Brian Meert's Blog, page 60

How to Go Viral on TikTok: From 0-100K Followers Fast

Jan. 20, 2021

cottonbro / Pexels

Social media is a powerful branding tool for small businesses and start-ups. When interviewing business owners for the UpFlip blog, the majority cite social media platforms as their most productive marketing channel.

For some, like Mile High Productions, social media is the only marketing they do—and they’ve used it to grow a $35,000-per-month photography business. That’s how powerful social media can be for a small business.

Today, marketing on social media means more than the occasional tweet or asking customers to check in on Facebook. With over 800 million active users, TikTok is the 4th largest social media platform, and it’s especially popular with Millennials and Gen Z users.

Adding TikTok to your social media marketing is a smart move, but the platform does require a different approach than even other video-based channels like YouTube. What’s the secret to going viral on TikTok? Here are some tips that will get you started.

1. Keep your videos short.

One crucial aspect of going viral on TikTok is understanding how the platform determines video success. How many people click the video is less important than how much of it they watch.

Ideally, you want people to view your entire video. Creating engaging content is one way to do this, but there’s an even easier way to improve your success: keep your videos short.

TikTok’s maximum video length is 60 seconds, but most viral videos are less than half that. According to social medial experts, 16 seconds is the optimal length.

2. Choose the right song.

When you upload your video, you’ll have the option to add a song. This is an important aspect of the platform. Users can search for videos based on which song they use, so picking a popular or trending song can help your video go viral.

There are a couple of ways to see which songs are trending on TikTok. The easiest is to log in through a desktop and go to the “Discover” section of the “Watch Now” page. There will be a list of popular sounds and songs down the right side of the screen.

Even if your video has other audio, you can add a song and adjust the volume so it’s in the background. Having said that, you don’t want the song to feel like an afterthought. The most successful videos integrate or reference the song in some way.

Be creative in how you play with the songs in your videos. Making a pun on the title or lyrics can be a fun, clever way to incorporate the music (and tends to attract viewers, too).

3. Create worthwhile content.

Many viral TikTok videos are just for fun and entertainment, and that’s one kind of value you can offer. Just as popular, though, are videos that tell a story, demonstrate a tip, or share useful knowledge.

Knowledge-based videos have the benefit of establishing you as an expert in your field while they build the visibility of your brand. Use text and bullet points to clarify your message and guide the viewer through the video.

Recent statistics show that 55% of buyers research products on social media, and TikTok is increasingly where they go to do so. Product reviews are some of the most popular videos on the platform, and can be an excellent way to bring in new viewers.

4. End with a strong call to action.

Going viral isn’t your end goal. It’s great to get a lot of eyes on your video, but to really be successful, you need to get those viewers to follow you or go to your site—and that’s where the call to action comes in.

A good call to action can also help your video become viral. The more engagement your video gets, the more people will see it. Comments are weighted heavily by TikTok’s engagement algorithm, though lots of likes and shares can also push you up the rankings.

The call to action shouldn’t feel like it’s just tagged on to the end. The more naturally you integrate it into the video, the more successful it will be.

5. Engage with the community.

This starts with the people who view your videos. Replying to comments can start a conversation, and that’s a great way to get the attention of TikTok’s algorithm.

You can also increase your visibility on the platform by following other creators and engaging with their content. Just like Instagram and YouTube, TikTok has influencers whose videos get millions of views a day.

If you identify and follow the top creators in your niche, you can keep up with current trends and interact with potential viewers for your content. Regularly like, share, and comment on videos from these users as part of your TikTok marketing plan.

The duet tool is a unique feature of TikTok that can be particularly helpful for engaging with other creators. With it, you create your own video that plays alongside the original. This can be used to answer a question, show your reaction, or interact with the original in a host of creative ways.

Making a duet is more labor-intensive than other forms of engagement, but it can also be a great way to piggyback off of the popularity of a trending video and bring in a slew of new followers and viewers.

The Bottom Line

TikTok is at its core another platform for content marketing, and for the most part all of those same rules apply. The best videos are both entertaining and provide value to the viewer. Do that, and you’ll build a base of loyal followers.

One unique thing about TikTok compared to other platforms is that it’s a true meritocracy. Whether you have one follower or one million, your video will get the same shot to grab the audience’s attention. It’s all about engagement. The more people click on your video, the larger its potential audience will be.

If you’re still not sure what kind of content is best for TikTok, spend some time on the platform and check out the trending videos. The better you’re able to catch and hold viewers’ attention, the more successful your TikTok marketing will be.  

How to Integrate Email Marketing with Your Social Media Efforts

Feb. 18, 2021

Torsten Dettlaff / Pexels

If you’re thinking of two of the most effective and widely used digital channels in the customer acquisition realm, social media along with email marketing will top the list. Rather than arguing between the two, try integrating the them for a better experience.  

Image source: einsteinmarketer.com

These two channels consist of very different natures but when it comes to forming successful strategies, they can work really well together. Social media is an effective platform in building trust, creating traffic, and expanding reach.

This makes social media fit for building a strong brand image while email can be seen in a more private light, making it efficient for personalizing direct communication and sales.

The Benefits of Social Media & Email Marketing Integration

Here are four reasons why integrating email marketing with social media is beneficial for your brand:

1. Enhances the Marketing Metrics  

When the same social media marketing principle is applied to your emails, it allows readers to easily share emails and improves the chances of getting much better opens and click-throughs. This further increases the rate of conversion.

2. Increases Subscribers

If people are posting and talking about your emails on social media, it helps enhance publicity for your brand. Hence, more people get to learn and know about your emails. This provides a better chance of email subscription growth. 

3. Recognizes & Distinguishes the Influencers

Using the information received from email service providers, one can determine and pinpoint the consistent email openers as well as conversions. By using this data, you can send exclusive emails specifically targeted at the influencers. 

4. Acts As a New Platform for Subscriber Engagement

By using various platforms, it opens up fresh opportunities to reach out and engage with your customers and prospects. Let subscribers know you have an active social media following to keep them updated on product launches, discount offers, and more.

6 Methods to Integrating Email Marketing with Social Media Efforts

Are you willing to extend your email reach and grow your sign-up list at a much quicker pace? Of course, the answer would be yes because everyone wants that. But let’s keep in mind that email continues to convert better compared to social media.

Images source: optinmonster.com

But what becomes of the younger generation that only hang around on social media? You’ll want to engage with them too, so, let’s have a look at the methods on how to integrate this holistic approach of email-social media marketing to help your brand grow. 

1. Display Social Profiles in Emails

Once your social media and email marketing teams round up on the same lane, you can begin to discover and adopt new ways for them to support each team. Email marketing is something that can help increase social media engagement by reminding subscribers of your active social community. 

The brand Fruit of the Loom is a great example of encouraging subscriber engagement in a playful and interactive way via email. 

Image source: emailaudience.com

The brand further explains the contribution of social media and the kind of benefit you’ll receive from two of their main media channels. They also host a contest where subscribers can win a product of their choice when they follow them on Facebook. 

This is a great strategy that helps increase social media engagement while providing subscriber value and helps them remain connected with your brand. By promoting one network instead of three or four, it allows subscribers to make their decisions easily. 

2. Stay in Sync

Chances are, you may already have a calendar for your email marketing. But does it consistently loop in with your social media team? Or are they using a calendar you may not have access to? 

This isn’t some farfetched idea, as teams often end up repeating their work simply because the teams are not looped in with each other. For instance, the social media team may have created a holiday calendar to help with email efforts and vice versa.

Integrated calendars are great to ensure everyone stays on the same lane and is aware of when campaigns start and end. This makes it easier for teams to work and promote initiatives and carry out schedules without conflict.

3. Allow Subscriber Engagement and Following on Social Media

Most of the time, many subscribers are not aware of a brand’s social media profile, so ask them to engage and follow your profile to remain in contact. Start by including social media buttons for directing subscribers to your accounts. You can also add some interesting pointers to make it worth joining.

Image source: sendpulse.com

Focus on creating a relationship by making it easier for subscribers to stay in contact with your brand. Prepare a contact list at the base of newsletters that link to your brand’s social media sites and profile. This is how subscribers will forward social media messages or DMs directly from the email they received from you. 

It’s important to portray a positive image of your brand, so when your published videos or photos receive great responses on social media, be sure to showcase those comments and likes on your newsletter as well. 

Finally, place sharing buttons and allow subscribers to pass your email content. For example, you can place a retweet tag to cross-promote various brand offers on both email and Twitter.

4. Build Exclusive Social Communities for Special Subscribers

This is a great strategy used by Noah Kagan to create a Facebook group with over 5000+ members for his email listing course. This was a free course with materials from experts such as Brian Dean, Andrew Chen, and more that had grown an email list of over 10 million subscribers. 

So, the only question left standing is, how does one access these private groups on Facebook? These are groups offered only to privileged subscribers, hence it’ll be an invite-only group. One example is from UniversityParent.com, where Sarah created an invite-only private group, which now has over 800 members and attracts effective engagement.

Image source: groupleads.net

Your email subscribers would normally be the most loyal crowd, so the need for them to join special VIP groups like those mentioned above is very high. But, be sure to keep the group moderate and ensure it’s free from spam (yes, this includes self-promotion too, if possible). The key to maintaining engaged and active audiences is creating and putting out useful content.

Apart from Facebook, you can also create LinkedIn groups to invite from your email list. Entrepreneur Lewis Howes states groups as a very powerful LinkedIn feature to help build and grow businesses. Howes himself has a group with over 20,000 members. Now, that’s the kind of exposure you would want! 

5. Upload Subscriber List on Social Media Platforms

Uploading subscriber lists on social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and more is perhaps one of the most efficient ways of integrating social media and email marketing strategies. 

You can utilize the uploaded subscriber list and follow those subscribers on social media, run media campaigns to subscribers already interested and invested in your brand, or maybe even create a customer listing.

 

Image source: einsteinmarketer.com

The Custom Audience Feature on Facebook is specifically good for initiating this method, and it can be utilized as a tool for increasing your success through paid reach. Uploading a subscriber list will not only help put an identity over your email subscribers but assist in listening to them.

What are they interested in? What are their conversations about? What are they sharing? Knowing more about what your subscribers are on will definitely help craft better emails and posts.

6. Include Live Social Networking Feeds in Emails

Another effective way of integrating emails and social media is adding into your email a live social media feed. Now, if you’re wondering how this is done, check out Zapier,  a third-party software tool that allows users to include live Instagram or Twitter feeds into your emails.

It works because it allows you to find some of the recent tweets from a particular Twitter handle with ease. When the tweets are posted, the feed automatically gets updated.

Image source: sendible.com

For instance, if an email is delivered on a Friday afternoon, the live Twitter/Instagram will retrieve the latest tweet/post of that time. In this way, when a subscriber clicks through the email on Sunday, they will see the latest tweet/post of that particular day in their email. 

Thus, clicking on that feed will take the subscribers to its respective media accounts, be it Instagram or Twitter. This is a clever and efficient way of gaining much more organic engagement and followers on your social media profile.

Final Thoughts

According to Marketing Charts Survey, many businesses continue to spend a large portion of marketing cash on email and social media marketing. Integrating social media and email marketing does help your customer relationship reach the next level.

Social media is great for crafting an approachable and friendly brand image to enable quick audience interaction while email marketing remains the top profitable channels for different industries. This makes the email-social media hybrid a very effective strategy.

If you start on this, begin by adopting a few methods and build an integrated email/social network campaign that suits your brand identity. It will definitely open doors and increase engagement and sales.

Snapchat Lowers Daily Minimum Spend to $5

Jan. 14, 2021

Snapchat is making advertising more accessible to businesses. Now, you can advertise on the social media app at just $5 per day, the platform’s new spending minimum.

Since Snapchat advertising is an auction, your daily spend may fluctuate depending on your objective, budget, campaign duration, bid goal, and bid amount.

Of course, note that $5 is the daily spending limit, and daily spend is different from your lifetime budget. Your daily budget is the amount you’re willing to spend per day and your lifetime budget is the amount you’re willing to spend throughout the life of your campaign. So, although $5 may be the minimum for each day, Snapchat will not spend more than your lifetime budget.

If you want to get the most out of your budget, as always, remember to strategize and optimize your campaigns. Specifically, make sure your bidding strategy is optimized for your goals. That is, optimizing for the action your target audience is most likely to make; for example, downloading your app or visiting your website.

And when you do bid, keep in mind Snapchat’s three bidding strategies:

Auto-bidding: Gets the most goal actions given the budget, target audience, and ad set duration.Max Bid: Bids at the maximum amount while we trying to achieve the most efficient CPA (cost per action) possible.Target Cost: Bids on your behalf makes the best effort of keeping your average CPA at or below the amount set by the ad set end date.

Facebook Now Limits the Number of Ads You Can Run Per Page

Jan. 14, 2021

Facebook is now limiting the number of ads you can run per business page, a change that will take effect on February 16. 

The number of ads you can run depends on the size of your business. So, if you have a bigger business with a higher ad spend, your cap is also higher, but if your ad spend is on the lower side, your cap will be a little more restrictive. 

Here’s a chart from Facebook, which outlines the ad limit.

Source: Facebook Business

If you reached your ad limit, you will be unable to run more ads or publish edits to ads. Ads running or in review count toward the limit. Scheduled ads do not.

Although multiple ad accounts can advertise for one business page, since ad limits are implemented per page, an attempt to exceed the limit by producing more ads from different ad accounts will not succeed. An attempt to skirt the new rule by simply creating more pages will hurt campaign performance for the following reasons:

The pages will compete against each other in the auction, resulting in higher costsBy creating more pages, you are splitting learnings results, which may lead to decreased conversion rates

Facebook points to performance as the reason behind the change. According to the social media company, running too many ads concurrently negatively affects the learning phase. Namely, fewer ads exit the learning phase resulting in too much money spent before the campaign has been fully optimized.

Ad limits will start in February, so to prepare for this change and benefit from the results, make sure you are abiding by the limit per page (not per ad account). This will avoid any delays in your campaigns.

AdvertiseMint Awards $2,500 Scholarship to 2020 Winner, Alexandra Bunting

JAN. 13, 2021

AdvertiseMint starts the new year by naming the scholarship winner for the 2020 application cycle. The 2020 winner, who won $2,500, is 21-year-old Alexandra Bunting, a Master’s student in Integrated Communications at University of Georgia. 

A former Journalism major, Alexandra recently earned her BA in Public Relations, as well as certificates in New Media and Music Business. A few classes plus a mentorship solidified her interest in PR.

I originally chose Journalism as a major as a freshman because I love to write. However, I knew that I did not have a passion for reporting and had a mind to explore different majors within the mass communication school at UGA (Grady). I had never really heard of Public Relations before and did not completely know what it meant or entailed until I took the intro class. That class led me to find a love and passion for the possibilities of a career in PR and the people in Grady. I fell in love with the idea of always working with people and creatively finding solutions to problems. It also led me to a mentorship where I was able to work on events and press that drove my passion even further. It made me feel like that was the major and field I belong in, a feeling that holds true today.”

Now she is on her way to pursuing a Master’s in Integrated Communications, and the AdvertiseMint scholarship was a way to pursue the next step in her education.

I applied for the scholarship because I am starting my first semester of grad school, and the scholarship I’ve had the past three and a half years, Zell Miller, would not cover anything past undergrad. I needed a way to help pay for school, so I researched some more scholarships and came across this one. This scholarship will be immensely helpful in my payment for my first semester in grad school, and I am so grateful!” 

Alexandra was awarded the scholarship because of her unique and insightful essay about the future of advertising. While many other candidates focused on subjects such as virtual reality, social media, and more targeted advertising, Alexandra was alone in discussing a pertinent topic: political activism in social media. Alexandra cited real-world examples — riots, the controversy around Netflix’s Cuties, the problematic Kylie Jenner commercial for Pepsi — that showed she was not only keenly aware of current events but also thought very deeply about them.

My essay was inspired by what I’ve noticed brands going through during the pandemic and all the other troubles of 2020, as well as an idea that I’ve seen portrayed from one of my favorite companies, Porter Novelli: Brands advertising and portraying themselves with a purpose, a real purpose, not just one they think will please their customers.” 

Much like her favorite brand, Porter Novelli, which has run campaigns against sex trafficking in Georgia, Alexandra aspires to use PR in spreading awareness about social issues.

That is the kind of work that I want to do, spreading awareness of issues and using PR to help the people who need it most, and that is what I personally wish to see from more brands. From research assignments I’ve done for school on the attitudes of millennials and Gen Z, I know this is a common theme amongst young consumers who want to see the brands they buy from be socially responsible and support causes they care about, so I think and hope this will be a huge part of the future of advertising and public relations.”

Alexandra is currently a marketing operations intern at NCR and hopes to someday work in the music industry and become an inspiration for the young women who possess the same aspirations.

I would love to mix PR and marketing with my passion and background for music business one day by working at a major label or music app like Spotify. Also, the reason I am pursuing a Master’s degree is to one day become a woman leader in the field and be an inspiration to other young ladies who want to pursue a career in PR, marketing, or music.”

The AdvertiseMent scholarship is an annual scholarship established in 2019. The winner for the 2019 cycle was Vanessa Phan, a student of the University of Southern California. Applications for the 2021 cycle open July 1, 2021 and closes November 29, 2021.

6 Ways to Humanize Your Brand and Make It More Relatable in 2021

DEC. 4, 2021

Researching the human experience and its relationship with consumer behavior, Deloitte conducted a study that encompassed more than 16,000 participants. And their findings largely impacted their 2021 marketing trends. It turns out that more than half of the people participating in the survey stated that they preferred shopping experiences that offered a human touch.

For brands wanting to make it in today’s competitive market, this piece of information makes for a pretty straightforward guideline. Business leaders need to find ways to humanize their brands, and they need to do it consistently and with spot-on methods.

So if you, too, are looking for strategies that will make your company more approachable, the following are some of the best ways to humanize your brand.

Introduce Your Team

As it tends to happen in life, the best solutions are often the simplest ones. With this in mind, it’s not a bad idea to get started with the most uncomplicated steps toward making your brand more relatable, and that would be introducing your team.

It doesn’t matter if you do it via an About Us page or write about each team member in a social media post. What counts is that your existing and potential customers know exactly who the people behind the products or social posts are.

For example, doctors’ offices have perfected the art of introducing their specialists so that each patient can choose the professional that best suits their needs. Similarly, any brand can find effective ways to get closer to its audience. The artisan plant-based cheesemakers from Kite Hill have an insightful Our Story page that introduces each founder. Furthermore, it gives a timeline of the company’s progress from its humble beginnings until the present.

Source: kite-hill.com

Be Authentic

Branding is, naturally, a significant contributor to how your customers are going to perceive your business. So, in addition to paying attention to your visual identity and marketing methods, it may also not be a bad idea to define your voice and values.

Having a recognizable and consistent way of communicating is inevitably going to help define your position in the market. You may think you need to sound a particular way to fit into an industry, but rest assured that being authentic is bound to connect you with the customers who are the right fit for your business.

One brand that’s got a hand of authenticity is Billy Tannery from the UK. The idea behind their brand is to build a zero-waste business and create a line of locally made leather products. The interesting thing about Billy Tannery is that their mission isn’t just limited to a statement on their homepage. Instead, it’s a guiding principle in their blog section and social media posts, too.

Source: billytannery.co.uk

Build Genuine Relationships

You’re probably already aware of the fact that engagement is one of the best drivers of conversions. By humanizing your brand, you can boost engagement over all your communication channels. There are two basic methods of increasing engagement on all platforms.

The first one is social listening, an action that depends on specialized software. What social listening does is that it sends you a notification each time someone mentions your brand, product, or competitor on social media. With this kind of insight, your marketing and customer service teams can react without delay and reach out to these existing or potential customers. It’s a great way to collect user-generated content and to address any issues before they even appear.

The second method for boosting engagement is to invest in the production of high-quality content that offers value to your customers. The simplest way to do just this would be through your blog section, but you can also do it through different social channels. One brand that’s doing a great job in producing engaging content is Eachnight. 

Source: eachnight.com

Their sleep health page is chock-full of educational posts on the best way for people to hack their sleep, how-to guides for achieving specific rest-related results, and well-researched articles about the impact of different external influences on the quality of sleep.

Personalization

The one thing to keep in mind about humanizing your brand is that the effect you’re going to achieve with your customers doesn’t just depend on how you present yourself and how you approach marketing. It’s also influenced by how they feel about shopping with you.

According to age-old experience, personalization makes for one of the most successful sales strategies. The reason behind it is that consumers, essentially, want to build relationships with the brands they support. So, it’s not a bad tactic to start implementing personalization into your online presence.

For one, you can update your email marketing campaigns to address your subscribers by name. Also, make sure that you have a well-developed recommendations section on all your product pages, like the one below from the Rei website. Finally, don’t forget to use tracking data in a way that will help you provide your web visitors with a personalized experience.

Source: rei.com

 

Give Sneak Peeks and Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Another excellent way to show the people who work at your company and reveal what things look like behind closed doors is to produce ephemeral content. Not only are stories (now available on an endless number of marketing channels, including Spotify) a way to induce a bit of FOMO amongst your followers, but they’re also a way to achieve a closer connection with your audience.

There are numerous ways ephemeral content can help your brand become more relatable. For example, you can take inspiration from 368 and show followers how your employees have fun around the office. Or, if you’re developing new products, you can give sneak peeks of the production process. Maybe you can even ask people for their input.

Source: instagram.com

 

On the whole, the success of this type of content lies in the fact that it’s limited, current, and (most of the time) an unedited glance into the current state of things at your company.

Be Vocal About the Things You Love

The last way to make your business more relatable is to connect with your audience based on the things you’re passionate about.

Perhaps you’re committed to sustainability and know that your buyers will appreciate knowing how you source your materials. Or maybe you know they care about the workers in your factory being paid decent wages. Perhaps what you and your audience share is a passion for the well being of animals. Or freedom of speech. Or equal opportunities for everyone.

No matter what you stand for, know that 63% of consumers prefer to purchase from purpose-driven brands. So make sure that you’re vocal about your purpose and your beliefs. In the end, being committed to a greater cause doesn’t have to take up too much energy or resources. But, it may ensure that you reach buyers who had been looking for a company like yours all along.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are numerous marketing and branding strategies you can use to humanize your business and make it more relatable. The one thing they all have in common is that they require authenticity and honesty from start to finish. Don’t fall into the trap of putting a face at the forefront of your brand just because it’s the “right thing to do.” Instead, dare to celebrate who you and your employees really are.

Finally, don’t be afraid to share your values, passions, and ideas. In the end, they’re what make you uniquely you. The perfect customers for any business will always be those who share your vision. So dare to stand out, and you’ll quickly see the results.

6 Tips That Work to Onboard Ecommerce App Users

DEC. 30, 2020

Rami Al-zayat / Unsplash

User onboarding is a process that guides new users to find value with your app. It starts when users sign up to the moment when they realize how your app improves their lives. In other words, app users will learn not only how to use the app, but also how to use it in a way that provides benefits and helps them achieve their goals.

App onboarding in e-commerce is essential because if users don’t understand your app, they most definitely won’t use it and thus, they won’t make a purchase. The onboarding process is so important because it makes a customer’s first impression of your app, it can lead to successful adoption and is also a step to building solid relationships with users. 

In this article, you will find six tips to make onboarding your app users very successful.

Your welcome screen should convey your value proposition.

The welcome screen needs to express your value proposition in only a few words, so it’s important to keep it short and simple. A good recommendation would be to keep a balance between building anticipation and communicating your unique selling point very clearly to entice users to find out more about your app.

Context is also important when we talk about opt-in. This translates into combining push message value that is connected with the recent activity such as

Viewed item
Number of sessions with your app
Articles read
Tie your opt-in permission request to your app’s value 
Use time-sensitive app messaging and updates

The sign-in has to stay an easy process to improve retention rates

Usually, signing in is a long process, but it needs to be simple because at this stage many potential app users give up, which leads to a significant amount of drop-off in usage. Fortunately, if this stage is well-executed and if the e-commerce UX for the mobile experience is also fine, it can make a huge difference and increase the activation and retention rates. 

Offering users the possibility to sign in to your app by using their social media accounts such as Twitter, Google, or Facebook, builds trust in the users’ minds and also makes the process extremely fast and simple.

A good idea is also to test and find out if it’s better to build a signing in with various login options such as using their email address or via social media or maybe both of them.

Timing is also very important, so you will need to test with this as well. For example, you will need to test and discover if you want to ask users to sign in once the app is launched or at the end of the onboarding process.

Ask users to opt in to push notifications.

In order to build a great user experience, as well as value, many apps send push notifications that will allow users to share updates, as well as discounts, offers, and upcoming sales. 

By only asking users to opt in to push notifications without briefly explaining how that will benefit them, it will make it more likely for them to give up. With the help of push notifications, your brand visibility increases, and you will be able to add new subscribers with a single click. If users will have the choice to deny or accept the permission to receive push notifications and if the opt-in message lets them know exactly what kind of details they will receive, it will increase retention.

Let’s say a new customer downloads an app. Usually, the first question that he sees is “Do you want to sign up for push notifications?” without allowing the user to first interact with the app and build trust. As a result, he most probably will turn off the alerts, a decision of which very few customers change their minds about it.

A better way is to not ask about push notifications until the user has already used the app several times and has managed to get a feel for the way it works and if he can trust it enough to receive messages.

Once he gets at that point, the above question: “Do you want to sign up for push notifications?” will be more likely to get a positive answer.

Make it easy for a first time user to find your offers.

If you want your app to be profitable and thus, successful, you need to understand your customers and know what they want. Their browsing history will help you understand what they are searching for without actually making a purchase. 

Based on that, you will know what type of offers to provide them. Implementing a customer loyalty program is a good idea as it is designed to keep users coming back or, you can offer them a discount after five transactions, for example. Thus, it is more likely they will spend more money. 

Tracking your app users’ behavior through your mobile app helps you offer them a more personalized shopping experience. However, even if you have the most appealing offers and discounts, you need to keep the first conversion easy. This means that aside from relevant offers, it’s important how to enable users to explore them very easily, such as listing all the offers on a single page, so keep everything simple, short, and intuitive. 

It’s important to:

Use progress indicators
Avoid text-heavy, long explanations
Use app screenshots and illustrations
Avoid what is obvious
Make it easy to sign up for offers, awards, or various discounts

Provide cues to help users get started faster.

A new user has to be quickly convinced by the value of the app and the benefits that it can bring, and the first step to achieving this is to know how to hire a mobile app developer to help you get the most out of your app. Once you managed to do that, focus on how to provide a very good impression right from the start by offering tips and cues to help users get started faster and easier at the same time.

There are several ways to help you simplify the process:

Display the number of steps to complete in order to avoid frustration
Set a welcome screen and include a link to a FAQ (frequently asked question) section or tutorials 
Require just enough information to increase retention, meaning that users won’t enjoy the entire app experience immediately
Use colors to guide users such as higher contrast colors and bright hues against space 
Include pulsing visual cues which once clicked on, they will explain the onboarding steps
Use the turn off option of the tutorial for users 
Provide clear success messages as users progress, reiterating the value of the app throughout the way
Build motivation and excitement that will lead to that “aha” moment when users realize the value of the app 

Create and send well-crafted welcome emails

With effective onboarding, you get higher retention rates, greater revenues, and up to a 500% increase in customer lifetime value.

Although email might seem an outdated way to onboard app users, it’s still one of the tools that do deliver results. For example, open rates for onboarding welcome emails are 57.8%. But what makes it so effective?

The fact that users expect to add their email address on your app and thus, they anticipate a welcome email immediately. This welcome email might make him feel primed to engage with your first messages and willing to explore the app. 

Also, welcome emails are an external channel that reminds app users to start engaging with the app, and thus, they will start building usage patterns. The best practices for email onboarding are the following:

Set a specific goal for each email 
Segment your users and adapt the welcome email messages to their experience
Remind users about your app’s core values and benefits
Make the email engaging, catchy, and fun
Make sure the focus is on benefits, not features
Keep the email messages simple
Optimize for mobile: adjust the CTA, button size, subject line length
A/B test and optimize

After sending the welcome emails it’s important to also send several emails that nurture your app users. By perfecting the onboarding email flow will help you create new user habits, build long-term engagement, and turn free users into paying subscribers. 

Onboarding app users in e-commerce is an essential process. It is the most important as it helps to gain users’ trust and it influences them to purchase within your app. As apps are becoming more and more popular, the competition is also higher and higher. 

Under these circumstances, your app users’ first impression of your app users is essential as 80% of an app’s active users abandon it within the first 3 days after they have installed it.  Apply the above-mentioned tips for your app and be sure that your users will turn into long-term users. 

Keep in mind that what is obvious for you, it may not be obvious to your first-time app users, so test, optimize and always keep an eye on the best practices and apply what suits your business needs. 

By Romy Toma-Catauta

A Guide to Using Facebook’s A/B Testing Feature, Plus Best Practices

DEC. 28, 2020

Scott Graham / Unsplash

Facebook has over 2.2 billion active users, which is more than the population of China. The point is, Facebook has a massive audience.

Image Source: statista.com

Aside from its massive user base, Facebook’s revenue seems to be growing rapidly (as you can see from the graph above), and its advertising system is contributing significantly to this growth.

No wonder every business wants to use it for marketing their products or services. However, 62 % of businesses say their Facebook ads fail to reach their targets. As a marketer, you are fully aware that advertising initiatives aren’t an easy venture. 

With numerous advertising options available on Facebook at the moment, you, as a marketer, need to understand that just about any business-related objective can be realized when you target the right set of ads at the right set of audience.

So, you’re probably wondering how you can do that, right? The answer to this, like with any other digital ads venture, is split testing. For years businesses have been A/B testing their Facebook ads to boost engagement and to procure higher ROI. But the question is, have you?

This post talks all about A/B testing and the right way to run Facebook A/B tests so you can meet your business objectives effortlessly. 

A/B Testing: What Is It?

There are multiple tools on Facebook that enables you to test your ads’ performance before it goes live. Also known as A/B tests, split testing is among the most favored tools.

It enables you to test multiple advertising campaign elements to determine what works best. It does this by showing you what type of ad copy, ad creative, and targeting options your audience will respond to the most.

It’s also the most favored marketing practice, as it helps you in figuring out the type of UX visuals or ads that boost conversion rates. Basically, A/B tests give you the possibility to identify a specific content’s performance before publishing it.

The Right Way To Split Test Facebook Ads

This section covers everything you must know about A/B testing Facebook ads. Before launching the test, remember to first define what you’re aiming to uncover. You need to be clear about your objective for split testing, and this begins with a hypothesis. 

Facebook offers multiple ways to run A/B tests. This depends on the variable you aim to test. You can either use the Toolbar located in the Ads Manager, Experiments tool or duplicate an ad set or campaign.

Ads Manager Toolbar

With the Toolbar, you can perform quick tests by simply using a dropdown menu available in Ads Manager. To create Facebook A/B tests using Toolbar, you need to select “A/B tests” from the “Campaigns” tab, which you’ll find when you access Ads Manager. 

Here’s what you need to remember: To finish the test, you must have an existing campaign draft or ad campaign. If you don’t have any existing campaign ads or draft, you’ll get the following pop-up:

After selecting your preferred campaign, you can pick the variable you wish to test. There are several different variable testing options, and they’re segmented on the basis of your campaign goals. The variables include Audience, Creative, Placements, Delivery Optimization, More than One, and Product Set. Later on, we’ll be discussing which variables you should be testing.

Once you’re done picking your test type, you can run your test. In Ads Manager, you’ll be able to check the status or progress of your test by clicking on the “Account Overview” tab. Here’s an example of how it looks like:

Duplication

With this option, you can easily set up a test by altering one element from an almost identical ad set or campaign. This option is for campaigns or ads that have been created already.

To select this option, access your “Campaigns” tab, which is just next to Ads Manager. Here, you’ll be greeted with a list of active campaigns. You’ll also find your drafted ads or campaigns. Pick the one you wish to duplicate.

After picking the campaign you wish to test, select the section under the title. Here, you’ll find the “Duplicate” option. This will pop up when you select it:

Choose the option that suggests duplicating a campaign specifically for split tests. Do note that by choosing this option, you’ll also have to select a variable to alter to test performance. As such, pick a campaign that matches that criterion.

Once you’re done choosing your variable, you can view your tests side by side in a preview. Once all changes have been made in this phase, you’re all set to publish. To do that, you just need to select the green icon:

Experiments Tools

By choosing the Experiments tools option, you can either duplicate or create ad campaigns for testing. It not only enables you to optimize your campaigns but also learn more about your test progress while it’s running.

Turns out, to choose Experiments tools, you’ll have to select “Experiments,” which you’ll find in your Business account. Alternatively, you can simply use the search bar. When you access Experiments, you’ll find this:

Select “Get Started,” which is available under the A/B test, as seen above. A menu will pop up, where you’ll need to provide the campaign details. For instance, you’ll need to pick the campaign you wish to test:

Here, you’ll have the option to schedule your test run time, name, and even determine how to choose a winner. You have the option to pick between cost or conversion lift or cost per result. 

After you’re done filling the campaign details, Facebook will let you know how impactful your test is. Basically, this is to ensure that your draft matches the A/B test criteria before you publish it. 

Also, you can create numerous ads for testing, depending on your ability. If your ability to do so is limited, you just have to create a few ads at a time. Even so, you can still be very detailed. 

A/B Testing Best Practices

Now that you’re aware of the different ways to run A/B tests, let’s put our focus on some best practices when performing Facebook A/B tests.

Don’t Test Multiple Elements at Once

You can start testing one element of the ad against another ad with all things equal, except for that specific element. You can understand this better by having a look at the image below:

Here, AdEspresso is testing one variant of their ad, the ad copy. As you can see from the image above, everything is the same, including the headline, the image, and we suppose the same goes for its targets. However, one variant is different, the copy. By split testing just the ad copy, they can determine which copy works best for their targets

Keep it simple, remember not to test multiple elements at once. Instead, test one element at one time, and once you acquire a satisfactory sample size, feel free to test other variables.

Elements You Need to Test

There are certain elements of your ads that you’ll need to test. Since Facebook provides you with options that are determined by its advertising platform, you need to test the following 4 elements:

Ad copy
Headlines
Call to Action
Images

Because your main priority to ensure that your audience actually views your ads on Facebook, your images are key to success. Though they aren’t the only thing, they are of utmost importance. Consequently, having more image creatives in place will help you determine what type of ads will really grab attention.

When your audience is done viewing your ads, the next important thing is to make sure the headline in your ad is giving them a good reason to engage. Invest your time in crafting enticing ad copy and headlines. Get your creative juices flowing and take some chances. Like any other sales speech, the worst thing that can happen is your audience saying no. Regardless, with A/B tests, you can determine how to reach them successfully.

Ad Targeting Is Just As Important

Every element in your ad is vital, and your targets are just as crucial as the creative. With ad targeting, you can reach your targets based on gender, geographical location, and more. You need to test the following for ad targeting:

Education level
Purchase Behaviors
Relationship status
Custom Audience
Age
Interest
Placements
Gender 
Country

Choose an Ideal Budget For Your Business

Depending on your ad details, Facebook offers an ideal budget. Alternatively, you can choose an ideal budget by yourself when filling the details. Doing this helps you in determining a winning strategy.

Make Ideal Time Frame

If you can recall, you can schedule your test time frame when you are setting your A/B test. Well, you have the option to run your A/B test for 30 days. A minimum of four days is enough to deliver accurate results, suggests Facebook’s Business Center.

The Bottom Line

A/B tests allow you to better understand your audience’s behavior. If you haven’t yet performed A/B tests, you better do it now. Any digital ads initiative of any kind, regardless of whether it’s on Facebook or other platforms, is doomed to fail without active tests.

Remember, the more you learn, the better your advertising initiatives will perform. And A/B test lets you do just that. Facebook A/B testing, when done right, can easily determine what type of ads resonates and works best with your targets. With each test, you acquire more actionable information, which, in turn, helps you in executing better future ads on Facebook.

By Robert Jordan

 

How to Boost Your Branding through Social Media Engagement [Infographic]

DEC. 25, 2020

Christian Wiediger / Unsplash

As a marketing professional, business owner, or entrepreneur, it goes without saying — don’t underestimate the power of social media. If you were hoping posting and tweeting were just fads that would go the way of the CB radio, you’re out of luck. It’s simply no longer optional to have a presence online because customers expect to find you there. 

Even if you’ve embraced these platforms, you still may not be getting the most from them. It isn’t enough to just put your message out there and hope someone pays attention. Whether you’re still a novice or have people dedicated to managing your feeds, there’s always more work you can do to build better social media activity. 

Engaging with your audience is crucial. Without it, your brand becomes lost among all the other voices. When you find a way to connect with customers through these platforms, you build loyalty and enhance the way people perceive your business. Creating content that grabs people and makes an emotional connection with them isn’t as difficult as it may seem. There are numerous elements that go into posts that do this successfully, and knowing what they are can go a long way toward boosting your efforts online. 

Know Your Audience

For example, it’s crucial to understand who the primary users of these sites are and why they use them. Those who have LinkedIn accounts are likely interested in making professional connections with others. They tend to visit the site to find relevant news and opinions concerning their respective industries, as well as to see motivational content. This means sharing new product announcements or testimonials from your clients has a better chance of resonating with users when posted here. 

On the other hand, Instagram is frequented most often by millennials and Gen Zs who want to keep up with trends. This means if you can contextualize information about your products in a way that matches the cultural zeitgeist of the moment, you stand a better chance of being noticed there. 

Deliver Relevant Content 

Knowing what social media users look for as they scroll through their feeds is another important element of building better engagement. Although about half of consumers follow brands on social media because they want to learn about new products, almost as many want to be entertained by what they see. Assuming there’s a significant overlap between those two, it’s important to make sure that what you’re posting isn’t the same type of information-heavy videos you would display at a trade show. 

You also need to find the difference between providing a steady flow of posts and oversaturating. A significant number of consumers say they have unfollowed a brand in the past because they were seeing far too many advertisements and promotional posts. Finally, never forget that the point of social media is to be social. That means communicating with customers and listening to them when they have questions or concerns. 

If you’re looking for more tips and data you can use to become a better engager, take a look at the accompanying infographic. No matter how you feel about the technology, there’s always a better way to make it work for you. 

By Rebecca Purrington

This infographic was created by Crestline, a leading provider of healthcare promotional products.

Google Adwords vs. Social Ads

DEC. 23, 2020

Brett Jordan / Unsplash

Which one should I use, Google AdWords or social ads? Which one is more effective? In which one should I invest?

Nowadays, there is a big debate regarding Google Adwords services and social ads services. There is a big debate towards the importance of these two forms of advertising, and also, towards the usefulness of each. Some people argue that Google AdWords are more effective, whereas, other people argue that social ads are more effective.

Our opinion is that both Google AdWords and social ads are very important. Both are more effective when they are used together, when they are integrated in the same campaign.

First of all, we are going to show you the benefits of both modalities of advertising and then we will explain how you can integrate both of them in your campaign.

Google Adwords

Google is not a social network, instead, it is search engine. However, Google can be sometimes regarded as a social network, as its users use the different applications that Google offers, such as Gmail, Google Calendars, or Drive. Moreover, Google owns YouTube, which is a social page in which users can interact with each other and react to content. So, Google and social networks are not so different.

The biggest advantage that Google brings is that everybody uses it. People from any age, sex, and region of the world can use Google. This is very important to take into account because anything you post on Google can reach many people (it could literally reach the whole world).

There are many ways in which you can introduce your ad in Google: you can introduce it in the results of the search bar, or you can even introduce your ad in any website. The possibilities that Google offers for advertising are immense, and that is why the use of Google AdWords can be so effective and beneficial for your organization.

Social Ads

The use of social networks has grown exponentially since 2009. The reason of this, is that there are many social networks, that are different between them, and that each adapts to the different tastes of different people. Nowadays, in 2020, the most popular social networks are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Each of these social networks are different, and they bring different opportunities.

Facebook has become the pillar for social ads, however, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, also have its own forms of social ads, and they are becoming bigger. 

The biggest benefit that social networks bring, is that their public is more specific, so, if an organization wants to reach a specific public, it will be easier through social media. That is why social ads are becoming so important, because they will be directly directed to the target audience of the organization.

Why Mix Google Adwords and Social ads?

According to the experts of Wordstream, when in a marketing campaign, results of different strategies are mixed, the results are better. A marketing campaign should be an integrated strategy, which means that different strategies should be used to reach the objectives of the organization, for it to be more effective. Google AdWords and social ads, both have the advantage that both of them can be adapted to any business, so any business can decide to integrate both strategies.

The main advantage of mixing the Google AdWords strategy and social ads strategy, is that you can get information from each of them that can be applied in the other strategy, making them stronger. Both, AdWords and social media are sources of information, and the information resulted from both campaigns can be very helpful. Moreover, this information serves as a very cheap market study. This means, that by using both, Google AdWords and social ads, you will get more information about your public, and as a consequence, your campaign will become more effective.

The next advantage that the combination of these two forms of advertising brings, is that you will be able to reach a bigger public, as you will reach different people through social media and through Google, getting a bigger public than if you used only one strategy.

With these tips, the idea that we want to transmit you, is that you should be always thinking about improving your marketing strategy. Do not focus in only one strategy, because as we have explained, sometimes the combination of two strategies works better than only using one alone. So, do not hesitate to combine the use of Google AdWords and social ads, and about always improving your marketing strategy!  

By Leyre Inigo Lazaro