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How to Kick Instagram Ass Like Ben & Jerry's

April 6th, 2015 By Claire Graysyon

A photo of your friend posing at the summit of a mountain, your cousin’s dog wearing his halloween costume and that delicious brunch you and your boyfriend had on the weekend - these are all perfect examples of the types of photos I scroll past every day on my Instagram feed.

These days Instagram is the truly the talk of the social world.

And with good reason. In under five years, the photo sharing platform has grown from a small San Fran startup with 13 employees to a network with 300 million users. Each day an average of 70 million photos are shared while generating about 2.5 billion likes.

With this type of engagement level it’s no wonder that brands big and small have decided it’s worth investing in.

But what makes a successful Instagram brand? Is it one who has an ever-growing follower base, or is it one with unique content that continuously engages their followers?

Ben and Jerry’s happens to be a brand that does both. Let’s take a look at how they’ve hit a social home run on Instagram.

A Brief Intro

I’m going to assume you all know very well who Ben and Jerry’s is. You may not know the founders directly but you’ve surely had a taste of their business.

Founded in 1978 in Burlington Vermont, Ben and Jerry’s has grown to be a world famous ice cream and frozen yogurt giant with locations in over 27 countries around the world.

In 2011 the brand joined Instagram, and now has over 1,000 posts and more than 465,000 followers.

People young and old, male and female, of all nationalities love engaging with the brand and its fun, quirky photos.

They get an average of 20,000 likes per photo and it’s constantly referred to as one of the best marketing Instagram brands out there. What strategies has it used to become such a sweet success?

I promise I’ll stop doing ice cream puns in a second.

They’re Not Overly Promotional

When choosing if you want to follow a brand on Instagram, you’re more than likely going to look through their most recent photos and see if there’s anything you would be interested in seeing on your News Feed down the road.

I know personally I look for humor, creativity and photos that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The thing I, and the other 299,999,999 users, don’t look for is promotional material. And this is where Ben and Jerry’s has hit a homerun.

Believe it or not, not every image is of an ice cream cone, or their iconic ice cream tubs. While once in a while they do share their newest flavors, or promotions like “Free cone day” it’s not all you will get from them as a follower.

Instead you get tons of user-generated content of photos taken all over the world, cones in exotic locations, images of the founders and employees, photos of causes and events the brand supports and even the odd celebrity snap.

No post is ever the same and each is unique to the Ben and Jerry’s brand. They keep it casual, they keep it funny and they keep fresh content on their account all the time.

They Post Frequently Without Being Over the Top

If you look at their account they tend to post every day or every two days on their account. The past 3 months they have averaged 20 posts per month.

This is a good ratio: keeping their followers engaged and maintaining top of mind awareness without coming across as too much “Brand” for their followers.

As a business on Instagram you need to address posting frequency and have a goal in place. It’s crucial that you find a happy medium between quantity and quality for your brand.

It has been proven that you can experience a loss in followers from an inconsistent posting schedule as you lose relevance to followers. Ben and Jerry’s has found their frequency niche but aren’t afraid to post more often (sometimes twice a day) as long as the content is valuable and uniquely interesting.

They Use Hashtags Properly

Hashtags on Instagram are a fantastic way to get your posts found and create a community around your brand.

But so many businesses fall into the trap of misusing the resource.

By creating a clever hashtag that is relevant to your brand, you get more people discovering your account and broaden your account’s exposure and awareness.

Ben and Jerry’s often hashtags popular or new flavors in order to get followers engaging with the brand and using that hashtag.

A perfect example occurred recently when Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Dough launched nationwide. In the month following the launch, the hashtag #thetonightdough has received 3,023 posts (when this article was written), only a few of which were from Ben and Jerry’s themselves.

Using a catchy headline that revolves around your products is a great way to get user-generated content and get people engaging.

It has been proven that the number of hashtags is positively correlated with the level of engagement photos receive. Major brands like Ben and Jerry’s don’t necessarily need to be found through the discovery feed, but hashtags encourage interaction, sharing and help build relationships with followers.

They Have Personality

Some brands use Instagram to expand their reach and broaden their awareness, while others use it to promote new products or events. Whatever it is that you plan to use your account for, each post needs to add value to your business.

And in some posts, that goal may just be to build an emotional connection with a follower.

Playing off of emotion is Ben and Jerry’s bread and butter (or cookies ‘n cream, maybe).

They have genuinely funny captions and creative posts that make you want to keep scrolling through their feed. They stay true to their Vermont roots and constantly showcase the beauty of their state and partner with causes that suit their target audience.

Their flavors themselves are witty and well-marketed, but they build off of this through a consistently creative social account. How They Build Brand Personality through Instagram:

They use humor and charm in their captions

They know how to emotionally tie in holidays (with cute puns)

They encourage user-generated content

They support worthwhile, relevant causes

They remember where they came from

Conclusion

If you’re looking for some Instagram inspiration, Ben and Jerry’s is a smart place to start. As the platform has transformed over the past few years they have learned how to create posts that send meaningful messages, tell stories, engage followers and build a relationship with fans.

Have you tried out Instagram or have any thoughts on Ben and Jerry’s strategies? Tell me in the comments below!

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

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7 Examples of Emails That are Doing Nothing to Encourage a Click-Through

April 3rd, 2015 by Samantha Mykyte

I have a confession to make, I’m terrible at opening emails. But worse, even if I do open an email, I rarely (if ever) click-through on an offer.

The thing is, I really don’t feel like I’m to blame here. I’d love to be genuinely excited about every email I receive but if I don’t understand what the offer is (or if I don’t think the email is worthy of the piece of digital paper it was written on) chances are I’ll not only delete the email, I’ll unsubscribe.

To give you some guidance on what NOT to do in your marketing emails, I’ve compiled 7 emails that are way off target and what they can do to be better.

Let’s make sure you’re not making the same mistakes that these 7 senders are making.

1. Not greeting your new subscribers beyond the standard “welcome”

When you send a welcome email you shouldn’t just be sending “welcome” and end it at that. What I mean is, your welcome email is a prime opportunity to start your relationship with the recipient off on the right foot.

I recently started a free trial with an email company I found on social media. After signing up for a free trial on their website they sent me an email to let me know how to activate my account. It looked like this:

As you can see they have the basics covered. A simple “welcome,” how to activate your account and a “thanks” to sign off, from the entire team.

To make this email better and utilize my undivided attention they could’ve done a few things:

A friendlier hello and welcome.

An offer of additional resources to help me get started with the account - such as a link to a relevant ebook, or online course so that I know how everything works.

Links to the blog for additional resources.

A point of contact to ask for help with the free trial.

When you personalize your emails you make someone feel like they’re connecting with your company and not just the inbox.

What we do at Wishpond on our welcome emails:

When people subscribe to the Wishpond blog we send a welcome to all of our subscribers. In the welcome email we say welcome but we also open a line of communication. We ask if there’s anything we can do to help them or if they have any other questions. It opens a dialogue between us and a customer.

Include some kind of ask, so long as it’s relevant:

‘Follow us on social media’ so they can get the most up to date information in your industry

‘Start a free trial’ if they’ve already signed up to your webinar so clearly they’re interested in your products

‘Subscribe to our blog’: Someone may have purchased from you already and you want to keep them in the loop with new products coming in

‘Check out our ebook collection’: They’ve subscribed to your blog but they might not know you also have ebooks

‘Subscribe to our webinar’ if they’ve downloaded an ebook and it’s on the same topic

2.) Just sharing your content with no context behind it

I like to be wined and dined before someone goes in for the big ask, it’s only fair. If I’m going to be spending my time, energy and/or resources on you, you’d better be giving me the same back. This is not always the case in the emails I receive. In fact, this happens way more than I’d like.

Here’s an example email of what I’m talking about. This unnamed company simply sent me three of their recent blog posts with the subject line as the title of one of the articles. Just sending articles with no lead up is a little too pushy for my liking. Plus the subject line implies to me that there will just be that one article within the body copy but there are actually three articles in the body copy.

Things that could make this email better:

A better subject line. If there are three articles that you’re sending let the recipient know this. Say something as a simple as “Content roundup” or “Weekly newsletter” to imply that more than one article is included.

Some kind of greeting. You’re sharing content with people, not robots. How do you say ‘hi’ in person? Or do you even bother? Say “Hey there” and write a summary of the article without just copying the introduction to it.

Personalize your “Sent From” name. This company just has their company name as the sender which makes it sound like they’re just pumping out content to a faceless audience.

Keep in mind that emails are a one-to-one form of communication. Even though you’re sending it out to your entire email list, the person who receives it is getting it just from you. Make sure it sounds like you’re sending it to an individual and not just spamming your email list with promotional content. It isn’t going to help your business down the line.

3.) Not making it personalized/writing to everyone

Again I’m going to say that emails are a one-to-one form of communication. This means you can’t just be sending out automated emails that sound like automated emails. I’m personally a huge fan of automation, if it’s done right.

This is an email I received after signing up for a marketing event. The original email was sent by one person but this was simply a confirmation.

Instead I’d tackle it by saying:

Hey Sam (They’d have this because I needed to provide my name to sign up for the marketing event),

Thanks for signing up for [name of the event]. I’m super excited to hear you’ll be joining us.

I wanted to send you out the itinerary before the event so you can be prepared for the day but also to see if you had any questions. This event is going to be a great way for you to start networking in Vancouver and learning everything you possibly can about [company hosting].

Here’s the breakdown… which is where you would start breaking down the exact details.

At the end sign off with the person who initially sent the email so I know who I can contact if I have any questions. Consistency is key when you’re sending emails. It would be weird to get an invitation to your best friends party but have someone you’ve never met confirm you, no?

5.) Your emails are way too long

The emails you compose need to delicately balance between having way too much information and not sharing enough. Even if an email is chock full of information if it’s too long I’m going to zone out, the same way I do when people tell long stories I don’t care about.

Check out the following email. You don’t need to actually read it to get my point as visually you can see, it’s absolutely massive.

Even when I zoomed out to 50% of the page, I still couldn’t fit this entire email into a screenshot. Think about the average amount of emails you receive on a daily basis, it’s a lot. You can’t expect someone to read your emails if they’re too long.

The point I’m trying to make is, always keep your emails as concise and to the point as possible. Your recipients’ time is valuable, don’t waste it by sharing too much unnecessary information.

6.) It looks like there should be images there but there aren’t

I personally prefer emails that have a bit of design work in them. They don’t have to be extravagant but they do need to be outside the standard “let’s put some text in and send” foray.

Now, pretty much everything the company who sent this email does is awesome but it looks like they didn’t test their emails before sending them out. I know this, because I’ve checked the code and it looks like there’s supposed to be a picture beside each set of text but it didn’t come through on my end, or my coworkers email.

I’ve shared this email because no matter how well or how many times your email is sent without a hitch, it just takes one blank email sent to all of your merchants for you to be like, whoops, I should probably send a test to make sure it’s right. This is especially important when you’re incorporating photos and other design elements.

7.) Relying on your merge tags working properly

When you were a kid, let’s face it, any time in your existence, have you put a fake name on something. Given a fake name? A fake number? How much did that increase once you started entering information online?

What do you think the chances are of every person providing their correct name when they subscribe to your blog, download an ebook or really do anything free on your website? There’s a zero percent chance that every single person will provide you with their correct name.

For the sake of keeping things simple and avoiding atrocities like the one below, start off all emails with a simple, “Hi there” until you 100% have their name

Conclusion

Email marketing is one of the most rewarding marketing channels, especially if you get it right. Take your time when you’re composing your emails.

Hire a designer or find some cool templates so your emails are visually appealing. Test, test, test!

What are some types of emails you receive that make you cringe? Comment below!

- Written by Samantha Mykyte

When Samantha isn’t crushing content at Wishpond she performs with her burlesque troupe, casts spells in dungeons and dragons and enjoys baking and eating cookies.

[wishpond]

3 Things That Used to Work on Facebook That Now Don’t (and 3 Things You Can Do About It)

April 2nd, 2015 By Samantha Mykyte

In order to stay ahead of the curve you need to be willing to change and adapt with what’s thrown at you.

Whether it’s cutting off all your hair, moving to another country, or simply redecorating your room, change is needed to move forward.

As a business owner your business has inevitably changed and so has your favorite social media platform.

The thing is, Facebook still works, well.

In this post I’m going to go over some things that have changed on Facebook and how you and your business can change along with it.

Grab your pencil (with an eraser) and start thinking about how your business can adapt to these changes Facebook has laid out over the years.

1.) The value of a ‘Like’/Fan on Facebook

The value of a Like on Facebook isn’t what it used to be. Even if you have 1 million Likes, only a small portion of Facebook users are actually going to see what you’re posting. This decrease is due to the changes to Facebook’s organic reach algorithm over the past few years.

In October 2013, the average Facebook post organically reached around 11-16% of that Page’s followers, Today that number is about 5%.

5% of your fans - that’s not a whole lot.

So now, instead of focusing on the pure number of Likes you get, you need to focus on generating engaged Fans, as engagement is a much more valuable metric than an individual Like.

2.) Like-gating

On November 5, 2014 Facebook removed ‘like-to see fan-gating’ from Facebook. This means that you’re no longer able to require someone to Like your business’ page for them to be able to access your own content.

When removing the “Like-to-see Fan-Gating” Facebook wrote: “We want people to like Pages because they want to connect and hear from the business, not because of artificial incentives. We believe this update will benefit people and advertisers alike.”

Now, instead of requiring someone to Like your Page in order to enter a contest, third-party platforms (like Wishpond) instead give visitors an option to Like your Page. This translates to people actually Liking your business because they want to and not because they’re required to.

The bottom line is a Like isn’t going to count for much if the person doesn’t actually like or enjoy your business. You’re way better off to have less Likes and a higher percentage of Fans who actually want to engage with you and your content.

This is especially important because of the drop in post reach. If your posts are only being shown to 3% of your Fans, wouldn’t you rather have that 3% be people who genuinely want to hear about what’s going on?

Lots of people are guilty of liking pages they know nothing about. I have to admit that I’m guilty of, once in a while, liking Pages I know nothing about. I’ll Like a Page because my Friend has Liked it too or it’s a suggested post. I never actually go onto the Page and see what their content or business is really about.

So while disengaged Likes on your Page might boost your ego, they aren’t going to increase your chance of someone purchasing your product. These useless Likes may also be taking attention away from people who could be engaged with your business, if given the chance.

3.) Facebook is no longer a free marketing channel

If you think you can just post something to Facebook and get tons of engagement without spending a dime, think again.

For example, just two years ago a Walmart post like this would go live and be shown to a solid portion of their 30 million fans, resulting in strong engagement.

No longer.

But it’s okay.

Wouldn’t you rather invest a couple bucks to reach your target market with valuable branded content than waste hours of your life brainstorming pithy posts that only get seen by a 20th of your Fan base?

Facebook ads have changed, for the good

Just last month Facebook announced that it has reached 2 million active advertisers. That’s something many people didn’t predict after the original launch of sidebar ads over 4 years ago (News Feed ads only arrived in 2012).

Many didn’t predict the soaring success of Facebook Ads, as the tool has improved drastically. Yes, in the beginning you could still target audiences based on age, gender, basic interests and Page Likes, but now it is so much more.

You can now specifically target individuals based on where they work, where they live, places they’ve recently been or events they’ve attended. This means marketers can target you based on your last vacation destination, your new job title or relationship change or even if one of your close friend’s relationship status has recently changed to engaged (wedding gift ads galore).

It sounds kind of creepy, but marketer to marketer, let me tell you, it is an amazing tool. What’s better than being able to stand out to the right group of people at the right time on a social network where they spend a sizeable amount of their time?

Although it now costs marketers to use Facebook efficiently, Facebook Ads have evolved to be one of the best ways to reach audiences online, at any price.

Here are 3 ways you can use Facebook advertising to your advantage:

Custom audience - Custom audience allows you to target your ads specifically to those already in your database. This means you get to target existing leads or customers based on their email address or phone number. You upload your list of contact information and Facebook will match that data with their Facebook ID and ensure your ads are shown to that audience.

Website custom audiences (WCA) - WCA allows you to target people who are interested in specific products. Say they look at the coats section of your website. You’re able to place a tracking pixel on that part of your website so that when they go back to Facebook they’ll be shown the coat they were looking at (but did not purchase) in a Facebook Ad format. Crafty hey?

Lookalike audience - Within custom audiences you can also upload your current customer lists and create ads for a “lookalike audience.” This means that you can target individuals who are, as similar to your current customers as possible. helping you to broaden your consumer base.

Conclusion

Over the past decade Facebook has constantly transformed in order to become a mecca for marketers. Even the past few years have seen great changes on the social platform. So what do you think the future has in store for Facebook marketers?

Are you using Facebook to promote your business? Fill me in on your experiences in the comments below!

- Written by Samantha Mykyte

When Samantha isn’t crushing content at Wishpond she performs with her burlesque troupe, casts spells in dungeons and dragons and enjoys baking and eating cookies.

[wishpond]

The 2015 State of Marketing Automation: The 33 Statistics You Need to Know

April 1st, 2015 By Claire Grayston

Over the past two years the internet has been swamped with articles about why and how marketing automation is going to change the world.

And don’t get me wrong, it is changing the business world one company at a time.

But I’m not going to bore you with another article telling you why you should implement a marketing automation system.

Instead I’m simply going to prove it with some good old, up-to-date statistics.

Let’s start with a definition of marketing automation:

Marketing Automation is software that allows your business to nurture leads and convert them into customers through personalized, behavior-triggered content. It allows marketers to automate tasks to improve efficiency and speed while also measuring results.

Now that that's covered, let’s begin.

Adoption

60% of companies turning over at least $500m, 10% of companies turning over $20-$500m, 5% of companies turning over $5-$20m and 3% of companies turning over less than $5m have adopted marketing automation. (Raab Associates, 2014)

Only 38% of those that have marketing automation use advanced tactics like progressive profiling. (Webmarketing 123, 2015) Quick tip: What’s progressive profiling? Progressive profiling allows marketers to ask for information incrementally from leads rather than collecting it all at once. On their first visit you will collect basic information such as an email address, but with each subsequent interaction you gain more and more information allowing your sales team to more accurately qualify leads and have more effective conversations.

56% of companies use an email marketing provider. This is a significant as companies that use email marketing are 75% or more likely to be purchasers of marketing automation software over the next year. (Venture Beat, 2014)

Marketing automation will be amongst the most piloted marketing technologies of 2015. (Salesforce, 2015).

The industries with the highest marketing automation adoption rates are:

Software & Internet

Telecommuncations

Computer & Electronics

Health & Pharmaceuticals

Business Services

(Mintigo, 2014)

Useage and Challenges

54% of marketers that hadn’t implement Marketing Automation said it was part of their plan, but they have other elements in need of more immediate attention. 21% said that the cost structures where prohibitive. (Redeye and TFM&A Insights, 2014)

85% of B2B marketers using a marketing automation platform feel that they're not using it to its full potential. (SiriusDecisions, 2014)

Only 26% of B2B marketing automation users have fully adopted their system. (Customer Experience Matrix, 2013)

38% of marketing automation users were actively considering switching marketing automation systems in the coming year. (Venture Beat, 2014)

Nearly one in four respondents found marketing automation systems too complex to be used effectively. (B2B Online)

44% of marketers are not fully satisfied with their marketing automation systems, the top 3 reasons being that the software takes too long to implement, is difficult to learn and is too expensive. (Autopilot, 2015)

64% of CMOs have no formal process to manage their marketing automation. (Fathom, 2013)

76% of CMOs list high-end lead generation as their biggest marketing automation challenge. (Fathom, 2013)

The most commonly used marketing automation features are email marketing (89%), lead nurturing (84%), integrations with other software (CRM, mobile, social media, etc) for centralising customer intelligence (80%) and cross-channel campaign management (82%) (Regalix, 2014)

Features and Criteria

63% of survey respondents indicate that the ability to set measurable objectives for each of their campaigns is the biggest value driver of marketing automation. (Gleanster, 2013)

CMOs at top-performing companies indicate that their most compelling reason for implementing marketing automation is to increase revenue (79%) and to get higher quality leads (76%). (Gleanster, 2013)

86% of marketers said "ease of use" was the most important criterion when choosing a marketing automation platform. (Regalix, 2014)

Benefits

B2B marketers who implement marketing automation software increase their sales pipeline contribution by an average of 10%. (Forrester Research, 2014)

The #1 benefit of marketing automation according to B2B marketers is the ability to generate more and better quality leads. (Pepper Global, 2014)

Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. (DemandGen Report, 2014)

Marketing automation drives a 14.5% increase in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead. (Nucleus Research, 2014)

Companies that excel in lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead. ( Forrester Research, 2014)

75% of companies using marketing automation see ROI in just 12 months. (Focus Research, 2013)

78% of successful marketers say that marketing automation is most responsible for improving revenue contribution. (The Lenskold Group, 2013).

Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (The Annuitas Group, 2014)

67% of marketing automation-users listed the technology as “very effective/effective. (Salesforce, 2015)

While companies using blast email software still generate more leads than those who use nothing at all, marketers using automation software generate 2X the number of leads than those using blast email software and are perceived by their peers to be 2X as effective at communicating. (Autopilot, 2015)

Successful lead nurturing breeds educated, gratified customers who channel their satisfaction into their purchase sizes, making 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Kapost, 2014)

63% of companies that are outgrowing their competitors use marketing automation. (Lenskold and Pedowitz, 2013)

B2C marketers who take advantage of automation including everything from cart abandonment programs to birthday emails, have seen conversion rates as high as 50%. (eMarketer, 2013)

Companies that use marketing automation are 3 times more likely than companies without automation to track and attribute their content-marketing efforts to multiple touchpoints (36% to 11%). (Lenskold and Pedowitz, 2013)

54% of marketers who have not yet implemented marketing automation cite lack of budget as a major obstacle preventing implementation. (Regalix, 2014)

Marketers who have adopted marketing automation suggest that the biggest benefits are:

Taking repetitive tasks out of marketers hands, so they can work on other projects (36%)

Better targeting their prospects and existing customers (30%)

Improving customer experience (10%)

Better email marketing (9%)

Reduction of human error (8%)

Lead management (4%)

Multichannel marketing (3%)

(Lenskold and Pedowitz, 2013)

Conclusion

Are you convinced yet? Theoretically and statistically marketing automation is where we are headed.

And while adoption rates may not be soaring rapidly, it’s clear that they are growing in every industry. As marketing automation gets more affordable, more widely available and more valuable to all businesses, we can expect it to become even more ingrained in marketing strategy.

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

User-Generated Content: How to Get It and Why You Should

March 31st, 2015 By Claire Grayston

User-generated content. What do those 3 words mean to you?

The phrase tends to get thrown around in the marketing world but a lot of people don’t actually know the purpose or understand what it means.

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by individuals outside of the organization or business. It’s authentic and created by your fans.

It’s that selfie of you at the Seahawks game with the hashtag #12thman or that photo of your delicious Ben and Jerry’s branded cone at the Santa Monica Pier.

But why is UGC so valuable to brands? My mission with this article is to make that answer obvious.

What is UGC?

According to one dictionary source, UGC is “any data or media that is contributed by individual users of a website.”

But that web definition definitely doesn’t give UGC the love it deserves, because in my opinion it’s pretty damn cool.

User-generated content is original, dynamic content created by those who matter most - the fans of your brand.

It’s a symbiotic relationship as brands get free, authentic content while customers or leads get to engage with the business and at times be rewarded with prizes or featured on the world stage.

As a consumer it can seem like every business campaign is done with a hidden motive.

By showcasing fans’ content, your next campaign will come across as more genuine, truthful and sincere.

Why Your Business Needs UGC

So what are the true benefits of user-generated content? Why is it so valuable?

Creating content is time consuming and expensive - With UGC you have to create your campaign idea, reach out to fans, and sift through entries, but that’s it. The hard part is done for you and gives you more ideas than your team could ever come up with alone. Plus, it’s extremely affordable.

It creates trust - As a business, trust between you and your clientele is one of the most important things. As Zig Ziglar said “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” And that couldn’t be more true.

Seeing other people interact and engage with your brand or your products acts as social proof, allowing individuals to build trust. A simple photo with a product or a review is more valuable in you acquiring a new customer than any campaign you can create.

It allows you to grow your audience - UGC lets you strengthen relationships with existing fans and customers, but is also critical in broadening your online reach.

Think about it, if you see a friend’s instagram of her wearing a new dress from a store with the brand’s hashtag, you would probably want to check it out. As she shares that image it is exposed to all of her own followers, expanding the reach of that business exponentially.

It’s so easy to share - If a lead or customer creates content for your contest or takes a picture of their new product that they’re so proud of, they’re going to want to share it with the world. If they’ve spent time and energy on it, they’re going to want other people to see their work.

Over the past decade, social media has become another aspect of our daily routine, and people love to share. UGC is engaging and interactive and one thing that is so easy for everyone to share with all of their networks.

Where You’ve Seen It

User-generated content is nothing new. In fact you’ve probably seen it today (you just may not have recognized it for what it was).

For years the debate has raged on regardign earned media vs owned media.

Earned media is simply online word of mouth in terms of shares, mentions, reviews, or recommendations, with owned media being controlled by your business (like your website, content, or social).

Earned media is consistently more popular (and powerful) with prospective customers. In fact it’s been proven that on Youtube, brands get 12 times more views with earned media (like Coke’s “This is Ahhh” below) with 350 million views to owned media’s 25 million.

So how can you start out with UGC?

Lets look at some examples:

Lay’s Do Us a Flavor

What it is: This massive campaign (now in its third year) from potato chip brand Lay’s gets participants to submit ideas for the next popular chip flavor, with the top four being turned into real products and the winner staying on store shelves for a full year.

Why it works: Although the brand is spending tons of money promoting the contest through different, cool digital strategies, they know that this type of campaign will provide them with more ideas than they could ever come up with. It also creates tons of social buzz all over the web and in the media, meaning more brand exposure and an increase in awareness and engagement.

Sport Chek First Tracks Photo Contest

What it is: Sport Chek chose to run a photo contest, where participants could submit a photo of themselves skiing or snowboarding for their chance at winning a once-in-a-lifetime prize. Over 800 people uploaded their best shot to win the opportunity to go to the Burton factory, create their own personalized skis or board, and then go on a heli-skiing trip to try them out.

Why it works: By running a photo contest, Sport Chek was able to gain beautiful photos of their customers in action on the slopes - images which they can use in the future to promote their outdoor, adventure brand. They were able to gain information and content from hundreds of leads for the future and got people engaging directly with the brand and the industry, while also generating word-of-mouth interest and brand awareness.

Thank You Mom (P&G)

Another reason why user-generated campaigns are so valuable is the fact that they can tie in emotion in order to grab the attention of individuals or brand followers. This example from Proctor and Gamble is what pops in my mind when I think of creating an emotional response from customers.

What it is: P&G created the “Thank You Mom” campaign leading up to the 2012 Olympics including advertisements and sport endorsements. As a part of that they asked people to thank their own moms by uploading a video, image or text message to their app or website, sharing them with friends and family and spreading the word to celebrate mothers everywhere.

Why it works: While they are a huge corporation, this form of UGC creates an emotional bond between participants and the brand. Creating this type of relationship encourages consumers to appreciate the brand more in the future and have a positive view of their products. It was also something that people loved sharing with others, expanding the reach of the campaign and the brand during a very important time for them before the Olympic sponsorship.

Conclusion

User-generated content gives you, as a business, the chance to benefit from content produced by those who love your brand. It expands the reach of your contests and content, creating loyal fans and brand advocates.

The three examples I gave, while from large businesses, are nonetheless great for inspiration. your business could easily get Fans to participate in brainstorming a product, tool or name, run a photo contest or tap into emotions to drive engagement.

Have you run a UGC campaign in the past? What did you find was the most valuable aspect of the campaign? Let me know in the comments below!

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

These 10 Landing Pages Will Make You Reevaluate Your Design Approach

March 30th, 2015 By Guest Contributor Zack Rutherford

Ah, the art of the capture.

Whether it’s user data or a simple clickthrough, nothing can solidify a lead into a conversion like an awesome landing page. Of course, there’s always the question of what works best. Possibilities are endless. Yet in the face of such overwhelming choice, one should feel unencumbered—liberated, in fact, in deciding the best approach.

This article will dissect 10 landing pages, giving you the pros, cons, and actionable insights of each.

Let’s get started.

1. Awesomeweb

Awesomeweb’s landing page focuses on visibility, and has a very cool fade to white effect upon an initial scroll. All of the typography contrasts nicely and is easily legible as well. On the other hand, the initial typography and encapsulation is so distinct it makes the page look a little too busy.

Pros: Great legibility. Great use of scrolling effects.

Cons: Too much contrasting typography and coloring confuses the eye.

Actionable insight: Be careful with how many different sized colors and fonts you use as, rather than focusing attention it may end up looking overwhelming.

2. Cherry Framework by TemplateMonster

The color scheme starts cool and warms up considerably as you scroll down the page, and your consistent flat elements give off a very welcoming impression. The fixed header is great for constant usability as far as navigation goes, and the features for the newest version of the Cherry framework read just as succinctly as one could wish. The copy for the offer above the fold could be a bit more descriptive, but other than that, this is a fantastic introduction to the newest iteration of TM’s WordPress framework.

Pros: Beautiful use of color, fixed navigation, and flat design.

Cons: The initial CTA could use a bit more copy to entice the reader.

Actionable insight: Include flat vectors in your designs when you can, they look fantastic!

3. Whipple Real Estate

Whipple Real Estate offers a highly attractive report for potential home-sellers and in return, receives a lead for their agents to follow up with. Because of the attractiveness of the offer, and the simplicity of the funnel design, the user is drawn in with hardly a thought.

Pros: Clear value proposition and great use of immediacy with both “instant” and “now”.

Cons: It’s a bit too Spartan. Simple is good, but I could use a small amount of descriptive copy or compelling company info.

Actionable insight: Offer visitors clear value of engagement and urgency to get them to convert today.

4. Boulevard

This landing page does a wonderful job of putting a user at ease with the soft color scheme. It piques interest with simple, legible typography and a compelling message, as well as an easily visible CTA. The page could, however, use a sense of dynamism. The full page background is okay, but a slider with rotating images could be used to further engage user attention.

Pros: Great color choice, imagery relevant to the offer, and well defined typography/CTA.

Cons: The page comes off as static,it needs some movement to engage user attention.

Actionable insight: Strike a balance between subdued imagery and eye-catching elements to highlight your CTA.

5. Envato

I have mixed feelings on this one. My initial impulse is always to scroll down but this landing page requires visitors to scroll upward to learn more and then backd own to opt in. It’s feels a bit like trying to driving on the wrong side of the road or writing with your off-hand. Weird.

On the other hand, scrolling upward is definitely different, and the aesthetics are gorgeous. The way each box seems to pulse into place is really quite elegant, and the bottom bar tracking progress keeps you from wondering how high you’ll have to climb. The social buttons at the side are perfectly placed as well. Easily visible, but not overbearing.

Pros: Very unique presentation which will increase brand recognition.

Cons: The CTA placement is something I’d test, rather than implement straight away. Having it at the bottom feels odd.

Actionable insight: Always direct user flows towards a CTA. If you’re going to be different, test it first.

6. Zapier

The appealing comic book style full-page illustration for a background beneath simple and appealing copy puts Zapier’s offer front and center. Details are listed in clean minimalist fashion right below the fold. The offer is explained in sufficient detail, without being too much to take in.

Pros: Unique color scheme and imagery displays distinctive brand personality. A slider with pictures for testimonial is a really smart touch; it makes the praise of your company seem humanized rather than the usual disembodied text.

Cons: No matter where you scroll on the page you’re cutting either the top or bottom of an image or message.

Actionable insight: Make sure your page matches your brand persona and keep your page segmented into easily visible sections.

7. Impact

Impact uses video to deliver the content curation company’s USP, and immediately presents a supporting detail for the importance of its offer with an easily trackable statistic, complete with cited source. This is a refreshing break from traditional landing pages that’s completely unique to Impact’s brand persona.

My one criticism would be that the “Free eBook” CTA could be a little larger. Beneath the logo and above the heading it can be easy to miss.

Pros: Nontraditional presentation plus awesome video USP, effective use of whitespace, and proper branding techniques.

Cons: Actual offer is difficult to find or engage with.

Actionable insight: Make sure your main offer is visible, and don’t be afraid to experiment with the unfamiliar

8. Wanderio

Obviously, ambient video is in full effect, but perhaps more interesting is that this page goes straight for the jugular, asking you to use its service before anything else. Account signups also sit inconspicuously in the upper right corner, help options are likewise immediately visible, and then below the fold you have your copy displayed in short, legible blurbs.

I think it would benefit them to change the placement of the feedback above the “Available on Wanderio” section, which doesn’t add anything useful to the design.

Pros: Ambient video, immediate offer, and minimalist navigation cues.

Cons: Poor order of elements below the fold.

Actionable insight: The “use first, signup later” tactic is a great way to get people involved with a B2B or SaaS offer.

9. MilsDev

One big problem I can see with this page is I can’t read Russian. Other than that, it’s pretty solid. Among other things, the layout and user flows both hang together attractively, and the object of the landing page is never in doubt, nor difficult to provide. Milsdev’s landing page provides an accurate picture of its services in a highly consumable package.

Pros: Imagery, animations, intuitive user flows, etc.

Cons: It’s not internationalized

Actionable insight: This site should serve as a clear sign of how effective one-pagers can be for user engagement

10. Basecamp

Great use of comic strip-style art, offset by liberal use of whitespace. This gives the page a lighthearted feel. Unfortunately, the white space around the illustration is inconspicuously clickable, which can surprise a user when they suddenly find themselves on a new page inadvertently.

Pros: Cool art and excellent use of whitespace.

Cons: Unexpectedly clickable.

Actionable insight: Be careful with what you decide to make clickable, unexpected navigation can alienate your users.

Conclusion

That’s 10 premium landing page examples. Which did you think were most effective and why? Let me know in the comments.

About the author:

Zack Rutherford is a freelance copywriter. Combat sports enthusiast and poetic soul, Zack endeavors to create beauty through syntax, sentence structure, and the liberal use of hyperbole. Follow him on Twitter (@zack_rutherford) or visit his website (Zackrex.com) to read all of his innermost thoughts and unfounded opinions.

[wishpond]

3+ Years as a Marketing Consultant: An Interview with Mike Allton

March 27th, 2015 by James Scherer

Sometimes in business there are people who you just connect with.

It can be a colleague, competitor, or, due to the irrelevance of space and time in today's modern online world, a social media and marketing consultant from St Louis.

I first connected with Mike Allton in the summer of 2013 as a guest blogger. He soon became a Wishpond affiliate, was featured in our first podcast ever, and I've written for him a dozen times in the past 18 months.

He also happens to be one of the premier experts on social media out there.

A traditional marketer and web developer turned social media and content guru, Mike went solo in 2012, building a brand around his name and reputation which drives 2,000 visitors a day to The Social Media Hat.com. He is one of the foremost influencers on the Google+ platform (with over 182,000 followers) and one of the most knowledgeable social media thought-leaders I've ever encountered.

Needless to say, when he says something I tend to listen.

I had the opportunity to ask Mike a few questions recently, covering his own move to consulting, his favorite social media platforms, a-ha moments, advice for businesses and more.

Here's what he had to say:

1. Freelance social media consultant is a courageous but intimidating step for a marketer to take. What drove you to consulting?

Interestingly, I wouldn’t have considered it courageous at all. I started The Social Media Hat in 2012, after having spent the previous 5 years focusing mostly on website development. But I found that while I was good at building sites, I loved to write about and teach Content Marketing, specifically blogging and social media.

I knew that with The Social Media Hat, I would be able to write about those topics and connect with business owners who genuinely wanted help in those areas.

2. You’ve moved in a few different circles, most notably with Google+, but also with Pinterest, Triberr and more. Do you have a favorite social media or communication platform? If so, why?

That’s very true. I decided early on that I needed to make a point to learn and use every social network and service… at least as many as I could find the time for!

I knew that having a presence on multiple networks would help my business, as well as give me the necessary experience to be able to advise businesses in how to use those networks. So rather than specialize in, say, Google+, I consider myself more of a generalist and instead focus on the consistent philosophies of being a “Good Social Citizen” that will help a business owner, regardless of which platform they’re considering.

That said, Google+ is clearly my favorite platform. It’s there that I was able to forge truly great relationships with peers and colleagues. And while I do think it’s a great social network, the reality is that we all like to hang out where our friends are. If I’d created the same relationships on Twitter, I suppose that would be where I spent the most time.

3. Are there any strategies or platforms that you recommend clients steer clear of? Why?

There are no platforms I advise not using as a rule - it just depends on your business, your audience, and your personal preferences.

And that last one is really important, yet often overlooked. It’s fine if a business and their audience match up on, say, Facebook - but what if the business owner (and the one doing most of the social media marketing) hates Facebook?

I’m not going to tell them they have to suck it up and use Facebook anyways, not if there’s a more palatable alternative. If it’s possible they could use Twitter instead and still have reasonable expectations for success, that’s the route I suggest.

"There are no platforms I advise not using as a rule - it just depends on your business, your audience, and your personal preferences. And that last one is really important, yet often overlooked."

Click to Tweet that!

Now, when it comes to strategy, there are all kinds of strategies that get floated out there that I think are garbage, so we hardly have time to go through them all. But one I’ll harp on for a moment is the obsession with follower counts, and the idea that if you follow first, it will get people to follow you back. Generally speaking, that’s just a waste of time.

While we all want more followers, what’s important to keep in mind is that in order to be valuable a follower must be interested in your brand. That means they need to be targeted. Following hundreds of random people on Twitter is not targeted. Instead, focus on finding very specific people who stand a greater likelihood of being interested in your brand or product. If you want to follow them as a means of customer outreach, that’s an option. But the best solution is to simply put out great information and let your followers find you organically.

4. What is/was your primary customer acquisition channel?

Because I’ve continued to work all social channels, I’ve gotten clients and referrals from every channel. My primary channel has been Google+ since mid-2013.

5. Was there a specific moment where you saw a significant increase in traffic due to one particular strategy or variable? What caused it and can you describe what happened?

There are a few. The first Ah-ha moment came in late 2012 when, thanks to the kind graces of Stephan Hovnanian and a few other users on Google+, I realized I’d been using the platform wrong. I stopped link dumping and started using my content to create interest and engagement. The second moment occurred in July 2013 when I wrote an article called “How Not to Use Google+” which outlined the top social norms that had developed on the platform. That post was shared by Dustin Stout, and then in turn by then-VP in charge of Google+, Vic Gundotra. That cemented my reputation as a blogger and Google+ “expert”.

Note that while the blog post was great, it was the activity leading up to the blog post that made it successful. Had I not been taking the time to create relationships with Stephan and Dustin and others, not only would the article not have been shared and seen by so many, I wouldn’t have even been able to write it, since it was largely about things I’d done wrong myself and had since learned differently.

6. What are the most frequent or costly mistakes you see businesses making in your role as a consultant?

Most businesses make the mistake of not starting to blog. They get so caught up in details and minutia that they can’t get that first post, then that second post, and so on started. If they’d just start writing, it would get easier each time.

7. If The Social Media Hat lost all of its traffic, and you had to rebuild it from scratch in today's marketing environment, what would you do differently?

From a high level perspective, there’s actually very little that I would do differently.

During the first 12 - 16 months the site was up, I blogged 6 - 12 times per week! I created as much content as I could, and focused on making sure that there was value in each piece for my audience. Once I’d established a reputation (and more traffic and paying clients), I gradually ratcheted down the publishing schedule.

Yet ironically, now that I’m blogging just a couple times a month, my organic traffic continues to grow and is the highest it’s ever been. That’s the power of content marketing.

That said, there are lots of specific techniques and approaches that I tried and wouldn’t do again. That’s actually a big part of my approach to blogging - I try things out and run tests and experiments, and then blog about my results. For instance, I thought early on that syndicating my content to a couple major sites would be good for. As you know (since I blogged about and Wishpond so eloquently responded), I wasn’t syndicating the right way so Google wasn’t giving me credit for all that content I was creating. When I stopped doing that in October of 2013, everything changed.

8. You’ve recently had a baby daughter, how do you balance your work life with your private life?

Now that’s a great question. Um, I don’t?

Seriously, I have a three year old little princess and a 5 month old newborn. I work at my house in a third-floor loft, and my wife is a full-time mom. My oldest attends Montessori, which leaves my wife free to tend to the newborn most of the day, but there are still times when she needs a hand, and I’m fortunate to be able to do that most of the time. But I balance the interruptions during “work hours” with some evening and weekend work when the kids are both sleeping. In fact, Saturday and Sunday afternoons are when I get the most writing done!

The other side of that is the idea of personal versus business on social media. For that, I have a far more methodical approach. My personal Facebook profile is personal. I don’t connect with just anyone there, and most of my status updates are personal in nature and are often shared only with friends. Every one of my other social profiles is specifically for business. I do permit some overlap in activities - I share my latest blog posts to my personal Facebook Page, and I do sometimes share personal pics of the girls or other random posts to Google+, and so on. Yet while it may seem random to the casual observer, it’s actually quite calculated. Most everyone on Google+ knows that I’m a Star Wars geek, and that’s been a deliberately cultivated connection.

9. Do you have a favorite blog or source of inspiration?

My favorite bloggers are Peg Fitzpatrick, Rebekah Radice, Dustin W. Stout, Stephan Hovnanian, Demian Farnsworth, Neal Schafer, Jeff Sieh, Martin Shervington, David Amerland, Mark Schaffer and Michael Hyatt, in no particular order. Clearly, I can’t name just one. ;)

10. Just for my own sake, how the hell did you get more than 182,000 Google+ followers?

I’ll never tell. :)

Actually, it’s due to following the process I hinted at above. Starting in Dec. 2012 or so, I completely dumped all my Google+ connections and started from scratch, being very deliberate about who I followed and who I cultivated a relationship with. I started blogging more frequently and, each time I published, I shared that post to Google+ using Google+ Best Practices - a bold title, in-depth commentary, link, image, hashtags, mentions… the works. On April 12th, Google put me on the Suggested User List for the first of three stints. Each time I was on the SUL, I went from gaining a moderate amount of interested followers each day to gaining hundreds.

Have any questions for Mike? Feel free to ask them in the comment section below!

Mike Allton is a Social Media Consultant, Blog Coach and Chief Marketing Officer at SiteSell.com. He has been working with websites and the Internet since the early ‘90’s. He is active on all of the major social networks and enjoys writing and teaching small business owners how to leverage the Internet to promote and grow their business.

Connect with Mike on Google+, Linkedin and Twitter

[wishpond]

5 Ways to Personalize Your Emails Without Scaring your Subscribers

March 26, 2015 By Claire Grayston

Think about your email inbox. What exactly is in there?

There’s that email from your old high school friend you haven’t seen in a year, an evite to your niece's engagement party, and Facebook emails notifying you of comments on your new profile picture.

That is what your marketing emails are competing with.

Is your customer more likely to open your generic email or a personalized email from someone they actually know? The answer isn’t too hard to figure out.

And that’s why personalized emails are such a powerful element of your marketing strategy. Email marketing is one of the only opportunities you have to personally talk to your leads and customers.

In fact, personalized promotional emails have been proven to lift transaction rates and revenue six times higher than non-personalized emails.

So what tips can you implement to make sure your emails stand out in your subscriber’s inbox?

Let’s find out.

1. Subject Lines

I figured we’d start out with the obvious. I’m sure by now you’ve heard time and again that a personalized subject line will have a positive impact on your open rates. And it’s true. A personalized subject line has a 26% higher unique open rate than a generic subject line.

They’re one of the first things your recipients see when they notice they have a new email.

So how can you personalize this crucial combination of words?

Use their name to make them look twice - Including that individual’s name in the subject line grabs their attention and forces them to read what you have to say. As soon as you see your name you are inclined to learn more. For example to a reader who has just downloaded our Facebook Ad ebook a few days prior we may say:

Use their geographic location to grab their attention - By making the email specific to that user’s geographic location, it may make it seem more relevant and valuable to read. A Vancouver resident may receive:

Base the subject line on a recent site visit - To visitors who have viewed certain products or services on your website but never pulled the credit card trigger, target them with a specific subject line. An ecommerce visitor who abandoned their cart days prior may receive a personalized subject line saying:

Subject lines are also very easy to test, meaning you can play around with different styles and decipher what works best for your email list.

2. Be Careful When Deciding on Your From Name

Who are you, as the email sender? Are you going to be known as John, John Smith, John Smith from Wishpond or simply Wishpond?

It may not appear to be a huge decision, but looks can be deceiving.

In fact, when using a real name instead of just a company name, open rates are proven to increase.

By using a real name along with the business you work for, it is still clear to recipients who you represent, but it comes across in a more welcoming and friendly way. Just simply putting the company’s name makes it seem more like sales and less like a one on one conversation.

After all, you should feel privileged to be in that recipient’s inbox, competing for their attention. Take advantage of the opportunity and communicate with them as if it were a real human relationship.

Some examples of how you can personalize your from address are seen below. Amy Porterfield’s name is its own brand so for her it serves the purpose of her name and a business.

3. Use Merge Tags to Personalize Your Greeting

Another way to personalize your email (and not seem creepy) is to use merge tags in your greeting to your email recipient. It allows you to say hello like you would if you were face to face rather than a generic “Hello” or “Hi there.”

If you go to read an email and it said “Hi your name” would you be more willing to read on?

To most people the answer would be a resounding yes.

Merge tags allow you to place captured information from form fields in the past directly into your messages. They’re placeholders that allow you to customize your email messages with customer data.

For example a greeting merge tag would read “Hello [FIRST]” and be replaced with “Hello Claire.”

In addition to first names you could include merge tags such as recipients’ city, business name, career and so forth if you have captured that information previously.

To some of you who know about marketing automation and the personalization techniques you can use, this may seem elementary. But if you’re just starting out with email marketing and looking to increase your click-through rate, it can make a big difference.

4. Segment Recipients into Multiple Lists Based on Behaviour

Segment, segment, segment. Marketers have heard this time and time again. But do you realize how segmentation can affect the level of humanization and relevance to recipients?

In studies done by Hubspot, segmentation was proven to increase open rates by an average of 39% and the number of sales leads by 24%.

So what could you segment your lists based on?

Geography - The time of day that you send your emails is one way to seem more personalized. Segmenting leads based on where they live is one way to do so. That way when you say “Good morning Cindy!” you can be sure it’s actually morning where Cindy is located.

Recent purchases - Knowing what your recipient has recently purchased from you is a huge advantage for email marketing. You can target them specifically based on that purchase, in order to encourage them to buy other relevant or related items. For example if a customer last week purchased a bikini from your clothing store, target her with emails such as:

“Hi _____”

We hope you’re loving your new “your store” bikini!

But did you hear that all sundresses and cover-ups are 40% off this weekend with the discount code: HDJG340.

Tomorrow until Sunday at Midnight PT is your chance to get that matching beach ready piece to go along with your new suit.

Cheers,

The “your store” Team

Content Downloads - Knowing what your own customer has or hasn’t done isn’t creepy, it’s doing your job. For B2B leads you need to nurture them with content into paying customers and one way to do that is through email marketing. Segment leads based on content they have downloaded in the past or articles that they have read. By completing these actions you can discover their interests and needs and target them with specific, related emails in the future. For example at Wishpond we may send an ebook lead an email like this:

“Hi ______,”

We hope you enjoyed our ebook “The Complete Guide to Facebook Ads.”

We know how overwhelming it can be when starting out with Facebook Ads in terms of costs, design and targeting.

If you’re looking for more information we just recently published a free video course on Smart Facebook Ad Spending which has led many other marketers to great success.

Feel free to give it a watch and hopefully it will cure some of your possible confusion.

Cheers,

Claire Grayston

Digital Content Marketer

Wishpond

Usage - You can also personalize emails by segmenting individuals based on how active they are on your site. You may want to re-engage leads who have disappeared recently or reward leads who have shown recent interest. This type of specific, individualized email makes them feel recognized and that they are important to your business. For example we may send an email that looks like this:

“Hi _____,”

We’ve noticed that you have been enjoying our blog the past few weeks and we’re so happy about it! In return we want to present you with a special discount offer.

This weekend receive 20% off your entire _______ purchase.

Thank you for being a loyal reader and customer, we hope you know how much we love you!

Sincerely,

The ______ Team

5. Personality and Tone

So what is personalization actually?

As one dictionary definition would have it, it’s “to design or tailor to meet an individual's specifications, needs, or preferences”.

So while including real names and basing your emails off of actions is one aspect of it, another part of personalization is to meet the recipient’s needs.

It’s to be human. And a large part of being human is in how you speak to people.

The tone and personality you include in your email marketing makes a huge difference when it comes to your open and engagement rates. You need to communicate in a way that your target audience will respond to.

Tone and personality is humanization, and thats what keeps you from becoming creepy. It lets you speak in a friendly, conversational tone.

Think about it. If you were speaking to your target audience of 18-30 year old women about a clothing product or 25-45 year old men about a fitness product your choice of words would probably be a tad different. The same goes for your email.

Having personality in your emails also means injecting a bit of you and your business’ culture into your email marketing. Show them a bit of who you are and you’ll be rewarded with more opens and clicks.

If you’re curious about adding personality and tone to your business or content communication, check out the Wishpond Content Team’s podcast on Personality and Tone in Business.

Conclusion

Personalization is that extra bit of sauce that makes the dish even more delicious. It’s what grabs the attention of recipients and sets you apart from the rest of the competition in that loaded inbox.

Have you tried personalization in your emails in the past? What methods have you tried that have been successful?

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

How to Run an Online Hospitality Contest: For Hotels, Resorts & Spas

March 25th, 2015 By Claire Grayston

Does your hotel, resort or spa need a social boost?

Do you want to increase your fan base and get existing leads engaging and interacting with your brand online?

An online contest allows you to expand the reach of your hotel or spa to new audiences while building your relationship with existing clients or guests.

But easier said than done, right?

This article will show you step by step how to run an online hospitality contest. I’ll give you new ideas of how your business can thrive with an online contest through real-life examples and ideas you can try yourself.

Hospitality Contest: Types

Why even run a contest in the first place?

An online contest allows you to garner a larger fan following, interact with your existing fan base and gives you the chance to collect lead information for the future.

And lets face it, with photo contests, essay contests, video contests, referral contests, etc - the possibilities for your online contest are endless.

As a hotel, resort or spa, running a contest that gives you user-generated content allows you to hit two birds with one stone. You can expand the reach of your brand and get new leads while also gaining information and content that you can use in future marketing campaigns.

Let’s break down the various user-generated content contest types:

Photo Contest: A photo contest gets your participants to submit a photo relating to a specific theme. It gives your business the opportunity to gain information from entrants as well as images which you can use down the line to promote your hotel or spa. It’s a great way to get current and potential customers engaging directly with your brand and your industry.

Instagram Hashtag Contest: A hashtag contest allows your fans to simply upload photos to their own Instagram account while using your signature hashtag in order to be entered to win.

All photos with that hashtag will then be displayed in a voting gallery on your Facebook page, website and so on. Everyone on vacation likes to show off on Instagram anyway, so this type of contest requires little effort for participants and gives you user-generated content relating to your resort, hotel or spa.

Essay Contest: An essay contest requires entrants to submit a text-entry about a certain topic. You get to decide the type of question you want to ask them such as why they deserve to win a vacation at your resort, hotel or spa.

Essay contests give you a look at your leads’ current wants and needs and allows them to communicate about a topic relating to your brand. The more leads think about your brand and how great it would be to win your contest, the more inclined they are to visit your location in the near future. With certain contest providers like Wishpond you can also get others to vote on their favorite submission.

Video Contest: A video contest is one of the most engaging contest types but also requires a lot of effort from entrants. One creative idea is to ask participants for a vacation video diary from their time at your hotel, resort or spa. With smartphones in hand at all times it isn’t too hard to capture your favorite vacation moments on film.

Of course you could also run a vote contest, photo caption contest or sweepstakes, but the user-generated style of contests we have listed above are our recommendations for the hospitality industry.

Hospitality Contest: Prizes

The great thing about running a contest in the hospitality industry is that your business has great prizes to give away that participants really, really want. From a one or two-night stay at your hotel, a deluxe spa package, or a mutually-beneficial deal with a car dealership, adventure company or ski package - the possibilities are endless.

As a hotel or resort, you want to ensure that the prize you give away encourages future purchases and accommodation at your property. For that reason you never want to give away cash or something generic that participants could get elsewhere. Some ideas you can try are:

A 2 night stay for 2 at your hotel or resort

A romantic dinner at the restaurant in your hotel

A hotel package including flights, car rental, day trips/adventures. etc

A holiday-related stay for the family or a couple’s getaway

Showing off your resort or hotel visually in your contest will make all participants want to visit, even if they don’t end up with the grand prize. Good visuals encourage people to participate in future contests and book a trip down the line.

As a spa you also want to turn contest leads into paying customers. Choose a prize of products or services offered at your spa location. A few examples may be:

A couples massage

A spa-day package complete with a mani, pedi, facial, etc

A spa gift pack of products such as lotions, scrubs, nail polish, etc

Of course these prizes can vary dramatically in value, so ensure that your prize is proportionate to the level of effort participants need to exert. For example if you’re running a video contest the prize should be of higher value than one for a simpler hashtag contest.

If you’re looking for prize inspiration, check out our article 101 Best Prize Ideas to Give Away in Online Contests & Competitions.

Hospitality Contest: Headlines

Once you decide the theme of your contest, you need to ensure your headline is attention-grabbing and can be used across your various contest promotional channels.

So what makes a good contest headline?

Besides your image, the headline is the first thing entrants will see on your contest page or banner. It needs to entice them to enter with just enough info to want to learn more but without giving away everything.

And yes, it does need to be perfect. Imagine reading a headline of a contest for your brand and right away spotting a grammatical error (or worse a spelling mistake). Chances are you’re not going to have the most positive feeling about the legitimacy of the contest.

Most importantly you want your headline to instantly grab the attention of people scrolling through Facebook or surfing the web. One way to do so is to also include the value of the prize in the headline.

Here are some examples of headlines you could use for your own hotel, resort, or spa contest:

Win a luxurious spa weekend for 2 valued at $700

Need a getaway? Win a free 2-night stay at [your hotel or resort]

Ready, set, shoot! and win a 2 night oceanside retreat (photo contest)

Enter to win the spa day of your dreams

Hospitality Contest: Images

When it comes to hospitality, looks really do matter. Think about the last vacation or spa appointment you made. The first thing you likely did was click through the photo gallery tab or scroll through the pictures displaying their products and services.

You want to evoke a feeling of relaxation, fun, or enjoyment when it comes to your resort, hotel or spa.

Lets look at a few examples:

Adina Apartment Hotels

This contest uses an image of 2 girls surfing in order to evoke a desire for fun and adventure from participants. They also smartly partnered with another business (Let’s Go Surfing), a great contest idea for any resort, hotel, or spa. My only recommendation would be making the image a bit larger and cutting down the brown banner a small amount to show more of the beach and surfing.

Eden Roc Resort & Spa

Eden Roc chose to use a gallery for their contest banner image which is a fantastic idea. They had four different images that revolved, allowing participants to get a good glimpse of various aspects of the resort from the beach to the pool to the bar. This makes entrants more likely to enter and more intrigued as to what else the resort has to offer.

Hospitality Contest: Promotion

How can you inform past or potential hotel, resort or spa guests about your amazing contest?

There are a couple of different things you should try:

Promote your contest on your website and using traditional methods like sending an email to your existing list

Create a banner image for your Facebook profile and create targeted Facebook Ads for those located in surrounding areas and meeting the criteria of your target demographic

Invite guests to enter the contest when they book a room or appointment or when they actually check-in and incentivize social sharing with hotel or spa perks or discounts

For more on using Facebook Ads to promote your contest, check out my colleague James’ article “How to Ensure a Successful Online Contest with Facebook Ads.”

So what does the ideal hospitality contest look like?

This example, from “Beach with Benefits,” is one of our favorites.

It has a catchy headline “Enter to win a trip to the beach with benefits” enticing participants to learn more while also using a fun but consistent color scheme throughout the page.

It displays an image relevant to the contest (they win a free Gondola ride) while also clearly displaying all of the different elements of the prize.

Obviously this contest has a very high prize value, and as a result the brand was able to gain lead information from more than 6,300 people. This doesn’t mean your prize needs to be this big by any means. But, a good design a relevant prize and image and a strong headline will lead you down the path to success.

Conclusion

As a hotel, resort or spa, sometimes running a contest can seem overwhelming. But it doesn’t need to be. With the right contest type, prize, headline, image and promotional strategy you can motivate participants to enter and be rewarded with hundreds or even thousands of new leads.

Are you a hotel, resort or spa that has run an online contest? What was your experience like? Feel free to shoot me a line in the comments section below!

Related Articles:

The 5 Most Heart-Wrenching Contest Mistakes We See All the Time

The 10 Ingredients to a Successful Social Media Contest

Social Media Marketing for Hotels and Resorts

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

How to Run an Online Contest as a Photographer

March 24th, 2015 By Claire Grayston

As a photographer, visuals are everything. You probably know that.

But sometimes it can seem hard to engage with your clients or potential customers. Sure, they like and share the photos you post and add the odd comment, but is that maximizing your potential interaction?

You need to be engaging with leads and fans constantly to encourage them to spread the word about your business and return to you for business in the future.

A contest is the perfect way to engage your fans through visual content. Let’s dive in and find out how you, as a photographer, can run a successful online promotion.

What Type of Contest Do You Want to Run?

First off why should you be running a contest?

An online social contest allows you to generate new leads and social fans, spreading the awareness of your brand and services while also engaging existing leads. You get to remind them who you are, show them you’re unique and get them interacting with your business.

And as a photographer, there’s not just one type of contest you can run. You have a few choices to make.

Photo Contest: I know this is probably the first thing you thought of when a contest first popped into your mind. A photo contest requires your participants to submit a photo relating to a certain topic of your choice.

Your business gets to gain the personal information of entrants (meaning new leads for you) as well as user-generated content in the form of photos. A photo contest is a great way to get current and potential customers engaging directly with your business and the services you offer.

Instagram Hashtag Contest: An Instagram Hashtag Contest lets your fans simply upload photos to their own Instagram account, tagging them with a specific hashtag of your choice in order to be entered to win a prize.

Once they have uploaded the photo, it will appear in a gallery on your business’ Facebook page, or website where they can be voted on and shared with friends and family. If you run a campaign with a topic targeted at the needs or interests of your audience, it will be easy for them to participate. For example wedding photos, baby photos, vacation photos, you can choose a topic relevant and interesting to your target audience.

Vote Contest: A vote contest requires you to display your own business’ photos and have them voted on by participants. All participants have to do is vote on their favorite in order to be entered for a chance to win. It is a great contest style for photographers to get their clients’ opinions on their recent projects and find out what image styles they favor most.

For a photographer or a business that revolves around photography, these 3 types of contests are our recommendations. They are the best contest styles for displaying visual content and we have seen many photography businesses find success with each of them.

Photographer Contest: Prizes

As a photographer, don’t be fooled into thinking that there is a shortage of prizes you can offer in your contest. I guarantee you have more options that you think you do. Your prizes can also range dramatically in price and value depending on the level of effort required from participants for your contest.

The most important thing to consider when deciding on your contest prize is that it is relevant, valuable and desired by your target audience. You want the prize to encourage future purchase and be in line with your business’ products and services. A stack of cash or the latest gadget is awesome, but if you want quality leads for the future think of something that will draw leads back to you when they’re in need of a photographer.

Your prize also needs to be proportionate to the type of contest you run. This means that your vote contest prize should be lower in value than a photo contest that requires user-generated content.

So what could you offer? Let’s see here…

A free photo sitting for a family

A free engagement/wedding/baby photo session

A framed photograph or photo package

A camera

A photographer starter kit - lens, editing software etc

The opportunity to have their photo in a magazine or in a photo display, etc

Photographer Contest: Headlines and Images

Headlines

Once you have created the theme of your contest and decided on a relevant and appropriate prize the headline is the next important step.

Your headline has to grab the attention of all potential entrants and make the contest sound too good to resist. It is what's going to convince participants to enter when they see your contest on social media, on your website, or in their email inbox.

But what would a good headline look like?

It needs to excite and entice the potential participant to want to learn more. This means no spelling errors, no grammar errors - your headline needs to be perfect. Include the prize in the headline or the value of the prize if it is not obviously apparent. This makes it more appealing to people scrolling by, stopping them in their tracks and getting them to consider your contest.

Here are some examples of headlines you could use for your photography contest:

Win a Free Engagement Photoshoot Valued at $400

Upload Your Favorite Newborn Photo and Win A Photoshoot

Want your photo to be the July cover of ________ Magazine?

Submit your favorite captured summer moment and win a photographer starter kit!

Images

As a photographer you know more than anyone how emotions can be conveyed through images. Pictures speak far louder than 1000 words.

For this reason you should make your contest visually appealing with photos and graphics. Its going to be the first thing participants notice and can communicate a lot about the legitimacy and value behind your contest.

You want your contest’s design to exude professionalism, excitement and desire.

Photographer Contest: Examples

Now that we’ve had a quick rundown of how you can run a social contest for your business it’s time to dive into some comment-worthy campaign examples.

Magenta Photo Studio: Smiling For Mommy Contest

They’ve stuck to a simple design using their signature orange coloring and logo. To existing clients it’s clear that it’s Magenta’s contest and the design doesn’t overwhelm with too much text or graphics.

The image exudes excitement, is straight up adorable and conveys the theme of the contest.

They’ve mentioned the value of the prize in the headline, which would grab the attention of any participant scrolling by (especially since it is of high value).

Foto Classes: Enter For a Chance to Win a Free Course of Your Choice. A $149 Value.

The image is large, eye-catching and visually appealing. Anyone interested in photography would be inclined to check out the contest due to this contest design.

The prize is variable based on the winner and their photography skills and knowledge.

They have mentioned the value of the prize and highlighted it in orange making it more apparent to those considering entering the contest.

Katie Gundersen Photography: May Cutest Kid Contest

This vote contest has a bold headline that stands out in bright, childish blue. It’s easy to see the theme of the contest the second you land on the page.

A vote contest like this encourages social sharing as all of the family and friends want to share the contest and have their child voted on as the winner. It clearly bode well for Katie Gundersen as she ended up with over 5,100 views and a conversion rate of 54.79%.

Conclusion

As a photographer, you get to create emotional connections with clients through images each and every day. You get to capture the most important and beautiful moments in people’s lives.

A contest that is specifically suited to your target audience allows them to relate to your business and build an emotional relationship. Whether you’re running a contest for newlyweds, babies, or even pets, you get the opportunity to engage with people about something or someone that they love.

Rather than running a contest based on your products and revolving around your service, it revolves around them. And that’s why if you’re not already running social contests you should be as it is the perfect marketing strategy for your industry.

Have you run a social contest in the past? What was your experience like?

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

18 Parks and Recreation Quotes to Inspire your Online Marketing Strategy

From Leslie's temper tantrum to Li'l Sebastian and "Treat yo self" Parks and Recreation gave us 7 seasons of memorable, laugh out loud moments.

And with the farewell episode still fresh in fans' minds, what better a time to look back at the hilarity.

In this Slideshare, the Wishpond content team takes a look at 18 classic Parks and Rec quotes, and translate them to inspire your businesses' 2015 marketing strategy.

Grab some "apps'n'sserts" and check it out!

By: The Wishpond Content Team

[wishpond]

How to Generate Leads and Retain Clients with Email Marketing (Podcast)

March 19th, 2015 by the Wishpond Content Team

This week's online marketing conversation features James Scherer, Samantha Mykyte and Claire Grayston discussing email marketing.

They get into the origins of email marketing, how they use it themselves to find success both with generating leads and retaining clients, as well as optimization tips and a brief discussion of marketing automation.

Just getting into email marketing? Listen in!

Listen in on iTunes

Listen in on Stitcher

Listen in on Soundcloud

By the Wishpond Content Team

[wishpond]

Social Media Marketing for Travel Agents

As a travel agent in the 21st century there’s nothing more frustrating than hearing the common question “People still use travel agents?”

Yes, yes they do indeed.

And as a travel agent you need your name to be known in order to have a strong online presence.

One way to do this is through interactive social media accounts.

Unfortunately less than 20% of travel agents see social as an essential channel to their business.

If you’re part of that 80% of naysayers, my goal with this article is to change your mind.

Social can work for you, it’s time to find out how.

Why You Need Social in Your Marketing Arsenal

If you’re still crossing your fingers and wishing for social media to disappear, you’re out of luck. Social media is going absolutely nowhere.

As a travel agent you need to embrace this channel as another way to spread the word about your business.

If you’re currently using email, direct mail, going to trade shows and constantly updating your website, keep up the good work. Social media isn’t a replacement for any of these marketing strategies. It’s a necessary addition.

Social allows you to communicate with clients or potential clients in a different tone and format than any other marketing channel. The various platforms allow you to get to know your customers and to build and strengthen relationships.

You can give your expertise to those asking questions and establish yourself as an authority figure, while also bringing in new leads by having your name and voice known.

How to Use the Various Platforms

Facebook - Facebook is the best place to start out when doing social media for your business. Let’s face it, most of your current or potential clients are on Facebook.

The platform also makes it really easy to generate new Fans, as you can simply target existing clients on the platform by entering your existing email list into Facebook and target a Page-promoting ad (for minimal cost).

Facebook also makes it super to easy to share content and photos to your network to entice them to travel.

Twitter - Twitter is the best platform for up-to-the-minute news and real-time conversations. If you can build a Twitter following of travel loving individuals it can be a great way to communicate. You can create a network of like-minded individuals where you can share information, articles or deals you have to offer.

Instagram - Instagram is looked at as the most important social network by many travel agents as travel is something that is so easily visually represented. With Instagram you can create a sense of desire and connect with followers emotionally. You can also find those users looking for some dream-worthy photos through the location tag and hashtag features of this platform.

Pinterest - Pinterest is another visual platform perfect for travel agents. You can create pinboards of content that appeals to your clients. You can also link to Facebook and Twitter to increase the awareness of your pins.

What Should You Use Social For?

As a travel agent the social media possibilities are endless. I want to give you a quick glimpse of all the different things you can do on your social accounts.

Track what others are saying about you: On the different platforms you can track any mentions you get by others talking about your services. For example, once a client gets back from vacation you can request that they post a recommendation on Twitter “@-mentioning” you or sharing a photo and tagging your page in that photo. This helps to serve as PR for your business, expanding your reach and awareness to new individuals.

Promote events and deals: If you’re attending a travel expo, trade show or hosting a client appreciation party, social media is a great way to inform people about it. You can also promote any deals or sales you’re having on specific destinations. For example your Facebook cover photo may promote a flash sale on flights while your latest Instagram post may be a visual about a deal on an all-inclusive in Mexico.

Run contests: As a travel agent, a social media contest is a fantastic way to drive conversions, gain new fans and generate new leads for the future. We will dive into contest examples below. If you’re looking to run a social contest (which I highly recommend) check out my article “The 10 ingredients to a Successful Social Media Contest.“

5 Examples of Strategies You Should Try

Explaining the importance of social media through words doesn’t give you the inspiration you need to follow through. So let’s dig into some real-world examples that you can easily emulate for your business.

1. Use Social To Showcase Current Hot Spots or Resorts

Luxe Travel consistently posts about vacation locations with enticing photos and descriptions. This is a great way to showcase destinations and post about recent resort partners.

2. Post About Deals and Promotions

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest can all be used to visually inform your fans or potential fans about current or upcoming deals. Here Tucan Travel has showcased a visually appealing and humorous photo to grab the attention of fans and tell them about their deal on Peru. Who doesn’t love a good llama close up?

3. Run Social Media Contests

This social contest from Adventure Canada is the perfect example of hosting a contest on Facebook and generating a high volume of leads. They’ve used an eye-catching picture and an enticing price to get nearly 8,000 participants in this referral contest. As a referral contest this also means they’re expanding their reach to new individuals unaware of the Adventure Canada brand.

Another example can be seen below from Tucan Travel who ran a photo contest which gained them tons of new leads while also gaining user-generated content which they could potentially use for marketing campaigns in the future.

4. Display Photos of Your Client’s Recent Travel Experiences

Showcasing your clients’ photos is a great idea as they will want to share it with their friends and it increases the awareness of your business. It also serves as a public relations tool to show that you are an expert in your field and that others trust you.

These two examples from TucanTravel are the perfect way to display your past clients’ experiences as a form of social proof. The first (on the left) displays a client submitted photo while the instagram account on the right shows their clients on their trips having a blast. A great way to get engagement on your social media accounts.

5. Share Travel-Related Articles that Would Interest Current and Potential Clients

As someone who loves to travel, I know the importance of research before a trip. Travelers are always looking for advice and information, so using social to share articles or tips is a great strategy to get individuals interacting with your posts.

This post from Luxe Travel does just that, giving fans advice about how to tip people around the world.

Conclusion

I hope that this article has shown you the importance of social media for your travel agency and how you can implement different strategies to find success.

It’s not going to be an overnight home run, I’m not going to lie. But by consistently building your social media followings you can start engaging fans and make your brand more visible online.

The best strategy is to start off slow with one platform and work your way up to social success.

Have you tried out social media and found success for your travel business? Share your story with me in the comments below!

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

Instagram Hashtag Contests: Examples and Best Practices for Marketers

March 18, 2015 By Claire Grayston

With over 300 million users, you can’t go far these days without seeing someone staring down at their screen, scrolling through Instagram. It makes sense, as Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform out there.

It has become the social network over the past few years, and as it turns out it’s actually a great platform for marketers too. Many brands, both B2B and B2C, have hopped on the Instagram train to find a surprising level of success.

But how can you get followers engaging on Instagram and creating user-generated content?

An Instagram hashtag contest is the perfect solution to incentivize engagement with your brand, get user-generated content. and ensure your brand is seen by your entrant’s network. Let’s find out how you can effectively create and run your own!

What is an Instagram Hashtag Contest?

An Instagram Hashtag Contest is one of the simplest ways to get fans interacting with your brand. It involves an individual posting their own picture on Instagram, then tagging it with a specific hashtag that your business has chosen.

All pictures uploaded with that hashtag are then displayed in a gallery page on your website or Facebook Page as well as being shown in one single stream on Instagram.

This type of contest allows you to deepen the emotional connection you have with followers. You get them communicating about your business to their own networks while also capturing user-generated content which you can then use for future marketing efforts.

What’s better than having fans as brand advocates? Not much at all.

Once in the gallery, all photos with the hashtag can then be voted on, shared or liked. This increases the reach of your contest and your business massively, allowing other users to discover you on the platform. You can then choose if you want to display submissions in the gallery based on most votes, most recent submission, or randomly.

Why They Work

As a contest provider for the past few years, we at Wishpond know exactly what types of contests work in engaging followers and increasing your fanbase.

And Instagram Hashtag Contests is our fastest growing contest segment.

So why all the fuss? What makes an Instagram Hashtag Contest so effective?

Using a specific hashtag allows you to spread the word about a campaign, exposing your business to new users

It requires little effort from your business - the hardest part simply being coming up with a good, catchy hashtag and theme

You get rewarded with engaged followers and authentic images from the customer themselves, showing your business through their eyes

With the Wishpond Instagram Hashtag app you can require contest participants to follow your business’ account and/or @mention your name in their photo.

Instagram Hashtag Contest Inspiration

As nice as it would be for me to describe in great detail each and every element of a good Instagram hashtag contest, looking at examples is probably a better way for you to gain some inspiration.

Here are 3 hashtag contests run by our clients over the past few weeks with an explanation of why they work:

High Society Freeride

This contest, run by outdoor and sporting goods store High Society Freeride, got users engaging with the business by showing things they love to do in the great outdoors.

Why I love this contest:

The hashtag #onelifemakeitcount really appeals to High Society’s target market (young people). The hashtag got users to share content that they would actually want to post as it revolves around photos of things they’re passionate about. It’s also likely that their target market has a bunch of relevant photos within their Instagram account anyway.

TThe prize of a $100 gift certificate is relevant and valuable to Instagram users (more valuable, even, than a specific product worth $100). It is also proportionate to the level of effort required for users to participate.

TThey have asked users to tag their business in the photo, allowing all uploaded images to also be shown on their account in their tagged photo section.

Mindzai Creative

Mindzai Creative chose to use an Instagram Hashtag Contest to find their next print design.

This is another great example of a hashtag contest because:

It makes it very easy for participants to submit their drawing with the simple upload of a photo.

They chose to select 2 winners, incentivizing participants to enter as they have a greater shot at winning.

I also like how they are choosing the winners differently, one by popular vote (which also increases the user’s feeling of being directly involved and cared about by the brand) and the other by the Mindzai staff.

Airrosti Rehab Centers

Airrosti is a healthcare group that delivers musculoskeletal care and does a lot of work with Crossfit clients.

There are a couple of reasons we like this contest:

They’ve required entrants to follow them, growing their Instagram fanbase and increasing awareness of their brand online.

They’ve chosen a contest theme that is very relevant to prospective followers, allowing them to showcase their individual fitness training for the Crossfit Open, while still tying in their brand.

The prize package is very specifically relevant to their target audience. Offering very active people these types of products that are valuable to their needs and interests is perfect. They know what crossfitters would want to win and have chosen their prize accordingly.

What Hashtag Should I Use?

Coming up with a hashtag that works for your business doesn’t need to be too complicated. Think of your business’ name and the goal you’re looking to accomplish with your campaign.

For example the High Society hashtag #onelifemakeitcount is a fairly broad hashtag open to partcipants’ interpretation while Mindzai’s campaign has specific guidelines and uses the simple hashtag #mindzaicontest.

Make sure your hashtag is something that is easy to remember and grabs the attention of users. That way if they see their friend’s photo with your hashtag they will keep it in mind and possibly enter themselves.

You also want to aim to keep it as short as possible while still maintaining meaning. Users are much more likely to use a 6 character hashtag than a 20 character one.

A holiday theme is also a great idea for a hashtag contest as users post more pictures around the holidays and are more interested in winning themed gifts or prizes. For a holiday contest check out my colleague Samantha Mykyte’s article “How to Run a Holiday Hashtag Contest on Instagram” here.

As long as it is unique and specific to your brand and interesting to your users, any hashtag can work. The more creative and fun though, the more success I’d bet on.

Conclusion

Instagram hashtag contests are one of the best ways to engage your audience on social and get them interacting with your brand.

Post your own photos on your account to promote the contest and ensure all of your Facebook and Twitter followers are aware of the contest to maximize participation.

Have you ever run an Instagram Hashtag Contest? I would love to hear your experience in the comments below!

Related Reading:

47 Tips for Runing an Instagram Photo Contest

The 10 Ingredients to a Successful Social Media Contest

The 5 Most Heart-Wrenching Contest Mistakes We See All the Time

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.

[wishpond]

9 Email Hacks Guaranteed to Increase Engagement

March 17, 2015 by Samantha Mykyte

Are you sick and tired of hearing how amazing email marketing is for your competitors but you’re getting minimal results? I mean, you compose this great email based on best practices and then…

10% open your email but only 5% (of those 10%) click-through.

What happened between you pressing send and them sending it to the junk box? Well, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

In this article I’ll be sharing with you some tips and tricks, which, while not claiming to “skyrocket your engagement rate by 1000%!” will, legitimately, do some good.

Here are nine email hacks that we’ve found to get your emails opened and make your engagement rate soar.

Let’s get started, in 3, 2, 1. Go!

1

Highlight the important parts of the email to help people skim

The emails you send need to be easily read in order for people to get the main points without reading every word (kind of like a landing page but a little less intense).

Help your readers get your key messaging as quickly as possible by making it easy for them to skim for the most important points.

There are a few ways to draw attention to the important parts of your email:

Bold keywords in your text to contrast the words and draw the eye. Do not CAPITALIZE the words as it’s annoying, spammy, and the same thing can be accomplished by bolding.

Create lists like the one I’m currently using. Lists break up text and make it easier to read the most important points.

Encapsulate the most important information.

Use a call-to-action button that stands out from the rest of the email.

Look at the two emails below and tell me which one you’re more likely to convert on?

This email:

Or this:

Hi there,

What's the point of a contest? Really, what's the point? Real-world sales, right?

I mean, who are we kidding?

Facebook Fans don't pay the bills. Leads don't fill your bank account.

This article, by Claire Grayston, gives you five essential steps you need to take after your contest is over to turn success into dollars.

Read the article here: [link to article]

Cheers

James Scherer

They both contain the same information but the first one uses bolding and has a bright and informative call-to-action (“Check out the article”). The first one draws the recipient into the most important parts of the email. The second one requires the person to read the entire article to get the main points.

2

Offer an additional piece of content

When a person takes an action on your website and provides their email address, it’s the perfect opportunity to market to them further. You could just send them what they asked for but why not use this an opportunity to market to them further with an additional piece of content?

This will also increase the chances of them clicking through on at least one of your email’s links so long as your second CTA is relevant and actionable.

Picture these scenarios to see what you could send:

A person registers for your webinar but doesn’t attend. It happens, no need to stress yourself out. How about (instead of just sending them the webinar recording) you also send them another piece of content related to the webinar. If your webinar was on running a contest on Facebook, send them an ebook on using Facebook ads to drive traffic to a designated landing page (or contest).

A person signs up for notifications from your blog. Create an automated welcome email which lets them know that you have a collection of ebooks to get them started with the basics or include a link to your social media accounts so they can stay up-to-date.

By offering relevant and useful information related to the actions your leads have already taken, they’ll be more willing to read and click-through on your email.

3

Include a click-to-tweet

Increasing your engagement rate could be as simple as including a click-to-tweet in your emails. This will get the word out about your content easier and faster because it’s making it easy for your subscribers to share your valuable content. This isn’t just for blog posts but really for anything in your online marketing strategy.

Here are three ideas of CTTs you could include in your emails:

Get people to share your webinar to encourage their social network to register

CTT: “Excited to be attending “[name of webinar”] on [date of webinar]. Register to attend too! - link

Get them to talk about your cool new product in exchange for a discount.

CTT: I just tried [name of your product] and it’s helped me do [X-benefit]! RT for your chance to win a years supply.

Get them to share your latest blog post

CTT: [Question related to article?]: Check out [name of post] #hashtag1 #hashtag2

Basically, they easier you make it for your email recipients to share the content of your email the more likely it is to be engaged with.

4

Post the link near the top of the email

Before you get too deep into the nitty gritty of your email’s content, provide a link to whatever it is that you’re promoting. This makes it easy, if they’re already hooked by your subject line, to click-through on your offer.

Let’s say that I was writing an email to share the exact article I’m currently writing:

Hi there,

Is your email engagement not as awesome as you want it to be? Here are 9 email hacks you can use to boost it.

You can read it here: [link to article]

In this article I’ll be going over some of the things I’ve done in my emails to increase engagement, including:

Adding a click-to-tweet so recipients can easily share your content

Offering an additional piece of content to move recipients down the sales funnel

Making it easy for recipients to easily skim your email through the use of lists and contrast

+MORE

If you want some more advanced tips be sure to check out: [link to a more advanced but relevant article you’ve written].

Cheers,

[your name]

By including a link as close to the top as possible you avoid risking the immediate drop off. People could be interested in what you’re sharing, but the length of your emails may (again, like a landing page) discourage a click-through.

5

Tell someone to do something

Including a call-to-action on your emails is what’s going to get you click-throughs. This sounds too simple to be true but a lot of people forget to ask.

The email you send can include a series of mini CTAs that guide the recipient towards your overall end goal.

For example, let’s say that I was trying to get someone to download the email-gated content they requested:

I’d start by stating in the subject line that action is required by saying “Action Required!”

Next, I’d go on to compliment my recipients by saying that they’ve made a smart move by requesting this ebook, whitepaper or report (anything email-gated). This gets them excited about the offer and thinking something along the lines of “Yes, I am a smart person and I did make the right move.”

Include a call-to-action button that stands out from the rest of the page and has actionable copy. Something like, “Get My Ebook.”

Finally let them know when they’ve scrolled too far down the page. Something like, “Click the button above” or “You’ve gone too far, scroll up one inch and try again.”

I may or may not have gotten this idea from Chris at Spokal. Super cool idea :)

6

Make your video a gif

Videos are incredibly popular at the moment. The thing is, simply showing the video in a still frame or sharing a link to the video isn’t going to be as appealing as the video itself.

But how do you get people to click on it?

There are tools available that allow you to turn your video into a short gif. Let’s say you have a 3 minute video, take 10-15 seconds worth of video in which you move around a lot. The gif will play without sound but will be more eye-catching and encourage people to check out the video.

7

Link your images and insert marketing messages into the alt text

Including linked images to a site of your choosing is a sure-fire way to increase engagement within your emails.

Start by placing an image in your email but ensure it includes a call-to-action. Having a photo with no context may leave some people wondering why you’ve placed it there in the first place and won’t encourage them to click.

For example, if you were running a webinar on email marketing you could have your headline read: “Webinar: Email Marketing Tips That Are Guaranteed to Skyrocket Your CTR.” Include a picture with an open email and a call-to-action button that says, “Save my seat.”

When you link an image you have the chance to include alt text in your email’s code. Most standard marketers will either ignore this option or simply repeat the subject line, article title, or what the image is.

Smart marketers, like you, include marketing messages or encourage email recipients to click on your CTA.

You see, if people view their emails without images (as many do) on their mobile they’ll receive a transparent box with the alt text in the middle. Normally, it’d look something like this:

But what if you took the opportunity handed to you, and instead wrote, “Click this box to register for the webinar!” or something even more creative?

This is how you stand out from the crowd people.

8

Send a last chance email to create urgency

The last chance email is a doozie. It’s that crucial email right before a particular action, step, or offer expires.

You’re telling your email recipients “this is your last chance to complete some action before something bad happens.”

The something bad could be anything from missing out on an event to having your subscription expire or having a price go up!

Let’s look at these three events in detail to show how you can create urgency to get your email recipients to complete the desired action.

If you want the recipient to:

Register for an event so they don’t miss out:

“Don’t miss out! There are only 2 hours left until [the event] starts. This is the first time [qualified person X] will be sharing the secrets of [XYZ]. You don’t want to miss this. Register for the event here, [link], before it’s too late.”/i>

Go from free trial to a paying user:

“Eek, there’s only 1 day left on your free trial. This means that starting tomorrow your account will be canceled unless you click here to join us: [link]. For a limited time only (the next 24 hours) we’re offering you an upgraded account for the price of the base account. This means you’ll get tons of additional features including: [list your features]. Don’t miss out on this awesome opportunity to [something cool/benefit of your product].”/i>

Get them to shop your sale items:

Share a couple pictures of sale items and say, “Only X number of these items are left. Get them before they’re gone.”

Sending a last chance email will not only increase the chance of engagement, but will also encourage people to stick with you as a customer for a bit longer.

9

Make it something no one has seen before

The amount of emails I receive that have absolutely no creativity thrown into them make me depressed.

They’ve shot their plain text into an email with a hyperlink to the offer they’re giving you and expect the recipient to be wowed by their complete lack of effort.

If you want someone to click-through on your offer, it’s a good idea to make it visually appealing.

Most professionals receive dozens of emails every day. If your business can find a way to prepare an email that is different from the others? Then you’re onto something.

Warning, science ahead:

When you deliver an email to your recipients that is different (or novel) from the ones they receive every day (either through tone, design or offer), the chemical dopamine is released. Dopamine, as you likely know, is responsible for affecting the pleasure sensors in the brain.

You heard me: original and creative ideas will, genuinely, make your email recipients feel more excited about clicking on your offer or engaging with your brand.

Things you could include that are novel:

Try implementing an animated template.

Include background images or gifs.

Be an out of the ordinary wordsmith.

Conclusion

There’s no one guaranteed way to encourage your email recipients to click-through or engage with your offers. That said, there are a load of things which have worked for other businesses and could work for you. It’s all about testing and tweaking as much as possible.

Do you have any email hacks that have helped you increase your email engagement? I’d love to hear them. Please share in the comments below.

- Written by Samantha Mykyte

When Samantha isn’t crushing content and social media at Wishpond she performs with her burlesque troupe, casts spells in dungeons and dragons and enjoys hitting the slopes on her skis. You can follow her on Twitter @SamanthaMykyte

[wishpond]

5 Online Promotion Examples to Inspire Your Business

March 16th, 2015 by Claire Grayston

If you want to engage and interact with current and prospective leads, a promotion is the solution you’ve been looking for.

We’ll admit it, we’re a little biased when it comes to promotions as they’re our bread and butter.

But we’re not lying about the effects they can have on your business.

Social media and website promotions are the perfect way to generate hype around your business, interact with new and existing customers, and build your list.

But as I explained in my article “The 5 Most Heart Wrenching Contest Mistakes We See All the Time” not every promotion runs as planned.

What does a successful promotion actually look like?

Let’s find out. It’s time to take a look at five of the best sweepstakes promotion, vote contest promotion, photo contest promotion, essay contest promotion and referral promotion examples that we’ve seen.

1. Sweepstakes

What it is: A sweepstakes is the best type of promotion to run when you’re just starting out in the promotion world. It involves participants simply entering their information on a form for a chance at winning a prize. It requires little effort from entrants and builds your fan base easily.

This contest from Air France perfectly demonstrated the sweepstakes promotion format. It involved participants entering their information as well as a few paragraphs explaining their ideal romantic Parisian getaway. The winner was randomly selected using Wishpond’s sweepstakes randomization tool.

We love this promotion because it is targeted directly at AirFrance’s audience, uses a prize relevant to their brand (creating loyalty for the future), and engages participants by involving a creative element (the 1000 word description).

This promotion ended with over 14,600 entrants and a 41% conversion rate. Not too shabby!

2. Vote Promotion Example

What it is: A vote promotion requires entrants to vote for an image or idea displayed by your business. It gets leads interacting with your various products and voting for their favorite, giving you insights into what your potential and current customers want or need.

This vote promotion from Mark’s Work Wearhouse is the perfect example. It required participants to vote on which Mark’s product they would want for Christmas this year in order to be entered to win a $400 gift card.

The gift card prize encourages future purchasing, while the product display allows Mark’s to show off their products and get customers thinking about which ones they want. This type of promotion can lead to participants eventually purchasing the items they selected even when they don’t win the prize. It also gives Mark’s valuable customer insight into which products they may want to stock up on going into the Christmas season.

3. Photo Promotion Example

What it is: A photo promotion involves participants submitting a photo relating to a specific theme. It gives your business the opportunity to gain information from entrants as well as user-generated content which you can use down the line as marketing and social media ammunition. It’s a great way to get current and potential customers engaging directly with your brand and your industry.

As a snowboard and mountain sport fan I can’t help but love the Sport Chek photo promotion example below. First off, the prize is something you can’t buy. They’ve given participants the chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that’s also relevant to the brand. Imagine HeliSkiing on a Burton board you built yourself in the Burton factory, pretty damn cool.

They also have supplied secondary prizes which is a great idea to encourage submission. A photo promotion is more effort than something like a sweepstakes, but for a prize of this value a photo submission is not a ton of effort.

The promotion got over 800 submissions while also generating a lot of positive word of mouth around the Sport Chek brand. A homerun in our books!

With a photo promotion you also have the option to activate a voting feature. This allows entrants to upload their photo and have it voted on by their friends and family, expanding the reach of the promotion. If participants’ own networks are not aware of the promotion or brand, the voting option creates more awareness for your business.

An example of a photo promotion with voting can be seen below from CPRail. It required entrants to submit their favorite photo involving a CP Rail train or them at a CP event and then get their networks to vote for their submission to win.

4. Referral Promotion Example

What it is: A referral promotion allows you to grow your brand reach as existing fans sign up to win a reward, but can only be entered once they have referred a certain number of individuals.

When the participant signs up they are given a unique link to share with their friends and family to get them to enter. That URL is then tracked to see how many referrals that individual makes and automatically enters them once they have met their quota. This makes entrants motivated to share the promotion with their own networks, while allowing new groups of people to see your promotion.

This variation of a referral promotion from Coshell Charcoal gets participants to enter to win a July 4th prize pack, while also referring friends and family in order to get more entries and chances to win. While participants get more entries, the company is able to expand the reach of the promotion to new networks of individuals. We love how they have incorporated the holiday theme with a relevant prize, and used the referral feature to create more awareness around the promotion.

5. Essay Promotion Example

What it is: An essay promotion allows you to require entrants to submit text-entries in relation to a certain topic. It is a great promotion format to engage users and get them communicating and discussing a certain product or idea. With certain providers like WIshpond you can also allow others to vote on their favorite essay submission.

The essay promotion below is one of our favorite examples as people love sharing their recipes with others. It revolves around the Panasonic brand sold at London Drugs and is relevant and valuable to their customers.

It also includes a pasta recipe as another motivator for Fans to share the promotion with their own networks. London Drugs actually tested the recipe submission idea with their Facebook Fans first before launching the promotion (something which is a great strategy to socially prove your promotion concept before going live).

For a promotion requiring this level of effort, getting over 400 entries is definitely a success in our books. It ended up with a 17.93% conversion rate and the brand gained lots of user-generated content while strengthening their relationships with many customers.

Conclusion

The most successful promotions are those that are creative, unique and intriguing to fans. These are just a few valuable examples to guide your contest experience.

Don’t overcomplicate the process for submission and remember that the more engaged your audience is, the more engaging type of promotion you can run.

Have you run any of the promotion types mentioned above? What was your experience like?

Future Reading:

The 10 Ingredients to a Successful Social Media Contest

The 5 Most Heart-Wrenching Contest Mistakes We See All the Time

- Written by Claire Grayston

Claire is a digital content marketer at Wishpond. When not racking her brain for new content, you’ll find her hiking or snowboarding the local mountains.