Best Facebook Ads … 8 Secret Design Factors for Successful Marketing

I’ve resisted investing in social media advertising for a long time, believing that there is a host of free and helpful tools and free strategies. I have always felt such tools and strategies can help your business grow on social media organically. Here are some of the best Facebook ads design factors that can take you beyond this type of thinking.

More learning: Pinterest Marketing … Rich Pin Tips for Discovery Shopping

best Facebook ads — Best Facebook ads design factors.

But I have learned quite a lot in the last few years. What I’ve come to learn through my research are these secret design factors:

Social media ads can earn you the biggest returns

In some cases, it’s the cheapest way to reach people.

There are so many inspiring digital marketers who are pioneering the best practices and cool strategies for social media advertising.

As we dip our toes further into social ads here at Buffer, it’s been fun to discover all the great tips we might try. I’ve collected eight of my favorite ones here in this blog post—a list of simple, actionable tips that drive successful Facebook ads.

Best Facebook ads … focus on Facebook relevance score

Ad relevance score is a metric in ads reporting that provides an estimate of how relevant an ad is to its target audience, based on how the ad is performing and other factors.

When your ad’s score is high, it’s more likely to be shown to your audience than other ads. You also pay less to reach more of your target audience.

The score will range from 1 to 10, ten meaning we estimate your ad is highly relevant and one meaning we estimate your ad isn’t very relevant. It will be based on some factors, including positive feedback we expect from the people seeing your ad (ex: clicks, app installs, video views) and negative feedback (ex: someone clicks I don’t want to see this on your ad).

You’ll be able to see this score once your ad has had about 500 impressions.

Jon Loomer wrote a detailed breakdown of Facebook’s relevance score, explaining what it is and how it’s calculated.

Briefly, relevance score helps explain the way Facebook views your ad and why it might prefer certain ads you’ve created versus others. It is a very valuable metric.

Secret Facebook ad design factors … reverse psychology

When marketing thinkers talk about “the death of traditional advertising,” they may not only mean the shift to digital but a much larger transformation to alternative methods of genuinely reaching the consumer.

According to Indrajit Sinha and Thomas Foscht, authors of “Reverse Psychology Marketing: The Death of Traditional Marketing and the Rise of the New ‘Pull’ Game,” reverse psychology marketing, pull marketing, and anti-marketing may not be familiar buzzwords. However, there is a global change happening regarding defining the most effective ways to communicate with consumers and increase sales.

To accomplish these goals amid overwhelming noise in the digital world, it often takes the most daring ideas.

Regarding alternative marketing, capitalizing on psychological principles is certainly not new territory. Leveraging reverse psychology can be a controversial choice, and certainly a risky one, but even church billboards have seen success with this simple tactic.

Reverse psychology can be loosely defined as a method of getting someone to do what you want by pretending not to want it or by pretending to want something else. This is largely tied in with reactance theory, the idea that people who feel their sense of control is being taken away from them will grab it back by not doing what they are asked.

Blogger Jens-Petter Berget writes, “The reason why reverse psychology in marketing works is that it generates curiosity.” For this reason, it is not a technique that can be drawn upon frequently and remain effective, as it will quickly lose its magic.

best Facebook ad examples — Best Facebook ad examples.

Create multiple versions of the headlines or ads

When I write headlines for many of my posts, I try to define 3-4 options. This gives me test options and alternatives for blog posts.

The same idea works with social media ads.

When you read about a successful social media ad, it’s likely that the ad has gone through a few key variations based on these actions:

Write several versions of ad copy

Test a variety of images

Adjust for your target audience

Regarding testing out different ad copy, there are many popular recommendations which can include power words, time prompts, and question marks.

For images, you can test things like product pictures, people, and faces, even memes.

And when it comes to custom audiences, there are some great tactics on different ways to hone in on a segment that converts best.

Best Facebook video ads … the “Learn More” button

When creating ads for the Facebook News Feed, you get the chance to include one of seven buttons with your ad.

If in doubt, it’s best to choose a button instead of no button.

And the best button of all? The “Learn More” button.

You can add the button in the bottom section of the Facebook Ads editor. These are the seven button options to choose from:

Shop Now
Book Now
Learn More
Sign Up
Download
Watch More
Contact Us

The theory behind why these button works are that it helps focus your ad to an even greater degree, like a Mario mushroom for your already great copy. Adding a button enhances the call-to-action and primes a reader to take action.

As for which button works best, you might notice that one fits your niche particularly well (“Book Now,” for instance, would be great for vacation spots). For the “Learn More” button, there seems to be growing evidence that it’s the best overall bet for engagement.

Pay attention to mobile traffic

When creating a social media ad, you’ll typically have the option of segmenting the audience by some factors, including those using a desktop/laptop versus a mobile device.

To fully optimize your conversion rate, show your ad to those on desktops and laptops. Don’t show your ad on mobile.

A couple of additional notes here also:

Not only do the most successful social media ads hone in on the device type, but they also keep in mind the location of the ad.

Typically sidebar display ads—like those offered by Twitter or Facebook—see lower click through numbers (they’re recommended as a great option for retargeting). The best results are those that appear natively in the News Feed or timeline. Ezra Firestone calls these “advertisements that blend in with the platform.”

Removing mobile display from your ads is an often-recommended strategy, though there are two sides to the discussion.

Brian Honigman, writing at SumAll, mentions that your ads should focus on mobile first to capture the huge volume of Facebook traffic that accesses the site from mobile devices.

Promote a deal

social media ad examples — Social media ad examples.

In a survey of Facebook users, 67 percent of people said they were likely to click on a discount offer.

A simple strategy for a successful social media ad: Mention a discount in your copy.

The custom landing page

If the goal of your social media ad is conversions—sales, signups, what-have-you—then you’ll want to think not only of the ad itself but also where a person might end up once they click.

Picture social media ads as a two-step process:

Create the ad
Create the destination

Some of the most successful social media advertising campaigns include custom landing pages, where the copy carries over from the ad and the action crystal clear.

More to learn: Improve Success with Small Business Tagline Designs

The more targeted your ad, the more targeted your landing page needs to be

You’ll see this often with e-commerce ads that do a great job targeting a single product and then send the person from the ad to the main product page, full of menus and related products and all sorts of potentially distracting (albeit eminently useful) places to click.

The bottom line

To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.

We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.

There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement in social media marketing, independent of how well the business is doing. This is an excellent time to make a statement with their brand marketing. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

More reading on social media platforms from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Facebook Statistics … Lots to Learn From Current Data

11 Updates to Starbuck’s Creativity and Innovation

6 Fantastic Facts about the Changing Social Media Landscape

About Social Media … Ways to Use Social Media for Learning

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.

Consumer Engagement … the Key to a World-Class Social Commerce Business

The key is to be part of people’s lives. People will always prefer to do business with friends.

– Marty Kohr

Nonversation? Heard that term before? In context with a social commerce business? Hope not. Simple definition: the opposite of a productive conversation.

Many nonversations transpire at elevators, bus stops, and the like. They also occur during business situations, in which participants do not really listen meaningfully to one another. Not what you want for a world-class social commerce business.

We define social commerce business as the use of social engagement to personalize and energize the shopping experience. It provides a social context to shopping and is both a channel and a way of doing business.

So how do we propose to build a world-class social commerce business? Here are 10 ways we recommend to our clients:

It starts with great employees

Employees are your service. Hire for their friendly, caring attitude and train for skills and knowledge. Empower them to be customer advocates.

Make social the centerpiece

Socialize your business. People do business with people, so make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers “feel at home.” You may have a great location, cool displays, great value, etc. That’s all great, but if your people can’t make your customers feel welcome and appreciated, all of the other doesn’t matter so much.

Share all great service stories

As soon as possible with all of your team. Celebrate the smallest of successes.

Show common courtesy

All the time. This leads to customer respect, which leads to conversation and the building of relationships and mutual trust.

Care for customers

Assume you are the company owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees, and then follow their lead.

Analyze when things go right.

When a company receives a complaint people usually have discussions to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. Next time you receive a letter of praise, meet to find out what went right and how it can be repeated.

All the time

Amazing companies don’t always deliver “Wow!” type experiences, they are just better than average – all of the time. All of the time is the secret sauce.

Attention to details

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you. Be vigilant … always listening and learning. Try and remember things customers tell you and then show them you listened. Trying new ideas. Put your social commerce business in motion by being adaptable.

Customer experience

One sure way to erode loyalty and social commerce is to deliver an inconsistent customer service experience. One time it’s great. The next time it is barely average. And, the next time it may be great again. Inconsistency creates uncertainty and erodes customer confidence and trust. Lack of confidence and trust leads to giving customers a reason to consider your competition.

Create a customer service culture

It starts by practicing what we call, “The Employee Golden Rule”: Treat your employees the way you want the customer treated – maybe even better.

Now it’s up to you. Choose one customer service strategy to start with. Have a meeting around it. Discuss how to implement it. Then, do it and repeat the process, creating something good for your customers to talk about! Soon you will have a much stronger social commerce business.

The bottom line

This is your time to create and take action on customer engagement insights from successful influencers. With good continuity and persistence, relevant insights will be helpful in developing lasting relationships with your customers.

Lead with initiative and own the moment. Dive in today and notice how much your business improvements grow.

Remember this simple fact. Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. Let your content marketing success be your difference-maker.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

What is Search Engine Optimization and How Can it Help my Business?

Search Engine Optimization or, (SEO) refers to techniques you can use to improve your website’s ranking and help your business (in any of the search engines that people use today). It can mean the difference between you being at the top or, the bottom and, if you want to attract free Internet traffic and potential customers, it’s something you need to focus on and get it right.

This is true even if you hire an expert SEO firm instead of working on the site yourself. While you can expedite the process with on-page SEO, there’s no ‘magic button’ that will make your website show up in search results overnight.”

Search engine friendly

When designing your website or reworking it you should consider a theme for each page and then assign keywords based upon the theme, be sure to keep the keywords updated as they will change with time depending on what people are searching for. The best way to ensure your website is fully optimized for Google is to hook up with an award-winning outfit such as kingkong.co, who really knows their stuff.

This is true even if you hire an expert SEO firm instead of working on the site yourself. While you can expedite the process with on-page SEO, there’s no ‘magic button’ that will make your website show up in search results overnight.

Choosing your keywords

You want to make a list of keywords, maybe 10 or so for each page and then you can use free tools such as Google AdWords, it will help to generate new word and phrase ideas for you helping you to reach more customers based upon what they search using the search engine.

Title of your page

Search engines will make use of your title page so it is important that a lot of thought and consideration is put into what title you use and how that will be relevant to what people are going to be searching for.

The title should be unique, but also include relevance to your products as well as what the customers might be looking for, it can be tricky so employing the help of a specialist often comes in handy. Click here for ways that a small business can be more competitive.

The page description

You will have noticed that when you use a search engine not only will a link to a website be displayed but you will also see a description of what you are likely to see if you click on the web link.

This is your chance to really engage your audience and captivate them so much that they cannot help but to click on your web link and go to your page.

Constant monitoring

SEO is constantly evolving as people use the Internet, so it is vital that your content is monitored in the same way, alterations or changes will need to be made to your website to keep it current and attractive to potential customers. Good examples can be found in Digital Spark Marketing.

More importantly, it must contain information that will drive people to your site when they conduct a search, more views equal more potential customers, if you put enough work in at the start and maintain the same practice moving forward then you should get repeat customers for years to come. Here is some Australian government information about SEO in general, which all business owners should read.

The bottom line

SEO is a complex field and the best way to move forward is to seek out a leading SEO agency, as they have the know-how and resources to put your business firmly on the map.

13 Best Content Creation Tools to Save Time in Visual Design

I’ll admit it – I tend to be a cheapo when it comes to most things in my business. I will buy the generic over the name brand any day. And if I can find some free online best content creation tools for winning visual content, something I’d otherwise have to pay for in my marketing, you guessed it, I’ll do it.

In my quest to find alternatives to the most sophisticated computer apps, I’ve come across a lot of free tools that help take my marketing up a notch. They also save my team’s budget.

I love to share my research, and I wanted to share these tools with you. There will be some occasions where you won’t be able to avoid paying for some tools you need to rock your job.

However, lots of times you can increase the quality of your visual content with just a free resource.

But you have to know the free tool is out there in the first place. So without any further ado, let’s get to the meat of the post. That is the most important free tools you can use to create winning visual content.

PowerPoint Templates

Some may believe that designing in PowerPoint isn’t professional. I am not one of them.

I like to think of it as a visual content testing ground for people who don’t have the budget or time to work with Photoshop.

That way, you don’t have to drop a lot of money for a complex program, only to not get your money’s worth.

Pictaculous

One of the most important elements of design is your color palette. Here you want to make sure your images, graphics, and font colors all help convey your message.

Maybe even drive conversions.

But often, it’s hard to find that exact shade of blue that’s in a photograph you need to use. That is where Pictaculous comes in.

Upload a photo and then instantly get recommendations for colors to use, including their respective HEX codes. Your color palettes will never be uncoordinated again!

Awesome Screenshot

Taking screenshots can be annoying if you don’t have the right tool up your sleeve. Often, you can only capture what is visible on your screen. That makes screenshots of long web pages especially grueling.

Or, you have to use 20 different programs to crop, edit, and annotate screenshots.

Well, with Awesome Screenshot, a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome, you can easily screenshot anything on the web and edit it directly within your browser.

This extension has become a staple of my browser — I can’t go back to regular old screenshots anymore.

PlaceIt

Even if you have the tool to create a gorgeous screenshot, that’s not always the most professional way to display web page content.

Sometimes, you need a photo of your website, blog, or Twitter profile, but with polished flair. You can try manually customizing your screenshot to fit into a stock photo you already have.

Or you can use PlaceIt as an even better alternative. Upload photos directly into Creative Commons-enabled stock photos, and you’ll see your screenshots come to life immediately.

PlaceIt is probably the best app anyone running an online business could ask for. It allows you to create high-quality images featuring your app or product being used in real life.

All you have to do is upload a screenshot of your product and let the tool do its magic. It will save you countless hours because it does this automatically for you.

This would otherwise take hours of work in Photoshop.

Share as Image

Share as Image enables you to create some potent eye candy for your blog. You can turn any text or image into attractive and shareable content in minutes.

This is due to a wide variety of fonts, high-quality photos, and filters offered by the app itself.

There is nothing like some custom images to help you dazzle your audience.

BeFunky

BeFunky is a multi-functional image editor which allows you to produce beautiful visual content. This is particularly true even if image-editing and graphic design aren’t one of your stronger suits.

Its functionality is not limited to just creating images, though. You can come up with striking collages and your very own custom graphic designs.

Best of all, it is browser-based so that you can access it anywhere, anytime.

PicMonkey

Okay, let’s say you don’t have the budget for Photoshop and feel somewhat limited by PowerPoint’s visual editing capabilities. Now what?

What are you to do? If you want to spruce up your images, such as recolor them, add borders, add text, and even insert graphics on top, check out PicMonkey.

The good news is that you can do it all without downloading yet another program to your computer. The whole photo editing process is intuitive.

This means you can spend more time optimizing your blog posts instead of sprucing up its featured images.

Compfight

If you’re looking for a Creative Commons image, but are finding terrible options through its native search engine, check out Compfight.

While it often surfaces similar content, I spend half the time looking for engaging Creative Commons images than with the native search tool.

Why? This is because Compfight’s algorithm seems to sort gorgeous images right to the top. A bonus for you.

You never have to worry about correct attribution again. This is because Compfight will automatically generate HTML code you can embed on your website to properly credit the original author.

Unsplash

If you’re looking for more “do whatever you want” photos with scenery or inanimate object tilt, check out Unsplash.

Just like our stock photos, no attribution is needed with Unsplash. The pictures speak for themselves — so go check out the website for more.

Infogr.am

If you’re looking to make interactive infographics and not just plain visuals, check out this free tool. Easily add graphs, maps, text, and even playable videos without diving deep into a design program.

It also has social sharing tools built right into the infographic, so you don’t have to worry about creating a custom Pin-It button.

It’s a pretty nifty tool if you want to create and ship an infographic — fast.

Google Drawings

Say goodbye to your weird Microsoft Paint drawings and say hello to polished, professional Google Drawings.

If you have a personal Gmail or your company uses Google Apps, you can use Google Drawings to create custom visual content. One of my favorite features about it is that it comes with an invisible background right off the bat.

This helps so you can create custom shapes that can easily be pasted on top of your other marketing collateral.

It is the perfect way to spruce up an updated ebook call-to-action or even customize a stock photo.

And the best part of all is that you can collaborate with your co-workers on the drawing by sharing the document, just like you would any other Google Document.

Content creation tools … put filters on your images

The foremost stage of making the any Instagram account a successful platform for marketing is to describe your company’s objectives.

The images you upload are a strong replication of your business. They deliver the desired effect to your target market by creating an emotional affiliation with your customers.

It is necessary that your photos have a cohesive approach which integrates with your brand or product.

A Color Story is the tool that can assist you in this. This tool makes it much easier to tune the pictures and give them a professional texture.

Content creation tools … repost and share others’ posts

If you want to get a good Instagram feed, it is necessary to make a sharing, supporting, and appealing community there. It is one the finest things to do for making your business competent.

If you want to integrate with and get support from your Instagram audience, it is important to reciprocate your content, and you should remain very engaged.

Make sure you are sharing the content in a way that can create a strong relationship with your followers.

There is a tool, “Repost for Instagram,” available for both Android and iOS platforms which makes it much easier to repost the Instagram pictures.

Reposting to your feed while sharing the content and giving credits to other users.

The bottom line

For social analysts with general needs, there might not be a clear, must-use option. But as your focus grows more specific, some graphics tools should emerge as favorites.

Use this list as a guide — you’re sure to find a social media design tool that works with the platforms you value and delivers the information you need.

What are your go-to resources for creating beautiful infographics? Let us know in the comments.

Looking to create a smashing brand image?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s teamwork, collaboration, and learning? Creative ideas in running or facilitating teamwork or continuous learning workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content

8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice

Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation

How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business

How to Create Tactics for a Social Media Strategy

People use the same two or three search engines for all of their needs, but they use different social networks to cover different aspects of their lives. They want to create tactics.

The same person may use LinkedIn for their professional life, Facebook to keep up with friends, Twitter to get the latest news, and Instagram and Pinterest to share pictures.

But there are other social networks, smaller ones, that have other uses as well.

And although they are “smaller,” they still have tens or hundreds of thousands of users. If a large percentage of these users are in your target audience, that should justify being active on that network.

Here’s the big benefit of smaller networks: barely any other business uses them!

Think about it. The biggest businesses need a huge audience, so they stick to the biggest social networks.

The small and medium-sized businesses typically just copy the big businesses (or most of them do).

But that leads to one problem:

All the social media strategy guides and tools are designed for the “big” social networks. How are you supposed to know what to do?

This process will work on just about every social network out there.

Finding smaller social networks

One of the reasons why very few businesses take advantage of the smaller networks is because they are harder to find than the ones that everyone talks about.

Expect to have to dig around for 30-60 minutes to find the best one for your business.

Keep in mind that you don’t need a network to have millions of users to make it a good target for your marketing.

And there are hundreds of social networks that fit this criterion, so it’s just a matter of finding the right one(s) for your business.

A good starting place is this Wikipedia list, which has about 100 different networks. Each network has a description to help you determine whether it might be right for you.

An important note: don’t expect every network to look and act like Facebook and Twitter.

At first, you might not be sure if you can find a way to turn users into customers, but in most cases, there’s a way if you’re willing to be creative (more on that later).

What networks are based around

All networks have their own purpose—their own sort of niche(s).

Ideally, you’re looking for networks that align with your business’ niche(s).

Most networks are based on certain types of interactions, interests, or locations. Most are a combination of the three.

For example, Badoo is a social network with 20 million active users, but it’s mainly popular in Latin America and certain European countries such as Italy and Spain.

Or consider Meetup, which allows people in certain cities to create groups around interests. This is a great network for local businesses because you can engage people in your area in person.

Finally, Classmates is a network dedicated to reconnecting with high school friends. It’s essentially one specific part of Facebook.

There are many networks that are location independent. They focus on specific interests. They can get really specific.

For example, Ravelry is a social network for people who love knitting. If you owned a business related to knitting, you couldn’t find a better place to interact with your audience.

For now, write down all the networks you think might have your target audience.

Time to answer a HUGE question

Here’s what you need at this point: an account plus a plan to get users to your website.

If you need help with a plan, review this social media strategy, and then modify it to suit your network.

The huge question that you need to answer right now is:

Do you want to commit to this network for several months?

The reason why this is so important is because your results on almost any social network will be slow at first. It’s only after consistently being active and executing your strategy that you will be able to drive significant traffic.

So, if you don’t think you could do it for longer than 5-6 months, you might as well not start.

That’s the mentality you need to possess to succeed with your plan.

Let me illustrate this for you…

If you go to my Facebook page right now (just search “Neil Patel” on Facebook), you’ll see that even in the worst-case scenario, I still get over 100 likes and several shares. Note that only a small percentage of traffic actually “likes” the share, so it drives considerably more:

That seems good, right?

The most important key to social media success

Do you get it?

How you execute your strategy on a consistent basis will either make you or break you. That’s why I devoted an entire section to it.

Besides having the right mindset, you’ll also need other things, namely content.

Not all social media sites are built on content, but most are.

And when I say content, I’m talking about articles and guides that you can share with the network community through your profile…just like you would by posting on Facebook or tumblr.

Part #1 – Decide what kind of content you need

You probably already know this because of your earlier research.

Figure out what role content plays in the way users interact.

On the knitting network, users shared tutorials and tips on the forum. Sharing good content there could help you build up your reputation and make more connections.

On tumblr, you share content by posting it to your blog. You can even repost entire blog posts there as long as you credit the author.

On networks more similar to Facebook and Twitter, you need short messages to share. Some will be short descriptions with a link to a blog post, but some will be interesting messages like inspirational quotes.

Once you know what type of content you’ll need, move on to the next part.

Part #2 – Find proven content that attracts shares

The first goal of sharing content is to share something that your followers and community actually value.

When you do that consistently, it does many good things. It:

first creates, then deepens your relationship with your followers
helps you become more respected in the community
allows you to drive traffic to great resources
optional: allows you to build relationships with the authors of the content you share (extra bonus!)

If you’re serious about success, you need to find a way to do this

What’s the key to social media success?

Consistency (just reminding you).

So, now that you know what content and how much of it you need to post, you need to come up with a system that will help keep you on track.

The two components of such a system are: its efficiency and ease of implementation.

Having to log in and make a post every X hours is not easy or efficient. You’ll likely miss some posts that you’d like to make, which will slow down your results.

Luckily, there are some ways to design a system that’s better, mostly through automation.

Determine what can and should be automated

It would be great if everything could be automated because it would take no time on your part, but it can’t be.

Some things can’t or shouldn’t be automated:

Curating content – don’t just share any content. Take the time to read posts so that you can share the best ones.
Interacting with users – you can’t automate authentic conversation. If you’re ever commenting or messaging a user, do it yourself.

Your strategy needs to be refined

It took me years of trial and error to figure out how to create a solid system for the big social media sites. And it’s still not perfect.

Your strategy is likely good if you followed all the research steps, but it could always be improved.

And just a few small improvements can lead to a much faster growth rate in the long run.

So, how do you refine a system?

As you use the network more, you might notice that some things you’re doing aren’t as effective as they should be.

However, the best way to refine a system is by using data. Data doesn’t lie.

Here’s what you should do:

Pick important metrics to track
Follow your strategy for 30 days
Evaluate results based on metrics
Test changes and repeat #2-4

To start with, you’ll need to pick a few metrics to track. I recommend two to four.

When I say important, I mean pick those that influence the amount of traffic you can drive to your site. Even if you’re not driving much traffic now, it will make a big difference in the future.

Using Facebook as an example, I can tell you that the important metrics are:

Page likes – the more page likes, the bigger the audience that I can share my content with (and that can click through)
Status likes – friends of followers who like a post also see it, potentially growing my audience
Status shares – the more shares, the wider my reach
Comments – more interaction will add social proof to my content

Metrics are pretty similar across different networks, but make sure you’re focusing on those that can influence your traffic later on.

Now, you just need to collect data by running your initial strategy. Thirty days is a good test period.

At the end, check your metrics. See how many shares and likes you’re getting. If it’s not as much as you’d like, come up with an idea to improve your system.

It may be to post more, post different content, connect with different types of people, and so on.

Then, do another cycle of 30 days. If the results improve, integrate the change into your system, and come up with a new idea.

Always keep trying to refine and improve your system.

The bottom line

Social media sites are one of the best sources of traffic.

But just because a network isn’t named Facebook or Twitter doesn’t mean it can’t help your business.

Smaller social networks often have far fewer marketers on them than larger ones do, which makes any type of marketing on them much more effective.

If you follow the steps I laid out for you in this post, you can find golden opportunities to establish yourself as a big fish in a small pond.

Even small networks can drive thousands of visitors per month to your website if you do some work.

Valuable Links to Include in Your SMS Marketing

Consumers are bombarded with advertisements (such as valuable links) in their email inboxes and on social media sites. So much so, that they have become “blind” to online advertising. Mobile marketing is gaining traction because of the rising ineffectuality of online advertising and also because consumers spend a considerable number of their waking hours on their mobiles.

SMS marketing, especially, is proving to be an efficient way of reaching out to customers and increasing traffic to a marketer’s site. In this article, we provide a few ideas regarding effective links you can include in your SMS messages to clients.

Coupons

Entice your customers to visit your site by sending them SMSs that contain links to coupons. They can access the online coupons by typing in the keyword you’ve provided in your SMS and can then receive a discount on a product or service that you offer on your site.

To create a sense of urgency, you can send them a link to coupons for a sale that is only happening for a day or two. This may motivate customers to visit your site and see what’s on special. Always aim to make your customers feel that they’re special and important to you by using phrases such as “VIP customers” or “selected customers” in your messages.

Reviews

Another effective way of boosting traffic to your website is by asking customers to review your products, customer service, or business. Since you can only type 160 characters in a message, you can provide a link to a third-party application such as Google Reviews in your SMS, or you can send customers to your website’s review page.

Apart from driving user engagement through reviews, it’s also vital for your business to collect as many online customer reviews as possible. Research shows that customers are increasingly relying on reviews to make informed purchasing decisions. Once you’ve started generating reviews, you want to make this content accessible on your product pages for the convenience of your customers.

Engaging Content

You can also stay in touch with your customers by sending them messages that contain links to new blog posts, articles, or videos that you’ve posted on your website or social media pages. Since your customers are bound to access the content on their phones, you need to ensure that it’s in a mobile-friendly format. Although customers generally prefer videos, infographics, or shorter blog articles, this is especially the case when they’re accessing content on their phones.

You also want to ensure that you provide your customers with engaging content that is relevant to them. You may end up alienating your customers rather than encouraging them to interact with your brand if you send them irrelevant content. For this reason, it may be a good idea to sort your clients into subgroups that share certain commonalities so that you can more easily personalize your messages and provide them with appropriate content.

Adding SMS marketing to your marketing strategy is an effective and cheap way to reach your customers and increase traffic to your site. You can avoid any negative reactions from your clients by asking for their permission before you send them marketing SMSs. Once you have their permission, you can count on SMS marketing to greatly improve your customer relations.

Social Media Statistics: Never Worry About Results Again

It is a fact of the internet that every click, every view, and every sign-up is recorded somewhere. And theoretically, available forever. Depending on your view, this is either very creepy or fantastically interesting. As I can be a data nerd at times, I fall firmly in the second camp. Watch and learn from these social media statistics.

With a little effort, you can discover all sorts of interesting stats about most anything. We spend time keeping up with social media sites and users, so we’ve collated the best of them in this bumper facts list.

Social media use isn’t quite universal—but it’s getting close. Seventy percent of the U.S. population now has at least one social networking profile; more than half use two or more social networks. The number of worldwide social media users is projected to grow from 2.1 billion last year to 2.5 billion by 2018.

For the curious, these represent a series of numbers that boggle the mind, users counted in tens and hundreds of millions, and time in millions and billions of hours.

For marketers, knowing the statistics behind the social networks can help define strategy, allowing focused targeting of users.

Related post: Facebook Stories … Have You Heard These Remarkable Ones?

Take a look at these statistics to gather insights on the current state of social media marketing, and keep them in mind as you create your social media plan this year!

social media statistics — Social media statistics.

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 6 minutes spent online, and one in every five minutes spent on mobile. (ComScore, 2015)

Considering that there are over 1 billion active websites online right now, owning 16.6% of the total timeshare is huge.

There are 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally with 1 million new active mobile social users added every day. (We Are Social, 2015)

Your mobile social media campaigns need to be optimized, and since mobile ads are relatively cheap and easy to produce, you can afford to do a little A/B testing to see what resonates with your audience.

Social media statistics … Facebook continues to be the most widely used social media platform, with 79% of American internet users. (Pew Research, 2016)

Based on total population, (not just internet users) 68% of U.S. adults (there’s a good chance your customers are included here) use it.

Here are some more stats about paid ads:

Instagram saw $595 million in mobile ad revenue in 2016. (WordStream, 2017)

That number is only going to increase this year.

Facebook ad revenue increased by 59% year over year in Q3 2016. (Seeking Alpha, 2016)

That’s almost 7 billion generated from ad sales. So, yes, it’s time to start advertising on Facebook.

More than 3 million businesses are advertising on Facebook. (Facebook, 2017)

Appeal to your audiences pain points with paid ads, and harness Facebooks enormous reach.

Posts on Linkedin that contain images have a 98% better comment rate (LinkedIn), and posts with links have a 200% higher engagement rate.

If you’re using LinkedIn as a part of your strategy (which you should be), listen up.

Facebook posts that pose questions generate 100% more comments. (HubSpot)

If it’s engagement you’re going for, try surveying your followers a little.

80% of marketers indicated that their social media efforts increased traffic. (HubSpot, 2014)

Your persona is already on social media, waiting for great content to show up on their timeline — all you have to do is provide it for them.

Visual content is more than 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (HubSpot, 2017)

Check out this post for more about aligning visuals to leverage your content.

Facebook by far is the most important platform for marketers, with 62% of selecting Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 16%. (Social Media Examiner, 2017)

Facebook continues to hold the top spot as the biggest social media platform, but you’ll see that several other statistics suggest this might not be the case for long.

social media statistics worldwide — Social media statistics worldwide.

Most marketers aren’t sure their Facebook marketing is effective: 40% of marketers don’t know if it is working, and 53% have seen declines in their news feed exposure. (Social Media Examiner, 2017)

Facebook’s pay to play approach has led a lot of marketers to look elsewhere. Combine that with the next statistic, and you’ll understand why most marketers aren’t sure how well Facebook marketing is working out for them.

A surprising 93% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads and 64% plan on increasing their Facebook ads activities. (Social Media Examiner, 2017)

Despite the drop-off of unpaid marketers using Facebook, many have given in to the pay to play approach, seeing a lot of success with paid ads.

Social media statistics … At least 91% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media. (Social Media Examiner, 2017)

Creating your buyer personas early on in your marketing campaign can help you identify how to engage with your social media following.

46% of web users look towards social media when making a purchase. (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

Social media is a great source for seeing real-time feedback from the customers of a business that you are considering purchasing from. This is why it’s important to have a dedicated social media team that can engage with fans and handle customer services problems quickly and professionally.

Most top brands are on Facebook (99%), followed by Twitter (97%), Google+ (70%), Pinterest (69%), and Instagram (59%). (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

While you might want your brand to be where the top brands are, this also shows that there are opportunities to reach your persona on social platforms where the top brands aren’t there to compete.

B2B marketers invest in social media to increase brand exposure (83%), increase web traffic (69%), and gain marketing insights (65%). (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

Social media is great for increasing brand awareness and generating leads, but you can also use insights from social media to create dynamite buyer personas.

70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook. (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

If your brand is targeting consumers, the odds are in your favor that you will find customers on social media.

The most common type of content posted by brands on Facebook is photos (75%), followed by links (10%), statuses (6%), albums (4%), video (4%), and other (1%). (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

Do you want to create eye-catching photos for your social media campaigns? Use the HubSpot photo editor to spice up your photos, or you can use a free tool such as Canva.

The top 5 reasons why people follow brands on social media are; promotions and discounts, latest products information, customer service, entertaining content, and ability to offer feedback. (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

There should obviously be a balance between self-promotion and discussion with your social media posts, but the top reason people follow your brand is to stay updated on what you’re offering — don’t be afraid to show them.

social media user statistics — Social media user statistics.

The average Twitter user follows 5 or more brands. (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

In the early days of social media, people were hesitant to mix brands and personal relationships on their timeline. However, Twitter users have always been more loyal to brands than Facebook users.

83.8% of luxury brands have a presence on Pinterest. (Marketing Tech Blog, 2014)

Pinterest users love to create boards dedicated to dream homes, dream vacations, and anything else that wish they had — such as luxury items.

Snapchat’s Daily Video Views Have Increased 400% year over year. (Bloomberg, 2016)

This presents one of the biggest opportunities to stand out, as Snapchat ads are viewed 1 million times a day, and its video views are now bigger than Facebook’s.

eBay is the most engaging brand on Twitter. (Dotrising, 2015)

If you’re going to study a brand to see what works for social engagement — learn from the best.

50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn when making purchase decisions. (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn has always been the place for connecting professionals, so why not leverage your brand too? Chances are your prospects on LinkedIn are even more qualified.

There were over 4.4 million videos uploaded directly to Facebook in February 2016, generating over 199 billion views. (ReelSEO, 2017)

Video marketing is a powerful tool that personalizes your brand and increases conversions. And with the advent of Live Video, that trend is only going to continue.

A significant 61% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope. (Social Media Examiner, 2017)

And 69% want to learn more about live video.

Top brands on Instagram see a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter. (Hootsuite, 2016)

Instagram has become a powerful platform for marketers, and its potential cannot be overlooked any longer.

In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 percent of consumers’ online and offline purchases, up from 36 percent in 2014. (The Drum, 2015)

This shows the importance for retailers to manage the social media channels which will have the biggest direct impact on purchase behavior.

95% of online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking. (MarketingSherpa, 2015)

Where does your audience lie? Think about your personas and see where they are most likely to follow your brand.

71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand is likely to recommend it to others. (Ambassador)

We are in an era where the user experience is king, so use your social media as a customer service tool to increase brand engagement and win new customers. These next few stats will prove it…

30% of millennials engage with a brand on social at least once a month. (SproutSocial, 2017)

If this is who you’re targeting, regular updates that pop up in your customer’s news feeds can go a long way.

89% of social media messages to brands go ignored. (SproutSocial, 2016)

This is a BIG no-no. People are looking to connect with brands before, after, and during their purchase. Create brand loyalty by engaging back with your audience. You want them to interact with you and your brand, so it’s only fair.

There is a total of 1.3 billion Twitter accounts, but only 320 million are active. (Business Insider, 2015)

While we don’t want to say Twitter might be on the downslope, especially with them rolling out a new ad program, Twitter’s market share is teetering. Reddit has occasionally passed Twitter as the number 3 social networking site in the top 10 platforms based on market share. We will let you draw your own conclusions.

YouTube (and even just YouTube mobile) reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. (YouTube, 2017)

Video content has gone from nice-to-have to MUST have.

68 percent of Instagram users engage with brands regularly, and Instagram has 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook. (SelfStartr, 2016).

The Instagram trend isn’t going anywhere as other industries (besides retail) start using Instagram as a part of their social media marketing. Oh, and the most Instagrammed food, in case you were wondering, is pizza.

More to learn: Best Facebook Ads … 8 Secret Design Factors for Successful Marketing

The bottom line

We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.

There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement in social media marketing, independent of how well the business is doing. It seems we all are looking to take our success to a new level. This is an excellent time to make a statement with their marketing. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

More reading from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Instagram Stats … Lots to Learn From Current Data

Best Facebook Ads … 8 Secret Design Factors for Successful Marketing

Social Media Platforms … The Magic Every Content Marketer Needs

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.

What is SEO and How Can It Help You Reach More Customers

The Internet is a wonderful world full of potential, as it allows anyone to create and consult a multitude of content on any topic. The truth is that search engines are our best friends in daily routines and living without them is something that no longer belongs to our imagination. We shall define what is SEO and its benefits.

Whether to answer a quick question or simply to consult recipes, they are always there. In this way, SEO is something fundamental to learn, as it will bring greater visibility to your business, and consequently more customers.

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, that is, optimization of search engines, and refers to the practice of optimizing a web page through various techniques, allowing it to achieve the best results possible! So, it’s the system that chooses which sites appear first on the search engine results pages.

Do you want to know more about these techniques and how to use them in your favor? You’re in the right place!

Link Building Campaigns

When you are creating content related to your business, it is very interesting and appealing to use authority links to bring more relevance and attention to your post. What are these links? These are links that send readers and consumers more information about a certain topic or word, preferably among the best search engine results! The truth is that it is essential to work towards making your content an authoritative link, highly shared by other pages and creators.

As it is not something that happens immediately and involves several strategies, one that you can use related to this information is link building campaigns.

What is this? Just one of the most effective SEO activities, which consists of acquiring backlinks (links pointing to your website from others) – a lot of times you’ll have to buy backlinks. A hyperlink (usually just called a link) is a way for users to navigate between pages on the Internet. Search engines use links to crawl the web.

They will crawl the links between the individual pages on your website, and they will crawl the links between the entire website. Combining this strategy with quality content, visibility is almost certain to make significant progress!

Keywords: Trusted Allies

One of the main ways to position your page at the top is to know how to work intelligently with keywords. When someone searches for the keywords you conveniently used in your article, the page will appear at the top of Google results. To strengthen SEO, you must integrate them in the text in a fluid way, without seeming to be a mere obligation.

Therefore, it is intended that the text is always coherent and cohesive, allowing for pleasant reading. As a content creator, you can also choose to use different variations of words, to increase the spectrum of searches which also increases page views.

Regardless of the quality of your article (which must always be complied with), without a good placement and choice of these words, the positioning will never go up! Focus on putting them always present in the title and introduction, and investigate which words are most appropriate and searched by your target audience! Research work is essential to achieve a successful campaign!

Content Presentation and Connection to The Public

You must make your page appealing to increase the number of views and shares!

One of the best strategies for doing this will have to do with writing the titles. You can choose a set of formulas for the headings for your posts, which according to experts, work best on SEO Google. For example, titles that contain numbers or are presented in the form of a question, show that they are some of the formats that achieve the best results in terms of views.

On the other hand, the better you know your target audience and the community you want to reach, the better you can tailor your content, allowing for more sharing and greater engagement between your audience and your product. Don’t forget to make a difference! If clicking on a page does not arouse interest, the shares and interactions will decrease, damaging your business.

So, never forget – in order to make a good campaign, research all your variables thoroughly. Analyze everything you can use to your advantage and define different strategies and ways to create your content.

The more creative and flashier you are, the more sharing you will get! Above all, ensure that your target audience feels welcomed by your business and your page.

Never Forget…

All successful pages have already appeared in the latest results! Gradually, your content will also reach the podium. Good luck and much success!

Buy Instagram Views to Showcase Graphic Design Skills

Instagram is right now the most popular social media platform in the world. It has come up as the most famous and valuable photo and visual content-sharing site. Instagram provides every user with many opportunities to engage with collaborators, influencers, brands, and other profiles to build their career. You must buy Instagram views.

Keep in mind that Instagram is available across all platforms and gadgets, which means it provides you with the ultimate foundation to build followers, new friends, and even among your family members. Creating a truly unique profile will get you the necessary traction and popularity to showcase your graphic design skills.

In the following post, we have gone over a few details and hidden tricks about building the perfect Instagram platform to grow your graphic design career.

Direct messages

Direct messages or DMs make the Instagram experience more enjoyable. This feature is the best when it comes to one-on-one conversations. All you have to do is leave a direct message at the profile you want to connect with, and the person handling the profile will be able to read, reply accordingly.

However, that is not all; with the direct messaging feature, you can now send letters, pictures, videos, links, sites, and pages along with locations to other users on the platform. You can also get involved in group video calling to share information.

Use Instagram stories

The story feature is another helpful feature provided by Instagram that allows you to use pictures, screenshots, messages, and anything you want to share. Keep in mind that each story remains visible on your profile for a limited period of 24 hours.

The story is the best option for graphic designers as you do not have to remove the post if you are worried about plagiarism.

IGTV

IGTV or Instagram Television provides tough competition to all other spaces on the internet regarding video content. If you have a verified account (the one with the blue tick), you can shoot a longer video than average users. Using the IGTV feature is extremely easy, from videotaping to posting.

Instagram questions

Followers may hesitate to text you privately, which might lead to a communication gap. Keep in mind that Instagram knows that DMs might go unnoticed, which is why there is the question feature. Activate the feature and when the questions come pouring in, repost the answer in a story as a response.

How to use Instagram for graphic designers

Instagram is a vast platform, and it allows you to demonstrate your graphic artwork in multiple ways. It is profitable not only for interaction with potential followers but also share thoughts and ideas.

Additional features to use

Now that you understand that sticking out of the crowd is the ultimate goal, you need to employ all the means necessary to get it done. Keep in mind that graphic designing is a very competitive field and chances are there will be several competitors in and around your area.

Remember that it is a great idea to consistently showcase your authentic self and maintain the air of authenticity all through your profile.

Also, keep in mind that it is impossible to achieve gains every day, so keep your expectations within limits. If you are looking for overall interactivity, you can share posts from your daily life to keep your followers interested.

Carousel feature

You can use the carousel feature to post more than one photo in a single post. The carousel allows you to post around ten pictures or videos in a slide feature. Also, it is vital to understand that there is a timing factor associated with Instagram posts.

During the weekdays, the best time to post is from 12-2 pm, and if you are looking to target the late hours, then the golden period is after 9.

You can also target the weekends because it is the time of the week when most Instagram users are at home. Always keep tabs on your profile when it comes to analytics, insights, and general happenings.

When it comes to building the perfect Instagram profile, remember that you need to put in the required hours, dedication, and 100% of your effort. Graphic designing is a fashionable profession but is laced with stiff competition and difficulties. Instagram is a massive platform with millions of users all around the world. It makes sense to put in your best efforts to stand out.

Remember that an invisible profile is okay if you are a private person. But if you are looking to make it big in your profession, then you need to showcase your skills and talents on the platform.

Upload constantly, use Instagram analytics, buy Instagram views and take care of your followers. The more you upload, the more you grow. Grab all the eyeballs today.

Social media ads can earn you the biggest returns

Best Facebook ads … focus on Facebook relevance score

Secret Facebook ad design factors … reverse psychology

Create multiple versions of the headlines or ads

Best Facebook video ads … the “Learn More” button

Pay attention to mobile traffic

Promote a deal

The custom landing page

The bottom line

The key is to be part of people’s lives. People will always prefer to do business with friends.

– Marty Kohr

Nonversation? Heard that term before? In context with a social commerce business? Hope not. Simple definition: the opposite of a productive conversation.

Many nonversations transpire at elevators, bus stops, and the like. They also occur during business situations, in which participants do not really listen meaningfully to one another. Not what you want for a world-class social commerce business.

We define social commerce business as the use of social engagement to personalize and energize the shopping experience. It provides a social context to shopping and is both a channel and a way of doing business.

So how do we propose to build a world-class social commerce business? Here are 10 ways we recommend to our clients:

It starts with great employees

Employees are your service. Hire for their friendly, caring attitude and train for skills and knowledge. Empower them to be customer advocates.

Make social the centerpiece

Share all great service stories

As soon as possible with all of your team. Celebrate the smallest of successes.

Show common courtesy

All the time. This leads to customer respect, which leads to conversation and the building of relationships and mutual trust.

Care for customers

Assume you are the company owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees, and then follow their lead.

Analyze when things go right.

When a company receives a complaint people usually have discussions to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. Next time you receive a letter of praise, meet to find out what went right and how it can be repeated.

All the time

Amazing companies don’t always deliver “Wow!” type experiences, they are just better than average – all of the time. All of the time is the secret sauce.

Attention to details

Customer experience

Create a customer service culture

It starts by practicing what we call, “The Employee Golden Rule”: Treat your employees the way you want the customer treated – maybe even better.

Now it’s up to you. Choose one customer service strategy to start with. Have a meeting around it. Discuss how to implement it. Then, do it and repeat the process, creating something good for your customers to talk about! Soon you will have a much stronger social commerce business.

The bottom line

This is your time to create and take action on customer engagement insights from successful influencers. With good continuity and persistence, relevant insights will be helpful in developing lasting relationships with your customers.

Lead with initiative and own the moment. Dive in today and notice how much your business improvements grow.

Remember this simple fact. Stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. Let your content marketing success be your difference-maker.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More reading on customer engagement from our library:

This is true even if you hire an expert SEO firm instead of working on the site yourself. While you can expedite the process with on-page SEO, there’s no ‘magic button’ that will make your website show up in search results overnight.”

Search engine friendly

This is true even if you hire an expert SEO firm instead of working on the site yourself. While you can expedite the process with on-page SEO, there’s no ‘magic button’ that will make your website show up in search results overnight.

Choosing your keywords

You want to make a list of keywords, maybe 10 or so for each page and then you can use free tools such as Google AdWords, it will help to generate new word and phrase ideas for you helping you to reach more customers based upon what they search using the search engine.

Title of your page

Search engines will make use of your title page so it is important that a lot of thought and consideration is put into what title you use and how that will be relevant to what people are going to be searching for.

The title should be unique, but also include relevance to your products as well as what the customers might be looking for, it can be tricky so employing the help of a specialist often comes in handy. Click here for ways that a small business can be more competitive.

The page description

You will have noticed that when you use a search engine not only will a link to a website be displayed but you will also see a description of what you are likely to see if you click on the web link.

This is your chance to really engage your audience and captivate them so much that they cannot help but to click on your web link and go to your page.

Constant monitoring

SEO is constantly evolving as people use the Internet, so it is vital that your content is monitored in the same way, alterations or changes will need to be made to your website to keep it current and attractive to potential customers. Good examples can be found in Digital Spark Marketing.

The bottom line

SEO is a complex field and the best way to move forward is to seek out a leading SEO agency, as they have the know-how and resources to put your business firmly on the map.

In my quest to find alternatives to the most sophisticated computer apps, I’ve come across a lot of free tools that help take my marketing up a notch. They also save my team’s budget.

I love to share my research, and I wanted to share these tools with you. There will be some occasions where you won’t be able to avoid paying for some tools you need to rock your job.

However, lots of times you can increase the quality of your visual content with just a free resource.

But you have to know the free tool is out there in the first place. So without any further ado, let’s get to the meat of the post. That is the most important free tools you can use to create winning visual content.

PowerPoint Templates

Some may believe that designing in PowerPoint isn’t professional. I am not one of them.

I like to think of it as a visual content testing ground for people who don’t have the budget or time to work with Photoshop.

That way, you don’t have to drop a lot of money for a complex program, only to not get your money’s worth.

Pictaculous

One of the most important elements of design is your color palette. Here you want to make sure your images, graphics, and font colors all help convey your message.

Maybe even drive conversions.

But often, it’s hard to find that exact shade of blue that’s in a photograph you need to use. That is where Pictaculous comes in.

Upload a photo and then instantly get recommendations for colors to use, including their respective HEX codes. Your color palettes will never be uncoordinated again!

Taking screenshots can be annoying if you don’t have the right tool up your sleeve. Often, you can only capture what is visible on your screen. That makes screenshots of long web pages especially grueling.

Or, you have to use 20 different programs to crop, edit, and annotate screenshots.

Well, with Awesome Screenshot, a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome, you can easily screenshot anything on the web and edit it directly within your browser.

This extension has become a staple of my browser — I can’t go back to regular old screenshots anymore.

PlaceIt

Even if you have the tool to create a gorgeous screenshot, that’s not always the most professional way to display web page content.