editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

Facebook Global Pages and Market Pages: How to Localize Your Marketing

August 4, 2021 No Comments

Does your business market in multiple cities or countries? Wish there was a simple way to localize your marketing based on location or language?

In this article, you’ll discover how to set up a Facebook global pages structure with Facebook market pages to streamline your Facebook marketing.

Why Use a Facebook Global Pages Structure?

Facebook location pages, which have been available for a number of years, are particularly helpful when consumers are searching for directions to one of your brick-and-mortar stores or you’re offering discounts or special offers at certain locations.

Location pages show up in Facebook search individually, making it easier for people to find stores and offices that are near them.

Facebook global pages, which are slowly being rolled out, are for businesses with multiple global audiences that wish to leverage localization in a particular market or for a particular language, but want to retain a single Facebook page URL.

Global page structures contain market pages, which are simply different versions of the same brand page made visible to users based on their geographic location. In Facebook search, users see only the market page that relates to their region (although they may switch the region if they want).

As an example, Nokia Mobile utilizes global pages. When you click the three-dot button on their page, you’ll see the option to Switch Region. If you change the region, the content on the page changes too.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By AMY HAYWARD,

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

In News

It’s Never Been Better To Be Talent

August 3, 2021 No Comments

By Alex Kantrowitz

If you make stuff for the internet, and are good at it, you are very happy right now.

It’s an absolutely incredible moment to be creating stuff online.

After long neglecting people who create content for their products, the tech platforms are showering them with money, support, and opportunity. Facebook just pledged $1 billion to creators by 2022. TikTok is on its way there. YouTube, Pinterest, and others are promising millions of their own. Snapchat wouldn’t return creators’ calls a few years ago; now, it’s paying them millions per month.

We’re seeing a stark — but inevitable — shift in the conventional belief that user-generated content was enough to fill social platforms’ feeds, and keep them vibrant. It turns out that making videos, photos, or words that people want to watch or read is difficult. Only a select few are good at it. And the platforms are all competing for their work. So, it’s advantage: talent.

“We want to build the best platforms for millions of creators to make a living,” Mark Zuckerberg said yesterday, no doubt looking at TikTok’s hasty, creator-driven incursion on his territory. The bulk of Facebook’s payments will likely go to thousands — not millions — of creators. But its plan to supply a livelihood to individuals who post on its services represents a significant shift.

Just five years ago, a group of Vine creators walked into Twitter’s headquarters and asked to be paid for their work. Going viral was fun, they said, but the app would be nothing without them, so they wanted to be compensated. Twitter balked at the request, Vine crumbled, and the rest is history. Creators moved to Snapchat and YouTube (the former had promise, the latter had money), and both platforms are now worth billions.

When TikTok arrived a few years later, it didn’t rely on its technology alone. The company struck deals with creators, paid some of them salaries, and emailed updates winking at what trends would be popular (check out Bloomberg’s Foundering podcast for more). TikTok’s creators responded, and it’s now the most vibrant social app in the world. TikTok recently became the first non-Facebook app to hit 3 billion downloads. And Facebook is now so concerned that, on top of the $1 billion it’s spending on creators, it’s running a set of experiments that would essentially turn Instagram into TikTok.

Facebook and its counterparts’ plans to pay creators are unique because they empower the individual. Tech platforms like Facebook have paid limited sums to media companies like Viacom and Hearst to produce video for their apps. But the platforms long viewed individual creators as insignificant players who could be satisfied with a brand deal. Now, they see the individual creator as the key differentiator, so they’re paying the talent directly. No middlemen.

A similar shift is taking place in journalism, where tech companies are throwing money at individual journalists and putting pressure on institutions to pay stars and keep them happy. “Lucky for me, if not for you, it’s a rare moment right now where it’s actually good to be talent,” Choire Sicha said as he left his job running The New York Times’ Styles section, one of journalism’s most desirable management jobs.

Asked to elaborate, Sicha said journalists are “just a part of a larger boom” where individuals are getting “some weird fat one-off paychecks.” He emailed:

Podcasts, newsletters and the digital media subscriber business overall means that people need … actual people, actual voices. (This is why it’s also a boom for people to write pilots and other televisual stuff.) And so, if you are willing to go through the steps to commodify yourself, you’re actually a well-valued commodity! Think about how hard a Kara Swisher had to work. They had to start whole companies! Now all you basically have to do is tweet really aggressively for a few months and someone pulls up with $300,000 in Substack Bucks. The real winners are gonna take that money and then go live somewhere cheap and wonderful until they die.

Sicha said he expects this moment to pass. And it may well do so. But until it does, those who create things online will continue to have a blast.

By Alex Kantrowitz

Sourced from Big Technology

In News

Embarrassing Coca-Cola design fail bemuses the internet

August 3, 2021 No Comments

By Daniel Piper,

Corporate Pride strikes again.

One inevitability of Pride month is what’s (un)affectionately known as Corporate Pride – which, as the name suggests, involves all manner of brands paying lip service to the cause with rainbow logos and the like. One of the slightly more creative efforts this year came from Coca-Cola – but it appears to have backfired spectacularly.

The company’s new custom bottle creator lets users personalise a rainbow-coloured Coca-Cola bottle sticker by entering a word, name or phrase of their choice. But the list of banned phrases, as well as some that are allowed, has proven somewhat questionable. (Check out our best print ads for some bold advertising that actually works.)

If the user attempts to create a bottle with one of Coca-Cola’s prohibited words or phrases, they’ll receive the message: “Oops! Looks like the name you requested is not an approved one. Names may not be approved if they’re potentially offensive to other people, trademarked, or celebrity names. We’ve worked hard to get this list right, but sometimes we mess up. If you think this is an error, please contact our Customer Care team. Otherwise, please try again, keep it fun and in the spirit of sharing!”

And, naturally, users have been testing the limits of what Coca-Cola considers “fun and in the spirit of sharing”. In one of many eyebrow-raising examples, ‘White Lives Matter’ = fine, whereas ‘Black Lives Matter’ = not fine.

“We’re continuously refining and improving our Share A Coke personalisation tool to ensure it is used only for its intended purpose,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson told CNN Business. “Actual bottles are not made with words that are inconsistent with the program’s intent. We have clarified in the tool’s preview mode that proposed language may require further review.”

While we appreciate the company’s desire to filter out offensive phrases, one can’t help but wonder whether Coca-Cola’s half-hearted censorship mechanism is actually better than no mechanism at all. Like McDonald’s tasteless coronavirus-themed logo, Coke has ended up, no matter how well-intentioned, with a bonafide marketing fail on its hands. Still, at least it’s in good company this year – who can forget Burger King’s abysmal attempt at humour on International Women’s Day a few months back?

By Daniel Piper

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

In News

Social Media Seems Like the ‘Holy Grail,’ But This Marketing Strategy Is Even More Important

August 3, 2021 No Comments

By Laura Perkes

The often overlooked tactic enhances reach, raises brand awareness and drives new customers and clients to your business.

Picture the scene: It’s 2021, and the enormity and popularity of digital marketing is providing entrepreneurs with a plethora of opportunities and the ability to tap into an audience of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential customers, all at the push of a button.

When Facebook first launched back in 2004, it really was the first of its kind. Before that, we had MySpace and a few other platforms I’ve never heard of (Friendster or Hi5, anyone?), but none of them had managed to make the impact that Facebook did, and still does.

Since Facebook, we’ve seen the launch of Instagram in 2010 and TikTok in 2016, plus the addition of Instagram Reels in 2020. Not to mention other platforms such as Snapchat and Clubhouse, all giving us access to a wider audience.

In the past 19 years, we’ve all had the luxury of being able to communicate directly with our fans, customers and potential customers in a way that has never been possible before. But before the advent of social media, businesses and brands were built the “old fashioned” way, using more traditional marketing techniques, such as advertising and face-to-face networking.

Social media seems like the Holy Grail

When the world became more digitized, tools such as online advertising, pay-per-click and email marketing grew in popularity and gave entrepreneurs and brands alike the chance to reach an even wider audience. Data was easier to track and metrics and insights enabled you to calculate your return on investment.

For many entrepreneurs and startup businesses, social media seems like the Holy Grail. Not only do you get to build an audience and interact and engage with your followers, but it’s also completely free at the point of entry. Of course, you can now invest in adverts across all social-media channels, but for someone completely new to the business world, social media is a sensible place to start.

Yet there’s a missing piece of the puzzle here. A modality that’s as old as time, but a powerful force when it comes to sharing messages, raising brand awareness and building on the know-like-trust factor. And that’s public relations.

Everything you say and do is PR

Public relations exists so that you can communicate with your audience. If you Google “public relations,” you will find Wikipedia’s definition: “Public Relations is the practice of deliberately managing the release and spread of information between an individual or organisation and the public, in order to affect the public perception.”

So, essentially, everything you say and do is PR, but the platform in which you share your message changes. The tools you use to share your message changes. But the message remains the same. Your audience, generally, stays the same, yet where they hang out may change, based on the launch of new platforms, or the increased popularity of existing platforms, such as YouTube and podcasts.

YouTube first launched back in 2005 and podcasts launched a year earlier in 2004, yet they’ve only really exploded as a business tool over the past few years, giving entrepreneurs and startups the chance to create easy-to-share and easy-to-digest content that their ideal clients will love — content that can then be repurposed across social-media channels.

Back in 2004, when I first started my career in PR, there were really only three types of media outlets to pitch to: print titles, TV and radio. Online titles were seen as the poor relation to print, so we rarely bothered pitching to them as clients didn’t see the value in them — oh how times have changed!

However, because there was less choice, it made it easier to build relationships with journalists and work on features and content ideas with them. Over time, the media landscape has changed, and online started to make a huge impact and podcasts and YouTube channels became prime real estate.

Now, there is way more choice when it comes to gaining exposure, so while you may not consider social media, YouTube or podcasts your typical media outlets, they’re still consumed by your ideal clients, still covering topics that complement what you do, and they still have a ready-made audience of loyal fans that you could (and should) be tapping into. How? Quite simply, by pitching.

One piece of content can be shared and shared again

The way you’d pitch yourself to a podcast host is the exact same way that you’d pitch yourself to a journalist. That is a PR tactic and a skill that publicists have been honing for decades. Now, one of the utterly brilliant, yet often overlooked, powers of PR is that you can take one piece of content and deliver it to millions of people in one go. No other form of communication enables you to do that.

It may take time to build and execute your PR plan. You may not see anything published or broadcast for three to four months, but when it lands, it’s well worth the wait, as your content has the potential to be seen or heard by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of potential ideal clients and customers. Just think about the circulation of a print publication, then triple it to get an average reach.

Think about the audience size of a podcast, then think how many extra people you can reach by sharing it across your social-media channels. And then think about how many extra people you will reach when the host shares it across their social-media channels. All of a sudden, one piece of content can be shared and shared again, leaving behind a digital footprint and breadcrumbs that can lead even more people to your business.

This is another reason why PR is such a powerful and influential tool — because what you do now is searchable forever. PR isn’t always easy to measure, which potentially adds to its downfall in the ROI stakes, but it’s still a tactic that should be employed, and a muscle that should be flexed, as part of your communications strategy.

PR is yet another way of transporting your business and your expertise to a wider audience, an audience that has been built up and cultivated for decades, that already knows, likes and trusts the outlet and the content they produce.

So, next time you decide to put all your eggs in one basket and focus all of your attention on one particular marketing tool, or one particular platform, ask if there’s a more efficient, more effective way of sharing your message to drive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new customers to your business. The answer, in case you missed it, is PR.

By Laura Perkes

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

Why Content Marketing Should Be the Foundation of Your Marketing Strategy

July 30, 2021 No Comments

BY HILLEL FULD

Not a single day goes by without my speaking to an early-stage entrepreneur who wants to discuss marketing and how to get quick results. So let’s just get this out of the way from the beginning: Marketing takes time.

There are some tactics you can use that will generate a return on investment (ROI) in the relatively short term, but achieving real long-lasting results takes time. Put simply, anything you achieve in the short term will go down as fast as it went up. You want to play the long game. This is true even if you’re tempted to try some things that are less organic but might look good on the surface, such as buying likes or followers. Don’t do that.

Instead, here are five reasons you should start generating content on your own company blog as soon as you can:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is very much a thing

I know that social media gets all the hype nowadays and no one is talking about search anymore, but they’re wrong not to. A quick glance at the numbers will show you that search drives just as much traffic as social does, at least for the time being.

Once you’re sold on the importance of search, now the question is how to leverage it. I am obviously oversimplifying here, but the more incoming links to your site, the better. How do you get people to link to you? Well, some SEO experts would tell you to buy links. I say listen to Google and produce good content people want to talk about and link to.

Getting social on social media

Let’s break down what social media means. The “media” part is obvious, but what about the “social” part? Are you engaging with people like you do offline or are you using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed or sales platform?

I once heard a speech from the guy who invented the “Like” button at Facebook. He explained that he wanted to give people the ability to express appreciation for someone else’s content. What did it do? We ruined it by begging for likes.

How about instead of asking me to follow you, giving me a reason to click “Like” or “Follow”? What’s the best reason to get someone to do that? Fill your feed with quality content, yours or someone else’s, and that’s how you increase your numbers across social media.

Public relations is not the same as content marketing

Let’s clear one thing up: When you or someone on your team writes an article about the industry on the company blog, that’s called content marketing. When a journalist writes about the company, that’s called public relations (PR).

So why does content help with PR? When you pitch a journalist, the first thing he or she is going to do is Google your name or the company’s name. When there is no footprint on the internet, that raises a red flag.

However, when he or she encounters all of your content, all of a sudden you are now a colleague, and not just a company pitching that journalist. Just like he or she produces content, you produce content.

Content changes the whole dynamic between you and journalists.

Your user acquisition can be much more frictionless

Whether you are running ads or acquiring users in another way, content makes the whole process that much easier.

It’s fairly straightforward. If I come across an ad for a company I’ve never heard of, I might click, I might not, but even if I do, it’s a very cold click, and converting me will be quite the challenge.

If, however, I see that ad and think to myself, “Oh, I know that company. I read their blog, listen to their podcast, or follow them on Twitter,” the chances of engaging me are significantly higher. Simply put, content elevates your brand.

Business development with a stranger is not as fun as with someone who trusts you

Finally, last but not least, content marketing helps with business development. Imagine going out to dinner with a potential customer and the person sits across from you with a look on his face that says, “What are you selling this time?”

Now contrast that with the look on his face that says, “I am loving your content. You clearly know your stuff, and I want to work with professionals. So how do we get started?”

That right there is the difference between cold business development and warm business development. That’s the difference between a company that produces valuable industry content and a company that only focuses on promoting itself.

So, the bottom line, in case it wasn’t clear? Stop reading this and start producing content of your own.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

BY HILLEL FULD

TECH MARKETER AND STARTUP ADVISER@HILZFULD

Sourced from Inc.

In News

18 Stress-Free Side Hustles For Introverts

July 30, 2021 No Comments

By Jay Feldman, DO

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably sick and tired of all of the gurus telling you how easy it is to make extra income from a side hustle. This isn’t because those side hustles don’t work, but they don’t always provide the same successful outcome for everyone who tries them — especially introverts.

Since introverts are known to be reserved, quiet and thoughtful, the opportunity to earn some spare cash from side hustles remotely are perfect for them. Remote side hustles also provide introverts with the opportunity to make money on their own time without worry of a daily commute.

1. Freelance writing

Spending a few years freelancing to bulk up your writing portfolio of both clients and content can lead to a well-paying and flexible career.

Along with copywriting, blog writing and ghost-writing, finding a niche as a freelance writer for more technical pieces will allow you to charge clients more due to the dedication and focus they require. Sites like USA Wire will actually pay you to contribute content.

2. Graphic design

Many introverts who start dabbling in design — even if they haven’t designed before — find they have a talent for it.

Tools like Canva can help you design infographics, email templates, fonts and more. Before getting started in graphic design, consider:

What kind of services you want to offer
Your target customer market(s) and pricing
Which software(s) you will use

3. Web design

Every brand in today’s world needs a website. Though building websites as a freelancer today is more challenging due to market saturation, it remains a strong side hustle option from the flexibility, creativity and control it provides.

Introverted web designers can set themselves apart from other web designers by becoming more talented in niche areas of web design, such as:

SEO optimization
Content strategy and creation
Copywriting
Social media management
Establishing pay-per-click advertising campaigns

4. Video editing

Video editing provides introverts with the freedom to create their own schedule and negotiate pricing with clients. Tools like Magisto and Splice make the video editing process much easier than in years past, too.

Here are just a handful of markets to give you some ideas on which to target for a video editing side hustle:

Conference videos
Explainer/educational videos
Marketing/promotional videos
Recorded presentations
Recorded speaking events

5. Audio engineering

If introverts have the essential tools at their disposal, they can quickly start offering audio engineering services like mixing, producing and tracking. Here are some things you need to do:

Create a studio in the quietest area of your home
Have a laptop with a strong processor
Install DAW software like Audacity or Garageband
Have a high-quality recording microphone
Have a MIDI controller or keyboard

Audio engineers also offer their produced soundtracks to other industries such as podcasters or stock audio platforms, and even earn money by streaming their music online through apps like Spotify or YouTube.

6. Social media management

Social media can be a very lucrative side hustle for introverts. The trick to making real money from managing social media as a side hustle lies in the power of networking.

As a social media manager, your time will mostly be spent managing clients’ websites and social media accounts, approving comments and reviews and ensuring web pages are published on time.

Like many jobs and side hustles alike, the key to becoming a winning social media manager is being consistent in providing value.

7. Virtual assistant

Having a virtual assistant job as a side hustle entails routinely interfacing with only one other person. It can typically be done entirely remotely, too, making it more appealing to introverts.

Virtual assistants can expect to make between $10-20 per hour (depending on your employer) for a number of tasks like:

Reading/writing/responding to emails
Scheduling appointments
Managing calendars
Posting content on websites/social media

8. Taking surveys

There are plenty of legitimate ways to get paid by answering surveys, as many companies outsource survey agencies to gain insight on consumer behaviour. Most pay between $0.50-2.00 per survey, and each one shouldn’t take more than 5-15 minutes to complete.

9. Book reviews

Reading is a common hobby for many introverts, so why not get paid to read and review some books?

Some of the best sites to use to get paid for your reviews (and even get some free books) include:

If you already have an existing blog, you can also make money by writing sponsored posts or book reviews. If you have enough clients as a freelancer, you could also earn money as a freelance book reviewer.

10. Read emails

For introverts who shy away from the conversation, getting paid to read emails can end up being a dream side hustle.

Thankfully, there are now a ton of different sites you can sign up for that pay you to read other peoples’ emails, including the following sites:

For the more email-savvy introverts, inbox management is also a viable option.

11. Start a blog

Blogging is a great way to make money that requires minimal interaction with others. Monetizing your blog may take a few months to see its potential, but the ability to create a winning blog you can monetize lies in:

Creating quality content
Producing content that can be consistently consumed and shared
Partnering with advertisers to sell digital ad space on your blog

If you stick to this process, your blog can make money off the content you want to write.

12. Affiliate marketing

If you already have a strong following on Instagram, you can promote a brand’s latest product or service. Each sale you facilitate earns you a portion of the sale.

The potential income you can make through affiliate marketing is virtually unlimited, depending on the size of your target audience and their buying trends as consumers.

13. House sitting

If you’re looking to make money each month with almost no work or social interaction, becoming a professional house sitter may be your best bet.

As a house sitter, your mission is simple: stay at the client’s residence and occupy it in their absence.

House sitting is a common need for homeowners who routinely leave town or travel. If a client’s pet needs care, you can charge even more per day or week, depending on the client.

14. Podcasting

Starting a podcast as an introvert can prove to be a very lucrative side hustle depending on the topic(s) of audio content you produce, as well as the quality and consistency of that content.

Many podcasts are recorded solo, meaning introverts don’t need to worry about outreach to potential interviewees. Instead, spend that time to learn about how you can best market your podcast, and to who.

15. Transcription

If you’re an introvert with crazy-awesome typing skills, look into online transcriptions as a side hustle.

Transcriptionists convert audible conversations or content into typed documents. Today, everything from YouTube videos to legal proceedings requires transcription.

Transcriptionist work can pay very well for those with a knack for it, and most employer’s transcription guidelines tend to follow the most basic transcription training courses, which you can easily find available for free online.

16. Dog walking

Let’s be real: As an introvert, there are times when you will simply grow tired of dealing with other people. As a dog walker, the most interaction you’ll have with other people is through the dog’s owner.

Getting started as a dog walker is made even easier with apps like Rover or Wag. Depending on where/when/who you walk for, you can make between $15-30 for less than an hour of time that you spend walking!

17. Food delivery

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, food delivery sales have been at an all-time high. For introverts with reliable transportation, this presents a great side hustle opportunity.

Becoming a designated driver for apps like DoorDash or Instacart offers ways to make extra money, including tips. Since the bulk of the work is driving, introverts may find this an appealing way to earn $10-15+ per hour, depending on where they live and the number of deliveries completed each day.

18. Day trading

The recent rise in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin has seen millions become more aware of the earnings day trading can bring. However, trading on the stock, futures or foreign exchange market is where most day traders make their money.

According to one trading expert, the best trading times are when markets officially open and close (around 9:30am and 4:00pm) each day. Because the first hour of each day tends to be when trade prices are most volatile, trading at these times provides the best potential for profits.

Remember: you never lose money off of stocks you don’t sell, you only lose money when you sell (rather than buy) during the dip.

By Jay Feldman, DO

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In Uncategorized

What Trustworthy and Transparent Marketing Looks Like Now

July 30, 2021 No Comments

By Christina Mautz

It’s an unpredictable time for us marketers. People are still recovering from a rough year, financially, mentally, or both. The last thing you’d think people want are dozens of telemarketing or cold calls, automated emails and clickbait headlines — and you’re right.

The idea of trustworthy and transparent marketing — or simply, responsible marketing — isn’t new. Still, it’s taken on more meaning as many companies with initially small online presences finally moved more assets and more effort into digital marketing. The recent increase in digital marketing seems to mean an endless glut of spam from companies indiscriminately marketing to the masses.

So how do we define responsible marketing? For me, it means smarter, targeted marketing with the customer and their pain points always in mind.

Target the Customers Who You Can Benefit

Marketing has a truly awesome ability. It has the power to reach people at a primal level and heavily influence their thoughts and actions. Because our actions as marketers can significantly impact people, it’s our responsibility to promote our product or service in a way that limits the reach only to those whom we believe can benefit from what we are offering.

There is a lot of really great marketing out there, but let’s admit it, a lot of marketing is really spammy. Spam significantly reduces the quality of leads, and more importantly, it’s annoying and gives all marketers a bad name. We need to evolve past the lazy approach of tossing a wide net with the hope of catching the right fish and instead prioritize reaching a smaller, more targeted audience, specifically relating our solutions to the audience’s pain points. Your resulting lead pool may be smaller, but it will also be filled with far higher-quality leads.

How can you tell if you’re in the spammy vs. good marketing camp? First, take a look at who you’re marketing to. Do you know who your ideal customer is? Are you doing your best to reach that customer? Is your content purely promotional, or are you helping that ideal customer understand how your solution will solve their problem?

Your marketing material should first educate. It should demonstrate understanding of a customer’s problem while describing how your offering can help. At Moz, we provide free educational resources on our website because we know that the more we educate people about how to use SEO to increase the visibility of website (for example), the more likely we are to reach the customers who will benefit from our SEO solutions.

It takes patience. You need to respect your audience enough that you allow them the time and space to take the next step and convert or buy at their own pace — not yours.

Build Trust and Connect With Your Customers

I’ve talked before about how storytelling is the best way for marketers to create lasting relationships with customers. People want to experience something human and latch on to a greater narrative. When people feel you’re talking directly to them, it evokes a greater sense of connection and sparks interest in whatever you’re marketing.

Connection creates lifelong customers. Lifers, as we call them, have more value in the long run than higher volumes of entry-level customers. They’ll spend more on premium products, stick with you through rough times and recommend your brand to others. We connect with and retain lifers through a few core values — empathy, transparency and generosity.

Recently, everyone has had a rough time of it. Adjusting to new standards is exhausting, and the last thing a customer wants is to have to wade through clickbait and spam to find the answers to their problems. When I say empathy, I mean taking the time to see the world from your customer’s point of view. It ties back into your responsibility as a marketer to meet the customer where they’re at and guide them through the journey, rather than pushing them towards something they may not yet want or need. When customers see your commitment to allow them to experience the buying process in their own time, they’ll be far more inclined to trust you.

In light of recent data breaches and questionable data collection, transparency is essential right now . Customers and those interacting with your material need to know their data and information are safe with you. It’s also about showing your interest in new prospects and truthfully communicating who your product is right for.

Respect, Responsibility and Success

People get used to the status quo. Right now, the status quo is dozens of robocalls a day, irrelevant emails and other forms of spam. Is this marketing’s future? I would hope not. Imagine what a beautiful world it would be if we all worked hard to truly understand who could benefit from what we’re offering and only reached out to those prospects. Then focused on educating those prospects about how we can help.

The hope is we all use this power we have as marketers to reach targeted audiences, creating lifelong customers and responsibly guiding them along their journey.

Feature Image Credit: ADOBE

By Christina Mautz

Christina Mautz has served as a strategic marketing leader for some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Amazon and Yahoo!, as well as a few Seattle SaaS startups where she earned the nickname “Chief Problem Solver.” She currently serves as the CMO and Head of Sales for Moz, the world’s leading SEO software company. In this role, she brings her passion for strategic problem-solving to the sales and marketing teams, aligning them with creative strategies to drive growth.

Sourced from CMS WiRE

In News

Five Ways To Drive Traffic To Your E-Commerce Store

July 29, 2021 No Comments

By Damien Coughlan

It’s no secret that e-commerce is growing. It’s estimated that there will be 2.14 billion global digital buyers in 2021. The global pandemic has fast-tracked a change in how we, as a society, now purchase goods and services.

Customers are becoming more tech-savvy and are now familiar with making and taking payments online. People today want speed, choice and convenience. They’re often willing to browse and shop around to find the best deals, and as a result, they may not remain brand loyal to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. Instead, with the click of a mouse, shoppers can compare features, prices and shipping costs.

The following are five ways to drive traffic to your online store.

1. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads is an ad system for businesses that allows them to showcase their products and services to Facebook’s users. The platform has a number of different ad types that you can choose from. These include image ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection ads, canvas ads, lead generation ads, offer ads and event response ads.

In terms of e-commerce, I find that one of the most popular ads is the website conversion ad. This type of ad allows you to optimize your ads for people who are most likely to perform an action, like making a purchase. These ads are easy to start with on Facebook, and you can set a daily budget of just $5 to get up and running.

Facebook has various data points on its users; it knows the posts users interact with, the brands they follow and the stores that they visit. As a result, the platform is extremely clever at finding your ideal customers. Further, by installing Facebook Pixel, you can track site activity, which gives you information and data on what’s happening in your store.

When creating your ads, you can target people based on age, interest, demographic, location, occupation and even salary. For example, dog moms in California, who are 45 and older and earn over $100,000 per year.

2. Google Ads

Google Ads are similar to Facebook Ads, but the main difference is that Google Ads are intent-based. What this means is that the ads are designed to attract people who are actively searching for the products you’re selling. An example might be, “best coffee in Miami.” The power of intent-based advertising is that the shopper who’s performing the search is already committed and interested in purchasing the product or service you may be selling.

Some of the Google ad types available to you include search campaigns (text), display campaigns (images) and video campaigns. Again, you can start for as little as $5 per day.

3. Influencers

Influencer marketing has become popular over the last few years due to the explosion and growth of social media marketing. Think of an influencer as someone with a specialized skill or knowledge that has amassed a large, loyal and passionate following. Their following might be on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.

Let’s say you sell a fitness product that helps mothers lose weight post-pregnancy. You can search for influencers within that niche who may have an audience that you can leverage. Perhaps, the influencer is someone who coaches women with weight loss but isn’t selling a physical product. The agreement is usually made between the influencer and brand based on a number of story and feed posts or based on the number of sales made through their link.

One important factor to consider when finding the right influencer is to check the level of engagement on their posts and whether the audience is a good fit for your brand. An influencer might have one million followers but the engagement rate might be low. This usually means that the influencer might have purchased those followers, or they don’t really have an engaged enough audience to make the promotion worthwhile.

It’s often best to start with a low-budget promotion and test the results.

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for years and isn’t going anywhere. Email marketing allows you to essentially remarket for free to your existing subscribers.

You can create campaigns that are one-time promotions, like Valentine’s Day or Black Friday offers, or you can set up flows that are automatically sent based on a user’s profile activity. An example might be when someone subscribes to your newsletter and you send them a welcome email where you nurture them, talk about your product and brand and, at the end of the email, offer them a one-time special offer to become a customer at a discounted rate.

Building an email list is hugely powerful; in my experience, I’ve been able to reach up to $1 per subscriber in monthly revenue. You can use pop-ups and exit intents to capture emails by incentivizing visitors to subscribe to your newsletter for value or offer some type of discount coupon code.

5. Blog Posts

I highly encourage you to start creating blog posts. It does take time to create blog content and be consistent, but it’s so important to the long-term success of your business.

Ideas for blogs are endless and can be scheduled out automatically over the month. You can also invite guest bloggers to help you write if you find that your time can be more valuable elsewhere.

When I sold in the dog niche, I had a very passionate dog customer of mine who found a blog article I wrote and asked me if she could write about her life with dogs. Of course, I said yes, and to make it a win-win for everyone and to encourage her to write great articles, I offered her free dog merchandise.

These are just a few of the many ways to drive traffic to your store. Remember, not everyone who visits your store is going to buy. In fact, I’ve found average store conversion rates are usually 5% or less. Keep delivering great content and run retargeting strategies to convert your non-buyers to buyers.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Damien Coughlan

Damien is the founder of damiencoughlan.com; he helps businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs explode their e-commerce businesses. Read Damien Coughlan’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Improving Instagram Reach With Branded Content in 5 Easy Steps

July 29, 2021 No Comments

By CORINNA KEEFE

Want to reach new audiences on Instagram without running ads? Have you considered branded content but weren’t sure where to start?

In this article, you’ll learn five simple steps to create, launch, and promote Instagram branded content campaigns to reach new people.

What Is Branded Content on Instagram?

Here’s what you need to know before you dive into the world of branded content creation, influencer marketing, and Instagram settings.

Branded content is one of the most powerful tools for Instagram marketing. It bridges the gap between organic content and paid ads, commercial partnerships and authentic recommendations. But as you might imagine, building that bridge takes some skill.

You need to find the right partnerships, set guidelines for your content, and finally, have a plan for boosting and resharing branded content.

Let’s start with some definitions. You might think that any content you produce as a social media manager is branded content: It’s content by a brand.

But Instagram thinks differently. Within this social network, “branded content” has a specific meaning. It’s content that markets your brand but it’s not created or posted by you.

Influencers or creators create this content on your behalf. They receive “an exchange of value” in return, whether that’s payment, product samples, or gifts. And that exchange of value has to be disclosed by using the branded content tools on Instagram.

Click HERE to read the remainder of the article.

By CORINNA KEEFE

Sourced from Social Media Examiner

In News

7 Steps to Launch an Expert Social-Media Marketing Campaign

July 29, 2021 No Comments

By Jonathan Riff

Social media offers new brands an incredible opportunity to launch a new product to a highly targeted, engaged, wallet-out audience.

Social media provides new brands with an incredible opportunity to launch a new product to a highly targeted, engaged, wallet-out audience. You have access to consumers located all over the world along with the ability to target them based on very specific parameters.

Brands today have such a massive advantage over brands that got their start just ten years ago. While this all sounds great, it’s not as simple as making a few posts on launch day and watching the sales snowball.

It takes a lot of preparation and planning, along with a great product, to have a successful launch on social media. Here are the seven steps required to expertly launch a new brand on social media, regardless of the niche.

1. Establish a clear set of goals

You need to identify your KPIs and goals before anything else. What is going to make your particular launch successful? This will be drastically different for every brand. It might be based on sales, email-list growth or just the generation of buzz that translates into long-term brand awareness.

If it’s sales- and revenue-based, be specific. How many sales? How much revenue? You need to have all of this figured out ahead of time. Determine how much money you are going to invest in the launch and be sure that whatever your goals are, you break even, at the very least.

2. Develop a timeline

When you have your launch date set, you will need to back up and map out the timeline from the current date to the launch date. Then, break that window of time into blocks. Every step of creating a launch will require time. If you feel that your timeline is too tight, push it back.

The last thing you want to do is commit to a launch date and then a week prior have to push it back. That can be a death sentence for a brand, especially if you have already hyped up the date to a social audience that’s waiting in anticipation.

3. Select the best social-media platforms

This is where your strategy starts to play out. What social-media platforms are you going to want to focus on to reach your target audience? While you may think going super wide and launching on every platform available is the correct play, it’s the opposite.

Focus on the two to three best platforms for your launch. This allows you to put more effort into each one, which will greatly impact the return on investment. Pick the social-media platforms that best match your brand and its target audience.

Going after a younger 18- to 20-year-old demographic? TikTok is the place to be. Interested in connecting with a 32- to 45-year-old homeowning demographic? Then Facebook should be your number one platform. Don’t worry about what social platform is the most popular: Select based on where your target audience is active.

4. Map out an influencer-marketing strategy

Aligning with the right influencers to help give your launch a boost can give you momentum unobtainable elsewhere. Try to work out deals with influencers who have engaged audiences that match your target market.

From a flat fee per post to a revenue-sharing agreement, work out something that makes sense and allows you to tap into those followings. If you break even or even take a slight hit, consider the upside, which is gaining a large customer base on day one that can be marketed to down the line multiple times.

And here’s a pro tip: Let the influencer introduce and announce your brand and product to his or her audience as he or she sees fit. The response will be much better if this is done naturally and not something that feels staged and planned. Giving influencers total creative control will yield the best results.

5. Design launch-campaign assets

You’re going to need a wide variety of content assets and formats. On launch day, you will need to have several campaigns loaded up and ready to go that you will closely monitor and optimize in real time.

If one format or image is performing better, you will need to adjust. Will a meme outperform a GIF? What about a video? You need variety to collect as much data as possible. Some examples of campaign assets include high-quality product images; lifestyle images; videos, both long and short; GIFs and memes.

It’s also important to design each content asset specifically for the platform it will be used on. This includes formatting video run times for the specific social channel and making images the correct size to ensure proper display.

6. Schedule your social-media content

Once you have your social platforms identified and all of your content assets created, you now have to schedule it. You have your official launch date, but don’t forget the days leading up to it. This is a perfect time to build anticipation with teaser content.

You can schedule your entire organic campaign in one of the SaaS tools like Hootsuite, which helps you organize the launch as well as reply and engage during the launch. You are going to want to be available to answer questions and reply in real time.

Participating in the discussion will drive more sales, and the engagement boost will help further your organic reach. Even if your launch strategy revolves around paid social-media ads, you still want to have an organic campaign scheduled.

7. Launch your campaign

If you planned for enough time to get everything mapped out and situated, you will be ready to go on launch day. Be sure to have extra hands on deck to handle customer-service issues, answer pre-sales questions and ensure everything goes smoothly.

A poorly executed launch can sink a brand before it even has a chance to thrive. Be sure to plan for every possible mishap because a launch without some hiccups is unheard of. Be prepared for the unexpected and ready to make adjustments as you go.

By Jonathan Riff

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe