Category: Marketing Tips

Facebook advertising, Facebook video ads, do Facebook ads work

Are Facebook Video Ads Worth It?

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Facebook advertising, Facebook video ads, do Facebook ads work

Have you heard the debate raging these days about whether or not Facebook’s popularity among marketers is justified? Trust me, it’s no contest.

  • Facebook’s ad prices are still rather cheap.
  • There are well over a billion people on Facebook.
  • Nearly 800 million of them log in every day.
  • 90% of B2C marketers rely on Facebook advertising.

The Video Factor

It’s a no brainer that video should be a part of any advertising campaign. Facebook advertising is no exception. After all, videos convert better and are especially useful for lead generation. For example, Heineken recently tried it and scored a slam dunk, reaching 35 million users in just three days! They found that Facebook was the perfect home for their videos, due to the engaging atmosphere and high likeliness for conversion.

This is a trend you don’t want to miss out on. Facebook video ads are overtaking YouTube statistics!  In November of 2014, more videos were uploaded to Facebook than to YouTube. And with engagement climbing 25% on Facebook earlier in 2014 and a report from Adobe announcing that video was the most popular medium on social sites, it’s not hard to see the trend.

Facebook video ads work if you know how to do it. Partner with a social media marketing firm or expert to make sure you’re not pouring your money down the drain with ineffective techniques and strategies. This has led many to give up on the platform entirely. While in the meantime, those who know how to properly utilize this powerful tool are laughing all the way to the bank.

the-ultimate-holiday-campaign

Get Ready for Christmas and Black Friday Sales

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christmas cash, holiday revenue, how to set up winning campaignIt’s the time of year when the leaves start to turn color, relatives start talking about whose house to spend what holiday at, and the big-box stores begin setting out those annoying inflatable holiday dolls – you know the ones I’m talking about. But if you’re in business, you also know that this is the time of year when businesses prepare to make the lion’s share of their annual revenue. It may be black Friday for everyone else, but for you, it’s probably more like Green Friday. At least it can be.

Maybe your business is in an industry that’s really hot during the holidays, and maybe it’s not. But even if your industry doesn’t go particularly wild during the holidays, perhaps you sell into industries that do. If you want to maximize your profits this holiday season, don’t sit around and wait for customers to line up at your door like you have the last remaining iPhone 6. Get proactive! Now is the time to start putting together a killer holiday campaign to make this year count.

the-ultimate-holiday-campaignAdmittedly, building a campaign isn’t something most people get excited about. But what if you could follow a step-by-step guide and create a winning campaign that can be duplicated multiple times a year with minimal effort? Multiple times a year? Yeah! You can duplicate your holiday campaign during July 4th, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Memorial Day, and on your clients’ birthdays – yes, even birthdays. All-in-all, I’m about to save you at least sixty hours a year of boring busywork while increasing your sales. Now THAT is something to get excited about!

Take advantage of our free ebook HERE, and strategically position your business for the holidays in no time! And tell us in the comments when you usually start preparing your holiday email campaign!

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How can you capture 97% of your web visitors who ignore you?

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A disappointing statistic reveals that only 3% of visitors to your website will identify themselves, or buy from you online, when they come to your amazing website. The remaining 97% come and go unnoticed. 

Would it help win new business to see all the anonymous companies viewing certain pages on your website? What if you could see how they arrived, and what they were most interested in? Then, to take it a step further, would you want contact info names, titles and email addresses specified by department from the visiting business to your website?

We help marketers by allowing them to track who views their website, by extracting information of a business that has viewed their web page, tracking such items as:

  • Company name
  • Company location
  • The nature or interest of their search
  • The time and date they visited
  • What pages (and topics) they viewed on your website
  • How long they “lingered” on each page of interest
  • Company profile including their products, markets and size
  • Company contact information
  • Key buying influencers at that company

Knowing the above factors has great marketing value to a website owner. It is far better than a cold call, you can now contact companies with known needs and start building a relationship that counts.

Here is a short screen cast video showing a few major a features of this Lead Intelligence system. If you wish to see a full demo please register for a free webinar: Register here.

 


your game plan a winning strategy for small buisness

Your Game Plan: A Winning Strategy for Small Business – eBook

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‘Yyour game plan a winning strategy for small buisnessour Game Plan: A Winning Strategy for Small Business” is an ebook by Clate Mask, the CEO & Co-founder of Infusionsoft where he lays out some basic business growth strategy for entrepreneurs. In this 13 page, information packed eBook he talks about people having great ideas for a business but who do not always know how to go about selling those ideas, and if they should go into business for themselves. 

Among the great grow your business strategy, Clate shares 4 of his favorite books that helped him in this process. 

He lays out a path to understanding how strategy guides planning, by sharing a detail, step by step method of Strategy Planning Methodology. 

“The structure we use to bridge our vision to daily operations at Infusionsoft is called our “Strategy Planning Methodology.” It breaks down our current mission into annual and quarterly priorities. The work of quarterly priorities then gets broken down into SMART objectives with specific owners and deliverables. Here’s what the process looks like in more detail.”

He shares their mission, what are the 3-5 key strengths you need to leverage and what are the 3-5 to be developed. He lists their annual priorities, only 3-5 to keep the focus on the year at hand. Finally in discussing the Strategy Planning Methodology he talks about the quarterly priorities or tactical operation priorities with the importance of SMART objectives. SMART stands for:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-Bound 

Next, the writer shares how this strategic planning is not a one-time event but a series of events, hence its importance of establishing a meeting rhythm for success. In this section he talks about the frequency and types of meetings as well as the role of communication with your employees in building a strong business. 

In summary: 

“Strategic planning is the link between a great idea and business success. Based on the purpose for your business, a smart strategy helps you develop a plan of action. To help you and your team stay on track, meet at regular intervals to assess and enhance your strategy. Employee involvement is a key to motivation, aligning personal goals with your company mission. Analyzing  company, team and individual performance is a great way to keep everyone working together. In small business, a strategic game plan can help you do more than just survive. You can thrive—and win.”

We invite you to download your own copy of “Your Game Plan: A Winning Strategy for Small Business” – eBook by submitting the form below:

Grow your business success Stories

Success Stories of How to Grow Your Business

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Grow your business success

Do you need new ideas in your marketing plans on how to grow your business? I know I do. I enjoy hearing other successful entrepreneurs and learning from them their proven strategies and how they executed their plans.

We created a new section of our website called “Success Stories.” There we published video testimonials of success business owners who grew their business using Infusionsoft marketing automation. We know they are trustworthy, because we use Infusionsoft for our own needs and our clients. IWW is Infusionsoft Certified Partner helping clients strategize and implement best marketing and sales automation practices. 

We invite you to watch these videos to learn about a business coach who increased his revenue by the insanely 832%, or a swimming pool company who quadrupled their new leads. Learn from a private music teacher how he quadrupled customer lifetime value (CLV) and a financial services advisor who doubled her clients and revenue. There are more. 

If you have a marketing automation success story, of any success story of growing your business worth sharing, please let us know.  

To your success in growing your business! Watch the success stories here.

 

Pros and Cons of Guest Blogging Revealed

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© Rick Henzel - Fotolia.com
© Rick Henzel – Fotolia.com

You’ve probably read or even written some guest posts. And, based on your experience, you either love or hate this idea. But, with all the uproar around guest blogging, you can’t deny its spreading popularity and bright future.

Guest blogging or posting means creating content for someone else’s website. Writers are often temporary and share their outlook on familiar topics. They aim to promote their work by linking back to their own websites.

If you consider allowing guests on your blog, try keeping these pros and cons in mind:

Pros                                                                                              

  • When you don’t have enough time for blogging, you can save your work and energy by allowing someone to contribute.
  • If networking is challenging for you, you can build relationships and increase your network thanks to guest bloggers.
  • When your blog’s topics are complex or your ideas not sufficient, you can show expertise by providing specialists’ opinions.
  • If you think your blog lost its spark, you may bring a new, fresh and unique voice with guest authors.
  • When you don’t have an audience, you can establish it and boost your SEO thanks to expert bloggers, who may come with their own followers.

Cons

  • Because your contributor’s style and opinions are different from yours, you may confuse your audience with erratic posts.
  • If your guest authors are spammers or manipulative bloggers, who focus on their own interests, you may discourage your public.
  • Since you’ll need to check and approve many blog submissions, you may actually lose your time.
  • When someone else writes for you, you may feel like you don’t have any control over the content.
  • If you get useless bloggers, or if they bring traffic only to their own websites, your ratings and business may suffer.

So, should you become a guest blogger? Yes, and the following benefits and possibilities speak for themselves. Guest posting may help you to

  • expand your network;
  • form relationships within industry;
  • improve your writing;
  • share your unique ideas and opinions;
  • increase your SEO;
  • link back to your website, ads or articles;
  • generate interest in your brand;
  • create quality audience;
  • build your credibility and expertise; and
  • boost your sales.

Evidently, guest blogging has two sides. But, despite certain drawbacks, it carries lots of benefits for both parties involved. Then why not give it a try? You may actually be pleasantly surprised and satisfied with your decision.

Social Media Top Tips

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TwitterBrowse our collection of search marketing articles for industry news, tips, and inbound marketing strategy ideas.

SEO:

The Benefits of Thinking Like Google. Looking at things from Google’s point of view can help us understand recent changes to their treatment of links and how to move forward with a link-building strategy that’s favorable with search engines (from SEObook.com).

A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization: How do I build the perfectly optimized page? Are you a visual learner? Rand Fishkin has complied a series of graphics to help visualize the types of on-page keyword optimization that are likely to lead to high search engine rankings, traffic on social networks, plenty of links and shares, and positive company branding (from Moz.com).

Social Media:

How to Utilize LinkedIn Groups for Your Business. Learn about the value of using LinkedIn Groups and how to beef up your business profile page before getting started (from SEO.com).

The Complete Guide for Finding and Sharing Better Content on Social Media. This guide offers a range of tips about where to find good content, and when and where to share it in order to reach the most people (from bufferapp.com).

5 Ways to Use Video to Improve Your Social Media Marketing. Video is user-friendly content that’s easy to share, and there are a lot of options for using video on social media. This post describes how to incorporate video into your social media strategy on five different platforms (from SocialMediaExaminer.com).

Content Marketing & Branding:

Content Marketing and Relationship Management. Brian Jenson argues that a holistic content marketing strategy includes the relationship management aspect of the process. He explores the phases of content marketing and the roles of relationships in each (from Social Media Today).

17 Compelling Stats That Make the Case for Smarter Site Design. These 17 must-read stats about website design and optimization will make you think twice about revisiting your site design strategy (from Hubspot.com).

How to Create a Content Strategy (In Only 652 Steps). This complete guide is long, but it’s main point is clear from the start: stop basing your content strategy on keywords and start creating content that establishes your business as a leading resource of information in your industry (from Portent.com).

IWW Top Tips

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forsee-mobile-satisfaction

Browse this week’s collection of search marketing articles for industry news, tips, guidance, and creative ideas for boosting an inbound marketing strategy.

Marketing & Branding:
How to Develop and Maintain a Content Team. “Content” isn’t just another buzzword when it comes to marketing. The importance of good content is here to stay, and more marketers are realizing that generating lots of high-quality content can be done more efficiently with a content team. This guide delivers tips for creating, managing, and tracking the efforts of a content team around marketing goals and strategies (from Distilled.net).

Customers Say iTunes Provides the Best Mobile Media Experience. PC sales are steadily declining, while tablet sales are rise. In less than 12 months, monthly tablet sales are expected to exceed monthly PC sales. It’s time for businesses to put equal effort into both the PC and mobile experience when it comes to customer satisfaction. Media companies like iTunes have nailed the mobile media experience, using tactics that can successfully transfer to nearly any business’s mobile marketing strategy (from Marketing Pilgrim).

SEO:
The 30 best new SEO tools. It’s a daunting task to stay on top of the ever-evolving SEO industry, but compilations like this one bring it all together for a snapshot of current SEO, which we can use to both measure and modify our current inbound strategies (from .netMagazine).

How 1% of your traffic can bring in 90% of your business. Traffic to your website is virtually useless if it doesn’t lead to conversions. Learn how long-tail keywords help target the searchers most likely to convert, making them an excellent way to drive the best kind of traffic to your website (from So What? Media).

Social Media:
7 Powerful Facebook statistics you should know for a more engaging Facebook page. These tips include some efficient ideas for boosting Facebook outreach, just by tweaking some of the social media strategies you’re probably already using. In a nutshell: post plenty of images, integrate an emotional element, pose a question, offer incentives, and keep it short (from Buffer).

4 Examples of Excellent Twitter Customer Service. 99% of brands are now on Twitter, but only 30% of them have a dedicated customer service strategy. Because technology makes it easy for consumers to publicly complain about problems related to a business’s products and services, addressing those problems using the same platforms is one way to both appease unhappy customers and maintain relationships with satisfied customers. Find out how four companies are successfully addressing customer service on Twitter (from Social Media Examiner).

4 Examples of Excellent Twitter Customer Service

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Gone are the days when people would call up a company and complain. Now, people are more likely to head to their smartphones or computers to tell the world how terrible a product or service is.That’s why customer service is becoming increasingly important on social media platforms like Twitter.

A study done by Simply Measured showed that 99% of brands are on Twitter, and 30% of them have a dedicated customer service handle. The average response time was 5.1 hours with 10% of companies answering within an hour, and 93% of companies answering within 48 hours.

Here are 4 companies with exceptional customer service on Twitter and key takeaways to help you improve how your customers perceive your company on Twitter.

1. JetBlue Excels in Responsiveness

Airline delays are one of the most common causes of customer frustration. Not only do delays happen often, but also people are pretty vocal about their feelings when their flight is delayed.

Acknowledging this, @JetBlue ensures they’re responsive to their customers because they understand it’s important for continued customer loyalty. Not only do they engage with happy customers, but they also respond to and help frustrated customers as quickly as possible.

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2. Nike’s Separate Handle

@NikeSupport is a prime example of customer service done well. They constantly respond to followers on Twitter, whether it’s about their apparel, Fuel Band or other products. Every few minutes, you can watch them respond to someone new.

What makes this remarkable? Nike is a huge company. They have many different types of sports equipment and lines of apparel that make up their brand. While Nike manages a number of Twitter handles to accommodate followers interested in specific sports or store locations, @NikeSupport is dedicated solely to responding to customers who need help.

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3. Seamless Around-the-Clock Customer Service

It is no longer a 9-5 world—especially when it comes to social media—and some companies need to be available at all hours.

Seamless is an online food ordering service that serves customers in several time zones across the United States and in London. There’s always someone ordering food and eating, right?

In addition to engaging customers through trivia questions with prizes of free food, they also provide customer service around the clock.

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4. Comcast’s Quality Assistance

While speed of response is important, many companies underestimate the importance of quality assistance. A quick response that isn’t helpful can be as good as no response at all. In the case of Comcast, their customers are looking for specific help to fix their problems. If their wireless Internet isn’t working, they want to know how to fix it. If their television connection is out, they want to know how to repair whatever is broken.

To provide each customer with a timely and helpful response, Comcast’s Twitter account is managed by a team of people who can quickly offer technical support and troubleshooting tactics for a variety of issues.

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These examples show how to use Twitter to cultivate loyalty by providing timely and helpful responses to customers.

Adopt similar tactics to improve your customers’ experience of your company on Twitter. Consider dedicating one person, even part time, to addressing customers’ questions on Twitter. Track the outcome to see whether you should expand the program.

IWW Top Tips: Internet Marketing News, Guides, and Insight From Search Marketing Leaders

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googleThis week’s collection of top search marketing articles includes insight on the latest Google updates, reasons for implementing SEO and SEM, and several perspectives on why marketers should be using the enigmatic Google+.

 

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