Fresh Trend Digital

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How to Use YouTube to Market Your Small Business

Have you been sleeping on YouTube marketing? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. It’s easy to dismiss YouTube as the place where teenagers and young adults make silly content, whether they’re sampling weird fast food mashups or doing stunts.

The truth is that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. Only Google sees more traffic. People who watch videos on YouTube are always looking for new content to watch and there’s a big opportunity for small businesses like yours to find a whole new audience with video marketing.

Show Off Your Products

Do your customers know how to use your products? More importantly, do they know the best ways to use your products? If they don’t and you can help them get the most out of what they buy, then YouTube is the perfect place to do it.

Let’s look at an example. Luxy Hair is a company that sells a full range of hair extensions. They have attracted over three million followers on YouTube thanks to their styling videos that show customers (and potential customers) how to wear their hair extensions and style them. The videos include practical demonstrations plus recommendations of styling products to use with extensions.

You can use this technique to connect with your customers on YouTube. Think about how you can help your customers get the most out of your products and then, produce a series of short videos showing them how to do it.

Film and Share Customer Testimonials Insert

Customer reviews and testimonials provide powerful social proof when a potential customer or client comes looking for the services you provide. Because YouTube gets so much traffic, it makes sense to share your customer testimonials there by filming them.

A video testimonial is more direct and appealing than a written testimonial. Your target audience will get to see your client’s face and hear their voice – and they can see the work you did and why the customer is happy with your company.

A great example of how to use customer testimonials on YouTube comes from a company called Hippie Fertilizing. They have posted a series of video testimonials that they have filmed in their clients’ back yards. In the testimonials, the owner of the company interviews clients about why they called the company, the work that was done, and how the client feels about it. They include before and after shots of the space they treated, so that prospective clients can see the results.

You can use this idea by talking to customers about testimonials when you book a job. To make the process as convenient as possible for your clients, you can copy Hippie Fertilizing and film the tutorial on their schedule and where the work has been done – or whatever works for your clients.

Connect with Your Customers

If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that technology can help us stay in touch when we can’t get together in person. That lesson is one we can take with us going forward.

How does this relate to YouTube? One way to create a lot of good will with your customers is to share your knowledge with them for free. We’re not talking about giving away your services, but we are talking about making it clear you care about your customers on a personal level.

A great example comes from Georgia’s Cakes, a UK bakery that shared a step-by-step tutorial to help people make a wedding cake at home during the pandemic. Since a lot of people were having small weddings with only a few guests, the owner of this bakery saw an opportunity to connect emotionally with potential customers.

Now, this technique isn’t going to garner you any immediate business but ask yourself a question. If you had to cancel your big wedding and you used this video to make your own cake, would you be inclined to order from this bakery for future birthdays, parties, and events? The answer is almost certainly yes. This marketing technique creates good will and solidifies customer relationships, and those things have a direct impact on your future success.

Use YouTube to Demonstrate Your Expertise

Building authority is essential if you want your customers to trust you. They need to believe that you can deliver on your promises. Testimonials play a role in that, but it’s also important to find ways to visually demonstrate your expertise.

One way to do that is to show people what you do. We like this example from Daisy Duke Landscaping, which demonstrates how to install landscape fabric like a pro. The benefit of a video like this is that it may inspire people to do some landscaping on their own, but it also demonstrates the company’s ability to do great work.

You can copy this technique by thinking about what techniques or experience will overcome potential objections to hire your company and putting it into a video. The video doesn’t need to be long.

Cross-Post Your Marketing Videos

While creating professional-looking videos is easier than it ever has been, you cannot count on your YouTube followers to follow you on other platforms such as Facebook and TikTok. For that reason, we strongly recommend cross-posting your video content from other platforms on YouTube and vice versa.

There are too many examples to list here, but lots of companies create Facebook Live videos, save them, and post them on YouTube. Others create funny TikToks and share them on Facebook or Twitter. You should always be thinking about how to reuse or repurpose your videos to reach the widest possible audience.

The bottom line – and the thing we hope you’ll take away from this article – is that YouTube marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience, share your expertise, and build your brand. You can get more ideas by peeping on your competitors’ activity and finding ways to adapt the things they have done to help you grow your business.

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How to Use Hashtags to Grow Your Business

Even if you’ve never used one in your marketing before, you’ve seen hashtags on social media. They’re the words after a post, each one starting with the # sign. They help people who see a Tweet, Instagram post, or Pinterest image to find the content and understand what it’s about.

While it’s easy enough to add hashtags to your content, it requires skill and attention to do it artfully. In this article, we’ll explain how to choose and use hashtags to attract new followers and – this is what you’re here for – increase your profits.

What is a Hashtag?

Let’s start with the basics for those who don’t know. A hashtag is a word or phrase that appears after the # symbol on social media. There are no spaces, and the goal of a hashtag is to make it easy for people who are interested in your business and content to find you.

Hashtags can be serious or whimsical. Community hashtags can crop up week after week and year after year. For example, #ThrowbackThursday (or #TBT) is a hashtag that has been making the rounds for over a decade. In fact, #ThrowbackThursday was started by Sports Illustrated all the way back in 2006!

Hashtags can be related to topics or events. For example, if you’re someone who owns a landscaping business, you might follow these hashtags, all of which we found on Twitter:

#Landscaping

#Lawn

#Lawncare

#PropertyMaintenance

#GroundsMaintenance

We also saw examples of lawn care and landscaping companies jumping on community hashtags such as #SpringAhead because – let’s face it – spring is when a lot of us start working to get our lawns in shape for summer cookouts and lawn games.

Tips for Finding Relevant Hashtags

One of the most important elements of using hashtags is choosing the right hashtags to reach your target audience. It might be tempting to throw ten hashtags onto every post, but you’ll do better with well-researched hashtags that are relevant to your business.

Let’s start with Twitter, the birthplace of the hashtag. When you log into your Twitter account, you’ll see a menu that includes a search option. When you click it, you’ll see a Trending tab. If you click on that, you’ll get a list of trending hashtags and topics. You can also use the search function to find hashtags that are relevant to your business.

There are some tools you can use to research hashtags as well. These include:

Hashtagify Me is a free tool that you can use to find hashtags for Twitter and Instagram.

HootSuite allows you to manage your social media and helps you find hashtags that are relevant to your business with its “Streams” feature.

Google Trends is free to use and can help you find trending topics that you can use in your business Tweets and Instagram posts.

Pinterest Trends is free and has a list of trending searches plus a search function.

We suggest putting in some time researching hashtags. If you find someone that you think could be a good business connection that has used a relevant hashtag, follow them. You may be able to connect with them in a way that helps both of you.

Tips for Using Hashtags

What should you do with the hashtags that turn up in your research? Here are some suggestions.

Find people who may be able to help you market your products. For example, say you make custom wedding cake toppers, and you notice a local baker posting pictures of wedding cakes with the hashtag “CakeTopper. You could DM the baker and ask if you can send them a sample topper and – if they like it – they can feature it in one of their posts and use the same hashtag.

Look for trending hashtags and figure out how to make them relevant to your business. For example, if there’s a holiday coming up, you can use holiday hashtags to suggest your products for gifts or for use at holiday meals or gatherings.

Combine hashtags to expand your audience. Perhaps you’ve added a new service or a new product to your lineup. Expanding your hashtag vocabulary can help you get your social media content in front of a new audience.

Create a custom hashtag for your business. We would suggest using this idea sparingly. In many cases, creating a new hashtag may be the equivalent of screaming into the void. However, if you can come up with a memorable hashtag that helps you differentiate yourself from competitors, then go for it!

A word to the wise about using hashtags. A lot of big companies have made huge missteps when trying to capitalize on trending hashtags. An Insider article from 2019 highlighted a list of Instagram influencers who promoted themselves using 9/11 hashtags. Please don’t copy their mistakes.

Examples of Effective Hashtag Use

Let’s look at a few examples of effective hashtag use. The first is from Kentucky Fried Chicken, which jumped on the #NationalFriedChickenDay train to promote its meals. Although they’re a national chain, any local restaurant that serves fried chicken could do the same thing. Keep your eye out for relevant tags that are trending nationally and use them to your advantage.

An example of a brand that did a great job of creating its own hashtag came from Charmin, who launched the #TweetFromTheSeat campaign. The campaign was certainly helped by the fact that Charmin is a national brand, but the injection of humor into your social media posts is a great way to get people to pay attention to your content.

Finally, let’s look at a hashtag fail that illustrates why it’s so important to research any “new” hashtag before you try it. When Burger King launched its new low-fat French fries, it used a #WTFF hashtag that was meant to stand for “What the French Fry.” What they didn’t know was that #WTFF was already a hashtag – and those two Fs stood for different forms of a word that you can probably guess.

The takeaway is that hashtag marketing can be extremely useful for local businesses if you do your research, choose hashtags thoughtfully, and don’t try to shoehorn your content into a hashtag when it isn’t appropriate or relevant.

Now, get out there and start hashtagging!

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5 Content Marketing Mistakes That Cost You Customers

Content marketing is one of the best ways to attract potential customers or clients. It gives your brand the opportunity to deliver value in a way that people are looking for. Quality content, when created correctly, can and will drive a lot of organic traffic to your website or product offering; the only issue being that it takes a lot of time create. With such an investment, you want to make sure that you’re doing it correctly and with your best interests in mind. Luckily for you, we’re going to cover the mistakes that content marketers make so you can avoid them and develop a strategy that delivers results. Speaking of strategy, let’s dive right in.

Mistake #1 – Not Having a Strategy

Beginners in the space (and even so called “experts”) often make this common mistake.

“Let’s just write this piece of content and post it on our blog.”

No, this is wrong. You need to discover the best way to captivate and deliver value to your audience and prospective customer/client. To do this, you need to know what topics you’re going to cover and why they are relevant to your business. Instead of focusing on targeting certain keywords, prioritize an entire topic cluster and then build around it.

Each topic cluster is composed of Pillar Content and Cluster Content. Pillar content is content that contains a wide range of keywords that you want to rank for. To surround this content, you would write cluster content that thoroughly discusses these keywords that you would find on the pillar content page. To simplify the strategy, here’s exactly what you need to know:

The Pillar Content should link to all cluster content once

Cluster content should link to pillar content once

Cluster Content, where applicable, should link to other pieces of cluster content

Of course, when writing content you should always follow the best practices of SEO to ensure that you’re following the guidelines set forth by the algorithms.

Mistake #2 – Not Knowing Your Audience

One of the most difficult parts of business is defining your audience and knowing exactly who they are. This takes a lot of trial and error to find out who is willing to purchase from you and who isn’t so you can double down on the former. However, it’s still an issue that many businesses don’t know who their audience is even after numerous attempts to define it.

To really find your audience, you need to develop an Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP, and only focus on your best customers so you’re as specific as possible. To develop the profile, focus on developing their persona and their journey of what led them to you. Even better, ask your best customers these questions and then develop a story around their answers. This way, you can answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their pain points and how to better serve others like them content that they want to consume.

Mistake #3 – Publishing Too Often

There’s no magic formula to content creation and publishing frequency is no different. Once many businesses begin publishing content to the web, they believe that they can’t stop and that means publishing content every day even if it’s not very good. This is a massive mistake that can harm organic traffic rather than help it. With only a small percentage of written content being shared online by readers, publishing more doesn’t make much of an impact. To really stand out, deliver quality content that resonates with your readers and do it on a schedule that works – once a week, biweekly, or even monthly. The key is always about quality, not quantity.

Mistake #4 – Using Cheap Content Creators

This is one of the most detrimental mistakes that a business could make when hiring a content creator. With websites like Upwork and Fiverr, it’s easy to look for content creators that will write for you for a fraction of the price that you would pay someone in more developed countries. The problem isn’t price, but value. If you want to hire someone to create content for you cheaply, it’s better not to do it at all. Often there are language barriers and an even larger investment of time and money to correct content that didn’t meet your criteria.

As a business owner, If you don’t want to hire someone “in-house” to be in charge of your content marketing, your best alternative is to hire a content creator that is just starting their career or wants to break into the industry. Depending on your budget an experienced content creator can get expensive fast, but a junior creator could be just what you need. Once you’ve hired for this role, make sure you set them up with systems, spreadsheets, and checklists that outlines exactly what you’re looking for so that there are no surprises in the end result; just don’t make the mistake of hiring cheaply just for the sake of making content. Take the endeavor seriously and see the rewards compound over time.

Mistake #5 – Not Having Patience

To gain traction in content marketing, you have to be willing to pursue it over the long term. If you think creating quality content for three to four months is going to give you great results, you’re very mistaken. Like SEO, content marketing is a marathon business opportunity to drive traffic and eyeballs to your website or product offering over the long term. It builds slowly but with more time, the results begin to compound and the investment, when done right, begins to yield a return on investment. Don’t give up and focus on consistency, quality, and an efficient schedule that helps you earn this compounding effect.

Content marketers don’t need to make mistakes when deciding to publish content. There is always a method to all the madness, however, there is also the concept of just taking action. Marketing is and always will be a game of psychology where you have to play both sides of the equation. Avoid costly mistakes and be open to the idea of failure while giving your audience exactly what they’re searching for. It sounds simple and should be treated as such. Don’t over complicate your content marketing, and let the algorithms of today’s technology reward you for following best practices.

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5 Ways to Repurpose Content and Grow Your Customer Base

The greatest thing about the content that businesses create is that it can be consumed in so many ways. The written (or typed) word, video, audio, and other creative outlets like AR and VR technology make it possible to take an original piece you’ve created and change its delivery for an entirely different method of consumption. Essentially, you’re recycling the content that you’ve already made and putting it back out there in less time than before. This helps your business get more value out of your investment while also enabling its distribution to various channels where it can reach a new, broader audience.

The Criteria of Repurposing Content

Before you start you want to make sure you’re not flying by the seat of your pants for the sole purpose of creating “new “content.  For example, what are your goals for repurposing? Do you want to reach a new audience? Do you want to spend less time creating something brand new? Are you interested in developing a new distribution channel?

These are the questions that will give you a sense of direction and once you’ve decided on this, you want to understand the intricacies of these channels. For example, if you want to create video content from a blog post you need to understand how this platforms audience reacts and what they’re looking for. Finally, determine whether your content really needs to be repurposed. Although it may perform well as an article on your blog, it doesn’t mean that its success will correlate with evergreen video content.

Now that we’ve covered the criteria of repurposing content, let’s discuss the different ways to making your content shine.

1. Video

Converting a blog that you’ve written into a video is an incredible way of targeting a broader audience that wants to consume your content already. It does require more work to begin with but the reach on platforms like YouTube make it an excellent way to share your message initially.

Once you have this content up and available, you may be tempted to share it as it is, but don’t get caught up with sharing your new audio-visual masterpiece. Instead, take your video that you put on YouTube and break it down into smaller components. These shorter video formats are perfect for sharing on social media like Facebook and Instagram while also doubling their utility as ads.

If you’re sharing information that discusses a topic your audience cares about, considering sharing the audio portion as a podcast. To think you could recreate all of this content from a single blog post article is astounding, so be creative with it and discover how to distribute it to your audience.

2. Social Media Posts

If your business is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, this is especially useful for you. You can take the same content that you wrote on Facebook and copy and paste it on Twitter. Nice, now you have two pieces of content but let’s add a third. Screenshot your Twitter post that you created and share it on Instagram; this type of content is constantly being consumed by users on the platform so utilize this phenomenon to your advantage.

On LinkedIn, take your screenshot from Twitter and post it with some more added context. LinkedIn loves images that are shared with more information and storytelling is key on the platform so double down on telling your story.

3. Email Newsletters

The world is a busy place and even though your content may be amazing, it doesn’t always mean it’ll reach your audience. Take an existing blog post and make it more conversational and to the point, then create a series of emails that you can deliver directly to your mailing list. By doing this, you’re able to still provide valuable information to your customers and prospects without them having to search for your content and leave their inbox. To be clear, don’t paste a link to your content in the email. Instead, deliver it as the content of your newsletter and do it in chunks so that it is easily consumed.

4.Infographics

Did you know that people remember 10% of the information they hear out loud VS 65% of the information they see in a visual?

And people following directions with both text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions

These are incredible pieces of content that are loved by basically everyone.

Why?

They are 30X more likely to be read from top to bottom than a typical blog.

They get 3X the shares as any other type of content on social media

And they are quickly consumed, easy to digest, and deliver value all in one place. For visual people in your audience, this form of content is right up there with video and should be part of your repurposing effort.

Many blogs come in the same form as the one you’re reading now so be sure to trim the fat and focus on where the value is created.

Remember, infographics are meant to display information graphically so cut most of the words out; your audience will thank you for it.

5. Blog Posts

The last piece of the puzzle, repurpose existing blog posts by updating them to become more relevant. Many high performing blog posts for your business may have knocked it out of the park years ago, but as time has went on so has the performance of this content. This is because the information in it is likely outdated and needs a revamp. By updating your blogs by adding and removing different parts, you’re able to recycle your message with data and information that develops authority and shows your audience that you’re delivering value consistently.

Repurposing content can send you off into many directions that provide value to both your company and your audience. Like anything else you do in your business, you want your efforts to be successful and content recycling is no different. We’ve covered the different criteria you need to cover before deciding what to repurpose and the different methods you could use for your efforts. Not only will this help you, it will also help your team and your audience as well. It’s a win-win-win situation that’s great for everyone.

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When is it Time for a Website Refresh?

You’ve heard the old adage… You have 6 seconds to convince a website visitor that your website is the website they’ve been searching for – before they hit that back button.

So keeping your website up-to-date is no longer a matter of preference, it’s a matter of survival.

If it’s been a while since you’ve updated your website, it might be a good idea to consider updating the elements on your website like the content, the design, adding new content or completely overhauling your website as part of a major redesign.

Does your website need a refresh?

So What’s a Refresh?

A business changes as it grows. The same is true with your website. As you create your website, make sure it reflects the business it represents.

Your website’s design will become outdated over time, that’s just how it goes. What was popular 2 or 3 years ago, can feel painfully outdated now (remember keyword clouds?) So refreshing the design is necessary to remain competitive.

Does Your Website Need a Refresh?

If your website has been up for a while, it may be a challenge to know when it’s time to update it. But here are some signs it’s time.

The design of your site is not appealing anymore

Conversions are low

Nothing is interesting or exciting on your website

Ineffective communication with website visitors

Leads aren’t coming in like they did before

Bounce rates are high

Recognize any of these? If so it may be time to make some minor updates or revamp your entire website. It just depends on your situation.

Here are 7 ways you can refresh your website

1. The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. The look and feel of your website can be dramatically updated simply by choosing a more modern fonts set to revamp its overall look. Even small changes can significantly impact transforming an old site into something new and impressive. Google fonts is free, and offers many great options.

2. Consider a redesign – when you need more than the basics

Your website plays a big part in the identity of your business. The way your website looks will have a big impact on the way your visitors feel when they land on your website. What will their first impression be? Are they going to want to do business with you? You are not doing yourself any favors by still using outdated stock graphics and imagery.

Your brand’s identity is shaped by elements like layout, fonts, colors, etc. To keep your website looking crisp, determine which sections have aged gracefully and which areas need improvement.

Replace your outdated images & graphics with a mix professionally taken photos of your staff and business along with some carefully curated high end stock images.

Choose a simple, clean font will make your site look sleek and modern. For example, Google Fonts offers many free typefaces.

An updated color palette can also improve the experience of your visitors.

3. Improve Your Communication

We’ve talked about the 6 seconds you have to grab your visitors attention and keep them on your website so it’s not a surprise that there’s little time for you to get your message across.

Regardless of what you sell, the customer is primarily interested in how you will help them solve their problem. It’s always about them, whatever you say. So make sure visitors can find the content they are looking for without a lot of clicking around.

Speaking of communication it’s a good idea to sprinkle in a variety of compelling and relevant CTAs on your site. Believe it or not, your visitors aren’t mind readers so you need to tell them how they take the next step. CTAs provide various options for the visitor to take action, such as:

“Call Now”

“Book Your Appointment Today”

“Join Now by clicking here,”

“Get started Today”

“Connect with us Today”

“Get your free ______ today”

“Signup today and get ________ “

And don’t forget about social sharing buttons.

The most important thing is that your CTA’s should be well-designed and strategically placed in areas where clients can easily see them.

Pro tip: Make sure that your CTA’s contrast well with the rest of your design but don’t get blend into the rest of your content. CTA’s are most effective when they look like buttons.

4. Improve Your User Experience

You must design your website so that the customer can navigate through it quickly. Your site will attract more visitors if it is easy to navigate. Just a few changes to your menu and checking that every link works can make a massive difference in the over all user experience.

Your navigation consists of links connecting your website’s pages. Carefully examine all your website pages and make sure they are still relevant and organized.

Test your links. Make sure that they don’t lead to 404 Error (Page Not Found). This makes your website appear not maintained and sloppy. Take a look at all the links on your site, including internal and external, and ensure they’re taking your visitors where you want them to go.

5. Analyze Your Website Content – And See Where You Stand

It’s not only about looks when it comes to refreshing a website. Your site must be considered current. Ensuring that what you are saying is valid, helpful, and readable to your visitors. So how can you determine whether your content is new, high-quality, and up-to-date?

By conducting a content audit.

A content audit is intended to assess which links get indexed by search engines, which need to be refreshed and no longer exist. Here are some basic steps you need to follow:

Compile all your databases and sitemaps. The sitemap is a document that lists your site’s pages, videos, and other files along with their relationships. Data from your website is organized into your website’s internal database.

Your site’s URLs are indexed by web crawlers who collect content throughout the Internet. An algorithm can be applied to web crawler data to find relevant links in response to specific search terms and keywords. We recommend using Google Analytic, Google Webmaster Tools, and Screaming Frog for crawling website content.

Content auditing can go beyond essentials: You can use titles, descriptions, and word count as primary criteria for content auditing. All of your content entries should contain these elements.

Check organic search, conversions, publish date, time-on-site, page views, load speed, and mobile-responsiveness, too.

The number of conversions divided by unique visits is the conversion rate. By measuring this metric, you can determine if your website traffic is profitable.

Time-on-site is pretty self-explanatory: it’s the amount of time your visitors spend on each of your pages. Content audits can benefit from this metric since you get a clear idea of the performance of your online content.

A page-per-visit measurement indicates how much content is viewed per visit. In most cases, it is presented as an average, which is calculated by dividing the total number of visitors by the total number of page views.

The slower your page loads, the fewer pages search engines can crawl, affecting your search engine rankings.

Take a good thorough look at your content: Identity what content no longer reflects your current business and goals and delete it. Do you need to rewrite or update anything? Is there anything that needs some attention?

Note: It is essential to perform two separate content audits if your website has Desktop and Mobile versions as their codebases are different.

6. Competitor Analysis

You should also examine how your competitors’ sites can be improved while evaluating the same areas where yours could be better. Are they doing anything new on their website that is working? Is their website more responsive than yours? Have they made updates to their website recently?

Aside from seeing what your competitors’ websites look like, it would help if you also figured out which websites link to them. Is it possible to obtain links from these same websites, or can you get links from other high-ranking websites? This is authority backlinking 101 & makes a huge impact on your rankings.

7. Make Sure Applications Are Maintained

Now that you have updated your contact information, added some fresh content, and checked for broken links, make sure that all of your web apps are functioning properly. For your tech to keep pace with your business growth, it must adapt and grow along with it.

App management practices include testing and debugging software, enhancing technology and site functionality, updating and maintaining existing security protocols, maintaining new browser versions, creating and maintaining 3rd party integrations, and more. It is very important to maintain your website’s modules, code, plugins and integrations to avoid various issues.

Honorary Mention: A Mobile-Responsive Website

This one is obvious and goes without saying. But nobody is surprised when I say smartphones are the most popular way people access the web. And a lot of them never use anything other than their phone so to say mobile responsiveness is important would be an understatement.

Plus Google favors mobile web-optimized websites in its search rankings and penalizes those that aren’t.

In conclusion, keep it simple. Think marathon, not a race.

A website refresh can be as extensive as you want to make it… Just like any renovation. Although we’ve covered many small changes you can make to your website some will make a much bigger impact than others. But do not under-estimate the end result.

So what now? evaluate your needs and make a plan of attack – and then get started on it. There’s no time like right now.

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11 Facebook Ad Objectives Explained

Most local businesses should advertise on Facebook. It’s cost-effective and, if you do it right, it can help your business to grow.

Easier said than done.

The issue is that while Facebook ads are effective, a lot of local business owners don’t know which objectives to choose for their ads. Choosing the wrong objective may lead to a low return on your investment and the feeling that you’ve wasted money.

With that in mind, here’s my rundown of Facebook ad objectives to help you understand which objective makes the most sense for your business.

What are the Available Ad Objectives on Facebook?

When you create an ad for your business on Facebook, you can choose from 11 objectives divided into three categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. Let’s review them.

Brand Awareness. These ads generally do not get a high click-through rate because their objective is to make people aware of your brand. They are best used as the first step in a campaign to attract new customers.

If you want to get your ad in front of as many people in your target audience as possible, this is the objective to choose. Here again, you may not get a ton of engagement, but you will be sure that your ad appears in your target audience’s feed.

Traffic. Traffic ads are designed to direct more traffic to the URL you choose, usually a link on your website. Facebook tracks only the number of people who click on your links, meaning that you’ll need to track conversions separately.

On Facebook, engagement means likes, comments, and shares. If you want to get more people to engage with your content, this is the ad objective you should choose.

App Installs. This one’s self-explanatory. If you’ve got an app to sell or promote, chose App Installs as your objective.

Video Views. Have a video to promote? Choose the Video Views objective to get more people to watch your video. This objective is ideal for product demo and explainer videos.

Lead Generation. If you’ve got a great lead magnet to promote, the Lead Generation objective is ideal because it allows the people who see your ad to opt in and get your lead magnet without leaving Facebook.

Message ads are designed to get more people in your target audience to message your business on Facebook. They can be useful if you want to initiate conversations, answer questions, and nurture leads.

If your goal is to get more people to take a specific action, such as adding an item to their cart, buying a product, or RSVPing to an event, this is the ad objective to choose on Facebook. It works best when targeted to people who are already familiar with your brand.

Catalog Sales. Another ad objective that may be effective when targeted to people who already know your brand is the Catalog Sales objective. You can use it to connect Facebook with your product catalog and display individual products to your audience.

Store Visits. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, this ad objective can help you entice more local customers to visit your store. To use it, you’ll need to make sure that your business location(s) are accurate in Business Manager.

You should think first about which objective you want to achieve. Then, choose the ad objective that will help you get there.

Which Facebook Ad Objective is Right for Your Business?

Now, let’s talk about which Facebook ad objectives make the most sense for local businesses. Some simply are not good choices if you’ve got a small audience to target.

Brand Awareness is a good objective, particularly if you feel like your competitors have more brand recognition than you do or if you haven’t been in business for long. You should make sure that the ad you create is a compelling representation of your brand, including your brand’s personality, voice, and ethics.

Unless you have a large audience, the Reach objective is probably not ideal. The goal for that objective is to reach as many people as possible. Most small, local businesses should steer clear of this objective.

Traffic can be a good objective for small businesses who want to get more people to visit their websites. However, you should make sure that you have a well-designed landing page before you spend any money on traffic. You need to give people a reason to stay on your website once they click the link.

I also really like the Store Visits ad objective for local businesses. It’s arguably the most highly focused ad objective available. The key if you decide to use it is to make sure your location information is up-to-date. You’ll also need to target the ad to people who live within a small radius of your store. There’s no point in spending money to reach people who aren’t within easy distance.

If you have an online store, then the Catalog Sales objective may be useful as well. It can help you show off your most popular products and get them in front of an audience. Again, targeting is going to be important. You should use this ad objective with an audience already familiar with your brand for the best results.

The Messages objective may be right for your company if you feel that you need one-on-one contact with customers to overcome their buying objections. However, you should only use this objective if you’re ready to monitor your messages and respond promptly when people write to you. A slow response time can undo any good you do with the ad itself. You may want to consider installing a chatbot in Facebook Messenger to send an immediate response.

Visiting your Facebook Ads Manager page will give you additional information and guidance as you create your ad. Remember, the ad objective you choose should be carefully selected to align with your business growth objectives for the best results.

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6 Ways to Ask for Reviews

I hope you’re not sick of me talking about online reviews, because I’m about to do it again. Why? Because they can have a huge impact on your business and bottom line.

91% of consumers between the ages of 19 and 34 trust reviews, and consumers are more likely to trust your company if you have at least 40 reviews. If you don’t already have a solid review presence, it’s time to get serious about building one.

The great news is that 68% of customers who are asked to leave a review are willing to do so. Here’s how to ask them.

1 Asking for Reviews in Person

If you’ve got a brick-and-mortar store, then asking for reviews in person may be the way to go. The trick is doing it in a way that doesn’t feel forced or put undue pressure on your customer.

Conversational flow is important. One option is to have your cashier(s) engage with customers when they check out. They can start by asking if the customer found everything they were looking for. Any customer who praises your store or products represents a positive review.

That said, it’s not a good idea to ask for a review as soon as the customer says something positive. Ask a few follow-up questions. Then, as you end the conversation, say something like “We really appreciate feedback from our customers because it helps people learn about us. Would you be willing to write an online review?” You can plug in your platform of choice, whether it’s Yelp, Google, or Facebook.

2 Asking for Reviews via Email

Perhaps your business doesn’t have a lot of face-to-face interaction with customers. In that case, sending an email may be the right way to ask for reviews.

My recommendation is to segment your list and send out emails accordingly. Getting too many reviews all at once may not be helpful, since there’s evidence to suggest that Google and Yelp may ding you if you have a massive influx of reviews.

On a related note, it’s also not wise to link directly to your Yelp page in your email since their algorithm might penalize you for doing so. Instead, mention your preferred review site if you have one, and suggest that the recipient Google “Your Business Name + Yelp” to find your page.

However, if you are asking people to leave reviews on your page, you may link directly to the product page.

3 Asking for Reviews on a Thank You Page

Does your business have an online store where customers can buy products? If so, you may want to use your Thank You page to ask customers for a review.

It’s important to remember that first-time-customers aren’t going to be able to review your products if they’ve just ordered them. However, they can review their experience on your site, and they may be able to offer insights on your customer service if they’ve interacted with you.

Of course, some customers who land on your Thank You page will be buying a product for the second or third time. That’s why it’s important to ask because those people will be primed to leave you a review. If you don’t have a Thank You page, you can also ask for a review on a confirmation page or in a confirmation email.

4 Asking for Reviews in a Text Message

Text messaging has become an increasingly popular form of marketing, and you can use it to ask for reviews too.

Text messages have nearly a 100% open rate. If you’re already sending text messages to your customers, then following up a purchase with a request for a review can be a great way to generate more reviews.

Since it’s a text message, it should be brief. You can try something like this:

We hope you’re happy with your purchase. Please leave a review on Google and let us know how we did!

Here again, you should be wary of linking directly to your Yelp page. You may want to add brief instructions like the ones mentioned in the section about emails to help customers find your review pages.

5 Asking for Reviews on a Receipt or Card

Not everybody is comfortable asking for a review in person. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or you’re shipping products to customers at home, including a card or a note on your receipt can encourage them to leave a review of your business.

You can use a tool like Canva to create and print message cards that ask customers for reviews. You can even put the URLs of your review pages to make it easy for customers to find them.

If you own a restaurant, another option is to give your patrons a comment card when you deliver their bill. While they’re not the same as a review on Yelp, you can aggregate the comments and feature the ratings on your website.

Receipts are another option. You can program your receipts to include a brief message at the bottom asking customers to write reviews.

6 Asking for Reviews on Social Media

Finally, you may want to ask your social media followers to review your business. Facebook reviews are important for local businesses since many people use Facebook to search for businesses near them. You have the option of asking for reviews in a Facebook post or using a chatbot in Facebook Messenger to ask.

Keep in mind that you’ll still need to be careful about linking out to your Yelp pages from social media. You may link directly to your Google page.

If you decide to use a chatbot, you may want to consider setting up a survey directly within the chatbot if you want to collect reviews to post on your site. Otherwise, you can simply ask people to leave a review elsewhere.

One final note about reviews. While it might sound odd, customers are more likely to trust businesses that have some negative reviews. It’s not realistic for any company to get 5-star reviews across the board. That said, you should respond to negative reviews and do your best to make the customers who leave them happy.

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7 Marketing Hacks That Make Your Life Easier

Marketing your local business can seem like a full-time job. Most business owners can’t afford to have a marketing department which means that you’re adding marketing to all your other responsibilities.

Since there are only so many hours in a day, it’s essential to have a few tricks up your sleeve: things that can help you fine-tune your marketing and get the most bang for your buck. Here are some marketing hacks to help you focus your attention and reap the rewards.

Pay Attention to Your Data

When was the last time you looked at your data on Google Analytics? If it’s been a while – and if it has, you’re not alone – then it’s time to take corrective action.

The truth is that your analytics provide a wealth of information that can help you improve your marketing and grow your business. For example, do you know which page on your website has the highest bounce rate? Can you pinpoint which blog posts are getting the most traffic?

Review your data and take notes. The best marketing decisions are data-driven. Then, I suggest setting aside some time – even 30 minutes a week can be helpful – to stay on top of your analytics and put them to use.

Ask Your Customers for Feedback

Customer feedback is essential for every business. You need to know what your customers think to figure out which marketing tactics will have the biggest impact.

There are several ways you can reach out to your customers. They include:

Email

Text messages

Social media posts

Surveys

I love client surveys because they provide an easy way to collect data. The key is to keep the survey brief and focused – and make it easy for your customers to respond.

Get Your Customers Involved in Your Marketing

You already know that reviews and testimonials can make a big difference for your business. You should be asking for reviews regularly – something you can do:

At the point of sale

In email

In a text message

On social media

Via a chatbot

You should also be approaching your most loyal and most satisfied customers to ask for a testimonial. Testimonials are generally longer and go into more depth than reviews. While written testimonials can be helpful, your best bet is to ask for and record video testimonials. Videos get a lot of engagement both on websites and on social media.

Embrace Video Marketing

Are you one of the small business owners who has shied away from video marketing because you think it’s too technical or too expensive for your budget? If so, it’s time to shed those (dated) beliefs and embrace video marketing for the powerhouse it is.

Video content can help you:

Increase your open rate for marketing emails

Get huge engagement numbers on social media

Earn a high return on your investment

You can post videos on your website or blog. You may also want to link to them in social media posts, emails, and text messages.

Keep in mind that video content doesn’t have to be expensive to produce. You can create Facebook Live videos from your computer or phone. Consumers don’t expect a high-gloss finish on live videos. Just make sure you have good lighting and a good microphone and do what you can to minimize background noise.

Market to Mobile Customers

When people look for local businesses like yours, they’re far more likely to search using a mobile device than they are a computer. That means that you should have a mobile-adaptive site and marketing that specifically targets mobile customers.

Some of the most effective mobile marketing techniques to try are:

SMS messaging (text messages)

Call-only ads

One-click calling on social media

In-app advertising

You may also want to think about beacon marketing, which allows businesses to use Bluetooth technology to ping customers when they’re near the business or store. Local customers want convenience and you can use mobile marketing to provide it.

Monitor Your Competitors

Has it been a while since you’ve peeked at what your competitors are doing online? If the answer is yes, then you’re missing out on a great opportunity to find gaps in their marketing or borrow their ideas for your own business.

Set aside some time to cruise your competitor’s websites and social media pages. You should be looking for:

The keywords they’re targeting

The audience they want to attract

The places where their marketing falls short

The content that gets the most engagement, e.g. blog comments or social media shares

The tactics they’re using to engage visitors to their site

It’s important to pay attention both to what works and what doesn’t work. You may have a close competitor whose website isn’t properly optimized for a local keyword or is missing out on connecting with their audience. You can capitalize on their shortcomings to fine-tune your own marketing.

Diversify Your Marketing

When I talk to small business owners, one of the most common mistakes I identify is that they’re not diversifying their marketing. Many have a few tried and true techniques that they use and they’re not in the habit of testing new things.

I’m not saying you should abandon the things that you know are working for you. However, it’s a mistake to rest on your laurels and assume those tactics will work forever. They may not. Marketing is a constantly evolving field and the businesses that do the best at it are those that remain agile and open to new possibilities.

What I suggest is carving out some money from your marketing budget to experiment. You don’t need to spend a fortune. With a small investment, you can play around with your ad targeting or test out some new content formats to see how your audience reacts.

The bottom line – and the thing I hope you’ll take away from these suggestions – is that you don’t need to spend a ton of time or money to get the most out of your marketing. Keep an open mind, try new things, and use what’s available to you. The profits will follow.

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How to Double Your Conversions with the Same Amount of Traffic

In the world of digital marketing, traffic gets a lot of attention. In fact, it seems like you can’t go anywhere online without reading a traffic metaphor invoking red and green lights, rush hour, and things of that nature.

Don’t get me wrong. Traffic is important. But ultimately, it’s not the amount of traffic you get that will determine the success of your business.

Conversions are the name of the game.

And guess what? I have good news for you. You can stop beating your head against a wall trying to figure out how to get more people to your site. Instead, I’m going to show you how to take the traffic you already have and increase your conversions to grow your business.

Buckle up and let’s hit the road! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Simplify Your Forms

There’s lots of evidence showing that simple forms get more conversions than complex form. In fact, removing a single field from your form could boost your conversions by as much as 26%.

As of 2020, the average number of fields for online forms is five. I recommend paring your forms down to include only the information you need. In many cases, you will need only the lead’s email address and first and last names.

That said, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for additional information if it is necessary. The idea is to make your forms easy to complete to minimize the risk of a potential lead becoming annoyed and navigating away before they have submitted the form.

Add a Pop-Up to Your Site

Pop-ups have a bad reputation, but I think it’s largely an unfair reputation. Why? Because some annoying folks overdo it, setting up repeated and intrusive pop-ups that lead to frustration and irritation.

The key is to add a single pop-up to encourage people to sign up for your list or fill out a lead form. You should time it to appear 30 seconds or a minute after a visitor lands on your page. That way, they’ll have time to read some of your content before it appears. An alternative is to trigger the pop-up when a lead scrolls to a certain point on your page.

For the best results, test multiple offers to get people to fill out your lead form and then stick with the one that gets the best results. Also, make it extremely easy for people to close out of the pop-up, but make sure to have a static call to action on the page where they can get your offer later if they want to.

Eliminate Excess Content

A lot of businesses make the mistake of using the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to web design. They have a lot of bells and whistles on their landing pages and they don’t realize that much of the content serves as a distraction from the main objective: conversion.

The best way to identify content that’s not serving your goals is to use a heat map or a click map. You’ll be able to spot the sections of your page that aren’t grabbing visitors’ attention.

The goal should be a simple, focused page with a clean, easy-to-navigate design. Making simplicity your target will make it easier for potential leads to learn what they need to know about your product or service and to get to the point where they’re ready to fill out your form.

Add a Third-Party Signup Service

You have probably noticed that a lot of websites have an option allowing visitors to sign in using a third party. The most common options are Facebook and Google.

I understand the desire to have customers create a unique log-in for your sitebut allowing them to use an existing account to sign in removes a potential obstacle to conversion. 86% of web users say they’re bothered by having to create a new account.

Social log-ins simplify the conversion process. You can add a social log-in using a simple plugin such as Facebook Login to your WordPress site. Research shows that using social log-in can increase your conversions by up to 20%.

Improve Your Call to Action

There’s nothing wrong with a simple call to action. After all, “Sign Up” and “Subscribe” can get the job done. The problem is, they’re just not exciting.

One easy way to increase your conversions is to spice up the calls to action on your site. Here are some suggestions and statistics:

Turning your CTA from a link to a button can increase conversions by 45%.

Adding an arrow to direct people to your CTA can increase click rates by 26%.

Using first-person wording (Schedule my free consultation) can increase conversions by as much as 90%.

Putting your CTA below the fold (meaning below the part of the page that visitors can see without scrolling) can increase your conversions.

One explanation for the last statistic is that people prefer to learn as much as they can about an offer before completing a form.

Address Potential Objections

It’s a marketing truism that your content must overcome obstacles in a potential customer’s mind to make a sale. That’s just as true when the goal is conversion as it is for sales.

Ask yourself what the most common objections to filling out your form are. Some may be solved by programming – for example, by reducing the number of fields in your form. However, some may be issues that you haven’t addressed on your page.

Here are some examples:

Overcome a price-related objection by offering a money-back guarantee.

Overcome fears about a product’s effectiveness by adding reviews and testimonials to your page.

Overcome FOMO objections by comparing your product directly to other options on the market.

You get the idea, I hope. The more you can do to alleviate potential concerns up front – before a potential client completes your form – the more likely it is that you’ll see a jump in your conversion numbers.

Does any of this mean that you shouldn’t try to attract more traffic? Of course not. But you may find that you get better results if you use the methods I’ve outlined here to convert more of the traffic you’re already getting.

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How to Turn Your Fans and Followers into Paying Customers

You’ve got a big following on social media.

So what?

Unless those followers are paying you for products or services, they don’t mean much. I’m not saying that social media followers aren’t important in some ways. Having a lot of followers sends a signal to potential customers that you have a popular brand. It can help you get more traffic and attention.

That said, sales and profits are the name of the game. If those followers aren’t buying from you, they’re not doing anything for you in real terms.

The solution? Take those fans and followers and convert them into paying customers. Here’s what to do.

Get to Know Your Audience

As the owner of a small or medium-sized business, you may not have given a lot of thought to what makes your customers tick. And yet, customer analysis is the key to turning casual fans and followers into customers.

Creating a detailed customer persona can help you understand your audience. Your persona should include:

Demographic information, including the age, gender, educational background and income of your ideal customer

Psychographic information, including what your ideal customer likes and dislikes, and most importantly, the pain points that led them to look for your product or service.

I should point out that you may need more than one customer persona depending on what your business is. For example, if you sell products for both children and adults, you might need a Parent Persona and a separate Adult Persona for people without children.

Provide Value to Your Target Customers

Once you know who your target customers are, your next mission is to give them what they want. Here, I’m talking about entertaining and ACTIONABLE content that provides tangible value to the people you want to convert.

In other words, be generous with your knowledge. It doesn’t matter what your business is, you know it better than anybody else. Give some thought to what brings your customers to you – and what would convince them that your product or service is the best option to solve their problems.

You can provide value in a variety of ways. Here are some examples.

Write blog posts that address common questions and offer real solutions.

Do a live Q & A on social media.

Create a lead magnet that demonstrates your authority and provides a solution to a common problem.

Regardless of the type of content you create, your goal should be to make it immediately and undeniably useful to the people you most want to reach.

Interact with Your Followers and Fans

Having a large following is one thing, but ultimately, we all want to feel valued. Your job as a business owner is to make your fans and followers understand that you value them and care about them.

The answer is communication. That can mean a lot of different things, but here are some effective tactics that have been proven to work.

Ask your followers’ opinions and use the responses to focus your content on their needs.

Integrate your social media with your customer service, empowering your employees to respond to questions and complaints quickly.

Create a chatbot to provide immediate help when someone messages you or visits your website.

Create a lead-nurturing email sequence to inform subscribers about your product and give them an incentive to buy it.

Ultimately, consumers want to feel that the companies they buy from care about them and want their business. Without communication, you can’t demonstrate the importance of your customers.

Curate Content

Do you know that feeling when you walk into a store and a salesperson pounces on you before you have time to draw a breath? Very few of us enjoy that feeling, and the chances are good that your customers don’t, either.

While your social media content can and should focus on what you and your products can do for potential customers, it’s important to keep the direct sales pitches to a minimum. The solution? Curating content from other sources.

Content curation means pulling content from:

Industry-relevant publications

Influencers

News sites

Social media pages from other companies (just don’t share things from your competitors!)

Make sure that the content you choose to share is highly relevant to the people in your target audience. While there’s nothing wrong with (occasionally) sharing content without adding anything to it, I think the best way to curate content is to add your take on it before posting.

Here’s a quick example. Say you own a gym and you find an article about the health benefits of exercise. If the article left anything out, you could mention it in your post. Or, you could elaborate on something that’s in the post to add your own take on it.

It’s a good rule of thumb that no more than 20% of your social media content should be direct sales pitches. The remaining 80% should offer value, information, and entertainment.

Use Retargeting

Retargeting is one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising because it focuses on people who are already engaged with your business and interested in your products.

By using a Facebook pixel, for example, you can target people on Facebook who have:

Visited your website or read your blog

Put items into their cart without checking out

Followed you on Facebook or Instagram

Clicked an ad

You probably know the statistic that says it can take between five and seven “touches” from a brand or company before conversion. The more often you can get your name and products in front of people, the more likely it is that they’ll eventually become customers. It’s a numbers game and retargeting can help you win it. I’ve focused here on Facebook retargeting, but you can also retarget on Google – something to keep in mind.

Remember, your social media followers are following you for a reason. They are interested in you and your company. It’s up to you to give them a reason to take the next step and become customers – and the tips I’ve listed here will help you to accomplish that goal.

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How to Create a Relationship-Building Autoresponder Series for New Subscribers

Email marketing is one of those topics that keeps coming up – and for good reason. Email is still one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your customers, nurture leads, and build your business.

Arguably the most important time to engage with subscribers is when they’re new. By subscribing to your list, they’ve indicated a serious interest in your company and what you have to offer. It’s the ideal time to start building a relationship with them.

That means you’ve got to create an autoresponder series that will grab your subscribers’ attention and give them what they need to take the next step – paying you! Here’s what you need to know.

How Long Should Your Autoresponder Series Be?

Autoresponder series can have as few as two emails and as many as 100. There’s no one magic number that works for every business.

The best way to figure out how many emails to put in your relationship-building sequence is to start by looking at the most common buyer objections. What prevents people from taking the next step? Here are some examples:

Your company is new and doesn’t have the same brand recognition as your competitors.

Your products or services are unique, and people may not understand what they’re buying.

Your prices are high (or perceived to be high) and customers may need justification for them.

The solution you’re offering is unconventional or unexpected and people aren’t yet comfortable with it.

The (probably annoying) answer to how long your email sequence should be is “long enough.” It needs to give your subscribers the information they need to move to the next step. That may mean introducing yourself and your brand first before you offer details about your products. It may mean educating them about your unique or unconventional approach.

I recommend a minimum of 5 emails for your welcome sequence. That said, I know some companies who have introductory sequences that are 30 or 50 emails long.

What Are the Elements of an Effective Autoresponder Series?

Just as there’s no magic involved in choosing the length of your autoresponder series, there’s no one answer to how your autoresponder series should look. There are, however, certain elements that all effective autoresponders have in common.

A killer subject line. People need a good reason to open your email. Even though email open rates have remained consistently high over time, it’s still a good idea to have a compelling headline. Some of the best headlines ask a question or offer a provocative statement.

A personalized greeting. While some marketers don’t personalize emails, most understand that a bit of personalization – and it can be as simple as starting your email with “Hi FirstName” – is something people like and appreciate.

Relevant and actionable information. Your subscribers may have arrived at your site for a variety of reasons. Some may have subscribed to get your lead magnet. Others may simply want to learn about your company. Either way, your email topics should be highly relevant to your subscribers and offer useful information. It’s the best way to demonstrate your authority and build trust with your readers.

A compelling call to action. Every autoresponder you send must have a call to action – and you may want to include more than one. Some people put a call to action above the fold, so that readers see it as soon as they open an email. Others prefer to place the CTA at the end. And some put it in multiple locations throughout the email, including in the post-script.

Something special. I know saying that your emails need something special isn’t enlighteningbut let me explain what I mean. Your emails must be readable, entertaining, and compelling. You’ve got to find ways to keep people reading.

In an email sequence, here are some pointers for keeping people reading – and looking forward to your next email:

Create a soap opera sequence that builds suspense and makes people eager to find out what happens next.

Use a ‘PS’ at the end of one email to tease what’s coming in the next email.

Include special offers at the end of your email (and mention the offer at the beginning)

Talk directly to the reader using a conversational tone

Include humor in your emails

Here again, there’s no one “correct” answer. Your email sequence should be written to appeal to your target audience and address their most pressing needs and concerns.

Tips for Writing an Effective Autoresponder Series

The way your autoresponders are written will make a big difference in how people respond to them. Here are some pointers to help you.

Use a consistent tone. The tone of your emails should echo the tone you use on your website, blog, and social media pages. Consistency tells people what to expect and makes people comfortable with you and your brand.

Use proper spelling and grammar. There’s some wiggle room – depending on what your brand is, you may be able to get away with using slang and even profanity, but it’s got to fit with the image you want to project.

Include plenty of white space. Nobody’s going to read an email if they open it and see an impenetrable block of text. Break up your writing into short paragraphs, add images, and make your emails as easy to read as possible.

Emphasize what’s important. While it might seem cheesy to use bold or italicized fonts liberally, it’s a great way to make sure that people don’t miss the important stuff in your emails. There’s nothing wrong with using some strategic formatting to make your point.

Create an email course that teaches your subscribers something they want to know.

Add some drama. Even if you’re not writing a soap opera sequence, you should still try to make your emails entertaining. Tell stories, make jokes, and do everything you can to engage your readers.

There’s no reason your emails can’t be something that your subscribers look forward to receiving.

Timing Your Emails

The final step is deciding when to send each email in your sequence. There’s more than one way to do it. Let’s start with the obvious. If your opt-in form tells people they’re subscribing to a weekly newsletter, you should confine your emails to once a week.

Even if you didn’t specify email frequency in your form, you should still be careful not to overdo it. I generally recommending sending one email every two to three days unless I’m doing a countdown sequence to a product launch or promoting a time-sensitive offer. In those cases, sending one daily email can be very effective.

The key is not to bombard your subscribers with unwanted emails. Your autoresponder sequence’s goal is to build a relationship, not frighten subscribers away. If you follow the steps I’ve outlined here, you should end up with a compelling sequence that turns your subscribers into loyal customers.

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How to Create a Relationship-Building Autoresponder Series for New Subscribers

Email marketing is one of those topics that keeps coming up – and for good reason. Email is still one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your customers, nurture leads, and build your business.

Arguably the most important time to engage with subscribers is when they’re new. By subscribing to your list, they’ve indicated a serious interest in your company and what you have to offer. It’s the ideal time to start building a relationship with them.

That means you’ve got to create an autoresponder series that will grab your subscribers’ attention and give them what they need to take the next step – paying you! Here’s what you need to know.

How Long Should Your Autoresponder Series Be?

Autoresponder series can have as few as two emails and as many as 100. There’s no one magic number that works for every business.

The best way to figure out how many emails to put in your relationship-building sequence is to start by looking at the most common buyer objections. What prevents people from taking the next step? Here are some examples:

Your company is new and doesn’t have the same brand recognition as your competitors.

Your products or services are unique, and people may not understand what they’re buying.

Your prices are high (or perceived to be high) and customers may need justification for them.

The solution you’re offering is unconventional or unexpected and people aren’t yet comfortable with it.

The (probably annoying) answer to how long your email sequence should be is “long enough.” It needs to give your subscribers the information they need to move to the next step. That may mean introducing yourself and your brand first before you offer details about your products. It may mean educating them about your unique or unconventional approach.

I recommend a minimum of 5 emails for your welcome sequence. That said, I know some companies who have introductory sequences that are 30 or 50 emails long.

What Are the Elements of an Effective Autoresponder Series?

Just as there’s no magic involved in choosing the length of your autoresponder series, there’s no one answer to how your autoresponder series should look. There are, however, certain elements that all effective autoresponders have in common.

A killer subject line. People need a good reason to open your email. Even though email open rates have remained consistently high over time, it’s still a good idea to have a compelling headline. Some of the best headlines ask a question or offer a provocative statement.

A personalized greeting. While some marketers don’t personalize emails, most understand that a bit of personalization – and it can be as simple as starting your email with “Hi FirstName” – is something people like and appreciate.

Relevant and actionable information. Your subscribers may have arrived at your site for a variety of reasons. Some may have subscribed to get your lead magnet. Others may simply want to learn about your company. Either way, your email topics should be highly relevant to your subscribers and offer useful information. It’s the best way to demonstrate your authority and build trust with your readers.

A compelling call to action. Every autoresponder you send must have a call to action – and you may want to include more than one. Some people put a call to action above the fold, so that readers see it as soon as they open an email. Others prefer to place the CTA at the end. And some put it in multiple locations throughout the email, including in the post-script.

Something special. I know saying that your emails need something special isn’t enlighteningbut let me explain what I mean. Your emails must be readable, entertaining, and compelling. You’ve got to find ways to keep people reading.

In an email sequence, here are some pointers for keeping people reading – and looking forward to your next email:

Create a soap opera sequence that builds suspense and makes people eager to find out what happens next.

Use a ‘PS’ at the end of one email to tease what’s coming in the next email.

Include special offers at the end of your email (and mention the offer at the beginning)

Talk directly to the reader using a conversational tone

Include humor in your emails

Here again, there’s no one “correct” answer. Your email sequence should be written to appeal to your target audience and address their most pressing needs and concerns.

Tips for Writing an Effective Autoresponder Series

The way your autoresponders are written will make a big difference in how people respond to them. Here are some pointers to help you.

Use a consistent tone. The tone of your emails should echo the tone you use on your website, blog, and social media pages. Consistency tells people what to expect and makes people comfortable with you and your brand.

Use proper spelling and grammar. There’s some wiggle room – depending on what your brand is, you may be able to get away with using slang and even profanity, but it’s got to fit with the image you want to project.

Include plenty of white space. Nobody’s going to read an email if they open it and see an impenetrable block of text. Break up your writing into short paragraphs, add images, and make your emails as easy to read as possible.

Emphasize what’s important. While it might seem cheesy to use bold or italicized fonts liberally, it’s a great way to make sure that people don’t miss the important stuff in your emails. There’s nothing wrong with using some strategic formatting to make your point.

Create an email course that teaches your subscribers something they want to know.

Add some drama. Even if you’re not writing a soap opera sequence, you should still try to make your emails entertaining. Tell stories, make jokes, and do everything you can to engage your readers.

There’s no reason your emails can’t be something that your subscribers look forward to receiving.

Timing Your Emails

The final step is deciding when to send each email in your sequence. There’s more than one way to do it. Let’s start with the obvious. If your opt-in form tells people they’re subscribing to a weekly newsletter, you should confine your emails to once a week.

Even if you didn’t specify email frequency in your form, you should still be careful not to overdo it. I generally recommending sending one email every two to three days unless I’m doing a countdown sequence to a product launch or promoting a time-sensitive offer. In those cases, sending one daily email can be very effective.

The key is not to bombard your subscribers with unwanted emails. Your autoresponder sequence’s goal is to build a relationship, not frighten subscribers away. If you follow the steps I’ve outlined here, you should end up with a compelling sequence that turns your subscribers into loyal customers.

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[morneboshoff]

Your Website Redesign Checklist for 2020

Is your website in need of a facelift? Even if you’ve spruced it up in the past couple of years, it might be outdated. And, if that’s the case, your website’s lackluster design could be hurting your business.

The key to a successful web redesign is understanding what the latest trends and tools are. Here’s what you need to know.

Website Redesign Checklist

Let’s start with an overview of what you should be looking at. Then, we’ll drill down into some of the specifics, including my recommendations for the best tools to use for your redesign. Here are the steps to follow for your redesign.

Audit your existing site. It’s important to make an impartial accounting of your website as it is now to determine whether you need to invest in a redesign. Your review should include:

A review of your Google Analytics to see which aspects of your site are still performing up to your expectations, and what things need improvement.

A look at your website’s aesthetics to see if its appearance is negatively impacting the user experience.

A look at the technical aspects of your website, including plug-ins, security, links, and so on.

Decide what your goals are. Perhaps you want to increase conversions, attract more leads, or increase your profits by 10% this year. Whatever your goals are, it’s important to keep them in mind during your redesign.

Think about design options. Are you rebranding at the same time you’ll be redesigning your site? If so, your new design should reflect your new logo, colors, and brand identity.

Create a site map. Your site map is an overview of the site’s architecture. It should include a complete overview of your menus and navigation with an eye toward creating an optimal user experience.

Employ design best practices. Why mess with what is proven to convert best? That means including plenty of white space, putting your call to action above the fold, implementing light boxes and other conversion boosters, and linking your logo back to your home page.

Research keywords. Keep in mind that recent trends favor long-tail local keywords and voice search. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to rank for top keywords anyway, so you might as well laser-focus your SEO to get the best results.

Research the market and your competitors. It’s always a good idea to review your competitors’ websites and see what you can learn. For example, you might see that most of your competitors blog twice a week and have online stores. That’s information you can use in your own redesign.

Create evergreen content. If you have outdated content on your site, your redesign is the best time to update it. Evergreen content is extremely useful because it remains fresh with the passage of time.

Take advantage of the latest website tech. The internet has evolved since 2012… Your web redesign should employ the latest plug-ins and technology. For example, you may want to consider adding a chatbot for customer service or using a plug-in that allows visitors to your site to write reviews.

Using this quick checklist will ensure that your redesign covers all the bases.

Tools for Your Redesign

I always like to recommend tools and resources to business owners. After all, you’ve got enough on your plate!

Let’s start with web design platforms. Here are the three I’d recommend.

WordPress: WordPress is the single most popular web design platform in the world for a reason. They’ve got thousands of templates, a huge library of plug-ins, and an interface that’s easy to use even if you don’t have web design experience.

WebFlow: WebFlow is a low-cost web design interface that’s ideal for beginners. It has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that will create HTML or CSS code for you. You can try it out for free and even start designing your site to see if you like it.

Adobe Dreamweaver CC:. Adobe Dreamweaver is a well-established web design product. While it costs a bit more than some of the other products on the market, it allows you to create a truly custom website even if you don’t have design experience.

Once you’ve chosen a platform, the next step is to choose the other tools to make your website look and perform up to your standards. Here are some other tools I recommend.

WotNot is a bot-design platform that’s easy to use and can help you add automation to your customer experience. The thought of designing a bot might be an intimidating one, but this tool makes it easy enough that anybody can do it.

ThriveLeads is a list-building plug-in that makes it easy to add opt-in and subscription forms to any page on your site.

Yoast SEO is a WordPress plug-in that takes the guesswork out of search engine optimization. You can use it to choose keywords, optimize images, and create the best titles and meta description to attract traffic to your content.

WP-Rocket is another WordPress plug-in that I recommend. It gives your site an instant speed boost when you install it. Considering that many business websites lose traffic due to slow response times, this is a premium plug-in that’s a worthwhile investment.

Google Analytics Dashboard for WP gives you the option of viewing your Google Analytics directly from WordPress, making it easy to keep your website up to-date by responding to the data you collect.

Akismet is a plug-in that eliminates spam comments that can clog up your website and create problems for your visitors.

WooCommerce is a must-have plug-in if you have (or plan to add) an eCommerce store to your website. It’s the most popular eCommerce plug-in in the world.

SearchWP is a WordPress plug-in that addresses an issue that a lot of people have with WordPress: its lackluster search function. With this plug-in, you can make it easy for your customers to search your website and find what they need.

Once your site is redesigned, I recommend reviewing your Google Analytics regularly. That way, you’ll be able to spot potential problem areas and fix them before they have a negative impact on your business.

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[morneboshoff]

15 Great Ideas for Promoting Your Content to Drive Leads

Did you know that content marketing earns an average of three times more leads than paid searches? And more than 20 billion new blog posts were published on WordPress in 2019? That’s a huge number and it’s one that illustrates the ongoing importance of content in marketing.

That said, your content isn’t going to do you any good if nobody sees it or interacts with it. Bummer, right?

The key to driving engagement and using your content to generate leads is knowing how to promote your content. Promotion is what will ensure that people see the great content you’re creating and understand how your company and products can help them.

So, without further ado, here are some of the best ideas I know to promote your content, find your target audience, and kick-start your lead gen.

Use Your Social Media Cover Photo to Promote Content

Do you have an offer you want to promote on an ongoing basis? One easy way to get more traffic is to incorporate your offer into your cover photo on Facebook. You can hotlink the photo to your landing page and change it periodically as needed.

Create a Hashtag to Promote Your Content

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all allow users to employ hashtags to categorize the content they post. Best of all, anybody who wants to can create a new hashtag and use it. The next time you have content to promote, try creating a custom hashtag to use with it. You’ll get the best results if you use common words at the start of your hashtag because more people will see it when they search.

Include Multiple Links to Your Offer on Your Website

A mistake I see a lot of businesses making is only promoting their content in one place. There’s no reason you can’t have multiple links to your most important content on multiple pages of your website. You can either incorporate them into your text or put them in a box beside other content.

Put a CTA for Your Offer on Your Home Page

Your home page is the first thing most people who search for your company online will see. For that reason, you should always have a call to action for your most important content on your home page – preferably above the fold.

Blog About a Piece of Content Multiple Times

When you’ve spent your valuable time creating a lead magnet, it makes sense to promote it as much as possible. One way to do it is to blog about related topics from various angles. End each related blog post with a call to action leading back to your content.

Create a Content Library on Your Website

If you’ve created multiple pieces of evergreen content, why not put a content library on your website? A content library makes it easy for visitors to your site to find your most valuable content. You can create a system where visitors must provide their email address to access the content. Then, you’ll have a list of leads you can turn into paying customers!

Create a Trigger-Based CTA

Static calls to action can be effective, but it’s even more effective to display a CTA based on behavior. A trigger CTA can pop up when a visitor has been on your page more than five minutes or when they’ve read more than 50% of your content – or when they’re about to leave your page without opting in!

Encourage Social Sharing

One of the easiest ways to get your content in front of more people is to encourage visitors to share it on social media. Adding share buttons and embedded Tweets is easy – both can be done with a free plug-in – and your site’s visitors will do the rest.

Make a Sales Video

Landing pages with video convert at a higher rate than pages without video. You don’t need to spend a lot to create a memorable sales video which you can post on your landing page. On a related note, you can also post excerpts on YouTube and social media with a link to your content landing page.

Create YouTube Pre-Roll Ads

You know the video ads that appear before most YouTube videos? You can create a simple ad and pay to have it appear before videos that are related to the keywords you choose.

Link Emails to Your Content

Do your emails have a signature at the bottom? If so, you can simply update yours to include a link to the content offer you want to promote. If you don’t have a signature, you can add one with any email provider you use and include the link in it.

Email Your Database

Another quick and easy way to let your existing subscribers know about your content is to email them with a link to your landing page. You can use the email to encourage them to download the offer and share it with their friends.

Boost a Facebook Post

You probably already know you can post your content offer on Facebook. Since Facebook’s algorithm can make it difficult for your followers to see it, you can use part of your marketing budget to boost the post and get it in front of a bigger audience. (Tip: Create a lookalike audience to reach people who might not otherwise see your content.)

Partner with Other Businesses

A lot of times, local businesses share customers in common. If you know other business owners in your area, why not partner up to share one another’s content? Just make sure to put the agreement in writing, so that all parties understand their responsibilities and commitments.

Get Industry Influencers to Link to Your Content

When you hear about influencer marketing, it almost always has to do with big celebrities. However, someone in your industry or niche with a decent social media following can do your business a lot of good by mentioning your content. Seek out influencers and work out a deal to have them promote your content to their followers.

The point? Promoting your content and generating leads doesn’t need to be difficult and it doesn’t need to cost you much money, either. The ideas here will help you jump-start your lead generation and grow your business this year.

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[morneboshoff]

What the Future Holds for Social Media Marketing

At this point, few people would argue that social media marketing is a passing fad. It’s here to stay. But… that doesn’t mean it’s not changing.

The truth is that social media marketing is not the same thing it was just a few years ago. And, it probably won’t be the same as it is today in a year or two. Like everything else in digital marketing, it’s in a near-constant state of flux.

So, with that in mind, let’s look at where social media marketing is now, where it was, and where it’s likely to go in the future. After all, taking a wide view is a good way to plot your social media strategy going forward.

Facebook is Still Number One

Facebook is by far the number one social media platform for businesses. To give you an idea of just how popular it is, let’s look at some statistics:

There are 80 million small business pages on Facebook

78 million Americans say they’ve bought a product after learning about it on Facebook

Facebook is the top social platform for both B2B and B2C marketing

30% of marketers believe that Facebook has the top ROI among social media sites

Mobile ad revenue saw the biggest increase, growing by 50% from June of 2017 to June of 2018.

What’s the takeaway here? It’s still worthwhile for small businesses to advertise on Facebook. Here are a few tips to help you figure out where to spend your Facebook marketing budget:

Mobile advertising is the fastest-growing sector and offers a way to connect with customers using mobile devices

Video ads still get a ton of engagement

Organic reach is still on the decline, but paid reach is up

Only a little over 30% of businesses use Facebook Messenger – adding a Messenger bot or doing some Messenger advertising may be a way for you to overtake your competitors

If you invest your money in mobile ads, Messenger, and video, you’re likely to see better results on Facebook.

Instagram is the Fastest Growing Social Media Site for Marketing

A big part of that growth is due to the increasing popularity of Instagram Stories for business. It might surprise you to learn that 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day and fully one third of the most popular Stories ever posted were created by businesses.

Let’s talk about what that means for your marketing strategy. Here are a few key takeaways.

Instagram Stories are hugely popular and hugely effective. By a 2-to-1 margin, consumers in the United States say they prefer to get brand information from Stories instead of in their feeds.

Instagram users respond best to Stories that do one or more of the following things:

Help them learn about new products that are relevant to them

Give them information about interesting and relevant events, including shows, concerts, and fairs

Keep them up-to-date on the brands they’re interested in

If you’re not already using Instagram, starting out with Instagram Stories is a good way to get your feet wet and see what Instagram marketing can do for you.

Keep in mind, too, that Instagram is a mobile app. While you can view it online, most users access Instagram on their mobile devices. That makes it an ideal platform for mobile marketing.

Twitter is Fading Fast

Twitter still has millions of daily users, but it’s not the marketing powerhouse it used to be – and it may never regain its strength and popularity.

For example, Twitter announced in the third quarter of 2018 that 326 million people use Twitter daily. That number represents a loss of four million users from the previous year and nine million from the previous quarter.

Twitter argues that the reduction is the result of more aggressive policing of automated posting and the elimination of so-called “bot” accounts. However, it’s also telling that they haven’t updated their statistic about the number of Tweets per day (500 million) since 2014.

What does this mean for the future of Twitter marketing? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Total ad engagements increased by 50% from 2017, and the cost per engagement went down by 14%.

If you’re not already using Twitter, then it may be okay to cross this one off your list unless you have very good reason to believe that your existing customers want to see you there. (It’s also interesting to note that Twitter is slightly more popular for B2B marketing than for B2C marketing – something to keep in mind if you’re B2B.) However, if Twitter’s in your marketing mix and getting good results, there’s no reason to pull out at this point.

LinkedIn is the Place for B2B Marketing

Approximately 80% of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn is their number one marketing platform. Fully 45% of all LinkedIn users are in upper management – which means, of course, that they’re decision makers in a position to use the platform to make buying decisions.

In many ways, LinkedIn is the dark horse of social media. It hasn’t experienced the exponential growth of Facebook and Instagram, but its slow and steady rise is one of the reasons it hasn’t been subject to the same drama and scrutiny as Facebook.

One of the most important things for business owners to know about LinkedIn is that organic reach is better there than on other social platforms, due in part to their algorithm. It filters out spam and low-quality content and prioritizes what it calls “clear” content.

Another thing that sets LinkedIn apart is that every post is reviewed by a human editor. Ultimately, they’re the ones who’ll decide if a post is relevant.

You can benefit from LinkedIn for B2B marketing by posting business and job-related content that’s relevant to your industry and connections. That’ll get it past the algorithm filters and the human ones – and give you a chance for your content to go viral.

The social media landscape might be changing, but there’s still plenty of reason to be optimistic. Staying abreast of trends – and using them to figure out how to allocate your marketing budget for social media – can help you edge out the competition and grow your business.

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[morneboshoff]

How Social Proof Can Give You An Edge Over Your Competitors

Do you offer a worthwhile product or service?

You know you do! But how can you convince the people in your target audience of its worth? That’s the purpose of marketing. It’s your job to prove your product’s worth.

There are all kinds of ways to prove that a product is good. Remember the old Coke vs. Pepsi taste tests? That’s one example of proof.

But, in these days of social media marketing, by far the most popular and impactful kind of proof is social proof.

What is social proof? Why does it matter? And – most importantly – how can you use it to come out ahead of your competitors and grab the lion’s share of your target audience?

What is Social Proof?

Let’s start by talking about what social proof is. It’s what happens when people talk positively about a product, service, company, or any other commodity.

Social proof can take multiple forms. For example:

Online reviews

Online ratings

Social media mentions

Professional certifications and recommendations

The idea behind social proof is that people are influenced by the behavior of others. Social proof provides evidence of the usefulness or validity of a thing – whatever that thing might be.

There are some psychological reasons that explain the effectiveness of social proof.

People appreciate transparency. One of the benefits of social proof is that it doesn’t come from a company – it comes from consumers of what the company makes or provides. That’s part of why people trust it.

People also have a need to feel that they belong. There’s a mental glitch known as the Bandwagon Effect that makes people more likely to support a cause or product when others do, too.

FOMO (the fear of missing out) is a real thing and a powerful one. When everybody else seems to be doing something, we want to do it too.

Human beings are hard-wired to connect with stories. Since customer reviews and testimonials are short stories, it’s no wonder that we gravitate to them.

Long story short: we want to be comfortable with the products and services we use. Social proof gives us a risk-free way to evaluate things before we spend money on them.

Why Social Proof Matters

Social proof matters because social proof works. In fact, it’s extraordinarily effective because it does the work for you. People might not take your word for how good your products or services are, but they’ll take other people’s word for it.

Research shows that about 86% of all consumers – and 95% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 – read online reviews before buying a product. In fact, they read an average of 10 reviews before a purchase.

It’s also interesting to note that more consumers are getting savvy about reviews. The same study found that 40% of consumers in 2018 only read reviews that were recent, meaning they were no more than 2 weeks old. That’s up from just 18% in 2017.

Here are a few other key facts…

80% of consumers between 18 and 34 have written at least one online review

91% of people in that age group trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation

89% of consumers read businesses’ responses to reviews

57% of consumers will rule out any business that doesn’t have a high rating (4 out of 5 stars or above)

80% of consumers look at more than one review site before buying

What can we learn from this? Clearly, social proof is hugely important in marketing. We also know that it’s likely to increase in importance because young people are the ones posting and reading reviews. That behavior will shape marketing going forward.

Tips for Using Social Proof in Your Marketing

How can you use social proof in your marketing? Here are some tips and examples to get you started.

Encourage (and Respond to) Reviews

Reviews are still the most popular kind of social proof. As a business owner, you can encourage reviews by:

Putting a link to your Yelp or Google My Business page on your website

Asking your social media followers for reviews

Respond to reviews quickly and professionally

Add a rating scale to your website or allow people to post reviews of products there

You may even want to put some of your online reviews on your website for people to see. You can also display your Yelp rating in your business.

Get a Professional Seal of Approval

Not all social proof comes from consumers. Sometimes, it comes from a professional certification or acknowledgement of your product’s worth.

This type of social proof has been around for a long time. Decades ago, Good Housekeeping magazine offered its seal of approval to products. Today, you can get a professional seal of approval by applying for and receiving a professional certification or cultivating relationships with reporters to get press mentions.

Tap into the Wisdom of the Crowd

You already know that FOMO is real. One way to tap into social proof is to take a page out of Netflix’s book. The streaming giant highlights popular TV shows and movies for streaming. They know that when people are talking about something, the ones who haven’t watched it yet won’t want to miss a chance to get in on the conversation.

You can accomplish that by highlighting your best-sellingproducts or services on your website or social media.

Influencer Marketing

Finally, you should consider using influencer marketing to get the social proof you need to boost sales. Influencer marketing focuses on getting recommendations and endorsements from influential people, often on social media.

Keep in mind that an influencer doesn’t need to be a celebrity. Most small business owners can’t afford a celebrity’s price for influencer marketing. What you can do is find people who have authority and clout in your niche or industry and get them to talk about your company.

Social proof isn’t new, but it is growing in importance. The ready accessibility of online reviews – and the ease with which consumers can research companies – means that no local business can afford to ignore social proof.

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[morneboshoff]

The Unofficial Email Marketing Roadmap for Local Business

Email marketing remains one of the best ways for local businesses to build customer loyalty and attract new customers. It’s affordable and accessible – but it won’t be effective if you don’t make the most of it.

The good news? Every dollar spent on email marketing in the United States generates $44 of revenue. That’s crazy ROI by any standard. Welcome emails generate 320% more revenue than other emails – something that underscores the importance of attracting new subscribers.

Convinced? Good! Here are some pointers to help you navigate the potential pitfalls of email marketing and get the results you deserve.

Build Your List

It’s important to begin at the beginning. You can’t launch a successful email marketing campaign without subscribers. So, what can you do to attract them? Here are some things to try:

Simplify your opt-in form. A lot of companies add fields they don’t need. Stick with the person’s email and – if you want to personalize your communication – a field for their first name. That’s all you need.

Add a unique call to action. Instead of just including a “Subscribe” button, try adding something a bit more exciting. “Yes” statements are great – Yes! I want to be the first to know about new promotions!

Create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a giveaway to entice people to sign up for your list. Examples include cheat sheets, templates, and reports.

Put opt-in forms in more than one place on your website. The goal is to make it easy for people to subscribe. Make it easy for people to find and complete your form.

Use a pop-up or lightbox to encourage subscriptions. Pop-ups get bad press, but they work. Using a simple overlay lightbox can increase subscriptions by making it impossible for people to miss your form.

Ask people to subscribe when they check out. The cash register is the ideal place to gather email addresses. Let’s face it – somebody who’s already bought from you is an ideal subscriber!

Have a tablet for people to subscribe. An electronic form is better than a paper one since it means you won’t need to worry about bad handwriting.

Consider segmenting your list. List segmentation allows you to send content that’s tailored to your customers’ specific needs. You can encourage self-segmentation by asking subscribers to choose the topics or products they want to hear about.

Collecting new subscribers will allow you to reach more people with your email campaigns.

Make the Most of Your List

Once you’ve got a robust subscriber list, the next step is to use it well. Here are some things to try to get the most from your list.

Commit to emailing at least once a week. A good way to do it is to create a short weekly newsletter that will keep subscribers up-to-date on your business.

Post about your newsletter on social media. Chances are you’ve got social media followers who aren’t on your list – so hit them with a little FOMO and let them know what they’re missing by not subscribing.

Keep your emails visually simple. A newsletter that’s too crowded or visually cluttered isn’t going to be read. Your emails should be clean and easy to read with outgoing links to longer material.

Optimize your emails for mobile users. Every email you send should be easy to read on any device a subscriber is using, including mobile phones and tablets.

Give your subscribers something special. Anybody who subscribes to your list should feel that they’re a priority to you – so give them sneak peeks at new products or a heads-up on an upcoming sale.

Create customer surveys and email them. Surveys are a great (and cheap!) way to do some customer research, and many email automation services offer templates to create them.

Track your results. One of the most common mistakes small business owners make is not tracking the results of their email campaigns. Tracking allows you to identify the types of content that perform best.

Test your content. Emails can be tested the same way web content can. Sending out different headlines and content can help you focus on what your subscribers want. Remember that you can test everything from your subject line to the headlines of individual articles to your call to action.

I can’t tell you what your subscribers want to read, but these guidelines can help you identify their interests and preferences and tailor your campaigns to them.

Retain Your Existing Subscribers

You already know that it costs way more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Your existing subscribers are the same. So, what can you do to keep the people who are already on your list happy? Here are some ideas:

Send a killer welcome email. I already told you that welcome emails generate more than three times as much business as other emails. That means that hitting your new subscribers with an irresistible offer – a coupon or BOGO or whatever it is that works for you – will help you get that all-important first order.

If you really want to ramp things up, create a welcome series. It doesn’t need to be long – although some companies create long series of as many as 50 emails – but it needs to include valuable content and relevant offers.

Use a double opt-in. A double opt-in is when a subscriber fills out your opt-in form and you require them to click on a verification email before they subscribe. That might seem like a hassle – and it might seem to run counter to what I said earlier about simplifying forms. However, it’s one of the best ways to eliminate spammers and guarantee that the people on your list want to be there.

Email marketing has been lucrative for small businesses for a reason. Even Millennials prefer to communicate by email – and because email marketing is affordable, it’s a cost-effective way to build brand recognition and loyalty, attract new customers, and grow your business.

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