard to understand what you want and to generate a response that is relevant and informative.

Be specific in your instructions

When giving Bard a task, be as specific as possible. This will help Bard to generate a response that meets your expectations.

For example, instead of saying “Write a blog post about artificial intelligence,” try saying “Can you please write a 1000-word blog post about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence?” This will give Bard a better understanding of what you want and help it to generate a more comprehensive and informative response.

Use follow-up questions

If you are not satisfied with Bard’s response, you can ask it follow-up questions to clarify or refine its response. For example, if you ask Bard to write a poem about a cat and it generates a poem that is too short or too simple, you can ask it to write a longer or more complex poem.

Provide feedback

If you’d like to share your thoughts on the quality or relevance of Bard’s responses, you have the option to do so by utilizing the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons located near each answer. By offering this feedback, you’re contributing valuable data that enables Bard to continually refine its algorithms, thereby enhancing its performance and making it more effective in delivering accurate and helpful information over time

Experiment and have fun

Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Bard is still under development, so the more you use it, the better it will become at understanding and fulfilling your needs.

Here are some additional tips for mastering the basics of Google Bard:

Use Bard to learn new things. You can ask Bard questions about any topic, and it will try to provide you with a comprehensive and informative answer.
Use Bard to generate creative content. Bard can write poems, stories, code, scripts, musical pieces, and more. Just give it a clear and concise prompt, and it will do its best to fulfil your request.
Use Bard to help you with your work. Bard can help you to write reports, create presentations, generate marketing copy, and more. Just give it a clear and concise task, and it will do its best to help you.

Here are some examples of how you can use Bard:

Ask Bard to write a summary of a news article or research paper.
Ask Bard to generate a list of ideas for a new blog post or marketing campaign.
Ask Bard to translate a text from one language to another.
Ask Bard to write a poem or story in a specific style.
Ask Bard to help you to debug a piece of code.
Ask Bard to write a report or presentation on a specific topic.

Summary

Google Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to improve your work, By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to be more productive and creative. We hope that you find this guide helpful and informative, if you have any comments, tips or questions, please leave a comment below and let us know.

Feature Image Credit: Mojahid Mottakin

By Roland Hutchinson

Sourced from Geeky Gadgets

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14 Content Marketing Examples With Strategy Breakdowns

December 18, 2023 No Comments

By Tim Stoddart

There were a lot of changes in content marketing over the past year, and the companies winning the content game aren’t just using the basic best practices that were commonplace a few years ago.

Today, the best content marketing strategy leverages a combination of multiple marketing channels and produces a high volume of quality content.

Many of the best content marketers now leverage AI to scale their content while making it more personal than ever before by incorporating elements of personal branding and user generated content into their content strategy.

It’s also important to remember that you can’t build a brand around a single content marketing campaign or viral video. So below, we’ll show you not only some of the best content marketing examples from the past year, but also break down the content strategy behind each of these highly successful brands.

Let’s jump into it.

Ocho Wealth

Ocho Wealth is a platform that allows business owners, creators, and people with side hustles to manage their finances.

They launched in 2022 and grew to over $200,000 in ARR in the first year with just 10 team members.

However, what’s most interesting is that their founder refuses to invest anything into paid ads. Instead, they’re relying entirely on organic marketing efforts (largely content marketing).

You can read his full content marketing playbook here, though here’s a brief summary of how they’re investing in content marketing:

SEO: They’ve already published hundreds of blog posts related to finances for business owners and have scaled traffic to nearly 20,000 monthly searches:

Creator Collaborations: They’re building multiple courses on financial education, like angel investing, setting up retirement accounts, and more. These collaborations also allow them to tap into the creators’ audience.

Personal Branding: The founder, Ankur, has built a significant Twitter audience (currently over 60k followers) and stated that most of his initial customers come from Twitter followers.
Newsletter: They recently launched a newsletter that provides various tips on personal finances for business owners and regularly features creators in the personal finance space.

This strategy has helped the company achieve impressive growth with a very lean team of just ten people and zero dollars on paid ads.

Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is an excellent example of a B2B SaaS company that has scaled to millions of dollars in ARR through organic content marketing.

Founded by SEO expert Brian Dean, it’s no surprise that they invest heavily in blog content.

However, rather than just writing generic content targeting high volume and low difficulty keywords, they create content that showcases the product’s capabilities.

Exploding Topics is a trend discovery tool, so they create hundreds of list posts for various industry trends, and each blog post features trends discovered by Exploding Topics.

When readers see that the trends recommended in these blog posts are unique, under-the-radar trends, they immediately understand the product’s value, and if they want more similar trends, it’s a no-brainer to sign up for the product.

As a result most of their current users came from SEO traffic.

As an added benefit, these blog posts generate a lot of traffic (they currently drive over 200,000 monthly visits), which has helped the website gain authority and helped Exploding Topics earn a lot of brand awareness.

To earn backlinks, he created blog posts to answer individual statistic-based questions. For example, some of the top linked-to pages on Exploding Topics are blog posts targeting terms like:

How many people own Bitcoin?
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
How many gamers are there?

However, he also invests heavily in email marketing. In fact, he stated in a recent video that this is the single most valuable marketing channel for his business.

The Exploding Topics newsletter sends subscribers a list of five trending products and five trending companies so that users receive regular helpful trend recommendations and are reminded of the product’s value.

Finally, the team also publishes content very consistently. So create a content calendar and then be sure to stick to it. While it may seem obvious, the key difference that sets the most successful marketing strategies apart from the rest is usually just a matter of consistent execution.

SEMrush

SEMrush has a highly successful content marketing strategy that leverages various marketing channels.

In addition to their blog content, they also have a thriving social media content strategy and regularly post memes, templates, and snippets of content repurposed from their blog and YouTube channel. A quick glance at their LinkedIn account should give you some inspiration for your social content strategy.

Speaking of their YouTube channel, SEMrush regularly collaborates with SEO and general marketing thought leaders to host webinars and then the team repurposes the recording as video content. These collaborations help SEMrush tap into the influencers’ audience and allows the brand to create more high-quality content at scale.

Similar to Ocho, they also take video content to the next level by collaborating with a handful of select influencers to create free courses for their audience.

SEMrush is also a large company with a substantial content marketing budget, so they often deploy that capital to simply acquire existing blogs that their target audience already reads and loves. In fact, they recently acquired the Backlinko blog for an estimated $15 million.

AIOSEO

AIOSEO is an SEO plugin for WordPress that makes optimizing your website for search engines easy.

This company is also operated by a relatively small team, and therefore has a lean, yet highly effective, content strategy.

Instead of trying to dominate every marketing channel, they doubled down on SEO content. Like

Exploding Topics, most of their blog content targets keywords that their product solves, and they showcase how the product solves it inside the blog post. For example, this blog post targets the pain point “How to Generate A Robots.txt File In WordPress.”

Then, they walk the user through how to do so with their tool:

This blog post answers the reader’s question and effectively demonstrates the product’s value, making it an outstanding content marketing example.

It’s also worth noting that AIOSEO is part of the Awesome Motive portfolio, a group of various WordPress plugins.

Therefore, other brands within the portfolio also create content about AIOSEO on other blogs.

For example, here’s a blog post on “Best WordPress SEO Plugins” on the WPBeginner blog (another member of the Awesome Motive portfolio), and you can see that AIOSEO is first on the list:

Best wordpress plugins blog post on WPBeginner

Finally, they also have a thriving affiliate program, which helps them further scale their content marketing strategy at minimal additional cost as their affiliates create content for them. The affiliate content also helps increase the brand’s general credibility.

These combined content marketing efforts have been incredibly effective as they have scaled traffic from 20,000 to nearly 60,000 monthly visitors in just a year.

Hampton

Hampton is a newer company founded by Sam Parr, and its success is mostly thanks to Sam Parr’s personal brand.

Sam built his personal brand on Twitter and through the popular business podcast he co-hosts, My First Million.

So, when he launched the company, it’s no surprise that he had an overwhelming response. It’s already doing over eight figures and the team is still relatively small.

Therefore, personal branding is proving to be a highly effective content marketing strategy – even for B2B brands.

However, Hampton also has an interesting strategy for their blog content. Rather than targeting SEO keywords, they write stories about the members of their community.

As the product the business is selling is essentially access to high-level entrepreneurs, these stories are actually very effective at selling the value of the business.

Hampton blog post featuring entrepreneurs

Source

Finally, they also leverage email marketing to capture and retarget interested top of funnel audiences.

AppSumo

AppSumo is an affiliate brand that partners with software companies offering tools to small business owners and freelancers.

The company generates over $85 million in revenue annually, and it relies heavily on content marketing.

First, AppSumo has a thriving SEO strategy that consists largely of listicle posts and guides targeting pain points solopreneurs and small business owners experience.

They’ve also stated that their email marketing strategy is arguably their most effective marketing strategy. Since their business model is selling limited-time deals, email marketing makes sense as customers will want to stay up-to-date with the latest offers.

In addition to traditional marketing strategies, they rely heavily on the founder, Noah Kagan’s, personal brand to attract customers. Noah has a podcast and a YouTube channel that covers topics relevant to solopreneurs, creators, and freelancers.

His YouTube channel tends to focus on topics that could potentially go viral. For example, he has plenty of videos of himself asking owners of fancy cars, homes, yachts, and even private jets how to make money:

While these videos are primarily designed to generate brand awareness, they still attract his ideal audience (people who have small businesses or want to start a business) and therefore contribute to AppSumo’s growth.

In addition, he created a $10 course on earning your first $1,000 and includes a link to it in the description of each video:

This course is part of their content marketing strategy as it allows them to retarget students who join with various affiliate products.

Noah also regularly interviews solopreneurs and other interesting entrepreneurs on his podcast. By interviewing other entrepreneurs, he can tap into their audience to generate more awareness. In addition, he includes ads for AppSumo inside the podcast rather than selling ad slots to other brands.

eWebinar

eWebinar is a webinar platform that serial entrepreneur Melissa Kwan founded.

Like several other companies on this list, eWebinar is more or less a solopreneur business with only a handful of contractors helping her run the company.

Therefore, she also has a very lean content team yet relies almost exclusively on content marketing to drive signups.

Her content marketing strategy consists mainly of bottom of the funnel SEO content, social media posts on her personal LinkedIn profile, and webinars.

Looking at the SEO strategy, you can see that most of the content is pain point focused content that their webinar platform solves. For example, this post targeting the keyword “how to make a pre-recorded webinar” clearly outlines how to create a pre-recorded webinar using the eWebinar platform:

You can also see that almost all of the CTAs across the website drive visitors to sign up for one of the pre-recorded webinars hosted on the eWebinar platform. This is a clever content marketing strategy as potential customers can experience the product the same way their users would experience it if they use eWebinar on their own website.

Finally, Melissa has built a substantial following on LinkedIn.

Therefore, she occasionally also uses her own personal brand to promote the product.

Her personal brand has also made her an attractive guest for podcasters, so she’s been able to further amplify her presence by appearing on podcasts like Traction.

SparkToro

SparkToro is a SaaS company that makes it easy for marketers to do audience research.

Founded by Rand Fishkin, who was previously regarded as an SEO expert, you might think they rely heavily on search engine traffic. However, he has openly stated that SEO content is not a priority for their brand.

Instead, they tend to rely heavily on social media content. He and CMO Amanda Natividad have substantial personal brands, and most of their audience comes from social media content.

However, like most brands on this list, he regularly creates content discussing specific pain points that the product solves. Here’s a great example of this:

Rand Fishkin product walkthrough social media post

In fact, he’s a master of video content marketing. At Moz, he popularized Whiteboard Fridays, quick video SEO tutorials with actionable information.

Now he’s using a similar strategy at SparkToro.

Here is just one of these outstanding video content marketing examples:

Seeing the founder’s face also builds trust with the audience more effectively than exclusively using text-based content.

Acquisition.com

Acquisition.com is a holding company that consists primarily of service-based businesses. Founder Alex Hormozi is the face of the brand and relies heavily on content marketing to generate leads for both their portfolio and talent acquisition.

He has grown the brand from zero to millions of followers in a few short years, and a key secret to his success is his content repurposing framework, which allows him to publish hundreds of high quality pieces of content each week.

He typically begins by recording a video or podcast interview. Then, his team takes the long-form content and cuts it into shorter clips they can repurpose across social media platforms.

For example, he recorded this video, and then his team repurposed it into social media and podcast content:

Alex Hormozi's content repurposing framework

This is an outstanding content marketing strategy as he only has to create the content once, yet he still reaps the same benefits as if he created multiple pieces of content for each platform.

The best part is that you can do this with a relatively lean content team. They currently have fewer than ten people on their content team per month, and as of October 2022, they were only spending approximately $100,000 per month on content.

So rather than trying to create multiple different types of content, master just one channel and then hire someone to repurpose it across other platforms.

Beehiiv

The newsletter platform, Beehiiv, is one of the trendiest new startups, and they’ve grown mostly through organic marketing efforts.

First, they invest heavily in SEO content and regularly publish case studies and customer stories showcasing interesting newsletter growth strategies.

The customer stories and case studies are particularly excellent examples of content marketing as they tap into the personal story element that most SEO-style content lacks. These stories are also original content that hasn’t been published elsewhere, making Beehiiv an authority on the topic.

However, they also happen to be very savvy social media content marketers.

First, their employees are highly engaged brand advocates and consistently publish content around what they love about the brand, new product updates, and other news.

For example, this post helps communicate a key pain point that the product solves:

You can also tell from these posts by their business development leader that employees genuinely love and believe in the brand:

Beehiiv also has a thriving affiliate program and is one of the few B2B brands that has truly mastered user generated content.

When someone (often an affiliate, though occasionally a random customer) publishes a social media post mentioning Beehiiv, they always republish it to the branded account. Here’s a great example:

Resharing this content on the brand’s social media pages builds Beehiiv’s credibility and encourages more customers to share content around the brand as they know Beehiiv will reshare it with their audience.

Cafe Lola

There aren’t many donut shops with great content marketing strategies, but Cafe Lola is an exception.

Founder Alexandra Lordes grew the donut shop’s account to over 50,000 followers, but her personal account really carries the brand’s content strategy.

She personally has over a million TikTok followers, and rather than just posting about her life and kids, she also incorporates updates on the donut shop, like new flavours available and other updates. For example, in this video, she has her kids rate the new products:

So unlike many creators that have many followers but few conversions, this content strategy likely drives plenty of sales as it showcases the products themselves. In fact, people regularly make Cafe Lola a top destination on their list when visiting Las Vegas:

In fact, her viral videos have helped her earn orders from celebrities like Karol G, Maluma, and other stars.

So even if you just have a brick and mortar store, creating content about your daily life as the owner and building a personal brand can help you drive customers.

GoPro

GoPro is an outstanding example of a brand that has mastered user generated content. Rather than paying to create their own marketing content and then investing more to promote it across their social media channels, they just run contests and let customers create the content and promote it for them.

Here are just a few of the challenges they’re currently running:

Here’s just one example of the outstanding content their creators submit regularly:

GoPro user generated content post on Instagram

As a result, GoPro doesn’t have to spend any money creating content because they can simply repurpose the creators’ content.

In addition, GoPro is essentially getting free influencer marketing, as the creators must include the GoPro hashtags in their posts to enter the challenge. These creators often have thousands, if not millions, of followers, significantly boosting GoPro’s brand awareness.

For example, the creator that recently won a Photo of The Day challenge above has over 100,000 followers:

Epic Gardening

Epic Gardening is an ecommerce brand that sells gardening supplies.

Like many D2C brands on this list, it was built on the founder’s personal brand.

In fact, founder Kevin Espiritu started the brand as a blog that provided helpful gardening tips and advice and later turned it into a thriving YouTube channel.

Today, Kevin has the largest YouTube channel on gardening, though most importantly, he’s turned it into a business that generates over $59 million in revenue annually.

The content he creates is designed primarily for entertainment, and he is still largely the face of the brand:

He publishes roughly 3-5 times per week, and while he currently doesn’t have a robust content repurposing strategy, this might be on the roadmap as his marketing team grows.

Blogilates

Blogilates is another creator-first business that was founded by Pilates instructor turned entrepreneur, Cassy Ho.

She began posting Pilates workouts on YouTube over a decade ago and has since grown her channel to over nine million subscribers.

She has built an athleisure brand, POPFLEX, and she also has a partnership with Target, where she sells workout equipment, clothing, and even supplements.

Today, she doesn’t post many workout videos on YouTube, though she is still active on Instagram, YouTube shorts, and TikTok.

She’s also a great example of a content creator who prioritizes repurposing content rather than creating brand-new content across multiple channels.

For example, she reposted this same piece of content across multiple platforms:

The takeaway from this content marketing example is that consistency is key. If you consistently produce high quality content for over a decade on the same topic, you’ll probably be successful.

How To Use These Content Marketing Examples

Now that you’ve seen these content marketing examples, take action.

If you’re unsure where to start or if you don’t have time to create content yourself – let the digital marketing experts behind Copyblogger’s content strategy create it for you — Digital Commerce Partners.

They can design and execute a content marketing strategy that drives organic leads and establishes your brand as an industry authority. Reach out to them today to learn more.

By Tim Stoddart

Tim Stoddart is CEO of Copyblogger. In 2011, Tim founded Stodzy Internet Marketing. He currently lives in Nashville with his wife, his son, and their pitbull named Alice. Follow Tim on Twitter.

Sourced from copyblogger

In News

Meta debuts generative AI features for advertisers

December 15, 2023 No Comments

By Sarah Perez

Meta announced it’s rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds, expand images and generate multiple versions of ad text based on their original copy. The launch of the new tools follows the company’s Meta Connect event last week where the social media giant debuted its Quest 3 mixed-reality headset and a host of other generative AI products, including stickers and editing tools, as well as AI-powered smart glasses.

In the case of AI tools for the ad industry, the new products may not be as wild as the celebrity AIs that let you chat with virtual versions of people like MrBeast or Paris Hilton, but they showcase how Meta believes generative AI can assist the brands and businesses that are responsible for delivering the majority of Meta’s revenue.

The first among the trio of new features allows an advertiser to customize their creative assets by generating multiple different backgrounds to change the look of their product images. This is similar to the technology that Meta used to create the consumer-facing tool Backdrop, which allows users to change the scene or the background of their image by using prompts. However, in the ad toolkit, the backgrounds are generated for the advertiser based on their original product images and will tend to be “simple backgrounds with colours and patterns,” Meta explains. The feature is available to those advertisers using the company’s Advantage+ catalogue to create their sales ads.

Another feature, image expansion, allows advertisers to adjust their assets to fit different aspect ratios required across various products, like Feed or Reels, for example. Also available to Advantage+ creative in Meta’s Mads Manager, the AI feature would allow advertisers to spend less time repurposing their creative assets, including images and video, for different surfaces, Meta claims.

With the text variations feature in Meta Ads Manager, the AI can generate up to six different variations of text based on the advertiser’s original copy. These variations can highlight specific keywords and input phrases the advertiser wants to emphasize, and advertisers can edit the generated output or simply choose the best one or ones that fit their goals. During the campaign, Meta can also display different combinations of text to different people to see which ones drive better responses. However, Meta won’t showcase the performance details for each specific text variation, it says, as the reporting is currently based on a single ad. However, the more options the advertiser selects to run, the more opportunities they’ll have to improve their ad performance, Meta informs them.

Meta says it’s already tested these AI features with a small but diverse set of advertisers earlier this year, and their early results indicate that generative AI will save them five or more hours per week, or a total of one month per year. However, the company admits that there’s still work ahead to better customize the generative AI output to match each advertiser’s style.

In addition, Meta says there are more AI features to come, noting it’s working on new ways to generate ad copy to highlight selling points or generative backgrounds with tailored themes. Plus, as it announced at Meta Connect, businesses will be able to use AI for messaging on WhatsApp and Messenger to chat with customers for e-commerce, engagement and support.

Feature Image Credit: Meta

By Sarah Perez

Sourced from TechCrunch

In News

6 Ways to Ace Social Media Branding for Your Startup

December 15, 2023 No Comments

By Vikas Agrawal

Social media offers a level playing field for startups to build their brand presence, but the high competition necessitates a strategic and streamlined social media branding approach.

Did you know that there are over 4.62 billion active social media users worldwide? With such a massive audience, it’s no wonder that startups are leveraging social media branding to create a strong online presence and grow their businesses. But the competition is steep, and you must apply a strategic approach to stand out and make heads turn! So, let’s delve into the world of social media branding for startups. We’ll explore how to build a strong image and thrive in the digital landscape.

The power of social media branding for startups

Social media branding offers numerous benefits for budding startups. It’s not just about creating a logo or a catchy tagline; it’s about creating a unique recognition and following online that resonates with your audience.

First, increased brand awareness is surely one of its biggest benefits. Startups can harness social media platforms for branding by actively responding to customer feedback, initiating meaningful conversations through targeted content and hosting interactive sessions like Q&As or live streams to engage directly with their audience. This proactive approach fosters trust and builds a loyal community around the brand.

Enhanced customer engagement is another unique advantage of social branding. Platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn provide a unique opportunity for startups to interact directly with their customers and build lasting relationships. On Twitter, startups can engage in real-time conversations, respond to feedback, and address concerns, while LinkedIn allows for professional networking, sharing industry insights and fostering community discussions.

Similarly, startups can create community groups, host live sessions and run targeted ads to foster engagement on Facebook. With its visual-centric approach, Instagram allows brands to showcase their products, share behind-the-scenes content, and collaborate with influencers for wider reach.

But it’s not just about engagement and awareness. Effective social media branding can drive more traffic to a startup’s website through quality content, increasing sales and revenue. This is especially effective with video content, as 61% of customers are convinced to purchase based on the brand’s video.

Are you ready to leverage the power of social media platforms to elevate your new brand? Here are some tips to help you apply social media branding for your business effectively.

1. Establish a consistent brand identity

A strong brand identity is crucial for a startup’s success on social media. To create a consistent brand identity, define your brand’s mission, vision, values and target audience. Next, develop a unique brand voice and visual identity that resonates with your target audience.

Consistency is key, so ensure that your logo, colours, fonts and messaging are uniform across all social media platforms. Most importantly, always ensure your brand’s messaging is laser-focused on your target audience.

2. Choose the right platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Each platform has unique features, demographics, and content formats; understanding these nuances is the first step in mastering social media branding. For example, LinkedIn is a hub for professionals and B2B marketing, while Instagram thrives on visual content, making it ideal for lifestyle and fashion brands.

To ace social media branding, it’s essential to identify the platforms that align with your startup’s target audience and objectives. Researching and understanding the demographics of each platform will guide you in selecting the ones that resonate with your brand’s voice and goals.

3. Create engaging and valuable content

Content is the backbone of social media branding. To create a strong brand presence, producing engaging and valuable content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests is crucial. Share a mix of informative, entertaining, and promotional content regularly to keep your audience engaged and showcase your brand’s expertise. And don’t forget to use eye-catching visuals and incorporate your brand’s unique voice and identity in all content. The final aim is to perform effective social media storytelling to build a loyal audience and customer base for your brand.

4. Leveraging user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for social media branding. You can foster trust, credibility, and engagement by encouraging your audience to share their experiences with your brand. Feature customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated photos or videos on your social media profiles to showcase your startup’s success and create a sense of community among your followers. UGC not only amplifies your brand’s voice but also adds authenticity. When potential customers see real people enjoying your products or services, it creates a more relatable and trustworthy image for your brand.

5. Implementing hashtags and influencer marketing

Hashtags and influencer marketing can significantly boost your startup’s social media branding efforts. Use relevant and branded hashtags to increase your content’s visibility and reach. For example, creating a unique hashtag for a specific campaign can help you track its success and engagement. Collaborate with influencers who align with your brand values and have a strong following among your target audience. Influencer partnerships can help you reach new customers, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions. By choosing the right influencers, you can tap into their established trust and credibility, making your brand more appealing to their followers.

6. Tracking and analysing performance

For effective social media branding, it’s essential to monitor and analyse your startup’s performance on each platform. Use social media analytics tools to track key metrics, such as engagement, reach and conversions. Analysing this data will help you identify trends, measure the success of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize your social media branding efforts. Regularly reviewing these insights allows you to understand what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. It’s not just about numbers; it’s about understanding the behaviour and preferences of your audience, enabling you to tailor your content and strategies for maximum impact.

Applying effective social media branding for startups in the competitive online space requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. It’s not just about crafting creative campaigns but understanding your audience deeply and making data-driven decisions catering to their needs. By establishing a strong brand identity, choosing the right platforms, creating engaging content, leveraging user-generated branding content, implementing hashtags and influencer marketing and tracking performance, you can create a powerful online presence that drives growth and success for your startup.

By Vikas Agrawal

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

CEO of Infobrandz.com

Vikas Agrawal is a Strategic Marketing Consultant, and Crypto Advocate. With a passion for visual marketing and branding, data privacy and emerging technologies, Vikas leads Infobrandz.com and empowers companies to thrive in the digital era.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Why are cafes, restaurants, and even towns banning influencers?

December 14, 2023 No Comments

By Meera Navlakha

From a picturesque town to a Brooklyn cafe, popular destinations are closing their doors to influencers.

Nowadays, it seems like every place “worth” frequenting is deemed that way by influencers. Lifestyle TikTokkers and Instagram foodies inform the world of which restaurants to choose, the pop-ups currently open, and where to eat when travelling.

But some spots are closing their doors on influencers, raising questions. Take Dae, a design shop and cafe in Brooklyn. As reported by Curbed, the space was inundated by influencers carrying tripods, to the point where the owners decided to ban them entirely. The issue was addressed on the cafe’s Instagram account, permitting visitors to take “quick snaps” at their own tables, but firmly adding their new in-store, no photos-and-videos policy: “We love food and drink photos (clearly) … but the TikToks and Instagram photoshoots have gotten a bit out of control for us.”

Just weeks earlier, a Vermont town came under the spotlight for invoking similar rules. Known for its picturesque autumn landscape, Pomfret closed its most visited and photographed spots to influencers and tourists. The town’s board voted to shutter these areas between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15, citing “significant safety, environmental, aesthetic, and quality of life issues.”

In July, some residents of the town created a public GoFundMe page to save Cloudland Road, a bucolic strip of land that served as a popular backdrop to fall-focused social media content. The fundraiser’s organizers allege that determined visitors, intent on capturing perfect photographs, “have changed the neighbourhood landscape to the point that it is untenable.”

Two TikTok screenshots of Dae Cafe and a spot in Vermont.

Both spots were highly recorded and featured on social media. Credit: TikTok: @euginanoh / @richardkrisak.

These are just two more recent incidents of this nature. In Jan. 2018, a hotel in Ireland banned all “bloggers”, after an influencer asked the owner for a free stay in exchange for content. In Feb. 2020, a cafe in Taiwan “strictly banned” influencers, frustrated by Instagrammers going to great lengths to obtain their perfect shot within the store.

For some, banning content creators in 2023 seems like an interesting choice. It’s hard to look past the rise of influencer marketing, and the subsequent reliance on influencers for promotion. That reliance comes from both businesses, wanting to promote products and places, and consumers, seeking suggestions from internet voices they trust.

One reason for such bans is simply logistical. Viral videos may be conducive to growth but oftentimes, the subjects of these videos aren’t prepared for a surge in popularity. Dr. Marcus Collins, marketing professor at the University of Michigan, says that some restaurants and local attractions “can’t handle the new demand” and do not hold the infrastructure for it, therefore feeling “a physical strain”. Sarah Blocksidge, a marketing director, agrees: “The reality is that some businesses just aren’t suited for the influx of people an influencer can attract, which can wind up hurting the business more than helping it.”

“The reality is that some businesses just aren’t suited for the influx of people an influencer can attract, which can wind up hurting the business more than helping it.”

But it seems the era of being disillusioned by some influencers, and their choices, has also dawned. Earlier this year, de-influencing became a craze (somewhat ironically). Over the summer, TikTokkers expressed outrage at the influx of micro-trends that not only have a ridiculously short lifespan, but also lack meaning. A growing faction of the internet seems fatigued by influencing, especially when it entails a constant barrage of capitalist content or a lack of self-awareness.

The same concept can be applied to the leisure industry. Sam Shaw, strategy director at consumer insights firm Canvas8, says that some influencers are perceived as having “a superficial relationship with the places they visit.”

“Most places want sustainable customer-bases, not just swarms of people who are there ‘for the gram’ and then onto the next place,” says Shaw. “This an extension of the earlier banning of phones and taking pictures in certain restaurants and clubs, in order to protect the “presence” of the experience for those who are there for the substance.”

“Most places want sustainable customer-bases, not just swarms of people who are there ‘for the gram’ and then onto the next place.”

It’s true that no-camera rules are not a new phenomenon: as early as 2013, major restaurants began to enforce stricter regulations for those intent on documenting meals. The New York Times described these diners as the “legions of amateur iPhone-wielding food lovers, who say what they do is a tribute — not to mention free advertising for the restaurants.”

Over a decade later, the act of taking food pics has evolved into full-fledged careers for many. While this has revolutionized the hospitality and F&B industries to some extent, there is another side to be considered. As Dae’s recent move illustrates, some spaces don’t feel that they require social media promotion from others to boost their own sales. Joe Karasin, owner of a digital PR and SEO agency, says that sometimes influencers are “greatly misguided in the value they bring to brands.”

“Sure, Kim Kardashian can help a brand sell products, but the overwhelming majority of micro-influencers bring little value,” says Karasin.

He adds that there’s a recent trend of influencers feeling a sense of misplaced ownership over both private and public spaces, also sometimes demanding free goods in exchange for content (as noted in the case of the B&B in Dublin). Baruch Labunski, founder of a digital marketing company, concurs, saying that “private businesses have grown tired of influencers because many go to cafes, venues, and even businesses like boat rentals to get items or services for free in exchange for a mention.”

This may not be a consensus – and let’s face it, influencers aren’t going anywhere – but there is a tangible backlash around algorithms and their ruling power. As Shaw says, many are asking for a return for “protecting ‘offline’ experiences”. Banning or limiting influencers seems like a way to offer this — even if the brands and businesses doing so have Instagram pages of their own.

Feature Image Credit: Vicky Leta / Mashable

By Meera Navlakha

Meera is a Culture Reporter at Mashable, joining the UK team in 2021. She writes about digital culture, mental health, big tech, entertainment, and more. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Vice, Vogue India, and others.

Sourced from Mashable

In News

How to Use AI to Get Your Next Job, According to Career Experts

December 14, 2023 No Comments

By Jaime Stathis

Using AI job search tools can help optimize the hunt—and get you hired. Here’s how to make artificial intelligence work for you.

Sometimes, things seem to escalate quickly, and this was certainly the case with artificial intelligence (AI), which very swiftly transformed from a cool, futuristic idea to a tool that has infiltrated our daily lives. In fact, many of us use AI and don’t even realize it. When you use facial recognition to unlock your iPhone, Google Maps to navigate to your next destination or ask Alexa to play a song, that’s all AI. You might have mixed feelings about robots operating among us, but the future of AI is here—and there’s no going back. The latest technology can even help you level up your career with an AI job search.

Despite concerns about privacy and cybersecurity or whether ChatGPT will eliminate jobs, the benefits are real, and many job seekers are using AI tools to their advantage. Whether you’re considering changing careers or career cushioning, tap into the power of AI to help land your next big job.

How AI can offer opportunity in the job market

“Navigating the job market with AI remains a topic of considerable uncertainty, but also immense opportunity,” says Ozden Onder, chief people officer at Stability AI, a leading open generative AI company. “It’s true that we don’t fully know yet how AI will affect the types of jobs available in the future. But by learning and using the tools we have available now, you can set yourself apart from other candidates and find the right next step for your career.”

There’s no doubt that some jobs will become more automated and potentially disappear, but Ozden says to take advantage of the technology. “If history is our guide, then I believe it’s more accurate to say that in the future, it won’t be AI that replaces people. Instead, people who are enabled by AI will find more ways of doing interesting and creative work. AI is a net positive for the workplace and helping people achieve their fullest potential.” Here’s how to use AI to your advantage, according to our career experts.

Update your LinkedIn profile

Many hiring managers and recruiters look at your LinkedIn profile before they even look at your résumé, so it’s essential that your profile is in tip-top shape—that includes fixing common misspelled words on LinkedIn. “You really want to be sure to make a good first impression,” says Andrew McCaskill, LinkedIn career expert and creator of The Black Guy in Marketing newsletter. Use your profile to highlight every skill that can make you more discoverable to hiring managers, and if you hit mental roadblocks when trying to write about yourself, turn to AI to develop attractive headlines and “About Me” sections that you can then customize to your expertise. “Consider AI to provide a helping hand in helping you stand out,” McCaskill says.

Best AI tool: Get your creativity flowing during your AI job search with LinkedIn’s new AI-powered writing tools. To use the feature, simply open your “About” section and click “Get AI-Powered Suggestions” at the bottom of the text field.

Optimize your résumé for AI filters

Boris SV/Getty Images

Are résumé mistakes the reason why you’re not getting hired? Potentially. “Remember that many résumés are either machine-read or only glanced at for 10 seconds by a recruiter,” says Onder, which means learning how to optimize your résumé for AI is essential.

Bridget Lohrius, founder and CEO of career coaching company Sandwina, says that 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS), which means if the key skills aren’t included in your résumé, you don’t make it through the system. “[That means] never getting the chance to dazzle a human being,” she says, adding that it’s estimated these systems reject 75% of résumés before a recruiter ever sees them.

Don’t use intricate Canva templates to build your résumé (they tend to be riddled with unique graphics, icons and fonts), and never include a photo, because ATS programs can’t read them, Lohrius says. “A clean, basic text-only design is best.”

Best AI tool: Lohrius recommends Jobscan for résumé optimization. Their proprietary AI technology analyzes your résumé and compares it with the job listing.

Find the right fit

It’s not just about finding a great job with a terrific compensation package, it’s about finding the right job that suits your skill set and your personality. “Landing a job that makes you miserable is often worse than not getting the job in the first place,” says William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of executive staffing company Vanderbloemen Search Group. “If you know a bit about yourself, then you can match yourself with the right job using AI.”

For example, Vanderbloemen knows he’s an Enneagram 7, so he asked an AI assistance bot, such as ChatGPT, “What are ideal jobs for an Enneagram 7?” He learned that career paths that may align well with the traits of an Enneagram 7 include photographer, event planner and sales representative. Your AI job search is only as good as your curiosity about yourself.

Best AI tool: Vanderbloemen recommends ChatGPT to help find the right fit. Simply type in your question or prompt in the message box on the ChatGPT home page. Once you receive a response, you can ask it to elaborate, regenerate a new response or more responses, or take it as it is.

Learn about company culture

There’s finding the right job, and then there’s finding a workplace culture to match your needs. Use AI job search tools to learn more about the company you’re interested in. For example, Vanderbloemen asked ChatGPT about the company culture at Google and which personality types might thrive there. He found out that Google, like many large tech companies, values a diverse workforce with a wide range of skills and personalities.

“There is no single personality type that thrives at Google, as they look for individuals who can contribute to a collaborative and innovative work environment,” Vanderbloemen says. “However, some common traits and characteristics that may be well suited for working at Google include creativity, adaptability and analytical thinking. Google is known for its data-driven approach to decision making, so individuals who are comfortable with analysing data and drawing insights from it can be successful,” he says.

Best AI tool: Vanderbloemen recommends ChatGPT to help with researching company culture.

Personalize cover letters

The job search process can be tedious and repetitive, but personalizing cover letters and creating industry-specific résumés is vital. To help your time management during the job search, tap AI to create an outline for your cover letters. “AI can save you time during that process by creating first drafts or formatting templates, so you don’t have to worry about the busywork,” says Akhila Satish, an award-winning career expert, scientist and CEO of Meseekna. Just make sure you’re personalizing and reviewing any content before submitting an application—not only will hiring managers notice AI-generated cover letters, AI can make some funny mistakes.

Lohrius points out that the cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your personality, your legitimate interest in a role or company, your understanding of their business and above all, how you—and only you—are the best fit. “AI can do the heavy lifting for you, but the most important thing to remember when using AI is that the technology generates a basic letter, so you don’t have to start from scratch, but you still need to dedicate time and energy into the content and voice to make your letter an interview-grabbing magnet,” she says.

Best AI tool: Satish recommends ChatGPT to help organize cover letter structure before you personalize it with your own voice. Lohrius likes the cover letter feature on ResumeGenius. “It takes the user through a series of questions to customize the cover letter, making the process simple and straightforward,” she says. “Once the questionnaire is completed, you add some personal information and a bit about the job you’re applying for, and the cover letter builder gets to work, creating a solid letter that you can then customize to sound like you.”

Identify the best interview questions

Guillaume/getty images

It’s important to remember that when interviewing, you have the best chance to ask questions about the job and the company, and you can use AI to identify the best inverview questions to ask. “After interviewing over 30,000 top candidates at Vanderbloemen, we are convinced that candidates who ask the best questions often gain the winning advantage in landing the job,” Vanderbloemen says.

As an experiment, he asked ChatGPT “What are the best questions to ask when interviewing for an ER nursing job?” A list popped up right away, he says, and included questions about the nurse-to-patient ratio in the ER and how it changes during peak times; how the hospital supports continuing education and professional development for ER nurses; what team dynamics and collaboration among ER staff looks like; and how the hospital manages the influx of patients during its busiest times.

Best AI tool: ChatGPT is a good choice here for your AI job search, but McCaskill also suggests LinkedIn’s Interview Prep tools that help prepare you for commonly asked interview questions with videos of tips and sample responses from real hiring managers and recruiters. “You can also get instant AI-powered feedback to your recorded interview practice session on pacing, how many times you’re using filler words and sensitive phrases to avoid,” McCaskill says.

Stay ahead of the AI curve

No matter your industry, staying ahead of emerging technology can help you stand out. Currently, that’s voice technology. “Voice technology is a rapidly growing field that focuses on natural interactions between humans and machines, requiring employees with highly specialized skills,” says Tobias Dengel, author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology.

“As popularity increases in many industries, such as health care, customer service, e-commerce, financial services, education and automotive, employees with voice technology experience can stand out from other candidates, position themselves as valuable assets and demonstrate the ability to learn and adapt to emerging technologies and industry trends.”

Best AI tool: Ozden recommends Ben’s Bites, which is an excellent daily summary and essential reading on what’s trending in AI.

Create a website

Satish recommends supplementing your résumé and job application with a personal website to boost your AI job search success. “Your résumé is only a snapshot of you as a candidate, so showcasing examples of your best work and sharing more details on your bio can help you stand out in a pool of applications,” she says. Because building a website can take a lot of time and experience, she recommends AI website-building tools to help streamline the process. “That technology will help you navigate the nuances of website building so that you can focus on fine-tuning and polishing before sending it off to a potential job lead.”

Best AI tool: SquareSpace, Wix and web.com are all user-friendly website builders that use AI.

Show that you’ve done your research

Tailor your interview answers based on knowledge about the company. To get that information, use AI for research. “Interviewers love to see that candidates have done their homework,” Vanderbloemen says. He asked ChatGPT, “What are the traits of the best young analysts at Deloitte?” and he learned that strong analytical skills, technical proficiency and problem-solving ability are all traits that Deloitte looks for in its analysts. With this info, alter your answers accordingly.

Interviewing for a job in a new city? “AI can give you a trove of local knowledge you can drop in your interview to show your interest in the job,” says Vanderbloemen. Doing this shows your interest in relocating and that you’re already looking for ways to fit into the local culture. You might even reference local universities, sports teams or museums.

Best AI tool: ChatGPT is a great AI tool for this research. If you’re not sure it works on a local level, use the town you’re in now and see how accurate it is.

Experiment with AI tools

Unless you’re fresh out of college, most of us are just now learning to implement AI job search strategies. But Ozden recommends familiarizing yourself with the tools, even job search. “Experimentation is the best way to get comfortable with AI tools,” he says. Learning by doing is the best way to pick up any new skill, after all.

“We are just getting started with this new world of AI, and you should take time to learn every modality of AI—there is a lot more to AI than language models like ChatGPT,” Ozden says. We now have image, video, audio and so many other areas for experimentation.

Best AI tool: If you want to move beyond ChatGPT, Dengel suggests expanding your skill set to SDXL, which is AI image generation, especially if you’re in the creative fields or you ever need to present.

About the experts

Ozden Onder is the chief people officer at Stability AI, a leading open generative AI company.
Andrew McCaskill is a LinkedIn career expert and creator of The Black Guy in Marketing newsletter.
William Vanderbloemen is the author of Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits That Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest. He is also the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group.
Tobias Dengel is the author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology. He is president of WillowTree, a leader in digital product design and development. Dengel understands the wide-ranging implications voice technology will have for every industry, and he counsels leaders and employees on adaptation. He has worked with T. Mobile, Mastercard, Capital One and more on their voice interfaces.
Bridget Lohrius is the founder and CEO of career coaching company Sandwina, a platform built to close the gender gap faster by making career coaching more affordable and accessible for all women.
Akhila Satish is an award-winning career expert, scientist and CEO of Meseekna, where she works to assess and improve employee performance. Satish has worked with employers including the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, Eli Lilly and Credit Suisse, and her work has been featured in publications such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

Sources:

New York Times: “The New ChatGPT Can ‘See’ and ‘Talk.’ Here’s What It’s Like.”
LinkedIn: “LinkedIn’s new AI tool will help you write posts: ChatGPT Impact”
Jobscan: “Optimize your resume to get more interviews”
Resume Genius: “Make Your Professional Resume in Minutes”
Ben’s Bites: “What’s trending in AI”

Feature Image Credit: roberthyrons/getty images

By Jaime Stathis

Jaime Alexis Stathis writes about health, wellness, technology, nutrition, careers and everything related to being a human being on a constantly evolving planet. In addition to Reader’s Digest and The Healthy, her work has been published in Self, Wired, Parade, Bon Appétit, The Independent, Women’s Health, HuffPost and more. She is also a licensed massage therapist. Jaime is working on a novel about a heroine who saves herself and a memoir about caring for her grandmother through the dark stages of dementia.

Sourced from Reader’s Digest

In News

Why Every Creator Should Be Using Adobe Creative Cloud

December 13, 2023 No Comments

By Venesa Coger

In a digital age where creators are constantly pushing their creative bounds and striving to produce engaging content for their audience, the ultimate goal is for their work to be of high quality.

Adobe Creative Cloud has played an instrumental role for many as the software includes a variety of comprehensive tools to choose from, like Lightroom, Premiere Pro, and Adobe Express. Content creators are able to transform their ideas into reality over time and elevate the quality of their work. This past week, I attended the Adobe Max conference in Los Angeles, and I was able to personally experience how Adobe Creative Cloud empowers creators to refine their skills, enhance their content, and simplify the distribution of their work.

In previous years when virtually attending the Adobe Max event, I prioritized sessions that spoke to the needs of my former role as a social media strategist. One thought that always crossed my mind was the ability to streamline and house the content I produced within Photoshop and Premiere. Adobe Express, formerly known as Adobe Spark, brings together all the capabilities in Adobe to service not only creators but social marketers and everyday people who use Adobe Creative Cloud in some capacity. During his keynote, Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer of Emerging Products Scott Belsky said, “Express is great for creatives to be able to collaborate with others on their team while keeping up with the demand of their work.” During his demo, attendees were able to see how artists established their brand style and how those styles were passed along through collaboration and distribution for marketing purposes.

Photo: Kevin Fu/ Adobe

Courtney Quinn, a fashion content creator, has found Adobe Creative Cloud particularly useful in her editing process. “Sometimes when I shoot my content, it may be in unforgiving settings, so I rely on Lightroom to bring my content up to my standard – it must be colourful, crisp, and clear,” Quinn shared in a conversation with Refinery29 Unbothered. “Adobe Express is so easy to use that everyone can use it, and it has been helpful for creating Instagram stories and branded content. I’m able to stay consistent with my content and workflow.”

It’s exciting that once your creations are done in Express, you’re able to schedule them to post automatically across numerous social media platforms such as Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, and, newly, TikTok. This is truly a game changer as it minimizes the need for multiple subscriptions to various editing and content management apps. Express users will be able to create custom templates to maintain consistent branding and enhance their credibility in brand imaging. They can also access templates created for presentations and designs and plug in their already existing designs from Photoshop and Illustrator. It’s accessible for any experience level, too; if you’re just starting out, Adobe Express offers user-friendly editing tools for simpler video productions.

While at the conference also uncovered the secret to how creators get their images to look so crisp and high quality: Adobe Lightroom. Many creators use Lightroom when editing and are able to create a unique aesthetic for their imagery on their respective social platforms. Some of the new features that Lightroom offers made me sit up in my seat — namely the newly launched AI masking software, which allows users to remove and add objects, clothing, backgrounds, people, and more. To be honest, AI isn’t featured in many of the Adobe products, and I didn’t have a lot of knowledge on its many capabilities, so prior to attending the conference, I wasn’t too sure about AI. However, during the sessions and keynote speeches, I was able to learn more about how the use of AI is mainly to help us create more — not take away from the creative process. I got to have a 1:1 session with an Adobe Photoshop expert who walked me through the AI-generating tool before giving me the opportunity to play around with the tool on my own. I was able to extend my background and swap out objects as I saw fit. Though I am more of a video creator, it was still pretty cool to learn about these tools, because they inspired me to try something new for my own personal content.

Adobe Creative Cloud remains an important software for creators to harness their capabilities and transform their visions into reality. All these tools are useful no matter what stage you are in your creator journey. For the next piece of content and art you make, give these tools a try — your work will thank you.

Feature Image Credit: Venesa Coger

By Venesa Coger

Sourced from REFINERY29

In News

18 Key Strategies To Design Landing Pages That Work

December 13, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

Having a well-designed landing page is crucial for businesses to achieve their key performance indicators (KPIs) and boost their bottom line. An effective landing page can captivate visitors, convert them into leads or customers and ultimately drive revenue. However, creating an effective landing page is not merely about aesthetics; it requires a strategic approach.

Below, 18 Forbes Business Development Council members explore proven strategies to create landing pages that not only meet KPIs but also maximize conversions and contribute to the overall growth of your business.

1. Focus On Your CTA

A single, clear call-to-action (CTA) is a vital strategy for an effective landing page. This simple, direct proposition guides visitors towards conversion, improving KPIs and the bottom line. Ensure your CTA is compelling and distinct, making the next step unambiguous for maximum impact. – Tomer Warschauer Nuni, Pink Moon Studio Ltd

2. Be Consistent

Consistency is key. A landing page must have a clear call to action that aligns with the primary goal of the landing page. The “hook” has to be relevant to the goal and call to action. – Mark Clark, Modern Optical International

3. Demonstrate The Benefits To Customers

To effectively meet KPIs and increase the bottom line, your landing page needs to gain a prospect’s attention and lead them to action. Catch their attention with interactive graphics and video, but also deliver a “what’s-in-it-for-them” message—highlighting ROI, customer successes and testimonials. – Julie Thomas, ValueSelling Associates

4. Be Strategic When Choosing Your URL

An effective landing page starts with an effective, easy-to-remember URL. Think about vanity phone numbers—this would be a vanity landing page URL. Then, leverage the key pain points needed on that page so that people fill out the form or do your CTA. An easily-remembered URL, along with addressing pain points, is a win-win for all. – David Strausser, SEIDOR USA

5. Conduct A/B Testing

Create one to two landing page templates with content tailored to the audience. It’s critical to establish consistent layouts to properly A/B test which specific elements perform the best for each audience. Create messaging and value proposition “hooks” around keywords your audience searches for at each phase: education, consideration and decision. – Janet Waring, ArtForm Business Solutions, Inc.

6. Tailor Your Landing Page Strategically

We customize our landing page for some of our most strategic accounts. This means that when an individual from a strategic account visits our website, the content that they see is personalized for their company and industry. Web personalization helps create customized and unique experiences for customers and prospects rather than providing a single broad experience, helping to increase conversion. – Rakhi Voria, Procore Technologies

7. Optimize The Page For Conversions

Leveraging social proof helps alleviate visitors’ doubts or hesitations and increases the likelihood of conversion. Place these elements strategically, close to the CTA, or near critical benefits. – Lomit Patel, Tynker

8. Create Unique Pages For Adverts

Many businesses use the same landing page for all adverts. A landing page must be unique to the advert. The advert is the hook, the landing page must instantly reinforce the consumer’s decision to click on the hook by displaying the product, price and delivery, and then clearly outlining the CTA. The effectiveness of the landing page’s success hinges on its ability to match the advert. – Peter Schravemade, REACH ASEA

9. Use A ‘How To’ Headline

We lose more than half of the people who visit a landing page. The most effective way to keep them is to offer a benefit. The headline is going to be crucial. It doesn’t have to cost money, although a “get 10% off” headline works well. The “how to” headline works just as well because you are teaching customers how to solve an issue. Of course, pair the headline with a good CTA. – Bryce Welker, Crush The LSAT

10. Address Audience Pain Points

Create a single, clear and compelling CTA that is aligned with the audience and marketing messages that drive the traffic to the page. We showcase relevant and persuasive content offers that resonate with our target audience and build trust by telling their story, using their words in the copy and describing their pain point and desired outcomes as accurately as possible. – David Mattson, Sandler

11. Offer A Seamless Experience Across Devices

Combining clarity, simplicity and a seamless experience is the formula for an impactful landing page. Drive visitors to one desired action through a straightforward yet compelling page optimized for every device. But never stop testing, improving and refining to maximize results. Success comes from constant optimization through experimentation. – Abdulaziz Alnaghmoosh, Manga Productions

12. Keep It Simple

Adhere to the “keep it simple, stupid” principle, as effective landing pages should employ a good storytelling approach that includes real examples relevant to your target audience. Additionally, a clear CTA is crucial. Provide something valuable to your visitors without immediately requesting customer data, and aim to pique their curiosity enough to encourage them to take the next step. – Gregory Lipich, InfoSec Global

13. Improve The Guest Experience

In the hospitality space, a property’s website is often the first place consumers look for information. To drive bookings, meet KPIs and boost ROI, it’s important to centre your webpage design around improving the guest experience. Mobile-friendliness, simple navigation, prominent CTAs and user-generated content are all important components to consider. – Frederic Dominioni, Solonis

14. Add Interactive Storytelling

Instead of presenting your site pages as usual, you can add things like animations, interactive graphics, videos and even mini-games. By doing interactive storytelling, you stand out and become memorable to your visitors. In the process, you drive higher engagement and conversions. However, always keep it simple. Don’t add clutter. – Wayne Elsey, The Funds2Orgs Group

15. Highlight Customer Testimonials

By incorporating compelling testimonials and positive reviews on your landing page, you can leverage the power of social proof to establish trust and credibility with your audience. This trust increases the likelihood of conversions and helps you meet your KPIs, ultimately driving the desired bottom-line results. – Kane Carpenter, Daggerfinn

16. Be Clear

A successful strategy for designing an effective landing page is to focus on clarity and simplicity. The headline should immediately communicate the value proposition, and the design should guide visitors toward a single, clear CTA. Engaging visuals, concise copy and social proof can build trust. This keeps users engaged, leads to higher conversion rates and increases the bottom line. – James Mull, htmull

17. Demonstrate Your Value

A key strategy is to spotlight how your solution tackles the visitor’s challenges. Back this with testimonials and case studies. Clearly articulate your value proposition and how it solves their problem. A precise CTA invites engagement with the solution, drives conversions and boosts the bottom line. – Michael Fritsch, UST Xpanxion

18. Intrigue Your Audience

Effective landing pages really are an art. It takes constant testing and changes even if they are ever so slight and based on engagement. It should begin with best practices such as ensuring it is a simple read that intrigues the reader and incorporates multiple CTAs that allow for conversion. If you use visuals, make sure they are pertinent to the offer and don’t overwhelm the reader. – Richard Lindhorn, VivoAquatics Inc.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How To Find, Connect And Collaborate With The Right Influencers

December 12, 2023 No Comments

By Candice Georgiadis

One of the best strategies for reaching and interacting with your target audience in the digital world nowadays is influencer marketing. It’s been estimated that the global influencer market is currently worth $21.1 billion.

Through influencer marketing, you can take advantage of the credibility and trust that influencers have established with their audiences to help sell your services or products. Influencers help you accomplish a number of goals, including:

• Increasing brand exposure, visibility and traffic.

• Generating leads and sales.

• Creating user-generated content and social proof.

• Increasing audience trust and loyalty.

But how can you locate the ideal influencers for your company? How do you get in touch with them and work together to build profitable alliances?

Here’s my advice based on my experience running a digital influencer agency.

Finding The Right Influencers For Your Business

There are countless numbers of influencers, each with their own unique style, personality, niche and audience. How can you whittle down your choices and pick the ones who are best for your brand?

• Define your target audience: You must have a firm grasp of who your target audience is before you start hunting for influencers. What are their aims, pain spots, hobbies and psychographics? What kind of media do they watch? By identifying your target market, you can find influencers who appeal to them and have traits in common with them.

• Set your campaign goals and budget: Next, decide what you want to accomplish with your influencer marketing strategy and how much money you are willing to invest. What are your key performance indicators? How will you assess the campaign’s success? How much money can you afford to pay influencers? Setting your campaign goals and budget allows you to locate influencers who can help you achieve your goals while staying within your budget.

• Use influencer marketing tools: One of the easiest ways to find influencers is to use influencer marketing tools. These tools can help you filter, analyse and contact possible partners for your brands. They make use of data analytics to easily identify influencers with large followings, high engagements and strong connections.

• Look for authenticity and alignment: Authenticity is one of the most crucial aspects to take into account when selecting an influencer. Many consumers can recognize a sponsored post that doesn’t feel sincere right away. Find influencers whose material reflects your brand’s ideals and who genuinely care about your niche. Avoid influencers who advocate for an excessive number of irrelevant or incompatible goods or services.

Connecting With The Right Influencers

After you have a list of influencers who fit your criteria, get in touch with them and build a relationship. Here are some ways to do that:

• Do your homework: Check out an influencer’s profile, content, audience and prior partnerships before reaching out to them. This will enable you to more effectively target your message and demonstrate your sincere interest in working with them.

• Be both personable and professional when communicating with influencers through email or direct message. Use their names and make explicit references to their material or industry. Don’t send messages that may seem generic or like mass outreach or spam. Be kind, considerate and nice, but also explicit and succinct about your goals and expectations.

• Don’t merely ask an influencer for a favour or promotion; instead, offer value. Offer something worthwhile that will also be helpful to them. You could provide a commission or fee, a shout out or promotion on your site, access to exclusive material or events, a free product or service, etc.

• Follow up: Don’t count on an influencer to respond right away. They can receive hundreds of messages each day and may not have the time to respond to each one. Give them some time to consider your idea, and then get in touch with them again if you don’t hear anything back after a few days. Avoid being aggressive, but convey your enthusiasm about the prospect of working with them.

Effectively Collaborating With Influencers

Here are a few pointers when it comes to collaborating with your chosen influencer:

• Agree on the campaign goals, budget, timeline, deliverables, guidelines and metrics. Document them in a contract.

• Let the influencers create authentic and engaging content that fits their voice and style. Don’t micromanage them.

• Support them by engaging with their content.

• Pay them fairly and promptly. Respect their professionalism and influence.

Measuring Your Progress

Partnering with an influencer can help you grow your brand and get ahead of competitors. However, to measure your campaign’s progress effectively, here are some things to do:

• First, keep track of KPIs through Google Analytics, social media platform analytics and influencer marketing platforms.

• Second, examine how your business has progressed toward meeting the initial goals you set, while taking note of why things went well or not.

• Third, try to learn from both your wins and losses throughout the process. This will help foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Final Thoughts

Finding, connecting and collaborating with the right influencers are the keys to successful influencer marketing. Once you’ve done these things, be sure to measure your progress and adjust your campaigns as needed.

Feature Image Credit: Getty.

By Candice Georgiadis

Founder, Digital Day. Read Candice Georgiadis’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

5 Things Journalists Wish You Knew About Getting Press Coverage for Your Company

December 11, 2023 No Comments

By Kelsey Kloss

Strengthen your PR efforts — and optimize your marketing budget — by learning what reporters are looking for.

Enter any editorial office, broadcast station or PR agency, and you may hear chagrins from both sides of the newsroom table: “Why won’t this journalist just get back to me?” or “Why does this PR contact keep pitching me stories we would never cover?”

There are vast misunderstandings between these two industries. Knowing what they are will help you get media coverage for your company — and enjoy the incredible benefits of PR.

Whether your company is managing its own PR efforts or working with a firm, here are five things journalists wish you knew about getting press coverage.

1. Usually, we’re looking for expert sources (not products and services to feature)

The top concern for PR pros is getting journalists to respond, according to The State of PR 2023 from Muck Rack.

It’s frustrating when your company’s carefully crafted pitches go ignored, but keep this in mind: A journalist’s job is to cater to their audience, not companies. Usually, that means educating their audience with valuable information. Pitch yourself as an industry expert first and foremost, not your products or services.

Although many articles benefit readers by showcasing certain products or services, these are often selected from a list of affiliate companies so the media company earns a slice of the sales.

Plus, journalists’ inboxes are flooded with pitches around products and services. It’s much more challenging for them to find credible experts before their deadline.

If you’re quoted as an industry expert, your company will be highlighted in the article and you’ll have the bonus of immediately establishing trust with a new audience. After a few of these inclusions, features focused entirely on your company will be easier to secure.

2. Your credentials matter more than your social media following

Sure, journalists may take a quick glance at your social accounts to see what type of content you’re posting. And yes, it might be a bonus if you have a large, engaged following.

However, there’s a misconception that social media following is the most important part of securing media coverage. The truth is, journalists care more about your credentials than how many followers you have. While social media might help journalists discover you, they’re looking for someone who can truly educate their audience.

Carefully consider how you establish credibility when introducing yourself as an expert source to the media. You can do this with:

Qualifications (Ph.D., MD, CCWS, etc.)
Associations (professor at a university, a rheumatologist at a hospital, etc.)
Titles you’ve been given (owner of an award-winning salon, 40 under 40 recipient, etc.)
Achievements (serial entrepreneur who’s sold several successful businesses, etc.)
Press experience (trusted by The New York Times, Washington Post and beyond, etc.)

3. We probably won’t cover the same topic twice in a short period of time

Newsrooms and broadcast stations always look for a fresh story to keep their audience engaged. Still, a sample of a common pitch editors and producers receive: “I saw you recently covered the best glassware for dinner parties. Would you like to consider my company for upcoming coverage on glassware for dinner parties?”

Instead, pitch a fresh take on the topic: “I saw your story on glassware for dinner parties — it was a great read! If you ever need quick turnaround quotes on how to clean glassware after parties, the best glassware pairings for a soirée or any other related topics, I’d be happy to help. Our company specializes in elevating parties with beautiful dinnerware.”

On that note, if you’re monitoring journalist queries through a service like HelpAReporter.com (where journalists submit queries for expert sources), but you find you missed the deadline for a given story, it may still be worth simply reaching out to that journalist separately.

Let them know that you’re an expert in the beat they cover, provide your credentials and share that you’re available for future stories.

4. Short, succinct quotes make you our hero

You may think more is better when it comes to providing context on a particular topic, but journalists are looking for sources who can get to the bullet points of a subject immediately. Long, winding narratives mean more time transcribing and pinpointing which quotes to feature.

Prepare ahead of your interview so you come to it with the main points already. Think about what will make punchy, memorable quotes — then speak to the journalist slowly and clearly (this is helpful, whether they’re recording your conversation or transcribing in real-time).

These strategies will increase your chances of being contacted again for future stories.

5. If you’re not selected as a source, don’t take it personally

In addition to credentials their editor may specifically request, journalists consider these factors when selecting a source.

Niche: We recently saw a journalist query for an auto insurance expert familiar with GAP insurance in California. With the need to constantly pitch fresh new stories and target particular keywords, editorial content is getting increasingly specific.
Other sources: Journalists will consider how you contribute to the mix of sources. They’ll look for a variety of expertise to approach the story from different angles.
Number of sources: Most pieces of content only need about two to three sources.

The best thing your company or PR team can do is build genuine relationships with journalists, in which you offer your support to them through expertise. This will help them finish their story on time and increase your chances of being a regularly featured expert source.

When you secure this media coverage, the benefits are vast. PR is a long-term strategy that can create a halo effect for your company, establishing you and your brand as an expert. This creates new opportunities for brand awareness, partnerships and increased revenue.

By Kelsey Kloss

CEO of Kloss Creatives

Kelsey Kloss is the CEO of Kloss Creatives, a PR and marketing firm rooted in the principles of journalism. Previously, she was an editor for brands such as Good Housekeeping, ELLE Decor, Reader’s Digest, and more. She has also shaped marketing strategy for Scholastic and AT&T.

Sourced from Entrepreneur