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Marketing in 2019 and Beyond by @donnaamos

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Marketing in 2019 and Beyond

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

What does the future of marketing hold for this year and beyond? Are new trends worth following or are they simply passing fads? Marketers don’t need to pull the trigger on a trend just because it’s shiny and new. We need to make sure it’s actually the correct move for our marketing and brand. The majority of trends do fade away after a short period of time. However, when a new trend does come along, and it’s clear it’s here to stay, that is when we need to sit up and take notice.

Here are three vital aspects of marketing that businesses need to focus on in 2019 and beyond. I don’t see these as fads, but as the coming wave of marketing that marketers and companies should adopt as major parts of their marketing strategies.

Video Marketing

Ever since video marketing made its way onto the scene, its popularity continues to grow and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Marketers and consumers alike are hooked on video. Take a look at some of these video stats:

  • 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video.
  • 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
  • 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions.
  • 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video.

The following trends in video marketing are growing, and smart marketers will get on board.

Video is Going Live

Live streaming services are growing in popularity on Facebook, Instagram, and other popular social media channels. Research indicates live streaming encourages more audience engagement and retains viewers longer than prerecorded video.

Video is Going 1:1

Given the ease of shooting videos with smartphones, marketers are discovering the value of lead nurturing and customer communications by sending personalized video messages instead of calling or sending email. Using a personalized 1:1 video is great for following-up on an inquiry, offering content, delivering support, simply saying thanks, or practically any application.

Video is Getting Search-Friendly

Artificial Intelligence and the use of closed captions are making video content more searchable. AI can transcribe the audio on tracks of video with voice recognition to make video searchable. Google even announced the addition of video previews to the video carousel that appears in search results.

Smart Audio Marketing

From a purely data-driven standpoint, we know that smart speaker shipments are up 137%. In fact, 100 million smart speakers will be sold next year. Gartner predicts that 30% of searches will be done without a screen in the next two years. In addition, 28% of smart speaker owners buy things with them.

Whether it’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, or Bixby, voice assistant technology powered by smartphones and/or smart speakers removes the necessity of typing, navigation, and more. It’s an incredibly natural and intuitive way to interact, connect, and work with technology. Smart audio is the technology that all brands must focus on right now.

How should marketers and businesses prepare for using smart audio in their marketing strategies? Think through the following questions as you work out how you will prepare your content and marketing methods to take advantage of smart audio technology.

  1. What will the voice of your company be like?
  2. How can you advertise so that your company is the top (or only) result when a consumer uses voice search to locate your products or services?
  3. How can you augment existing content with relevant audio?
  4. How will smart audio move beyond home assistant devices and smartphones to automobiles and even public spaces? How can you be prepared?

Social Media Marketing Focused on the Social

All too often, the social media experience has been relegated to the advertising column of most businesses. ‘Social’ is now just ‘media.’

  • Conversations gave way to broadcasting only “content.”
  • Social media became an IT function and was automated to the point of being soulless.
  • Humans with personalities and names were replaced by corporate personas and branded voices.
  • Success was measured in clicks and likes rather than relationships and loyalty.

In 2019, businesses will need to take social media marketing back from the IT department and drive a truly human-centered approach to customer relations. Social media can be a vital and effective channel, but only if it is used as it was intended:

  • Provide relevant human connections
  • Form reliable and trustworthy communication channels
  • Express shared values
  • Display human emotions like compassion, understanding, and empathy
  • Create unique and entertaining experiences
  • Demonstrate active involvement in local issues
  • Offer a dependable way to respond in a moment of customer need

It may require companies hiring a person who becomes their sole voice on social media in order to provide the truly social connection that consumers seek with the brands they choose to follow. Engagement, relationships, and quality customer service are what is needed. And the companies that return to that dynamic over social media will see success.

What do you see in the future of marketing? Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comments below!

Social Media Trends to Watch For in 2019 by @donnaamos

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Social Media Trends

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Social media is here to stay in a big way. One of the best ways for businesses to connect with a target audience is to maintain an active presence on social media channels. The era of, “My business is open, come and see me” is long over. Now, savvy business owners know they must go where consumers are and establish a relationship. Social media is THE place to do that, easily and relatively cheaply.

Therefore, as you embark on planning your social media marketing strategy for 2019, get on board with these important trends. They either gained popularity or became firmly established during 2018, and will play a vital role in how you connect with your audience in the coming year.

A “Pay to Play” Strategy

In the early days, companies could fully expect that 16% of their followerswould see their Facebook updates. By the end of 2018, that reach had plummeted to about 6% or less. Other social media platforms have followed suit. The day or organic reach has ended. Social media platforms will not give away what they can reap a huge benefit from – your followers. Now, you must pay to play.

Now, in order to reach your target audience on any social media channel, you must invest in sponsored posts, boosted posts, and social media ads. Fortunately, social media advertising is one of the most affordable means of marketing available. If you handle your own keyword research and audience targeting, Social media marketing is much more affordable than pay-per-click advertising.

Video is the Preferred Media of Most Users

Now is the time to get on board with video marketing, if you haven’t already. According to research by Wyzowl, “97% of marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, and 76% indicated that it has helped increase web traffic and sales.”

That is easy to accept when we also realize that 95% of Internet users have watched explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, and 81% have bought a product or service as a result of watching a company’s advertising video. No other form of media can boast these high use and conversion percentages.

Video is the absolute best way for a company to put a face to their business. It enables prospects and customers to get to know who leads and works in a business. Video gives businesses an opportunity to show not only what they do but also “who” they are. In our current climate where users seek a personal connection, this is a critical factor.

The Rise of ‘Live’ Video

Live-streaming will continue to emerge as a powerful way to engage people on social media. According to statistics compiled by Go-Globe, two-thirds of all internet traffic in 2017 was streaming video. By 2020, 82% of internet traffic is expected to be video content. And most of that will be live streaming. The interactivity of live video makes it a powerful tool for marketers to engage with their audience and strengthen the relationship between a brand and its followers.

The authenticity of ‘going live’ is a key factor that audiences want, as it helps build trust and loyalty with your company. Even if problems arise when you are ‘live,’ followers are likely to understand that and it may even further strengthen their trust in your company, as only authentic content leaves room for genuine mistakes.

Quality Long-Form Content

Word count isn’t everything when it comes to ranking high on search engines like Google, but SEO experts agree that long-form content can give you an edge. Users and search engines alike want to see high-quality content of more than 1,000 words, and we see that such content consistently outranks articles with 500 words.

Therefore, more publishers are requiring writers to submit articles over 1,000 or 1,200 words, and more company blogs are beginning to embrace similar long-form content. These comprehensive articles that are rich with information and insight, will go far to both attract readers and give Google and other search engines a reason to rank them more favorably.

Building Community

Building a community in social can help you to build trust with your followers. Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook are being encouraged on both platforms. And once you begin building that following you have to immerse yourself and be engaged.

Using hashtags in Twitter and Instagram can help you to find conversations that your community are having and allow you to join in.

Communities can also help to segment your audiences and customize your messaging. By the way, building community is the perfect way to build your personal brand and can be the beginning of influencer marketing!

Personal Branding

Particularly for small businesses, putting a real, human face to a brand name helps to build loyalty. A brand that’s more relatable, and has the human element, naturally garners more trust, and trust is essential for building relationships. Many companies have used the tactic of promoting their brand by promoting the business owner.

His or her face essentially becomes the brand, closely associated with the company logo. He or she personifies all that the company is about, or at least what they wish to portray. By enabling your audiences to get to know the character and expertise of company leadership, your business can strengthen its brand reputation.

What other important social media trends do you see emerging for 2019? Share your thoughts and insights with our readers in the comments below.

How the LinkedIn Algorithm Works by @donnaamos

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linkedin algorithm

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

When you visit LinkedIn or the LinkedIn app, you see your homepage feed. This page acts very much like the Facebook feed, where you see updates from your friends or Pages you follow. However, your LinkedIn feed does not show every post from your entire network. It only shows content that LinkedIn judges to be relevant to you. You can, of course, use the setting at the top right of the page to see posts based on recent activity instead of relevance. 

That’s because LinkedIn has implemented a process for content distribution across its network that utilizes four filters, in order to reduce spam and/or inappropriate content. If you include LinkedIn in your content marketing strategy, you need to understand how the LinkedIn algorithm filters your posts and chooses whether to show them or not. 

Filter #1 Quality Level

Every time you post any type of content, the LinkedIn algorithm judges it to be spam, low quality, or quality. In a blog post describing the strategies used to keep the newsfeed relevant, Director of Engineering, Rushi Bhatt explained: “Our online and nearline classifiers label every image, text, or long form post as “spam,” “low-quality,” or “clear” in near real time.

Filter #2: Level of Engagement 

If your content passed the initial round, it appears in the LinkedIn feed temporarily. This is when the LinkedIn algorithm watches and measures the amount and types of audience engagement your post earns. If your post is gaining likes, comments, and shares, you will likely pass this stage. However, there is no definitive number of likes, shares, or comments that determine a pass or fail. 

Filter #3: Your (and your Content’s) Credibility 

At this third filter, the LinkedIn algorithm will look beyond the content of your post and more at who you are to determine if your post should keep showing up in user feeds. According to Hootsuite, “This stage is also when the algorithm decides whether to ‘demote’ your content, sending it backwards in the queue for another chance at winning credibility. 

If your post looks ‘suspicious,’ but the algorithm doesn’t want to make a definitive call on it (giving you the benefit of the doubt), it will remain in the feed but not show very highly or very frequently.” Basically, LinkedIn looks at you and your network to determine whether or not this is a spam post and whether your network will find it valuable. 

Filter #4: Human Editors

It is at this point that human LinkedIn editors take a first look at your content. Up until now, only a small batch of people have been allowed to see and interact with your post. Most of the other determinations are made by LinkedIn algorithm bots that are preprogrammed to search for unpublicized factors. 

At this point, editors review your post to determine whether it should keep showing, if it should be included in a particular channel, or whether they can derive any takeaways from it for future algorithm tweaks and product development. As long as it keeps getting engagement, your post stays in the mix, continuing its algorithmic journey through the feed.

Here is a great infographic that details how the LinkedIn algorithm works. 

How to Optimize Your Posts for LinkedIn 

Follow these three tips to optimize your posts around the LinkedIn algorithm. 

  1. Create Great Content– Vary between text, images, videos, tips, opinions, quotes, and simple sharing links to other great content. Be sure all your content is optimized for mobile users, since about 60% of LinkedIn users access the platform on their phones.  
  2. Leverage the LinkedIn Bias– Since LinkedIn is a more professional-leaning social network, you should focus your posts around topics that LinkedIn admits a bias toward: 
    1. Career Helps
    1. Industry Relevance 
    1. Credible and Trustworthy Sources 
  3. Grow Your Network– A large network of followers spells credibility on LinkedIn, so use these tips to expand your network in 2019: 
  4. Ask all your employees to follow your company and set it as their workplace on their profiles.
  5. Follow influential people in your industry who are prominent on LinkedIn.
  6. Join and participate in relevant groups, sharing your content when appropriate.
  7. Comment on content relevant to your industry.
  8. Set up links to your LinkedIn page on your company website and careers page to encourage more relevant follows.
  9. Mention people when you post something and they’ll like or share if you’ve named them in your post. 

What are some other suggestions you have for optimizing your content to take full advantage of the LinkedIn algorithm and get your posts viewed? We’d love to hear your suggestions or ideas in the comments below. 

Tools to Help You Find Content That Will Engage Your Readers by @donnaamos

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Content that engages

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Successful content marketing involves producing quality content that your readers want to read. If the most well-written piece you could possibly produce doesn’t resonate with your audience, it’s useless. While simply writing on topics relevant to your business niche seems adequate, it is really like shooting in the dark. You need to be writing on topics that relate to your business, but they must also be topics that your audience currently finds interesting.

To discover this, you must listen to your audience and see what interests them at the present time. What current topic is all the rage? What current event relating to your business or industry is causing a stir? Sometimes called news hijacking, this practice of following trending news is a great way to cash in on trending topics to attract readers and connections.

What I am NOT advocating is simply writing what everyone else is writing. Your content must still be fresh, original, and useful to your readers. That doesn’t come from parroting the same lines as everyone else. But you can discover trending or popular topics and write about them from your viewpoint, or demonstrate how your business or product can impact the conversation.

There are some great tools available that can make harvesting topics much easier for you. I’ll briefly highlight each one and provide some simple suggestions for how to use them effectively.

Solopreneur Connect

Solopreneur Connect is a great social media listening tool. It can help you listen to conversations that relate to your business or industry niche. You can read conversations on what your target audience needs and their problems. Solopreneur Connect can show you what interests your audience by allowing you to search for relevant keywords in conversations on different social media platforms.

To set up Hootsuite for listening to conversations:

  • Sign in to your Solopreneur Connect account.
  • Click on ‘search.’ You will see an option to setup –  keyword search.
  • Click on ‘Keywords’ and type as many keywords as you want to use. Type in one at a time and click on add after each.
  • You can then add a location if you want to do so.

Solopreneur Connect’s comprehensive social listening tools empower marketers to execute brand monitoring and analyze social data for marketing insights. Gather introspective, contextual insights to topics, hashtags and influencers relative to your mentions to find new and incremental marketing opportunities.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is another tool that allows you to know what your audience is currently sharing. For example, I typed “writing” into the tool. The free version only allows users to see what is most popular by shares over the past year. The result was a piece about whether or not to use only one space after sentences from the Washington Post. Since May 2018 it has had 349.9k shares across all platforms. Pretty popular.

The paid membership allows for much more versatility, including what is currently being shared about your chosen keywords, even on each social media platform. It would be worth the cost, considering the other features included, to use this one tool to analyze what is currently being discussed in your industry niche.

Google Alerts

Another tool you can use is the Google alert tool. It is very useful. You can set alerts for your keywords and when such keywords come up, you will receive notifications in your email inbox.

For example, if you are in the writing niche and you want to know what is trending, you can create an alert for it using Google alert like this:

  • Type http://www.google.com/alerts into your browser
  • Log in with your Google account
  • Enter the keywords you want to monitor separated by commas
  • Click on options
  • Select how often you want to receive the alert. (choosing “as it happens” keeps you constantly updated)
  • Select the sources i.e. news, video, blog, etc. (selecting automatic covers all the sources)
  • Select the language, choose the region, and choose the number of results
  • Select the email where your alerts will be delivered
  • Click on create

Pretty soon, you will start receiving alerts in your inbox.

Answer the Public

With Answer the Public you enter the keyword you are interested in and it will return the phrases that actual users are typing into Google and Bing. The how, what, where, when, can, are, etc. If you know exactly what is being searched for you can provide the solutions that are being searched for. It’s perhaps one of the best but most underutilized sources of research for content ideas. Until now…

Now that you have some great tools to help, you can harvest topics and set priorities for writing content that resonates with your audience. This content will drive users to your site, and to your business.

What other audience listening tools do you like to use? Share them in the comments below.

Why Write a Book for Your Business? by @donnaamos

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write a book

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Everyone seems to be writing a book these days. Moreover, every business consultant seems to be advising business owners of every type and industry to write a book. Is there really a need for more books about your industry expertise? Maybe not, but there is a need for YOUR book.

Books are no longer about information. Books are the new business card, an effective marketing tool, and your ticket into the higher leagues of credibility. Heck, books can even boost your website SEO. Books have become a valuable tool to grow your business prospects, value, and revenue.

Why write a book for your business? A book gains you the kind of attention that takes your business and personal credibility to new levels. Here’s how that works.

A Book Gives You Authority and Credibility

Writing a book on any subject establishes you as an authority on that subject. This gives you credibility in the eyes of the unpublished world. Only expert-level practitioners have the knowledge, experience, and savior faire to author their own book showcasing their expertise. In many ways, being the author of a book says more about you than a college degree. How many idiots skimp by at the bottom and graduate with a degree? If you write a book, you’d better know what you’re talking about.

Your book demonstrates that you have what it takes to complete the project. You can commit to something and follow through. You get things done. Hard things that are truly worthwhile and helpful to many people. Not only do you possess knowledge and expertise, you have risen from ordinary worker to a teacher of others. Your accomplishments are worth passing on to others, so they, in turn, can learn to become a success.

A Book Raises Your Visibility

Who are you? And how would I know anything about you? Unless I have availed myself of your products or services, I wouldn’t. You may have a name among your local clients or fellow businesses, but probably little beyond. Until you author a book that provides lasting value to readers concerning your chosen topic.

Then, you become that expert _________________ who wrote a great book on the subject. Now, people everywhere are aware of who you are and what you have accomplished. And this visibility creates even more visibility. When a media outlet wants a comment on something, who do they go to? The expert, right? And how do they know someone is an expert? Because they wrote a helpful book on the subject that people are finding useful.

Media interviews and articles, talk shows, podcasts, lecture halls, boardrooms, special events, and the list goes on. Popular media hosts never say, “My next guest just posted a cat video.” But how often do you hear, “My next guest has just published a new book that readers are finding supremely helpful when it comes to…” A book is the key that unlocks access to a wider audience.

A Book Helps People Find You

Everyone knows the largest search engine on the planet is Google. Most people know the second largest is YouTube. But do you know the third largest search engine? Amazon. As a matter of fact, Amazon is the number one search engine when shopping for products and services. Approximately 44 percent of all searches for consumer goods begin on the Amazon website.

When consumers want the best, they search for who “wrote the book” on the topic. Or at least who wrote a book. Who knows more about a topic than someone who authored a popular book on the subject? A book is a great marketing tool to build your brand and attract new clients.

Your Amazon book page also provides quality backlinks to your website. Your book has its own page on Amazon, which should definitely be linked to your company website. This tells Google algorithms that your site has a bit more authority than others, boosting your SEO.

A Book Creates New Revenue Streams

In business, they key to continued viability is creating multiple streams of revenue. Or as my grandfather used to say, never put all your eggs in one basket. What happens when one of your products or services becomes outdated or surpassed by newer, better techniques? Does your business take a hit financially? Yes; but if there are multiple sources of revenue, the hit can be more easily absorbed. That one product was not your solitary source of income.

A book can do this in several ways. You can, of course, make money from the sale of your books. How much and how often depends on many different factors. Nevertheless, selling a book that provides helpful information in your industry niche can earn you some money. Obviously, the more well-known you are as an expert in your field, the more books you are likely to sell. For most business owners writing a book for their business, don’t count on making large returns from selling your book.

What a book can open up is the opportunity for a new revenue stream. A book can lead to a podcast, which can be leveraged into a monetized communication forum for your industry. Your book led you to begin a podcast, and you grew that into a money-making venture in addition to your book and business. It happens more often than you may realize.

The book gains you recognition and authority in your field, and that can lead to speaking engagements, seminars, and even your own line of training courses, live or online. The book has opened the door, giving you access to more opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in different settings to people who are glad to pay for what you know.

The Sky is the Limit

Men and women everywhere are writing books for their business and using them to open up new opportunities for growth. Even if you are not an author, there are legitimate avenues you can pursue to help you produce a book with your name on the cover. Resources abound for learning how to write, or for getting your knowledge and ideas into print.

Why not take advantage of this powerful medium and boost your credibility, authority, visibility, and profitability? What was that? Your new book is coming out when?

 

5-Step Pinterest Promoted Pin Traffic Plan by @donnaamos

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by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Advertising on various social media channels requires a different approach for each channel. Google+ handles things differently than Facebook or LinkedIn; and their audiences vary. If your audience is mainly female and attracted to visual demographic categories like fashion, home decor, or fitness, you’ll likely find them on Pinterest. 80% of Pinterest users are female. 88% are between the ages of 18 and 54.

Therefore, you should build a quality profile and use it to connect with your audience there. Pin visually attractive links to your profile boards. But, Pinterest offers a great advertising option called promoted pins. This can not only grow your following faster but also send more traffic to your website. Below are the five basic steps to constructing your own Promoted Pin Traffic Plan on Pinterest.

These basic steps will get you started, but you should spend some time exploring and experimenting with the many options. Discover what works best for you and your business. No two companies will benefit from the exact same combination of choices and settings. Build your own profitable plan on these foundational steps.

Step 1: Choose from Two Promoted Pin Types

Before you begin using Pinterest ads, spend a lot of time working inside the ads manager. Be sure to convert your existing Pinterest account to a business account for a few extra features. Within the ads manager interface, you’ll see that you have two options for your promotion type.

  • Build Awareness– Promote brand awareness and boost views of your videos.
  • Drive Consideration– Drive traffic back to your website.

Choose the option you want, give your campaign a title, and enter a budget. I always recommend starting small as you experiment with advertising. Begin with $30-$50 total budget. You can always increase it later if your efforts are successful.

Now you must choose a pin to promote in your advertising. Click the red button, which will show you all the previous pins on your account. Click one of those to select it. If you chose to boost engagement, one of your previous pins would be fine. To drive traffic to your website,

create a new pin, pin it to one of your boards, then return to the ads manager and choose it for your ad campaign.

Step 2: Set Up Audience Targeting

Pinterest ads targeting is similar to what you find on many other PPC platforms. There are two sections you’ll need to fill out: interests and keywords. Interests is much broader in scope, which usually isn’t ideal for PPC campaigns. However, if you’re just trying to build a following while targeting a general audience, it can work.

If your ad campaign is intended to drive traffic to your website, you should focus on the keyword section. Type in keywords you want to target in the search box of this section, then click any of the grey keywords that appear to add them to your campaign. The keywords you select will appear in blue at the bottom. Searching the site is one of the main ways that users find content, so you can get quite a few impressions on popular keywords. When someone searches for any of the keywords you select, they may see your ad, depending on your budget and settings.

You can also choose other targeting options besides keywords and interests.

  • Locations – Choose over 210 specific places in the United States
  • Language – Target specific languages
  • Devices – Target desktop users or specific types of mobile users
  • Gender – Target males, females, and/or people with unknown gender

Targeting only works well when you narrow down the potential audience so that it consists of your target demographic. But, avoid targeting so narrow that you only have a few hundred targeted users in your audience. You should choose targeting guidelines that represent your best possible client audience.

Step 3: Budget Considerations

Initially, you set a low total budget while you experimented with the ads and site. At this point, you must set your maximum CPC bid before the ad goes live. Often, you won’t have to pay this amount; sometimes far lower. But, after a few days, if you’re not getting the results you expected, increase your bid to allow more potential target users to see your ad.

Step 4: Track and Analyze Your Ad Results

Many want to skip this step because it’s boring. It isn’t as fun as creating the ad or choosing a targeted audience. But, if you don’t track your ad campaign results, you’ll never know whether advertising is actually profitable for you. And, you’ll never be able to increase the effectiveness of your ads. You won’t know what works and what doesn’t.

Pinterest provides some basic analytics for your ads. It covers all the basic stats like impressions, clicks, CPC, and total amount spent. So, you can keep up with how the ad performs. For conversion statistics, you will have to go to Google Analytics and set up specific plans for tracking what you consider to be a conversion from your Pinterest ads.

Step 5: Keep Experimenting

Even really experienced advertisers don’t get everything right on their first try with a campaign. Or even the second or third. That’s why tracking your results is so important. Once you have a set of baseline results, it’s a good idea to start split testing different promoted pins.

Try different variations of:

  • The pin picture
  • The ad headline
  • The targeted landing page

Keep trying different variations, tracking your results, and optimizing your campaigns until they become profitable. Even when you achieve a winning ad, continue to optimize it as much as possible. And of course, when your ad is doing well, scale up its advertising budget to take advantage of the ad’s popularity.

Pinterest is a huge social media site, and advertising on it is still a process of experimentation. You can create and run a profitable promoted pins campaign on Pinterest. It just takes persistent experimentation and optimization to hit the right combination of factors.

What are your tips for using Pinterest promoted pins for advertising? Share your wisdom and experiences with us in the comment section below!

How to Use Facebook Live to Grow Your Business by @donnaamos

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Facebook live for small business

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Since being launched in April 2016, Facebook Live rose to overtake YouTube as the #1 video streaming service on the Internet. Facebook also has 2 billion monthly users as of June 2017. That’s more than any other social network. So, using Facebook Live to grow your business seems like a no-brainer.

Most businesses recognize the importance of video. By 2019 it’s anticipated that 80% of the Facebook news feed will be video. Perhaps you thought about using video in the past, but the high costs and complexity turned you against it. True, storyboarding, writing, shooting, and editing a professional video can be extremely costly.

That’s the beauty of Facebook Live video. All you need is a smartphone and an idea. The online marketing world is praising live video like crazy because of its simplicity and versatility. Opportunity can meet innovation at any moment to produce a live video stream to promote your brand in any number of ways. All on the largest social media platform available. And FREE.

 

Video Storytelling

The essence of all good marketing is storytelling, and that is the prime focus of video. Storytelling applies to any business or industry, no matter how large or small. Anyone can tell a good story. We tell stories all the time as we talk about our product or service and the people with whom we interact.

Four primary types of storytelling:

  • Informational: Drop knowledge bombs and tell people what you know.
  • Inspirational: Speak to the heart, stir emotion, and motivate others.
  • Entertaining: Engage with people, make them laugh or cry.
  • Experiential: Show people who you are, where you are, and what you are doing.

 

As you tell your story, remember these important tips:

 

Always Be Authentic

The hook of live video streaming is the connection with a real person. This doesn’t mean you don’t want a clear idea of what you’re doing or want to say. It does mean you show authenticity. Be real. Speak to the camera as you would speak to an individual in front of you. Reflect real emotions. If what you’re talking about upsets you, it’s OK to appear a bit upset. If you fumble a word or two, keep going. It’s live, remember? It’s supposed to be real and not completely scripted.

 

Engage with Your Audience

Another great hook with live video streaming is the ability to engage with your audience, and for them to engage with you. This is more than acknowledging when participants join the broadcast or comment. Ask questions for your audience to answer and interact with them as the video continues. The unscripted nature of live video is one of its huge drawing points, so capitalize on that and have fun.

The engagement doesn’t have to end when the video ends. Leave an offer at the end of the broadcast and include an engagement button on the post so viewers can get more information or simply connect with you. Leave the live post available on your Facebook feed for more users to view and engage with later.

 

Promote Live Events in Advance

Covering a live event for your brand is huge, and you want as many people watching as possible, so advertise the live video in advance. Set a time and location when you will be streaming live and promote it on every social media channel and your website. Invite local fans to come and be included in the live video audience.

Consider giving away some freebies to the live audience and allow one of them to choose a remote viewer to win as well. Encourage interaction from your streaming audience and share that with the live audience. This is especially helpful if you have regular online events, like auctions or product showings.

 

Brand Your Content

Always have a purpose in going live on video, and tie that purpose to promoting your brand. You can produce a moving live video session about the homeless in your city that engages thousands of viewers without benefitting your brand in any way. Always tie your video to your brand. What are you showing? Why? How does your brand connect to that event, project, or need?

As you tell your story, include the why. Why is your brand showing this? What makes it important? Why should viewers care? How can they connect your video to your brand? Live videos don’t always have to be about promoting your business; but they should always promote your brand values and showcase your brand.

Do you currently use Facebook Live in your business marketing efforts? What are some of your best tips for using it successfully? Share your suggestions and stories with our readers in the comment section below.

 

Using Facebook Messenger to Increase Leads by @donnaamos

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Facebook messenger

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

In 2016, The New York Times published an article sharing with readers the surprising amount of time social media, specifically Facebook, consumes out of our day. Active users on Facebook and Messenger reached over 1 billion people and the average amount of time spent on these platforms is nearly an hour.

With users spending about 50 minutes a day using Facebook and Messenger, it’s a no-brainer that you want to leverage Facebook to gain customers and leads. To be successful, your business must change as its customers change. Time spent on mobile devices and social media networks is steadily increasing, so you need to be easily accessible and open to communication.

But recent publications indicate that it won’t be Facebook that’s dominating the marketing world in 2018. Instead, it will be the new ability to use Messenger as a channel to promote your business. Aside from the regular Facebook newsfeed, there are a few ways to also utilize the Messenger app to draw in new customers with your promotional tactics.

One-On-One Promotions

Now, not only can you can create an ad that appears on the Facebook newsfeed, you can take your ad to your audience with a one-on-one experience. You can personalize an ad with a custom message to your audience and choose a call-to-action. When your ad appears on the homepage of Messenger, potential customers are just a click away from chatting with you in real time.

Utilizing Chatbots

If you’re going to utilize Messenger to communicate with customers and clients, a chatbot may be just what you need. By using a Messenger chatbot, you can automatically reply to customers. Instant access and quick replies keep clients and customers happy, and keep them coming back with your excellent customer service. You can create a custom message that will automatically be sent to the customer, giving you time to get back to your computer or phone to reply.

Companies like Food Network and Whole Foods Market also use chatbots to help their followers find other interesting related content and articles. This opens up a new way to reach your audience and allows you to deliver personalized content – you now have a way to give your customers and clients an experience that you otherwise would not have before.

Convenience of Privacy

Taking advantage of the ability to instant message is not only convenient for your customers, it’s convenient for you. Messenger is also a great tool because of its ability to be more private. You can easily handle negative feedback or other matters privately at an instant without ever leaving the Facebook messenger app. It also allows you to keep track of and document all your conversations for quality control or to bring forward later on if they are needed.

Event Reminders and Updates

Another feature of Messenger that works well for marketing is the ability to engage your audience with events outside social media. Facebook users have the ability to sign up for events through Messenger. When they do, they will automatically be sent a reminder for the details of the event. In the days before the event, your customers may be notified and kept up to date about any new information.

This way of communicating updates about events proves more effective than traditional email updates. A study done by Hubspot noted the open rate for Messenger broadcasts was at 80% while the open rate for emails was only at 33%.

Collecting Customer Feedback

Since Messenger allows conversations to be kept for future reference, using data from Messenger chats can be a great way to create better ads that ensure you’re reaching the people you’re targeting. Your communication with customers can reveal a lot about the audience you’re trying to reach – struggles, desires, and wishes.

Messenger is a great place to get feedback and ask opinions. You can get a small piece of the conversations already going on in your customers’ lives. Being able to transform Messenger data into something real and substantial can help you better serve your customers. When you understand more about the people who are using your products or services, you have some great intel into what marketing tactics can help you most effectively reach your target audience and give your business a boost.

Comment-to-Messenger Function

An essential part of using Messenger to help you understand what customers want is the comment-to-messenger function, which allows you to auto-message anyone who comments on your Facebook posts. Instead of using an ad to create a promotion or produce a lead, you become invested – you are taking an approach that is relationship-oriented.

Now, not only can you gain context into the goals of your customers and clients, you have made a way available to have a sales conversation. Offers for products, deals, or special promotions have become relevant to them. Your advertisements aren’t random and they aren’t just considered spam, so your business has an even better chance of success.

The sky is the limit with interactive Facebook Messenger marketing. If you are ready to take it to the next level you might want to look into a service like ManyChat. How have you used Messenger to personalize your marketing efforts? Have you had success? What problems have you encountered, and how did you solve them? We’d love to hear your feedback. Share your comments below.

How to Determine the Subject of Your eBook to Generate Subscribers by @donnaamos

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by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

A visually engaging and informative eBook can be invaluable when trying to generate leads. One of the primary reasons is that an eBook builds trust in your knowledge and brand. This is because eBooks are informative and educational in nature. They present evidence, research, and logic, and raise important questions and concerns that customers may have without pushing your product or service in their faces. They also establish your business as a thought leader and expert on particular subject matters.

Within the three stages that customers go through before making a purchase (awareness, consideration, and decision), eBooks facilitate the decisions customers make in between the “consideration” and “decision” stages. They often provide an important “tipping point” by offering useful content and showcasing your credibility.

When using an eBook for your business, the goal is to generate leads. Therefore, choose a topic that will make it easy for a prospect to go from downloading your eBook to making a purchase or booking a consultation or subscribing to your site.

 

Questions to Ask

As you ponder over prospective topics for your eBook, there are some questions to ask that will help you focus your efforts. Use them and others you may discover to narrow down your choices to the top three topics that will resonate most with your target audience.

Who is your ideal subscriber?

The first question to ask helps you identify your target audience. Who are you writing for? You must know to whom you are writing in order to create a resource they will need and want. It’s a good idea to develop sales personas for your target audience. Each persona contains details about your prospect that help you determine pain points to which you can direct your eBook.

What are customers asking for?

As you communicate with your current clientele, what comes up in conversation the most? What do you see them complaining or asking about on social media? Current customers will be most like the new subscribers you want, so their business pain points will be similar to those of your potential subscribers. Perhaps a survey or some one-on-one conversations with as many clients as possible would yield some valuable potential topics.

What interests you?

Ideally, your eBook will be about a topic that holds an interest for you. Even better, it could be about something for which you hold some level of expertise. However, just remember you are creating a resource to entice subscribers. Your topic needs to scratch where they have a terrible itch, so to speak. If you are a genuine expert on ice cream, and your target audience is lactose intolerant, well…. don’t expect a wealth of eBook downloads and subscribers. A great took to help identify what is being searched for is Answer the Public, type in a keyword and it will tell you what questions are being asked on Google around that keyword.

 

Pick a Narrow Niche

You may have heard it said, “A successful eBook provides a laser-targeted solution to a major problem.” That is absolutely correct. That’s why it’s important to identify a narrow niche. For example, here are four broad categories with suggestions for narrower niche topics given:

  • Health – Muscle gain, fat loss, raw food diet, low-impact exercise, reduce stress, natural ways to lose weight, and how to thin or tone certain body parts (thighs, stomach, arms).
  • Passion – Fishing, hunting, gaming, sewing, boating, skiing, skating, wines, golf, gaming, gardening, cooking, and surfing.
  • Relationships – Dating tips for men, dating tips for women, break-ups, divorce, sexuality, parenting, social skills development, marriage, and long-term relationships.
  • Wealth – Passive income, debt, retirement, investing, bitcoin, how to start a business, employment, time management, and internet marketing related business (ie: blogging, affiliate marketing, social media).

Once again, your niche topic needs to solve a major problem for as large an audience as possible. So, be as specific as your target audience will allow.

 

Decide What Train to Ride

There are two trains of thought about how to create a successful eBook. Many people have gotten on each train and produced wildly successful eBooks. The choice is up to you, and there are many pros and cons for each.

The Unique Idea Train

This train of thought requires a completely unique idea that hasn’t been tried before. If you can hit upon that one single thing no one has tried before, and make it work, that is an excellent way to jump into an over-saturated market. You’ll stand out by solving a problem that doesn’t have too much competition. This is a sure-fire way to carve out a sub-niche within a major market and be recognized.

The downside is, how many new ideas are really out there waiting to be tried? The problem with a unique product is it’s risky. It’s breaking new ground. There might be a reason that nobody has written an eBook around this topic – it doesn’t work or sell!

The ‘Me Too’ Train

The ‘Me Too’ train involves an established product that’s in a proven market. The best thing about them is there’s already a demand for this kind of information. The key to riding the ‘Me Too’ train is to have a unique selling position. You need an interesting twist or a different way of doing things. Maybe even your solution flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but works.

The downside of this train is the difficulty you will have standing out and gathering a large audience of subscribers from your eBook. If there are 75 eBooks on Google on this popular topic, it will be hard to get noticed above the others.

Whatever your process for settling on a topic for your next eBook, it MUST generate interest if you plan to use it to get new subscribers. What success have you had in the past using an eBook for your businesses? To gain subscribers? Share your stories or advice with our readers in the comments below.

Tips for Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator by @donnaamos

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sales navigator

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

It seems everyone is looking for ways to expand their brand and increase sales. With all the strategies and sales tactics available, it can be difficult determining which direction to go and what platforms are most useful in reaching your desired goal. LinkedIn has significantly expanded its outreach to help you succeed in your business. Although it may be easy to overlook this social media platform and the potential they hold, you will find it is useful, user-friendly, and results-oriented.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has been designed with a multi-faceted approach, and will aid in whichever marketing strategies best fits your needs. If you are not familiar with this feature, LinkedIn has made it simple to explore and understand this beneficial product, as their business section features the highlights of Sales Navigator. This is outlined in the goal of targeting, understanding, and engaging business prospects. Additionally, they offer a free demo and free trial to play around with the options.

Don’t let the endless possibilities overwhelm you when you explore Sales Navigator. It may be easy to rush through, or get lost in the expansive selection of filters and tools. When using a valuable resource, a little planning can go a long way. Even if you are already seeing the benefits of Sales Navigator, you can always find ways to make it work even better for your business and sales with these tips.

A Little Planning Goes a Long Way

The first tip to using Sales Navigator is to start with some planning and set a strategy. This tool makes achieving sales incredibly attainable, but it does take some consideration on your part. The best feature is that this product can generate a tremendous amount of leads that you may not find anywhere else. The important part is to plan how you will sort and take advantage of these leads.

Regardless of your time using Sales Navigator, ensure that you have set a realistic lead criteria. Take some time to think through the ideal lead, start with generic qualifiers, then add more specifics to essentially have a few sets of criteria that would best fit your niche.

Use Filters to Your Advantage

Start with Top Filters to narrow down the leads that Sales Navigator will scan and produce. This is the time to play around with how specific you need to be to get the leads you are seeking. A top tip is to start with the basic filters and see what results you get back. If it is vast and you find you need to be more specific, employ the advanced filters to get the desired results.

Some of the top filters to adjust are keywords and geography. Keywords can fluctuate, and it may be helpful to look for synonyms of common keywords that are bringing quantity over quality. For advanced filters, you may want to narrow down to postal code and look at company type.

Utilize Your Resources

If you have felt frustrated or think there is more that Sales Navigator has to offer, you’re probably right. Often, it is easy to let limited time take away from all that a program has to offer, which leads to missed opportunity. Fortunately, LinkedIn has developed an extensive variety of resources for you to utilize within Sales Navigator.

The Learning Center  is an extensive set of resources developed to help users maximize what Sales Navigator has to offer. There are modules, webinars, video tutorials, eBooks, and simple guides to support your business and expand potential within Sales Navigator. The more time put into learning about what the program offers and how to best use the tools, the better leads generated and outreach you can have on LinkedIn.

Strategize Communication and Connections

A theme that LinkedIn has found strength in, is making connections through people, places, careers, companies, and interest. Sales Navigator draws heavily on this and makes using LinkedIn even more effective for generating leads, and the filters are such a benefit to streamlining an outreach. However, this tip moves away from having Sales Navigator do all the work.

Once the leads have been provided, it is on you or your liaison to prioritize and build on the connections made within LinkedIn. Although Sales Navigator has a private messaging option, it may not always be advantageous to rely on in-app messaging. It takes a little more time, but employing an excel spreadsheet and doing a little research can go a long way when it’s time to reach out and communicate with your generated leads.

It can certainly pay off to see if you have mutual connections and reach out to that person to the lead. This creates a more personal outreach and can make the person feel more comfortable or open to what you have to offer.

If you have no mutual connections, another tip is to do some research and send emails in addition to messaging through LinkedIn. For the right person, an email may generate a quicker response. This may end up being a bust, but it also may bring a higher response rate than only one type of outreach.

How have you found success using Sales Navigator? Please share your experience and any tips you’ve found to work to your advantage in the comments.