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Alphabet is launching a company that uses AI for drug discovery

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By Nicole Wetsman

It builds on DeepMind’s work on protein folding

A new Alphabet company will use artificial intelligence methods for drug discovery, Google’s parent company announced Thursday. It’ll build off of the work done by DeepMind, another Alphabet subsidiary that has done ground-breaking work using AI to predict the structure of proteins.

The new company, called Isomorphic Laboratories, will leverage that success to build tools that can help identify new pharmaceuticals. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also serve as the CEO for Isomorphic, but the two companies will stay separate and collaborate occasionally, a spokesperson said.

For years, experts have pointed to AI as a way to make it faster and cheaper to find new medications to treat various conditions. AI could help scan through databases of potential molecules to find some that best fit a particular biological target, for example, or to fine-tune proposed compounds. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in companies building AI tools over the past two years.

Isomorphic will try to build models that can predict how drugs will interact with the body, Hassabis told Stat News. It could leverage DeepMind’s work on protein structure to figure out how multiple proteins might interact with each other. The company may not develop its own drugs but instead sell its models. It will focus on developing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, a spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge.

Developing and testing drugs, though, could be a steeper challenge than figuring out protein structure. For example, even if two proteins have structures that fit together physically, it’s hard to tell how well they’ll actually stick. A drug candidate that looks promising based on how it works at a chemical level also might not always work when it’s given to an animal or a person. Over 90 percent of drugs that make it to a clinical trial end up not working, as chemist and writer Derek Lowe pointed out in Science this summer. Most of the problems aren’t because there was something wrong at the molecular level.

The work done at DeepMind and the proposed work at Isomorphic could help bust through some research bottlenecks but aren’t a quick fix for the the countless challenges of drug development. “The laborious, resource-draining work of doing the biochemistry and biological evaluation of, for example, drug functions” will remain, as Helen Walden, a professor of structural biology at the University of Glasgow, previously told The Verge.

Feature Image Credit:  Micah Singleton / The Verge

By Nicole Wetsman

Sourced from The VERGE

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What are the Different Types of Funding Sources That Can Help Your Start-up?

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Sourced from BOSS Magazine

When it comes to start-ups, one of the most important things that you need is money. You will have to spend a lot on getting your product ready and then marketing it so that people know about it, who are willing to buy it. This is where funding can come in handy. Funding can help your start-up by financing its growth. There are different types of funding available for every business depending upon their financial requirements, so no two businesses or start-ups will have the same type of sources for making finance available to them.

Before we move forward though the article here’s a piece of useful information on pro rata marketing for every start-up owner.

Pro rata is a marketing strategy that allocates small bits of your marketing budget to new opportunities as they arise. This gives you the chance to experiment with various types of marketing and distribution channels without having to invest too much in any one area. It also allows you to adjust your messaging and marketing tactics on the fly, so you can quickly tweak your strategy when it isn’t working well.

There are primarily three types of sources that offer funds for start-ups – they are Debt Financing, Venture Capital Financing and Equity Financing. Here’s all you need to know about these sources:

Debt Financing

Debt Financing is a financial transaction in which an organization receives money from a lender now and promises to repay the funds along with interest by a specified time period. In debt financing, you need not give any ownership or claim of ownership to lenders as debt is an unsecured form of finance. A good example of debt financing is bank loans.

How does debt financing work

Suppose you need $2 million to grow your start-up. It is usually hard to get loans, especially for start-ups as banks don’t consider them risk-worthy. So, if you are able to secure a bank loan of $1 million, then the bank will give that money after verifying all your financial records and assessing your business plan. You will have to pay them back within a fixed period with interest.

Banks can be both cooperative and uncooperative in this case depending upon how well they understand your business model and what kind of management team you have in place. Banks like start-ups which could bring about employment opportunities for people because these businesses create jobs which help the economy grow further; the other hand there are also banks who don’t like to finance start-ups as they are considered higher risk and might not benefit the economy.

Advantage and Disadvantages of Debt Financing

Although debt financing can be a great way to help your start-up, there are some disadvantages as well. Here’s how it affects you:

An organization has more control over its finances and can make changes on their own. It can pay off loans at any time without waiting for the lender to agree. If the company gets into any crisis and requires money immediately, then it can take out loans from somewhere else or sell off assets or shareholdings to raise cash.

The interest rates that organizations will have to pay towards loan is high and might become difficult if repayment isn’t made on time. This could result in companies shutting down, especially those who rely solely on debt finance without having another source of income such as equity or venture capital funding.

Interest rates also increase depending on the business’s age, its cash flow and other factors.

Debt financing can be used for almost any type of business. If you are planning to start your own company, then it is highly recommended that you check out loan requirements by your bank before approaching venture capitalists or equity investors for finance.

Venture Capital Financing

Venture Capital Financing is a type of funding that provides capital for start-ups and small businesses. Venture capitalists invest their own money in different types of projects with the hope that they will make a lot more return on investment than what they have invested. For this reason, venture capitalists do thorough research before investing anything in any company. Equity financing entails the sale of equity stakes i.e., shares of your business to investors. This is the most preferred method for funding start-ups because it gives the investor the right to give suggestions for company growth, future expansion plans and so on. These are some of the different types of funding sources that can help your start-up grow.

How does Venture Capital Fund work?

Venture capital is a source of funding that comes from private investors. Venture capitalists do not give funds to any start-up randomly; they usually look at the management team and also the business plan vigorously before investing anything. As far as venture capital financing is concerned, if your company makes it through to pitch day and impresses all the potential investors, then you will be given money for further growth of your business.

Advantage and Disadvantages of  Venture Capital Fund

VCs invest in high-growth businesses and usually expect a return of more than three times their investment. The plus point is that if your company makes it big, then they will be able to get a substantial amount of cash from the sale. On the other hand, venture capital financing can be difficult to obtain because investors have very stringent requirements on businesses looking for funding. These include:

A sound business plan which must demonstrate how you are going to make a profit

Management team with experience related to the industry you are in

Experts recommend that before pitching VCs, entrepreneurs should have already raised some funds from friends and family so as not to overload VCs with too many requests for money at one time.

Advantages

  • Expansion of business opportunities
  • Faster rate of growth for companies

 Disadvantages

  • Difficulty in obtaining funds because investors have very stringent requirements.
  • Investors usually expect a return of more than 3x their investment.

Equity financing

Equity financing entails selling equity stakes in your company to investors. This is the most preferred method for funding startups because it gives the investor a right to give suggestions for company growth, future expansion plans and so on.

How does equity financing work?

Equity financing entails selling off shares of your business to several investors which gives them partial ownership over your company and its income/losses. Since the investor now has stakes in your business, he or she should be interested enough to help it grow by offering advice on future plans and growth opportunities. This way you can increase your overall revenue. Thus ,equity financing is the most preferred method of funding for start-ups because it gives them more power over their company’s future and growth.

Advantage and Disadvantages of equity financing

Advantages

  • Gives the investor a right to give suggestions for company growth, future expansion plans and so on.

Disadvantages

  • The major disadvantage of equity financing is that you have to give up a certain percentage of your company’s ownership.
  • You also lose a degree of control over your business because investors can play an important role in determining the focus and direction of your company.

Which Type Of Funding is Best For Your Start-up

In this way, it does not really matter whether you choose venture capital financing or equity financing because both have their own advantages and disadvantages. In order to decide which type of funding is best for your start-up, you need to consider a number of different factors such as how many investors are willing to invest in your company, what is the amount they want to invest, what percent of ownership will they be aiming for etc.

For example, if you are looking for large amounts of money then venture capital financing might be more suitable but on the other hand , if you only want a few investors who won’t play an active role in running your business then equity financing would work better.

The bottom line

Financing entails selling off shares of your business to several investors which gives them partial ownership over your company and its income/losses. Since the investor now has stakes in your business, he or she should be interested enough to help it grow by offering advice on future plans and growth opportunities. This way you can increase your overall revenue. Thus ,equity financing is the most preferred method of funding for start-ups because it gives them more power over their company’s future and growth.

 

Sourced from BOSS Magazine

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7 Social Media Marketing Mistakes You’re Making

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By Hammad Akbar

There are billions of active social media users worldwide, and the number continues to grow by the day. A growth that has led to social media platforms becoming one of the most influential virtual spaces.

Traditional methods of marketing like TV commercials tend to be a one-way communication—brand to the customer. But social media marketing encourages engagement. It creates multi-way communication in that:

  • Businesses can communicate with customers
  • Customers can engage with the brand by offering feedback.
  • Customers can communicate with other customers by sharing posts.

As a brand owner or marketer, you get to reach a multitude of potential buyers in seconds, especially when using paid social media.

There is plenty you can gain from social media marketing. But if your efforts are not bearing any fruits, you could be guilty of some common errors most people make. Being aware of these social media marketing mistakes can help you correct and avoid them.

1. You Are Working Blindly

One of the biggest mistakes you could make in your social media marketing is shooting in the dark and expecting results. Instead, you need to take it with the seriousness you would take any other marketing campaign.

Create a plan—a clear social media marketing strategy. It’s the first ingredient of a successful social media account.

A social media marketing strategy will ensure that:

  • You are posting content that is relevant to your goals. It will prevent you from wasting your efforts and resources on a social media campaign that’s sure to fall flat.
  • You are scheduling and arranging posts early enough. Posting consistently helps you grow and maintain a strong organic online presence.

So, how do you create an effective strategy?

A simple guide is not going to cut it. You need a master plan that addresses:

  • What you want to gain from social media. A new source of leads? Brand awareness? If you don’t know what you want, you can’t get it.
  • Who you are targeting.
  • Your plan of action. What kind of posts will you make? How will you market the posts to reach your intended audience? Do you need to add more video content?
  • The team that will be responsible for maintaining your accounts.
  • The time and funds you will allocate to social media marketing.
  • Your key performance indicators.

Know what you want from social media and how you will get it. And you will be on the path to achieving your full social media potential.

2. You Are Targeting the Wrong People

You could have a super-plan in place. But if you are targeting the wrong audience, then again, you will have a case of wasted efforts and resources. You’ll end up with tons of followers who have little to contribute to your goals⁠—an audience that doesn’t represent your ideal customers.

Overall, Facebook is the most used social network worldwide.

However, this does not mean you should focus your marketing efforts on Facebook.

First, define your target audience. This is the market segment that is most likely to have an interest in your product or service. You can base it on age, income level, education, location, or behaviour.

If you are active on multiple social media channels, pay special attention to the platform popular among your target audience.

For instance, data shows that Instagram is most popular among 18 to 29-year-olds.

Pinterest is most popular among women, while Snapchat and Twitter are most popular among 18 to 29-year-olds.

And if you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn might work better for you.

People are quick to ignore irrelevant content. For this reason, try not to make assumptions about your target audience.

Study them, then customize your content to fit their needs and expectations. Your content should bring value to your audience and give them a reason to engage with it.

Your tone should also fit the social media platform you are using. The kind of content your target audience expects differs among platforms.

Facebook users, for instance, expect an informal, playful, and engaging tone. On the other hand, LinkedIn works best with a reasonably formal tone, and Instagram is mostly about aesthetics.

Maximize your reach of the target audience by using features like subtitles and captions. They make it easier for your audience to:

  • Watch your videos in sound-sensitive environments, such as offices or noisy places.
  • Comprehend dialogue where the participants are speaking fast.
  • Stay attentive, helping you pass your message across.
  • Access your content despite having hearing problems.

3. SEO Best Practices Are Not Part of Your Social Media Marketing

A mistake most brands make is ignoring the power of SEO in making their social media campaigns successful.

Just like you’re keen on SEO when creating blog posts, landing pages, and other content for your website, you should do the same with social media.

Practicing SEO can help your profile rank higher in search results. This drives organic traffic to your profile and grows your followers.

The amount of likes, shares, and comments your posts receive affects your social media ranking and reach. So, to start with, you need to post frequently and post high-quality and engaging content. Then make it easy for your followers to share your posts by including compelling CTAs.

Make use of keywords. Find the best performing phrases and words once you do your keyword research for your articles and blog posts. Then, use them in your social media posts.

Visual content is one of the strongest SEO techniques you can use. Use relevant and quality images, videos, and GIFs that load fast.

Taking the step to add subtitles to video and captions to images and GIFs also works in your favor. Google and other search engines cannot watch a video. But the search bots can crawl the text on it and index the video, making your posts more discoverable.

Put SEO tactics into practice, and you’re sure to experience an increase in your reach.

4. Excessive Brand Promotions With No Real Content

For most people, social media is a place to network and communicate, share opinions, get updated about current events, and get inspired.

So if you are using it only to promote your brand and post automatic backlinks to your website, you’re getting it wrong.

You want to create content that arouses the audience’s interest and triggers conversations.

Join conversations on hot topics, but steer away from anything divisive, such as politics. Instead, observe what is happening in your niche and what your audience is already discussing. Then create content that responds to these issues.

Aim at making most of your content valuable and interesting to your audience. And the rest can involve promoting your products or services, but with a lot of engagement and social interaction.

As you post non-promotional content, ensure that the quality is consistent. Unfortunately, most brands make the mistake of assuming any post is better than no post at all. But unlike a personal social media account, a brand’s account is subject to ruthless scrutiny.

One offensive post could make your consumers and potential leads unfollow you. Or, if you are too official, they could see you as boring and begin ignoring your posts.

Stick to posts that reflect your brand and connect with your target audience. Be sociable. And when you do promote your brand, do it subtly.

5. You Are Not Using Hashtags

The famous #hashtag. Almost everyone knows what it is. But few know how to use it properly, when, or even why.

A hashtag begins with the “#” symbol followed by a keyword, with no spaces or punctuations. They provide a way to label your content and associate a post with a particular topic.

Every time a user wants to filter relevant conversations on a particular topic or carry out a hashtag search, they can find your content on the topic. Thus, it helps your target audience find you.

Here are a few pointers for using hashtags:

  • Get specific with your hashtags. Generic hashtags like #sports will not get you the increased impressions or reach you seek. But #sportsshoes is a better choice.
  • Use hashtags to talk about trending topics and get your brand in front of thousands of people.
  • Be careful what you hashtag. So naturally, you want to stay away from sensitive topics that could make people question your brand’s values.
  • Keep your hashtags short and easy to remember.
  • Don’t overuse hashtags.
  • If you plan on starting a new hashtag, ensure that it’s unique and catchy. Something that people will remember when referencing your brand.

Hashtags are a powerful method to gain exposure on social media. They can strengthen your social media presence and help you market your brand more effectively.

6. Your Profile Is Faceless With No Human Interaction

Social media is all about connecting with other people. But a mistake most brands make is relying too much on automation.

Excessive automation could make you lose your human touch.

It’s essential to be present. Participate in the conversation in the comment section. It will improve the value of your social presence and help you build valuable relationships with your audience.

The kind of responses you make also matter. A brand account that is too corporate has no place on social media. When you use stock responses, your audience will know. And they will stop engaging with your posts.

Add a human touch to every post and comment you respond to. For example, when responding to a question from your audience, personally address the individual instead of using pre-crafted marketing and corporate messages. Be authentic, delightful, and inspiring.

You’re going to face some negative responses, that’s for sure, but you need to maintain your cool. Respond to any concerns the person in question may have in a friendly and polite way. This will prevent the conversation from turning negative, which can be damaging to your reputation.

Take every positive and negative comment as a chance to talk directly with a potential customer.

Avoid limiting your social interactions to the marketing department. Instead, involve other departments, such as billing and production. This will ensure prompt and comprehensive responses to your followers’ questions.

When you take the time to respond to comments, and not in a robotic way, it establishes strong connections with your followers, and they’ll like you more.

It’s also best to make personalized and meaningful interactions with the content of other people. This can range from influential professionals in your niche to experts who share the same views as your brand. It will increase the exposure of your content and give you wider access to your target audience.

7. You Neither Track Performance nor Have a Clear Call to Action

You can have entertaining, meaningful, and SEO-friendly content. But if you are not going to tell your audience what to do next, your efforts are going to waste.

Your audience needs the motivation to take the next step to become a customer.

Include a call to action in your posts. It could be an invitation to:

  • Visit your website.
  • Like, share, or comment on the post with their thoughts.
  • Sign up.
  • Shoot you an email.

Once you have CTAs in place, measure the success of your marketing efforts using social media analytics. You can use the metrics provided by the social media platform or use analytics software.

Tracking analytics can give you an extensive view of your social media performance. In addition, they provide actionable insights that you can use to improve your social media marketing tactics and woo the right customers.

Here are some essential analytics to track:

Analytics What it entails
Awareness How big are your current and potential audience? 

What are the demographics?
Engagement How does your audience react to your posts? 

Is there any fluctuation in engagement, and what kind of posts cause the fluctuations?
Conversion How many of your followers heed your call to action. 

Is the traffic that comes from social media to your website likely or not to convert?
Consumer How does your audience feel about your brand?
Influence Who is driving conversations about your brand? 

Do they get others to participate in these specific conversations?
Share of voice What’s the volume of the conversation about your brand, and how does it compare to competitors?

Tracking analytics shows you the impact of your past actions. And you can use these insights to improve your social media marketing strategy continually.

Ready to Step up Your Social Media Marketing?

Have you been making any or all these social media marketing mistakes? Then, it’s time to remedy the situation.

  1. Start by writing down your social media marketing strategy and target audience.
  2. Next, create a social media calendar. Make a plan on how you will create meaningful, SEO-friendly, and share-worthy content that utilizes hashtags and CTAs. You don’t have to worry about your visuals. Instead, use Keevi, a powerful online content editor. Keevi will make your images, videos, and GIFs SEO-friendly, accessible, and high-quality.
  3. Finally, measure the results of your social media marketing efforts, and make improvements where needed.

Take these steps, and you are sure to have your brand presence felt on social networks.

Feature Image Credit: Olenka Serfienko; Pexels

By Hammad Akbar

Hammad Akbar is the Founder & CEO at Keevi, a video content repurposing tool. He has extensive experience in the world of Digital Marketing, SaaS Application development, and building technology companies. In his short career, he managed to bootstrap two technology companies with minimum funds to multimillion-dollar revenues. When he’s not working, he likes to travel to new countries and learn about their local cultures.

Sourced from readwrite

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Developing Your Brand Voice: Guidelines for Businesses

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By Peter Roesler

Your brand voice can impact the customers you attract, if they convert, and your profits

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Peter Roesler

Sourced from Inc.

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Why An Omnichannel Marketing Strategy Should Be Your Top Priority

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By Bernard May

Every department (or agency) that specializes in a particular marketing channel understandably wants to claim success no matter the brand, audience or industry. Social media managers, Google Ads experts, SEO savants and others all have a stake in their particular strategy being labelled the silver bullet that is driving profitability for the organization or client.

The good part? Every department cares, has drive and wants to be the best. The bad part? From what I’ve seen, this ambition is often misdirected as individuals seek success for their own department rather than the overall success of a multichannel campaign.

Now, this is rarely the fault of individual marketing departments; rather, it’s due to the ways in which we have trained our teams to measure success as individuals rather than as a unit.

It’s time we all understand how to attribute marketing success as a collective, strategic front rather than assuming that the last touch solely defines the success of a campaign.

The Data Points To Omnichannel

Data shows that consumers visit more than two websites (on average) before settling on a purchase decision, and at the same time, nearly 90% of e-commerce shopping carts were left abandoned in March 2020.

This indicates that when it comes to e-commerce shopping, consumers are certainly doing their research and are willing to walk away from a purchase should they find a better option. It’s crucial for businesses, brands and marketers alike to see that consumer behaviour does not exist in a vacuum and that omnichannel strategies are a very real remedy.

Common Attribution Mistakes

Let’s take a look at some very common situations in which the reality of multiple touchpoints (along the customer journey) can lead to attributing success to the wrong places.

Situation 1: A customer sees your product in their social media feed and clicks on your ad but then decides to leave the platform and visit your site directly. After seeing your “On-Site Only” monthly promotion, the customer purchases a couple of products. You deserve a high-five. Attributed success: Organic SEO team. Actual success: Social media, SEO and web development teams.

Situation 2: A customer finds your business with a Google search, visits your site, looks at your latest products and leaves without a purchase. Later that day, a Facebook ad featuring these latest products from your site graces their news feed. The customer is intrigued by the 15% off social commerce offer and makes a purchase. Congratulations. You are a rock star. Attributed success: Social media team. Actual success: SEO, social media, social ads and graphics teams.

Situation 3: The customer sees an Instagram ad, visits your website, adds products to their cart, gets distracted and abandons their order. One week and three “You have items in your shopping cart!” emails later, the customer returns and completes their purchase. Whew — you had to work for that one. Attributed success: The marketing automation team. Actual success: SEO, social media, social ads, graphics and marketing automation teams.

In each of these common examples, there is an unconscious omnichannel mindset that customers have adopted and take part in regularly. Therefore, it should be a priority for your business to not only recognize but also leverage this to the customers’ (and your) advantage.

Leaving A Trail Of Bread Crumbs

Expanding your marketing (and attribution) strategy from single channels to omnichannel is akin to leaving a trail of “branded bread crumbs” to attract, nurture and ultimately convert customers. Here are just a few ways you can connect the dots and get your omnichannel machine moving:

• Facebook and Instagram: If you don’t have the Facebook pixel installed on your site (and you are running social media ads), you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. The pixel gives you the ammunition to retarget those non-converting website visitors with more personalized campaigns so you can bring them back. As these remarketing campaigns are only triggered by (shown to) those who have already been to your website, you not only know the multiple points of attribution, but you can also see what group of customers (and ad groups) is converting at a higher level.

• Google Ads: The remarketing/retargeting trend certainly did not originate with Facebook. As with Facebook, though, you can use this strategy to target your customers “beyond the click,” for example, via their Google news feed (Discovery ads), YouTube, display, dynamic remarketing ads or even just your website. Again, these segmented, remarketing-specific ad sets will be triggered by the placement of your Google Ads pixel — so you know where they found you first and what brought them back.

• Marketing automation and email marketing: This is an oldie but a goodie. Using supplemental nurturing emails as part of your various ad campaigns can bring that warmer traffic back — to either fuel their interest or even close the sale altogether — via automation. Seeing as you can provide specific messaging, templates and calls to action across your different campaigns, your marketing automation platform will show you which audiences, campaign types and emails are driving the highest returns.

Tracking And Attributing Success

The single biggest hurdle when it comes to applying (and benefiting from) omnichannel strategies is tracking success and attribution. This means that you need to track every campaign, ad variation, website, landing page and clickable link.

Set up goals in Google Analytics; create custom tracking links for emails; and ensure that primary, retargeting and nurturing campaigns (of all types) are separated and easily searchable should you need to dig up granular results.

If you can’t track it, you cannot accurately attribute success to it.

When channels start to multiply, make sure that your cross-channel marketing teams increase communication to keep everyone on the same page. SEO teams need to meet with Google Ads teams, who need to talk to the email marketing team, etc. Effective omnichannel strategies cannot function without communicating the big picture.

Going omnichannel won’t happen overnight and can include far more than the tactics I provided above, but the sooner you begin, the faster your business can reap the benefits.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Bernard May

Bernard May is the CEO of National Positions, a 5-time Inc. 500 company, award-winning marketing agency and Google Premier Partner. Read Bernard May’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Common Email Marketing Mistakes That Are Easy to Fix

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By Chad S. White

Email marketing is complicated. A number factors and subfactors govern deliverability. The potential for email rendering problems is mind-bogglingly large. And email technology and tactical issues continue to evolve.

However, not everything in email is complex.

Some aspects are quite simple — and yet companies still regularly struggle with them. In most cases, they’re probably just unaware of the problem or just how easy the fix is. In other cases, turnover on their email team means expertise in the channel’s nuances has been lost. Whatever the reason, here are 10 common email marketing mistakes that are relatively simple to fix:

1. Not Using a Recognizable Sender Name

Subject lines get too much credit for driving open rates. Your sender name actually has a bigger impact on whether your subscribers open your emails. That makes sense for two reasons:

First, email marketing is a permission-based channel, so who’s sending an email to a recipient is critical. If your subscriber doesn’t recognize your name, it can lead to your emails being ignored or, worse, reported as spam. And second, email marketing is a relationship-based channel, so your sender name represents the value that your subscriber has gotten from your emails and from your brand previously.

So, put your brand name front and center and don’t change it from email to email. If you want to safely mix things up with your sender name, try using from name extension strategies. For example, you can emphasize that an email is about a Black Friday sale by changing your sender name to “YourBrand Black Friday.”

2. Not Optimizing Your Preview Text

Preview text is the text from inside your email that’s displayed in the inbox either to the right of your subject line in inboxes like Gmail or underneath your subject line in inboxes like the iPhone Mail app. Often, inboxes display twice as many characters of preview text as they do subject line text, so it’s a valuable opportunity to communicate more to your subscribers about what your emails is about before they open it.

Make sure you take full advantage of what text appears as preview text by using either visible or invisible preheader text. But more than that, run some A/B tests on your preview text, just like brands routinely do for their subject lines. And if you want to take it up a notch further, use multivariate testing to try different subject line and preview text combinations to see which one drives the most clicks for your email.

3. Including Too Much Copy

A good rule for writing marketing copy is to write what you’d like to say, and then cut the number of words in half. A good rule of writing email marketing copy is to cut the word count in half again.

Many marketers seem to have lost their talent for brevity, says Fabricio Lopez, Expert Services Cloud Manager for Oracle Marketing Consulting. “I grew up in South America during the ‘80s when telegrams were still very prominent,” he says. “I used to watch my siblings write incredible messages as part of their jobs. I think we lost that ability when email entered the scene, although Twitter brought back some of that ability. In my opinion, marketers should practice getting the message reduced to the least number of words possible and then embellish it from that point, the result should be a concise and hard hitting CTA.”

If you can’t avoid sending an email with a lot of copy, make sure that you break the copy up and make use of subheads and bullets where you can. That will make the copy much more approachable.

4. Using Font Sizes That Are Too Small, Especially on Mobile Devices

Using responsive email design isn’t enough. Brands also need to use mobile-friendly design principles. Chief among those principles is using font sizes that are big enough for people young and old to easily read in a variety of environments, such as outside in the sun or in bed in the dark.

For standard text, we recommend text that’s 14pt to 18pt. Your headlines and subheads should be even bigger. If this recommendation alarms you because you worry it will make your emails longer or limit what you can put above the fold, keep in mind that while many subscribers will scroll below the fold, almost no one will pinch-and-zoom in order to read your text.

5. Using Low-Contrast Text

When the colour of your text is similar in value to the colour of your background, your text can be difficult for some subscribers to read, particularly if your text size is small. Using high-contrast text — such as black text on a white background — not only helps people who have poor vision, but is also better for someone who’s out in bright sunlight with their mobile device. It’s also just better for everyone in general.

Text should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, according to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. If the text is 18pt or larger or is bold and 14pt or larger, a contrast ratio of 3:1 is fine.

The trickier problem that I see routinely is brands running HTML text over background images that have colours with highly varied values. The result is that some of the text is legible while other portions are not. The solutions to this include picking a different image, darkening or lightening the image, cropping the image differently, and positioning the text differently.

6. Not Using Alt Text for Your Images, When Appropriate

Sometimes the images in your emails don’t load, usually either because the subscriber is blocking them or they are experiencing bandwidth issues because of spotty wifi or cellular coverage. When this happens, your images won’t be displayed to help convey your email’s message.

To serve your subscribers in these situations, as well as to serve your subscribers who are using screen readers, be sure to add alt text to your images, when appropriate. That “when appropriate” is important, because not every image needs alt text. Logos and product images? Absolutely. But generic images that are there to set a mood? Generally using an alt tag on those isn’t necessary and leads to unhelpful alt text like “picture of a sunset” (which is a real example of alt text I’ve seen).

7. Using Graphical Buttons

Creating call-to-action buttons that are completely graphical means that the text of your CTA won’t appear at all if images are disabled or don’t load. For that reason, marketers should always use bulletproof buttons, where hyperlinked HTML text is placed over a button made from a filled table cell or some other non-image-based construct.

Once you settle on a button design that you like, use it everywhere, just change the CTA text. That turns this shift into largely a one-time effort.

8. Clustering Hyperlinked Elements Too Closely Together

In a world full of touchscreens, both on mobile and larger devices, being touch-friendly is important. When linked images and text are too close to each other, it’s easy for people to miss their target and end up on a landing page they’re not interested in. Getting one click is hard enough, so expecting a second click because your email is poorly designed is unrealistic.

Using larger text, as already mentioned, can help. But having decent padding between hyperlinked elements is the biggest key. This is particularly important for CTA buttons. Having plenty of white space around them not only makes them easy to click, but also makes them stand out, which is exactly what you want your CTAs to do.

Also, avoid linking items that you don’t need to. Focus on linking the elements of your design that people are most likely to click on, such as product images, buttons and text links.

9. Making Your Unsubscribe Link Difficult to Find

Some brands are still under the impression that if they make their unsubscribe link difficult to find that fewer subscribers will opt-out. Unfortunately, when people can’t find the unsubscribe link because it’s small or buried in a big block of administrative text or legalese, they simply click the report spam button instead.

For subscribers, the effect is the same: no more emails from the brand. However, for the brand, their spam complaint rate has gone up, potentially hurting their deliverability. Plus, they probably irritated the subscriber, making them less likely to re-subscribe at any point in the future.

10. Having Your Emails Clipped in Gmail

If the coding of your email (excluding the file sizes for any images) is more than 102K, Gmail will clip your email and force your subscribers to click a “View entire message” link to see the rest of your message.

Google message clipped

 

Besides looking suspicious, clipping hides content from your subscribers … including your unsubscribe link. So, not only does having your email clipped reduce its effectiveness, it erodes trust and leads to elevated spam complaints from subscribers who can’t find your unsubscribe link.

All of these mistakes have relatively easy solutions. Some, like writing effective and meaningful preview text or alt text, take a little time for each email you send. Others, like font sizes and button designs, are one-time efforts that pay off for the long haul. All are very much worthwhile.

Feature Image Credit: recha oktaviani | unsplash

By Chad S. White

Chad S. White is the author of Email Marketing Rules and Head of Research for Oracle Marketing Consulting, a global full-service digital marketing agency inside of Oracle.

Sourced from CMS Wire

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3 Critical Components That Dramatically Improve Company Culture

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How to build a culture that encourages growth and trust within your team.

Some businesses ride or die on strategy alone: If culture stands in the way of strategy, then strategy goes out the window. Really, though, the two are interdependent functions of the same mechanism. Strategy sets the direction, but implementing projects efficiently depends on a solid, healthy company culture.

Culture should be integrated into every aspect of business strategy, and at the heart of culture lies employees. The frontline between a company and its customers should be people who love their jobs, care about customer satisfaction and promote overall company success. Employees are a brand’s first customers and best advocates, and company culture is the key to keeping them engaged.

Here are three ways to make dramatic improvements.

1. Build high levels of trust

Brands need to generate and sustain a culture of believers and advocates, which comes from building trust. Leadership behaviours can start this process, but it is the mission of strong culture to establish trust among all levels. Employees want their company’s mission to align with their personal values. If they believe in your goals, they will support your success. People work and behave better as a team when they trust that everyone is on the same page.

Building trust is the key to greater employee engagement, which has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. A Harvard study of data collected by Sears in 1998 found a definitive link between employee attitude and customer-satisfaction scores. The resulting employee-customer-profit chain system was heavily dependent on adequate training and establishing trust.

Research has demonstrated a scientific link between trust and economic performance. People in high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives and 40% less burnout. A 2015 study found significant causality between employee satisfaction and a company’s financial performance, and another review found that positive employee perceptions resulted in higher operation margin, revenue per employee and return on company assets.

2. Develop an emotional commitment

Engaged employees need to feel confident that they belong and are important to the company, so go the extra mile and show them that you care. Take the time to know each individual employee on a more personal level and take a genuine interest in his or her success. One study found that positive interactions between employees and their leaders encourage them to make greater contributions to the team.

Nurture an emotional commitment with your employees with rewards and recognition beyond pay increases and promotions. Employees want to feel a sense of ownership and that their input can make a genuine impact, so reaffirm their areas of strength and encourage their innovation. When they trust that they have a home to grow within a company, they go the extra mile to excel for themselves, their co-workers and the business as a whole.

Inspiring employee engagement generates both commitment and connection, intellectually and emotionally. Highly engaged employees are motivated to succeed, but they also want to help others and inspire them to do their best. When employees take pride in the organization and are committed to its success, they become highly persuasive advocates for the brand who help meet company goals faster.

3. Address disengaged employees

Just as high employee engagement can help a company, disengaged employees can hurt it, so have a plan ready to address employee disengagement. Employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers, so start by coaching and training great management. Be sure to first provide them with all the resources, tools and data necessary to implement best practices, and then make engagement a key performance indicator to hold managers accountable.

Engagement is a two-way street, and getting employees engaged requires engaging them.  A 2017 study found that most employees assume leadership is responsible for keeping them engaged. Encourage feedback through one-on-one meetings, surveys, exit interviews and performance reviews, including their evaluation of the management. While discarding disengaged employees results in negative feelings towards a brand, making institutional improvements that lead to employee satisfaction has been linked to better stock performance.

Disengaged employees can cost companies up to $550 billion per year and hurt your positive company culture. Insecure or unhappy employees may already be slacking in their responsibilities, reading job postings or, worse, venting their “I hate working here” attitude to their co-workers. By proactively instituting feedback mechanisms that keep employees engaged, however, you can be more involved in making sure that they never get to such a point.

The research is clear: When you position a healthy team culture as the strategic foundation for a business, it drives performance outcomes. I always say, “If culture eats strategy for breakfast, what the hell is for lunch?” Strategy alone can leave you starving, but with culture as a constant and integral part of your overall company diet, you end up with an abundance at every meal.

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Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

Donna Peeples is an accomplished senior executive with verifiable results, leading customer-focused change initiatives in a variety of industries known for developing markets, growing startups and inspiring global change.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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How to Setup WordPress Email Tracking (Opens, Clicks, and More)

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Sourced from wpbeginner

Do you want to set up WordPress email tracking on your site?

WordPress email tracking will help you see whether your users receive, open, and click your emails.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can easily set up WordPress email tracking to gain new insights.

Note: This article is specifically for emails sent from your WordPress site such as order receipts, password reset emails, contact form follow-ups, and more. These are not marketing emails that you send with your email marketing service because those already have open and click tracking built-in.

Why Set Up Email Tracking in WordPress?

By tracking your WordPress site emails, you’ll be able to see who opens and clicks your emails. Plus, get detailed reports about email deliverability.

This helps to make sure that all of your website emails are reaching your users. You can even resend emails that didn’t get delivered to improve the overall user experience.

There are all kinds of reasons to track your WordPress emails:

  • See which links in your emails are clicked
  • Make sure important membership site and online course emails are sent
  • Check if emails being sent by a certain plugin are delivered
  • Ensure online store order and confirmation emails get to your users

Whether you’re running a WordPress blog or small business website, WordPress will send all kinds of automatic email notifications to your users.

This can be new user registration information, password reset emails, comments, WordPress updates, and much more.

You need to make sure all of the emails sent from your website go to your user’s email inbox and not to the spam folder.

The best way to do this is by using an SMTP service provider to improve email deliverability. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

With that said, let’s take a look at how to set up WordPress email tracking, step by step.

Setting up Email Tracking in WordPress

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the WP Mail SMTP plugin. It’s the best WordPress SMTP plugin in the market used by over 2 million websites.

It lets you easily send all of your WordPress emails using an SMTP server and improve email deliverability for your WordPress website.

How WP Mail SMTP works

Step 1. Install and Setup WP Mail SMTP

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings to configure your plugin settings.

Then, you need to enter your license key and click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Enter WP Mail SMTP license key

You can find this information under your account on the WP Mail SMTP website.

Once you’ve done that, you need to scroll down the page to the ‘Mailer’ section. Here you will choose how you want to send your WordPress emails.

The WP Mail SMTP plugin works with any SMTP service. There are easy setup options for the most popular providers, including Gmail, Outlook, SendInBlue, SendGrid, Amazon SES, and more.

Select SMTP mailer

Simply click on the mailer you want to use, and there will be detailed instructions on how you can set it up properly.

The default option is using the PHP mailer. However, we don’t recommend this method since it’s not reliable.

Most WordPress hosting servers aren’t configured to send emails. So, your WordPress emails may never even reach your users or end up in their spam folder.

For more details on setting up your SMTP server, see our guide on how to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails.

Step 2. Enable WordPress Email Tracking

Now that you’ve set up the plugin, it’s time to turn on the email logging and email tracking features.

Once activated, the plugin will automatically add a tracking pixel to every email that you send from WordPress.

To do this go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings and then click the ‘Email Log’ menu option.

After that, you’ll want to make sure that the ‘Enable Log’ box is checked for email records.

If it isn’t, then check the box now. This will keep a record of basic details about your emails and store them in your WordPress database.

Enable email log tracking

You’ll also need this enabled if you want to resend emails in WordPress.

Next, you’ll see a few more checkboxes that let you turn on additional email tracking options. We recommend checking every box so you have more email tracking data available.

First, you can choose to save a copy of the email body. This lets you search the content of emails and also resend the entire email if it doesn’t send.

Simply check the ‘Log Email Content’ box to enable this.

Check log email content box

Next, you can save a copy of the attachments that are sent from your site. This can be helpful if an email doesn’t send and you need to resend the attachment.

To enable this, you need to check the ‘Save Attachments’ box.

Check save email attachments box

After that, you can track when an email is opened and which links get clicked by checking the ‘Open Email Tracking’ and ‘Click Link Tracking’ boxes.

Enable email opens and click tracking

Then, you can set the time period for how long you’ll save your email logs. If you’re concerned about disk space, then you can change the setting here.

Simply select the time period from the ‘Log Retention Period’ drop down.

Choose log retention period

Make sure to click the ‘Save Settings’ button before you leave the page.

Step 3. Check Email Tracking Analytics Data in WordPress

Once you’ve set up the plugin and sent out WordPress emails, you can view your email tracking and analytics data.

To do this head over to WP Mail SMTP » Email Log in your WordPress admin panel.

View email log opens and clicks

This screen will show you basic email data like opens and clicks, so you get a quick overview of your audience engagement.

Next, you can open up individual email logs to see in depth email information.

Simply hover over an email and click the ‘View Log’ link, and the email details will open in a new screen.

View individual email log

This shows you when the email was sent, the subject, if it was opened, and more.

Resend New User Emails in WordPress

Another great feature of WP Mail SMTP is the ability to resend emails.

To do this, go to back to WP Mail SMTP » Email Log to bring up your email logs.

This page shows you every email you’ve sent and whether or not it was delivered. The red dot means not sent and the green dot means delivered.

To resend an email, simply click the ‘View Log’ link on the email that didn’t send.

View email logs for resend

This brings you to the email log screen for that individual email.

Then, click the ‘Resend’ button in the ‘Actions’ tab.

Click resend button

This brings up a popup that will confirm the email address.

Simply click the ‘Yes’ button to resend the email.

Click yes to resend email

If there are multiple failed emails, then you can use the bulk resend feature from the email log screen.

Simply check the box next to the emails that didn’t send, then select ‘Resend’ from the drop down list, and click the ‘Apply’ button.

Resend multiple emails

This brings up a similar popup as above.

Simply click the ‘Yes’ button to resend the email to multiple users.

Click yes to resend multiple emails

View WordPress Email Engagement Statistics

You can also view your full email tracking and reporting data by going to WP Mail SMTP » Email Reports.

This brings you to a screen with detailed statistics about your open rates and email deliverability.

View WordPress email reports

Under the main graph you’ll find a breakdown of how your individual emails are performing.

You’ll see open rates, click through rates, deliverability breakdown, and more.

View WordPress email stats

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up WordPress email tracking. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our picks of the best business phone services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How Your Company Can Thrive During Economic Difficulty

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By Shama Hyder

No matter which industry they are in, business leaders need to meet challenges head-on and create methods to make ends meet.

Many businesses were forced to close their doors due to the pandemic. More than 200,000 companies were forced to close in 2020 alone. Many of these businesses were in industries deemed “non-essential” — such as restaurants and bars. Their closures and the resulting economic downturn forced many people to re-evaluate their industry of choice. No one had a playbook for how 2020 would unfold, and the term “unprecedented” became (ironically) commonplace.

Surprisingly, other industries saw an increase in revenue last year. Those who found success during hardship utilized unique business and marketing strategies to make things work. No matter which industry they were in, business leaders needed to meet challenges head-on and create methods to make ends meet.

What can marketers learn from how industries are changing nationwide? Here are some tips that can help.

Use Social Media to Connect

When the world was in lockdown, many companies scrambled to improve their digital footprint. Online interaction swiftly became the only means many had to connect with customers. One study from 2019 reported that despite social media’s accessibility, roughly 38 percent of small businesses still do not use it to connect with their audience. But its importance should not be neglected.

Amanda Gunawan of OWIU Design uses her social-media platforms to express the unique vision and purpose behind her company. With a combined total of roughly 150k followers between her personal and professional Instagram accounts, she is able to brand herself and her company. This social-media presence became imperative in 2020, as networking had to be done online and Instagram accounts or websites often served as company portfolios.

Manage Stress and Avoid Burnout

Leading a company during an economic downturn is undoubtedly stressful. Many companies may be tempted to take the easy route in order to alleviate stress instead of thinking about their long-term strategy. Learning to balance the pressure of highly competitive industries with a need for well-thought-out marketing strategies is a difficult but vital task.

Nancy Almodovar, CEO of Nan & Company Properties, runs the largest local real estate brokerage in Houston. Almodovar credits managing stress as the key to her success. “Stamina has been a challenge. You have to perform at a higher level to win the daily battles. Sleep, diet, exercise, and meditation are essential to prepare, reset, or rest enough to be ready to take on the next challenge without any lack of energy,” she says.

Know When to Pivot Your Strategy

Many interpersonal services were suspended for a significant portion of 2020. Some companies completely pivoted and changed their offerings to make ends meet. For some businesses, this meant emphasizing previously underperforming services and products, or totally shifting business models.

Powerhome Solar, a residential and commercial solar power company, changed the way it advertised its services during the pandemic and saw a 95 percent year-over-year increase in revenue. They understood that most people were spending all of their time at home, and loss of power would be disastrous. Updating the way they marketed their offerings based on the new needs of their customers due to the struggles brought about by the pandemic was crucial.

Before the pandemic, the value proposition around their offerings focused on cost and the environment. The new messaging, developed alongside the Sussman Agency, emphasized how they could help ensure homes would never be left in the dark during power outages. This subtle change in messaging brought them much success and is a great example of the importance of knowing your customers and recognizing that as their needs change, your strategy needs to as well.

Create a Strong Internal Culture and Company Personas 

Creating a strong digital brand won’t happen if you and your employees don’t understand your company’s mission and values. WebEnertia, a digital brand and Web design company, understands how imperative culture and brand are to its success, no matter what is happening economically. With over 20 years of creating compelling design experiences for clients, they know that personas are key to an effective marketing strategy. Once a company understands its own brand, it can share that brand with the world.

Become a Student of Consumer Behaviour

If they were not already doing so, marketers must marry their strategies to consumers’ purchasing and behavioural patterns. The Sussman Agency works with clients to make sure they’re adhering to consumer behaviour and knows they won’t find success without it. In a world that changed rapidly due to the pandemic, it became even more important to understand that your ideas may be brilliant, but if they don’t reflect raw numbers, they aren’t going to take you anywhere.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Shama Hyder

Sourced from Inc.

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How to master free Facebook marketing

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Sourced from techradar.pro

The best things in life are free

Do you want to increase online sales, build brand awareness and promote your products? From leading brands that boost TV campaigns with Facebook engagement, to growing businesses that host creative online offers to keep fans excited, any business – big or small – can use Facebook as a marketing tool.

Social media platforms such as Facebook bridge the gap between businesses and consumers, improving communication between them and leaving brands with a better understanding of their audience. Whether you’re a freelance illustrator, successful independent restaurant or a globally- recognized brand, Facebook should be at the top of your marketing strategy.

Facebook groups and pages each have their own strengths. Groups are ideal for intimate communication in communities – to discuss a topic, and to share ideas and opinions – while pages are designed to help businesses, organizations and professionals create an authentic presence online to represent their values. Therefore, creating a Facebook page for your brand or business is the first step towards getting yourself noticed on the social network.

How to promote yourself

A megaphone in front of a smart phone surrounded by heart symbols

(Image credit: shutterstock/SPF)

Suggesting your page to friends, putting up signs in your bricks-and-mortar store, adding a Like button to your website, and including links to your page wherever possible will all contribute to page growth. However, the most noticeable change in Likes will be as a result of the content you post on your page. Let’s look at ways to optimize your Facebook marketing effort by identifying your audience, creating compelling content, and analysing your strategy.

Having a clear understanding of your audience will help you tailor your Facebook posts to suit its interests. Most brands have customer profiles outlined through authorized data collection, but as a growing business or freelancer, taking time to identify your ideal customer will help you to find more of them.

Create a description of your ideal customer. Decide on age, gender, personality, occupation, hobbies, spending habits, likes and dislikes.

Locate your online audience. Which websites interest them? What are they reading? What are they likely to search for online?

Determine their end goals. What is it about your product or service that they like?

Write a more detailed outline of each identifiable customer. Give them each a name and backstory. Write a short day-in-the-life-of paragraph about each one that you can refer to. These are just a few questions to get you started. There are hundreds of customer profiling templates online that can help you build a more comprehensive portrait. Piecing together a clear picture of who you’re ‘talking’ to online will help determine the tone for each post and what customers are likely to respond to.

Create a content strategy

An illustration of a person using a giant magnet to attract social media likes

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Lepusinensis)

A Facebook content strategy is a daily outline of page updates scheduled for the week or month ahead which include things you want to promote or share. For example, you know next week you’ll publish a blog post about an offer available on your website’s shop, which will start on Saturday and end on the following Monday.

For your Facebook strategy you could schedule the following: an announcement of the upcoming offer the Thursday before, share a link to the blog post on Saturday, and post a product image on Sunday evening as a reminder to those who haven’t already taken advantage. Map out your Facebook strategy by determining your weekly or monthly goals and devising daily content around it.

Remember to look at your customer profile to find ways of working in content that would interest them. Your goals may be to drive traffic to your online store, to increase your reach and Page Likes, or to build brand awareness. They may be all of these things, so a strategy is central to creating posts that get attention and get results.

According to Posting Best Practices, rich photography and captivating videos, asking questions, and Facebook Offers (a paid-for service) – or offers of your own – receive the best response. If you think about your personal use of Facebook, are these the same things that catch your eye? Arizona-based State Bicycle Co. has been featured on Facebook’s Success Stories page.

Each week it shares a stunning image of a bike with an inspiring quote dropped over the top. This generates a  lot of shares and plenty more comments and likes. The company calls it Motivational Monday. Not only is it the perfect day for inspirational posts that banish Monday blues, but the content is also visually striking. Most importantly, it’s shareable, which extends the reach of the page and potentially leads to new fans.

With your page in place and content being published regularly, you can measure your success using Facebook  Insights. Facebook’s easy-to-use analytics service helps you evaluate different aspects of your page. Tools such as Engagement, Page Likes, and Post Reach help with tracking your best-performing content by discovering who’s engaging with you, and at what time.

Use these tools to find out what’s working well, write your own best practice, then replicate it. These steps are simple, but it takes an active page to make discoveries that lead to growth.

Case Study: Tatty Devine

The Tatty Devine Facebook page showing a happy woman holding a lollypop

(Image credit: Facebook/ Tatty Devine)

Tatty Devine is an independent British jeweller whose studios are located in London and Kent. It specializes in expressive, standout jewellery with hints of retro fashion. The brand used Facebook to bring the products from its British studios to a global audience. Its aim: to turn Facebook Likes into online purchases, shop visits and brand awareness.

A quick scan over the brand’s Facebook page makes it clear that Tatty Devine knows its audience. Its page is kept fresh by varying post types from anything between new collections, sneak peeks and discounted item announcements, all of which are accompanied by gorgeous images and enthusiastic copy. In spring/summer 2013, Tatty Devine launched the successful Wishing Tree campaign. It encouraged fans to leave comments on its Facebook page with their springtime wishes. These comments would be written out and pinned to an in-store wishing tree, photos of which were uploaded soon after.

This simple idea worked to bring a community of fans together by getting them to engage around a theme that wasn’t about a new offer or competition, but which resulted in increased online sales and improved store footfall. Tatty Devine’s sample sales have fans in screeches of sheer excitement. To promote the event, it created a public Facebook event and invited fans to visit its London store.

It soon had more than 400 guests attending. Other posts about the event included an announcement that newsletter subscribers would receive early access to buy ‘Lucky Dip’ boxes online, and an invitation to fans to submit song requests for the Sunday sample sale through comments.

Many happy customers shared images of their Lucky Dips, and those wishing they’d got something else were given the means to swap items with other Tatty Devine shoppers through a one-month-only Swap Shop event. Through both the Wishing Tree and Sample Sale campaigns, Tatty Devine created great excitement around its products using Facebook as the medium between it and its audience. It uses Facebook as the channel for driving online sales through good posting strategies and learning what its audience responds best to.

Six top tips

A woman checking her social media notifications

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Kaspars Grinvalds)

DO:

Create sharable content:
Shareable content is a post that directly benefits your audience. When a fan shares your post, it appears on their timeline and their friends’ news feeds, so creating shareable content is important for page exposure and acquiring new Likes. People respond to a business or brand with a ‘human side’, so don’t be afraid to add your own flair. Combine your (clean) humour with content that helps your fans express their own identity. Now more than ever it’s important to put yourself in their shoes.

Measure and adjust:
Once 30 people have liked your page, you’ll be able to see your Page Insights, which tell you all about how your audience is responding to your content. Page Likes, Post Reach and Engagement tools are just some of the things you can use to track your best-performing posts.

Be available:
People love an authentic presence online, so be conversational and share what you’re genuinely interested in – it’s about quality, not quantity. Respond to both good and bad feedback. Experiment with post types and times. You can schedule posts on Facebook, which is a godsend for businesses with little digital resource.

DON’T:

Forget formality:
Say goodbye to formalities and loosen up already! People on Facebook are there primarily to catch up with friends, so if you want their attention, you have to talk with them as though you’re just another pal to encourage interaction, rather than sounding like a marketer. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be professional, but have a little fun with your status – what have you been up to?

Reference:
Do not take credit for any content that does not belong to you! This is not to say that you can’t share an image you think your audience would love to see on your page, even if you didn’t take it yourself. It simply means that you should, at all times, give credit where credit is due. Adding a link to the original source builds credibility and trust with your audience.

Don’t irritate:
Facebook likes an active page but people are quick to hit the Unlike button. The aim is to be consistent and to post regularly to counter this, but don’t overdo it. Ask yourself, “Would my audience share this?”, “Would they find it interesting?”, “Would they like to see this in their news feed?” – if the answer is yes (honestly), then go ahead.

Sourced from techradar.pro

 

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