Why Can’t I Boost My Reels On Instagram? Troubleshoot Common Reels Ads Issues
Find out what you can do if your ads are getting disapproved on Instagram and how to prevent them from being rejected in the future.
Reels is the future of video storytelling on Instagram. It already makes up 20% of the time spent on the platform. That means that if you’re not using Reels to tell your brand story, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
Are Reels good for business account?
Absolutely yes. There are a few key reasons:
1- Reels are highly engaging, and users are much more likely to watch a Reel than any other type of content on Instagram.
2- They’re also fun and creative, which gives brands a chance to show off their personality. Plus, Reels are easy to make and don’t require a lot of time or resources.
3- When you share content using Reels, the algorithm pushes your content to users who are not following you, giving you the chance to gain followers.
4- Users engage more with Reels content because they are entertaining, digestible, and relatable.
Why Are Reels A Great Way To Grow Your Followers?
Reels are a great way to grow followers because they’re highly engaging and the algorithm pushes your content to users who are not following you. When you use Reels the right way, you can increase your reach and get more people interested in your brand.
How To Gain Followers Using Reels?
Pull your audience in and entertain them with content that appeals to their ears, eyes and hearts.
1. Design for sound on
Over 80% of Reels are viewed with sound.1 Music can be an effective audio strategy for captivating attention and creating connection, particularly when it complements the mood of your story (i.e. relaxing, inspiring, energizing, chill, dreamy).
2. Dazzle with visual effects
Adding effects are a great way to inject a little fun in your Reels and enhance the story — in fact, over 40% of Reels use effects.1 Try effects like green screen to help you layer first-person video commentary onto content.
3. Inspire an emotional response
Entertaining ads tend to elicit emotions like happiness, interest and curiousity. Consider sparking intrigue by taking an edutainment approach and teaching your audience something new or helping them learn more about something they already love.
Boost Your Reels to Reach New Audiences
Can you boost Reels on Instagram?
Yes! You can now boost your Reels on Instagram to reach more people.
Here’s how:
1. Go to your business profile and click on the Reels tab.
2. Find the Reel you want to boost and click the “Promote” button.
3. Choose your objective (reach, website clicks or conversions) and target audience.
4. Set your budget and duration, then click “Confirm.”
5. Your Reel will start promoting as an ad once it’s been reviewed and approved.
Keep in mind that you can’t boost Reels with:
– Camera filters
– Shared to Facebook
– Gifs
– Tappable elements
– Copyrighted music
If you’re having trouble boosting your Reel, keep reading! We have some solutions that can help you get approved.
Which reels can be boosted?
Businesses can now boost their reels within the Instagram app to turn them into ads for the opportunity to reach new audiences and drive more engagement. Boosted Reels, summarized in the reel below, will appear in feed, Stories, the Reels tab and the explore page to help new customers find your brand.
To be eligible for boosting within the Instagram app, reels must be less than 60 seconds and have a 9:16 aspect ratio, which means they’re filmed vertically and have a full-screen format. At this time, Reels that use third party IP—such as copyrighted music, GIFs, interactive stickers or camera filters in a Reel—are ineligible for boosting, as well as reels shared to Facebook.
If you’re looking to boost your reach on Instagram, Reels Ads is a great way to do it. However, at this time, not every Reel can be boosted. Here’s a look at some of the most common problems and how to solve them.
Problem 1: Video Resolution
If you’re getting this error, most likely, your video has a filter effect.
How to fix this problem? Assuming that you want to keep using the filter, you can download the Reel using a website like Snapinsta.app and upload it again. You can also edit your Reel before posting it using a video editing app like CapCut.
Problem 2: Shared to Facebook
Reels are typically shared to Facebook, by default. If you are getting this error, you’ll need to publish your Reel again and remove the permission to share Reels to Facebook.
Provided that you are not violating any of the other prohibitions, your ad should be approved.
Problem 3: Contains Gifs
Gifs are not currently supported by Reels Ads. This means that if your Reel contains a Gif, it will not be able to be boosted.
To solve this problem, post your Reel without any Gifs or Stickers.
Problem 4: Tappable Elements
Tappable elements are not currently supported by Reels Ads. This means that if your Reel contains any tappable elements, such as links or call-to-actions, they will not be clickable when viewed on a boosted Reel.
If you have an original version of your video, simply upload it again but without any tappable element. Note that if you filmed your video directly on the app, you won’t be able to remove the element. So in this case, filming a new one will be the solution.
Problem 5: Copyrighted Music
Copyrighted music is not currently supported by Reels Ads. This means that if your Reel contains any copyrighted music, it will not be able to be boosted.
To solve this problem, create a new video using original sound instead of a song.
In Conclusion
By following these solutions, you should be able to boost your Reels without any issues. Remember to always check the requirements for Reels Ads before posting to make sure your content is eligible.
Boosting your Reels is a great way to increase your reach and get more eyes on your brand. So take advantage of this feature and start promoting your business today!
The Case Of Why You Should Create An Online Course (One That Sells)
If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a profitable online course.
No matter where you are in your life or career, you have something to teach the world. Perhaps you don’t have all the details today, but the idea of not having to sell your time to make money is getting you curious.
And, you’re not alone. A recent study showed that nearly 60% of Americans would take an online course if it fits their schedule and interests, but only 10% have actually done so.
Assuming you have the time and interest in creating an online course, let’s explore the case for why this is a great
The pros of creating an online course
1 – The barriers to entry are low.
In the past, creating an online course required expensive software and hosting platforms. But now, there are platforms like Teachable that make it easy and affordable to get started. You can create and host your course on their platform without any upfront costs.
2 – You can reach a global audience.
With an online course, you can reach people all over the world. You’re not limited by geographic location like you are with in-person courses or events.
3 – There are existing ecosystems that will help you reach the audience and sell your course.
Platforms like Teachable have built-in audiences of people who are looking to learn. And, they also handle all of the marketing and payment processing for you. This means that you can focus on creating great content for your course.
4 – The upcoming generations are very receptive to learning online.
If you’re thinking that online courses are a fad, think again. The latest data shows that e-learning is here to stay. In fact, the global e-learning market is expected to reach $325 billion by 2025.
Who learns online?
Data shows that people of all ages are learning online. In fact, according to the latest data from the US Department of Education, over 6 million students took at least one online course in 2016.
The breakdown by age group is as follows:
– Under 18: 2.6 million students (17%)
– 18-24: 3.1 million students (20%)
– 25-34: 1.6 million students (10%)
– 35-44: 1.2 million students (8%)
– 45-54: 0.9 million students (6%)
– 55 and older: 1.0 million students (7%)
All of the above reasons should be getting you excited about creating an online course, but there’s one more important factor to consider…
5 – It’s highly profitable.
While the average American worker makes $44,564 per year, the top 1% of course creators are making over $200,000 per year. In fact, some of the top online course creators are making millions of dollars per year.
How much can you charge for your course?
It depends on the length and depth of your course, but the average price of an online course is between $97 and $997.
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. And you will see lots of courses for FREE. They are great for lead generation.
The bottom line is that creating an online course is a great way to make money and allow you to work remotely – indefinitely. You are the creator of your own economy.
So the next question is: how do you actually build a real business from your courses?
A course business is part of the CAAS Industry (Content As A Service).
SAAS vs CAAS? What’s the difference?
What is SAAS?
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has become a popular way for companies to consume and pay for business software. SaaS represents a new category of software that delivers applications over the web. Rather than purchasing, installing, and maintaining complex on-premises software, organizations can now subscribe to simple, easy-to-use applications that are always up to date and accessible from any device with an internet connection.
What is CAAS?
Content as a service (CaaS) is a cloud-based content management system (CMS) that provides users with on-demand access to a library of digital content, including articles, videos, images, and more.
CaaS platforms are similar to other types of SaaS applications in that they are delivered over the internet and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. However, CaaS platforms differ from other types of SaaS applications in that they focus exclusively on content management.
While there are many different CaaS platforms available, they all share a common goal: to make it easy for users to create, manage, and deliver digital content.
The benefits of using a CaaS platform include:
– On-demand access to a library of digital content
– Ability to create, manage, and deliver digital content
– Ability to customize the look and feel of your content
– Increased efficiency and productivity
If you’re looking for a way to create, manage, and deliver digital content, then a CaaS platform is a great option.
There are many different CaaS platforms available, but not all of them are created equal. When choosing a CaaS platform, it’s important to consider your specific needs and requirements.
Some of the things you should look for in a CaaS platform include:
– Ease of use: The platform should be easy to use, even if you’re not a tech-savvy person.
– Content Library: The platform should have a library of digital content that you can access on demand.
– Ability to customize: The platform should allow you to customize the look and feel of your content.
– Increased efficiency: The platform should help you increase your efficiency and productivity.
– Marketplace features: The platform should have marketplace features that allow you to sell your courses.
The bottom line is that if you’re looking for a way to create, manage, and deliver digital content, then a CaaS platform is a great option. When we were exploring all the CaaS in the market: Kajabi, ClickFunnels, Teachable, Simplero, Thunkific, WordPress Plugins, and Kartra, we decided to go with Kartra. Kartra has offers the best SEO features and is great for technical SEO. If you’re in the market for a CaaS platform, try Kartra for free.
Tips To A Profitable Online Course
1 – Find an audience that is eager to learn. There’s no reason for you to convince people about why they should learn something.
2 – Before creating the course, find similar courses and do some ethical “cyberstalking”. Pay attention to their teaching style, platform, and most importantly, how they engage with their students.
3 – Use an evergreen model to ensure long-term profitability. You certainly don’t want to create a course that becomes obsolete within months.
4 – Create content marketing that helps you gain brand authority. This will make people want to buy your courses because they trust you.
5 – The key to selling courses is not to be too salesy. Instead, focus on providing value and helping people reach their goals.
6 – Use an email list to increase course sales. This way, you can stay in touch with your students and promote new courses to them.
7 – Offer a money-back guarantee to increase course sales. This will help you build trust with your audience and make them feel more comfortable buying your courses.
8 – Provide bonuses and other incentives to people who buy your courses. This will help you increase course sales and keep your students happy.
9 – Focus on giving your users a stellar customer experience. This will help you increase course sales and reduce refunds.
10 – Don’t create a course until you have students who are ready to learn from you. Offer mini sessions for free so you can test your content with a real audience. Then you create paid content to expand from your free mini sessions. By doing this, you will be creating content for an audience that is ready to learn from YOU. This is the key to building profitable online courses.
Creating and selling a course can be a great way to make money online. However, it’s important to keep in mind that not all courses are created equal. In order to create a successful and profitable course, you need to focus on providing value, engaging with your students, and using marketing strategies that will help you sell your courses. And sometimes, a profitable course is one that you give away for free, as part as your customer acquisition costs. Long term, this can be a profitable activity.
If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a profitable online course. Just remember that it takes time, effort, and dedication to succeed. So don’t give up and keep moving forward!
Done for you course creation services:
Hiring a team that can offer a done-for-you course creation services can save you time and energy; and most importantly, will cut your learning curve.
Why did we pick Kartra to build our courses?
Kartra offers what most teaching platforms do: all-in-one content building, marketing, and sales. But there’s one area where they stand out from their competitors like ClickFunnels, Kajabi, Teachable, and others: you are able to create inside Kartra and take it to your WordPress. This is a big deal, especially for technical SEO.
7 Applications That Will Help You Create Content For Social Media
Learn how to create a content strategy and 7 applications that will make your content creation process faster.
When it comes to social media, one of the most important things is to be seen. In order to be seen and build trust with an audience, you need speed. And that can be the hardest part.
What does content mean in social media?
Content on social media can be anything from a blog post, to an Instagram caption, to a Facebook status update. In order to be successful on social media, you need to be creating content regularly.
If you want to grow on social media, you’ll need a content marketing strategy for your social media, to achieve results without wasting time.
Steps to create a content marketing strategy:
1. Know your audience: you can’t create content that appeals to everyone, so you need to know who you’re trying to reach with your content.
2. Set goals: what do you want to achieve with your content? Is it to generate leads, or to build brand awareness?
3. Research. Competitor research is the process of investigating your competitor’s online presence, in order to understand what they’re doing well and where there are opportunities for you to do better.
This is important because it allows you to learn from your competitor’s successes and avoid their mistakes. It also helps you keep up with the latest trends in your industry so that you can stay ahead of the curve.
There are a few different ways to do competitor research for social media. One way is to simply look at their social media accounts and see what kind of content they’re posting, how often they’re posting it, and what kind of engagement they’re getting.
4. Create a calendar. A social media editorial calendar is a document that outlines the content you’ll be posting on each social media platform for a specific period of time. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
This is important because it helps you stay organized and prevents you from forgetting to post or running out of ideas.
Pro tip: avoid confusing tactics with strategy. A tactic is a specific action or activity that you undertake in order to achieve your desired outcome. A strategy is a high-level plan that outlines the overall approach you’ll take to achieve your desired outcome. What you post should be related to your overarching goal
How often to post on social media?
The answer to this question varies depending on the platform you’re using and the goals you’re trying to achieve.
If you’re trying to build brand awareness, for example, you’ll want to post more frequently than if you’re trying to generate leads. And if you’re just getting started on social media, you may want to post more often at first in order to gain traction and grow your audience.
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to post at least once a day on each platform you’re using. But if you can’t commit to that, don’t worry. Just do the best you can and try to be consistent.
The more people who see your content, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.
Understanding the Engagement Algorithm:
The Instagram algorithm is always changing, but the one constant is that engagement is key. The more people who engage with your content (likes, comments, shares), the more likely it is to be seen by others.
There are a few things you can do to encourage engagement on your posts:
Use hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to reach new people who are interested in the same thing as you. When you use relevant hashtags, your content is more likely to be seen by people who are searching for that hashtag.
Use calls to action. Asking your followers to do something (like comment or tag a friend) is a great way to encourage engagement.
Be interactive or engaging: this means that your content should encourage comments, likes, or shares.
Be timely. Posting about trends or current events is a great way to get people talking.
Be personal. Showing your personality and sharing your story is a great way to connect with your audience. Connect people or maintain connections: this means that your content should be interesting and valuable to your audience, and help them connect with each other.
Provide value to all parties included in this social exchange: this means that your content should not only be valuable to you, but also to your audience.
Now that we’ve gone over what content is and how to create a content strategy, let’s talk about the applications.
7 Applications That Will Make Your Content Creation Process Faster.
1. Etsy – This popular platform is full of designers who offer ready-to-plug templates. For example, if you are marketing your lashes business, finding Instagram templates for lashes studios will help you speed up the process.
2. Canva – This online design platform offers a wide variety of easy-to-use tools for creating visuals. Canva pro features are affordable and will allow you to create your brand assets, save templates, create folders, and much more! Your ultimate goal is to create high-quality content without spending too much time.
3. Jasper – This AI-powered tool can help pump out captions for your content. AI content is here to stay!
4. Fiverr.com – This is a platform where you can find freelancers. You can get a full month’s worth of content with captions and graphics from this freelancing platform. Expect to pay between $200 and $250 for 20 posts.
5. Google Search Console – This free tool from Google can help you research and optimize your content for better visibility. Knowing what content has attracted traffic to your website will help you refine your content.
6. Loom – This screen recording tool can be helpful for creating quick how-to videos or other types of content. The best part? It will generate a translation so you can turn audio into text easily.
7. Monday – This project management tool has templates where you can create your social media calendar with a few clicks. Again, the goal is to save time!
Learn how to do a website audit yourself and find ways to make your site more effective at generating leads – even in a recession!
If you’re like most businesses, your website is likely one of your biggest missed opportunities. In today’s day and age, people are increasingly turning to the internet to find products and services. As a result, a well-designed website can be a powerful tool for attracting new customers. Furthermore, a website provides you with a platform to showcase your products or services in the best light possible. In other words, a website is an essential tool for any business that is looking to grow.
So, what makes a good website?
There are a few key elements that you should keep in mind. First and foremost, your website should be easy to navigate and user-friendly. Secondly, it should be visually appealing and informative. Finally, your website should be optimized for search engines so that potential customers can easily find you online. By keeping these elements in mind, you can ensure that your website is an effective tool for attracting new business.
In this article, we will go over a website audit – DIY so you can explore potential missed opportunities.
Questions to consider when auditing your website
Before you can start thinking about auditing your website, you need to be clear on what problem your business solves. That might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how many businesses don’t have a clear answer to that question. Once you know what problem you solve, you can start thinking about how your website communicates that to visitors.
Is it clear and concise?
Do you use language that your target audience will understand?
Do you provide enough information to help people make a decision?
These are all important questions to consider when auditing your website. Because at the end of the day, a brand is what people think about your business. And you want them to think highly of you.
Keep your target audience in mind
If you’re in a situation where you have a strong brand but you’re not targeting the right audience, making some changes to your branding messaging can have a big impact. Along with a clear call to action, revamping your branding can help you reach your target market more effectively. Keep in mind, however, that it’s important to remain true to your brand identity. Don’t make any radical changes that could confuse or alienate your existing customer base. Instead, focus on making subtle adjustments that will help you reach your target market without compromising your brand identity.
Pro tip: Rebrand when there is no other option. Making subtle changes in a few website pages might be what your business needs today.
Your website goals
A website is no longer a static business card. In order to compete in today’s market, your website must be updated regularly with exclusive offers and a user-friendly interface. If your goal is to increase revenue, your website must be designed with this goal in mind.
Home page DIY audit
Some of the questions that will help you audit your website:
Is the home page eye-catching?
Can your visitors read about the problem you solve for them, within the first 5 seconds of landing?
Is the menu easy to navigate?
Do you have excessive text?
Do you have calls to action so that users know how they can do business with you?
Pro tip: The home page is not always your top-visited page. Be sure to check your Google Analytics so you can see how are people coming to your website and prioritize your top pages.
How do I generate leads from my website?
One of the main goals of having a website is to generate business. But before you can generate business, you need to generate leads. And when you’re auditing your website, one of the key areas to explore is how you’re generating leads. If you’ve never generated leads online before, this should be your starting point.
There are a number of ways to generate leads on your website, and which methods you choose will depend on your business and your audience.
Common ways to generate more leads on your website:
Some common methods include using forms to collect contact information, providing gated content that requires an email address to access, and running ads that target people who are interested in your products or services.
Pro tip: Combine your lead capture with a strong email marketing strategy so you can nurture your audience and add value consistently.
Free Website Audit Tools
Before you start making changes to your website, it’s important to do a comprehensive assessment of how it’s performing currently, from the technical point of view. Know that when a site has technical errors, Google won’t rank it. And this is crucial in order for you to determine where your focus should truly be.
This is what’s known as a technical website audit or a “website health check”. By taking a close look at your page views, bounce rate, average time on page, and other key metrics, you can get a sense of where your website needs improvement.
There are a number of tools that can help you with this process, including Google Analytics, Moz’s SEO Explorer, SEM Rush, and AHREFS, just to name a few.
By taking the time to do a thorough audit of your website, you can ensure that any changes you make will be based on data and will have a positive impact on your website’s performance.
What Should You Do Now?
Chances are, your DIY website audit reflects that it’s time to make some changes. But the most important part of taking the time to do this audit is to understand which changes matter the most.
If you found no traffic, or a very high bounce rate, and your Google Search Console has errors, this means it’s a technical SEO problem. This should be your highest priority. Hiring a senior-level SEO will take care of all your needs in one: from technical SEO, to optimizing for brand awareness, traffic, or conversion rates optimizations.
A good SEO strategy will also improve your website’s usability and design. They’ll make sure your website is easy to navigate and looks good on all devices. This will help improve your website’s user experience, which is another ranking factor for Google. Finally, a good SEO will also help you create high-quality content that is engaging and relevant to your audience. content that is engaging and relevant to your audience. And this is how you’ll turn your website into possibly replacing a sales team!
Join our Free Marketing Resource Center
You’re always hustling, trying new things, and looking for an edge on the competition. We get it. And we’re here to help. Our Marketing Resource Center is full of tips, tricks, and tactics that can help you market smarter and more effectively. Plus, it’s a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest industry news and trends. So if you’re serious about marketing your business for success, join our Resource Center today. It’s free, and you’ll be glad you did.
Inflation is a serious challenge for businesses – find out how to stay afloat and protect your company in this tough economy.
After relying primarily on price increases, business owners and executives are looking for creative ways to maintain profit margins and survive during inflation.
Here are a few fast facts based on the latest Consumer Price Index as of March 2022:
Food prices rose 8.8%, and the largest increase was in the “food at home” category (i.e., groceries).
Energy prices rose 32%, and the largest increases were in the “fuel oil and gasoline” categories.
Prices for items outside of food and energy rose 6.5% and the largest increase was in the “shelter” category.
So, how do you fight inflation, without increasing your prices?
According to a recent MFG survey of local business owners in Austin, Texas, the majority of business owners are fighting inflation by increasing their marketing efforts to increase their overall sales volume, followed by pricing strategies, and outsourcing.
Those are all great ideas, but there are a million strategies out there to improve your bottom line even as everything gets pricier.
Here are a few ways that businesses can adjust to inflation:
1) Increase marketing efforts to generate more sales volume. If your product is selling at the same price but you’re able to sell more units, your business will still come out ahead. Develop a strategic plan to nurture existing consumers and reach new audiences at the same time.
2) Know your numbers. Keep a close eye on your budget and know where every penny is going. The same goes for your revenue. Get granular data about your top-selling products. Knowing where you can make cuts will help save your business money.
3) Be creative with pricing. If you must increase prices, look for ways to do it in a way that won’t cause too much of a shock to your customers. For example, you could institute a small price increase for all customers or offer discounts for bulk purchases or preorders.
4) Consider outsourcing. In some cases, it may be more cost-effective to outsource certain aspects of your business rather than try to do everything in-house.
5) Keep your employees and customers happy. Inflation can be tough on everyone, but it’s important to try to maintain a positive attitude and keep your employees and customers happy. After all, they are the backbone of your business. Loyalty programs are a great way to keep customers coming back, and happy employees are more productive employees. A loyalty program is a system where customers can earn rewards for their purchases. For example, a business might offer a loyalty card that gives customers 1 point for every $1 they spend. Once the customer reaches a certain number of points, they can redeem them for discounts or freebies.
6) Implement better processes and systems. Review your current processes and see where you can make improvements that will help increase efficiency and decrease costs, especially in the following areas of your business:
Productivity
Customer service
Business development
Digitalization
Automation
7) Reduce advertising costs by utilizing digital marketing methods which are often more cost-effective. This means:
Focusing on SEO to make sure your website appears as the top result in search engine results pages.
Utilizing social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, to reach potential customers.
Creating email marketing campaigns to promote your products or services.
Using content marketing to attract potential customers to your website.
By utilizing these digital marketing methods, you can reduce your advertising costs and still reach a large audience.
How does inflation affect your marketing strategy?
If you’re not sure how to adjust your marketing strategy for inflation, here are a few tips:
1) Review your target audience. Make sure you understand who your target audience is and what their needs are. This will help you determine how to best reach them with your marketing message.
2) Focus on value. When consumers are feeling the pinch of inflation, they’re going to be more focused on getting the most bang for their buck. Make sure your marketing messages emphasize the value of your product or service.
3) Get creative with your messaging. If you can find a way to stand out from the competition and grab attention, you’ll be in a better position to succeed during periods of inflation.
4) Be flexible. Inflation can be unpredictable, so it’s important to be flexible with your marketing strategy. If you’re able to adapt quickly to changes in the market, you’ll be in a better position to succeed. If you are working with a marketing agency or lead a marketing team, be sure that you can implement new initiatives and pivot quickly.
5) Market to existing customers. During periods of inflation, it can be more difficult to attract new customers. Instead, focus on marketing to your existing customer base and try to increase loyalty and repeat business.
How can businesses benefit from inflation?
Your business can benefit from inflation, in the long run. By staying proactive, your path to leading your market would be much easier. Also, as time goes by and people get used to the idea of inflation, they will start to think about it less and carry on with their lives. In turn, this would lead to more customers for your business and help you maintain a good market share.
How can a fractional CMO help your business thrive during inflation?
A fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a senior-level marketing executive who can be hired on a part-time or project basis to provide expert marketing guidance and leadership to businesses.
Why hire a fractional CMO?
There are several reasons why you might consider hiring a fractional CMO:
1 ) You’re not ready to commit to a full-time CMO. A full-time CMO salary is typically out of reach for many small businesses. But by hiring a fractional CMO, you can get the same level of expertise and experience without breaking the bank.
2) You need help with a specific marketing project. If you have a specific marketing project that needs to be completed, such as rebranding or launching a new product, a fractional CMO can help you get it done.
3) You need an experienced marketing leader. If you’re a small business without a lot of marketing experience on your team, hiring a fractional CMO can give you the expertise and leadership you need to take your marketing to the next level.
4) You need help with marketing strategy. One of the most important roles of a CMO is to develop and execute a marketing strategy that aligns with the business’s overall goals. If you need help developing or fine-tuning your marketing strategy, a fractional CMO can be a great resource.
5) You want to reduce your marketing costs by outsourcing but don’t have the capacity to lead a marketing team. By hiring a fractional CMO, you can outsource your marketing functions and still have someone in-house to provide leadership and strategic direction.
If you’re facing inflation and aren’t sure how to adjust your marketing strategy, a fractional CMO can help. A fractional CMO can provide the expert guidance you need to navigate the challenges of inflation and keep your business thriving.
MFG offers fractional CMO services in Austin, Texas
Learn more about our digital marketing services and how we can help you drive more business by visiting our website or contacting us today.
Are you a blogger or small business owner looking to make your blog more SEO friendly so that Google will rank it higher when people search for the same topic? This is the post for you!
In this post, I’ll cover the basics to help you get started and do some basic SEO on your blog.
What is SEO friendly?
Being SEO friendly means that you have created a blog and its content to make it easier for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to find your site when someone searches for the same topic or keyword phrase.
The purpose of doing this is so people who are looking for information on the subject can easily find your post related content instead of having to go through hundreds or thousands of results.
There are many ways that you can do this, and I’ll cover some basic ones for creating a blog post with SEO in mind below:
Step One. Pick your focus keywords
Picking your focus keywords is the first step in making your blog SEO friendly. Be sure to choose a handful of keywords that are relevant to the topic of your blog so that you can target these words throughout your content and link back to them in your URL. More targeted keywords will be found by more people who are searching for what you offer, and this will lead to higher rankings in Google and higher traffic for your site.
The goal is for the content on your blog post to be helpful and insightful so people will want to share it with their friends and followers through social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter.
Step Two. Optimize your on-page content with these keywords
Use all of those great keywords in headlines, subheadings, image captions, videos, descriptions, etc. Make sure you use some form of call-to-action as well and entice readers to click, subscribe or buy.
Step Three: Create XML sitemaps
I’ll assume that for most bloggers, it’s not enough to make sure Google can find your content because you want your blog to appear in Google’s search results. To do this, create an XML sitemap that will let the big G know about all of your content and where it can be found on your site.
Step Four: Generate blog categories using your keywords
As you write posts, categorize them with keywords that are relevant to the content. This will help Google find your blog and rank it higher in search results for those topics.
Step Five: Generate tags using your keywords as well
Tags work like categories, but they’re better because people who use Google’s site-specific search can find your content much more easily.
Step Six: Add social media buttons to your blog
One of the best ways to get people who are not on your site to visit and potentially share it is by adding these widgets next to each post. You can include options like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever other networks you use for SEO purposes.
Step Seven: Create backlinks
Finally, go out there and create some quality backlinks from other sites to your blog. This will help Google find and rank you higher for keywords that are relevant to the content of your site.
A quality backlink is one that comes from a site with a high domain authority.
Step Eight: Create content frequently
Hopefully, you’re already doing this because it will help your blog rank better and keep people coming back for more!
Step Nine: Promote your articles on social media
Sharing your articles across all the social media platforms will help you generate traffic to your website, plus you’ll have the chance to expand your content based on the comments from your audience.
Step Ten: Monitor your blog performance
Monitoring your blog performance is essential because you want to make sure it’s running smoothly and that Google hasn’t penalized it for any reason.
Sign up for Google Search Console so you can get alerts about your blog performance.
As a forensic marketer, I am always paying attention to metrics (as you may know). The following are trackers that your blog must-have, so you can run reports, check performance, and plan future content:
Facebook pixel. Make sure your blog has a Facebook Pixel installed, along with custom events, so you can see important metrics such as article views and clicks on your call to actions. You can even build a custom audience from your article visitors.
Google Analytics tracker. A tracker will allow you to gather information on your article visitors, the time they have spent reading, other pages they visited, and depending on your settings, you can set up goals and campaigns to find specific users’ behaviors.
UTM codes. This tool allows you to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so you can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics. Watch the video below to see a quick tutorial on how UTM codes work.
Ready to boost your SEO? We are an Austin-based online marketing agency specialized in performance based marketing
Empower your blog with these 10 simple steps to make you the most search engine friendly blogger on the web. No matter what kind of content you are blogging about (health tips, business hints etc.), following these 10 steps will catapult your traffic and see a major rise in ranking.
If you’ve been considering starting a business that you can work from anywhere, getting into social media marketing makes total sense.
In this article, I will give you an overview of why I think starting a social media marketing today is a great idea and how you can make money in 30 days or less.
Let’s roll.
Social Media Management Market Size
While social media marketing is not a new business idea, the market forecast presents a bright future for anyone with online marketing skills who loves social media and is open to doing the work it takes to provide excellent service.
The global social media management market size will grow to USD 17.7 billion by 2023. Source. Market size matters when it comes to starting a new business. However, market size isn’t the only factor. You also need to consider the market needs.
Challenges Small Business Owners Face On Social Media
If you Google the top challenges that small business owners face when it comes to their social media marketing, you’ll find this list of social media challenges:
Challenge 1: So many platforms to choose from and not knowing where to focus.
Challenge 2: Lack of resources to meet the users’ expectations.
Challenge 3: It’s difficult to measure conversions.
Challenge 4: There aren’t enough hours in a workweek.
Challenge 5: Not knowing how to set up the right goals.
According to Forbes, it takes 32 hours a month to manage a single social media platform correctly, that’s roughly 6-8 hours per week. Only 25% of small business owners spend 6-10 hours per week on social media. This isn’t because they underestimate the value; they just don’t have the time.
What Pains A Social Media Marketer Solve?
Social media management helps users with a wide variety of tasks to develop their social channels and effectively gain visibility amongst social media users.
A key factor to generate clients as soon as possible is your unique value proposition. All you need is to describe the pain that you’re trying to solve with your services, for a specific market.
A very simple way to craft your UVP is taking the 5 challenges listed above and turn one or two into your UVP.
Example of how to present your unique social media marketing value proposition:
I do social media marketing for business owners who want to turn social media accounts into income-generating channels and have no time to lose.
In this example, you’re solving 2 pains for small business owners, so they will see 2 benefits:
Save time
Make more money
Now that you have your UVP, your next step is your business identity.
To make things very simple, start with your name. Buy a couple of domain names (including yours if it’s available) in GoDaddy.com.
Make sure your online first impression is polished. What do I mean with this?
You have a professional Facebook profile and a business page
Crafting Your Elevator Speech As A New Social Media Management Agency
When you’re about to start and want to bring clients as quick as possible, it’s perfectly ok to pitch small business owners with the following message:
Hello, I’m ______. I’m about to launch my social media marketing agency. I would love to partner with small business owners who see the value in having a personalized and reliable social media specialist who can do the heavy lifting while generating conversions. Since I am starting and want to build a portfolio, the first 10 clients will have a special rate.
Share this message with everyone you know.
Try to come up with a list of at least 100 names so you can get to those 10 new clients as soon as possible.
Facebook Groups are a great resource to find business owners who want to collaborate with emerging marketers. In case you’re interested, I lead 2 Facebook Groups and can connect you with some opportunities. Click here to join my Marketing for Greatness Network.
Now that you have the tools you need to prospect, let’s discuss pricing.
How Much To Charge For Social Media Marketing?
Watch out for platforms like Fiverr.com, Upwork.com, and Freelancer.com. They have freelancers who are willing to offer social media management services at very low rates. I want to give you the heads up on how to handle those business owners who think that social media management is going to cost them $5 per hour.
Stay away from business owners who want premium services paying $5 per hour rate.
Set up your minimum hourly rate (even if you don’t disclose this with your future client). If you’re not confident about charging these prices, getting certified in social media marketing will help.
Social Media Marketing Pricing Plans
Social media beginner level: $15- $20 per hour. Expect to work about 10 hours a week between your work and research. Total of hours per month: 45. Average monthly fees: $750.
You could consider discounting your learning time, so your rate could be $600 per month.
Social media intermediate level: $30- $50 per hour. Factor your time spent on strategy and a fee from a social media manager, beginner level, so you can get more clients. 25 hours per month at $50 is $1,250. Expect to pay your manager by tasks, about $200 per account, so you have a net of $1,000.
You could get paid $2,000-$5,000 a month if you add other projects into the mix and create social media marketing packages, with add-ons such as:
Copywriting for website
Lead pages
Email marketing management
Additional platforms such as Youtube, Pinterest, Houzz, Etsy, etc.
How To Find Social Media Marketing Clients
I hope you’re excited about the possibility of owning a social media marketing agency. Hey! Imagine if you get 5 clients at $600 that’s $3,000 per month while working from home in your PJs!
Finding clients is all about leads!
Memorize this: leads are the heart of your business.
Just one thing, please! A lead is not a lead until it shows an interest in your offer. When you create your list of 100’s of names, those are NOT leads. Those are suspects. Once you pitch them and they want more information, they are prospects. And once they actually accept a meeting with you, they are leads.
So, how can you find leads then?
My Top 3 Lead Generation Activities
You will be surprised here! I’ve built 4 businesses: a law firm, 2 e-commerce businesses, and a marketing firm, without ANY advertising.
My top 3 lead generation activities have been:
Word of mouth
Organic marketing online
Networking events
Why should Marketers care about WOMM?
If you could master what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing—the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to drive sales for your company — would you instead choose to ignore it or leave it to chance?
Seriously! Start with WOMM. Work with that list and pitch your suspects without any hesitation. If you think you need help with prospecting skills, take a few hours a week to learn how to prospect. And remember, practice makes perfect.
Learn about Success Club- $10 a month will give you access to members-only content, marketing tools, and more!
Partnership marketing will be your next step.
8 Effective Partnership Marketing Examples
A great way to get clients faster is through partnerships. I’m not talking about partners who share equity. I’m referring to marketing partners who can generate win-win opportunities.
Some of the most effective marketing partnerships to consider:
Affiliation: Known as affiliate marketing. It’s a collaborative effort where the primary brand offers a product or service and the secondary brand benefits from commissions earned per lead or sale.
Content: Content partnerships can happen when brands collaborate to either a) produce content or b) share links. Link sharing means linking to the partner’s content from their own site. This provides exposure, aligns both brands together, and advances SEO.
Distribution: Where one partner agrees to cross-market or bundle another partner’s product or services into their own distribution channels to target the agreed customer base. This can happen by cross-marketing and/or creating bundles.
Charitable: A primary brand sponsors or markets itself with a charitable organization or cause. You can promote their cause and they promote your event. This helps with brand awareness and cultural influence.
Joint products or services: For example, you offer social media management and our firm offers SEO. The key here is that the service is an amalgamation of both products aiming at mutual target audiences. Example: white label products.
Licensing: Licensing is a business arrangement in which one company gives another company permission to manufacture its product using its brand image for an agreed payment or partnership.
Loyalty: Loyalty program or ambassador program. A retention marketing technique that offers consumers a reward in return for increased usage. Have you heard about Instagram ambassadors? That’s what this is about!
Sponsorship: The marketing tactic of placing a brand alongside a particular event, displaying itself as a partner or supporter, with the objective to increase brand recognition and reputation.
Consider Niche Marketing: Facebook Marketing Agency Or Instagram Marketing Agency
There’s a good chance that you meet an established marketing agency who is serving accounts with bigger budgets and need a platform-specific service.
You could market particular social media services such as:
Facebook community management and Facebook Groups admin
Instagram marketing, Instagram outreach
Facebook chat management
Customer service chat
Appointments management
Instagram stories
Instant posts
Facebook live coordinator
CRM integration
Shopping cart management
… Just to name a few.
Social Media Marketing Tools
I’ve constructed this guide to help entrepreneurs and small business owners without unlimited marketing budgets understand the erratic world of social media.
This ultimate guide gives you my favorite social media marketing tools that you can use to boost your social media without breaking your bank account.
I’m here to simplify your game by telling you exactly which tools I use as a small business owner and strategist with over 10 years in digital marketing.
My Go-To Social Media Scheduling Tools
I will recommend you tools that will help you plan and schedule posts a month ahead.
Scheduling Tool #1: Social Media Marketing Planner
You’ve probably seen fancy calendars and planners. I’m actually not a big fan of those scrapbooking style tools.
I rather get things done. I guess it comes with having a strict agenda and plenty of things to do.
So, for simplicity, your calendar can be just a Word Doc or Google Doc.
Here’s the format I use to plan my social media marketing every month:
Just think about this, on a Google document, super simple.
Part 1: Theme of the month: Growth. We want to share content that inspires, educates, and invites people to consider us for their business growth needs.
Part 2: Target audience: small business owners in their first 3 years of their business.
Part 3: Events of the month: Webinar week 2 and Networking event, week 4.
Part 4: Blogs to publish during the month: Ultimate guide of social media and Instagram tutorial
Part 5: Marketing Campaigns: #MembersMonday #SummerSocial
Scheduling Tool #2: Facebook Creator Studio
Your Facebook Business Page comes with the option to schedule posts in the future. Now with Creator Studio, if you have multiple pages, you can post and schedule multiple pages, all from the same dashboard.
Creator Studio integrates Instagram as well. You are able to see Instagram’s content library from Facebook. We still can’t post to Instagram from Creator Studio, but I won’t be surprised if that will come soon.
Scheduling Tool #3: Facebook Group Scheduler
Facebook Groups are a great way to grow your audience on social media. It’s by far one of my favorite social media tools.
In full transparency, I use Hootsuite for my agency. I like how authenticates and I can just add team members and assign accounts. So, for agencies, I believe they are staying competitive.
For solopreneurs, Hootsuite’s new pricing model might not make sense.
You only need a scheduler like Hootsuite for your Twitter and LinkedIn, since Facebook has its own scheduler. Buffer is a good alternative.
For those of you looking for more robust social media management tools that can offer curation and content suggestions, MeetEdgar is a great option.
Scheduling Tool #5: Later | Planoly
For those of you who are 100% Instagram marketing, you then need a social media management tool that specializes in the platform.
My research narrowed to 2 options and I chose Later.com. I liked their ability to add teams so I can get my team working on our clients while still having access to the accounts. Some of my clients use Planoly.com and are very happy too.
Later and Planoly also work on Pinterest.
Scheduling Tool #6: Sprout Social
Sprout Social does what Buffer and Hootsuite do but in a more complex way, but this platform is best for small-large agencies as their analytics feature beats Hootsuite and Buffer hands down. They provide full reporting details for their premium members, breaking down each account in bits. You can even compare your competitor’s figure and see where they are and how best to tackle them. It’s that deep.
The downside with Sprout Social is the fact that it is far more expensive than Buffer and Hootsuite put together and they have no free plan, just a 30-day trial. Sprout Social works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
We love to partner with social media managers who are looking to get more clients and want to learn best practices, strategies, and advice from marketing & sales experts.
We provide resources, templates, scripts, training, and certification, and powerful connections to help you thrive.
Let’s make it happen!
Schedule a virtual coffee where we can discuss how to collaborate.
The coronavirus pandemic is emerging as an existential threat to the nation’s small business owners. This is NOT normal. Even when people try to sugarcoat it. We joke and say “the new normal”, but … the banking account is feeling quite the opposite.
Businesses need 2 C’s:
1) Clients 2) Cash
The way you get clients is through getting exposed in front of potential buyers, period.
Success is mathematical, not psychological.
If you don’t go to events, don’t attend conventions, don’t have professional interactions, sooner than later, your pipeline will simply get dry.
This is a real problem.
The solution to get more leads? Virtual prospecting.
The sooner you can learn how to master the process of prospecting online, the better it will be. But wait… prospecting online?
How to prospect for new clients online or how to prospect virtually?
In person events are out of your lead generation equation. This means that you now have to hustle online. Well… welcome to my world.
I realized that my decade of experience in internet marketing, developing new markets using social media marketing and personal brand marketing could add value to many professionals and entrepreneurs.
What are the best prospecting techniques?
Social media marketing, especially Facebook, is at the top of the digital marketing strategies to find new clients online.
I host networking events for our community of Austin Networking for Professional & Entrepreneurs. We are now over 5,000+ local business owners and counting. As a social media educator, I decided to host online events to provide connections and discuss resources for those who wanted to accelerate their online networking skills. Those events were the inspiration for my book.
How do you reach prospects online?
Finding, reaching, and discovering sales opportunities online can be intimidating. Add to that the urgency and anxiety from a pandemic and you have the perfect storm!
The key to reach out to prospects online is in your personal brand. Without it, you are at risk to be considered a spammer. … You can’t risk your first impression … especially online!
Personal Brand Marketing
Personal branding refers to the practice of marketing and packaging yourself, your career, and your experience as a brand.
What’s your personal brand about? It’s about YOU! People buy YOU before they get interested in your products or services.
My Book on Personal Brand Marketing
My book reached #1 best-seller in 2 categories: Web Marketing and Internet Marketing and I’m just amazed!
What’s in the book?
Part 1: The Essentials of Social Media- Solopreneurs spend many hours of the day, working on marketing tasks, that come randomly, and most of the time, as a distraction. Learning the fundamentals of building a social media marketing strategy is the key to growing a business, along with strategies followed by amazing brands like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and Kendra Scott. You will be inspired to build a community of loyal customers, to stop competing based solely on price, and to grow your business.
Part 2: A Guide to Personal Branding- Here’s where you’ll get the- A 1-page blueprint to building a personal brand that builds a long-lasting first impression and ignites revenue. This is what thriving brands are doing in the digital economy. What if you are a brick and mortar business? Do you need to follow personal branding strategies? Absolutely! Humanizing your brand is the ultimate secret to survive the retail apocalypse.
Part 3: How to Write So They Listen- You will learn the psychology behind crafting content that moves your audience to action and learn why writing is not just about sharing pretty words.
Part 4: A Full Year of Copy For Social Media Marketing- You’ll have everything you need to simply plug n’ play your profitable content marketing plan. These are not just ideas to post. You will get detailed campaigns with strategies and templates.
Part 5: Social Visibility- You’ll get the Social Visibility Blueprint to turn your social media marketing into your salesforce. My promise with Your Visibility Blueprint is to eliminate the overwhelm from social media marketing. I want to provide you with a blueprint to ignite visibility, so you can build the business you love, and have the life you deserve. Most likely, you’re a purpose-driven business owner like me; I take my mission to activate your greatness very seriously!
BONUS: Along with this book, you will unlock access to amazing resources, such as:
* A complimentary Forensic Marketing Audit (Value $500+)
* Editable Visibility Workbook to plan your content like a pro (Value $47)
* Special price in our Marketing For Greatness Courses (save up to 80%)
* The Marketing For Greatness Network. Connect with other solopreneurs and participate in life-changing conversations.
If there were a clear, actionable way to boost your personal brand using social media WITHOUT turning yourself into the embarrassing “I am the influencer” style… Or even better … BENCHMARKING your growth so you see where your revenue is at. … Would you feel motivated to market your amazing products or services? You see: you’re willing to put in the work. If you read my book you’ll find a lot of practical advice to implement personal brand marketing the right way!
From generating new sales leads to finding the perfect recommendation for a service, your sphere of influence can be the driving force behind your success as an entrepreneur.
Your sphere of influence is the fundamental marketing force behind your business success, and just like any other business keeps its fundamentals warm, you need to keep it warm for it to keep producing benefits.
If you’re wondering how to grow your SOI with your Instagram account, you’re so at the right place. Keep reading!
Your Sphere of Influence (SOI) Is Not Just About Your Close Friends
They say you’re the result of your closest 5 friends. While this is accurate, when you are in growth mode, meaning, you want to bring new clients to buy your products or hire you, your circle cannot be just those 5 closest friends. This is where the SOI comes handy.
To start your SOI, build a database of people you know (250). This includes everyone. Start with your phone, then check your social media channels. You will be surprised! Then, next to each name grade them A, B or C based upon the last time you spoke to them. Someone you grade an “A” would be someone you feel absolutely sure will refer you, a “C” is your long lost elementary school buddy that you haven’t talked to in over 20yrs.
Don’t worry is you can’t get too many A’s on that list. That’s about to change once you finish reading this article. So let’s keep going!
WARNING! Your database might get you excited and you might want to craft a pitch and send it to every breathing human being on that list. I beg you to please DO NOT do it. That is called spam and you will be burning connections instead. I don’t know about you, but, whenever I get a pitch from someone who I haven’t talked to in a while, I get very irritated. It makes me feel like they are all about a transaction and not the relationship.
The Confession Letter: How To Get Back In Touch With Old Friends
If you haven’t kept in touch with many of the people you know, don’t worry about it. Life happens, you move, new schools, jobs and you simply lose contact. How do you then call them out of the blue as if nothing had happened? This is where the confession letter comes in.
You craft a letter that admits to your friends or clients that you are taking a new approach to business that puts relationships first. You confess that you haven’t been as proactive in your personal communications as you would like, and that you’ll be keeping in touch much more regularly from now on.
For your various groups, the letter would be written appropriately for each. Try to customize it as much as you can. And one thing … by letter it actually means a real letter, printed, and mailed. Email and chat can work, but if you truly want to go above and beyond to make it up to that connection, it’s better to send them a letter.
Let’s get you committed to getting as many A’s on your database as possible, and here’s how.
Instagram Can Help You Expand Your Circles Easily
Since Instagram allows people to have public profiles, if you follow them, you will instantly get access to all their content. Note that this does not happen with Facebook or LinkedIn. So, there is no protective wall between you and your future best connection. Interesting …
So how can Instagram help you grow your SOI with individuals?
You will want to start with your database. Start with those A’s and B’s. Connect with them on Instagram. Then, navigate to the suggested connections.
One of the very common questions asked by Instagrammers is how actually Instagram determines suggested profiles? The people you see on your suggested list are sometimes familiar but most of the time they can be random people you do not know. There surely is an algorithm behind how Instagram determines suggested profiles to you.
Say, for example, you want to connect with people with high net worth. Start by being intentional about the connections you add. Don’t connect with random people, or profiles that don’t show high activity.
Monitor your follower count and quality. Once you have a good amount of the kind of audience you want to build, say, about 250 great connections, engage with them consistently. A great way to keep up with your connections is by adding them as close friends. In this way you will see notifications of your updates and it will be easier for you to stay in touch with your Instagram followers.
Follow this strategy, consistently, for about 2-4 weeks and Instagram will send you potential connections who have the same qualities of your current SOI.
But … Why Do People Unfollow You On Instagram?
In the early days of Instagram Marketing, everyone wanted ways to get more Instagram followers.
One of the ways to get those most wanted numbers was simply to follow people and then unfollow them so you could look like a celebrity.
Make no mistake, most micro celebrities earned that status following this method.
Have you ever received a message from a random person offering you followers for sale? I must admit, I tried that method and realized that it made no sense. Why would you want to add robots? Even when they tell you that you could get people to “follow” you for real, they will unfollow you.
The follow and unfollow game is part of the Instagram Marketing strategy. But for different reasons that, sadly, most business owners still can’t comprehend, due to the excessive misinformation out there.
It’s Ok To Unfollow Connections
If you put some effort in engaging with them and they never reciprocate.
If they are inactive.
If they don’t have real pictures, especially their profile picture.
If they share content that’s gross, repetitive, boring, and you sincerely dislike them.
Those who are fishing for compliments.
Tips To Avoid The Unwanted Unfollow
Share Instagram-worthy content. This is serious. Instagram is like a magazine. Your audience is not expecting to see your pictures of your scrapbook.
Claim your authority and expertise, starting with your BIO.
Be strategic with your content.
Use hashtags to expand your reach.
Engage in comments with like-minded individuals
A Pro Tip To Grow Your Sphere Of Influence And Nurture Those Connections (And Generate Leads On Instagram)
As a social media marketer with over 10 years of experience, I consider myself a master! When I hear tips and secrets, very often, they are not Instagram-only secrets. They apply to social media marketing in general.
One of the rules to generate leads is to engage in conversations just like in real life. Have a system to track the connections to follow up and get conversions.
Facebook allows you to edit your friends list so you can customize your notifications and feed. So does Instagram.
How do I turn notifications on or off for someone I follow on Instagram?
When you turn on notifications for someone you follow, you’ll get a notification every time that they share a photo or video. To turn notifications on or off:
Go to their profile.
Tap Following > Notifications.
Tap next to one of the following to turn notifications on or off:
Posts
Stories
IGTV
Live Videos
If you’d like to turn notifications on or off for multiple people, you’ll have to visit each profile and turn them on or off individually. Keep in mind that you may get a push notification when someone you follow shares something for the first time in a while, whether or not you have notifications turned on for that person.
People aren’t notified when you turn notifications on or off for them.
I wrote the Six Golden Rules of Social Media and shared the system I engineered and followed to generate multiple 7 figures in sales using social media marketing.
You might want to watch the recap of my 6 golden rules video!
https://youtu.be/4fBK0xsHeW0
Building your SOI using Instagram marketing will catapult your success. Especially because you can do it without leaving your home.
Don’t forget that consistency is key to seeing real engagement. You certainly want to have a long term vision for your Instagram marketing strategy, just like any other digital marketing activity.
Strategy Yes, Tactics No!
Gone are the days where marketers promise get-rich-quick tactics. And if you have been following those, I suggest you take the time to craft your Instagram Marketing Strategy.
If you’re wondering how to create a LinkedIn profile that helps you stand out from the crowd, you’re so at the right place. This article is packed with LinkedIn profile tips that will give you more visibility, more connections, and more opportunities to grow your revenue.
Before I get into the strategies on how to market on LinkedIn, let’s cover first why you want to be active on LinkedIn and why this social media platform will produce the best ROI is your objective is to generate leads.
Ignoring LinkedIn is like opening a restaurant and don’t tell anyone
According to LinkedIn, the site has 500 million members, 61 million senior-level influencers, and 40 million decision-makers using the website. The network does not just boast large amounts of users, but the users are influential, high-level executives that most businesses are targeting in their B2B marketing campaigns. LinkedIn, therefore, is a clear place to reach these decision-makers when trying to promote a product or service.
LinkedIn users are educated and earn high incomes. 49% of U.S. adults using LinkedIn are college graduates, and 45% of them earn over $75,000 a year, which is more per year than Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram users (Pew Research Center).
Furthermore, according to the site itself, LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn is a serious website to use for business, unlike other social networks which have a familial element to them as well.
Though a vanity metric, it’s worth noting that LinkedIn makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs (LinkedIn study). While this statistic does not necessarily mean that the traffic is relevant traffic, LinkedIn does bring users to the company website hopefully to be nurtured in the sales funnel.
B2B Marketers not only use LinkedIn to network but also to share content. There are nine billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week (LinkedIn study). About 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions, including managers, VPs, Directors, and C-level positions (LinkedIn study). Content published or posted on LinkedIn has a good chance of getting in front of the target audience or a decision-maker, which means it must be high-quality and well-written.
What really matters from these LinkedIn Stats?
✔️LinkedIn users are highly educated. Actually, almost 50% of users have a college degree.
✔️B2B websites get more than 50% of their traffic via LinkedIn. This is huge!
✔️LinkedIn users consume content (finally you will have readers!) and almost 50% of those readers are decision makers. (You should be jumping by now).
LinkedIn Won’t Work Unless You Have A great LinkedIn Profile
I am assuming you know this already and that’s why you found me. So what exactly is required to have a great LinkedIn Profile and why I say LinkedIn won’t work otherwise? Since I don’t take gurus for granted and you should not do it either, let’s cover here the mechanics behind the algorithm so you can see where does your profile stand.
You Gotta Hack The Algorithm
Recently, LinkedIn released this helpful graphic that visually explains how their algorithm works:
In addition to what’s included in this flowchart, content is ranked and displayed based on your account’s reputation, how users have engaged with your content before, and what else is being posted.
There are also a lot more unknown factors affecting your visibility in the main feed. But let’s focus on what we do know, starting with this chart.
Filter #1
The first step in the flow is pretty simple: every time you post something, the LinkedIn feed algorithm determines whether it’s spam, low quality, or good to go. Obviously, you want to be in the “good to go” category.
Filter #2
If you passed go, your content appears in the feed temporarily.
During this stage, LinkedIn’s algorithm bots look at how your audience engages with the content.
If they’re liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it, that’s a good sign you’ll make it through to the next filter.
If people mark it as spam or hide it from their feed, LinkedIn is going to take that into account—and not in a good way.
Filter #3
At this step, the LinkedIn algorithm will look beyond the content of your post to determine if it should keep showing up in users’ feeds.
They’ll look at you and your network to determine whether or not this is a spam post and whether your network will enjoy it. This is because LinkedIn wants to avoid rewarding spam accounts and content with viral visibility.
Based on this stage, LinkedIn can remove your content from the feed or display it less often.
In either scenario, it’s up to your network to engage with your post and keep it around for another review.
Filter #4
Finally, humans enter the process. At this point, editors review your post to determine whether it should keep showing, whether they might include it somewhere else like a channel, or whether they can derive any takeaways from it for future algorithm tweaks and product development.
Is your mind about to explode by now? I don’t blame you.
Let me cover a basic list of things you need to remember about the Algorithm:
✔️Your network matters and your content matters. That is all. All you need to do is focus on getting access to a trusted network and this can only happen by having a trusted LinkedIn presence, a.k.a. LinkedIn profile.
✔️Believe it or not, LinkedIn reviews the relevance of your behavior by looking at your audience’s careers. Have you noticed a pattern in the recommendations they send your way?
✔️A common mistake I see when I manage LinkedIn for my clients is their lack of strategic connections. They simply accept requests but never pay attention to the strategy behind their networking activities. Typically they have co-workers and people from their same industry, which will never turn into leads and real sales opportunities.
✔️While you can’t control everyone who follows you, you can game the system somewhat to work in your favor.
I created a LinkedIn training that covers a step by step, video tutorials, on how to get leads and sales using LinkedIn, but let’s cover here the very first transformational move: create a powerful LinkedIn profile.
Your Profile Strength Meter
The Profile Strength meter gauges how robust your profile is. The strength of your profile will increase as you add more relevant content to it. The feature recommends which profile sections you could add to in order to improve the discoverability of your profile in search results, and to increase profile search appearances. The meter is displayed on both desktop and the LinkedIn mobile app.
To view the Profile Strength meter:
Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
Select View profile.
Below your top card information, move your cursor over the meter to see which steps you’ve completed.
Click the Dropdown icon in the upper right corner of the meter to discover more information about the next profile strength completion step.
Follow the prompts to complete any of the steps listed.
Once the meter is full and all prompts are complete, you’ll receive an All-Star profile rating.
If you’re an All-Star user, then we will focus on getting your profile optimized for views and optimized for leads. These are tactics very similar to the tactics used in Google, to get you more views and more users.
Important best practices you should follow
1) Photo. No logo. Not your team. Not your office. A photo, professional, showing you approachable and trusted. Not sure if your photo makes the cut? Try this software! Photofeeler.
2) Your specialty. What do you do? Speak directly to your potential leads. Assume they search for you. Use common and clear words.
3) Your “summary” should be creative. Please, don’t be boring here! If you make it the exact same way as your competitors are writing their summary, nobody will be compelled to read it. Use emojis and bullet points.
4) Video!This is a great way to show your authority. Especially if you’re looking for speaking engagements.
5) Contact info. Most people forget to add their contact info or they hide it.
Follow these tips and you can ensure that you have a killer LinkedIn profile that will stand out to recruiters, hiring managers, and potential customers.
I get it. You want to hire a social media manager. You Google “best social media manager near me” and start reading the top pages and see “social media marketing consultant”.
Why? What is the difference?
You can’t really tell the difference. They all look the same: social media marketing.
You then follow their social channels and all looks the same. All the candidates have a good social media presence to you.
You check their social media services but you still can’t tell exactly if a social media manager will remove your current pains about social media.
✔️Will they create your social media strategy or that is something separate?
✔️How about nurturing your audience and guide you to build a lead generation system?
✔️Will they craft blog posts for your website? Will they help you rank in Google?
✔️Can they take all your ideas and turn them into beautiful pieces of marketing?
✔️What about graphic design? Will they make your brand look like you?
✔️What kind of work do they expect from you? Will they manage your tasks or will they take over the entire role?
✔️How about payment terms? Do you pay hourly or fixed? How many posts are included on their fee?
This isn’t exactly the kind of job you enjoy as an entrepreneur. I’m sure that you rather be at the beach right now, than comparing the different social media marketing jobs, descriptions, social media marketing or social media strategist.
The struggle is real.
Let me simplify this for you.
Hierarchystructure.com added this infographic that covers the different roles within social media marketing.
Perhaps you see the infographic and think “that’s for big companies with big budgets”. You are totally right. However, I will argue with you with your outsourcing strategy.
If you are into growing your business, on a limited budget, you will be better outsourcing other things, but social media management.
I know this will sound like the opposite of what I should tell you since I run a social media marketing agency in Austin, but let me clarify my 7 reasons why!
Reason Number 1: A social media manager is not equipped to develop your overall branding, messaging, and communication strategy.
If you’re looking to get paid clients from your social media marketing efforts, having a social media manager that posts 7-15 times on your behalf won’t be effective. You want to have access to an expert who can lead your marketing strategy and find ways to position your brand on top of your competitor, not limited to social media marketing.
Reason Number 2: Social media managers know very little about social media optimization
Most marketers are familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on some level. Using the reach of search engines like Google or Bing to fuel your marketing campaign has been a successful strategy for years. But as social media grows as one of the top platforms to reach consumers, new approaches to digital marketing have emerged. One of the top strategies used by businesses looking to maximize their reach online is Social Media Optimization (SMO).
Social Media Optimization is essentially using social media as a catalyst to grow your company’s online presence. Where some companies tend to just set up a profile on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter to be where their customers are, SMO is about strategically creating, building and maximizing your social media plan to connect with your target audience. SMO allows you to:
Strengthen your brand
Generate leads
Get more visibility online
Connect with your audience
The typical scope of a social media manager includes ideas of copy, information about the target market, and guidance for visuals. Conversions will be defined as more likes and followers, but you won’t be able to use social media as a catalyst to grow your company because they don’t have the skills required to grow a brand and monetize it.
If you want to grow your business, you need social media optimization services.
Reason Number 3: You need to get visible in front of your targeted community. You need a community manager more than a social media manager.
A community manager helps build, grow and manage a company’s or brand’s online communities. Using analytics tools to monitor social media outlets, online forums and blogs, a community manager finds out what people are saying about a company or brand. A community manager also engages with customers and fans, and uses social media and live events to help increase brand loyalty.
Reason Number 4: You need to leverage all forms of online marketing. Not only social media marketing.
If you like Shark Tank, let me remind you of the episode of The Cut Buddy. The entrepreneur, Joshua Esnard, invented the first beard and haircut template to be patented and the only one with multiple curves. With no formal entrepreneurship experience, using Youtube influencers, sold over 100,000 units. He had 1 video going viral with over 11 million views. The sharks asked him but why you need us? He said, “I am an inventor, not an entrepreneur and I need light.”
No matter how successful we think we are, part of the success formula is to have a growth mindset. You want to be challenged.
Reason Number 5: You better hire a ninja if they will play on Facebook and Instagram ads with your money
Advertising on social media is not PPC. It’s not even traditional advertising. If you followed any of my Facebook ads training, I explain the 9 step process to master Facebook Ads. It is not something you want to delegate to someone who has no experience. Trust me here. One mistake can cost you a fortune.
I have seen a fair amount of ad accounts with a 5 x in ad spent, simply because they selected the wrong campaign objective.
Social media managers might know the basics of promoting a post. But they don’t do advertising full time as social media advertiser does.
Reason Number 6: A social media manager is not your brand ambassador
If you’re not familiar with the idea, a brand ambassador is a person who’s tried your product or service and loves it — loves it enough to say amazing things about it. Not a paid endorser. While those can be helpful as well, they usually lack the authenticity of a brand ambassador, who is not paid and has either expertise in your marketplace or an “every person” appeal. Or both.
When you start your business, all you need is visibility. Three main things will take you there:
✔️Paid media
✔️Social media
✔️Public relations (outreach marketing).
A great brand ambassador can cut through the clutter and say things about your company and brand with more credibility than you can because they won’t make money as a result. That credibility is important for both direct outreach such as advertising and indirect such as pitching stories to reporters. Having a good band ambassador, or several of them, is a powerful and versatile tool to raise your company or product awareness.
We kind of left the best for the end!
Reason Number 7: You need a marketing professional that specializes in the full cycle of inbound marketing
Inbound marketing, in simple terms, is a comprehensive strategy that uses as many channels as possible to attract ideal clients and nurture them via funnels.
It has been increasing, consistently, for over a decade now.
Every expert in inbound marketing is an expert in social media marketing, but not every social media marketing expert is an inbound marketing ninja.
You probably need:
✔️A full B2B marketing strategy
✔️SEO services
✔️Event marketing
✔️Influencer marketing
✔️Facebook marketing
✔️Instagram marketing
✔️Linkedin marketing
✔️Video marketing
✔️Content marketing
✔️ Advertising
… and a director to lead all of those projects and turn them into revenue.
So, do you see now why I said you don’t need a social media manager?
More than 50% of small business owners won’t make their dreams come true. My mission is to fight that number. I started Marketing For Greatness, a social media marketing company in Austin. Discover what makes us unique!
What is Forensic Marketing?
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