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The Bento Box and How to Bite-Size Your Marketing Message

The Lunchbox

When I was a kid, one of the proudest days of any school year was showing up with that new lunchbox. It was a little metal box that mom would pack a sandwich and maybe put an apple in, and maybe some chips wrapped up in tinfoil. And then you’d have a thermos, in there might be milk or some juice or whatever.

But, there was nothing like grabbing that thing by the handle and then parading down the hall to the lunchroom as everybody watched you carry around Superman or Spider-Man or whatever it is that you had on that lunchbox. And as you’d open up the metal clasp, it would go clink. It was pure joy.

Now, fast forward to today, you get these things called Lunchables, and they’re plastic containers with a handful of different foods like crackers, and meat, and cheese, and maybe a snack. But you take out a cracker, you put on a piece of meat, you put on some cheese, and you eat it.

The nice thing about the Lunchables is each one of those things has its own compartment. So, nothing gets contaminated by each other as otherwise, the meat would make the cracker soggy and the cheese would smell like meat. So, having them separated makes it taste better. But there was nothing like carrying around that metal lunchbox.

Bento Box

I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about a thing called the bento box. And a bento box is a Japanese kind of like a lunch tray where it has these compartments for different parts of a meal. You can buy them on Amazon and they come as disposables or washable and reusable ones. But the concept behind the bento box is you put small portions into these little compartments and it keeps each one of them separated like the Lunchables but it creates more of a full meal as opposed to just a snack.

And what I want to do today is talk about how your marketing message, when put into a marketing bento box and turned into bite-size pieces, can work better. So, let me explain.

The idea behind a bento box is it’s a simple lunch. It’s not about convenience, it’s about having a well-rounded and balanced lunch, meaning there’s meat, and there’s rice, and there are vegetables, and there could be fruit. The bottom line is, it’s kind of like a TV dinner but with everything fresh. If you have this bento box, you have a limited space to be able to put everything into.

If you think about your marketing message, we are better off serving our audience by making big and complex subjects simplified, and the best way to do it is to compartmentalize them. That’s one of the reasons why I really like creating eBooks.

Ebook = Boxed Lunch

Think of an eBook as a box that contains segmented parts of a full marketing meal. Each part can be a standalone item but when combined with each other, it creates this balanced experience. Not everybody will eat it in the same order, the same way that some people will put cheese first or meat first on those crackers in their Lunchables. People will pick and choose the parts that they find tasty.

And not everybody’s going to eat in the same order, but you hope that it creates some filling sustenance for your marketing message to be consumed. So, the way that I try to create an eBook is to think of it as individual pieces.

Every eBook should have an intro, and a conclusion, and then about three to five key points. So, let me give you a sample or an example of what I think it should be like. You can decide what works for your topic and your industry.

By segmenting each piece and making it stand on its own, you have a much more sustainable marketing message…

Chapter 1 – Intro What’s the big idea? What’s the concept and what does your audience need to know? What makes this different or better? Or what problem does it address or solve? That’s your intro.

Chapter 2 Next, the second chapter should be about, “Why should I care? What’s in it for me? What pain points of time or money does this solve or address?”

Chapter 3 Next, you could talk about, “How does this make my life easier or better?” I usually say, “Better, faster, cheaper, pick two, the two things that are going to stand out to help your audience get the message.”

Chapter 4 Next, what’s the payoff? Again, what’s in it for them, for your reader, for their employees, and/or their customers?

Chapter 5 How about doing a chapter on how hard this will be to obtain or realize? “What are the obstacles I can expect? Show me how other people have overcome them.”

Chapter 6 Next, “What will I miss by not doing this? Is there a reason why I can’t put this off? What advantage would I have over my competition?”

Chapter 7 – Conclusion And then finally, a conclusion, “How do I get started? What are the next steps? What do I need to know or what resources should I gather before starting?”

Marketing Bites

Each one of those seven pieces could be a standalone post, but by thinking of them as individual marketing pieces, you now can turn them into exactly that, an eBook.

Think about creating those bite-size pieces to put in that bento box:

Blogs, you could create five to seven blogs.

You could do videos around each one of those core points.

You could create awareness graphics. Those could lead back to the blog posts which could then drive traffic back to download the eBook.

You could also create separate emails for each one of those topics

And social posts that, again, could drive people back to the blog or to the eBook.

Each one of those pieces is part of that complete well-balanced marketing message meal. The goal is to get people to want to taste each one. But if one stands out to them, let them eat that whole portion. So, the concept of the bento box is to break your ideas into individual little trays, but you’re putting it all together in a complete meal.

Final Thoughts

That’s exactly what we did way back yonder before we had the technologies that we had today. We used to have to do things in small spurts, whether it was newspaper advertising, or radio commercials, or TV ads. Now, we feel like we have people’s attention so we can garner it longer. But in reality, the attention span has gotten shorter.

So, think about how you can compartmentalize each one of those ideas into one cohesive bento box of marketing.

And finally, remember, the cover of your eBook is just like the images on the outside of those lunchboxes. As you’re curating your content across the internet or on your website, you want someone to look at that bright, shiny object and say, “Man, that looks delicious. I’ll have what they’re having.”

I would love to hear your thoughts on using eBooks as a part of your marketing message and how you separate things into bite-size, digestible chunks. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about amplifying content within your marketing system.

The Bento Box and How to Bite-Size Your Marketing Message published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Why Marketers Can’t Afford to Wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

The global shipping and supply chain is in major disarray. Shipping and supply disruptions are the result of COVID, increased demand for goods from Asian exporting countries like China and South Korea, recent weather-related delays, and a variety of shortages, from cargo ships and containers to warehouse workers.

A bottlenecked supply chain and delays in shipping mean that there are fewer electronics, toys, and gadgets in stock for gift-giving and that consumers, who are accustomed to two-day shipping, may have to wait much longer for goods.

The bottom line for consumers? Do your holiday shopping now.

What does this mean for marketers? Get a head start on your holiday messaging now. All of these factors make the case for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other holiday shopping events in October.

Leverage Consumer Data to Target Holiday Shoppers Early

Consumer shopping behavior is different during the holidays as compared to shopping other times of the year. Some consumers are focused on getting the best deals which may mean participating in standard holiday shopping events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Other shoppers procrastinate in hopes of finding deeper discounts at the last minute.

To engage shoppers early to account for shipping delays, brands will need to leverage data-driven marketing tactics. Consumers may have a challenging time finding the items on their gift lists, so brands should focus on driving consumers to the stores and online now and manage expectations accordingly.

While this may sound straightforward, brands will need to be sophisticated in how they engage with shoppers or risk losing the opportunity altogether. Today’s consumers are savvy and expect brands to understand their preferences and send tailored, relevant recommendations. For example, brands that promote unavailable or delayed products will surely alienate consumers.

Brands will need to use a solid foundation of data and integrations across their supply chain in order to send messaging with this level of insight. At a minimum, retailers will need to get hyper-focused on first-party data collection and third-party enhancement to understand who their customers are and what will drive them to purchase. For instance, if brands know where a consumer is located, they can market products with tailored information such as local inventory or accurate shipping estimates.

One of the most valuable types of data brands often overlook is in-market behavioral data, or intent data. Savvy brands are using intent data to deliver a more personalized experience to prospects and customers based on their recent behavior. What physical stores have these consumers recently visited? What are they browsing for online? Are they engaged in dialogue on social channels about certain brands, product categories or specific products? Are they typically an early holiday season shopper or a procrastinator? Data has become so sophisticated that brands have the opportunity to engage consumers based on their past behavior such as Black Friday shopper segments, or early and last-minute Holiday shoppers coupled with their current activity.

Use Omnichannel Technology to Send Personalized Messaging

Last year during the height of COVID, consumers shopped online more than ever. However, as our economy settles into a new normal and as consumers are seeking out more in-person experiences, retailers can expect to see consumers shopping both online and in stores this holiday season, with just over half (62%) of American consumers stating they plan to use both channels.

As consumers go through the purchase journey, they will use different touchpoints along the way to research products and make purchase decisions. Email ranks highly for 35% of consumers as a favored way for brands to communicate instead of receiving direct mail. Social is also a popular way to learn about new products and brands, preferred by almost a fourth (24%) of consumers.

Whatever the channel mix, brands will need to have an integrated view of the consumer available on all platforms to consistently create personalized journeys for different types of consumers, coupled with insights such as product availability. Having the right marketing automation tool in place will ensure seamless messaging across customer segments and in different channels to promote products that will reach consumers in time for the holiday season.

The 2021 holiday season will be very different in contrast to 2020. The pressure is mounting to start shopping for the holidays early – and to prepare marketing strategies that meet consumers where they are. It’s time to start pushing events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday in October instead of November. It’s easier to start the holiday marketing push early than to push the holidays back because gifts are delayed.

Why Marketers Can’t Afford to Wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Improve Your Marketing with These 4 Animated GIF Tools

Today I have some great animated content resources to help you improve your marketing campaigns.

Your brand reach can be greatly enhanced with eye-catching visuals — especially for mobile audiences. Would you like to attract more followers? Take advantage of these GIF tools, and let me know how these work for you!

1) Share and create catchy animations – GIPHY

Gone are days of popular moving images once seen everywhere on AOL, MySpace, and the Internet. Video has changed the way we share content. Giphy includes hundreds of animated GIFs to choose from in different categories. Not only do these images create a great conversation, they give brands an opportunity to grow their audience and spark some excitement. Choose from their collection or create your own fun animation.

2) Customize your content into GIFs – PicMonkey

Improve your likes, retweets and comments on social media with eye-catching visuals. PicMonkey is an easy design tool that will help create your own GIFs whether this be from a photo, video, text and more. Start with their pre-sized templates, which offer multiple variations. Their filters and effects will help you create something that is unique to your branded content and audience.

3) Create simple brand visuals – Ezgif.com

If your business wants to hook your audience’s attention through visual marketing then this free tool will do just that very easily. Ezgif.com helps turn your images and videos into GIPHs that can be used on your website, in an email, or on social media. Simply upload your files and use their controls to crop, adjust speed, add special effects, and more. Once you are finished download the graphic and preview on your computer or mobile device.

4) Animate images into GIFs – Canva GIF Maker

Quickly and easily enhance your photos from your computer to make a high-quality visually appealing image. Canva GIF Maker allows you to express a message, spark a conversation, and encourage feedback online. Their extensive library includes unique templates that can be customized, downloaded, and shared online.

Hopefully you will find these visual content tools useful to your marketing strategy. Are there any that you would like to add as well?

Have fun with these tips and tools.

Improve Your Marketing with These 4 Animated GIF Tools published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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The Top 10 New Instagram Features of 2021 (+One to Look Out For!)

Instagram helps you to grow your business, but you still have to run it at the same time! If you've been busy doing the bajillion things you do to keep your business in shape, you may have missed out on new Instagram features that can help you grow your business even more.

When you log into Instagram and there's a barrage of new features.

So we're covering the top 10 Instagram features released in 2021 that you can use in your Instagram marketing strategy. They include:

Professional Dashboard

Live Rooms

Remix Reels

Stories caption stickers

Updates to Insights

Algorithm shift

Algorithm explained

Black-owned category

Location Stories

Maps search

We'll be sharing tips and tricks on how to use each new feature to its fullest, plus an exciting soon-to-be new feature! Let's dig in.

Feature #1: Professional Dashboard

Launched in January 2021, Instagram's Professional Dashboard feature allows you to track your performance, access professional resources, and grow your business You can get insights on how your business is interacting with your followers as well as what time you may want to gear your posts based on when your audience is online. There are also branded content tools you can take advantage of along with tips and tricks to keep your business thriving on Instagram. 

Follow these Professional Dashboard tips to get the most out of this feature:

Stay Informed: No Seriously! That's the name of the section in the Professional Dashboard where you will find other content creators' tips on making the best and most engaging content for your audience.

Sell your products: There is a section where you can easily set up your products on your page, where potenial and current customers can purhase right from your social profile. After you set up your store, you can actually tag shoppable products in your posts and stories, making it that much easier to sell to your followers. (More on social shopping here!)

Post about 15 minutes before your peak: The "Most Active Times" section under "See All Insights" will help you capture your audience at an optimal time. For the best engagement, post about fifteen minutes before the optimal time for that day. 

 Image source

You may also be interested in our Complete Guide to Instagram Analytics.

Feature #2: Live Rooms

Launched in March 2021, Live Rooms allows more than one account to participate in the same Instagram Live session. Go live with your teammates or colleagues, influencers, other businesses, vendors, or even your customers. 

Image source

Here are some helpful tips for Live Rooms:

Add three or more users to the live. You can invite up to three other users to join your live video. You could run a panel, get a discussion going, or even have different participants cycle through. As long as you and that account are following one another, they can join your session. 

Make a bite-sized podcast. A full podcast for yor business could be a major undertaking. Live Rooms could be your “bite-sized” podcast episodes where you provide tutorials, offer a Q&A session or even turn it into a talk show of sorts. Skies the limit! 

Join others' live videos. If it’s too much pressure to host a live yourself, you can always jump into another person’s Live Room and contribute that way. It’s actually a great way to gain more followers from their account as well as engage with a new potential audience. 

You may also be interested in these 8 Tips to Create Incredible Instagram Live Videos.

Feature #3: Remix Reels

Have you ever been perusing on Reels and thought, “Hmmm, I could do this better?” Or wished you could share your thoughts on what’s going on in a particular reel? Launched in April 2021, you now can with Remix Reels!

Image source

Remix Reels tips and tricks:

Incorporate others' Reels into your own. Whether it’s expanding upon the already created reel, turning it into a duet, or adding funny comments to it, you can get super creative here based on what your audience wants to see. You also have the option to create the reel inside the app itself or upload an existing video, an option not offered by TikTok).

Expand your audience. That person gets notified if you use their content, so if they share it on their feed, you can increase your exposure to their audience. Note: if you select the three dots at the bottom and the option doesn’t show up to remix, then that person has turned that feature off. 

Don’t forget to adjust the audio. There are three lines at the top that you need to select before you hit next to make sure your audio will come through. 

Don't miss our 20 Instagram Reels Ideas to Build Your Brand! 

Feature #4: Stories caption stickers

Also in April 2021, caption stickers for Stories were introduced, which automatically turns what you say into text. Just tap on Stickers and search for captions!

Image source

Capture more viewers. Did you know 40% of people aren’t watching video with the sound on? This is a great opportunity to capture that audience. Using the captions sticker, you can auto-populate what you are saying in a video so that more people will watch it.

Keep it short. This feature only works for videos that are 15 seconds or less, so take care on all the information you need to share in a short snippet. 

Double-check for accuracy. It may not get the wording 100% right, so just tap on the words to edit any of them that aren’t accurate. 

Want to be more Stories-savvy? We've got posts for that!

Shopping for Instagram Stories is Here

6 Epic Instagram Story Hacks You'll Wish You Knew Sooner

Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Story Ads

Feature #5: Updates to Insights 

Instagram also made some general updates to their platform that have turned into great features for content creators. Many of these recent updates are targeted for Reels and IG Live, which will help creators engage more with their audience. 

Check Reels and Live insights. These will come in handy after you have made your Reel or gone Live with another user. It will show you what your audience liked and what they didn’t like. Along with if Instagram pushed your reel out or not based on potential engagement and algorithm compliance. You can use these to adjust what you do next. 

Expand your tracking period! With the new updates, you can now expand your tracking period from 30 to 60 days. You now don’t need a third-party tool to analyze more of your data. 

Focus on Accounts Reached. When you are in Insights Overview, check out the Accounts Reached section. This will break down your followers and non-followers which can be helpful, but also which type of content is getting the most attention. This way you can do more of what’s working or get out of your comfort zone and try to update the type of content you may need to improve upon.

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Feature #6: Instagram algorithm shift

Not actually a feature, but just as important! Instagram's latest algorithm is said to favor fun and engaging video content. In June 2021, Instagram announced that it will not optimize for recycled content from other apps, such as TikTok. Before this recent update, users were missing about 70% of their posts along with 50% of their friends’ posts.

Write a longer caption with the video. This has actually shown to increase engagement and interaction on the platform where your audience will want to see the full video and not just keep scrolling. 

Branded intro and branded outro. This will keep consistency and make your videos on the professional video creation level. It needs to stay on-brand with your business so the user doesn’t get confused on what they are watching. 

Incroporate music. Also make sure these songs are copyright-free and you are using the right type of music for your video. Think about how you are trying to engage with your audience. If you are trying to give them an exciting update, then use upbeat music. If you are showing your audience something on the more serious side, then perhaps keep the music calm. 

For more great social media content ideas (and much more), head to our Social Media Marketing Lab!

Feature #7: Instagram explains how its algorithm works

Also not a feature, but big news. In the same month, Instagram decided to shed more light on exactly how their algorithm works. You can learn more here in these 9 Ways to Show Up in the Instagram Feed [New Info!], but some quick pointers:

Regularly publish Reels: Reels regularly will help boost your page outside your network and all organically! It doesn’t have to be that time-consuming either if you keep everything in a shortened format. Studies are showing that Reels are getting two times the reach than a normal post (as well as has longevity on the platform), so it only makes sense that you take advantage of how Instagram’s algorithm works. 

Cut down on the hashtags. Hashtags are losing their luster. The algorithm is getting more advanced in terms of categorizing for keywords (more on Instagram SEO here) and relying less on the use of hashtags in your posts. So maybe save some time and cut the normal 30 hashtags to about half or even less. 

Focus on video and shopping. Yes, the CEO of Instagram is telling you, straight from the source, that Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app. It is now more focused on shopping and video content. He’s not saying photos are going away, but they will definitely be focusing their algorithm to give more videos and products a boost over photos. It’s time to get more creative on how you are utilizing Instagram than just pushing out a photo a day. 

That said, be sure to check out:

13 Tips for Creating More Effective Instagram Video Ads

How to Create Captivating Instagram Videos

Feature #8: Black-owned business label

From Instagram: “Last summer through fall, there were over 1.3 million Instagram posts in support of “Black-owned” or “Black-led” businesses. And the number of businesses located in the US with “Black-owned” or “Black-led” in their profile increased over 50%”.

Support, support, support! With this new feature you can discover and support more black-owned businesses by engaging with their accounts and buying directly from them. 

Designate your business (if applicable). Set your profile to display under Black-Owned Shopping. You can make these updates on your profile and check the Instagram Help Center for more info. 

Find partnership opportunities. Maybe you aren’t a black-owned business but you want to be a part of the 15% Pledge. This is a great resource to use when trying to find businesses to partner with that are black-owned. 

Feature # 9: Location Stories (once again!)

This feature was removed in October 2020 due to election precautions, and finally, a year later, it's back! With it, users can find Stories being published by accounts nearby—a great way to do some local social media marketing!

  Feature #10: Maps search

In September 2021, Instagram began rolling out the Map search feature. The in-app map will show nearby shops, venues, and cafes, and if a user taps on one of the map items, Instagram will then show more information about the business like hours, address, pricing, their Instagram profile, and public posts tagged at that location.

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Bonus feature: Ads in the Shop Tab

True to its word that it will now be focusing on video and shopping, Instagram has begun testing a feature that will allow advertisers to show shoppable single image or carousel ads in the Shop Tab.

How do I stay on top of Instagram features and updates?

Instagram is constantly coming out with new features. Yes, it's a little overwhelming, but don't fret. Just take one tip a week or even a month and focus on how you can incorporate new features into your Instagram marketing strategy.  One great source for the latest updates is Embed Social's Instagram Features & Updates. Stay in the know so you can increase your audience engagement and generate more sales for your business!

The Top 10 New Instagram Features of 2021 (+One to Look Out For!) published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Top Reasons Why Your Online Business Should Invest in Video Marketing

One year ago, you launched an e-commerce website with a store, numerous product pages, and even started a blog. The number of site sessions increased as time passed, you gained followers on social media, and your customers were pleased with their purchases. Nevertheless, you have flat sales. Indeed, you are happy with sales, but in order to stay ahead in the game, you need to grow your sales figures. A major marketing initiative takes time and money that you don’t have. 

As content marketing evolves, we can’t deny that we are witnessing a change. Storytelling has revolutionized how brands deliver their messages to their audiences on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Here video marketing can be one of the quickest, easiest, and least expensive ways to improve your online business.

When content marketing strategies used in long texts are no longer relevant, businesses are turning to fun, ephemeral content. Promoting your brand and connecting with your target audience through video marketing is getting popular. 

Video marketing has become increasingly important as a content marketing method. According to Demand Metric, over 83% of marketers believe video marketing is giving them fruitful results. Indeed, video marketing has become mainstream, and all research suggests that it is the future of content marketing. Now before jumping to the reasons, let’s uncover some interesting facts about video marketing. 

What is Video Marketing

Source: HubSpot Blog

Video marketing means any video used to promote their products and services across any channel. You should use video marketing for several reasons – using video can be hugely effective for your business – over half of consumers want to see brand videos more than any other kind.

Incorporating videos as a part of your marketing strategy is ultimately about converting browsing consumers into leads and customers and subsequently convincing them to become repeat buyers. Taking advantage of video marketing online has become second nature to companies like Nike and NBC since the birth of YouTube in 2005. 82% of internet traffic will be video consumption by 2021. 

We all know the well-known proverb, “a beautiful picture is worth a thousand words.” 

Indeed, it’s true. The average user spends up to 88% more time on websites with videos than it does on websites without videos. It clearly reflects that you need to jump on the video marketing bandwagon if you want to future-proof your online business. 

Still, not convinced why use video marketing? Well, we can understand your confusion, but don’t worry. Here we will present many data and statistics that help you understand why video marketing produces better results. 

Staggering Video Marketing Statistics 

Source: Animated Video

Your overall marketing strategy probably needs video as a component. Due to the evolving video marketing landscape, we’re continually discovering new ways to engage with consumers and tailor video content to specific business objectives.

However, video represents one of your biggest opportunities in 2021. A video is a powerful tool that anyone can use, from an individual selling certain products to a small startup that’s just getting started to a huge corporation. 

Furthermore, suppose you are not using video. In that case, your competitors are likely doing so, so it’s time to revamp your marketing game, as video marketing is the most important factor that supercharges your sales funnel and boost ROI. Unconvinced? Video marketing will still be important in 2021 and beyond, according to the below statistics. 

More than 73% of customers believe that they are influenced by products that use video on their social media platforms

Online businesses with video marketing strategies are able to experience a hike of 127% in terms of page visits

Online business owners even accepted that incorporating videos on product page have boosted conversions

According to ThinkWithGoogle, more than 50% of online shoppers look for videos related to a product or service before making a purchase 

Facebook stands first and produces 8 billion video views every day 

45% of marketers are even planning to invest more in video content in 2021. 

We hope that the above statistics have convinced you that video marketing is important and helps you gain new leads quickly. Along with lead generation, it will also increase customer retention rate but make sure you are posting relevant content that viewers find engaging. 

Remember how popular pizza brand Pizza Hut enticed customers? Essentially, the brand aims to persuade audiences to visualize and associate its brand with its product by incorporating music, jingles, and visuals. It is not surprising that after watching your favorite Pizza Hut video, we feel hungry and willing to make an order. 

If you are engaged with the same business, get inspired by Pizza Hut and include eye-catchy videos within your delivery platform because you can even influence lazy diners to order a meal by eye-catchy video content. 

5 Of The Most Critical Reasons Why You Should Invest In Video Marketing

Video marketing is an incredibly powerful medium. Videos are no doubt one of the newest tools in your promotion arsenal. Despite your doubts, you might be inclined to believe. How profitable is posting a video for your business? Is your marketing department having adequate resources to create an appealing video? 

The short answer is: Yes. Video marketing enables brands to reap exclusive benefits. Additionally, you should not perform video marketing just because everyone is doing it, instead of spare some time and resources to create video content that leaves your customers awestruck. You should invest in video marketing now for these five reasons.

Video Foster Trust

Conversions and sales are built on trust. Instinct trust among customers should be the prime motive of any brand. The whole concept of marketing is based on trust and establishing a long-term relationship with customers that ultimately build brand advocacy. You will stop selling and let them come to you by providing them with interesting and useful information.

And who can understand this concept better than Mark Schaefer? 

“In the new era of content marketing, you must focus on ignition rather than content, trust rather than traffic, and on the people in your audience who are spreading and advocate your content.”

We are likely to be engaged and moved by video content. YouTubers are becoming the most influential social media figures to promote your brand when we’re talking about elite people in your audience. 

Product promotion videos can foster trust also. Due to their fears of fraud and cheating, some consumers are still hesitant to purchase products and services over the internet. Video marketing offers a conversational presentation of your products, however. 

Establish a Strong Brand Presence

Source: Digital Vidya

Your chances of converting interested customers into paying customers are better the more places they can find out about you. Your brand needs to be identified and established; then, you have to spread the word. 

Some of you may say, “I already have a fancy website, a blog, and a social media presence.”. You’ve already started spreading the word, but keeping the message alive is crucial to getting noticed and being chosen over your competition. 

Youtube is the first biggest video search engine. Popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, are dominated by video content. Marketing your products with video is an excellent way to engage your audience and expand your reach.

Improve Search Engine Rankings

You can easily get your online store on the first page of Google by uploading videos that target common search terms to YouTube. In many cases, YouTube videos can be found at the top of the page because Google prioritizes video results as compared to the web. 

Let’s understand it with a relevant example. When you search “how to make pizza,” Google shows five videos below the snippet, including the “People also ask” section above the regular results. Yes, this is the power of video content. These results show different pizza-making videos from chefs; anyone who clicks on this link will redirect to YouTube. 

Video pages are definitely more likely to get shared by customers, and more social shares may be beneficial to your rankings. Video content will help boost your rankings in search engines and, as a result, boost organic traffic. 

You will also be able to position your videos on YouTube when users search for what you are interested in. A report published in 2017 by Moz and Jumpshot found that YouTube had the third-highest search market share in 2017, behind only Google.com and Google Images.

Boost Conversions 

Increased customer conversion is one of the benefits of video marketing. Videos that promote products or services involve a call-to-action (CTA) to encourage viewers to act. CTAs are marketing messages that use powerful language to tell the audience what they should do following watching a video.

CTAs may involve direct messages like ‘visit this page’ or ‘download this app’. Simply put, CTAs invite your audience to shake hands with your online business. Gaining customers and increasing sales can be accomplished through a successful marketing video. Your business performance will improve as a result of this marketing strategy.

Showcase Your Products Effectively

When you have the ability to showcase your products in 3-D, where customers can see how to use them, why show them in a flat picture? A video is useful for changing the way customers interact with a product, especially for online businesses. 

If you want to highlight the colors and application of a lipstick product, why take a photo of it? Well, here’s the example. The marketing team of 2nd Love created this video to promote the lipstick launch.

This video link shows different shades and colors of lipsticks; it will influence customers to purchase it rather than text-based content. Moreover, you need to have a little bit of knowledge of visual marketing trends to create killer video content because you will only have a single chance to capture the user’s attention. 

Videos Triumph Over Long Content As Well 

Video content is a bubble that will not burst soon. Moreover, analysts suggest that video is a thriving market for tech-savvy brands looking to promote products to a younger demographic. 

Three of the main selling points of video marketing are increased conversion rates, expanded reach, and personalization. You can engage your audience and capitalize on this growing medium by incorporating video into your content marketing strategy.

The post Top Reasons Why Your Online Business Should Invest in Video Marketing appeared first on Scoop.it Blog.

Top Reasons Why Your Online Business Should Invest in Video Marketing published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Choosing the Right Influencer for Your Brand

We’ve written before at Converse Digital about choosing the right influencer and the difference between “influence marketing” and “influenceR marketing.” There’s a lot of weight in that one little “r.” An influencer not only possesses the “influence” (ie: audience), but they wield it effectively. They don’t just know the right people, they know how to talk to them, what to say, and they actually do it.

But knowing whether you have a true “influencer” or not can be a bit tricky. And often, at the end of an influencer campaign, the results are a bit muddled and uncertain—did we actually drive sales with this thing? Or did we just spend a lot of money to make a little bit of noise with the wrong band?

So how do you choose the right influencer for your brand? Let’s walk through a quick hypothetical situation: say we’re in the market to do some marketing, and an influencer campaign seems like just the ticket to meaningfully connect with our audience. So we start doing a bit of research, license some software, maybe even hire an agency to help us out.

But, tracking down real influencers can actually be quite the challenge, especially if your standards are high (and at the going rate for an influencer marketing agency, they sure as hell better be). So, what ends up happening?

We settle. We choose an influencer with a large audience, decent engagement metrics, standard content, and we hand them our product samples and a budget. We tell them to go forth and spread the message, and the strategy pretty much ends there. Everything from that point on is entirely in the hands of the influencer, their charisma, and their mastery of their craft. We set out to partner with an Influencer Marketer, but instead we’ve just hired an Influencer Advertiser.

How did we get here? Well, for starters, let’s cut ourselves a bit of slack—this is a rapidly evolving corner of the industry, whose growth pace has only accelerated in the COVID years. The marketplace surely hasn’t done us any favors, nor has the frothing hype around the rise of Tik Tok and it’s promises of easy replicable viral content marketing.

Really, though, the reason we ended up with an Influencer Advertiser is due to a few confusions of terms—and these distinctions are key to avoiding the pitfalls of hiring the wrong influencer.

Here are three key distinctions to consider when building your influencer marketing campaign:

Celebrity Endorsement vs Influencer Recommendation

Here’s a bit of backwards logic: if your influencer is too famous it might actually hurt their influence. A survey of 14,000 U.S. adults conducted by Collective Bias found that just “3% of consumers would consider buying a product at retail if it was endorsed by a celebrity influencer.” Conversely, the report indicates that 30% of U.S. adults were “more likely to purchase a product endorsed by a non-celebrity blogger than a celebrity influencer.” Influencer Marketing Academy backs this up, saying that “92% of consumers trust an influencer more than they trust a celebrity.” It turns out that in the internet age, we still make buying decisions largely the same way we did 20 years ago—based on the opinions and suggestions of people we trust. And apparently we don’t trust people who are too famous.

The brilliance of the successful influencer marketer is in their ability to sell themselves as a friend and trusted source, giving a recommendation to their friends online. “Micro” influencers who position their content as small-scale, local, friendly, and above all trustworthy are often the ones who are most effectively wielding their influence. Bigger is not always better when it comes to trust, and these days trust online is everything.

Influencer Selling instead of Influencer Marketing

A key factor in measuring trust online is “authenticity.” We’ve probably all heard the statistics about Gen Z and their thirst for authenticity in content (and if you haven’t, then here’s a great reference). While it might be easy to pass this off as just one generation’s preference, the Gen Z search for truth in advertising is actually a serious bellwether in the world of internet content. In fact, Forbes named it one of the six most important trends in influencer marketing to watch for this year. It would seem that in the age of endless content, the “bullshit meter” has gone into high alert, and as a whole we are much more wary of the sleazy used car salesman than ever before. The modern consumer is easily skeptical of content that’s overly “salesy“ or features obvious product-heavy upfront messaging. We know when an influencer product placement feels “fake,” and we rarely react positively to it.

BUT, we also are generally receptive to branded content from influencers when it “fits the feed,” and when their support is obviously genuine. The influencers who drive the best conversions are the ones who offer authentic support of your brand. This means choosing the right influencers who are fans of your brand regardless of whether or not you are paying them or giving them free stuff… and in some cases that might mean sending them samples with no strings attached, just to introduce them to the brand and ask for their thoughts. Thinking of these creators less as advertisers, and more as brand ambassadors is the way to win the influencer marketing game—we just have to be willing to let go of the traditional ad mentality and metrics, which brings us to our final distinction…

Vanity Metrics vs Actionable Insights

In the influencer marketing world, we hear a lot about reach. And to be fair—your influencer needs to have it, or else who exactly are they going to influence? But in our ROI-driven world “vanity metrics” like reach, likes, even comments are increasingly proving to be an ineffective measure of influencer success. These “output-based KPIs” are a nice measure of an advertisement, but we don’t hire influencers to do that—we hire them to persuade, and for that we want “outcome-based KPIs.”

Outcome-based KPI’s measure the down-funnel effects of your influencer’s campaign. For products sold online, the absolute best way to do this is through affiliate links, dedicated UTM-tagged URLs, unique promo codes, dedicated landing pages, swipe-up features, etc.—any measure that can show that this influencer’s recommendation led to a sale. And if your product isn’t sold online or you can’t track sales this way, then the next best thing is tracking intent-to-purchase. Saves are a great example of this. Sure, a user saving your influencer’s post might just mean they thought it was funny and want to see it again later. But it also means that something about the message stuck with them enough to tuck it away to digest again in a different setting. Similarly, shares and tagging other users are a great measure of how the influencer’s content is faring with their audience. Nobody is going to send a post to their friends unless they think it says something worth sharing. Sharing is spreading the word, and that’s a whole lot more powerful of a conversion metric than liking the post.

To be sure, a focus on outcome-based KPIs means you won’t see any more of those big explosive numbers we’ve become accustomed to with influencer post likes and comments. But if you think beyond the sexy stats, choosing the right influencer is a no-brainer. Get into the nitty gritty of actual conversion metrics, and you’ll quickly find out who is really marketing your product well, and who is a glorified Instagram ad with a selfie camera and a ring light.

Ready to pump up that ROI and find your own Influencer Marketing Partner?

So, which one are you currently running in your agency? An influencer marketing strategy, or an influencer advertising campaign? Or, maybe neither? If you’d like help choosing the right influencer, evaluating your current strategy, or building one from scratch, we know a thing or two about that, and would love to help you out. Just drop us a line below, and we’ll help you find the right influencer marketers for your brand.

Choosing the Right Influencer for Your Brand published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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11 Legitimately Scary PPC Stats Every Advertiser Should Know (+Survival Tips)

Each October, my friends and I meet throughout the month to watch scary movies leading up to Halloween. But while it’s cool to be spooked in the fun times, it’s not cool to be spooked when you’re running a PPC account.

And unfortunately, there are some truly concerning stats out there that give us advertisers reason to be. So, in the spirit of Halloween, I’m sharing with you 11 actually scary stats that every PPC advertiser should know, and why you should be concerned.

But don’t worry! I’m going to turn these spooky statistics into not-so-scary tips that’ll save you from a PPC nightmare.

1. 94% of people skip over search ads

You read that right. 94% of searchers fly right by your search ads and onto organic results. On top of that, 41% of paid clicks go only to the top three ads on the page.  This means that your ad copy and ad rank matter more than ever.

What you need to do

First, make sure you're regularly testing your ad copy. The responsive search ad format helps out with this, but it's still important to run A/B tests. The right copy will have a higher click-through rate which will improve your ad rank. This will increase your chances of being a part of the percentage of ads that do pull in clicks, and make folks who usually jump to organic results stop in their tracks.

And most importantly, make sure your ads pack a punch with eye-catching and compelling ad copy! Here’s how:

Use emotional words and phrases

Follow these tips for writing great ad headlines.

Use our 8 best ad copywriting tips (ever!)

Avoid these 5 Google Ads copy mistakes

(It also goes without saying that you should have a strong organic SERP presence too.)

2. 96% of iOS users have opted out of app tracking

Last year, just thinking about the infamous iOS14 update that would give users this option was scary. Now that the update is rolled out, it’s even scarier to know that 96% of iPhone users in the US have actually opted out!

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What’s scary about this is that it makes the Facebook pixel far less effective, which leads to inaccurate tracking data, which messes up your conversion tracking and targeting. Even worse, audience sizes are shrinking, causing CPMs to rise.

What you need to do

To work around this issue, be sure to:

Start using the Facebook Conversions AI (now!).

Follow our tips to maintain effective Facebook ad targeting in iOS 14.

Use these seven ways to combat rising Facebook CPMs due to iOS 14.

3. 80% of advertisers rely on third-party cookies

Most paid advertising strategies are built around the third-party cookie. These cookies capture behavioral data which allows you to see how your ad clickers got to your site, what they did on your site, and what they did afterward—making it essential for conversion tracking and retarging audiences. Cookies also enable platforms like Google and Facebook to offer new audiences to target based on interests. 

With the eventual deprecation of third-party cookies, reporting and targeting as 80% of advertisers know it will be no more. Google, Facebook, publisher sites, and other platforms are coming out with new tools and technology to help advertisers navigate this shift, but you should be preparing now.

Here's what you need to do

Strengthen your first-party data collection. Create lead magnets and build your email list with creative calls to action.

Set up the Google Ads tag on your site to track first-party data—even if you have tracking set up through an import. Go to Tools & Settings > Shared Library > Audience Manager>Audience Sources.

For Facebook, implement the Conversions API as mentioned above.

Get familiar with Google FLoC—which is scary in and of itself.

4. 60% of consumers intentionally provide bogus form info

Bad news for your lead qualification efforts. On top of this high percentage of form fakers, 81% of people have also abandoned at least one online form, and most won’t return to complete it. 

What you need to do

Keep your form fields to a minimum. Forms with less than seven fields  are more approachable to prospects since they are quicker to complete.

Use lead form extensions in Google ads, or lead ads in Facebook, since they will prefill the information for users, making your form responses less likely to be fake.

Let’s not forget targeting! If you have an audience that is eager to convert, they will be happy to fill out your form. Prequalify your audience by testing more precise parameters. Sure, a smaller audience segment may cause a slight drop in leads, but it will boost lead quality.

5. There are ad blockers on 615M+ devices worldwide

Due to more and more devices having VPNs or built-in blockers set up, that number of 615 million is most likely going to continue rising.

What you need to do

Sadly, there’s really no way of getting around ad blockers. However, a multi-channel strategy can make up for your losses by catching your audience elsewhere. For example, OTT ads can’t be skipped or blocked by ad blockers.

6. 40% of advertisers say their PPC budget is lower than they want it to be

Odds are, you’ve been in this position at some point on your PPC budgeting journey. With the demands of digital ads constantly changing, advertisers are feeling the heat. 40% of them say it’s getting harder and harder to maintain a competitive budget in such a heavily saturated space.

What you need to do

While slapping on more budget isn’t feasible for most, you can still get crafty to make your budget stretch further. Depending on your needs, you may need to:

Reprioritize your marketing channels

Narrow down your targeting

Adjust your bid strategy.

For more PPC budgeting help, head to the following:

PPC Budget Guide: Are You Spending Your PPC Budget Wisely?

The Complete, Digestible Guide to Google Ads Budgets

5 Perilous Mistakes That Will Destroy Your PPC Budget

7. Only 10% of advertisers optimize their Google Ads accounts each week

Plus, 20% of account managers do nothing on their accounts within a single month. The bad news with this one? You could be a part of this statistic! The good news? Your competition could be, too

What you need to do

Kee an eye on your account and consistently make tweaks to prevent any unwelcome surprises from popping up.

Get into a PPC routine and be sure to audit your account regularly. To start, try scheduling just a few minutes per week, per month, and per quarter to check on specific areas of your account.

Image source

  Don’t know what to optimize? Find out in a minute with our Free Google Ads Performance Grader.

8. Online ads are the least-diverse media type in the U.S.

Only 9% of people claim digital ads are the most diverse media encounter they’ve had. In comparison, network TV ranked much higher at 43%. Moreover, 54% of people don't feel culturally represented in online ads. From all angles, PPC is clearly lacking diversity in a major way.

What you need to do

People are attracted to brands that represent them—not just their pain points and lifestyles, but their cultural background too. We as advertisers can make an impactful change by implementing accessibility and inclusivitiy in our advertising. Plus, the more diverse your ads are, the more people you can connect with and attract. To do this:

Represent a variety of ethnicities and genders in your images, including those with disabilities.

Follow these nine tips to make your website accessible.

Use diverse and inclusive language in your ad copy.

9. 96% of consumers don’t trust ads

Remember earlier how I mentioned that the paid ad space is heavily saturated? We may have even done ourselves dirty according to this statistic.

Paid ads have been on the rise for a long time—so much so that people are becoming desensitized to them. And with 96% of consumers not trusting ads, advertisers have to work harder to prove their credibility.

What you need to do

A great way to start is by providing social proof. When you make a claim in an ad, people aren’t going to just take your word for it. They will, however, trust the word of a friend, family member, or fellow consumer. That’s why online reviews and reputation management are so important when running paid ads.

Another tactic is to include credibility "stamps'' in your ads when possible. For example, you might include "NASSM-certified," or "family-owned" in your ad copy.

  You can also include awards and partnership badges in your landing pages. Moreover, try to opt in to attributes available to you, like woman-owned, black-owned, or veteran-owned to achieve that more personal, trustworthy touch.

10. 67% of people say that once a brand loses its trust, there’s no gaining it back

In addition to people being more skeptical of your ads 67% of consumers will lose trust permanently in a brand once said trust is broken—whether it's due to false claims, damaged goods or services, a poor customer experience, or an uninentional mistake.

What you need to do

Don’t lose their trust, of course! But how can you do that?

Build a strong brand foundation with a mission statement and core values that everyone follows.

Maintain brand consistency so your customers know your brand well and feel more comfortable when doing business with you. That way, you can stay far away from permanent trust loss and closer to a loyal, life-long customer base.

Respond to negative reviews. Just because a customer is unhappy doesn’t mean they’ve lost trust in you. A prompt and proper response to a negative review can prevent permanent damage and sometimes even strengthen their trust and loyalty! 

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11. “Near me” searches increased 100% between 2019 and 2020

This stat is only scary if you're a national or online brand. The sharp increase, of course, is due to lockdowns from the pandemic, but odds are that “near me” searches will continue increasing. We can use this statistic as a clue to understand today’s consumer habits.

What you need to do

Even if you’re a national or ecommerce brand, you need to employ a local PPC strategy to be able to relate to your audience. People want products or services to be closer and more instantaneous.

Double check your geotargeting strategy and ad customizers. Using tactics like dynamic keyword insertion in your ad copy will help your ads better match local queries.

Don’t fall victim to these scary statistics

Leave the screaming to the horror flicks and prevent your account performance from catching you off-guard. Awareness of these shocking data points is the first step to prevention. Like I always say, friends don’t let friends run bad PPC ads. So, to recap, here are my tips to avoid becoming a part of these scary PPC stats:

Always be tweaking and testing your ad copy so your ads won’t get skipped over.

Use the Facebook Conversions API to prevent data loss from iOS14 App Tracking Transparency.

Start collecting first-party data, and try Facebook’s conversion API.

Keep your forms concise and use lead forms to avoid fake form fills.

Leverage a multi-channel strategy to manage around ad blockers.

Get creative with your bidding and targeting to avoid budgeting shortfalls.

Get into a PPC routine and stick with it to keep your account optimized.

Cater your ads to everyone in your target audience so they will feel better represented.

Use social proof, partnerships, and unique identifiers to prove credibility.

Maintain brand consistency to safeguard against losing trust (forever!).

Always approach PPC from a small-scale, local perspective to keep up with consumer trends

11 Legitimately Scary PPC Stats Every Advertiser Should Know (+Survival Tips) published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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What is Website Monetization? The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Introduction Do you own a website with good traffic but don’t know how to turn it into an earning asset? The vast usage of the internet in the present day connects you to limitless possibilities of earnings. With proper implementation of website monetization strategies, you can earn consistent revenue. There are various approaches for website […]

The post What is Website Monetization? The Ultimate Guide for Beginners appeared first on Truepush.

What is Website Monetization? The Ultimate Guide for Beginners published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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4 Easy Lead Qualification Strategies for Better Clicks & Conversions

Racking up conversion metrics on your channels may look great. Having a click-through rate is something most paid media advertisers work towards. But if the majority of those users aren’t quality, then we are looking at vanity metrics.

I like to tell many of my clients I’d rather have fewer leads that we know are likely to convert than waste a bunch of ad spend on users who are not a good fit for their goals.

Couldn't resist.

And that's where lead qualification comes in. In this post, I'm going to cover:

What lead qualification is and why it's important.

How to identify your lead qualification parameters.

Four lead qualification strategies I use with my clients.

Read on to learn how to get leads that will convert into customers, and customers that will stay with you longer.

What is lead qualification?

Lead qualifications about making sure the leads you attract through your ads and other marketing assets are those who are most likely to drive your business goals. Qualified traffic to your website is more likely to take action there, and qualified leads are most likely to become customers. Lead qualification is essential for an effective lead generation process.

MQLs vs SQLs

In the B2B world, you may have heard of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs). MQLs are those who have shown interest in your product or service, but are probably not yet ready to buy—thereby making them qualified for, well, more marketing—namely, nurturing campaigns to move them down the funnel where they can convert from prospects to customers.

SQLs are those who have shown interest in your product or service and are very likely to buy.

Some leads come in as SQLs, while others start as MQLs, and with effective lead management and nurturing, become SQLs.

Why is lead qualification important?

It's obvious that you want qualified leads coming in from your marketing efforts—you want to get more customers. But there's a financial side to it too. If you're running paid ads and you have a high click-through rate, that means you have an appealing offer and/or great copywriting. But is it appealing to your most likely customers?

If you're pulling in tons of clicks, you may be paying less per click, but if you're not getting conversions, what's the good in that? You're not really saving money, you're wasting spend on unqualified traffic.

Speaking of wasted spend, find where yours is with our free Google Ads Performance Grader!

So while click-through rate and cost per click are important, your conversion rates are at the core of your ROI, and at the core of conversions is lead qualification.

How to identify your lead qualification parameters

Knowing your ideal customers and your target audience is essential for knowing what lead qualification looks like for your business. There are also a number of lead qualification formulas that could apply to your business, but the most basic one is BANT:

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Budget: Can the prospect afford your products/services

Authority: Are they the ultimate decision-maker for the purchase?

Need: What is the need they're looking to alleviate? Does it align with those of your long-time customers? 

Urgency: How urgent do they need this need met?

Your landing page copy and the information you request in your forms will help to qualify your leads, but that doesn't solve for the issue of paying for unqualified clicks in the first place. In this next section, we'll cover four ways to qualify your clicks.

Lead qualification strategies

These strategies enable you to improve your PPC lead quality before the user even gets to your landing page.

1. Be specific in your ad copy 

The easiest way to tell people they are not the customer you are looking for is to straight up tell them. It makes complete sense to use certain wording in your ads to and have unqualified users not click on your ad. I know in the PPC world it is tough to see a lower click-through rate. But click-through rates mean nothing if those leads are never going to convert into customers.

For example, I had a client that had a CRM product for startups and small businesses. While of course they targeted keywords like “small business crm,” they also targeted many generic CRM keywords that don’t mention “small business.” In these ad groups, we made sure we pre-qualified our leads with ad copy speaking just to small business owners.

With qualifying ad copy, you may be able to target broader keywords without wasted too much spend on unqualified clicks. 

We were letting searchers know if they worked for a company with more than 50 people, our CRM wasn’t right for them. Yes, our CTR in those ad groups decreased. But our lead quality increased. And since our CTR decreased, so did our costs. With lower costs and a higher conversion rate, our Cost/Conv. numbers noticeably went down. That is the most important metric to us. And when the quality gets better with a lower Cost/Conv, the decrease in CTR didn’t hurt us at all.

And if you were confused by all that metric speak, check out our Ultimate Guide to PPC Metrics and it will all make sense!

2. Use price extensions

The same mentality can be applied to your ad extensions for paid search. If you have a more expensive product, you probably only want to reach users who have money. Call out the price or the status of your product in your ad extensions.

Good ‘ole sticker shock. If a user sees higher prices, and the user doesn’t have money, they’re most likely not going to click on the ad. I am now saving my ad budget for the right user later on. Not everything needs to be about price either. Maybe you adjust your value messages based on the right user. Make everything fit for the perfect audience you want to reach; not everyone who may be interested in your product.

3. Optimize lead forms for quality, not volume

Both Google and Facebook have lead form type settings for their lead forms. This gives advertisers the option to optimize either for more leads or more qualified leads. Of course, the channels’ default selection will be for more volume. They will encourage you to get more leads which will make your PPC reporting look great. But if you have tested lead forms in these two channels and received junk leads, consider switching your optimization settings to focus on higher quality.

Here is the Google Ads lead form extension option:

And here is the Facebook lead ads form type option:

You can see Google tries to scare us a bit. It warns that you may get fewer leads for a higher cost per lead (which is true). But I am always willing to pay more for leads that are more qualified and are easier for my clients’ sales teams to close. Feel free to create two different forms, one focusing on volume while the other on quality, to see which ones actually drive a more qualified user.

4. Add more questions in your lead forms

Many lead forms on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, etc. start off asking users for the bare minimum like name and phone number. In most cases, the fields are auto-populated based on the user’s profile information. This can make the form easy for someone to fill out and submit, but because it is so easy, you may not be pre-qualifying users.

The good news is, most of the channels that offer lead forms allow advertisers to ask more questions or customize questions. Here are some examples:

LinkedIn lead form custom questions

You can create custom questions in your LinkedIn advertising lead forms to ask users for more information. This will make them work a little more, but if they're willing to spend a little extra time giving you more information, they could be more interested in your product. Also, you may ask questions that scare away unqualified users and that’s okay too.

Facebook lead ad custom questions

Just like LinkedIn, you can create custom questions for Facebook lead ad forms. You can have the user type in a response, choose from a list of options, or even create a conditional answer set based upon an uploaded CSV.

Google lead ad additional questions

Google has additional questions too, but you cannot customize them. Instead, you have a list of question options broken out by specific industries or categories. You can add multiple qualifying questions to your lead forms to get more information form your users. Many of them are multiple choice, so if a user doesn’t see the option that describes them in their questions, they most likely will not fill out the form.

Get more out of your budget with lead qualification

Internal data from your CRM will always help you make better optimization decisions to hone in on the right user. But whether you have CRM information or not, you can still put in some effort with your ad copy and lead form settings to try and qualify the user before they even visit your web site. You may see less traffic and less conversions. But if you are qualifying the right users, you will hopefully see better close rates and less churn. To recap, here are the strategies:

Use pre-qualifying ad copy.

Add price extensions to your Search ads.

Optimize lead forms for quality, not volume.

Add more or custom questions to your lead forms.

If you're looking for ways to generate more leads, you may be interested in these posts:

25 Lead Magnet Ideas for Every Stage of Your Funnel

10 Expert-Approved B2B Lead Generation Strategies

2 Smart Strategies to Generate Leas on Facebook Post-iOS 14

4 Easy Lead Qualification Strategies for Better Clicks & Conversions published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Why Social Media is NOT Effective As Advertising (Well Sort Of)

Today, I’d like to talk about a trend I’ve observed. It’s a trend that’s turning into an engagement epidemic in social media. It uses polls and questions to try to create more attention, thinking that will create more sales. Some of these polls will get a thousand people to check one of the boxes, but my question is, does it lead to the opportunity to have a sales conversation? Well, maybe. When you get down to business, the only thing that matters is sales, right?

When somebody posts a question and they get a ton of people answering it, or they do a poll and they get say a thousand people going in and taking their poll, does it really lead to business?

Success Tips?

I’ve seen all kinds of tips and tricks over the years, but I’m here to tell you, it just depends on who you’re talking to and how you measure success. If you measure success by engagement, then yeah, it’s very successful. If you measure success by sales, that’s a different story.

Let’s Try THIS?

I had a client who tried everything. We set up a handful of websites for specific areas of their business, and each one had its own blog. For years, that drove a lot of traffic specifically back to those websites, but they got so busy, they stopped actually blogging. Then, they came to me for some advice. They wanted to check on a company that would do ghost posting for them.

Now, I told them not to ghost post, just repost some of the old blogs and put them on social media, especially LinkedIn. Well, I’m here to tell you those results have been outstanding, but there was still pushback.

They said to me, it felt like advertising. Well, it is, sort of, but it’s not. It’s about awareness and getting the right people to take action when a topic resonates with them.

Because people at the company are all connected, they saw each other’s posts and they felt like their audience was seeing their information too much. But each person has their own unique contacts, usually around 150. So that information spoke to their audiences, but they felt like it was just speaking to them and that’s because they were measuring the engagement on those posts, not the results.

Creating Conversations

Start with posting articles and not ads. Not everyone will respond to every single post. That’s why we set up those different blogs because if people needed service A, they would pay attention to that. If people needed service B, they’d pay attention to that. It would drive them back to a website meant to capture their information. So not every post that everybody had on their profiles was attracting exactly the right person for them, but it was attracting a group of people towards that business.

Second, it’s about amplification. Some of the team members bogged at posting about one of the services that they didn’t specialize in, but what makes this system work is it’s about promoting the company and its range of services. It’s not going to benefit just one particular person and their line of business.

Third, it’s about relevance. People were looking at their own or coworkers’ accounts and saying, man, this is too much. But what they didn’t realize is the algorithm limits who sees what. So if you go look at a specific person’s profile, yes, you will see a lot of stuff, but in the newsfeed, not everybody is going to see that much information.

Advertising vs Social Media

How do we differentiate between what most people think social media is and advertising? Well, advertising is about awareness. Think about the ads that annoy you the most on TV, or even on the radio. “1877-KARS-4-KIDS. KARS, cars for kids”. You know the rest of it. It just drives me nuts, but it does get your attention, right?

Ads are there to create a shortcut to sales, but there are no shortcuts in building B2B relationships. What happens in the B2B world is different. Ads that create awareness can work when you have a structure for action in place and measure the right results. More on that later.

Social media is about engagement. It’s not a popularity contest, but that’s the way that people tend to measure it. Polls and questions are the things that create the most engagement, but are they getting results? That’s the key. You have to determine what results you want and results are measured in actions, sales, calls, conversations.

If people see your posts, they may click through to that content, but being top of mind matters when somebody says, do you know a company that does this and your ad sticks in their mind enough to say, yes, yes I do and they refer you to somebody else. Once they get back to your website, you can capture names and data, and that can help you realize real results, but it doesn’t always work that way.

“How Did You Hear About Us?”

For example, when companies say, how did you hear about us? Often you hear the respondent say, on the internet. Okay. Was that Google ads, Facebook ads, social media posts, emails? Could be anything, right? They remembered you and your company, but they don’t remember where they heard it. That’s because in creating (even recycling) posts and advertising, you’re creating top of mind awareness.

My next point is, make sure you’re measuring the right stuff. Don’t look at engagement, look at the traffic at your website, and it doesn’t have to be a huge amount of traffic. It’s people that are engaging with the right posts, and that’s the key thing that you want to figure out. Try to capture names from there, give something away, try to get them to sign up for your email list.

Don’t just measure hits to your website. Measure conversations. After a conversation, be aware of repeat engagement. For example, if you have a second conversation with somebody, ask them, have you seen any of our posts? Is there anything that caught your eye? You want to measure how those conversations are engaging and evolving.

Final Thoughts

Let me leave you with a few final thoughts.

First and foremost, the cost of repurposing all that content for my client, the old blog post was 1/10th of what it cost to do new ones. The real result in the business was it was exploding. They had so much business, they barely had time to meet with me to talk about the results. The last thing is that the more people that they can get to join in this concept, the better the results will be.

Every single one of those people has 150 connections, and if they can get 10 people to do this, that means 1500 people will see your posts and not all of them will be the same, but that increases their chances of having old content be the right thing at the right time for the right interested party to create conversations and generate sales.

Remember, there’s no I in team, but there is in time, and if what you’re selling is that, you want more eyeballs on your solution.

I would love to hear your thoughts on using social media as a part of your marketing system, to rally get your clients to take a look. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about amplifying content within your marketing system.

Why Social Media is NOT Effective As Advertising (Well Sort Of) published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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6 Design Ideas to Level Up your Content Curation

Content curation has become an essential part of many content marketing strategies for both small and large businesses. There are numerous benefits to sharing external content through your marketing channels. Curated assets enrich and add value to a brand’s community of followers, improving traffic growth, leads, credibility and SEO. Putting time into carefully curating content is a great way to navigate the rapidly changing consumer environment, by building trust and a strong brand identity. If you’re new to content curation, read on to discover some great ways to level up your curation strategy and avoid common mistakes. 

What is curated content?

Content curation is the act of researching, creating, and distributing content relevant to your audience through your marketing channels. Just like any other form of marketing, your online content should be engaging, relevant, and curated for specific channels and target audiences. 

Content curation is a great way to fill in gaps in your social media schedule or newsletter campaigns. Remember that curating this type of material should be done with careful consideration and an in-depth knowledge of your audience, brand identity and marketing strategy. Sharing content from other sources can increase brand awareness and increase customer engagement, and statistics show 85% of B2B marketers credited curated content to their organization’s success. This style of content has been gaining a lot of popularity in recent years and marketing experts say it can be vital for businesses. 

Infographic by Brafton

Why use a Content Curation tool? 

Content curation tools will give you a competitive edge, keep your content fresh and relevant and take a lot of the leg work out of curation. They can help you enhance audience engagement, build trust and establish your brand as a thought leader on the knife’s edge of current news and events. Don’t let your brand be bogged down by only promotional content – your customers, people and partners want to be inspired by and know your brand’s personality.

6 Design Ideas to Level Up Your Content Curation

1. Create Curated Newsletters

Alongside social media, email has become a go-to marketing trend in 2021. Newsletters are not new, but these miniature publications are becoming increasingly popular with brands and marketing experts. Brands can leverage curated content in weekly newsletters to become a valuable source, giving subscribers access to the latest news, events and thought leadership pieces. Storythings, a strategy and content company based in London, are nailing their weekly newsletters. Including feature articles for marketers and alternative media in the form of creative nonfiction, podcasts and art, the cultural and thought-provoking material appeals to their audience of savvy advertisers and marketing strategists.

 Illustration by Hanna Lee Joshi 

2.Turn Data Into Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of data or information. They require very little explanation and are easily understood by most people. Marketers are now favoring infographics as a way to share important facts and statistics about their business or industry. They are also a succinct and engaging way to tell your brand story. Adding infographics to your social media content strategy is a good way to educate your audience and build trust and transparency. They can range from current news and events, to data and information on a brand’s business model or charitable input. Take the Brafton content marketing company, who have created the savvy cocktail infographic below to explain curated content strategy. Quick and pithy visual material is the best way to gain and maintain your audience’s attention. 

Infographic by Brafton

3. Keep Content Consistent Across All Marketing Channels

Brands are leaning into curated content as a way to connect with customers, and it’s a worthwhile investment. If you’re ready to start including curated content in your calendar, make sure your brand identity and message remains consistent across all channels. Consistent brands are worth 20% more than companies with unclear messaging. Curated content is meant to build trust and authority, not confuse your audience. Sporting brand Nike are nailing their curated social media content right now. They share videos, user-generated content and photography across TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. The external content is inspiring, athletic and aligns with their overall ethos—Just do it.

Photo by Todd Antony 

4. Use a Wide Variety of Content Types

Don’t limit your curated content – stay in the loop by keeping a finger on the pulse of social media and graphic design trends. Relevant and trending content will interest and engage your audience, so feel free to use everything from videos, illustrations and photos to quotes and user-generated content to build authority. SanDisk, a USB flash drive company, is a great source for social media inspiration. They use their product identity to curate content about photography, reposting stunning high definition photos and sharing infographics and facts on environmental sustainability.

Infographic by Postcron

5. Create Quote Overlay Posts

You don’t always need to explain the curated content you’re sharing with lengthy captions – quote overlays are just as effective in terms of giving context to your story. Inspirational quotes are proven to trigger emotional responses and inspire creativity and there are plenty of options to choose from. Depending on your brand identity, you can use humor, testimonials or information on industry trends. 

Quotes coupled with infographics, videos and photographs are easy visuals that excite and engage our senses. Just make sure you choose something that’s both consistent with your brand and inclusive, be careful not to offend or appropriate the experiences of others. Understanding your audience is just as important as researching the quote you’re using! 

Post by Fotor

6. Use Content Curation Tools 

Over half of all marketers agree content creation is the top priority for businesses wanting to succeed on social media. But staying on track with your curated content marketing can be tricky. Luckily, there are tools available for marketers and businesses wanting to better reach and engage their audience. Content marketing tools are essential and worthwhile investments in our digital age. Content curation software like Scoop.It enables you to research and distribute content across multiple platforms. You can quickly organize, sort, publish and disseminate content for your brand, and get the best return on investment. 

Infographic by Scoop.It

To Wrap Up… 

Remember, curated content is supplementary to your overall marketing plan and should always run in parallel. Make sure to check back with your social media strategy, and look out for trending topics that are relevant for your customers. Content curation can be a great way to grow your business and connect with an audience, and there are plenty of tools available to start your next project. You won’t just build confidence and rapport with customers, but establish yourself in industry as a reliable and sought-after voice too. 

The post 6 Design Ideas to Level Up your Content Curation appeared first on Scoop.it Blog.

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Calculating ROI in Marketing Is Challenging, But Critical. Here’s How.

Prior to the pandemic, marketing experts predicted that companies would spend 14.4% more on search ads in 2020. But online search queries dropped early in the pandemic, so marketers didn’t get as much return on investment from paid search ads as they anticipated. Despite the persisting pandemic, however, marketers still expect a 5.9% increase in search ad spending in 2021. Why? Because the pandemic has permanently changed how people shop, emphasizing e-commerce more than ever before and therefore increasing online searches.

Such a profound shift underscores the importance of knowing how to measure ROI on digital marketing spend. Measuring digital ad spend is constantly evolving along with the marketing and technology landscape. And just because an investment in paid search wouldn’t have generated as much ROI in 2020 doesn’t mean it won’t in 2022. By measuring the ROI of each tactic in your marketing mix, you can see what is and isn’t working for you and make necessary changes to your campaigns to bring in more revenue.

To illustrate this point, consider a client I worked with who lamented landing only three leads in one month. At the time, however, we were optimizing their marketing budget for ROI, so we saw how much revenue each lead actually generated. In fact, one of the leads amounted to a $3 million sale. The client was pleased — but they wouldn’t have been if we only showed the three leads rather than the specific ROI.

Of course, measuring key performance indicators (such as the number of conversions, conversion rate, and cost per conversion) is important. But measuring marketing ROI is what really matters for your business’s bottom line.

How to Measure ROI on Your Marketing Spend

So how do you measure the return on your marketing investments to ensure you’re getting the best results? Marketing ROI analysis is all about organizing and tracking your data using attribution. Marketing attribution helps you determine which touchpoints potential customers use in their journey to conversion. Essentially, it measures the money you make on each marketing tactic, campaign, and channel, which gives you better insights into which parts of your strategy succeed and which need to be revisited for greater ROI. Here are the best attribution strategies to use when measuring your marketing ROI:

1. Use a robust CRM that allows for customization.

Your customer relationship management platform measures how your customers and potential customers interact with your company online. If you’re wondering how to measure ROI on marketing spend, start here with attribution. An advanced CRM that gets as much information about customers as possible enables you to learn more about your audience’s journey.

Integrating the data you gather from your CRM with your point of sale and marketing data can provide the most accurate ROI calculation on how much revenue was generated by the digital ad spend of a specific campaign. For example, you can see how ROI changes for Facebook when running a Facebook campaign along with a display campaign. You also can gather ROI information from a Facebook campaign running alongside a paid search campaign. Then, you can see not only the total ROI of both campaigns added together, but also the ROI changes when running other tactics and channels alongside it.

2. Remember your tracking elements.

Tracking elements such as Urchin Tracking Module codes or short code URLs isolate leads by source in both Google Analytics and your CRM. By tracking each website visitor by how they were referred to your site, you can better measure the success of your digital campaigns and determine which channels should get the most spend. In addition to lead source, track every conversion by using form fills with tracking elements in them, as well as call tracking. This allows you to better analyze your form submissions, website views, and more. You can also measure the leads or sales that come from these channels.

For example, say someone comes to your site after looking at one of your company’s paid search ads, but they don’t convert. A week later, they come to your site through a direct Google search and download one of your e-books. After they get an email about the e-book, they finally contact you and become a customer. Each of these channels played an important role in securing the customer. But without proper tracking elements and attribution, you wouldn’t know that they generated ROI.

3. Review digital ad spend and revenue generated per tactic.

Analyzing digital ad spend and revenue generated per tactic helps determine the ROI of each of your tactics, as well as the total ROI of each multichannel marketing strategy. Conduct this audit a minimum of once per quarter to get the most accurate marketing ROI analysis. This is especially important if you have a long sales cycle, which can make it difficult to analyze ROI for a specific month. After all, many of the leads generated in a month probably won’t convert until two or more months later.

With a quarterly review, you can get a complete picture of the results of your campaigns and therefore decide where to dedicate your time and resources next quarter. Over time, this should increase your marketing ROI.

When it comes down to it, companies spend money on marketing to increase revenue. By understanding how to measure ROI on your marketing spend, you’ll be able to see what campaigns, channels, and tactics are generating that all-important profit. Then, you can keep what works and ditch what’s lagging.

If you want more tips on connecting your digital ad spend to results, download my company’s free webinar: “Maximize Your Marketing ROI in 2021.”

Calculating ROI in Marketing Is Challenging, But Critical. Here’s How. published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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What Made These Indie Brands Successful?

The world isn’t set up for small businesses to thrive. In fact, the odds are against us.

Large corporations have an undeniable advantage when it comes to anchoring themselves in the minds and habits of their audience.

They can afford to pay for big ad campaigns, celebrity endorsements and to lobby governments to legislate in their favour.

Yet, they aren’t always successful.

A Tale of Two Companies

Consider L’Occitane, the high-end beauty product brand that is so ubiquitous they even have a location in my local mall here in Calgary. The company has asked for bankruptcy protection.

Meanwhile, cult indie brand Glossier managed to raise $800 million dollars from investment partners earlier this summer.

What’s going on here?

On the surface, this appears to be a fight between an established bricks-and-mortar brand and a direct-to-consumer upstart, with DTC coming out on top during the pandemic.

It’s More Than Strong Channel Strategy

There is another take that I happen to believe explains a lot of the high profile retail bankruptcies in 2021.

See, you can’t have a successful online business without amazing marketing that generates lots of leads. People aren’t going to walk by your shop in the mall, or drive by your sign.

Starting in 2014 when the company began, Glossier put a lot of effort into finding out what their audience wanted that no one else was providing (barely-there makeup in cute packaging) and where their buyers learn about new products. (social media, mostly)

Then, they set about cultivating a loyal fan base through their powerhouse blog, Into the Gloss.

Not So Unique

Many small businesses and startups find success by capturing the imagination of their audience, and commanding loyalty in a way large corporations cannot imitate.

Walmart could start a blog tomorrow, (I dunno, maybe they already have one?) but everyone who reads it will filter the content through the “giant corporation, I can’t trust you” lens.

Small businesses, indie brands and startups have the opportunity to forge the genuine audience connection that big brands rarely have. If these companies manage to stay true to their values, they will hang on to this brand loyalty long after their companies can be considered anything close to small.

Some Examples

Examples of businesses that have managed to do this include independent shoe retailer Poppy Barley, which recently introduced quality vegan shoes out of cactus “leather.”

Another would be billion-dollar outdoor juggernaut Patagonia, which climbed over its competition by staying true to its corporate values.

Same goes for my personal favourite beverage, La Croix. (not sponsored, but I drink about nine a day, so I’d take it if they offered)

The cult favourite sparkling water maker has maintained its proud niche status even after being acquired by another small-ish beverage corporation 20 years ago. Its fans are not only rabidly enthusiastic, but also trend setters. Pepsi rolled out Bubly and Coke launched A-Ha to try to compete, but still haven’t put much of a dent in La Croix’s popularity.

What this Means for Small Business

Just because the major players’ marketing budgets obliterate ours doesn’t mean they win. We have an opportunity to connect to the market in a way they just can’t replicate.

That connection is forged with words.

Not just any words, but perfect copywriting describing what makes your business so special. What makes it right for your audience. This simple power of persuasion is what cultivates an affinity for your offering.

If you run a small business and can’t afford to beat the big guys on marketing spend, you can at least make sure your message is crafted perfectly. It’s the most reliable way for your target buyers will find you, love you, and stay loyal to you.

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Every PPC Metric Under the Sun (+How to Improve Each & Every One)

If you’re in marketing, advertising, or doing anything related to PPC, odds are you’re not a fan of math. Crazy, I know, with all the data we have to crunch. But, with so many variables, even the savviest numbers wiz can find their head spinning as soon as they log into the platform.

Luckily, a lot of the hard work is done for us automatically through the metrics displayed in our reports. All we need to do is, well, know what they actually mean.

That’s why I’ve put together this complete guide to PPC metrics. Which includes:

Easy-to-understand definitions for 28 PPC metrics.

Specific tips on how to improve each one.

The context you need to determine which metrics are most important to you.

Treat this post as your one-stop shop to tackle PPC data like a pro by knowing every and any metric you’ll ever need.

PPC metrics table of contents

Click to jump to each metric in this post.

Impressions Top impr. rate Value/conversion Average CPM Click-through rate Absolute top imp rate All conversions Average CPV Conversion rate Search imp lost (rank) Display imp lost (rank) View-through conversions Cost Search imp lost (budget) Display imp lost (budget) ROAS Cost per click Conversion value Relative CTR Invalid clicks Cost per acquisition Conversion value/cost Viewable impressions Engagements Impression share Conversion value/click Video played to Interactions

Universal PPC metrics

Like with anything in PPC advertising, not all metrics created equal. There are some metrics that hold enough weight to be acknowledged across any campaign type. Check out these “bread and butter” PPC metrics:

1. Impressions

At the bare minimum, impressions is the perfect starting point when it comes to understanding PPC metrics. An impression is counted whenever someone views your ad, regardless of whether they click on it.

Let’s say your ad shows in a lower position on the SERP. Unless the searcher scrolls down to physically see your ad, you won’t get an impression.

Impressions are usually free unless you choose to pay by impressions versus clicks. You can also have multiple impressions from the same person.

How important are impressions?

Impressions can be telling in any PPC situation. For example, if you have a high number of impressions but a low number of clicks or conversions, this tells you people are not inclined to click on your ads, and that you may need to improve your ad copy, targeting, or something else.

The highlight of impressions is that, at minimum, you’re getting eyeballs on your ad and increasing brand awareness.

How to increase impressions

If you’re looking to increase impressions, here’s what you can do:

Increase your budget: The more budget you have to play with, the more you’ll be able to bid in Google Ads auctions. If your budget is small, your clicks will eat it up too quickly in a day and you won’t be able to continue bidding (and showing) for more impressions. Adding budget when you can will allow you to balance out your bids day by day for a healthy impression share.

Use broad match keywords: For search campaigns, try loosening your keyword match types to phrase match (or even broad match) as another go-to for more impressions. Since looser match types like broad or phrase have flexibility to match up to more searches, you’ll be able to show to more people on the SERP.

Broaden your targeting: This applies to all campaign types, but broadening your location, audience, or other forms of targeting is a given when it comes to getting more impressions.

2. Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions. Don’t worry, the platform does the math for you! It's the ratio of how many clicks you pulled in in comparison to how many impressions you showed for. It’s displayed as a percentage, and can vary across accounts as well as verticals.

CTR tells you how well your ad copy is resonating with your audience. Similar to our example above, a high number of impressions but low rate of clicks tells us that people aren’t taking action on the ads you’re presenting to them.

How important is click-through rate?

Not only does click-through rate clue us in on how our ad copy and targeting is doing, but it is also one of the three contributing factors when it comes time to assign your Quality Score.

However, click-through rate often gets a bad reputation because it doesn’t always equate to actual money-making conversions. Think of it this way: if you had a high conversion rate but a low click-through rate, you’d want to improve that click-through rate to maximize your conversion opportunities!

What’s a good click-through rate?

This depends on a number of factors. For example, the average CTR for the hobbies and leisure industry on Google Search is 7.45%, 0.38% on Google Display, and 0.92% on Facebook. And other industries have much lower or higher average CTRs.

Use our search advertising benchmarks to identify a good click-through rate for your industry.

How to improve click-through rate

We have many posts on how to improve your CTR, but here are some brief tips.

Adjust your bids: If you’re on manual bidding, you could try raising your bid to rank higher. Showing up higher on the SERP (or more frequently across other ad types’ networks) will catch viewers’ attention quicker and you’ll be more likely to snag their clicks. If you’re not using manual bidding, try maximize clicks as your automatic strategy since it has the end goal of driving up your CTR. More help with bidding adjustments here.

Schedule your ads: Ad scheduling is a smart workaround to a higher CTR because it limits what times of the day you show. Inherently, your impressions are lowered. Plus, you’re only serving your ad during times that you bring in the most clicks. Learn how to set up ad scheduling in Google, Facebook, and Microsoft here.

Improve your ad copy: Enticing ad copy will increase your CTR because people will be more interested in clicking. Try A/B testing your headlines, descriptions, or images (if applicable) to find which type of ad brings in the most clicks for a maximized CTR. Find out what ad copy mistakes to avoid here.

Use ad extensions: Ad extensions are other additions to your regular ad that allow users to have more to click on. Sitelinks, call extensions, or image extensions are all clickable material aside from your ad copy that can pull in more clicks—boosting your CTR in a jiffy! See our list of nine CTR-boosting ad extensions here.

3. Conversion rate (CVR)

Similar to click-through rate, conversion rate is looking at how often you pull in a conversion in relation to your clicks. This metric takes click-through rate a step further by analyzing the ratio of clicks to conversions, and displaying it in a percentage format.

Conversion rate often holds slightly more weight than click-through rate because it tells you how likely someone is to complete an action once they click to your landing page.

How important is conversion rate?

VERY. This metric is the cornerstone to any ROI-driven advertising strategy. If you don’t have a healthy conversion rate, you know you’re paying for clicks that aren’t converting.

Conversion rates can also tell us a lot about the people who are clicking on our ads and viewing our landing pages.

If your conversion rate is low, you may want to ask yourself one of the following questions:

Is my ad copy misleading or being shown to the wrong type of viewer?

Are the actions on my landing page clear and accessible?

Conversion rates let us know whether the people clicking on our ads are at the ready to convert, or confused or hesitant once they arrive.

What’s a good conversion rate?

A good conversion rate may be higher than you think! Like anything PPC-related, however, there’s unfortunately no cookie-cutter answer. Check out our most recent data on conversion rate averages for your industry.

How to improve conversion rate

We have tons of tips on improving conversion rate, but here is a brief rundown:

Include CTAs in ad copy: Whether it's “schedule an appointment,” “download our guide,” or “sign up now,” anything that lets your viewer know you’re looking for them to complete an action will do. This makes your landing page’s intentions crystal clear. That way, people who click will be ready to convert upon arrival. Check out 11 awesome call to action examples here.

Improve your landing page Getting your viewers to click on your ad is only half the battle when it comes to conversion rates. You have to have your action front-and-center on your landing page to help push forward with conversions. You’ll also want to make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly and has concise copy.

Change your bidding strategy: Bidding can sometimes make all the difference in your conversion rates. If you’re struggling with a low conversion rate, try the Max Conversion automatic bid strategy that will optimize to bring you in the most conversions possible. Learn about automated and Smart Bidding here.

Track more conversions: One sneaky workaround to change your conversion rate numbers is to change what you’re actually tracking. For example, you may only be counting purchases, but there could be other meaningful actions on your site that prove to be valuable in the customer journey. The more actions you have to track, the more likely you’ll have a higher conversion rate. Conversion tracking tips here.

Check conversion rate averages for your industry here.

4. Cost (spend)

Cost is the total spend on any asset you’re analyzing with your account. It’s synonymous with spend. It is calculated by adding up the total cost of each click (or impression—depending on your bidding), and it’s displayed in the form of your account’s selected currency.

Are you wasting spend in Google Ads? Find out in minutes with our Free Google Ads Performance Grader.

How to lower spend:

Refine your targeting: When you’re more selective of when, where, and to whom your ads show to, you’ll be saving on costs. Think of this as budgeting or managing your finances. You’re looking for places to make cuts. For example, this might mean turning off your ads on certain days or showing to a more specific set of locations.

Use the search terms report to find negatives/exclusions: You may have unwanted costs hiding right under your nose in the search terms report! This is a great place to go when you want to cut down on spend—especially since the  search terms report was just updated to include more search queries. Adding negative keywords from your search terms report will help you avoid spending on clicks that aren’t worth it.

Identify the culprit with a change history report: In order to save on cost, you need to search all corners of your account for sources of wasted spend. To start your account audit, go to change history. In there, you can change your date range view to see when your cost started to go up. Check to see what changes were done around that time to cause that spike. Sometimes, it’s just a small asset within the grand scheme of your account. One pricey keyword, audience, ad group, or any other portion of your campaign, is oftentimes all that needs to be paused to save your budget.

5. Cost per click (CPC)

Cost per click is of course the price of each click you bring in. It’s displayed as a monetary average across all the clicks coming from a specific keyword, ad, ad group, campaign, or any other asset you may be analyzing.

How to lower your cost per click

Improve Quality Score The higher your Quality Score, the less Google will charge you per click. This is because it wants to show the most relevant results to its audience, so it’s willing to sacrifice making less off a click to uphold its ad standards. If you improve your Quality Score, you’ll find you can bid less aggressively to bring your average CPC down over time. Understand how you can achieve a good Quality Score here.  

Adjust bidding: Speaking of bidding, your strategy could be the culprit behind your high CPC. Certain automated strategies bid more aggressively depending on the goal they’re reaching for. For example, Max Conversions will bid whatever it needs to bid to bring you in as many conversions as possible—overlooking CPC. Or, you may want to lower your individual bids on Manual, your bid cap on Max Clicks, or your targets for ROAS or CPA. These all affect your bid level, and inherently, your average CPC results. Know what bidding strategy will work best with your CPC here.  

Pause other assets in your account: Let's say you have an ad targeting a competitive location, audience, keyword, other component. This competition will drive up your CPC since you’ll have to bid more to keep up.You need to lower your CPC, but you can’t bear to part with that targeting because the conversions on that ad are high value. Instead of pausing that ad, you could instead pause other, lower-value ads in your account. Even if they don’t have super high CPCs, pausing them will still lower your overall CPC so you can afford the high CPC campaign that truly matters. Learn what to look for to lower the CPC in your own account.

Check out the full Facebook ads benchmarks report here.

7. Cost per acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition can also be known as cost per action, cost per lead, or cost per conversion (I always joke that CPC was already taken, so they went with CPA). It’s basically the same idea as cost per click, but with conversions. This metric takes your total number of conversions in relation to your total spend.

The best part about conversion-related metrics is that conversion actions are extremely customizable. Usually, when people think of a conversion they immediately equate it to a purchase, a phone call, or a lead form-fill. However, what you choose to track as conversions is totally up to you and your business needs.

For example, while a page view, chat messages, or a video play may not directly equate to money made on your end, counting those types of indirect actions as conversions may make sense for your business’s goals. Remember, though, whatever you decide to track as conversions will impact metrics like CPA. 

How important is cost per acquisition?

To most accounts, it’s usually considered one of, if not the most, important metric. This metric tells us the “bang for our buck.”

If you’re an ecommerce account, though, it’s more likely you’ll be concerned about ROAS over CPA. ROAS is the revenue tracking sister metric to CPA—which we’ll get into later in the post!

What’s a good cost per acquisition?

There isn’t really any clear answer to this or average benchmark, since CPA measures cost per conversion, where conversion can mean anything you want it to

How to lower cost per acquisition

Identify areas with highest CPA first: Like we mentioned with other metrics, you need to look at your account from a bird’s eye view. When my clients struggle with CPA, the first place we go is either keywords for search or audience and topic targeting for display. Usually you can pinpoint a high CPA from one specific place, like a keyword. From there, you can brainstorm tweaks you can make to either lower the cost or boost the conversions coming from that component.  

Lower your budget: A lower budget equates to less spend. Remember, there are two factors that go into CPA: spend and conversions. Raising conversions will be costlier and take more time. Meanwhile, saving on budget will lower your costs immediately which can help to lower your CPA for the time being.  

Set or adjust your tCPA: If you’re worried about your current CPA, I’m betting you’re already building out your PPC strategy in a CPA-oriented way. If you have a target CPA set up on your current bid strategy (whether that be legacy tCPA or Max Conversions), try adjusting your target to be a realistic goal. Your CPA may be high due to automated bidding confusion. If you don’t have enough data in your campaign, or the right target set, Google is probably struggling to bid correctly for an optimal CPA. Get more tips on how to lower CPA here.

Get CPA (and lots more!) benchmarks for Google Ads here.

Search-specific PPC metrics

While some metrics are universal, there are a few that are applicable to specific campaign types more than others. Let’s start with Search-specific metrics.

8. Impression share

This, and the next two, are personally my favorite PPC metrics. Weird, I know. In my experience, advertisers get hung up on the rigid metrics like CPA or conversions.

However, impression share (and impression rates—which are coming next) can tell you a lot about your PPC performance in comparison to the general SERP or GDN space.

Impression share essentially answers the question of “out of all the times your ads could be showing, how often are they actually showing up?” After all, getting your ad in front of people is the first step to success.

It’s a platform-specific metric that looks at your total impressions compared to the total eligible searches (or views on GDN) you could have shown for. It’s displayed as a percentage and can vary by name depending on platform or campaign type.

How important is impression share?

Impression share can tell you if you’re missing out on opportunities that could help grow your business. Impression share carries even more weight if one of your PPC goals is to increase brand awareness.

How to improve impression share

Raise your bids: The higher you bid, the more likely you’ll be to win auctions and be allowed a chance to gain an impression. Plus, your bids work hand-in-hand with your Quality Score to determine your rank. When you rank higher, the more likely you’ll be able to achieve that impression once you make it on the SERP. Again, if you’re not using a manual strategy, adjust your bid limit or targets to be more aggressive. Check out our bid management guide here.  

Adjust your keywords: Most of the time, people think looking at their Quality Score is the first place to go when looking to boost their impression share. However, the keywords and match types you choose can make all the difference on how you perform on the SERP. A less restrictive match type can make it tougher to achieve a higher impression share. The text and intent of your keyword can also impact which types of searches you match up to—especially since Google just updated how it analyzes matching behavior.. Get more details on keywords (and keyword intent) here.  

Go after the competition: Be sure to regularly check the Auction Insights section of Google ads to see who you’re sharing the SERP with. They may be bumping you down by outbidding you. While Auction Insights isn’t available for Display, the same logic applies. What can you learn from their ad copy or possibly higher bids that you can apply to your own account? The answer to that question will help you brainstorm ways to increase your impression share. Learn more about Auction Insights here.

Learn how to get your piece of the impression share pie here.

9. Absolute top impression rate

The very first ad on the page is reserved for absolute top impression rate—which is like the “big sister” metric to top impression rate. Absolute top, of course, tells you “out of all the times your ads do show, how often are they the very first ad on the page?” This means your ad is the first thing the searcher sees, which is ideal.

Of course, a high rate for either of these metrics can be tough to achieve. I recommend shooting for your top impression rate to hit about 60-80%, and your absolute top rate to be about 20-30%. Your unique needs may change that, though. For example, the more competition you have, the harder it will be to get a high impression share or impression rate.

10-11. Search impression share lost

Okay, so impression share and impression rates tell us the story of when our ads show up on the SERP. But what happens when they don't? There are two reasons behind why you may be missing out on impressions: either your rank is too low (search impression share lost to rank) or your budget is too low (search impression share lost to budget).

It’s easier and quicker to tackle the latter. You can of course raise your campaign budget, but if that’s not feasible, adjust your targeting to make your budget stretch further.

For the former, you could reevaluate your bidding first as a quick fix. Your max CPC bid is factored in when calculating your rank in any auction. For a longer-term fix, identify any pain points within your Quality Score that you can work to improve on.

For example, you may need to rearrange your landing page or refresh your ad copy. 

Conversion tracking PPC metrics

While you should set up conversion tracking for all your campaigns, I will say that these metrics are typically most applicable to Shopping and ecommerce campaigns.

12. Conversion value

Conversion value (conv. value) looks at the sum of values for each of your conversions is the sum of conversion values for your conversions.

Think of this as your quality over quantity metric. We know that a $1000 lead is worth more than a $5 lead. Conversion value helps you understand the total monetary value of your conversions.

That way, if your conversion numbers are low but the conversion value is high, you’re still doing alright! Of course, this metric is only useful if you assigned a value to each of your conversion actions when setting up tracking.

To maximize your conversion value, you may want to start outside of your account. Look at your landing page and evaluate the path your customers take. See if there are steps you can add in or take away to lead them to a more profitable conversion action.

13. Conversion value/cost

This metric calculates your return on investment. It takes your conversion value divided by the total cost of all your interactions. This metric looks at the actions within your customer’s journey holistically to understand how your spend relates to how many steps they took to reach a certain valuable action. A lower conversion value/cost number means you’re getting more out of your ads for less money.

14. Conversion value/click

Conversion value over click divides the total value of your conversions by the total number of clicks (or interactions) your ad gets. Google includes interaction in the definition of this one (even though clicks is in the name) because people can click on or engage with portions of your ad without arriving to your landing page. This metric is helpful when understanding the customer journey and your audience’s behavior. However, it’s not as telling in terms of performance since it’s only looking at the value of conversions and interactions—not actual clicks and conversions.

15. Value/conversion

Not to be confused with conversion value, value over conversion provides an average of how much your conversions are worth. Whereas, conversion value, looks at the total value for total conversions. This metric is an easy, quick gauge of, on average, how much an individual conversion is worth.

16. All conversions

All conversions deserved an honorable mention in this section since it often gets confused with the conversions column. To clarify, all conversions shows every action you may be tracking, even if you opted for them to not be included in your standard conversions column.

For example, if you have a two-step form, you may only count the second step as a true conversion. However, you’ll be able to see the number of completions of the first step under all conversions.

Display & video ad metrics

Search isn’t the only campaign type to get its own metric category. Here are some display-specific metrics to get familiar with.

17-18. Display lost impression share

Display lost impression share (rank) and Display lost impression share (budget)

The basics of these two metrics are the same as they are on search. They tell you what percentage of your missed display or video ad impressions are due to a lack of rank or budget.

While raising budget isn’t always feasible, the nice thing about display ads is they have more targeting variables available than on search, making it easier to improve your rank.

To improve your lost display impression share, try adjusting to a less competitive audience or changing your ad creative. Audience targeting tips here.

19. Relative CTR

If you’re in a highly competitive space, this metric is for you. Your relative CTR tells you display or video ad’s CTR in relation to the industry averages.

20. Viewable impressions

Your viewable impressions metric tells you the number of times your display or video ad was considered “viewable” which means more than 50% of it was seen for more than one second. This helps you understand if your ad was actually looked at.

21. Video played to: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%

You can probably guess what this metric tells you. Sadly, not every viewer will watch your video ad the whole way through. Luckily, the four “video played to X” metrics tell you how many of your video views were only for a certain length of time. Use this to optimize your video ad content from start to finish!

Learn how to create compelling video ads here.

22. Average CPM

For high-volume video campaigns, average CPM is a helpful metric because it breaks down our total spend by chunks of impressions. 1000 impressions to be exact. Confusing, I know. The abbreviation doesn’t translate well, but CPM stands for cost per 1000 impressions. This metric is commonly leveraged when using CPM bidding.

23. Average CPV

Cost per view is a simple yet supportive metric when it comes to understanding the bang for your buck on display and video campaigns. It averages out about how much each view is worth to you, and you can adjust accordingly if that number seems oddly high.

Since you’re pulling in so many views on display and video, though, it’s usually a pretty low number. If you want to lower it even further, you can try Cost Per View bidding or alternatively, tighten your targeting. That way, when you get a pricey view it will be that much more worth it.

24. View-through conversions

As display and video campaigns are becoming more prominent, so too has this metric. That’s because it finally answers the age-old question of: “If my display campaign has a low CTR and CVR, what is it doing for me?”

View-through conversions tell us how many conversions in your account are from someone who saw, but did not click, on your display or video ad within the last 30 days. This proves the efficacy of your display and video campaigns in growing that brand awareness and triggering a conversion via another route. View-through conversions can tell you if your display or video ads are the primary catalysts to spark a conversion later on.  

25. ROAS

Return on ad spend is a major metric for Shopping campaigns, but other campaign types can find this data helpful as well. Similar to conversion value, ROAS tracks the overall revenue your ads are bringing in. It then takes that revenue number and puts it up against your spend.

Shown as a ratio or a percentage, a healthy ROAS can vary from account to account. However, the usual starting point for an ideal ROAS is most commonly about 250-350%.

ROAS can be finicky. To start improving, definitely set a target ROAS on your campaign-level bid strategy. Another option, if you don’t want to fuss over it, is to try Smart Shopping campaigns. And definitely check out my post on How to Improve Google Shopping ROAS with Priority Bidding.

Miscellaneous PPC metrics

26. Invalid clicks

Did you know Google watches out for clicks that could be spam, fake, or from bots? That is the entire point of the invalid clicks column within the platform! This is how many out of your total clicks Google has deemed questionable.

This is helpful if you think you’re being targeted by a competitor or any other sort of click fraud. Google has a complaint form you can use for situations like this so that they can step in and stop any inappropriate activity.

27. Engagements

Engagements are any actions associated with an ad. If someone views your ad, then clicks, those are both considered engagements. The more add-ons you have, like extensions, the higher your engagement rate will be.

28. Interactions

Interactions are the main action associated with an ad. This may be a view, a click, or any other meaningful action done on the ad. This metric is usually more commonly viewed on Display, Video, or Shopping campaigns, since on search this would basically be a click.

Did I miss any metrics? Let me know in the comments!

Every PPC Metric Under the Sun (+How to Improve Each & Every One) published first on https://wabusinessapi.tumblr.com/

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Marketing Operations: How to Choose the Right Strategy for Your Business

Marketing is the backbone of any business—without marketing, there would be no sales and no revenue. Marketing is all about creating awareness for your brand, products, and services. It is about marketing your message in the right way, to the right audience, at the right time.

With so many marketing channels to choose from, it’s important to have a well-thought-out strategy—or risk wasting time and money on ineffective campaigns. Executing a successful marketing strategy means having marketing operations in place.

What is marketing operations, and how should you go about choosing the right strategy for your business? Read on to find out.

What is marketing operations?

According to HubSpot, marketing operations is “an umbrella term that describes the people, processes, and technology that power a business’s overall marketing strategy and increase chances of success.”

As companies grow, many struggle with marketing execution because marketing teams are often small and don’t have the right support from technology, processes, or people. This is where a solid marketing operations team can help. Marketing operations is a dedicated function, either from an internal or external team, that focuses on using tools to streamline activities such as lead management, email campaigns, paid advertising, and so on.

Marketing operations is an essential part of any company’s marketing efforts, allowing a business to scale its activities with minimal effort while increasing efficiencies across teams. These operations help marketers take control of their marketing initiatives by having clear strategies, processes, and technology to track progress.

Implementing marketing initiatives that support your business strategy and customer experiences across different channels, programs, or campaigns is vital to long-term success. Marketing operations makes this possible through the use of software and processes by:

Centralizing marketing activities

Maximizing marketing efficiency

Enabling effectiveness and scalability

What does an effective marketing operations strategy include?

One of the most important parts of any marketing strategy is ensuring that you have a plan in place to measure success. If there are no metrics or ways to track results, it’s impossible to iterate and improve your marketing efforts. Without effective marketing operations, you cannot accurately measure return on investment (ROI) for all these activities or increase revenue through optimization efforts.

To create an effective marketing operations strategy, you need the following assets.

1. Apps that your team finds user-friendly

The right tools will help you and your team streamline marketing activities and increase efficiency. Teams must be able to work on the go, so apps need to be user-friendly and accessible from any device.

2. Processes that allow team members to work efficiently

Marketing teams are often small, with little time and few resources. Marketing automation platforms can automate repetitive tasks such as emails while also facilitating collaboration across your entire company. This ensures that your marketing activities are running smoothly and on schedule.

3. Budget management and tracking

Understanding how much you’re spending across all of your marketing efforts will help identify areas for improvement. Tracking costs by channel/campaign, program, and tool will allow you to see where money is being spent and how it’s contributing toward your marketing goals.

4. Integration between apps to leverage current data

If your team is struggling with keeping up-to-date metrics (and therefore understanding what’s working and what isn’t), then you need the right tools that integrate into each other, giving you a complete picture of your marketing efforts.

5. Clear training and documentation

It takes time to learn new concepts or use new software effectively. Training and onboarding should be provided where necessary. Clear documentation, tutorials, and videos are invaluable for helping teams get up and running with various apps and workflows quickly without wasting time.

6. Alignment with sales processes, data, technology, and people

To understand how marketing activities impact revenue, it’s important that everyone involved has a shared understanding of customer journeys. Marketing and sales teams need to work closely together to ensure a consistent experience in order to drive revenue.

7. Reliable reporting processes

It’s important that your marketing team has access to the right data and information to plan, review, and iterate their marketing efforts effectively. Having the right tools with automated reporting capabilities will ensure that your data is accurate and easy for you (and others) to understand. Reports should help everyone involved stay on track toward their marketing goals while highlighting areas of opportunity.

8. People in the right roles

The best marketing operations teams are built around people who can manage processes, technology, and data. It’s important to have people with the right skill set in place. However, having the right people is only one part of it—they also need to be placed in roles where their strengths can be utilized fully.

What are the steps to create a marketing operations strategy?

Creating a skilled and highly functioning marketing operations team should be a top priority. This will require identifying roles that are currently missing within your marketing department. Once you have the right people in place, it’s important to develop their skills and knowledge so they can be successful with any tasks or projects given to them.

1. Align marketing strategy with company goals.

The first step is to understand the marketing goals of your company and align them with corporate strategy. This will ensure that your team is focused on the right activities and working toward a common goal. Without this level of clarity, it’s impossible to create a marketing operations plan that will actually help you achieve those goals or measure ROI on activities.

2. Create an action plan.

Having a map of the various marketing activities and processes for your team to work from will enable you to create an action plan that outlines priority tasks. This will help your team determine their goals and what they should be focusing on at any given time. It’s important not to overwhelm people with too many priorities, so focus on what needs to be done first for other goals or milestones to fall into place.

3. Define success.

In order to implement a successful marketing strategy, it’s essential to first ensure everyone has the same definition of what success looks like for your company and your marketing efforts. Setting goals is essential for staying focused and prioritizing activities and SMART goals are the best way to ensure your team understands what needs to be done and their individual role in achieving it.

4. Communicate your intent to your marketing team.

Communication is key when it comes to creating a shared understanding of what everyone needs to do and why. Make sure you communicate your marketing strategy and goals with the rest of your team so that everyone is onboard, understanding what they are working toward and how their efforts contribute to overall goals. They also need to have a clear understanding of why certain things are being prioritized over others.

Communicating with your team on an ongoing basis is crucial for success, so make sure you’re regularly communicating updates, changes, and insights from the various tools and platforms your team uses.

5. Evaluate the results.

After you have implemented your strategy and goals, take a step back to evaluate what’s working well and areas that could be improved upon. This will ensure that any future changes or updates made are actually helping achieve the overall goal of your marketing efforts.

Marketing operations is vital to the success of your overall marketing strategy. Executing your marketing strategy without marketing operations in place is like building a house without first building the structure’s foundation. Like a house without a foundation, a marketing strategy without marketing operations is bound to fall apart over time. Start building a solid marketing operations foundation today.

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How A Content Contingency Plan Can Help You Stay Calm in a Crisis

Even the best of plans can get waylaid, which is why it’s a smart move to have a plan B. Or a contingency plan, as it’s officially known. 

Most responsible managers make sure they have something in place before project kick-off. But how many have a plan B specifically for content? Answer: not many. 

When there’s a crisis, content is usually one of the last things people think about. After all, who has time to write blog posts or Tweet when a delivery is late, your website is down, or you’ve just suffered a massive cyberattack? 

This is where a content contingency plan comes in handy. 

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what one is, why you need it – and how to get started on your own. Read on! 

What is a business crisis, and why are they bad news?

A crisis is an event – or a series of events – that causes major disruption to the running of a business. It usually happens without warning, meaning everyone needs to act fast to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.

Here are some possible causes of a business crisis: 

Tech disasters: cyber attacks, system failures, and faulty hardware all affect a business’ ability to operate as normal. In some cases, the result can be catastrophic: for example, a malicious cyber attack could mean customers’ details are stolen and result in a costly lawsuit. Or hackers shut down your site and not even your website developer can get things back up and running. 

Natural disasters: heavy flooding, wind, or snow can all bring businesses to a halt and damage property.

Accidental disasters: things like power cuts, fires, or unintentional damage can disrupt telecoms systems, machinery, or close an office.

Theft of vandalism: damage to equipment and IT systems can halt business-critical operations and/or pose a health and safety risk. IT issues can also leave systems vulnerable to attacks. 

Loss of staff: illness and staff leaving unexpectedly could all cause problems.

Pandemic: as we’ve recently seen, pandemics can cause havoc, with governments imposing restrictions on businesses and trade. 

Supplier issues: not being able to get certain items might mean production has to halt.

Reputation crisis: a product recall or PR disaster can seriously damage a business’ relationship with customer, clients, and suppliers. 

A PR disaster can be big, but even something as minor as a bad review online can cause big problems (Image via Reputation Management).

How a business crisis can affect content (and why it matters) 

When a crisis strikes, content is usually one of the first things that suffers. No-one has time to tweet or write blog posts when the proverbial hits the fan – but does it really matter? Short answer: yes. 

When your content stops, it means the conversation that’s been going on between you and your customers stalls too. 

If your business relies heavily on content marketing as a way of finding leads, then that means a large chunk of your income grinds to a halt and website conversions slow down – which is bad for your bottom line. 

A sudden ceasing of content (especially if people are used to seeing you being active on social media and on your blog) also looks as though your business is in trouble – something that could see customers or investors opting for your competitors due to a lack of confidence. Having a content contingency plan means that when things go wrong, your online reputation doesn’t suffer.

What is a content contingency plan?

A content contingency plan is a plan you put in place that means that if a disaster strikes, your content will keep ticking over. Not only that: it means you have a suitable response prepared in the event of a crisis. After all, when tension is high, it’s difficult to think straight – having pre-prepared options takes the strain off you so you can focus on tackling the bigger problem. 

How to create a content contingency plan

An effective content contingency plan starts with research and brainstorming. Here’s how: 

List your key risks 

Note down any and all events that could have an impact on your business’ ability to operate effectively. This includes things that might have an effect on IT systems, employees, the premises, your customers, resources, and so on. 

For this stage, involve the heads of other departments, or even outsiders for a more impartial view. The goal here is to get the fullest picture possible when it comes to things that could change the course of your business’ direction.

Top tip: risks can be positive as well as negative. For example, getting sudden influx of orders is a good thing, but it could mean you run out of resources and are unable to fulfil future orders – which is a bad thing. A good thing can turn into a crisis – so make sure your contingency plan covers all eventualities.

Step 2: Prioritize your risks based on their impact on content 

Once you have all your risks written down, rate them on a scale of 1-5 based on both how much of an effect they’ll have on your ability to produce content, as well as the probability of them occurring. 

For example, you might rate a staff member leaving as a 2 – low-average impact to content production, meaning it might slow down, but it probably won’t stop entirely. Whereas you might rate a PR crisis or a fire as a 5 – severe threat to content production. 

Set your items and their risks out in a chart, with a column for each (risk of occurrence/impact on production). Once you have the two sets of numbers, add them up and order them according to highest risk/probability. The items near the top will be the things you prioritize (as shown in the example below).

RiskSeverity of impactProbability of occurrence TotalPR crisis516Content team member leaving235

Step 3: create a contingency plan for each event

Think about what needs to be done to keep content moving in the event of each crisis occurring. You’ll need to think about what should happen both during and after the event.

Set out key tasks for each event, then add a timeline, noting down what needs to be done and when. It’s also a good idea to note down responsibilities and communications processes at this stage so people know exactly what to do when things are stressful. The more guidance you can provide, the better.

Here are some examples of things you might note down on your plan:

Creating a spreadsheet containing pre-written messages to be used in specific events

Creating a document with step-by-step instructions on who to contact in the event of a PR disaster, like a mistake on Twitter or a data breach

Having a bank of generic blog posts and newsletters you can automatically generate  

Always making sure you have a month’s worth of social media posts scheduled so that if you’re unable to post (due to, say, a member of staff taking time off sick), things will keep ticking over 

Having a list of potential blog post titles written down to ensure you’re never out of ideas during times of stress 

Step 4: Share and maintain your content contingency plan 

Your plan will only be effective if people know about it. So put it somewhere that’s easily accessible – e.g. on your team’s project management software, or in a shared drive. 

Before you store it away, make sure it’s understood and give everyone a chance to ask questions. Then, review it from time to time and update it as needed (being sure to tell everyone else if changes are made). 

A good content crisis management strategy begins with planning. With all the right steps in place, the response and post-crisis stages should run smoothly (Image source).

How Scoop.it can help 

With Scoop.it, you can schedule content easily across all of your social media channels – which means that in the event of a crisis, you can let the software do the heavy lifting while you focus on getting things back on track. 

You can also use it to create quick newsletters, share, and curate high quality content and publish  to your website in minutes – meaning if you don’t have time to write blog posts, you can find and publish content to keep people coming to your site. 

Even the best planned projects go belly-up, and crisis can happen to the best of us. You’ll never be able to predict the future, but with careful planning, you can get pretty darn close. 

The post How A Content Contingency Plan Can Help You Stay Calm in a Crisis appeared first on Scoop.it Blog.

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Measuring Market Penetration with Brand Tracking (+ Metrics & Examples)

You work tirelessly to understand your customer, market, and competition so you can differentiate. Voice-of-customer (VoC) research, user research, competitor research, and insights on jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) can inform your marketing strategy.

Brand tracking is how you measure if those efforts are paying off.

Brand tracking provides both qualitative and quantitative answers to crucial questions:

How do your customers perceive your brand?

Are your campaigns driving conversions?

Do consumers know who you are?

Does your messaging at each touchpoint match customer intent?

Is your brand part of most consumers’ consideration set?

Have you built perceived value?

In this article, we’ll share key brand tracking metrics and methods for how to measure and optimize your success.

Key brand tracking metrics

Brand tracking measures the changes in your brand perception, and provides some insight into branding investment ROI. But branding spend (and thus tracking) can’t be measured in a vacuum.

Unlike conversion rate formulas that produce statistically significant results, the ROI of brand awareness is less obvious and quantifiable. But that doesn’t make it any less valuable.

Qualitative data is a powerful indicator of positive changes in your brand awareness and customer sentiment. To efficiently track brand awareness growth, you need to draw out both quantitative data and qualitative insights.

NPS & CSAT

NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) are both methods of quantifying customer sentiment and satisfaction.

Use NPS to track improvements in customer experience against baselines and competitor data, and to make predictions for future growth (NPS and loyalty are highly correlated):

CSAT asks customers to rate their satisfaction with your brand on a scale from 1 to 5.

Use this to measure customer satisfaction at each touchpoint to identify points of friction and opportunities for improvement.

For example, you could deploy CSAT surveys at various parts of the buyer’s journey (distributed across leads so as not to bombard a single customer with multiple questions). You might find that, on average, your CSAT score is lowest at the handoff point between sales and service.

This would show you exactly where your brand experience needs work.

Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty is a quantitative brand tracking measure that often relies on purchase intent data.

Supplement brand loyalty metrics with qualitative measures such as brand associations and perceived quality, as these can give you insight into why customers intend to repurchase.

Image source

For example, if a significant portion of customers intend to repurchase simply because you offer the lowest prices, give less weight to brand loyalty in the final analysis. In this case, you’ve captured customer loyalty, but perhaps not brand loyalty.

Brand usage

Brand usage metrics provide insights such as:

Frequency of purchase

How customers purchase (when and where)

Purchase quantity/amount (how much)

Share of wallet (percentage of spending in the sector that your brand receives)

Use this data to understand consumer behavior and to develop targeted messaging strategies.

Market share

Market share is a good measure of your brand position relative to your competitors, as it’s a zero-sum game.

Unlike metrics such as brand awareness, which can rise across the board, growth in market share means a decline for competitors.

For example, as some of the largest providers of cloud computing (Microsoft, Google) experience an increase in market share, we all see a significant decline in competitors’ share:

Image source

To give context, compare market share changes with objective measures such as changes in total industry spending and company revenue, and strategic changes.

For example, if your market share has declined, but the industry overall has grown, this can be an indicator that your competitors are doing a better job at picking up new market entrants.

Brand momentum in the marketplace

Brand momentum is a brand tracking metric that walks the line between qualitative and quantitative.

It’s possible to create a quantitative metric in order to track progress, but this will be rooted in qualitative measures, meaning it’s a useful metric for internal measurement but not to benchmark against competitors.

Brand momentum can be calculated similarly to physical momentum (mass x velocity):

Brand momentum = brand mass (your company’s size, reputation, and relevance) x brand velocity (speed of growth, agility in keeping up with industry changes).

Take Tesla. They tick all three boxes in the “brand mass” department:

They have a strong reputation in the market (as evidenced by continuous stock price growth)

They’re incredibly relevant (there has never been a time where renewable energy was more important)

They’re a giant in their industry, owning more than 80% market share

Image source

Tesla’s not only able to navigate industry changes. It could be argued that they are driving these changes). This is demonstrated by an exponential speed of growth:

Image source

Brand awareness and recall

Qualtrics, a leading customer experience management company, breaks brand awareness into three categories:

Image Source

Brand awareness metrics should also be broken down by segment, to understand which audiences your messaging is resonating with most, and to identify areas for improvement.

Take AirHelp, an air passenger rights advocate. Through a comprehensive brand awareness study, they discovered that their most aware segment was frequent travelers. And, that while brand awareness was increasing for their company, it was also growing for competitors, pointing to industry-wide growth:

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Results such as these can be diving off points for future brand marketing, and can be interpreted in different ways, depending on your brand strategy.

For example, AirHelp might decide that since they already have strong brand awareness with the frequent traveler segment, they’ll focus branding efforts on less aware audiences. Or they might take the opposite approach, and double down on what is working.

Similarly, understanding that awareness is growing across the industry might prompt AirHelp to team up with a similar company (a non-competitor, but a relevant industry leader) to launch a dual campaign. This partnership would leverage both audiences and the rapidly growing awareness of the vertical.

Brand consideration

Brand awareness is a measurement of whether consumers know who you are, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that they’d consider you for purchase.

Brand consideration tells you how often your brand is part of a customer’s initial consideration set, and this metric isn’t always consistent with awareness measurements.

Take BMW. Of luxury car brands, they have the highest brand awareness:

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But when it comes to consideration, BMW falls into third behind Jeep and Nissan, with two-thirds the consideration of their top competitor:

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The implication is that not all press is good press.

Brand awareness can be influenced by negative factors such as scandals and product recalls, and while a brand can be well-known, this doesn’t necessarily mean they have a strong reputation.

Brand association tracking helps us to qualify this.

Brand associations

Brand association studies help you determine how customers feel about your brand.

You can use this brand tracking metric to understand terms and emotions that customers associate with your brand (such as trustworthy, sustainable, and affordable) and use them to further differentiate brand messaging.

Take reBuy, a marketplace for high-quality used electronic goods. By undertaking brand tracking studies in customer associations, reBuy discovered that their primary association was ‘price value’. They also identified a growing trend in associations with ‘sustainability’ in the younger demographic:

Image Source

Before conducting this brand tracking study, reBuy had no idea that ‘sustainability’ was a brand association, and they certainly weren’t pushing this concept in any brand marketing activities.

This new learning allowed reBuy to reinvent how they were positioning their brand with younger consumers and grow that segment of their audience.

Brand perceived quality

Perceived quality gives you an understanding of the overall opinion and sentiment toward your brand.

Low perceived quality can be the reason for discrepancies between awareness and consideration metrics (such as in the BMW example).

To understand where opportunities for improvement lie in perceived quality, break this metric down into seven sub-measurements:

Performance of the product

Features offered

Frequency of defects/conformity with specifications

Reliability of the product

Durability of the product

Service system competence, efficiency, and convenience

Fit and finish of the product

Brand visibility

Brand visibility is a measure of how frequently consumers see your brand through channels such as search, social, and email.

Visibility is an upstream measure and has a positive influence on awareness (the more you’re seen, the more likely you are to be recognized).

Take Zoom. From the moment the world turned to remote work, Zoom’s name was everywhere.

They were in front of 300 million people per day at their peak, and that’s not accounting for other visibility avenues like media coverage and meme culture.

In short, their visibility skyrocketed.

And as a result, they came out on top for growth in brand recognition in 2020:

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How to track your brand

You’ve got three options when it comes to brand tracking studies.

The first is to outsource everything to a third-party research firm.

This is the most affordable approach as it requires minimal resource investment. You’ll have to sacrifice flexibility, however, as you won’t have the same command over which data gets recorded and analyzed.

The second is to swing the other way and build a custom brand tracking program.

The advantage here is that you have complete control over all aspects:

What questions are being asked

How audiences are segmented

Which brands are included in the study

The downside is that going the DIY route can involve more upfront investment, both in resources as well as building a system for data collection and analysis.

If you take this approach, use a brand tracking tool like Latana to leverage AI-powered insights, and to tackle aspects such as audience segmentation.

Using Latana, mobile banking brand N26 were able to identify highly-segmented groups and establish a baseline for metrics such as brand consideration and associations:

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With data in hand, they were able to design hyper-targeted branding campaigns to influence key goals and drive audience growth by 20%.

The best path forward to reap the full benefits of brand tracking is a hybrid model, which is option three.

You can use a third-party research firm to establish baselines and to handle large-scale consumer panels. And complement this data with ongoing research such as in-app surveys, social media listening, and customer retention metrics.

No matter which method you choose, follow these six steps to effectively track your brand:

1. Establish your goals and baseline metrics

Are you looking to boost your reach and generate leads? Do you plan to rebrand, and subsequently need to know what’s resonating so you can double down? Or are you concerned more with customer retention and cross-sell opportunities?

Having more than one goal is fine, but make sure to note these down and draw clear dividing lines so you can ask appropriate questions and segment answers accordingly.

Take L.L. Bean, an outdoor goods retailer, as an example. Being a 100-year-old brand, L.L. Bean had been experiencing a long period of zero revenue growth. So, they set a goal to break the cycle.

They determined that targeting customer growth in the outdoor family enthusiast segment was the most appropriate goal, tying key metrics to that objective.

This allowed L.L. Bean to segment in-store survey responses, and analyze improvements in customer experience based on designated customer categories:

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With clear goals established, determine which metrics to track and establish baseline measures.

You should also establish the scope of your brand tracking measures.

Advanced brand tracking studies can include inputs from digital advertising efforts, social listening tools, and other operational data. This may be overkill for some brands, so consider starting leaner with a more focused survey—at least to establish your baseline.

Qualtrics provides a good matrix for scaling brand tracking complexity:

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Following this model allows brands to start with what matters most, and access tangible insights faster without getting bogged down in technical analysis.

2. Test by target audience and target segments

Brand tracking research should be designed to help you understand how your brand resonates on the whole, but also by segment.

This is where large-scale market research firms deliver a major benefit: the ability to survey thousands of people, giving you a workable sample size to analyze within each segment.

These findings then inform your brand strategy. You may find, for example, that your messaging is resonating more powerfully with one segment than another, and thus it may be worth investing more resources into that segment.

Or, if the segment that you’re not resonating with is the one you want to grow the most, a marketing strategy that is differentiated by segment may be required. From there, you can track the impacts of subsequent marketing campaigns using your brand track.

This is just how Holvi, a digital banking service for freelancers and small business owners, approached brand building.

Knowing that their current marketing activities were falling flat, they leveraged Latana’s Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) algorithm to track super-niche audience segments, using customer insights to fuel targeted brand campaigns.

This hyper-segmented brand tracking survey is empowering Holvi to drive brand recall and perception metrics, and better reach key stakeholders within their desired target audience.

3. Choose competitors to test against

If winning customers from the competition and growing your market share is a key goal, consider which brands you want to test against.

Recall the problem that BMW has. They rank number one for brand awareness in the luxury car segment in the U.S., but fall to third place when customers are surveyed for brand consideration.

Given that consideration and actual sales data are highly correlated in this vertical, it follows that if BMW can influence brand consideration, they can forecast a lift in future sales and possibly market share:

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Recall that the best way to understand discrepancies between awareness and consideration results is to dig into qualitative findings such as brand associations.

In this case, BMW should survey and track associations for both their own brand, as well as key competitors, Jeep and Nissan, to understand what customers think about each brand and how this influences purchase decisions.

4. Pick data collection methods

There are several methods to choose from in determining how you’re going to collect brand tracking data:

Custom consumer panels

Generic consumer research surveys (not ideal, but you can still leverage some high-level data)

Online sentiment analysis (such as social listening platforms)

Survey-based brand trackers

A survey-based approach will allow you to monitor and track key brand metrics on an ongoing basis. And allow you to analyze trends over time, rather than static increases in quarterly increments (such as in consumer panel studies.)

Sample questions to use in your surveys include:

NPS & CSAT

NPS – On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [your company] to a [friend/family member/colleague]?

CSAT – On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate your experience at [your company] today?

Brand loyalty

On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to purchase [product] form us again?

For how long have you been buying [your product]?

On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to switch to a competing product in the future?

Brand usage

When was the last time you used [your product]?

How often do you use [your product]?

Do you use our products exclusively, or do you switch between brands?

Why is that?

What do you use [your product] for? (for more comprehensive offerings such as software packages)

When you purchase [X product] how often do you buy [your product]?

Don’t get too complicated with these questions. Customers should be able to answer from top of mind and too much cognitive effort tends to lead to less reliable answers.

Brand awareness

When you think of [X product or service], what brands come to mind?”

If they mention your brand: “What stands out to you about our brand and why?”

If they mention another brand: “What stands out to you about [competitor brand] and why?”

Have you heard of [your brand] before?

On a scale from 1 to 10, how familiar are you with [your brand]?

Which of the following brands have you heard of? (list your own + competitors)

When surveying brand awareness and recognition, let customers tell you which brands they’re aware of.

Achieve this by asking open-ended questions such as:

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Brand consideration

How likely are you to purchase from [your brand] next time you go shopping for [X product]?

If your favorite brand in this category isn’t available, which brands are you likely to consider instead?

Which of the following brands would you consider purchasing from in the next X months? (List your own + competitors.)

Brand associations

When you think of [your brand], what feelings/words come to mind?

On a scale from 0 to 10, how much do you trust [your brand]?

What did we do to earn your trust?

What can we do to keep your trust?

What are some positive associations you have with [X brands]?

What are some negative associations you have with [X brands]?

How well does this statement apply to [your brand]? [Your brand] is

Trustworthy

Reliable

Friendly

Fast

Convenient

Approachable

These should be based on the associations you’re aiming to form as a brand.

Brand perceived quality

Based on what you know about [your brand], how well does it compare to other [category] brands?

On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the quality of [your product]?

On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the reliability of [your product]?

How valuable is [your brand] to you?

On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was cheaper?

On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was more convenient to purchase?

Brand visibility

When was the last time you saw [your product]?

How often do you see [your brand] on social media?

When was the first time you heard of [your brand]?

In the last month, how often have you heard other people talking about [your brand]?

5. Run your tests and analyze the results

Having collected all required relevant data, analyze the results to identify trends and customer perceptions. Also, compare key brand tracking metrics against the goals you’ve set.

A suitable process for data analysis would be to:

Separate data into qualitative and quantitative results

Compare quantitative results to goals, benchmarks, and competitors

Use qualitative data to explain why you’re ahead of or behind your goals or competitors

Analyze qualitative results and perform a gap analysis (i.e. what desired associations are missing from customer reports, and vice versa)

Use these findings to inform changes to your brand strategy

Brand tracking’s main objective is to understand changes in brand perception across time.

Rather than viewing results in a vacuum, analyze trends across time to gauge the effectiveness of your branding campaigns.

Take global brand Headspace, a meditation and mindfulness app. By analyzing trends in brand awareness and comparing these to brand marketing efforts across regions, they found their efforts in Germany we’re proving more fruitful than those in France and Spain:

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They subsequently diverted more effort to lagging regions, which will help even the playing field.

6. Optimize and repeat

Brand tracking is best approached holistically, with brand tracking studies undertaken bi-annualy or annually.

Where other forms of marketing tests (such as A/B testing) can be done fairly rapidly, brand tracking studies require much more time to effectively analyze results, trends, and causes.

Short-term changes in brand awareness and perception are common. Mistakes, scandals and bad PR happen, and they can influence results drastically in the short term, as can positive events such as going viral.

However, these changes are not statistically significant.

Think of brand tracking like stock investment. Though short-term changes should be paid attention to, what you should really be interested in is long-term growth or decline.

These macro shifts are what fuel your investment decisions, as well as your brand marketing decisions.

You should still use data from feedback you receive daily (response to marketing initiatives, social media engagement, A/B tests on messaging, etc). But this data should be viewed from a big-picture perspective.

Set your cadence for brand tracking studies (quarterly, bi-annually, or annually) at the outset, and optimize brand marketing strategies at each interval based on progress toward goals.

Conclusion

Brand tracking studies are crucial for gaining an in-depth understanding of how the market views your company.

They give you some insight into whether your brand marketing efforts are paying off, and whether you’re effectively avoiding the sea of sameness.

Use data collected in brand tracking studies to draw insights into customer sentiment and brand performance. Then, leverage your findings to create effective campaigns that improve brand health and drive brand growth.

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