What is Branding in Marketing?

Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or services in the customer’s mind by combining such elements as logo, design, mission statement, and a consistent theme throughout all marketing communications. Effective branding helps companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a loyal customer base.


This means that customers expect that your tone of voice is the same over email, your website, customer service, and every other touchpoint in your business. If you rebrand, you need to change your logo, and styling everywhere both online and offline. Make sure you create a consistent brand so that your customers revel in your omni-channel presence. 

Branding in-store can be very different to online branding as in store you have to worry about positioning of products and props that can effect how a customer experiences your brand. Branding in-store is more experiential as people can walk around and pick things up, whereas customers online are experiencing a two-dimensional scene. Of course, certain elements of branding are consistent both online and in-store. These include consistent imagery and logos.

Why is Branding Important?

A unique brand can have a huge impact on your bottom line by giving you a competitive advantage over your rivals and helping you acquire and retain customers at a much lower cost. In eCommerce, where new companies (and therefore, new competitors) are springing up every day, an established brand can be an invaluable asset in bringing customers and generating profit. 

Regardless of whether you’re investing time and effort into crafting a compelling brand or paying no attention to it whatsoever, your business still has a brand. However, it may be completely different to how you intended to be seen.
By carefully constructing your brand through stories, relationships, marketing messages and visual assets, you have the opportunity of shaping your customers’ expectations and creating a unique bond that goes beyond the buying-selling relationship.

Good branding is strategic, while marketing is tactical. When you establish the higher objectives and clearly define your brand promise, you can start crafting a marketing plan that’s geared towards achieving those goals.

The Importance of Branding in eCommerce.

Branding is a complex process that requires careful planning and calculated approach. Ideally, you should have your branding strategy worked out before you launch your online store to avoid working backwards to try to aligned your store with customer expectations. A strong brand is easy to relate to and draws on values that resonate well with the target audience. For an eCommerce shop, a strong brand can also be a safety net protecting a business from having to compete on price.

So how do you go about building a brand for an online shop? Here are the key steps in eCommerce branding:

• Understand your customers. To communicate effectively, you have to identify the elements that influence your target customers and focus on leveraging them. What do they like? What motivates and attracts them? What do they like about your brand?
• Define your brand persona. A brand persona is the personality of your business in which you will deliver customer experiences. It will be strongly influenced by the insights you manage to gather about your target customers. What tone of voice will suit this audience? What type of language will have the greatest effect? What images will attract their attention.

• Crystalize your brand promise. What is the ultimate promise you’re making to your customers? How will your products/services make their life better? How are you going to deliver this promise. 66% of consumers think transparency is one of a brand’s most attractive qualities.

• Perfect your visual assets. Online shoppers don’t have the luxury of touching and feeling the products they buy, so the visual experience is extremely important. A brand’s visual assets are all the front facing elements, such as the website design, fonts and typography, color palette, logo and ad designs as well as the packaging and unboxing experience you create. It’s a powerful branding tool that reaches its peak when all the different moving parts are consistent and work harmoniously. Research shows that having a memorable signature color will increase the chance of customers recognizing your brand by 80%.
• Refine customer experience. Although you have little control over how your customers will ultimately feel about your brand, you should do your best to make sure every interaction and touch point you have with your customers is aligned with your brand promise and follows your brand guidelines
• 69% of consumers say that the most important thing brands can do to improve their experience is “knowing them”. This will encompass everything from your return policies to shipping arrangements to email marketing communications and more.

​
​Something as simple as saying thank you to your loyal customers can go a long way in strengthening your brand image. It’s a surefire way to build long-term relationships with your customers and your brand.​

We all know the importance of a high ranking when it comes to internet searches, but the components of those rankings can often be overlooked. Many web creators throw around a lot of SEO buzzwords and talk about boosting rankings, but how often do they get into specifics? Here at Swift Digital Marketing Agency, we dig deep. We know what it takes to achieve and maintain a great ranking, and we use this knowledge to give our clients rock star results!

Importance of Page Speed

Page speed is just one example of a ranking component that we've mastered. Google actually dings pages that load too slowly, causing them to drop in rank, even if they are excellent by every other metric. Additionally, your visitors will find interaction with a sluggish interface frustrating to deal with. This will, in turn, harm your engagement metrics causing your ranking to decrease even more... (see where we're going with this?).

Don't let something as straightforward as page speed cause your rankings to drop. No one wants to see a spike in abandonment rates for any reason, especially something that is so easy to fix! Let us help you measure and increase your loading times, and make your site more attractive to search engines and prospective customers.

You can count on Swift Team as your SEO partner. We use clean code and techniques that greatly increase page speed, giving your rankings and UX a boost. Work with us and see your page speeds, rankings, and engagement metrics outshine the competition month after month!

Submit this Form to get a call from us or call Swift Digital Marketing Agency at (216)339-6041

High-quality web design is essential to the success of any business’s website. Your visitors can perceive trust, authority, security and more just from the look and feel of your website. If it is slow to load, complex to navigate, or hard to read, you may lose valuable visitors and potential customers.

Today’s consumers don’t waste time on poor quality websites. There is so much information, and so many websites popping up every day – if your website isn’t up to scratch, your visitors are just a few clicks away from other competitors.

Web design have the considerable task of combining beautiful designs, with functionality and authority, while helping site visitors easily find the information that they need.

So how can this be done? And what separates a poor website from a winning one?
At Swift Digital Marketing Agency, It begins with nailing the most fundamental aspects of website design – but these aspects are often the ones that are botched the most.

The Most Important Elements of Web Design are:
​

1. White Space
2. Colour Scheme
3. Unique Typography
4. Content Hierarchy
5. Simple Navigation
6. Mobile-friendly Design
7. User-friendly Experience
8. Engaging Calls-to-Action
9. Stunning Visuals
10. SEO Boosting Elements

​​
In this article, we’ll cover the most important elements of web design that will help you make the most out of your online presence.

1. White Space

​Your design should be simple, clean and accessible. White space, or the area between design elements, gives your site room to breathe and makes elements easier to find for readers.  White space is not always white, it’s just the name for spaces between elements or content.

White space is being used more and more as websites evolve. The use of big spaces and line spacing in the text helps each button and each word stand out better. Space can also be used to increase the feeling of the importance of an item, creating a focal point for the user’s attention.

In general, similar elements should have consistency in spacing. Start with elements such as the navigation and move on to develop your content on the page. Using grid-based layouts keeps your designs tidy and maintains balance and consistency across the pages.

2. Colour Schemes

The colour palette on your website will directly influence your visitor’s opinions of your site. When choosing a colour scheme, you should pay attention to your industry and brand, and discern the colours that best represent your business.

For example, while a healthcare company might want to use shades of blue or green to signal health and wellness, a local florist may choose black and white to contrast with the vibrant colours of their products.

Once you’ve chosen a dominant colour, you should consider how your colour palette should look. You could choose an analogous colour palette, with a few colours that are closely related, or complementary [contrasting?] colours, say, for when you want to draw the audience attention to a particular button or piece of content.

3. Unique Typography

When choosing typography for your website, the same considerations of industry and branding should be made as for colour schemes. The font you choose will help communicate your message to your consumers.

You’ll want to strike the right balance between professionalism and freshness. Whether you’re picking between serif or sans serif fonts, find something a little different that can distinguish your site from others.

It should be easily readable, on both desktop and mobile. Generally, this means at least 16 pixels. You can also pick a complementary font to identify headings and accents, but don’t go crazy on sizing adjustments, or you’ll overwhelm the body text.

Finally, you should use a colour scheme that contrasts your text and your background – pair light tones with dark ones, and avoid combining two very bright colours.

4. Content Hierarchy

There’s no denying the importance of a page’s content – it is one of the driving factors of how people reach your site via search engines. Creating high-quality content is of the utmost importance for successful websites, but where you place content on a landing page is equally important for turning your users into conversions.

When deciding on content hierarchy, you’ll want to put the most relevant information to the user’s search at the top. You should immediately establish a connection with the customer, providing a solution to a problem.

Next should be an explanation of your service offering and any unique features that set you apart. Any content around why your business is better than competitors, or how you can offer them something different should be added next.

And finally, you should answer any additional questions they might have about the service, before concluding with a summary.

5. Simple Navigation

Complex site navigation can be frustrating to users, and make finding information too difficult. Simple navigation should be easy to identify, easy to use, intuitive, and shouldn’t overwhelm users with a variety of routes to similar information.

Use simple navigation as the framework for your website build and content. Your navigation should provide users with a few things: knowledge of where they are on the site, knowledge of what else is on the site, a way to go back, and directions elsewhere.

Simple navigation also includes how users scroll. For example, sites with parallax scrolling usually include arrows that make the site more user friendly. The easier it is to navigate a site, the longer people are likely to engage with it.

6. Mobile-friendly Design

Mobile-first. Mobile-first. Mobile-first. Repeat that seven times and never forget it.
In this increasingly mobile world, a site that isn’t mobile-friendly is already falling behind. Mobile traffic has overtaken desktop traffic and shows no signs of slowing.

Your web design should perform equally well on different platforms.

While most WordPress templates are mobile-ready, a custom design will need to be either on a responsive template that will adapt to various screen sizes or will need a mobile-only site that is used when a non-desktop user accesses your site.

7. User-Friendly Experience

While a great user experience isn’t always on your visitor’s radar, bad usability on a site is immediately recognisable. Your website should be beautifully designed, and easily usable.

User experience (UX) design is less about the visual design and more about how the site is used. UX design is about optimising the interaction between your users and your website, whether this is through animation, navigation, easy-to-digest content, or responsiveness.

You’ll want to leave your user with a pleasant taste of your brand after their interaction. With so many options on the web, this is more important than ever. After all, one bad experience could cause users not to return.


8. Engaging Calls-to-Action
​
Getting a customer to take action on your site is the main role of most websites, whether the action is to purchase a product, get information, or provide contact info. To ensure this, calls to action should be placed throughout the page, and they should be obvious.
The landing page design should lead users to that action. Using techniques such as contrasting colours, spacing, and the content will guide your users to the right action. The calls-to-action themselves should be highly engaging, and say exactly what you want them to do, whether that be “Buy Now”, “Contact Us” or “Sign Up Free”.

If you have a variety of actions that you’d like to target, consider the most important one that a customer could take, and use that CTA the most prominently.

9. Stunning Visuals

​Customers love to see visual cues. They’re more engaging and will help draw your users’ attention. Whether you use high-quality images or illustrations, the visuals you use should give your users a feel of your product and style.

Visuals can also be used to draw attention to a particular area of the page, and help visitors focus on what you want them to, without them even realising it. A visually striking banner will immediately draw attention, while custom images throughout the page can help users more easily find the information they’re looking for.

P.S. Bespoke images are important, and beware of using too many stock photos, or else your site could lose its authenticity.

10. SEO-boosting Elements

Search engine optimisation should be considered from the beginning of web design, as a lot of the goals go work in tandem. Search engines consider many aspects of user experience as ranking factors.

Elements such as website speeds, site navigation, mobile-friendliness, and easily scannable text all contribute to how users interact with your site. If your site isn’t providing a satisfactory experience, this usually leads to high bounce rates and low dwell times, which are signals to Google of bad user experience, and in turn, results in lost rankings.

It’s crucial to any website’s performance to consider how design elements will affect SEO, as the two have a great influence on each other.

If you’re looking for a team of experienced web designers to improve your website, find out more about our web design and web development services. Or if you just want to have a chat about web design, get in touch.

Social media is a powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach prospects and customers. People discover, learn about, follow, and shop from brands on social media, so if you’re not on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you’re missing out! Great marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to your business, creating devoted brand advocates and even driving leads and sales.

• What social media marketing is, with benefits, stats, and tips.
• How to build a social media marketing strategy and a plan to carry it out.
• The seven best social media marketing platforms and how to use them

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that leverages the power of popular social media networks to achieve your marketing and branding goals. But it’s not just about creating business accounts and posting when you feel like it. Social media marketing requires an evolving strategy with measurable goals and includes:

• Maintaining and optimizing your profiles.
• Posting pictures, videos, stories, and live videos that represent your brand and attract a relevant audience.
• Responding to comments, shares, and likes and monitoring your reputation.
• Following and engaging with followers, customers, and influencers to build a community around your brand.

​
Social media marketing also includes paid social media advertising, where you can pay to have your business appear in front of large volumes of highly targeted users.

Benefits of social media marketing.

With such widespread usage and versatility, social media is one of the most effective free channels for marketing your business today. Here are some of the specific benefits of social media marketing:
​

• Humanize your business: Social media enables you to turn your business into an active participant in your market. Your profile, posts, and interactions with users form an approachable persona that your audience can familiarize and connect with, and come to trust.
• Drive traffic: Between the link in your profile, blog post links in your posts, and your ads, social media is a top channel for increasing traffic to your website where you can convert visitors into customers.
• Generate leads and customers: You can also generate leads and conversions directly on these platforms, through features like Instagram/Facebook shops, direct messaging, call to action buttons on profiles, and appointment booking capabilities.
• Increase brand awareness: The visual nature of social media platforms allows you to build your visual identity across vast audiences and improve brand awareness. And better brand awareness means better results with all your other campaigns.
• Build relationships: These platforms open up both direct and indirect lines of communication with your followers through which you can network, gather feedback, hold discussions, and connect directly with individuals.

The bigger and more engaged your audience is on social media networks, the easier it will be for you to achieve your marketing goals.

Call Swift Digital Marketing Today! (216)339-6041

At first sight, website design to a viewer appears to be the visuals seen on a web page. But the fact is that a whole gamut of techniques and skills are involved in creating a web page design to give it the desired results.

So, web design is about deciding on a lot of elements such as the layout, graphics, colors, fonts, structure, content, text styles, interactive features, imagery, interface, standardized code, etc. It involves a wide range of skills and disciplines. Professional website design is the one that maintains an appropriate balance in the different elements and ensures consistency and integrity of the design.

Website design has become inevitable to do business and highlighting its online presence in the modern competitive markets. It contains all the information like details of a company, its products or services, contacts, blogs, and much more. Professional web design has the ability to create a desired corporate identity of a business and delivers its brand message to the target audience.

A creative web page design is a tool also for better conversion rate, by which a company can achieve steady growth in sales and revenue. Moreover, user-friendly online web designs build trust for products or services, which is essential to creating a stable, loyal customer base.

Who needs a professionally designed website?

Website design is an integral part of doing business in this digital age. But who really needs a professionally designed website? Well, all those enterprises who must ensure a dominating online presence and wish to stay ahead of competitors look for outstanding modern website designs.

So, practically every company be its logo design agency, website designing agency, brochure designing company, or any type of company in a hard-fought competitive market looks for a unique website to stand out.

Such a professional website design has brand colors and fonts, relevant images, icons, content, etc. elements that reflect the company's business values and message. A well-thought-out web page design is a requirement to engages visitors with user-friendly features and convert them into potential customers.

Contact Swift Digital Marketing Agency at (216) 339-6041.

In this post, you’re going to learn exactly how to create and implement an effective digital marketing strategy, step-by-step.

So, if you want to learn how to use digital marketing to grow your traffic, this strategy guide is for you.

What is a digital marketing strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan of action that describes how to use one or more online marketing channels to reach your target audience. It has a list of steps and specific digital marketing goals.

Having a digital strategy is important because it will help you orchestrate the different online marketing strategies so that they all work towards achieving your business goals.

Together with his team, they will make sure that every marketing activity is part of your digital marketing plan.

How to create a Digital Marketing Strategy

These are the steps to follow to create an effective marketing strategy.

1. Specify measurable business goals
2. Identify your target audience
3. Understand users needs and search intent
4. Create a content marketing library
5. Start with SEO as early as possible
6. Explore paid advertising channels
7. Use email marketing segmentation and automation
8. Take advantage of new traffic sources
9. Use retargeting and personalization
10. Work on conversion optimization
11. Evaluate and revise your strategy

1. Specify measurable business goals

The first step in creating a digital marketing strategy is to specify your business goals. In other words, to determine what you want to accomplish with digital marketing.

Any goals you set have to be measurable and well-defined. Everything in a digital marketing campaign is measurable (from start to finish) and you need to take advantage of this and form a digital marketing plan that has specific milestones and targets.

Some typical goals are:

• Raise brand awareness
• Increase organic traffic
• Make more sales
• Get more email subscribers
• PPC campaigns
• Get more Facebook followers
• Get more YouTube subscribers

While the above is a good starting point, they are still vague. A better version would be:

Raise brand awareness by:

Increase organic traffic by:
​

• Getting higher rankings for keyword X
• Publishing new content targeting keyword Y
• Updating existing content that meets criteria A and B
• Run an email outreach campaign to get X links

A good way to come up with measurable goals is to use the top-down approach. Start by specifying your goals in business terms and then translate that to digital marketing goals.

Here is an example to understand this better.

A typical step could be, “Publish 3 new blog posts per week”, which needs to be broken down further to specify which/topics keywords the blog posts will target and what would be the expected outcome in terms of traffic increase.

Experienced digital marketing specialists know that this is not always easy to calculate because digital marketing is a dynamic industry and changes all the time. But, having a detailed plan will help you adjust your strategies so as to get closer to your goals as possible.

The bottom line is that you need to have a digital marketing plan to follow and not start running campaigns on different channels without knowing what you want to achieve. It goes without saying that your plan has to be realistic, taking into account the competition and complexities of your industry.

Also, to be able to analyze data and make informed decisions, you first need to track it correctly and accurately so, having a good analytics system in place is more than essential.

2. Identify your target audience

The second step is to identify your target audience. In other words to specify in detail who you want to target with your campaigns.

Some marketers, place this as the first step in the process and this is not wrong. What is certain is that this is an exercise you need to perform in the early stages and before finalizing the next steps of your marketing strategy.

What does identifying your audience means? Specifying in detail the characteristics of people that might be potentially interested in your offerings.

In your audience identification, you should include things like:
​

• The countries/areas your potential customers live in
• Their age group
• Gender
• Educational background
• Marital status
• Family status
• Occupation
• Their interests

Learn as much as you can about your audience

The exact details depend on the industry you’re in and the products/services you are trying to promote.

A good way to start crafting your buyer personas is to analyze the data you already have available.

Digg into your Google Analytics reports, Facebook audience insights, Google Ads reports, and start creating your customer profiles.

3. Understand users needs and search intent

Once you know the profile of your target customer, the next step is to use different techniques and try to understand their needs and how they express this when searching for information using a search engine or a social network.

There are two ways to approach this process. The first method is to take the typical digital sales funnel and identify what your customers might need at each stage.

Digital Sales Funnel

The second method is to take the different customer profiles created above, and come up with a  separate sales funnel for each.

This is my recommended method because it makes it easier to set up and run dedicated digital marketing campaigns for each customer profile.

Let me give you an example to understand this better.

So, by analyzing each buyer persona separately, you can come up with a more accurate plan of how your content, products, or services can help them solve their problems and needs.

Search Intent

In the digital marketing world, the needs of users are expressed through search queries. When a user types a search query in Google, it has a specific intent and if your content/products or services do not satisfy it, your digital marketing strategy will fail.

That’s why it is important to perform keyword research from the very beginning and capture all topics, keywords, and phrases throughout the buyer journey, from awareness to conversion.

Social media networks don’t reveal the ‘searchers’ intent’, what happens then?

It’s true that users browsing Facebook may not have a specific intent in mind but they have a particular profile.

To increase your chances of targeting the right type of audience, you can analyze the profile of your search visitors (using Google Analytics) and using custom audiences to find matching audiences (Lookalike Audiences) on Facebook.

Always use any available data that you have as your starting point for research. The results will be more accurate than using data that is external to your website.

Resources to Learn More About Digital Marketing

• How to learn digital marketing – a step-by-step guide with learning resources to help you understand how digital marketing works.
• Best digital marketing courses – the best online digital marketing courses to follow and become an expert in no time.
• Digital marketing certificates – a list of accredited programs to follow and get certified in digital marketing.

4. Create a content marketing library

The next strategic step you need to make is to create a library of content assets. You know your audience and their needs, now it’s time to create various types of assets to use in your campaigns.

A digital asset can be a blog post, infographic, image, video, podcast, cover image, logo, and anything else you can publish on your website or social networks.

Content Types

In the digital marketing world, this is what content marketing is all about. Content marketing is important because it’s the process used to decide what kind of content to create, when, and where to publish it.

I prefer to execute this step in the beginning and before running any campaigns because it’s more efficient to have a pool of content assets ready in advance rather than having to do this every time you’re about to start a campaign.

When you follow the steps in the order described in this guide (set goals, create customer personas, identify needs, and search intent), then you have all the information you need to work on your content assets.

It’s also easier to assign the content creation part to the different members of your team to work in parallel.

Content Marketing Strategy Plan

5. Start with SEO as early as possible

A strategic decision to make that can positively impact your digital marketing efforts is to start with SEO as early as possible.

SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies but it has a caveat. It takes time to work.

Unlike other digital marketing strategies, when you start an SEO campaign, it may take 4 to 6 months to generate any results. This is a long time to wait so most marketers tend to focus on other digital channels first (like Facebook Ads, Google Ads).

That’s a good approach but the common mistake is that they forget about SEO and only re-visit SEO after they realize that they cannot build a successful digital marketing campaign based solely on paid advertising.

So, a better strategy is to allocate a portion of your marketing budget from the very beginning on SEO related tasks. In parallel, you can start working on your paid campaigns and other channels.

This way, you’ll reach a point sooner where most of your traffic and sales will come from SEO and rely less on paid ads. In business terms, this means an increase in revenue and profit and this is exactly the goal of a successful digital marketing strategy.

How to get started with SEO

SEO is a huge topic. Search engines take hundreds of parameters into account before they decide which webpages to show in the results for a particular query.

To make it easier to handle, SEO can be broken down into three main sub-processes: Technical SEO, On-Page SEO, and Off-Page SEO.

SEO Overview

Each process is responsible to optimize your website for a number of parameters that will eventually lead to higher rankings and traffic.

SEO is important because the majority of search traffic is distributed to websites that appear in the first 5 positions of the search results. So, if you want to get traffic from search engines, you need to appear in the top positions for search terms related to your business.

The best way to get started with SEO is to follow a step-by-step approach:

Step 1: Review your technical SEO and make sure that search engines can access and index your content without any problems. This is important since any issues at this stage will be catastrophic for your efforts.

Step 2: Optimize your content for search engines. In Step 4 above, you will create content that satisfies the needs of the user. Before publishing, you need to make sure that it’s SEO optimized.

This means, giving the right signals to search engines (through your titles, descriptions, headings, etc) to help them understand your content better.

Step 3: Promote your website and content. One of the most important SEO ranking factors is how other websites on the Internet ‘think’ of your website. If other relevant websites trust your website and they express this through a backlink, this is a strong signal to Google that your website deserves to be on the top positions.

If SEO is something that you haven’t done before for your website, the best way to approach this is to add it to your digital strategy and assign this task to SEO experts.

You can also use the resources below to learn more.

6. Explore paid advertising channels

When you start an online business, you know in advance that a large portion of your marketing budget will be allocated on PPC marketing (paid ads).

But, not all PPC platforms are the same. Based on your previous analysis (steps 2 and 3 above), you need to choose which platforms are more suited for your audience.

You can use the table below to get an idea of how the user profile looks for the most popular social networks.

Social Media Platforms Demographics.

For example, if you have an eCommerce website selling directly to consumers (B2C) then Facebook is probably a good choice. If on the other hand, you are targeting Business executives, then LinkedIn is more appropriate.

Run Pilot Campaigns First

The best way to find out which platforms to incorporate in your digital marketing strategy plan is to run pilot campaigns.

A pilot campaign will not waste your budget and at the same time, it will give you enough data to make an informed decision. A common mistake made by digital marketers is to blindly allocate all their budget on one channel because it’s the trend without testing or considering all of the available channels they can use.

Here is a list of the most popular advertising platforms you can use to reach your target audience:

Facebook Ads – ideal for all kinds of businesses. Works better for B2C. The best platform to raise brand awareness.

Instagram Ads – suitable if you want to reach a younger audience.

Twitter Ads – Business oriented. Great for informing your community of updates.
Linked Ads – Strictly for business-related advertising. Use it to reach decision-makers.
Google Ads – The most reliable platform to get targeted traffic to your website through paid search ads.
Google Display Ads – Use it for retargeting purposes and to reach your audience in the various Google products (YouTube, Gmail) and thousands of websites that participate in Google AdSense.
Bing Ads – Not as powerful as Google but a good alternative to get more search traffic to your website.

7. Use email marketing segmentation and automation

The end goal of a digital marketing campaign is to generate more revenue for a business. But in order to get to your ultimate goal, you first need to consider micro-conversions.

Micro-conversions are actions taken by users that are part of the funnel that leads to sales.

For example, while one of my goals is to sell my digital marketing course, an intermediate goal is to get people to subscribe to my email list (micro conversion).

I consider this an important step because I know from my statistics that a large percentage of people that subscribe to my list, will eventually convert.

The same concept can be applied to any business or product. You need to give incentives to users to sign up for your email list and then send them personalized emails that will help them make the final decision, which is to convert by buying your products or services.
An important element to make this work is segmentation and automation.

With email segmentation, you segment your list into groups of people that share the same interests and send them customized content.

For example, people registering to my list to download the SEO Checklist will get different email content than people who register to receive my posts updates.

If email marketing is a new concept for you, then you can realize that it involves a lot of work and that’s where email automation comes into play.

Here is a visual example of how email automation works.

Email Marketing automation example.

With email automation, you can orchestrate the whole process to run without intervention and manual work. Your job is to set up the automation campaigns, monitor their performance, and take corrective actions.

In addition to micro-conversions, email marketing is a great way to raise brand awareness and build a community around your brand. This is something that can positively influence the performance of all your digital marketing campaigns.

Resources to Learn More About Email Marketing

• What is email marketing – An introduction to email marketing for beginners.
• How to grow an email list – Simple techniques you can use to increase your email list fast.

8. Take advantage of new traffic sources

A complete digital marketing strategy should not only take into account the traditional online marketing channels but should also cater to new digital marketing strategies that rise to the surface.

To be more precise, at the time of writing this post, there are a number of new channels that you can explore like:
​

• Google Discover Ads
• Google Shopping Search
• Google Shopping Ads
• Tik-Tok
• Optimizing your content for voice search
• Optimizing your content for Google rich snippets​

These channels are new and most probably less competitive than established channels. This means you can get better results at a lower cost.

Will these help your strategy? The only way to find out is to test them by running pilot campaigns (as explained above).

9. Use retargeting and personalization

So far, all of the above strategies are related to how you can reach more people but it’s equally important to follow up on users that already know your brand, but are not yet customers.

This is known as ‘retargeting’ or ‘remarketing’. With retargeting, you can show specific ads to users that visited your website (or social network page) but did not convert.

How Remarketing Works

It’s a very powerful technique that has higher conversion rates and less CPA (cost per action) than other marketing techniques.

The ‘marketing rule of 7’ (established in the 1930s by marketers), states that prospects are more likely to convert if they see or hear an ad, at least 7 times.

Unsurprisingly, it is a rule that is applicable today, and remarketing is the way to implement this.

The most popular platforms to run remarketing campaigns are Facebook and Google Display Network.

The concept is simple. You connect your website with Facebook and Google by adding a piece of code provided by the platforms.

You then create custom audience lists that include the people who visited your website but did not convert.

You then create campaigns and ads that are shown to these users as they browse Facebook or visit other websites on the Internet.

To make remarketing more effective, you can also add the element of personalization. Instead of treating all visitors as one group, you can add rules to show different ads to people based on the actions they took on your website.

For example, you can create a retargeting campaign for people that added an item to their shopping cart but did not checkout. To give them an incentive to come back and finish the process, you can offer them a discount via coupon code.

As a matter of fact, retargeting should be a strategy to include in your digital marketing plan from the early stages. This way you’ll maximize the return for any money spend on paid ads or SEO.

10. Work on conversion optimization

Another area that needs to be part of your overall marketing strategy is conversion optimization.

I can tell you from experience, that 90% of digital marketing campaigns focus on how to get traffic and forget about conversion optimization.

What is conversion optimization? In simple terms, conversion optimization is the process to follow to optimize your website so that a higher percentage of your visitors will perform the desired actions.

This starts with your website design, content, landing page optimization, email signup forms, shopping cart, checkout process, and other elements that contribute (directly or indirectly) to conversions.

One of the techniques to use is A/B testing. By applying a/b testing principles you can measure the effect on conversions by carefully changing parts of your website or sales funnel.
I’ll not go into the details on how to perform A/B testing or conversion optimization (you can follow the links in the resources below to learn more), but from a strategic point of view, it’s important to add conversion optimization activities in your digital marketing plan.

Here is an example of how a conversion optimization plan looks like:

Conversion Optimization Plan

You can add it as a step to be executed as part of a single campaign or as part of your general strategy review process.

What I advise my team to do is to review conversion optimization after a campaign is considered to be optimized in terms of traffic.

In other words, it’s better to try and optimize your campaign to get as many visits as possible with the lower cost and then start testing different landing pages, messages to see which one performs better in terms of conversions.

As a rule of thumb, when doing A/B testing, you should focus on specific changes so that you can accurately measure their effect on conversions.

Resources to Learn More About Conversion Optimization

• How to improve your landing page conversion rate – Simple principles to follow to increase conversions from your existing traffic.
• A/B testing principles – How to correctly run a/b tests and improve your conversion rate.

11. Evaluate and revise your strategy

Digital marketing is a highly dynamic industry. ‘Rules’ change all the time and it’s extremely important that you evaluate and revise your digital marketing strategy to stay current and relevant.

Digital Marketing

The best way to evaluate your campaign is to do it based on KPIs and other metrics. The most important metrics for any kind of digital marketing campaign are:
​

• Number of website visits
• Cost per visit
• Cost per conversion
• Click-Through Rate
• Number of Conversions
• Number of micro-conversions
• Time on site
• Bounce rate
• Number of social shares
• Number of comments

If you have a good analytics system in place and can track these for every campaign that is part of your strategy, then it will be easier to make informed decisions.

Don’t forget that part of your evaluation should be to look for new channels you can add to your strategy.

It’s always a good idea to take a look at your competitor’s strategies and identify which of their strategies you can include in your marketing mix.

Key Learnings

A digital marketing strategy is a plan that describes in detail how to use various digital marketing channels to grow your business.

To create an effective digital marketing strategy, you start by defining your goals. Then through research, you identify the characteristics and needs of people to target with your campaigns.

Once you have this information, you translate that into content marketing assets, having always in mind the ‘intent’ of the user. Creating the right type of content that can satisfy the user’s needs, it’s a critical success factor.

Then you start with SEO. SEO is the most effective digital marketing channel but it’s not the fastest one. While waiting for your SEO to generate results, you can start testing paid advertising channels by running pilot campaigns.

Once you figure out which channels are more likely to work for the satisfaction of your business goals, you concentrate on those.

Besides generating traffic to your website, you also need to incorporate other strategies for converting traffic to customers such as email marketing, retargeting, and conversion optimization.
​
At regular intervals, you should evaluate and revise your strategy to include new traffic sources and trends.

Call Swift Digital Marketing Agency at (216) 339-604. We can create a successful digital marketing strategy for your company.

Web design is the process of planning, conceptualizing, and arranging content online. Today, designing a website goes beyond aesthetics to include the website’s overall functionality.

​Web design also includes web apps, mobile apps, and user interface design. 

Did you know that web design can have a huge impact on your performance in search engines like Google? This article will give you some helpful insight into how to create a website that not only looks good, but functions properly and ranks highly in search. 

In this article we will cover:
​

• Finding Inspiration
• Choosing a Web Design Tool
• Visual Elements
• Functional Elements
• Types of Web Design: Adaptive vs. Responsive

​
Are you looking to create a website? Get started with Pagecloud! You can publish a one page website at no cost with access to Pagecloud's powerful design features, and unlimited draft pages. 

Finding Inspiration

Designers look for inspiration everywhere. Here are some of the best sites to help get your creative juices flowing: 

• Behance

• Pinterest
• Web design inspiration
• Site Inspire

Check out our blog post for more tips on finding inspiration 

Choosing a Web Design Tool

There are two main ways to design a website: using a desktop app or using a website builder. The tool you decide to use will vary greatly based on your team size, your budget, and the type of site you wish to build and its technical requirements. 

1. Desktop Apps 

Desktop apps require designers to create their design and send it to a development team who can then convert the design to code. The most popular desktop apps for designing websites are Photoshop and Sketch. 

Typically, this is the standard for large and/or complex websites because it allows the designer to focus on the overall look and feel, while all the technical challenges are transferred to the development team. Unfortunately, this process can be expensive and time-consuming because multiple resources, skill sets, and team members are required. 

To avoid involving a developer, it is beneficial to use a website builder to design a website with fewer technical requirements. 

2. Website Builders

There are many website builders on the market today that offer a wide range of features and services. Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, and Pagecloud, are a few examples of popular website builders that vary in design capabilities, template options, price, and overall editing experience. Be sure to do your research, experiment with free trials, and determine which platform best fits your website needs. 

Website builders create either adaptive or responsive websites, which offer different building experiences. These concepts will be discussed in more detail below so you can best understand which builders will work for you.

If you don’t know how to code, becoming familiar with the freedoms and limitations of various website design tools is essential. For example, although Wordpress is the most used website platform, it’s not popular with visual designers because of its limited customization options.  

Before you start building a website, determine your website needs: Are you creating a photo gallery? How often will you update your site? Do you need a contact form? Choose a website builder that can help you effectively accomplish those goals. 

Web Design Elements

When designing a website it’s important to consider both the site’s appearance and functionality. Integrating these elements will maximize the site’s overall usability and performance. Your site’s usability includes elements such as an easy-to-navigate interface, appropriate use of graphics and images, well-written and well-placed text, and a color scheme. Your site’s performance refers to its speed, ranking, searchability, and ability to capture your audience. 

Visual elements

Here’s a quick overview of the elements you should consider while designing your website to make sure everything works well together. Each section will provide tips and tricks to help you get started. 

​
Fundamentally, your website’s appearance and text go hand-in-hand. It’s important to have your content writers and designers work together in order to create a cohesive design with balanced elements. Focus on creating chunks of text (using text blocks) in order to compliment your graphics and images. 

Fonts

Choose a font that compliments your overall design. Font should pair with your color scheme, graphics, images, and strengthen the overall tone of your website. Tools like Canva’s Font Combinator can help you find a perfect match for your font. Web design tools like PageCloud even include numerous font pairings within their app.


Colors

Colors are one of the most important elements to consider when designing a website. Keep in mind there are many misconceptions about the psychology of color, and it’s more important to focus on colors that compliment your overall design and tone of your website. Align your color scheme with your brand and the messages you want to convey to your audience. 

Layout

How you decide to arrange your content will have a dramatic impact on both the usability and functionality of your site. There are no specific rules to follow when choosing a layout, however, there are a few main principles to keep in mind. Make sure to consider the needs of your target audience and avoid using an overstimulating layout that might detract from the messages you want to convey. 


Shapes

The use of graphic elements in web design can help seamlessly integrate text and images, and help with the site’s overall appearance. Combining beautiful colors and shapes can help direct the attention of your sites visitors and contribute to your site’s overall flow. 

Spacing

Spacing is a key element to creating visually pleasing and easy to navigate websites. Every element in your design will incorporate spacing in one way or another. Appropriate use of whitespace is crucial in creating a design that perfectly balances text, photos, and graphics. Keeping your spacing consistent can help your users navigate your website with ease. The concept of whitespace is definitely a priority of modern web designers. 

Images & Icons

Amazing designs can communicate a lot of information in just a few seconds. This is made possible with the use of powerful images and icons. Choose images and icons that support and strengthen your message. A quick Google search for stock images and icons will generate thousands of options. To help simplify your search, here are a few favourites: 

Free images and icons

• Pexels
• Unsplash
• IconMonstr​

Premium images and icons

• Shutterstock (Getty)

Videos

Integrating videos into web design is becoming increasingly popular amongst designers. When used properly, videos can help your users experience or understand a message that can’t be properly conveyed through text or image.

Keep in mind that like having a TV screen on in a restaurant, visitors’ eyes will be drawn to moving images. Make sure your videos don’t compete with or detract from other important elements. 

Functional elements

These functional elements are imperative to consider when designing your website. A website that functions properly is crucial for ranking highly on search engines, and giving your users the best possible experience. 

Navigation

Your website’s navigation is one of the main elements that determines whether your website is functioning properly. Depending on your audience, your navigation can serve multiple purposes: helping first time visitors discover what your site has to offer, giving easy access to your pages for returning visitors, and improving every visitor's overall experience.

Check out these best practices for more tips on navigation. 

User Interactions 

Your site visitors have multiple ways of interacting with your site depending on their device (scrolling, clicking, typing, etc.). The best website designs simplify these interactions to give the user the sense that they are in control. Here are a few examples: 
​

• Never auto-play audio or videos
  Never underline text unless its clickable 
• Make sure all forms are mobile-friendly

Animations

There are tons of web animation techniques that can help your design grab visitor’s attention, and allow your visitors to interact with your site by giving feedback. For example, adding “like” buttons or forms can keep your site’s visitors engaged. If you’re new to web design, we’d recommend keeping your animations simple to avoid developer intervention. 

Speed

No one likes a slow website. Having to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load can quickly deter a visitor from remaining on or returning to your site. Regardless of how beautiful, if your site doesn’t load quickly, it will not perform well in search (i.e. won’t rank high on Google). 

Top site builders typically compress your content for faster load times, however, there are no guarantees. Make sure to research which site builders will work best for the content you will have on your site. For example, PageCloud optimizes your images to ensure fast loading times for sites with large and/or multiple photos. 

Google’s Page Speed Test

Site structure

A website’s structure plays an important role in both user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO). Your users should be able to easily navigate through your website without encountering any structural issues. If users are getting lost while attempting to navigate through your site, chances are “crawlers” are too. A crawler (or bot) is an automated program that searches through your website and can determine its functionality. Poor navigation can lead to a poor user experience and site ranking. 

Cross-browser & cross-device compatibility
​
A great design should look polished on all devices and browsers (yes, even Internet Explorer). If you’re building your site from scratch, we’d recommend using a cross-browser testing tool to make this tedious process faster and more efficient.

On the other hand, if you’re using a website building platform, the cross-browser testing is typically taken care of by the company’s development team allowing you to focus on design. 

Types of Website Design: Adaptive vs. Responsive

​Understanding the pros and cons of adaptive and responsive websites will help you determine which website builder will work best for your website design needs. 

You might come across articles online that talk about a whole bunch of different website design styles (fixed, static, fluid, etc.). However, in today’s mobile-centric world, there are only two website styles to use to properly design a website: adaptive and responsive. 

Adaptive websitesAdaptive web design uses two or more versions of a website that are customized for specific screen sizes. Adaptive websites can be split into two main categories based upon how the site detects what size needs to be displayed:

1. Adapts based on device type 

When your browser connects to a website, the HTTP request will include a field called “user-agent” that will inform the server about the type of device attempting to view the page.

The adaptive website will know what version of the site to display based on what device is trying to reach it (i.e. desktop, mobile, tablet). Issues will arise if you shrink the browser window on a desktop because the page will continue to display the “desktop version” rather than shrinking to the new size. 

2. Adapts based on browser width 

Instead of using the “user-agent”, the website uses media queries (a CSS feature that enables a webpage to adapt to different screen sizes) and breakpoints (certain width sizes) to switch between versions. So instead of having a desktop, tablet, and mobile version, you will have 1080px, 768px, and 480px width versions. This offers more flexibility when designing, and a better viewing experience as your website will adapt based on screen width.

Pros 

• WYSIWYG editing (what you see is what you get) 
• Custom designs are faster and easier to build without code 
• Cross-browser and cross-device compatibility 
• Fast-loading pages ​

Cons 

• Websites that use “device-type” can look broken when viewed in a smaller browser window on a desktop
• Limitations on certain effects that only responsive sites can accomplish

Responsive Websites

Responsive websites can use flexible grid layouts that are based on the percentage each element takes up in its container: if one element (e.g. a header) is 25% of its container, that element will stay at 25% no matter the change in screen size. Responsive websites can also use breakpoints to create a custom look at every screen size, but unlike adaptive sites that adapt only when they hit a breakpoint, responsive websites are constantly changing according to the screen size.

Pros 

• Great experience at every screen size, regardless of the device type
• Responsive website builders are typically rigid which makes the design hard to “break”
• Tons of available templates to start from​

Cons

• Requires extensive design and testing to ensure quality (when starting from scratch)
• Without accessing the code, custom designs can be challenging

​
It’s important to note that website builders can include both adaptive and responsive features. For example, Pagecloud recently introduced a series of features that allow your content to act responsive even though the website itself is still adaptive. 

Adaptive Website Builders Wix and Pagecloud are arguably the two best visual website builders on the market today. Both use an adaptive approach, meaning their drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG capabilities are second to none. You can build just about anything without having to write a single line of code. 

Wix has been around since 2006 and has since developed a wide range of features and templates to suit just about every business need. Today, it’s considered one of the easiest tools for beginners. 

Wix has been around since 2006 and has since developed a wide range of features and templates to suit just about every business need. Today, it’s considered one of the easiest tools for beginners. 

Although it’s hard to choose a winner in this category, here are few things to keep in mind: 

• If you’re looking for the most customizable experience, choose PageCloud. 
• If you’re looking for something really easy and don’t have much design experience, choose Wix. 
• If you’re looking to work with a developer, choose PageCloud. 
• If you want many template options, choose Wix. 
• If you like shortcuts and the experience found in desktop publishing apps, choose PageCloud.

​

As both platforms offer free trials, we’d recommend trying them both before deciding. 

Responsive Website Builders Tools like Squarespace offer responsive website builders, however, this means your editing experience is more limited. Creating a fluid responsive website is hard, and without knowing how to code, it is nearly impossible to build unique websites using responsive website builders. 

This is where more complex web design tools, like Webflow and Froont, come into play. Here are some of the pros and cons to consider when looking to adopt one of these tools: 

Pros 

• Ability to create custom responsive sites without having to write code
• Unmatched control over every element on the page 
• Ability to export code to host elsewhere 

​
Cons 

• Complex tools with steep learning curves
• Slower design process than adaptive website builders

​
E-commerce

​E-commerce websites are an important part of website design. Creating an online store that is easy to navigate, informative, and accurately displays your products is crucial to creating the best online shopping experience for your customers. 

If you want to learn more about starting an online store, check out our article for 5 easy steps to creating an e-commerce website!

Next Steps Hopefully this article helped you to better understand the essentials in web design. To review, let’s take a look at some key elements in designing a website that is both beautiful and functional: 

1. The user always comes first: user experience should be at the forefront of your design, as your users will ultimately be the ones to determine whether your website is worth visiting. 
​
2. Choose the best website builder for your needs: ask yourself what your website’s major functions will be, and choose a website builder that will ensure those needs are met. 

3. Balancing visual elements: it’s important to maintain a balance between your text, graphics, multimedia, and color scheme to avoid an overstimulating website that detracts from the messages you are trying to convey.

Now that you’ve mastered the basics in website design, be sure to check out more posts to learn more about types of website builders, design trends, design elements, and much more. 

In need of a web design company to create a sleek and attractive modern website?

We’re experts at designing you a visually striking website across all devices. Our mastery of design principles results in beautiful UIs and well-organized content layouts. From the second your users land on your website, they’ll be in awe of the marvelous design that greets them.

We’re not happy and won’t rest until your website is a lead-generation that converts.

In need of a web design company to create a sleek and attractive modern website?

An Eye for Beauty. 

We understand that websites need more than stellar UX to be successful. Our design know how empowers us to appreciate what colors, balance and shapes work together in harmony to produce a truly aesthetic web experience.

In addition to design savvy, we offer you expertise in vital areas that guarantee website success, like SEO, UX and CRO.

Our team offers you comprehensive web design services that run the gamut from ideation and design to successful launch and revenue acceleration.

Dedication to Lead Generation. The most important goal of any website is to generate leads. At Rise, we understand that better than anyone, which is why we focus on perfect SEO, UX and CRO to turn your website into a lead-generation machine.

Meticulous Planning

Building a user-friendly and lead-generating website is complex because it takes meticulous planning and successful execution. Our expert team’s tried, tested and true site-building process ensures a high-quality build that’s within budget and meets deadlines, every time.

A Full-Service Agency.

When your needs extend beyond your website, we’re still able to help. Our skilled team members also specialize in:
​

• Branding
• Copywriting
• Digital Marketing & SEO
• E-Commerce
• Google Ads
• Mobile Apps
• Sales Automation
• Social Media
• Technical Integrations​​

Your success is always the result of a collaborative, team-based effort.

Call  (216) 339-6041 To Begin Your Design with Swift Digital Marketing Agency

Just like your personal identity makes you uniquely you, your brand identity is the special sauce of your business that sets you apart from every other Tom, Dick and Harry, Inc. on the block. And your brand identity design? It’s what shapes your company.
​
But what exactly is brand identity? What does it have to do with design? And how do you shape a strong brand identity that takes your business to the next level? Here’s the breakdown:

Table of Contents

• What is brand identity?
• How to develop a strong brand identity
• Design: the foundation of your brand identity
  • Developing your brand design
    • Typography
    • Color Palette
    • Form/Shape
  • Designing your brand identity
    • Logo
    • Website
    • Product Packaging
    • Business cards
    • Email design
  • Create a Brand Style Guide​

What is brand identity?

What does the term brand identity mean?

Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer. Brand identity is different from “brand image” and “branding,” even though these terms are sometimes treated as interchangeable.

The term branding refers to the marketing practice of actively shaping a distinctive brand. Brand is the perception of the company in the eyes of the world.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Let’s say you are a middle school student. As an awkward pre-adolescent, you want to be perceived as cool and get invited to sit at the best table in the cafeteria. But you can’t just force other people to have that image of you. In order to develop this brand, you need to do some work.

So you make sure you watch the right YouTube channels so you always know the latest meme. Maybe you start working on your free throw. And cultivating on an impression of Mr. Archibald, your science teacher. These actions are the work you’re putting towards develop your desired image; they’re your branding.

Finally, you need to make sure you look the part. You save up your money to buy the new Adidas shoes everyone covets. You get a new haircut. You try out for (and join) the basketball team.

Those tangible elements—the shoes, the haircut, the team membership—that’s brand identity.

Your brand identity is what makes you instantly recognizable to your customers. Your audience will associate your brand identity with your product or service, and that identity is what forges the connection between you and your customers, builds customer loyalty, and determines how your customers will perceive your brand.

How to develop a strong brand identity

Know who you are. Before you know what tangible elements you want to make up your brand identity, you need to know who you are as a brand.

A colorful, playful & fun brand identity design by pecas

Who you are as a brand is made up of a few key elements:

• Your mission (what’s your “why?”)
• Your values (what beliefs drive your company?)
• Your brand personality (if your brand was a person, what kind of personality would they have?)
• Your unique positioning (how do you differentiate yourself from the competition?)
• Your brand voice (if your brand was a person, how would it communicate?)​

These elements are what define your brand, and before you start building your brand identity, it’s important you have a clear understanding of each.

If you’re having trouble figuring out who exactly you are, don’t sweat it. Sometimes, all you need is a simple brainstorm to help you get clarity on who you are as a brand.

Ask yourself:

• Why did we start this business?
• What are beliefs and values that are important to us as a company?
• What do we do better than anyone else?
• What makes us special?
• If we could describe our brand in three words, what would they be?
• What are the three words we would want our customers to use to describe us?​

You can also check out this awesome branding workbook from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. While this workbook is geared towards personal branding, the strategies will work for any type of business model.
Once you’ve locked in who you are as a brand, it’s time to build the identity that will bring your brand to life and show who you are to the people who matter most: your customers.

Design: the foundation of your brand identity

Just like your Adidas built the brand identity of your middle-school-star-athlete persona, your design is what will build the brand identity of your company.

Your corporate design assets are the tangible elements that will determine how your brand is perceived. Things like your logo, your packaging, your web design, your social media graphics, your business cards and the uniforms your employees wear.

In other words, nailing your design = nailing your brand identity = building a successful business that’s an accurate representation of who you are as a brand.

So, how exactly do you nail your design and build a brand identity that will take your business to the next level?

Developing your brand designBefore you start creating your design assets, you need to start from the ground up and lock in the basics of your design structure: the building blocks of your brand identity.

The building blocks you’ll want to determine before you create your design assets include:

TypographyTypography refers to—you guessed it—the font (or type) you choose for your branding materials. It’s particularly important to choose logo fonts and brand fonts wisely. There are four major types of typography:

• Serif fonts (like Times New Roman or Garamond) have what look like an anchor (or to some people, little feet) on the end of each letter. This classic typography is great if you want your brand to appear trustworthy, traditional, and just a little old school.
• If “serif” is the foot, “sans serif” is without the foot. Sans serif fonts (like Helvetica or Franklin Gothic) are letters that have smooth edges and lack the anchor or “feet” of their serif counterparts. Sans serif fonts give a more sleek, modern feel to brands.
• Script typography emulates cursive handwriting (so much for all those cursive lessons in elementary school!). These fonts (like Allura or Pacifico) can be a great way to add a luxurious or feminine feel to your brand.
• Display fonts are kind of in a league of their own. Each display font has a specialized element, whether it’s an unusual shape to the letters, outlines, shadowing, or a more artistic/hand-drawn edge (think Metallica’s lightening bolt font). Want to make a bold statement and create a brand identity people won’t soon forget? A display font is a great way to do it.

​
The typography you choose will say a lot about your brand, so choose your fonts wisely.

Color palette

A brand guide with brand colors by ludibes

Next up is color. People—your potential customers included—have psychological ties to different colors, and using branding colors and logo colors strategically can have a serious impact on how your brand is perceived by your audience.

Here are what the colors of the rainbow (plus a few extras) can do to help your brand identity:

• Red: Red is the color of passion and excitement. It’s the perfect choice if your brand identity is loud, youthful, and exciting.
• Orange: Orange is another high-energy color and is great if you want to appear friendly and playful. It’s used less commonly than red, so will also make you stand out.
• Yellow: Yellow, the color of sunshine, is all about happiness. The cheerful vibe makes it a good choice if you want to feel fun, accessible and affordable.
• Green: An incredibly versatile color, green can be used for just about any brand. Culturally, though, when people see green, they think two things: money or nature. If your brand is tied to either of those things, green is an especially good choice.
• Blue: The most universally appealing color in the spectrum, blue can help your branding to appear more stable and trustworthy, so if you’re looking to appeal to a wide demographic—and get them to trust you in the process—go with blue.
• Purple: Purple is the color of royalty, so if you’re going for a luxurious feel in your branding, this a safe bet.
• Pink: Right or wrong, pink is culturally tied to femininity, so if your brand is targeted towards women, pink should be a definite contender for your brand color. It’s also a great color for brands with a soft or luxurious identity.
• Brown: Brown is perhaps the least use color in all of branding, but that could actually work to your advantage! Any time you do something different, it helps you stand out. Brown can also help people to view your brand as rugged or masculine.
• Black: If you want to be viewed as modern or sophisticated, there’s nothing as classic and effective as black.

​
Form/ShapeWhen it comes to your designs, you also want to think about form and shape. This subtle but effective element that can be used to reinforce the desired reaction from your customers: so, for example, a logo that is all circles and soft edges will inspire a very different reaction from a logo that’s sharp and square.

Here’s how different forms can shape your brand identity (pun intended):
​

• Round shapes—like circles, ovals, and ellipses—are all about the warm and fuzzies. Brands that incorporate round shapes can create feelings of community, unity and love. The rounded edges can also be viewed as feminine.
• Straight edged shapes—like squares, rectangles, and triangles—make people think strength and efficiency. The no-nonsense lines create a feeling of stability and trustworthiness, but you need to be careful: if the shapes aren’t balanced out with something fun, like dynamic colors, they can feel impersonal and fail to connect with your customers.
• Straight lines also have their own implications: vertical lines suggest masculinity and strength while horizontal lines suggest tranquility and mellow vibes.

​
Designing your brand identity

Your brand identity is made of many elements. Once the building blocks of your design are created, it’s time to work with a designer to bring your brand identity to life and translate who you are as a brand into tangible design assets you can use in your marketing.

Your brand identity can be expressed in any number of elements. Depending on the nature of your business, one asset or another may be more or less important.

For example, a restaurant should put a lot of thought into their menu and physical space. A digital marketing agency, however, needs to focus more on their website and social media pages.

Common elements of brand identity include:

Logo design is the cornerstone in your brand identity. When working with your designer, you want to aim for your logo to tick off the following boxes:

• Clearly communicates who you are and what you value as a brand;
• Is visually appealing: simple, clean and uncluttered goes a long way;
• Is classic, not trendy: the last thing you want is for your logo to go out of style in 6 months;
• Plays along with your industry’s standards—and if you veer off, do so deliberately;
• Makes a lasting impression on your audience.

​
You also want to make sure that your design partner delivers your logo in multiple formats (like a black and white version or multiple sizes) to ensure you always have the logo you need—and that each is in line with your brand identity.
Learn more on how to design the perfect logo.

Website

​Your website is one of the most representative aspects of your brand identity. Especially if you’re running an online business or a digital product, your customers will definitely check your website out before deciding to do business with you. Your website is where your brand identity should come through in full force.

Learn the building blocks of effective web layouts.

Product packaging

Rose Finch gin bottles designed by sikarame. lIf your product is a physical one, then product packaging is key to attracting the right customers. Whether you’re thinking about the bottle of a cold-brew beverage, or the mail you’ll send to your customers who purchased clothes from your ecommerce business, don’t underestimate the value of good design in improving the experience – and driving both loyalty and repeat purchases. Packaging is an awesome opportunity for your design to shine.

Business cards. If you’re doing any sort of business development (and who isn’t), you’ll want to stock up on business cards. A well-designed card offers the chance to reinforce a positive opinion of yourself in the eyes of potential clients or customers. When it comes to business card design, keep it simple: your company logo on one side of the card and your key personal details on the other side should suffice.

Learn how to design the perfect business card.

Email design

​Email is a great way to engage your customers and drive business. But most people are at inbox overload, so if you want to grow your business via email, you need the right design strategy to set yourself apart from the clutter. Think about the purpose of the email.

Are you trying to make a personal connection? Then keep it short, sweet, and simple. Are you trying to educate? Then format it well so it’s easily readable and scannable and add a few images to make it pop. Are you trying to tell your customers about a new clothing line you launched? Make a few stunning product images the focus.

Create a brand style guide

A brand style guide is a must to preserve your brand identity.Once you’ve got your design assets, you want to make sure they’re used in the right way, which is why you’ll definitely want to create a brand style guide. This document—which outlines your design assets, when and how to use them, as well as any design do’s and dont’s for your brand—will ensure that any future design is in line with your brand identity and generates the right perception with your audience.
Consistency is key to create a strong brand identity. You wouldn’t want your brand to look totally different on social media than it does on your website. That would confuse customers and make your brand feel less trustworthy and professional. So, make sure to always stick to a brand guide that covers all the different elements of your brand identity. That’s what is going to enable you to build brand recognition and brand loyalty in the long term.

Brand identity in a nutshell…

​Your brand identity is what sets you apart from the endless sea of competitors and shows your customers who you are and what they can expect from working with you. And if you want your brand to be perceived in a positive light, it’s crucial that you nail your brand identity and create designs that accurately portray who you are to your customers. And now that you know how to nail that identity, it’s time to start designing.
​

Web design is unique because it takes both a designer and a user to make it work. After all, the whole purpose of putting a design on an interactive medium like a computer is so that users can, well, use it. Interaction is also a good measure for how engaged a site visitor is because if they’re interacting, they’re paying attention. Good interactive web design will compel the user to engage with a website, scroll down and consume more content, to navigate to other pages, to share with a friend and, of course, to click that call-to-action button.

One of the challenges interactive web designs face is that there are so many ways a user can interact with a page, and even more ways that the page can respond. Some interactive designs will create a seamless user experience, giving the user feedback and directing them on what to do next. Some will be less obvious, the responses mismatched to the user’s action, or worse, nonexistent.

In order to learn how to tell a good interactive website experience from a bad one, we’re going to take our lessons from the pros. Here, we’ve compiled useful tips for interactive web design by rounding up some of our favorite examples and discussing what makes them work.

1. Take advantage of loading screen time

Loading can be one of the biggest obstacles to the web browsing experience. A business can put so much money and effort into building an outstanding, beautiful website, but if it takes more than two seconds to load, research has shown that the visitor becomes exponentially more likely to leave before seeing any of it. It’s fair to assume that users experience loading as a negative experience.

But loading screens can also be an opportunity. If you have the user’s attention, why not make the most of it? These moments provide an unexpected and, therefore, extra special opportunity to impress users through animations. They’re a novelty chance to show off brand personality and engage and excite users. Often, these animations actually give the user a sense of progress with a loading bar (or something similar) to demonstrate how much time remains before the user accesses the next page.

Ideally, these loading screens offer users something to do, such as a game to play while they wait, which creates a fun, interactive experience.

The point is that loading doesn’t necessarily mean a negative experience for the user. They don’t even have to only be quick and painless—sometimes, they’re the most exciting part of a website.

2. Organize information through animated scrolling

Scrolling is one of the simplest and most intuitive interactions that a user can make. But just because the user might not think about scrolling, doesn’t mean the web designer shouldn’t be! There are plenty of ways that designers have capitalized on scrolling animations to give the user a sense of dynamic movement throughout a website. Let’s go over some common ones.

A popular technique has been to trigger specific animations to activate as the user scrolls through the website. It’s pretty magical in bringing visuals to life and it creates the illusion that the page the user is accessing is actually being built up, in real time, in response to their interaction.

Parallax scrolling (aka asymmetrical scrolling)

A similar technique that has been gaining traction is parallax scrolling. This type of movement involves say two objects on a screen moving at two different speeds, as the user scrolls down the page. The result is a simulation of 3D depth of movement, as foreground objects usually move faster than background objects.

Scrolling page transitions

And finally, designers can use full page transitions, in which the traditional smooth scroll is replaced with either a jump to the next screen or a wholesale page change. This can create a dramatic effect, introducing not only new page elements but sometimes an entirely different color scheme, making the website feel brand new with every scroll.

Overall, these scrolling animations give users important feedback on their interaction—letting them know that they’ve just entered a new section of the website and should expect a change in the type of information being delivered. In short, they provide clear hierarchy and organization in an impressive, interactive package.

3. Breakup vertical movement with sliders and carousels

Carousels are so-called because they condense website content into rotating sections that the user can cycle through, much like the turnstile motion of a real-life carnival counterpart.

They are becoming more common on websites due to the increasing popularity of swiping interactions in mobile apps. Because they are essentially a form of horizontal scrolling, they provide the user a much needed break from the endless monotony of vertical scrolling.

But this is not the only reason why you might want to break up vertical movement. As we mentioned earlier, users tend to associate downward scrolling with progressing to a new part of the website. Carousels and sliders, on the other hand, allow web designers to incorporate more context to each section, since the user isn’t technically leaving them.

This means rather than cluttering the page with all the necessary information at once, carousels collapse site elements into more bitesize segments, allowing the user to cycle through them bit by bit.

This works best when the content is similar in format, so group together either product images, profiles or customer testimonials etc. They’re also useful for showcasing variations, such as products that come in different colors. In terms of animating these carousels, styles range from straightforward left-to-right transitions, to card shuffling, to a rotating wheel animation that’s reminiscent of retro viewmaster slides.

4. Blow up the navigation menu

Like swiping, hamburger menus are another common trend of mobile/app design that has made its way onto desktop websites. Even if the hamburger icon itself is not present, users are generally familiar with the idea that the navigation does not need to be displayed at all times. Users know that it’s there and that they can interact with it when needed. Hiding the menu can give the rest of the web page space to breathe and at the same time, the menu’s reveal is yet another interactive web design opportunity.

Since users are now choosing to pull up the menu, many designers are answering that call with navigation that takes over the entire screen. This allows for big typography, descriptive images and snazzy hover animations.

Going big with menu interaction makes sense: navigation is all about control. The user is effectively steering the ship and emphasizing the menu helps the user visualize the weight of their power over the page. All in all, menu designs are staying hidden until needed, at which point they become larger than life. If you ask me, it’s a nice change from the grey top-of-the-screen, nested lists of yore.

5. Replace forms with user questionnaires

One of the most onerous parts of interacting with a website is entering information. Users are generally wary of giving out their information on a website. The best way to mitigate this is by making the process less like filling out a form at the doctor’s office and more like a get-to-know-you question-and-answer session.

In fact, a prime example of this technique in action has come from tax services like some tax preparation companies who break down tax forms into simple, easy-to-understand questions. This is especially helpful for services that have multiple potential products to sell to a site visitor and need to help narrow down their choices by understanding their needs, tastes, budget, and more.

When it comes to animation in interactive web design, the small movements are what really sell it. And when you consider that the purpose of a website’s animation is often feedback (like letting the user know what they can and can’t interact with or whether they’ve done the right thing), it makes sense that this feedback works best on a subconscious level.

Animations that draw too much attention to themselves can be distracting to the user, overshadowing whatever feedback they were meant to impart in order to show off the animator’s skill. This is where micro-interactions come in.

Micro-interactions are a broad category that describe all of the little ways that a user might interact with a page. Some examples of micro-interactions include hovering over something, closing out of a window, pulling to refresh, and clicking icons such as star ratings, bookmarks, notification bells or add to cart.

In terms of animating micro-interactions, some popular styles include turning a button green, transforming an icon into a checkmark, or an outgoing circle that accompanies a click like an adorable, baby shockwave. The goal is to let the user know that they’ve made a successful change to the page and the design of micro-interactions should be simple and satisfying to this end.

Interactive web design is good web design

At the end of the day, interactive web design is what the internet was made for. Out of the many reasons a visitor might have to check out a website, they are ultimately there to interact, not just to find the information they need but to experience it. This is why a website that fails to capitalize on these interactions can easily get lost in competition. The tips we’ve provided here are a great place to start to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Want to get the perfect website for your business?  Call Swift at (216) 339-6041.

Work with our talented designers to make it happen.

Get Web Design

​       If you've ever watched the rehearsal process of a play, then you know just how powerful clothes are. Even in the very early stages of a project, professional actors will come to practice in certain clothing pieces that make them feel more like their character.

Perhaps it's an old pair of shoes, a long and heavy skirt, or a bandana that helps them get just the right swagger, grace, or edge. A few weeks later, when they're closer to opening, they'll have an actual dress rehearsal with their real costumes.

​It's pretty amazing to see how the right clothes bring the performances up to a whole new level and transform the actor into the character! As business professionals, we can actually learn a lot from this.
​
Like it or not, your clothes and presentation communicate volumes about you as a person. The question is not whether you care about fashion, it's more about what you're communicating intentionally or unconsciously through your fashion choices.

Just as the actor in the right costume moves and speaks differently, so does the everyday person.

Your clothes tell a story about you. If you want to show that your work is clean, sharp, and to the point, you need to dress in clean lines, sharp creases, and (yes) points on your shoes and tie.

Even the way you wear your glasses speaks volumes about you and your work!
 Clothes You Wear Actually Change the Way You Perform
If you've ever watched the rehearsal process of a play, then you know just how powerful clothes are. Even in the very early stages of a project, professional actors will come to practice in certain clothing pieces that make them feel more like their character.

Perhaps it's an old pair of shoes, a long and heavy skirt, or a bandana that helps them get just the right swagger, grace, or edge.

A few weeks later, when they're closer to opening, they'll have an actual dress rehearsal with their real costumes.

It's pretty amazing to see how the right clothes bring the performances up to a whole new level and transform the actor into the character! As business professionals, we can actually learn a lot from this.
​
Like it or not, your clothes and presentation communicate volumes about you as a person. The question is not whether you care about fashion, it's more about what you're communicating intentionally or unconsciously through your fashion choices.

Just as the actor in the right costume moves and speaks differently, so does the everyday person.

Your clothes tell a story about you. If you want to show that your work is clean, sharp, and to the point, you need to dress in clean lines, sharp creases, and (yes) points on your shoes and tie.

​Even the way you wear your glasses speaks volumes about you and your work!

Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place.

"A fashion designer creates clothing, including dresses, suits, pants, and skirts, and accessories like shoes and handbags, for consumers. He or she can specialize in clothing, accessory, or jewelry design, or may work in more than one of these areas.

About the fashion designers. They work in a variety of different ways in designing their pieces and accessories such as rings, bracelets and necklaces.

Because of the time required to bring a garment onto the market, designers must at times anticipate changes to consumer desires.

Fashion designers are responsible for creating looks for individual garments, involving shape, color, fabric, trimming, and more. 

Fashion designers play a major role in our world. Their talent and vision play a big role on how people present themselves. They influence society and the way they choose to express themselves. 

Designers conduct research on fashion trends and interpret them for their audience.

Their specific designs are used by manufacturers. This is the essence of a designer's role; however, there is variation within this that is determined by the buying and merchandising approach, and product quality;

for example, budget retailers will use inexpensive fabrics to interpret trends, but high-end retailers will ensure that the best available fabrics are used.

Some clothes are made specifically for an individual, as in the case of haute couture or bespoke tailoring. 

Other high-end fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-end fashion department stores.

​Large designer brands which have a 'name' as their brand such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Justice, or Juicy are likely to be designed by a team of individual designers under the direction of a design director.

Designing a garment

Some fashion designers sketch their ideas on paper, while others drape fabric on a dress form, another term for mannequine.

When a designer is completely satisfied with the fit of the toile (or muslin), they will consult a professional pattern maker who then makes the finished, working version of the pattern out of card or via a computerized system. 

History: The Chéruit salon on Place Vendôme in Paris, 1910

Fashion design is generally considered to have started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created.

Before the former draper set up his maison couture (fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses, and high fashion descended from that worn at royal courts.

Worth's success was such that he was able to dictate to his customers what they should wear, instead of following their lead as earlier dressmakers had done.

The term couturier was in fact first created in order to describe him. While all articles of clothing from any time period are studied by academics as costume design, only clothing created after 1858 is considered as fashion design.

It was during this period that many design houses began to hire artists to sketch or paint designs for garments.

The images were shown to clients, which was much cheaper than producing an actual sample garment in the workroom. If the client liked their design, they ordered it and the resulting garment made money for the house.

Thus, the tradition of designers sketching out garment designs instead of presenting completed garments on models to customers began as an economy.

During the Make{able} workshop, Hirscher and Niinimaki found that personal involvement in the garment-making process created a meaningful “narrative” for the user, which established a person-product attachment and increased the sentimental value of the final product.

Otto von Busch also explores half-way garments and fashion co-design in his thesis, "Fashion-able, Hacktivism and engaged Fashion Design".

World fashion industry

Seven countries have established an international reputation in fashion: France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States, Japan, Germany and Belgium.

The "big four" fashion capitals of the fashion industry are Paris, Milan, New York City and London with Paris often being considered as the World's fashion capital.

Most fashion houses in the United States are based in New York City. On the US west coast, there is also a significant number of fashion houses in Los Angeles, where a substantial percentage of high fashion clothing manufactured in the United States is actually made. 

Beverly Hills, particularly on Rodeo Drive, is globally renowned for its fashion design and prestigious shopping. Burgeoning industries in Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and especially San Francisco have developed as well.

A semi-annual event held every February and September, New York Fashion Week, is the oldest of the four major fashion weeks held throughout the world. 

​Parsons The New School for Design, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, is considered one of the top fashion schools in the world.

There are numerous fashion magazines published in the United States and distributed to a global readership.

Examples include Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan.

American fashion design is highly diverse, reflecting the enormous ethnic diversity of the population, but is largely dominated by a clean-cut, urban, hip aesthetic, and often favors a more casual style, reflecting the athletic, health-conscious lifestyles of the suburban and urban middle classes.

Red carpet fashion: Italian actors Gabriel Garko and Laura Torrisi wearing designer formal wear at Venice Film Festival, 

If you’re working on a fashion-related online store project, or thinking of putting one up on your own, looking through a showcase of websites may help you get some ideas and inspiration.

As a clothing  designer, appearance is importance . Everything you show to current and prospective customers has to demonstrate your sense of style. This is an aesthetically pleasing web design for high fashion  is mportant.

With that in mind, appearance is not the only factor you should take into consideration when designing your site.

To be a successful marketing tool, a clothing retailer’s website has to not only attract the eyes of visitors, but also create an easy process for browsing and buying merchandise.

This page will give you an idea of why and how you can combine attractiveness and functionality to create a successful website for your business, as well as a few other considerations to keep in mind.
​
Keep reading if you want to learn more, or if you're searching for professional web design services.

What makes a fashion website great?

Web design is a lot more than just the fonts and colors you see on a web page—it also impacts the functionality of your website.

A dynamic website provides necessary information, enables communication, and builds trust for your brand. Web design for stores must do the same by ensuring a few key things.

Brand consistency. Visiting your website should feel like walking into a virtual store. It should include the same sense of style, colors, tone of voice, and general personality your store provides.

​Remember, your website is your online introduction, so it should give people a sense of what they would experience in person.

Searchability: Good design makes a website easy to navigate and easy to search.

Web design is a complex process.

Simple navigation is the key. Certain design elements make the site easier to navigate. Consider creating a few main categories with drop-down menus that have more specific results.

This gives your site a less cluttered appearance and reduce the time it takes users to find the pages they are looking for.

Search boxes are also a great tool. If a potential customer already knows that they want a specific style, a search bar will help them find it. 

If you are an established brand, you already have a logo and color scheme that people associate with your company and values. You probably also have a certain aesthetic or style within your designs. 

If you are still working on establishing your brand, your website can be a great place to start. Make your color and logo decisions before launching your site, and then use them as guidelines for the rest of the process.

You want to give your visitors a cohesive idea of what your brand stands for.

While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin' out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.
Well, the need to do keyword research has stayed the same. How you actually do it hasn't.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines with the goal of using that data for a specific purpose, often for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. Keyword research can uncover queries to target, the popularity of theses queries, their ranking difficulty, and more.

 Why Is Keyword Research Important? 

Keyword research provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google. The insight that you can get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy. However, keywords themselves may not be as important to SEO as you may think.

More and more, we hear how much SEO has evolved over just the last 10 years, and how unimportant keywords themselves have become to our ability to rank well for the searches people make every day.

And to some extent, this is true; using keywords that exactly match a person's search is no longer the most important ranking factor in the eyes of an SEO professional. Rather, it's the intent behind that keyword, and whether or not a piece of content solves for that intent (we'll talk more about intent in just a minute).

But that doesn't mean keyword research is an outdated process. Let me explain:

Keyword research tells you what topics people care about and, assuming you use the right SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience. The operative term here is topics -- by researching keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into topics that you want to create content on. Then, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you look for and target.

For an inside look into how Ahrefs can aid you in your SEO keyword research, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.

By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions that the most people in your audience want answers to.

I'm going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with a list of terms you should be targeting. That way, you'll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms you actually care about.

Step 1: Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.To kick off this process, think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You'll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you'll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

If you're a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most frequently. Or perhaps they're the topics that come up the most in sales conversations. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas -- what types of topics would your target audience search that you'd want your business to get found for? If you were a company like for example -- selling marketing software  you might have general topic buckets like:

• "inbound marketing" (21K)
• "blogging" (19K)
• "email marketing" (30K)
• "lead generation" (17K)
• "SEO" (214K)
• "social media marketing" (71K)
• "marketing analytics" (6.2K)
• "marketing automation" (8.5K)

See those numbers in parentheses to the right of each keyword? That's their monthly search volume. This data allows you to gauge how important these topics are to your audience, and how many different sub-topics you might need to create content on to be successful with that keyword. To learn more about these sub-topics, we move onto step 2 ...

Step 2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus on, it's time to identify some keywords that fall into those buckets. These are keyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.

For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound marketing software company -- "marketing automation" -- I'd brainstorm some keyword phrases that I think people would type in related to that topic. Those might include:

• marketing automation tools
• how to use marketing automation software
• what is marketing automation?
• how to tell if I need marketing automation software
• lead nurturing
• email marketing automation
• top automation tools ​

And so on and so on. The point of this step isn't to come up with your final list of keyword phrases. You just want to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think potential customers might use to search for content related to that particular topic bucket. We'll narrow the lists down later in the process so you don't have something too unwieldy. 

Although more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, another smart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for. To do this, you'll need website analytics software like Google Analytics. Drill down into your website's traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site.

Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have. And remember, if you're having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues -- those who are in Sales or Service -- and ask them what types of terms their prospects and customers use, or common questions they have. Those are often great starting points for keyword research.

Step 3: Understand How Intent Affects Keyword Research and Analyze Accordingly

Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Today, it's more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do?

It's easy to take keywords for face value, and unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface. Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra-careful how you interpret the keywords you target.

Let's say, for example, you're researching the keyword "how to start a blog" for an article you want to create. "Blog" can mean a blog post or the blog website itself, and what a searcher's intent is behind that keyword will influence the direction of your article. Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging? If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you'll need to make sure of the keyword's intent before committing to it.

To verify what a user's intent is in a keyword, it's a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself, and see what types of results come up. Make sure the type of content Google is closely related to what you'd intend to create for the keyword.

Step 4: Research related search terms.

This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it's a great way to fill out those lists.

If you're struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google. When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google's results, you'll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input. These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.

Want a bonus? Type in some of those related search terms and look at their related search terms.

Step 5: Use keyword research tools to your advantage. Keyword research and SEO tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Ubersuggest can help you come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you've generated up to this point. This exercise might give you alternatives that you might not have considered.

How to Find and Choose Keywords for Your Website

Once you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, now it's time to refine your list based on the best ones for your strategy. Here's how: 

Step 1. Understand the three main factors for choosing good keywords.Before choosing keywords and expecting your content to rank for them, you must curate keywords for three things: 

1. Relevance

Google ranks content for relevance. This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers' needs. In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?

2. Authority

Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative. That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, information content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks. If you're not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword's SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can't compete with (like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic), you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional. 

3. Volume

You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. 

Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences. 

Step 2: Check for a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords in each bucket.

​If you don't know the difference between head terms and long-tail keywords, let me explain. Head terms are keywords phrases that are generally shorter and more generic -- they're typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words.

It's important to check that you have a mix of head terms and long-tail terms because it'll give you a keyword strategy that's well balanced with long-term goals and short-term wins. That's because head terms are generally searched more frequently, making them often (not always, but often) much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms. Think about it: Without even looking up search volume or difficulty, which of the following terms do you think would be harder to rank for?

1. how to write a great blog post
2. blogging

​​
If you answered #2, you're absolutely right. But don't get discouraged. While head terms generally boast the most search volume (meaning greater potential to send you traffic), frankly, the traffic you'll get from the term "how to write a great blog post" is usually more desirable.

Why?

Because someone who is looking for something that specific is probably a much more qualified searcher for your product or service (presuming you're in the blogging space) than someone looking for something really generic. And because long-tail keywords tend to be more specific, it's usually easier to tell what people who search for those keywords are really looking for. Someone searching for the head term "blogging," on the other hand, could be searching it for a whole host of reasons unrelated to your business.

So check your keyword lists to make sure you have a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. You definitely want some quick wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, but you should also try to chip away at more difficult head terms over the long haul.

Step 3: See how competitors are ranking for these keywords.

Just because your competitor is doing something doesn’t mean you need to. The same goes for keywords. Just because a keyword is important to your competitor, doesn’t mean it's important to you. However, understanding what keywords your competitors are trying to rank for is a great way to help you give your list of keywords another evaluation.

If your competitor is ranking for certain keywords that are on your list, too, it definitely makes sense to work on improving your ranking for those. However, don’t ignore the ones your competitors don’t seem to care about. This could be a great opportunity for you to own market share on important terms, too.

Understanding the balance of terms that might be a little more difficult due to competition, versus those terms that are a little more realistic, will help you maintain a similar balance that the mix of long-tail and head terms allows. Remember, the goal is to end up with a list of keywords that provide some quick wins but also helps you make progress toward bigger, more challenging SEO goals.

How do you figure out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, you ask? Aside from manually searching for keywords in an incognito browser and seeing what positions your competitors are in, Ahrefs allows you to run a number of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you enter. This is a quick way to get a sense of the types of terms your competitors are ranking for.

Step 4: Use Google's Keyword Planner to cut down your keyword list.

Now that you've got the right mix of keywords, it's time to narrow down your lists with some more quantitative data. You have a lot of tools at your disposal to do this, but let me share my favorite methodology.

I like to use a mix of the Google's Keyword Planner (you'll need to set up an Ads account for this, but you can turn your example ad off before you pay any money), and Google Trends.

In Keyword Planner, you can get search volume and traffic estimates for keywords you're considering. Then, take the information you learn from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.

Use the Keyword Planner to flag any terms on your list that have way too little (or way too much) search volume, and don't help you maintain a healthy mix like we talked about above. But before you delete anything, check out their trend history and projections in Google Trends. You can see whether, say, some low-volume terms might actually be something you should invest in now -- and reap the benefits for later.

Or perhaps you're just looking at a list of terms that is way too unwieldy, and you have to narrow it down somehow ... Google Trends can help you determine which terms are trending upward, and are thus worth more of your focus.

Best Keywords for SEOUnderstand that there's no "best" keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it's up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic. 

The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on: 

1. The level of competition you're up against. 
2. Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what's currently ranking.

​​
And ... You're done! Congratulations! You've now got a list of keywords that'll help you focus on the right topics for your business, and get you some short-term and long-term gains. 

Be sure to re-evaluate these keywords every few months -- once a quarter is a good benchmark, but some businesses like to do it even more often than that. As you gain even more authority in the SERPs, you'll find that you can add more and more keywords to your lists to tackle as you work on maintaining your current presence, and then growing in new areas on top of that.

Keyword Research Don't forget to share this post!

​
What is the difference between Facebook ads and Google Ads, though?

Keep reading to learn all about Google Ads vs. Facebook ads, plus discover which platform is best for your business and various ad campaigns.

Google Ads vs. Facebook ads: What is the difference?

In digital advertising, Google Ads and Facebook ads are the top two ad platforms.

While Google ads appear in Google search results and across websites in Google’s ad network, Facebook ads display across Facebook, Instagram, and other sites in the social media platform’s network. Both platforms offer demographic and behavior targeting, though Google Ads also includes keyword targeting.

What is Google Ads?

Google is the world’s largest and most popular PPC advertising platform. Paid ads, known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, appear at the top of Google search results. 

Where do Google ads appear?

Ads created with Google Ads can get delivered through several networks, including:

• Google Search Network
• Google Display Network
• Google Play
• Google Maps
• YouTube​

When you run a Google advertising campaign, you can target audience or content features like:

• Audience demographics
• Audience location
• Content topics
• Ad placements
• And more​

Keyword targeting is one of the most popular strategies for Google Ads, especially when using the Google Search Network. If you want your ad to appear in relevant search results, you must choose the right keywords. Your keywords will determine where your ads appear in search results.

To find relevant keywords, you’ll conduct keyword research. Keyword research will help you find relevant keywords for your campaign. You’ll want to stick to long-tail keywords, which contain three or more words, because they’ll drive the best leads for your campaign.

Advertisers will bid on keywords to get their ad to appear in relevant search results. The bid you set is your maximum bid, which is the amount you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks. It’s also known as your cost-per-click (CPC).

Time To Level Up Your Sales

Our long list of services helps you make waves in your industry and increase metrics that matter most - like sales.

What kinds of ads can you create with Google Ads?With Google Ads, you can make a range of advertisements, including:

• Text
• Responsive
• Image
• Video
• App
• Call-only
• Shopping

​
The ad format you choose will depend on your audience, goals, and offer.

What are Google Ads good for?

If you’re looking to reach leads that convert, Google ads are the best option. These leads know exactly what they want and just need to find the right business to get what they need.

A Google ad can help them choose your business.

They’ll click on your ad and see what you have to offer. If you’re a good fit for their needs, you can earn more conversions for your business. With remarketing on Google Ads, you can even bring back users that previously had an interest in your product or service, but weren’t quite ready to convert.


What are Facebook ads?

Facebook ads are paid social ads that appear in users’ newsfeeds. They’re tagged with the word “sponsored” to indicate paid content. These ads help companies expose their business to interested leads.

Where do Facebook ads appear?

Facebook ads can appear on several platforms, including:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Messenger
• Audience Network

On Facebook, your ads can earn placements in the following locations:

• News feed
• Marketplace
• Suggested video
• Right column
• Stories
• Instant Articles​

How can you target people on Facebook ads?With Facebook ads, you can target people based on:

• Location
• Interests
• Behavior
• Demographics
• Connections​

These ads operate based on people’s interests and behaviors. Your ads appear in front of people that are interested in your business, products, or services. You’ll help your business connect with the right leads.

What kinds of ads can you make with Facebook ads?Facebook gives you the option to run numerous ad formats, including:

• Image
• Video
• Slideshow
• Carousel
• Collection
• Instant Experience

​​
What are Facebook ads good for?Facebook ads are best if you’re looking to gain brand exposure and new leads.
These ads don’t always entice people to convert, but they do get them to follow your page or check out your website. It’s a great way for you to earn more leads for your business because these ads get people comfortable with your business.

A few additional ways (or objectives) you can use Facebook ads include:

• Generating traffic to your website, Facebook page, or app
• Raising engagement on a Facebook post
• Attracting views to a video
• Earning messages from prospective customers
• And more​

How much does it cost to advertise with Facebook ads?Generally, Facebook ads are cheaper to run than Google ads. Facebook ads have a CPC that ranges from a few cents to a few dollars. It all depends upon your industry. Some industries are a little more expensive than others.

Facebook ads vs. Google Ads: How each platform benefits your businessIn the Facebook ads vs. Google Ads, you have to look at the advantages of each platform. While each comes with different options (and costs), they both offer benefits that can help you build brand awareness, generate sales, and more.

Take a look at their perks, and learn more about the difference between Facebook ads and Google Ads:

The Advantages of Google Ads

Here are a few benefits you’ll experience from using the Google Ads platform.

1. Reach more leads for your business: Since Google is a leading advertiser which fields billions of search queries per day, this creates an opportunity for you to reach dozens of leads for your business.
2. Use different types of advertising: Google offers both search network and display network advertising. This means you can either create ads that appear in the search results or have ads that display on other websites. You have multiple options to try to reach new leads.
3. Bid on millions of keywords: With Google, you’re able to bid on dozens of keywords to get your ads to rank for them. It allows you to gain more exposure and reach new people. Even better, you can access other targeting options that go beyond words or phrases.
4. Earn positions based on relevancy: Money won’t buy you a top advertising spot, but relevancy will. This means that, regardless of your budget size, your ad has an opportunity to compete with top brands for relevant queries.​

The advantages of Facebook adsFacebook has billions of active monthly users that engage on their platform.

Here are a few benefits you’ll receive by using Facebook ads.

1. Access to quality data: People share an abundance of information about themselves on Facebook. They share life events, interests, hobbies, beliefs, and more. When you advertise on Facebook, you can target people based on this information to help your business reach more relevant leads.
2. Create lookalike audiences: If you already have a database of information about people most likely to be interested in your business, you can upload that information to Facebook. You can target quality Facebook users based on the data once it’s uploaded into your advertising campaign.
3. Use Facebook’s visual elements: All Facebook ads are visual, which makes your ads more interesting and engaging for your audience. Video, image, and carousel ads can all help you capture the attention of your target shopper and get them excited about your product or service.

Which is better for your business: Facebook ads or Google Ads?

In the Google Ads vs. Facebook ads debate, there isn’t a clear winner.

That’s because both platforms offer value. Whether your business operates in the business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) sector, you can use Google and Facebook to grow brand awareness, increase online sales, and even generate phone calls, store visits, and more.

The best platform for your business will depend on what you want for your advertising campaign.


          Brand Awareness

            ✔


          Lead Generation

           ✔

 
          Website Traffic

       
           ✔

​
          Online Sales

           ✔
 

          Online Engagement

            ✔​


           App Installs


           ✔


Keep in mind, the above dat is only a guideline.

Your business may find that Facebook ads, for example, work well for generating online sales. Or, that Google Ads performs better when it comes to earning more downloads for your mobile app. Every company and their advertising experience, so you may have to engage in some trial-and-error.

Either way, both these advertising options have their perks.

In fact, no rule says you have to choose either Google Ads or Facebook ads. These two advertising programs work well together. As long as you have the budget to run both campaigns, they can work together very effectively.

Three tips for using Google Ads and Facebook ads 

1. Launch your Facebook ad campaigns with Google Ads’ data

Whether you have past or zero experience with Facebook ads, you want to use this tip for a combined Google and Facebook strategy. That’s because user data can help your business a better and stronger campaign that drives better results.

Via Google Ads, you can access a ton of helpful data points, including:

• Gender
• Household income
• Parental status
• Locations​

This data can help your team refine the targeting of your existing Facebook ads. Or, you can use the information to launch a brand-new and targeted campaign. Either way, Google Ads can help you make data-driven decisions about your Facebook ad targeting.

2. Leverage your Facebook Lookalike Audiences for Google Ads

While Google Ads offers a feature similar to Lookalike Audiences in Facebook ads, you can still use this Facebook-specific tool in your Google ad campaigns. For reference, Lookalike Audiences help you build an audience similar to an existing one.

That means you can find people most likely to have an interest in your products or services.

Since Google Ads includes a range of targeting options, you can update or tweak them according to your Lookalike Audiences data. Even better, you can apply this data to Facebook ad campaigns. For your business, that means stronger ads across each of these advertising platforms.

3. Target every stage of the buying funnelRemember how Facebook ads work well for brand awareness, while Google Ads excel when it comes to securing leads? You can leverage these differences with a coordinated Google Ads and Facebook ads approach.

While your Facebook ads focus on top-of-the-funnel users, your Google Ads can target middle- and bottom-of-the-funnel users. This kind of approach can prevent blind spots or openings for your competitors to target (and steal) sales from your business.

Plus, it can keep your company top-of-mind as users browse the Internet.

Our full-service digital marketing company that specializes in paid advertising campaigns. Our team of over 200 experts will bring their knowledge and expertise to your campaign. We’ll help you create a customized campaign that is unique to your business.

If you’re looking for a company that drives results, look no further than Swift.  You can count on us to create a campaign that helps your business grow.

Call us today at (216) 339-6041!

Want to grow your TikTok reach? Wondering how to boost your organic content?

In this article, you’ll discover how to use the TikTok Promote ad feature to amplify your content and reach more people.

What is TikTok Promote?

After months of testing, TikTok has released its new Promote feature, which allows you to promote your organic videos to reach new audiences. This is exciting news for anyone looking to find their target audience without their organic reach getting penalized or shadowbanned. TikTok may even reward those who hop on the new trend quickly.

Similar to Facebook Boost, TikTok Promote is a tool for advertising to people on the platform. It allows creators, businesses, and influencers of any kind to push posts out to a larger pool of consumers. This feature can help you grow your community on TikTok by connecting with more like-minded audiences in a cost-effective and straightforward way.

For this type of campaign, you can only promote public videos with original sound, or a sound specifically created for commercial purposes. (There are more than 100,000 free-to-use sounds available in the TikTok library.) The Promote feature isn’t available for videos containing copyrighted sounds.

Here’s how to set up a new video campaign to promote an organic video and analyze its performance.

1: Choose a Goal for Your TikTok Promote Video CampaignThe first step in creating a Promote video campaign is setting a specific goal based on your overarching business objectives. You have three options: more views, more website visits, or more followers.

More Views

If you’re trying to reach a larger audience on TikTok to get the word out about your business or offering, choose More Views as your goal when setting up your campaign.

This goal will get more people to watch your video, boosting your potential for higher engagement on your post and profile. If consumers like what they see, they’ll be more likely to engage with additional posts, follow you, and maybe even check out your website to learn more.

More Website Visits

Promote offers you an option to guide people straight to your website. If this is your goal, choose More Website Visits for your campaign. When setting up your ad, you’ll enter your website URL and select a call to action (CTA) button. CTA options include Shop Now, Learn More, Contact Us, and Sign Up, among others. This feature works similarly to Instagram’s swipe-up feature.

More Followers

If your main objective is to grow your TikTok following and community, choose More Followers. Increasing the size of your audience can also help you reach other goals like boosting engagement, as long as you target people truly interested in your business. Having a more significant following will also give you a larger community to market (and eventually sell) to.

If you’re a new business, new to TikTok, or haven’t successfully grown an audience on the platform, growing your following could help you create a solid foundation to build from.

Identify Organic TikTok Videos to Promote

Now that you’ve chosen a goal for your campaign, it’s time to identify the best video to help you reach that goal. You can choose any TikTok video you’ve created as long as it’s an original, public video without copyright issues.

Get Expert Social Media Marketing Training from the Pros. Want to get ahead of the competition or learn how to diversify your strategy?

Learn from dozens of the industry's most trusted experts, rub elbows with other smart marketers, and take your marketing to the next level during this 3-day event in sunny San Diego, CA.

Try to choose a video that has already performed well organically. The video should also authentically show off your brand. Using your most popular content—the video with the most reach and engagement—is a logical way to reach and engage more people. You’ll gain views, traffic, and followers on top of the organic engagement you’ve already earned.

To find your top-performing TikTok videos, start by visiting the analytics section of your account. Simply tap on the hamburger menu in the top-right corner of your TikTok profile. This will take you to your settings.

Next, click on either Business Suite or Creator Tools and then Analytics.

The first screen you’ll see in your TikTok analytics is the Overview tab, where you can view account data ranging from the last 7–28 days.

Note: You can download data if you use the desktop version instead of mobile.

To dig into the analytics for your TikTok videos, click on the Content tab. Here, you can view your posts from the past week and see which ones are trending. Click into a specific video for deeper insights like total play time, total views, average watch time, and audience information.

Identify your most popular TikTok content in terms of views, reach, play time, total watch time, and engagement (likes, shares, and comments). Your top-performing video has the best chance of performing well through promotion.
3: Set Up Your TikTok Promote Video CampaignTo set up your campaign, you can use either the Promote button on a post or go through TikTok Business Suite.

Using the Promote Button. To start setting up your campaign with the Promote button, you have a couple of options.
The first way to access Promote is to go directly to the video you want to use and tap on the three dots near the bottom-right corner of your screen.

Tap the Promote button to begin setting up your campaign, starting on the “What is your goal?” page.

The second way to access Promote is via your settings. Tap on Creator Tools and then Promote. Next, choose the video you wish to promote and select your goal.

If you chose More Website Visits as your goal, you’ll enter the URL of your landing page and a CTA to encourage people to click.

Next, choose the audience you want to target. You can select Automatic for TikTok to choose for you or Custom if you have specific preferences.

Lead the Social Charge Instead of Playing Catch Up

 “What now?” everytime a social platform changes or the market shifts?

Get a look at where the social media marketing industry is headed—before it happens—with insightful trends analysis delivered weekly.

Let the Social Strategy Club be your secret competitive advantage.

If you customize your targeting audience, you can select a gender, age range, and interests. When making selections, think about who you want to reach. Are they interested in a product like yours or a form of entertainment that relates to what you sell?

Let’s say, for example, that you sell hiking shoes for people in the U.S. Your audience is comprised of avid travelers, digital nomads, and adventure-seekers. They’re active, most of them have a dog, and they love trying a good beer in a new city (or small mountain town). They also love the simple life and are primarily female, working from home, and in their mid-20s to mid-30s.

You could make the following selections for your target audience:

After you’ve customized your audience, tap Next to set a budget and duration for your campaign (how long you’d like to run your promotion).

If you have an Android device, you’ll need to add payment information before submitting your ad for review. If you’re an iPhone user, you can recharge your account with virtual coins. TikTok Coins are the app’s currency that you can purchase using real money. The value of these coins changes over time, but you’ll see how much they cost when you’re ready to buy.

Finally, tap on Start Promotion. Once TikTok approves your campaign, it’ll begin running.

Using TikTok Business Suite

Using Business Suite to set up your promotion is very similar to using the Promote button. If you have a business account, you can navigate to Settings and Privacy > Business Suite > Promote. Then follow the same process described in the previous section to set up your ad.

4: Analyze the Performance of Promoted TikTok Videos

During and after you run your promoted TikTok video campaign, you can check its performance. To view the analytics of your post, tap on the three dots in the bottom right-hand corner of the post. Then tap on Analytics. You’ll see this screen filled with the data from your video ad:

Here’s a rundown of what each metric means and how it pertains to your ad’s performance.

• Views (play icon): How many times your video plays for someone. A view can consist of anything from a millisecond to minutes of watch time. If your video loops for someone several times, TikTok counts each loop as a distinct view.
• Likes (heart icon): The number of likes your post has received.
• Comments (conversation bubble icon): The total number of comments your post has received.
• Shares (arrow icon): The total number of times someone shared your post.
• Total play time: The amount of time—cumulatively—that people have spent watching your video. Use this metric to compare your current video play time with that of other videos you’ve posted. You can find which ones get the most play time overall.
• Average watch time: The average time viewers spend watching your video. The longer your video holds people’s attention, the more engaging it is. Your goal is to get people to watch to the end (if not multiple times).
• Watched full video: This is the total number of times people have watched your video through to the end.
• Reached audience: The total number of unique users who’ve seen your video.
• Video views by section: This metric shows you where your traffic comes from. Sources may include the For You section, people already following you, searches, hashtags, sounds, or personal profiles.
• Video views by region: This metric breaks down your audience by territory (their location).

Analytics for Website Visits

If your goal is to drive traffic to a landing page on your website, you can measure referral traffic through TikTok. The Promote tool allows you to track the number of people who visit your website by clicking on your link.
To view these analytics, go to Settings and Privacy > Creator Tools > Promote. On the Promotions page, tap on See Details.

Insights for Video Views

If your goal is to increase video views, you should primarily focus on monitoring views and reached audience. You can also calculate your post reach percentage to determine what percentage of your audience saw your post.
Here’s the formula:

Post reach percentage = (Reached audience / Total number of followers) x 100
As you run future campaigns with the same goal, you can begin comparing each post’s performance in terms of views and reach.

Follower Growth Rate

To find the analytics for your follower count, go to Settings and Privacy > Business Suite > Analytics. You’ll find analytics for your entire account in this section, including engagement metrics, follower information, and content data.

If your goal is to grow your following, focus on the graph on the Followers tab. It will show you your total number of new followers, the growth rate, and demographic information.

You’ll also gain insight into what countries your followers are from and their activity (which times and days they’re most active on TikTok). Studying these analytics can help you optimize future campaigns and posting times.

Conclusion

Marketers can experience numerous outstanding benefits by investing in TikTok and its new Promote feature. Jumping on the latest trend just might push you ahead of competitors who haven’t yet taken advantage of the opportunity.

TikTok Promote could be an effective way for you to spread brand awareness, gain new fans for your business, and send leads straight to your website. 

​Don't forget to share this post!

The great thing about the internet is that it's full of brilliant marketers sharing great information.
Social media is no exception.


If you have some extra time in your week to add more blogs to your reading list, we recommend you consider subscribing to some of these 33 blogs specifically about social media marketing.

Social Media Calendar Template

HubSpot Marketing Blog

On the HubSpot Marketing blog, we strive to cover every topic that a modern-day marketer would need to know about. This includes social media. Not only can you find general posts about social media marketing, but you can also find content and original research about specific platforms, like Instagram.

2. Social Media Explorer

Social Media Explorer, founded by Jason Falls, is constantly pumping out great posts on social media's impact on marketing and public relations.

3. The Future Buzz

Adam Singer's blog, The Future Buzz, takes a clear approach to social media marketing and SEO topics, and isn't afraid to take a stance against ideas and tactics he thinks are bad for marketers.

4. Duct Tape MarketingI

f you're a small business owner, Duct Tape Marketing is a must-read for strategic and tactical advice about leveraging online marketing and social media to grow your business.

5. Social Media Today

Social Media Today offers a diverse mix of news on social networks' latest developments and cutting-edge tips to perfect your use of each platform. The blog also hosts live Twitter chats from its Twitter hashtag, #SMTLive, on various social media topics twice a month.

6. Small Business Trends

The Social Media section of Small Business Trends, a large news property for entrepreneurs, is filled with expert social media advice and multimedia content for the small business.

7. Web Ink Now

Author and speaker, David Meerman Scott shares great theories and real-life examples of social media's impact on marketing, as well as easy-to-understand content that is great for non-marketing executives.

8. Rebekah Radice

Rebekah Radice is an award-winning social media influencer, and her blog is evidence of her expertise in this industry. Her blog packages common social media topics into solution-based content that tells marketers what they need to know. She also hosts a podcast called Brand Authority, further expanding on the challenges she examines on her blog.

9. Mari Smith

Mari Smith has been called the "Queen of Facebook," and her Facebook-specific blog is a testament to this generous title. Smith uses the latest Facebook trends to create up-to-date insights for the modern social media marketer -- with ample video marketing advice to boot.

10. The Social Media Hat

From social media to email marketing, this simple-looking property is an all-in-one resource for content marketers. The Social Media Hat also includes a recommended list of marketing tools, giving you opportunities to apply what you learn from the blog to your marketing operations.

11. Jon Loomer

Jon Loomer is a blogger and podcaster whose website offers both articles and video tutorials on all things Facebook marketing.

12. Top Rank Online Marketing Blog

The TopRank blog has a long history of delivering a great blend of search engine and social media marketing information in easily digestible lists and posts.

13. SocialMedia.biz

This comprehensive blog breaks down its social media content into News, Business, How-To, and Marketing topics -- providing a reader experience that is sorted according to the unique social media challenges you might face in your career.

14. DreamGrow

DreamGrow is dedicated to social media in the context of content marketing. The blog caters to both content creators and marketing strategists, showing readers how to use social media to grow as businesses and as individuals.

15. MarketingProfs Daily Fix

While MarketingProfs reserves some of its content for paid members, its Daily Fix blog offers great daily marketing content for free.

16. Social Business

Eileen Brown's blog, a property of ZDNet, is an expansive resource for emerging trends relating to social media's impact on business.

17. Ask Aaron Lee

Aaron Lee is a social media manager from Malaysia, who uses his experience as an entrepreneur to educate half a million readers worldwide on using social media to grow a business.

18. Altitude Branding

For thoughtful and honest commentary and advice on social media and conducting business on the web, check out Amber Naslund's blog.

19. Dave Fleet

Dave's blog provides valuable information regarding how social media has an impact on brands and traditional communications functions like public relations and advertising.

20. Social Media Examiner

With tons of great guest authors and consistent how-to content, Social Media Examiner offers a ton of free advice for marketers across industries.

21. Convince & Convert

Jay Baer provides actionable information about the best ways to use social media to improve reach and convert new customers.

22. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

For an analyst's perspective on high-level social media concepts and emerging trends like social CRM, take a minute to check out Jeremiah's blog.

23. Search Engine Land

Long-time search engine marketing resource Search Engine Land provides expert advice on search marketing.

24. ProBlogger

For those who are interested in improving and expanding their blog across all their digital channels, ProBlogger discusses the strategies and tactics needed to become a successful blogger.

25. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management tool whose Insights blog is always tuned to the latest best practices in social media marketing -- from what content to post to using chatbots for better customer service.

26. Bad Pitch Blog

The Bad Pitch Blog points out mistakes other marketers have made so that you won't make them, too. You'll find some important perspective on media relations -- across all digital channels -- in these posts.

27. The Moz Blog

Moz is known for offering expert tools and advice on search engine optimization (SEO). What you might not know is that the famous Moz Blog also gives you social media advice from the unique perspective of SEO.

28. Peg Fitzpatrick

Peg Fitzpatrick is the author of the best-selling book, "The Art of Social Media," and her blog is an equally creative take on social media marketing for today's content producers.

29. RazorSocial

RazorSocial's social media blog is one of nine content categories that shows you different ways of thinking about content strategy, as well as how to perfect your use of certain marketing tools.

30. Socially Sorted

This award-winning marketing blog comes from Donna Moritz, an Australian content strategist who writes about using social media to become a better storyteller.

31. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a marketing expert, entrepreneur, and consultant who's worked with a number of major companies like Amazon, NBC, and GM.

While Patel's research and insights have been featured on our own blog a handful of times, he also publishes content on his own site. While many of his posts relate to SEO, you can also find content around other digital marketing topics, including social media. 

32. Later

Later is primarily known for its Instagram scheduling platform. However, they also have a pretty comprehensive social media blog that HubSpot's social manager, Kelly Hendrickson, personally loves to read.
​
33. Buffer

Similar to other blogs on this list, Buffer posts a handful of social-media related posts per day. Buffer, which is a personal favorite of our social media community manager, Krystal Wu, also use videos, original data, and infographics to tell visual stories about social media tactics. 

Reading Up on Social Media Trends

The list of social media blogs is endless, and could be quite overwhelming to you. You might be asking yourself, "How do I keep up with all 33 blogs on this list?"

The truth is that you don't need to read every single blog on this list every day. You just need to skim the ones that value your team and strategies most. 

To eliminate the need for constant surfing, when you find a blog you love, subscribe to its email list for daily notifications in your inbox. 

To learn more about social media marketing, be sure to check our blog posts for more insights


Social Media Marketing Don't forget to share this post!

Let's say you're tracking the performance of your pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns. After all that hard work and PPC strategizing you put toward improving your performance grade, how's the traffic looking? Is it a steep climb, or are you unimpressed with the result?

Some of us come off as natural all-star rock climbers, while others are left frigid, timid, and stuck to the crevices of the wall.

What's the secret? As with most things: proper training.  And if you don't have any, don't worry -- there's still hope.
Below, you'll learn how to run a PPC campaign on a few of the most common platforms, followed by five tips for how to maximize your campaign's performance.

How to Run a PPC Campaign

1. Choose a platform for your PPC campaign.
2. Choose a type of ad to invest in.
3. Determine your budget and bidding strategy.
4. Customize your target audience, interests, location, and search terms.
5. Organize your campaign into "ad groups."
6. Identify and design landing pages that match the intent of each search term.
7. Track your ads' performance in context of your larger marketing initiatives.​​

1. Choose a platform for your PPC campaign.Your first step in running a new PPC campaign is to decide on which platform to run it. Google Ads are perhaps the most popular PPC campaign among today's marketers, but did you know social networks like Facebook and Twitter also offer pay-per-click advertisements?

Here's how each of these common ad platforms work.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads allow you to place "sponsored" posts on the newsfeeds of users who identify with specific audience characteristics set by you, the advertiser. Using this platform, you can choose your ad's objective -- including brand awareness, website traffic, and store visits -- your target audience, budget, and ad format. Facebook will then place your ad on the newsfeeds of users who match your choices, and charge you every time this ad is clicked.

Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads work similarly to Facebook Ads. Using Twitter's PPC ad platform, advertisers can choose between eight different advertising objectives -- including app installs, new followers, tweet engagements, and website traffic -- as well as their target audience for the ads they run. Twitter will then "promote" your post on the newsfeeds of users who match your choices, and charge you every time this ad is clicked.

Google Ads

Google Ads allow you to pay for high-ranking real estate on Google's various web properties -- including search engine results pages (SERPs). Your campaign can take the form of a Display Ad, a Search Ad, an App Ad, or a Video Ad -- the latter of which places your video on YouTube.

These PPC campaigns allow you to set your ad budget, customize your audience, and/or commit to groups of search terms on which you want your search result to appear. Google then charges you each time this search result is clicked.

For the purposes of explaining how to run a PPC campaign, we'll focus on Google Ads in the steps below.

2. Choose a type of ad to invest in.Each platform described above will give you options for the type of ad you want to pay for clicks on. On Facebook, for example, you can choose between a single image, a single video, or a slideshow to be your ad's main asset. On Google, your ad options are:

Display Ads

Banner ads can appear anywhere in the Google ecosystem, such as Gmail, YouTube, and similar domains within Google's "Display Network."

This ad type is what you most likely associate with PPC. A method of search engine marketing, Google's Search Ads show your chosen landing page in the form of a hyperlinked search result when users enter specific search terms. You can choose these search terms when setting up your Google Ads campaign.

Ads help to promote an app you've developed for sale on Google Play, the company's app marketplace. Using this ad type, Google automatically synthesizes each ad's artwork using the contents of your app's download page. Google then runs these ads in your chosen languages and locations. App Ads can appear across the Google ecosystem, including Google Search, Google Play, and YouTube.

Video Ads

Google's Video Ads appear across YouTube and certain Google partner platforms. Advertisers can run their video ads before, during, or at the end of various videos that share a similar audience with the advertiser.

3. Determine your ad budget and bidding strategy.

Your PPC campaign budget will dictate how much you're willing to pay for the clicks you get on your ad placements. On Google Ads, you'll set a daily budget, whereas platforms like Twitter and Facebook will have you select the increments you want your payments to be in.

So, for example, if your marketing team is allotted $1,000 for PPC, you'll first want to find out how many campaigns you're running. Let's say that number is eight, which would theoretically make each campaign worth $125. Having determined how much of that budget is available to each campaign, you'll then divide this number by the number of days you want this campaign to run. If you want it to run for 14 days, your daily budget would be roughly $8.93/day.

However, there is another element of budget-setting in the world of PPC: Not all topics and audiences are equal in value. This means certain interests, audience segments, and especially search terms will cost different amounts per click.

Most PPC platforms have "auction" systems that help you decide how much your audience criteria will cost you. In turn, you have several bidding strategies available to you to help you make the most cost-effective purchases for your campaign. On Google Ads, these bidding strategies include:

• Cost-per-click (CPC) bidding: You pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad.
• Cost-per-thousand viewable impressions (vCPM) bidding: You pay Google for every 1,000 times your ad appears to users.
• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bidding: You pay Google each time someone clicks on your ad, but the amount you pay is automatically optimized against how much it costs you to "acquire" a customer -- or similar conversion behavior -- from your website.
• Cost-per-view (CPV) bidding: You pay Google each time your video ad is viewed, clicked on, or otherwise engaged with on YouTube.

4. Customize your target audience, interests, location, and search terms.In any PPC platform you choose, you have ability to choose who you want your ads to reach. The "who," in the context of Google Ads, includes your audience's location, interests, apps they use, and of course the searches they perform. You can also create custom audiences each with their own "custom affinities" and "custom intents" to help you further tailor your PPC campaign to the right people.

Once you've established your target audience, you'll top it all off with specific search terms, whose SERPs you want your ads to appear on (this is assuming you're creating Google Search Ads). Be careful how many keywords you choose for each ad. Contrary to what Google Ads might suggest, the more keywords you choose to place an ad on, the higher the chance you'll wind up in front of the wrong audience.


Start with just one or two keywords that are high in search volume and match the intent of your target visitor (we'll talk more about intent in step 6, below).

5. Organize your campaign into "ad groups."Assuming you're creating Google Search Ads, you'll take the keywords you selected in step 4, above, and put them into "ad groups." If you're creating PPC ads on Twitter, you'll use a similar campaign framework.

In each ad group, you can further customize the search terms associated with that ad to be sure your ads are appearing in front of the people who are most interested in your content. For example, instead of simply selecting two keywords that both sound alike and have high monthly search volume, you can parse the specific words within your search terms and set your ad to appear in any search engine query that contains those words. Here's an example of both scenarios:

A Bad Ad Group

If your PPC ad is promoting the sale of ice skates, you might start with the search term "ice skates." Then you discover the search term, "ice skating," and decide to add it to your PPC ad. The second search term, "ice skating," weakens the ad group. Why?

While "ice skates" appeals to those who are looking for ice skates to buy, "ice skating" stretches your audience to include those who might be looking for ice skates, ice rinks in their area, or even instructions on how to start ice skating -- searches that don't apply to your target audience and therefore limit the chances you'll find interested customers among the people who click on your ad.

A Good Ad Group

If your PPC ad is promoting the sale of ice skates, you might start with this search term and decide to branch out into other search terms that include this term, but carry different or additional wording.

For example, using Google Ads features like Modified Broad Match, you can also pick up searches like "skates for ice rinks." Using Phrase Match, you can pick up searches like "ice skates for hockey." This way, you can diversify your ad with more search terms without sacrificing the interests of your audience.

6. Identify and design landing pages that match the intent of each search term.It's not a good idea to make the destination of your PPC ad your website's homepage. This only serves to confuse your visitors and, ultimately, scare them off. Whether you choose from an existing webpage on your domain, or design a new one, make sure you're sending your visitors to a destination that helps them find what they're looking for. This is known as "intent match," and search engines like Google take it very seriously.

Let's go back to our "ice skates" example from step 5, above. If someone searches for "ice skates," clicks on your ad, and they're taken to a page on your website offering ice skating lessons, you haven't matched the intent of their search -- even if this page is set up to convert visitors using a signup form for paid skating lessons. These people are looking to purchase ice skates, not lessons. Therefore, a better destination page for this ad would be a product browsing page with all of your available ice skates listed and optimized for purchasing.

7. Track your PPC campaign's performance in context of your larger marketing initiatives.The platform on which you're running your PPC campaign will have an analytics dashboard where you can track how your ads are performing. Take full advantage of it -- here, you get to see the fruits of your labor. This includes the traffic you're receiving to your ad's landing page, how much you're spending, and even how well this traffic is converting into leads or revenue.

With this data, you can find out if you're getting the bang for your buck. But don't be afraid to consider a more holistic view of your PPC ads' performance, as well. By integrating your Google, Twitter, Facebook, or even LinkedIn ad campaigns into your company's marketing software, you can associate these PPC campaigns with the rest of your marketing initiatives -- helping you determine how the business is performing as a result of your paid efforts.

PPC Tips

1. Include "negative keywords" in your PPC campaign.
2. Use the "Iceberg Effect" to gain more control over your PPC campaign.
3. Keep tabs on conversions vs. sales.
4. Gauge your visitors' intent on the CTA temperature scale.
5. Use micro PPC conversions to break down the larger conversion into smaller pieces.​​

1. Include "negative keywords" in your PPC campaign.Just as there are keywords and search terms that dictate where each PPC ad you run will appear, there are keywords that you can specifically omit from your campaign. These are called "negative keywords," and they prompt your ad platform to avoid placing ads on results pages that are produced when a user enters these search terms.

In the example group of search terms, above, an advertiser on Google Ads has elected to place their ad on the SERPs of the search terms, "blue tennis shoes" and "running gear" -- but not "blue running shoes," "shoes running," and "running shoes." This allows the advertiser to avoid audiences who are searching for these products, since they're looking for something similar but that the advertiser doesn't actually sell.

Learn more about how to select negative keywords here.

2. Use the "Iceberg Effect" to gain more control over your PPC campaign.The search terms that you end up paying for and the keywords that you're actually targeting don't always line up the way you want.

Too often we see the "Iceberg Effect" in action, where miscellaneous search terms below the surface are tacked onto keywords that we think are working properly in our ad campaigns. It gives us an unhealthy search-to-keyword ratio that might look something like this:


Not being in control of all those search terms? Not ideal. With a search term to keyword discrepancy ratio of 132:1, it can be challenging to continually improve your clickthrough rates and lower your cost-per-click averages.

How do you gain control of this icy situation? We use something called Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) to shoot for a 1:1 ratio of search terms to keywords, allowing for more control over the entire ad group.

Here's what a non-SKAGs search term report might look like:

It's not that any of these search terms are bad, it's that each search term has a different conversion and sales rate. And by keeping them as search terms and not turning them into keywords, you will never be able to control them to take your PPC campaigns to the next level.

So what does a search term report look like if we use this granular PPC tactic and use SKAGs?

Everything in the search term column matches the keyword column. With the SKAGs tactic, you can get super granular and isolate one variable at a time, which means you have more control over your entire PPC account.
​
And with the ability to lower your search term to keyword ratio to 1:1, you can take it one step further and do the same from keyword to ad. When this happens, you're able to increase your clickthrough rate, which in turn:

• Increases your quality score
• Decreases your cost-per-click
• Increases your impression share
• Improves your average position

​
3. Keep tabs on conversions vs. sales.

​With your PPC tactics now upgraded, your PPC campaigns should be driving up conversion volumes and making you more money. But do you know which keywords, audiences, or placements are actually making you money?

If you don't track the components of your campaign and attribute them to your sales, you might be missing out on where to focus your efforts. By implementing Google's ValueTrack parameters you can automatically track data within URLs when your visitors convert.

When you tie your hidden field sales tracking back to your CRM, you can find out specific details about which leads are making you the revenue (doesn't apply to ecommerce). Hidden form fields can reveal to you things that happen during a conversion, like which landing page URL your conversion came from, where the visitor is located, or what keyword they typed in.

You can also do this with manual UTM parameters. Here's an example of how on the surface, you would think Keyword #1 is converting better:

Keyword #1 has a lower cost-per-conversion.
Here's an example of what hidden field sales tracking can reveal to you on a deeper level:


Now Keyword #2 looks better, right?
Although Keyword #1 has a lower cost-per-conversion, Keyword #2 has a much higher sales rate, which is making you more money. See the benefits of tracking the sale vs. the conversion?

Knowing these types of details can help you understand where you should be crediting your sales success, so you can be more aggressive in bidding on those keywords, audiences, or placements. With this PPC tactic, you can ease up your budget on the areas that aren't contributing to sales, and allocate to the areas that are.

4. Gauge your visitors' intent on the CTA temperature scale.Not all PPC visitors come through to your landing pages with the same conversion intent.

Typically, those that come through from display tend to be colder, while visitors that come in from search tend to be warmer. Here's a visual we've learned works well across the multitude of client verticals we service:

There's a temperature scale that varies depending on visitor origin. Knowing where your visitors come from can help you immensely when it comes to matching your call-to-action with their temperature in the conversion funnel. We recommend testing out various CTAs to match the intent temperature of your visitors -- after all, a small CTA tweak could've made all the difference.

Here are some ideas to make your offer more relevant to your visitors:

In short: the warmer your visitor's intent the warmer the CTA can be. Traffic that comes in from the display network will likely respond to colder CTAs, since those visitors are in the awareness stage.

5. Use micro PPC conversions to break down the larger conversion into smaller pieces.As you know, the more granular and detail-oriented you can get with you PPC campaigns, the more control you can have over the success of them.
When it comes to conversions, you can break down your larger macro conversion into micro conversions to figure out where your issues are.

An effective way to figure out which part of your PPC campaign is causing the conversion bottleneck is to analyze the micro conversions. Let's say that you're running some new Facebook campaigns but for some reason, no one is converting. If you knew, however, that visitors spend an average of four seconds on your site/landing page, then you know that your Facebook ad targeting may be off. Instead of thinking it's the ad or landing page that needs some tweaking, it could be your targeting instead.

Here are some common types of micro conversions we use to analyze the path towards a conversion:

What can each of these common micro conversions tell you about your landing page? Let's break it down:
​

• Time On Site. How long are your visitors spending on your site? If the time is brief, the conversion issue doesn't have to do with your landing page design. The issue is happening in an earlier stage, like in your ad campaign or your targeting options.
• Scroll Depth. How far are your visitors scrolling down your landing page? If they aren't scrolling down very far, maybe you need to have a shorter landing page where your CTA is above the fold. If they're scrolling pretty deep, it might be a good opportunity to include additional (super legible) offer details toward the bottom of the page.
• Form Field Completion. Are visitors abandoning your forms? If so, try testing out different formats and include a multi-step landing page with more form fields.
• Button Click. Testing out different CTA button colors and copy may be the key to your larger conversion success.​

By isolating micro conversions you can zero in on where exactly the conversion friction is located, which can help you alleviate the issues quickly and reach your larger conversion goal.

Whether it's addressing the Iceberg Effect, tracking your sales vs. conversions, testing CTA temperatures, or analyzing your micro PPC conversions, each of these PPC tactics can have a significantly positive impact on the performance of your campaigns.

And the best part, there's a good chance your competitors don't even know about them.

Now it's your turn to up your PPC performance game. With these useful PPC tactics, you'll be climbing your performance incline to the top with utmost ease.


PPC Don't forget to share this post!

Social media management is a core part of digital marketing. Leveraging social media allows brands to engage with audiences, create and publish relevant content, and access a whole world of potential new customers.
​
With the right tools and knowledge, you can unlock the audiences—and huge marketing potential—of each social media platform.

What is social media management?

Social media management is the process of creating, publishing, and analyzing organic (unpaid) and paid content on social media profiles to support business objectives. 

Business objectives can include earning sales, growing an audience, or increasing customer engagement. 

Managing social media includes engaging with audiences and influencers on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. It can also include tracking your social media performance against competitors.

While some companies were initially slow to include social media in their marketing strategies, the ability to reach enormous audiences on networks like Facebook (which has over 2.32 billion active monthly users) makes it impossible to ignore the platforms’ commercial potential. 

Businesses now use social media to manage and nurture relationships with customers by responding to reviews, and informing and entertaining their audience with tailor-made content. 

Why is social media management important? In the United States alone, as many as 295 million people use social media; that’s around three-quarters of the total population. 

Companies that effectively leverage social networks in their marketing plans can be rewarded with a growing audience and strong customer engagement. One of the most effective ways to manage social media is to run a mixture of paid and organic marketing campaigns. 

Paid social media (think ads) is a great way to get your brand message in front of new audiences. The algorithms deployed by social networks can make it difficult to reach new profiles with unpaid content. Paid ads can also be used to amplify your organic content such as videos or blog posts, or promote an offer that is converting well for you on other marketing channels.

Organic social media campaigns may not be as potent as paid social for reaching new customers, but it’s an excellent method for maintaining strong customer relationships and nurturing your audience. Organic social can be especially effective when content is published regularly. 

Studies suggest that, in many cases, posting once or twice per day is optimal for an organic social posting cadence, depending on the platform. 

If your content is high quality and published regularly, your audience is likely to stay engaged and rely on your content as a source of updates, information, and entertainment. 

Content can also help build trust and position your brand as an authority.

A busy social media schedule with multiple profiles on multiple platforms invites complexity. It’s important to work efficiently across a variety of social tasks, and accurately measure the ROI of your social media campaigns to ensure your budget is not going to waste. 

As managing social media for business can be a time-intensive process, many companies choose to automate their tasks with social media tools.

Social media tools can be an affordable and effective way to manage your profiles. Tools facilitate more efficient workflows by automating or reducing time-consuming tasks, like scheduling your content. They can also provide valuable insights that help you execute better campaigns, analyze ROI, track audience engagement, or check on your competitors’ social media performance.

What social media management tools are available?

There are a wealth of social media management tools available for social media scheduling, tracking, and more. However, you’ll benefit by working with a toolkit that tackles each part of your workflow. 

There are many social media tools that can help you manage your social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, Google My Business, and LinkedIn.

You can plan, deploy, and measure the performance of your entire social media strategy, all in one place. The toolkit is designed to manage multiple profiles for multiple businesses with an easy-to-read dashboard.

Tool 1: Social Media Ads

If you’re looking to market to new audiences and break through the barriers presented by social media algorithms, then a great way to start is with some ads. The Social Media Ads tool helps you build and launch ad campaigns for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook Audience Network. 

The intuitive interface makes creating a new campaign easy. Select your objective (reach, traffic, or conversions), set your budget, schedule, bidding strategy, then choose your placements, and you’re ready to launch your campaign. 
The Quick UTM option makes accurately tracking your campaigns a breeze. Simply generate UTM codes with the name, source, medium, content, and term parameters of your ads with the click of a button.

With Performance Report, you can check 46 different metrics for your published ad campaigns. Review each of your ad’s strengths and weaknesses to quickly discover optimization opportunities. Scale your good ads or fix those that need a bit of extra tweaking. 

Create & Manage Ad Campaigns with the Social Media Ad Manager

 Tool 2: Social Media Poster

Social Media Poster benefits content creators and others managing a busy content schedule. Draft and schedule content or post directly to Facebook (business pages), LinkedIn, Instagram, Google My Business, Pinterest, and Twitter from the tool:

The friendly calendar interface provides a clear view of your content schedule and easily creates an automated queue. 
You can find out the most effective times to post, or set up RSS feeds to get a stream of inspiration and ideas for your own content.

Scheduling large batches of content is also easy. You can bulk upload your existing content calendar from a CSV. To save time, edit images, or add UTM codes to any hyperlinks in your posts directly in the editor without having to switch in and out of the interface. 

Tool 3: Social Media Tracker

The Social Media Tracker lets you dive into your competitors’ performance metrics so you can quickly see where you’re winning, and where opportunities for improvement lie in your social strategy. 

Compare your engagement and growth rates to those of your competitors on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram Business, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, then quickly generate PDF reports to share with clients or managers. 

Social Media Tracker also lets you see which hashtags your competitors are using in their campaigns. Use the Twitter Mentioners report to monitor customer interactions and see how often your brand is being mentioned versus your competitors. 

With this report, not only can you see which brands and topics are hot, but you can also be ready to react quickly when you need to manage potentially difficult situations, such as concerns or complaints.


Track Your Competitors’ Social Media with the Social Media Tracker

Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring is the process of listening to what your existing and potential customers are saying about your brand and your competitors online. 

When you understand your audience, it allows you to create and publish content that’s strongly aligned to their needs and desires—and this content is likely to perform well. 

With our social media toolkit, taking a comprehensive approach to social media becomes easier. 

Manage profiles across multiple platforms, keep your audience engaged with a regular schedule of relevant content, and compare your competitors’ performance to ensure that you’re not falling behind—or missing an opportunity to outdo them.

Don't forget to share this post!

If your Ecommerce Business isn't offering your customers multiple ways to make payments online, you're leaving money on the table.

While there's no way to escape some transaction fees and currency fees, there are ways to reduce payment processing costs and receive payments online for free.

In this post, we'll talk about the software options available today for accepting free online payments as well as details about how to actually go about accepting those payments.

But first, let's review some additional reasons you'd want to use a payment processing software.

Why should you use payment processing software? Here's a look at some of the advantages payment processing software will bring to your business.

1. Convenience

Convenience is one of the main factors that influence conversion rate. The more steps a customer has to take to make a payment, the more likely they are to abandon their purchase and go elsewhere.

2. Speed

Payment processors can transfer most payments between shoppers and sellers instantly. On the other hand, transfers to and from bank accounts can sometimes take 24 hours or more.

3. Trust

Many payment processors are brands that are globally recognized. If a customer already uses payment software, they're more likely to trust your payment system.

4. Security

Payment processing companies add an extra layer of protection to online transactions. You can set limits, flags for activity on your account, and sometimes even a time frame to recall payments.

5. Record-Keeping

With payment processors, you'll have access to your account online and can manage your contacts, recurring payments, and other account activity via desktop or mobile.

Top Online Payment Processing Providers

Once you've developed a strategy for accepting payments online, you'll need to decide which payment processing provider to use. Here are seven of the most popular options:

1. PayPal

Price: 3.49% plus $0.49 per transaction (as of August, 2021).

PayPal is one of the most trusted and widely recognized payment processing companies. It's free to join and they provide all the tools you'll need to integrate PayPal payments into your website and set up a secure payment gateway for visitors. Additionally, comprehensive coverage makes the platform a good choice for international companies.

2. Stripe

Price: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Stripe offers a wide range of options for online businesses such as customizable checkouts as well as subscription management and recurring payment features. Stripe supports all major credit cards, mobile paying apps, wallets, and more.

3. Square

Price: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

Square entered the payment processing space by introducing a dongle that sellers could insert into a mobile phone to accept credit card transactions.

They've since expanded their software to cover all the major payment processing options and have included some useful tools for online businesses as well as high-street stores.

You can even create a basic website for free and integrate all of their point-of-sale (POS) solutions at the same time. They also have paid options for a custom website.

4. Google Pay

Price: Google Pay doesn't charge any fees — merchants only pay transaction fees as usual with credit/ debit sales.

Google Pay has a payment tool for businesses, websites, and apps. Google Pay's APIs work to create a delightful checkout and payment experience for your customers.

If you use Google Pay on your website, you'll gain secure and easy access to hundreds of millions of cards saved to Google Accounts worldwide so customers can pay for your products safely and at the touch of a button.

5. Apple Pay

Price: Apple Pay doesn't charge any fees — merchants only pay transaction fees as usual with credit/ debit sales.

Apple Pay can be used on websites, in stores, by app, and via Business Chat or iMessage. It allows Apple users to quickly and safely input contact, payment, and shipping information during checkout.

Rather than having your ecommerce customers look around for their credit cards, Apple Pay allows them to checkout at the click of a button within apps and websites. On a website, an Apple users will simply click "Apple Pay" as their payment option, confirm the payment with one tap (via their iPhone, Apple Watch, etc.), and they're good to go.

6. Venmo For Business

Price: 1.9% plus $0.10 of the payment.

Venmo For Business is a mobile payment software and app owned by PayPal. You can choose to allow users to pay via your mobile app or your website.

You can set up a business profile on Venmo so users can quickly find your profile on the app. And if you add Venmo to your website, it'll appear as a payment option right next to where it'll give customers the option to pay with PayPal.

Once a customer selects the Venmo option at checkout, they'll be directed to their Venmo app to complete the transaction. The Venmo payment option can be added to any of the pages of your ecommerce site that would also show the option to pay with PayPal, including your product pages, shopping cart page, and checkout page.

7. Helcim

Price: 2.38% plus $0.25.

Helcim is an online payment solution for ecommerce businesses — you can choose to start an online store from scratch or add a payment solution to your current website.

The easy-to-use and secure online payment system integrates on your website, shopping cart, billing system, and/or app, thanks to Helcim's API. In addition to in-app and via website, Helcim works over the phone, in person, and by invoice, and it integrates with your accounting tools to save you time when it comes to bookkeeping.

Next, let's cover the steps involved in receiving payments online for free.

How to Accept Payments Online for Free
​

1. Create a secure online payment gateway.
2. Facilitate credit and debit card payments.
3. Set up recurring billing.
4. Accept mobile payments.
5. Accept cryptocurrency payments.
6. Use email invoicing.
7. Accept electronic checks (eChecks).

1. Create a secure online payment gateway.

There are a couple of ways you can approach creating a secure online payment gateway. You can hire an outside developer or use your website development team to create a bespoke gateway. Or, you can use third-party software.

Setting up a secure gateway is essential. You're also putting automated processes in place, which will save time on manual processing, especially as you scale your business and handle more transactions.

The more payment methods you make available within your payment portal, the wider the audience, and the easier it'll be for your customers to send you money.

2. Facilitate credit and debit card payments.

Although it may change as mobile payments become more prevalent, using debit/ credit cards is still the most popular way people pay for products and services online. You can easily facilitate accepting card payments through established payment providers such as PayPal or Stripe. These will accept the most-used credit cards worldwide -- Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

3. Set up recurring billing.

If you offer subscription plans or ongoing monthly services, the most efficient and reliable way to invoice and receive payments is via recurring billing. Most of the major payment processing software also includes recurring billing features. For example, Growth Marketing Pro built an SEO tool that charges subscribers on a monthly basis and they used Stripe to set this up.

Sites like Paysimple also offer a suite of tools to set up custom, automated recurring billing if you already have a payment processing system in place.

Using automation is essential. It removes most human error and the stress of keeping track of invoicing and payments.
Your customers can commit to recurring payments with just a few clicks, and you won't have to worry about manually managing your customer base.

4. Accept mobile payments.

These days, people are often more likely to have their phones on hand than debit cards — plus, mobile payment apps are more convenient than ever.

For instance, Apple Pay has quickly become one of the most popular mobile payment systems in the United States. With an estimated 43.9 million users, you'd miss out if you didn't accept Apple Pay.

Google Pay, Venmo, and PayPal also have mobile apps with a decent market share.

5. Accept cryptocurrency payments.

If you're okay with handling cryptocurrencies, it's a way you can extend your reach to a broader online audience. Sites like Bitpay provide all the tools you need to accept crypto payments online, send invoices, request payments, and receive money on the go-through apps.

Because they're a decentralized exchange, cryptocurrencies offer some unique benefits for businesses. You can accept payments from anywhere in the world without incurring currency exchange fees or bank handling fees. There's also a reduced risk of fraud.

6. Use email invoicing.

Email invoicing is a proactive way to request payments. You can share a payment form through email or add a link redirecting the recipient to a payment portal. However, there are a couple of issues with this method: Email isn't the most reliable form of communication, and customers can have trust issues making payments via email.

Expect a failure rate, but it's a vital part of payment processing for a lot of businesses.

7. Accept electronic checks (eChecks).

To accept eChecks for payment, you need a form where the user can input their information, which you can see using payment processing software. It's basically a way to pay by check online. It's a quicker and more reliable way than sending a paper check through the post, so offering this to your customers will make the process run smoother.

Start Accepting Payments Online For Free

No matter which payment processing software you choose, the most important part is making it easy for the customer to pay. And the more ways they can pay, the more likely your customers will follow through on a purchase.

Marketers, can we be honest with each other for a second? On a scale of 1-10, how much do you really understand the world of paid advertising?

Although 45% of small businesses do some form of online advertising, pay-per-click is still a concept that eludes many of us.

As a marketer, PPC is a skill that you should have in your tool belt — or at least have a basic understanding of.
This guide will help you grasp pay-per-click marketing in its entirety. To start, we’ll begin with the benefits of paid advertising and then get into some key definitions that you’ll need to know.

1. PPC Terms & Definitions
2. Best PPC Platforms
3. Benefits of PPC
4. How to Build a PPC Campaign
5. PPC Best Practices
6. PPC Manage-ment

What is PPC?

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of advertising that allows you to pay a fee to have your website on the search engine result page (SERP) when someone types in specific keywords or phrases to the search engine. The SERP will display the ads you create to direct visitors to your site, and the fee you pay is based on whether people click your ad.

When done right, PPC can earn you quality leads. If you can create a seamless user journey (which you’ll learn how to do later in this piece), it could mean a massive ROI for your PPC efforts.

Pay-per-click advertising is most common in search engine results pages, like Google or Bing, but is also used on social channels (although CPM is more common).

If you’re wondering where you can find pay-per-click ads, they’re the results you see before and to the right of the organic search results. For instance, check out the ad that came up in my search for "cards.”


PPC Terms and Definitions

What’s a marketing channel without a few acronyms and a little jargon? If you’re going to enter the paid advertising space, there are a few terms you should know. Below, we review the main elements of a PPC campaign, ranging from broad to the more specific.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

The objective of all forms of digital advertising is to rank for a target keyword, which you can do in several ways. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to any digital marketing (paid or unpaid) done on a search engine, like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

SEM is an umbrella term that encompasses both paid advertising and search engine optimization, that is, ranking organically for keywords. It’s important to note that not all PPC occurs on search engines — social media has PPC ads, too (think: Facebook Ads).

CPCCost-per-click (CPC) is the amount that an advertiser pays for each click on your ad. CPC acts as your bid in an auction that determines where your ad will be placed. As you can imagine, a higher bid equates to better ad placement.

You set your CPC at the maximum price you are willing to pay per click on your ad. What you actually pay is determined by the following formula:

This value determines the position of an ad on a search engine results page. It’s equal to Maximum Bid  and Quality Score. Quality ScoreThis is the score that search engines give to your ad based on your clickthrough rate (CTR) — measured against the average CTR of ads in that position — the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERP.

Maximum Bid. This is the maximum you're willing to pay per click on your ad. You can set your CPC to manual, where you determine the maximum bid for your ads, or enhanced, which allows the search engines to adjust your bid based on your goals. One of these enhanced options involves bid strategies that automatically adjust your bids based on either clicks or conversions.

CPM (Cost per Mille)CPM, also known as cost per thousand, is the cost per one thousand impressions. It’s most commonly used for paid social and display ads. There are other types of cost-pers… like cost-per-engagement, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), but for the sake of preserving your mental space, we’re going to stick with clicks, a.k.a. CPC.

CampaignThe first step in setting up your PPC ads is determining your ad campaign. You can think of your campaign as the key message or theme you want to get across with your advertisements.

Ad GroupOne size doesn’t fit all. That’s why you’ll create a series of ads within your campaign based on a set of highly related keywords. You can set a CPC for each ad group that you create.

KeywordsEach ad within your ad group will target a set of relevant keywords or key terms. These keywords tell search engines which terms or search queries you want your ad to be displayed alongside in SERPs. Once you determine which keywords perform best, you can set a micro CPC specifically for keywords within your ads.

Ad TextYour keywords should inform your ad text. Remember, your Quality Score is determined by how relevant your ad is; therefore, the text in your ad (and landing page, for that matter) should match the keyword terms you’re targeting.

Landing Page

landing page is a critical piece of your paid advertising strategy. The landing page is where users will end up once they click your PPC ad. Whether it’s a dedicated webpage, your homepage, or somewhere else, make sure to follow landing page best practices to maximize conversions.


Best PPC PlatformsNow that you understand the PPC basics, I’m guessing your next question is: Where should I advertise? There are dozens of online spaces where you can spend your coveted ad money, and the best way to vet them is by taking a close look at your potential ROI on each platform.

The most popular advertising platforms are effective because they’re easy to use and, most importantly, highly trafficked. But for a smaller budget, you might consider a lesser-known alternative to these key players.

When choosing a platform, some other things to consider are the availability of keyword terms, where your target audience spends their time, and your advertising budget.

Here a non-exhaustive list of some of the top PPC platforms. Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords)

How many times a day do you hear the phrase “Let me Google that?” Probably more than you can count … hence why Google Ads is the king of paid advertising.

On average, Google processes over 90,000 search queries every second, giving you plenty of opportunities to target keywords that will get your intended audience to click. The downside is that keywords are highly competitive on this platform, meaning a larger ad spend.

Bing Ads

The perks of using Bing Ads over Google Ads is a slightly lower CPC at the expense of a larger audience, of course.
Facebook AdsFacebook Ads blend in with other posts on the platform.

Facebook Ads is a popular and effective platform for paid ads (more commonly used as CPM than CPC), mainly due to its specific targeting options. Facebook allows you to target users based on interests, demographics, location, and behaviors.

Also, Facebook allows for native ads, which means ads are introduced and blend into the social feed. Not to mention, you can use Facebook Ads to advertise on Instagram as well.

AdRoll is a retargeting platform that advertises to people who have already visited your website. For instance, say someone read your article on cheese making. You can retarget them on other sites they visit with display ads that advertise your online cooking classes.

While retargeting is possible with Google Ads, the benefit of using AdRoll is that it can display ads on Google and social media sites, which gives you more opportunities to capture clicks or impressions, depending on your goal.

RevContent focuses specifically on promoting content through PPC. It has the same impact as a guest post, where your content is displayed on an external site, except it’s in the form of an ad. You still bid on keywords, and your advertisement is displayed next to content relevant to those keywords. With this platform, you’ll reap the benefits of a low CPC and highly engaged traffic.


How does PPC work?

Pay-per-click, PPC, is a paid advertising model that falls under search engine marketing (SEM). With PPC, the advertiser only pays when people interact with their ad through impressions or clicks. With that explanation out of the way, now let's look at some benefits of PPC ads.

Benefits of PPC

1. PPC ads are cost-effective.
2. PPC ads produce fast results.
3. You can easily control and test PPC ads.
4. PPC ads allow you to target your ideal customers.
5. Algorithm changes have little effect on PPC ads.
6. PPC ads help you rank even with low domain ratings.
7. Data from PPC ads can improve your SEO strategy.

1. PPC ads are cost-effective.With PPC ad campaigns, you have complete control over how much you’re willing to spend. Since you only pay when visitors click the link leading to your website or landing page — with a high chance of conversion — you’ll be getting your money’s worth.

2. PPC ads produce fast results.Although organic ranking is great, it sometimes takes months or even years to get on the first page on SERPs. If you’re a startup or small business, you likely don’t have the time to wait for the effect of organic, social, or direct traffic to kick in.  That’s where PPC ads come in. With optimized PPC ads, you can shoot yourself to the top of the SERP within hours of launching your campaign.

3. You can easily control and test PPC ads.It’s easy to control the keywords you’re targeting, ad placement, or budget with PPC ads. You can also run A/B split tests with different ads to identify the one that produces the highest return on investment. You can then scale the ads that do well until it no longer produces desirable results.

4. PPC ads allow you to target your ideal customers.With PPC ads, you can skip right past cold audiences to target a warm audience that’s ready to buy your products and services. You can bid on keywords that solution-aware personas would search for online. Aside from keywords, PPC ads also offer targeting options like past online activity or demographics. 

Another excellent use of PPC ads is to create retargeting campaigns targeting visitors who didn’t purchase after landing on your site.

5. Algorithm changes have little effect on PPC ads.Between the numerous Google algorithm changes and the 200 ranking factors, trying to get free traffic from search engines is a bit unstable compared to PPC advertising. 

With PPC ads, you don’t have to worry about algorithm changes but instead focus on how well your campaigns perform.

6. PPC ads help you rank even with low domain ratings.Keywords have become increasingly competitive. This makes it more difficult for a business with a low domain authority to get into the top rankings on a search engine or in front of its target audience on a social platform. 

With PPC advertising, you can quickly rank for keywords your audience is searching, irrespective of your domain ratings. 

7. Data from PPC ads can improve your SEO strategy.You shouldn’t ditch all your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts altogether — your paid advertising should complement your SEO strategy instead of replacing it.

When people search for your keywords, you know their search intent and can display the most relevant ad to your audience. This means more clicks and a greater chance of conversion.


SEO vs. PPC

SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website to rank high and gain free traffic from search engines. On the other hand, you’ll have to pay for clicks with PPC. Although different, businesses see the best results when they align SEO and PPC in their marketing.

PPC vs. CPC

PPC and CPC are not technically the same thing. PPC refers to a style of marketing that includes paying for advertisements. CPC, or cost-per-click, refers to the amount of money you spend on a single click on your ad.


How to Build a PPC Campaign

Now that you understand the benefits of PPC and have your key terms, let’s dive into crafting a quality PPC campaign using Google AdWords or some other platform.

You don’t need to tackle these items step-by-step, but you will need to work through each of them to ensure that you create an effective marketing campaign.

Set Parameters

I know I said that you don’t need to do these things in order, but you should do this step first. Without parameters, you risk your ad being untargeted and ineffective. 

You want to put your ad campaigns into the context of your ultimate business goals. Consider how your paid campaigns will contribute to those goals. Then, think about what you want to accomplish with your ads — whether that be visits, sales, brand awareness, or something else — and how much you’re willing to spend to achieve that goal.
Your ads should encompass a few things:

• Who you want to target
• Theme of your campaign
• How you will measure success
• Type of campaign you will run

​
Create Goals and Goal MetricsYour campaign goals will give you something to show for your ad spend as long as you determine how you will measure those goals. Your goal metrics should not be confused with your campaign metrics, which we’ll discuss below.

Let’s touch on some common PPC goals and how to measure them.

Brand awareness is how familiar your target audience is with your company. It might be a good idea to look into display ads for this goal so you can supplement your copy with engaging imagery. You can measure brand awareness through social engagement, surveys, and direct traffic.

Lead generation is the direct result of having a relevant and engaging landing page to follow your paid ad. Since you will create a separate landing page for each ad group, you should be able to easily track lead conversions either in the Google Ads interface via a tracking pixel, or through UTM parameters.

Offer promotion is great if you’re running a limited-time offer, product or service discount, or contest. You should create a dedicated sign-up page or a unique discount code so you know which users came from your ad.

Site traffic is a great goal if you have high-quality content throughout your website. If you’re going to spend money getting people to visit your site, you want to have some level of confidence that you can keep them there and eventually convert them into leads.

Choose Your Campaign Type

You don’t only need to know where you’ll advertise but also how. There are many different types of paid advertising campaigns, and the one you choose depends on where you can reach your audience. That isn’t to say that you can’t advertise through various means; you can also try a combination of campaign types as long as you’re consistently testing and revising.

Search Ads are the most common type of PPC and refer to the text ads that show up on search engine results pages.
Display Ads allow you to place ads (usually image-based) on external websites, including social. There are several ways to buy display ads, including Google Display Network (GDN) and other ad networks.

Social refers to any ads that you see on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. You can pay to show up in your target audience’s social feed or somewhere else within their profile, depending on the platform.
Remarketing can use either cookies or a list of contacts that you upload to target people who have previously engaged with your company through some action. That action could be filling out a form, reading a blog, or simply visiting a page on your website.

Google Shopping is most effective for ecommerce sites. Your ad — including image, price, and a short product description — will show on a carousel on a search page based on your target keywords.

Perform Keyword ResearchEach ad group you create needs to be assigned a set of keywords to target — that’s how search engines know when and where to display your ad. The general rule of thumb is to select between one to five keywords per ad group, and those keywords should be extremely relevant — your Quality Score depends on it.

Select keywords that are closely aligned with the specific theme of your ad group. If you find keywords you want to target that fall outside of one theme, you should create a separate ad group for them.

It’s important to note that you’re not stuck with the keywords you start with. In fact, you should closely monitor your keyword list throughout your campaign — eliminating those that don’t bring in the types of visitors that you’re looking for and increasing your bids on those that do. Do your best to select the most relevant keywords, but don’t feel pressured to get it 100% right the first time around.

Set Up Google Analytics and Tracking

Google Analytics is free to use, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t install it on your website. The tool provides insights into how your website is performing, how users interact with your pages, and what content is attractive to visitors. The information gathered from Google Analytics can be used for PPC and beyond.

Best Practices for a Quality PPC StrategyYou didn’t think we’d let you spend your hard-earned money on advertisements without providing some best practices to follow, did you? Of course not. We want to make sure you succeed with your next PPC campaign. So, let’s get into some PPC strategies that will help you maximize your efforts and your budget.

As a note, we’re going to dive specifically into paid search ads (those little guys you see in search engines) here.

PPC Ad Copy

Bidding on targeted keywords will get your ad in front of the right people; good ad copy will get those people to click on your ad. Like your keywords, your ad needs to solve for the intent of the searcher — you need to give the searcher exactly what they’re looking for and make sure that is clear through the words you use.

Search ads are comprised of a headline, a URL, and a short description, and each of these has limited character requirements to follow. To make the most of this space, make sure your ad copy does the following:

• Speak directly to your target persona.
• Include the main keyword that you’re bidding on.
• Provide an actionable CTA so the searcher knows what to do next.
• Make the offer appealing.
• Use language that matches your landing page copy.
• Perform A/B Split tests with your copy.

Landing Page Best Practices

Arguably the most important element of PPC (after your ad copy) is the page that you send leads to after they click on your ad. This page needs to be highly targeted, relevant to your ad, deliver what was promised, and present a seamless experience.

Why? Because the point of your landing page is to convert your new visitor into a lead or customer. Not only that, but a high-converting landing page will improve your Quality Score, leading to better ad placements. There’s nothing that will diminish PPC profits like a poorly crafted landing page.

What should a PPC landing page include to increase conversions? Glad you asked.

• Strong headline that mirrors your search ad
• Clean design and layout
• Responsive form that is easy to use with a stand-out CTA button
• Copy that is very specific and relevant to your target keywords
• Presents the offer that was promised in your ad
• A/B tested

A/B Testing Your PPC Ads

​As a marketer, you’ll rarely throw something out to your audience that works without testing it. PPC campaigns are no different. A/B testing is as critical to your paid ad campaign as is every other element. The goal of testing your ad is to increase both your clickthrough rate and your conversion rate.

The good news is that ads comprise just four parts that you’ll need to test: headline, description, landing page, and target keywords. Minor tweaks to just one of these elements can significantly alter your results, so you want to make changes one at a time so you can keep track of where improvements come from.

Since there are many variations that you could test one at a time, it’s a good idea to list out all the potential tests you can run and prioritize them by most significant impact. Finally, you should allow your ads to run long enough to gather the data you need and test them early enough, so you don’t waste budget on a poor-performing ad.

Maximizing Your ROI

At a high level, maximizing ROI on your ad campaigns means considering customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs, which will help you determine how much is worth spending on a new lead and how much of that spend can come from paid advertising.

To get more granular, we need to talk inputs and outputs, that is 1) lowering your input (cost per lead [CPL]) and 2) increasing your return (revenue).

There are a few factors to keep an eye on that will affect both, so let’s break it down.

Ways to Decrease Inputs

• Determine an ad budget before you get started.
• Create more relevant ads. The more relevant, the lower your CPC.
• Improve your Quality Score. The higher your QS, the less search engines will charge you for clicks.

​
Ways to Increase Revenue

• Follow landing page best practices to increase conversion rates.
• Go after quality leads by being specific with your ad. The more quality your leads, the more likely they will convert and eventually become customers.
  
  

Additional PPC Tips and TricksThere are a few other things you can do to maximize the ROI of your paid ads, whether it’s time spent, budget, clicks, or conversions.

Google allows you to tailor your audience so you save marketing dollars and get in front of the right people. You can upload a customer list so that you don’t waste money on people who have already bought from you.

Google also has options for prospecting audiences. For instance, In-Market Audiences employs user behavior tracking to put you in front of prospects who are in the market for a product or service like yours.

You can also increase your bid for more relevant subgroups within your target audience — a practice called layering audiences. 

Bid Adjustments. Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease your bids based on performance. You can even make these adjustments based on different categories, like device, demographics, language, and more.
For example, if a keyword isn’t performing as well on mobile as on desktop, you can add a negative bid adjustment so that when someone searches your keyword on mobile, you’ll bid X% lower than your normal bid.

Custom Ad SchedulingYou can set up ad scheduling in Google Ads to display your ad only during specific days and times. This can cut down on ad spend and improve relevance for your target audience.

Sitelink Extensions. Sitelink extensions allow you to supplement your ad with additional information. For instance, if you’re running an ad for a seasonal promotion at a local store, you can add a sitelink extension to display your store hours and location. These extensions take up more real estate on SERPs and, therefore, stand out. Not only that, but they play a role in improving your Ad Rank.

Conversion tracking monitors how your landing page is performing via a tracking code that you place on the page where people land after completing your form (usually a “Thank You” page). By enabling this feature, you’ll be better equipped to make adjustments that can improve your conversions.

Keyword Monitoring. Don’t let too much time pass before you check how your keywords are performing. You can place higher bids on the keywords that are creating the best results for your campaign, and “defund” or eliminate others.

Match Types. Match Types in Google Ads allows you to choose how closely related you want your ad group to be associated with a search team. There are four match types: broad, modified broad, phrase, and exact match. Google will display your ad in results according to your selection.

For example, if your keyword phrase is “how to catch geese” and you select “broad match,” then Google will display your ad for queries that include any word in your key phrase in any order, including “geese catch” and “geese catch how.”

Negative KeywordsA negative keyword list tells search engines what you don’t want to rank for, which is equally as important as what you do. You might know some of these upfront, but likely you’ll determine these keywords by what isn’t performing so well within your campaign.

Social Media Ads

Although CPM is more common on social platforms, social media sites do offer PPC that works similarly to search engine ads in that you set a budget and bid on ad placements.

The difference is social media ads can show up directly in your news feed on most platforms, decreasing the effectiveness of ad blockers. Social platforms, like Facebook, let you set targeted demographics and target people based on interests. While paid search is more keyword-focused, paid social broadens into a demographic focus, leading to more ways to target your persona.

Social media has two paid ad functions that are critical to ad success — retargeting and Lookalike Audiences. Retargeting is remarketing to people based on site visits or manually uploaded contact lists. Lookalike Audiences reviews the people on your marketing list and creates an audience that parallels your list, expanding your potential target. Paid social also allows for a wider variety of ad types, like images, videos, text, and more.

PPC Management and TrackingPaid advertising is not “set it and forget it.” You need to manage and constantly monitor your ads to ensure that you’re reaching optimal results. Management, analysis, and tracking are crucial to a PPC campaign because they provide you with valuable insights and help you create a more effective campaign.

What is PPC management?

PPC management covers a wide range of techniques, including creating and adjusting goals, split testing, introducing new keywords, optimizing conversion paths, and shifting plans to reach goals.

Managing your PPC means looking at your strategy and ad spend. On the one hand, it means iterating on your plan to optimize keyword effectiveness. On the other hand, it means thinking about how to allocate resources to specific keywords and how to adjust those resources to maximize ROI.

A good management strategy also pays attention to providers — like search engines, social platforms, and ad networks — to monitor changes and updates that could affect paid campaigns.

Overall, PPC management is a hefty undertaking, which is why investing in solid PPC management tools could be a great idea.

PPC Tools and Software

With all of the variables that you need to track, PPC management tools should make things easier. You can opt to monitor your ads within the platform, but if you’re looking for additional assistance and organization, a robust, easy-to-read spreadsheet or sophisticated software that gives you insight into your ad performance is vital.

If you plan to go the software route, there are some features that you want to look for: multi-user support, cross-platform management, A/B testing, scheduling, reporting, and ad grading.

Here’s a list of some popular, highly-rated PPC software and resources. PPC Metrics to TrackMetrics are everything (but you already knew that). Here are some key metrics to track within your PPC campaign.

Clicks refer to the total number of clicks you receive on an ad. This metric is affected by your keyword selection and the relevance of your ad copy.

Cost per click (CPC) measures the price you pay for each click on your ad.

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the percentage of ad views that result in clicks. This metric determines how much you pay (CPC). CTR benchmarks vary by industry.

Impressions are the number of times an ad is viewed. Cost per mille (CPM) is determined for every thousand impressions. Impressions are most relevant for brand awareness campaigns. 
Ad spend is the amount you are spending on your ads. You can optimize this by improving your Quality Score.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the ROI of your ad campaign. This metric calculates the revenue received for every dollar spent on ads.
Conversion rate refers to the percentage of people that complete the call-to-action on your landing page and become a lead or customer.
Cost per conversion refers to the cost to generate a lead. This is calculated as the total cost of an ad divided by the number of conversions.
Quality Score (QS) determines ad positioning, so it’s an important metric to keep an eye on.
By paying close attention to each of these metrics, you can increase the ROI of your paid campaign and spend less for better results.

Go Paid! Whether you just started your business yesterday or have been around for decades, PPC just might be the boost you need to get an edge on your competition — or at least ahead of them in the SERPs. 

Applying the lessons found in this guide about building a PPC campaign and the best practices for a quality PPC strategy would set you well on your way to improving your website’s traffic and conversions.

Have you ever double-tapped an image on Instagram, reacted to a video on Facebook, or clicked a search result in Google, only to realize afterward that it was actually an ad?

Maybe you never realized it was an ad at all — you just thought it was a cute picture of a dog.
More than ever, ads can be contextual, relevant, targeted, and helpful in ways they never could before. In short, ads today are content.

But the online advertising landscape is changing.

New platforms, ad types, and targeting capabilities are popping up all the time.

Let's dig into everything you need to know about online advertising across ad platforms for social media, paid search, display, and native advertising.

If you're only interested in learning about a certain type of online advertising, you can use the table of contents below to navigate to each section.

1. How to Advertise Online
2. Social Media Advertising
3. Paid Search Advertising
4. Native Advertising
5. Display Advertising

How to Advertise Online

93% of all online interactions start with a search engine, and with those odds, you can catch the attention of the audience you want through online advertising.


There’s plenty of ways to advertise your business strategically. Think about who you’re trying to reach when you start. Ask yourself “What target demographic am I advertising to?” and “How can I place my product or service offering in front of my target?”.

The answer is to see where your target demographic spends the most time online. Research their most frequented social media channels and most searched keywords. You can take this information and translate it to organic and paid marketing.

Not all online advertising has to cost money, people can find your business organically through social media marketing. Making a business page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even TikTok can capture people’s interest through engaging posts and content.

Now if you want to use pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, most social media offers business pages the ability to pay a fee to promote posts/ads within the interface. Or if you are looking to advertise on a search engine for targeted keywords, Google Ads or sixads can guide you through the process of payment and execution.

There are three key ways that digital advertising can help you improve the performance of your organic marketing efforts.

With digital ads, organic performance can benefit from:

1. An increase in brand awareness by displaying your content to individuals within and outside of your networks.
2. A better understanding of your audiences by leveraging the targeting and analytics of the ads platforms.
3. The creation of higher-performing content by understanding what ad content helps you achieve your business goals and what doesn't.

​​

The goal of any ads strategy should be to get a positive return on your investment, which comes down to whether you're getting more revenue out of the ad campaign than the cost you're putting in.

How can you determine what your ad spend should be to get the most return on your investment? To start answering that question, we'll need to understand the bidding system used by the ad networks.

A bid is the maximum amount of money you're willing to pay for the desired action on your ad. If it sounds like an auction, that's because it is an auction. Ad networks have a limited amount of ad space, and to determine whether or not your ads are shown to your target audience, they run an auction to see how much each advertiser is willing to pay for ad space.

Just like in an auction, the highest bidder wins. Let's say you bid $10 for a click on your ad, and the next highest bidder only pays $5 for a click.

Each ad network will only make you pay the lowest amount possible to win the bid. In this example, you might be willing to pay $10, but in reality, you'll only have to pay $5.01 to win the bid. Winning this "auction," in addition to the overall quality of your ads, will determine how your ads are displayed on the different ad networks.

At this point, you might be thinking, "Okay, I get how the auction system works. But how do I figure out how much I should actually spend to see a return on my investment?"

My advice is to work backward from your revenue to determine what your maximum bid should be.
Use this equation:

Lifetime Value (LTV) x Average Lead-to-Customer Rate x Average Conversion Rate

Your LTV is how much a customer is worth to you throughout their relationship with your business. The average lead-to-customer rate is the rate at which your leads become paying customers. And your conversion rate is the rate at which new contacts convert on your content offers by filling out a form.

Combined, these metrics show you how much you should spend on your paid ads to break even.

Let's say that you want to use digital ads to promote your new content offer. You're going to need to know what your maximum ad spend should be to see a positive return on your investment. Assume that you know the following about your business:

• Lifetime value: $500
• Average lead-to-customer rate: 10%
• Average conversion rate: 20%

Plug these numbers into the equation above to determine what your maximum ad spend should be: $500 x 0.10 x 0.20 = $10. This means that you can spend a maximum of $10 per click on your ad to break even. Your goal should be to spend less than $10 to see a positive return on your investment.

Types of Online AdvertisingNow that we know more about how to advertise online, let's dive into the various types of online advertising.

Social Media Advertising

Every month, there are nearly 2.5 billion active users on Facebook, 1 billion on Instagram, and 330 million on Twitter worldwide.

Whether it's to chat with friends, stay connected to people across the globe, or for business and networking purposes, consumers are on social media for a multitude of reasons — and marketers know it. Because of the sheer number of active users on these platforms, advertising spend invested in social media channels is at an all-time high. Social media advertising across the world is projected to exceed $8.5 billion this year.

Advertising on social media comes with many advantages. You can:

• Reach very specific target audiences with the help of targeting features and different audiences across all of the social media platforms.
• Leverage a variety of ad formats to advertise in a way that aligns with your business goals.
• Invest in the specific advertising efforts that drive leads and sales for your business.​

Let's take a look at eight popular social media networks, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. We'll cover the audiences and ad types available on each one.

1. FacebookFacebook is the most widely used social media network. Almost 2.5 billion people around the world use Facebook. That's more than 30% of the world's population.

With so many people using Facebook, you're almost guaranteed to be able to reach an audience that's relevant to any type of business. That's where one of the most powerful features of advertising on Facebook comes in: audience targeting. The targeting capabilities on Facebook are unmatched by any other social media network.
There are three types of audiences that you can target on Facebook:

1. Core audiences: An audience based on criteria like age, interests, and geography.
2. Custom audiences: Get back in touch with people who have previously engaged with your business.
3. Lookalike audiences: Reach new people whose interests are similar to those of your best customers.

​​
Facebook's advanced targeting can be used to target your ads to the most relevant audience — and even tap into new audiences you'd otherwise never reach with organic content alone.
Advertising on Facebook includes a range of ad types, including:

• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Story ads
• Lead ads ​

Photo ads are great for sharing collections of image content. Video ads are great for product explainer videos and branding. Story ads allow you to use a combination of photo and short-form video content. 

Personally, my favorite way to advertise on Facebook is with lead ads because they give you the best of both worlds: sharing visual content and generating leads all at the same time. Facebook Lead Ads allow you to capture lead information without directing people out of the Facebook platform.


No matter your business' size or industry, you can use lead ads to find potential customers who are likely interested in your products or services. With lead ads, you provide a helpful piece of content that encourages viewers to sign up for a newsletter, receive a price estimate, or request additional business information. In return, when the viewer fills out the form, the business receives a new lead.

Another way to advertise on Facebook is through Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger is a separate messaging app that comes with its own advertising opportunities. Facebook Messenger is the go-to messaging app in countries including the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Other messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat are the more popular choice in countries throughout South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Across the world, 20 billion messages are exchanged between people and businesses every month on Facebook Messenger. Ads play a big part in initiating conversations on Facebook Messenger.

There are a few different ways you can use Facebook Messenger as part of your advertising strategy.
​

• Facebook Messenger call-to-action in ads: Start conversations with ads on Facebook that include a call-to-action to send a message.
• Facebook Messenger Story Ads: Run story ads on Messenger Stories.
• Facebook Messenger Ads: Use messenger ads to deliver content directly into users' Facebook Messenger chats.

All of these ad types come together to encourage your audience to kick off conversations with your business. They can be used to get in contact with a sales team, request more information on a product, or even share other content like blog posts or ebooks.

My favorite way to advertise on Facebook Messenger is retargeting. Retargeting ads in Facebook Messenger are a great way to start targeted conversations and send personalized offers and content.

Sponsored messages allow you to advertise to people who have already interacted with your business in Messenger. This is a great way to re-engage your audience in a personalized way.


2. Instagram

You can also advertise on Instagram through the Facebook Ads Manager. Instagram has over 1 billion monthly users globally. That's a little less than half of the number of users on Facebook. The majority of users are between the ages of 18 and 34.

There are three ways that you can advertise on Instagram:

1. Promote posts and stories directly from your Instagram professional account.
2. Create ads from your Facebook Page and promote them on both Facebook and Instagram.
3. Create ad campaigns in the Facebook Ads Manager to access full targeting capabilities. ​

I recommend taking the third option and creating custom campaigns for your audience on Instagram.
Instagram has similar ad types to Facebook, including:

• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Story ads
• Ads in Explore
• Shopping Post ads ​

By far, the most interesting ad types right now are ads in the Explore Tab and Shopping Post ads. People using Instagram Explore are exploring their interests and discovering new content creators. Ads in Instagram Explore are a great opportunity to put your brand in front of a new audience.


Shopping Post ads allow you to include a tag that shows the product's name and price within your image. Clicking on the tag takes your prospects directly to a product page where they can purchase the item — all without leaving the Instagram app.

3. LinkedInThe LinkedIn platform has over 660 million monthly active members worldwide. Users on the platform are largely made up of working professionals which makes LinkedIn a great place for B2B (business-to-business) advertising. LinkedIn is the go-to platform for working professionals, which provides B2B advertisers a large audience pool to reach.

Plus, the advantage of advertising on LinkedIn is its unique targeting capabilities. On LinkedIn, you'll have access to unique targeting criteria that isn't available on other platforms.

You can target users on LinkedIn by unique demographics, including job title, job function, and industry. Maybe you only want to advertise to potential customers at the director level who work in customer service within the recruiting industry. LinkedIn's targeting capabilities make that possible.

Plus, with the option to include lead gen forms in your LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn can be a lead generation machine. This will allow you to not only reach a very specific audience but drive leads without directing them outside of the LinkedIn platform.

The most interesting ad type of LinkedIn is Message Ads. Message Ads allow you to send direct messages to your prospects to spark immediate action.

How to use LinkedIn Message Ads:

• Deliver a targeted message with a single CTA.
• Drive stronger engagement and response than traditional emails.
• Measure the impact of your messages. ​

But a word of warning: Don't send too many Message Ads to the same people or it will come off like spam. And, make sure the messages sound authentic – if you were writing a LinkedIn message to a friend, what would you write in it?

If your Message Ads are too stiff, they'll come off as spammy, too. Remember: This channel is a one-to-one conversation. Direct messages are sacred spaces – if you're going to advertise there, you need to be extra careful about taking the time to make your Message Ads feel personal and relevant to your end-users. Make sure you're delivering value to them in a way that feels authentic.

4. Twitter

Digital advertising is less common on Twitter because organic reach is still a significant driver of a brand's performance on Twitter. This is very unique to Twitter – but even so, ads can still deliver strong results depending on what your goals are. Twitter has over 330 million monthly users globally. The majority of users are between 35–65 years old.

Advertisers have discovered a few niches that have high engagement on Twitter: B2B and e-commerce. Many B2B companies are using Twitter as a digital marketing tool, and Twitter users are known to spend a lot of money online. This makes advertising specifically to these audiences a great strategy.

Twitter breaks down its ads into five goals:

• Awareness: Promote your tweets and maximize your reach.
• Tweet engagement: Promote your tweets and get more retweets, likes, and replies.
• Follows: Promote your account and grow your Twitter following.
• Website clicks: Promote your website and get more traffic.
• App downloads: Promote your app and get more downloads.

​

All of these can work together to help you grow your audience on the platform and convert users into customers.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is a unique social media platform with 300 million users who are highly engaged and predominantly female. Some people say that Pinterest is the only platform where users actually want to see ads from brands they love because Pinterest is all about visuals.

How to advertise on Pinterest in four steps:

1. Pick a pin: Promote your best pins so they appear in the most relevant places.
2. Decide who sees it: Set up targeting so the right people see your ads.
3. Pay for results: Choose to pay for engagement or visits to your site.
4. Track what's working: Once your campaign starts, see how it's doing and make changes.

Pinterest is great for businesses relying on photography to sell their products and who have a female target buyer persona.

6. YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine, second only to Google, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Ads on YouTube appear before and during other YouTube videos or as a stand-alone promoted video that's displayed after performing a search.

Since you can target demographic information and interests, you can serve your videos to specific relevant audiences already watching videos from similar brands or on related topics.

7. Snapchat

Snapchat's 218 million users are predominantly made up of people between the ages of 18–24.

Snapchat offers a few ad types, including story ads, sponsored tiles in Snapchat Discover, and augmented reality (AR) lenses.

Snapchat's ad types feel pretty similar to the advertising options on Instagram. What really makes Snapchat unique is the augmented reality lenses. AR lenses are sponsored by a business to create interactive moments that users can use and share with their friends. It might be hard to believe, but in this example from Dominos that pizza isn't really there — that's the AR lens at work.

8. Tiktok

One of the newer — and most popular — players in the social media advertising world is TikTok. TikTok is all about creating short, creative, and oftentimes funny videos. TikTok has exploded in the past few years and has reached 500 million monthly users.

Advertising options are still limited; they are mainly geared towards driving awareness. TikTok doesn't hyperlink posts to websites and only recently started allowing advertising, so businesses advertising on TikTok focus on boosting brand awareness rather than leads or traffic.

Promoting TikTok videos allow brands to build awareness with a young target audience. Most of the posts you'll see on TikTok are aimed at getting laughs. From a brand perspective, you'll want to create videos that are funny and align with other content on the platform. Think of things like dance challenges and memes. This type of content is the most effective.

Paid Search AdvertisingPeople searching online are looking for something specific and will click on the first result they believe is going to be the most helpful to them.

You might be thinking: "I already appear in organic results on search engines. Why should I pay to advertise too?"
Well, there are three key reasons:

1. On average, digitally prepared businesses anticipate four times better revenue compared to the less-prepared ones
2. Advertising on search engines protects you from the competition who may be advertising on your branded terms.
3. Search ads appear first in the search engine results pages (SERPs) above the organic results.

​​

Paid search advertising allows advertisers to capture the attention of their audience in a more targeted way than with organic search alone.

Search ads allow you to anticipate the wants, needs, and desires of your potential customers and serve ads to them that are highly contextual. Over time, the analytics of your search ads can help you analyze and improve those ads to reach even more people.

But how does Google know how to deliver the right ad to the right person? That's where keywords come into play. A keyword is one word or phrase that someone uses to describe what they need in search. Advertising on search platforms takes the targeting capabilities available on social media platforms, like demographics and location, and layers it with the addition of keywords.

When a Google user types a query into the search field, Google returns a range of results that match the searcher's intent. Keywords align with what a searcher wants and will satisfy their query. You select keywords based on which queries you want to display your ad alongside.

Keyword research is just as important for paid ads as it is for organic search. That's because Google matches your ad with search queries based on the keywords you selected. Each ad group you create within your campaign will target a small set of keywords and Google will display your ad based on those selections.

Let's say Mary is moving to a different house and is looking for a home mover. So she goes into Google and types "who are the best movers." By searching "best home movers," she's going to see results for advertisers that targeted keywords like "moving companies" and "top-rated movers."

Search engines also consider your intent when choosing the types of ads to display.

In the example above, search ads were the most helpful resource. But what if you're looking for a location-based business, like a coffee shop? In Google maps, you might see “Promoted Pins” like these, shown in purple on the map and in the search results on the left. Promoted Pins are a great way for businesses to attract customers to their business based on location.

What if you're looking to make a purchase? Well, Google might show you a different kind of post to match your intent, such as Shopping Post Ads.

In this example below, Google shows you shopping post ads for the keyword "buy snowboard." Since my query includes the word "buy," Google knows that I'm interested in making a purchase, so I am shown ads for products I might be interested in.

So how do you select your keywords?

Keywords typically fall under two categories: brand and non-brand.


Brand and non-brand keywords play a role in your digital advertising strategy. Brand keywords help you protect your brand from your competitor's ads.

If you don't run ad campaigns for brand keywords, you'll leave your business vulnerable to losing website traffic to the competition who is bidding on your brand keywords. Non-brand keywords still have a role to play, too. Non-brand keywords allow you to reach new audiences unfamiliar with your brand.

When it comes to when your ad is displayed, you don't just want to pick a certain group of keywords and have the ad shown only when those keywords are entered into the search engine.

This is where match type comes in. Since there’s an infinite number of ways that people can actually search for one term, Google gives you three match types to choose from: exact match, phrase match, and broad match. You can even use a broad match modifier and exclude negative keywords to optimize where your ads are delivered.

Let's take a look at each match type:

• Exact match: A keyword set to exact match will only display your ad if the search term includes that exact keyword or a very close variation. Exact match keywords are surrounded in [brackets].
• Phrase match: A keyword set to phrase match will display your ad if the search term contains the same order of the words, but it can also contain additional words. Phrase match keywords are surrounded by "quotes".
• Broad match: A keyword set to broad match displays your ad when the search term contains any or some combination or variations of the words in your keyword, in any order. Broad match keywords don't include any symbols.
• Broad match modifier: The broad match modifier allows you to select keywords that must be included in the search query for your ad to be displayed. Keywords with a broad match modifier use a +plus sign.
• Negative keywords: Excludes your ads from being shown on searches with that term. Negative keywords include a -minus sign. ​

Google vs. Bing vs. Yahoo

There are a few advertising platforms out there for search, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo. But Google is by far the most used search engine out there. With 3.5 billion search queries a day, over 71% of the total searches made daily around the world are done on Google. Google brings in six times more searches every day than Bing and Yahoo, combined.

But this doesn't mean you should entirely rule out advertising on these other platforms. In some cases, you can achieve impressive results with a smaller ad spend on Bing and Yahoo than you could on Google since there is less competition from advertisers.

My recommendation is to dig into your organic traffic to identify if Bing or Yahoo make up a significant amount of traffic for any given keywords or topics. This might indicate that advertising for those keywords on Bing or Yahoo could be profitable.

Regardless of where you advertise, the good news is that advertising on all of these platforms more or less work and look the same. So knowing how to advertise on one will make advertising on the others easier.

Native Advertising

Publishers like BuzzFeed and The Dodo produce content that snowballs in popularity on social media almost every day. And they make money by helping other brands do it, too. Brands will pay these publishers to craft posts and videos that follow the publishers' formula for virality. They also pay publishers to distribute this sponsored content to their massive audience through social media and their website.

When you pay for a publisher's native advertising services, you'll be able to leverage their editorial expertise and audience reach to help your brand tell captivating stories to a bigger and better viewership. And each publisher is going to support different ad formats and creative types.

During the creative process, you'll collaborate with publishers to craft sponsored content that covers one of their main topics and looks like a regular piece of content on the publisher's website.

This way, even though your post is technically promotional, it won't disrupt their audience's browsing experience. They'll enjoy reading your post and won't feel like you or the publisher are advertising to them. This exposes your work to a huge, engaged viewership and attracts new followers to your brand.

Native advertising creates a symbiotic relationship between publishers and brands. Publishers who do sponsored content right reap the benefits of another revenue stream and gain more audience trust if they promote a native ad from a trustworthy brand.

For brands, collaborating with prominent publishers can unleash unprecedented amounts of creativity to help them win over the publishers' audience and boost engagement — as the click-through rate on native ads far exceeds traditional. For example, T Brand Studio, the New York Times native ad business, crafted sponsored posts that captured as much engagement as some of nytimes.com's highest-performing articles.

To find the optimal native advertising opportunities for your brand, try using StackAdapt or Nativo.

Display Advertising

Display ads are a controversial topic in the digital marketing community. For almost 25 years, advertisers have abused them by tricking internet users into clicking misleading ads — some malicious display ads have even infected people's computers with viruses. It's easy to see why people have developed banner blindness and can't stop downloading ad blockers: display ads have the reputation of being intrusive, distracting, and irrelevant.

On the other side of the spectrum, though, display advertising technology has advanced to the point where ad networks can leverage data and machine learning to offer advertisers more effective targeting strategies and consumers more relevant ads.

Ad networks like Google Display Network and Facebook's Audience Network are the leaders in the banner ad renaissance. They can display your ads to the right target audience at the right place and time. And if you want more control of your advertising, they'll let you decide where to place your ads. Below, we'll cover each ad networks' features and targeting capabilities:

1. Google Display Network

When you use Google's Display Network, you can design visually appealing ads and place them on over two million websites and apps, YouTube, and Gmail.

You can also build new audiences by targeting people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service and remarket website visitors just by importing a list of their contact information.

If you don't want to build out your ideal audience or deal with bidding, you can let Google Ads do it for you. Its automated targeting and bidding features can identify your highest-converting audience for the best return on investment.

Display ads can be most effective when retargeting an audience that's already familiar with your brand.

2. Facebook's Audience Network

With Facebook's Audience Network, brands can expand their Facebook ad campaigns and use the same targeting data they use on the platform to advertise on a huge collection of websites and apps.

Brands can place native ads, banner ads, full-screen ads, in-stream video ads, and rewarded video ads (for example, "Watch this video ad to get more tokens!") on the network's websites and apps that their Facebook audience frequently visits.

This type of advertising can be particularly effective for mobile games, like in the example below from 5agame who was able to attribute 80% of their revenue through their rewarded video.


Now that you know about all of the digital ad types that are available, the next step is to learn how to leverage the right ads for your business to achieve your goals.

Digital Marketing. Don't forget to Share This Post!

For some marketers, Google Discover is not part of their digital marketing toolbox. Whereas some are using it to grow their business, this content marketing tool has gone unnoticed to others. But Discover is a remarkable source of web traffic for marketers. It can help you build your brand authority faster.

The software lets users conduct searches faster and find engaging topics. However, the best part is that it allows you to find what you are searching for without performing a search. As a component of the Google search engine, it uses your previous search history to show your related materials that you might love.

In consequence, content marketers are using the Google application to drive increased traffic to their websites. The renamed Feed produces more traffic because Google developers optimized the software and customized it for mobile devices.

But, note that the rebranded Google Discover is not Google News. These two are different. Here is everything I am going to cover:

• Google News vs. Google Discover, What are the Differences?
• What is Google Discover?
• Why Should You Care About Google Discover?
• 8 Secret Ways to Optimize for Google Discover

​
Google News vs. Google Discover, What are the Differences?Google news allows consumers to discover trending stories and suitable materials of what is happening globally. The major news feature presents results for a searcher's news topic based on his search query.

But Google Discover shows consumers information of interests that engages users without them searching. Also, when using Discover, it gives you the ability to customize your content of choice. You can quickly do that by following topics.
Nonetheless, for your marketing content to appear on Discover, it should be of top quality with your web pages index by Google.

What is Google Discover?Google Discover is an updated Google Feed that offers web content to consumers following their search history. The software recommends information before you even perform a search. In other words, you will find fascinating subjects without entering a keyword.

For this, Google described the new Discover in three crucial shifts. The shifts are:

1. A transition from answers to journeys
2. A change from queries to a query-less process of acquiring information
3. The shift from text to an improved visual way of discovering data

Moreover, before the launch took effect, the old Feed was more of a textual design. But the new Discover has a wide range of different content, including:

• News stories
• Video content
• Photos/images
• Newly published blog posts
• Receipt materials
• Evergreen content
• Etc.

So, the Discover feed allows you to discover recent topics and content about your interest. Here is the rebranded Google Discover below:

Image via Google

A closer look shows you that developers personalized the Feed for mobile devices. You can essentially customize your Feed to display only your content of choice. To make it happen, tap the header of any content you find interesting.

Once you do that, Google Discover will start showing you exciting, relevant content. Additionally, by following your choice of content, you will only see related materials from that point onward. But you can stop following topics by tapping the "More" button at the right corner below your mobile screen.


When you tap the "More" button, scroll a little down and tap the "Your data in Search" to see your search history. From there, scroll down to delete items that no longer interest you.


So, because Discover can drive massive web traffic to your website, it should be an element of your digital marketing strategy.

Why Should You Care About Google Discover? Where are several reasons 


Why Discover matters to your online business. But we will consider a few of them.

Did you know? Google Discover is a search engine platform that also offers you a space to organize interesting content pieces you find across the web. This space is called "Collections." You can add web pages that fascinate you, including products, and other vital content pieces.

Also, you can invite others to contribute to your collections. But what is cool is that the Google application also functions as an analytic tool that helps you measure the traffic you are getting from the Discover platform.

Google also called the reporting tool, "Discover." It allows you to view and gauge web traffic that is coming from Google Discover. Thus, the data helps you define the content that performs best─those that drive the most traffic and those that are not performing.

From there, you can update the under-performing materials and replicate the ones generating results to improve SEO and drive more traffic. That is why Google noted that they added the new Discover report feature to Google Search Console to give users helpful information that provides answers to some pressing questions.
Some of the new Discover report data are:

• The volume of traffic to your site from Discover.
• The best of your content on Google Discover.
• How often your site appears on Discover.
• How does your content perform on Discover over traditional search results?

These pieces of information will help you enhance your content strategy and Google rankings. So since all search engines love engaging content, optimizing for Google Discover is important because it represents this trend. It provides users personalized, engaging content.

8 Secret Ways to Optimize for Google DiscoverIn this article, you will discover the eight secret ingredients that will help you optimize your content for Google Discover.

1. Strengthen Your Content Quality

Content is the essence of digital marketing, so without content, your marketing effort will be a waste. But it doesn't mean that you should publish any piece of material. For instance, tin content is less substantial and will add no value to your readers.

So if you continue to publish these types of materials, you will hardly appear on Discover, and you will gradually lose your readership. If your articles barely answer your readers' queries, and your competitors offer them something better than what you are offering, It is logical to say that your competitors will win their loyalty.

Similarly, Google Discover gives consumers relevant, engaging content. Be it articles, blog posts, videos, and more. Your posts must be highly-informative because Discover is programmed to offer users quality materials.

For this, when creating content for publishing, or updating old blog posts, use trending data, current statistics, and marketing strategies to amplify your articles. Use more long-tail keywords, semantic keywords phrases, high-quality images, and illustrative graphics to optimize your post.

Also, try to understand user intent—the search terms your marketing personas will likely search on Google. Make a list of related keyword terms and use them to strengthen your content.

Ensure that it has all the essential components that will glue your readers on the page. For example, use rhetorical questions to capture readers' attention from the start. A rhetorical question does not require an answer. Instead, it is a ploy used to influence readers into thinking about your message. Content marketers also use this writing style to emphasize important points.

Using this approach will help you increase:

• Blog reader's time on page
• Reduce bounce rates
• Increase web traffic
• Improve dwell time
• Boost search ranking, and
• Improve your chance to appear on Google Discover.

Content Marketing Challenges

A survey by Swift of 1,200 marketers in 39 countries revealed some exciting results. Among other things, the content marketing statistics for 2020 show that several marketers are struggling to create engaging content.

Source graphic by Swift. According to the survey results, producing quality content is one of the biggest challenges for businesses.

• It states that 54% of marketers cannot develop content that generates quality leads. 
• More than 50% of companies cannot create top-notch content that attracts more web traffic.
• 45% of marketers are unable to produce content that connects with their audience.

As a consequence, if you fall into the above categories, it will be difficult for Discover to pick your content. But you have two available options that can help you.

1. Learn how to create better content materials, or
2. Hire expert freelance content creators to fill the void.

They will help you create top-quality content for humans and search engines. In fact, top influencers and content marketers are using freelance writers to create marketing content for their blogs and other marketing channels.

To back this claim, the Swift 2020 research results show that the top content format for 86% of businesses is blog posts. 53% of these marketers are outsourcing their content writing activities.

Graphic by Swift

So if you can't write, outsource writing jobs to freelance writers or learn to do it DIY.

2. Use High-quality Visuals 

The rebranded Google Discover underscores the need for more visual content. It means that to increase your odds of showing up on the platform, you should create more quality visuals and optimize them appropriately.

Google pointed out that Discover content could rank on searches due to the quality of material and the link between consumer's interest and the content. For this, you should do two things to boost your content ranking on Google Discover:

1. Consistently publish exciting content that engages your readers.
2. Use quality visuals, including videos, photos, infographics, and graphics, to amplify your posts and optimize them properly.

Furthermore, replace thumbnails with large images. Why? Because Google stated that large pictures perform better on Discover cards. Please, consider these statistics as reported by Google:

• Marketers increased time on page by 3%
• Publishers achieved a 5% increase in click-through-rate (CTR).
• They also realized a 3% boost in user satisfaction.

All thanks to high-quality large photos. But ensure that your photos are at least 1,200 px wide.

3. Create Exciting Videos 

The new Google Feed will make your content more irresistible to consumers if it has quality visuals. Additionally, since videos have become more prominent in recent times, Discover is centered on visual materials.

Therefore, produce different types of videos that will engage your target market and solve their problems. I advise you to look at your top-performing blogs and create videos from them. These content pieces are already generating more social media engagement and ranking on Google and other search engines.

So, transforming them into video content will help improve website engagement, SEO ranking, and appear on Discover.

For inspiration, you can produce the following videos:

• How-to video tutorials
• Your company behind the scene videos
• Demo video of your products or services
• Expert interviews
• Case study videos
• Etc.

The concept is to enable you to produce compelling video materials your audience can't resist. Ultimately, consumers prefer to see more videos from marketers they support.


According to research by HubSpot, more than 50% of customers want to see more videos than other content types. It means that the more quality videos you create, the more your chances to appear on Google Discover.

4. Observe Google's Content Policies

Google made clear that if you want Discover to pick your content and show it to searchers, you must comply with their content policies. The Google guidelines include "Search Quality Rating," which covers Page Quality (PQ)" and "Needs Met (NM) ratings." 

Screenshot via Google

The heads up means that any post you publish should abide by the Google News guidelines.

This step does not mean that your content will appear on Google News. Instead, it indicates that if Discover picks your content, it observed Google content policies and could make it to Google News.

Therefore, ensure that the blogs you publish conform with Google publishing policies to improve your likelihood of appearing on Discover.

5. Tell Your Community to Add You on Google Discover

Discover software is remarkable with fascinating capabilities. Do you know that the application software lets you choose what sources of information to add to your collections? Yes, it does! It allows you to select the topics of interest you want to follow.

But your target buyer may not know that he can add you to his topics of interest or collections unless you tell him. That is why you should inform your community of readers to add you to Google Discover. In this manner, when you publish a post or when Discover selects content from your blog, they will get notified.

It is like a call-to-action on your website. Visitors may not take your desired action without a call-to-action. Similarly, if you don't tell them, they may not add your blog on Discover.

How to Add Exciting Topics to Google Discover

Adding your interests to Discover is a straight-forward method. As an example, I add Swift to my list of exciting topics. Here is how to do it:

Open the software and enter your focus in the search bar. For this article, I searched for Swift. See the screenshot below. So by the addition of Swift, I will get updates from Swift through Google Discover.

However, your results page may not reveal the "+ Follow" button. My search result didn't show the tab. So I scrolled a little down and found it, as you can see on the screenshot. Similarly, if you enter your topic or blog on the search and don't see the follow button, don't stress. Just scroll down a little, and you will find it.


When you see the button, tap the "+ Follow" to start following a blog or topics that excite you. After you tap the follow button, the (+) sign will adjust to a checkmark (✓). The checkmark means that you are now following the topic or publication.


For this reason, when there is a new post from the Swift blog, Google Discover will show me the article. This helps to boost traction with existing readers.

Even without backup data for this, you agree that when more people add your blog to Discover, it will signal Google that your content pieces are helpful and relevant to your readers. It will boost your search engine ranking and cement your position on Discover.

 6. Optimize for Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs)

Why should you optimize for Google Accelerated Mobile Pages? Because AMP is ideal for enhancing website user experience (UX). So, as you may know, improved user experience is a Google ranking factor. Hence, Google developers designed AMP for speed.

A web page that loads faster helps in improving UX, which increases consumer satisfaction. Put differently, if your site is not up to speed, it decreases your search ranking, and your chances of getting picked by Discover become slim. It contributes to why people leave your blog for your competitors.

Therefore, optimizing for Google Accelerated Mobile Pages is vital if you want your posts on Discover. It is for this reason that the Discover report feature on the Google Search Console (GSC) offers you comparison options for AMP and non-AMP data.

From your search console, you can measure the AMP and non-AMP data, respectively. So, optimize your website for AMP to boost UX and appear on Discover.

7. Publish Evergreen and Trendy Content Frequently

Earlier in this article, I stated that Google Discover displays both fresh and evergreen content that is relevant to the searcher's query. These results follow the user's past search history. It helps users keep up to date with what is trending in the industry.

Discover will show both the trending content and evergreen materials that relate to your search. Also, Google Discover presents the evergreen materials to engage, solve a problem, and entertain the reader. Whereas, popular posts engage the reader and keep you aware of the latest happenings.

Interestingly enough, it is a win-win marketing strategy. Because when you create news-worthy, evergreen content pieces, Discover will pick and present it on relevant search results. As a consequence, you will increase traffic to your site, improve brand awareness, generate targeted leads, and make more sales.

8. Conduct Competitor Research

Why conducting competitor research is vital. If, after everything your post is not on Discover, it would be wise to perform competitor research to know why Discover is overlooking your content.

Try to figure out:

• Why Google Discover is choosing your competitors' content over yours.
• The reason your content is not on the Discover platform.
• What your competition is doing differently to appear on Google Discover.
• What is making your competitors content to pop?
• Etc.

Examining your competitors will aid you in understanding how to get your materials on Discover. Also, you should start following relevant topics on Google Discover. This step will help you to know better the quality of materials the content marketing tool organizes and displays to users.

Your data will help you understand users' behavior and why Discover selects your competition over you.

Do You Want to Appear on Google Discover?
​
Now that you understand what Google Discover is and how to optimize for it, apply these tips to improve your odds of appearing on the platform. The more you boost your content quality, the better your chances. So keep implementing and testing to pinpoint what works best for you.

Are there other tips you can add that will help our readers? Please, tell us in the comments!

This list of top trending searches is being regularly updated every quarter for the most up-to-date information. 

If you want to try your own Google searches, our Keyword Magic Tool or Google's Keyword Planner will help you to find keywords for your strategy and campaigns.

Top 100 Google Most Searched Terms Globally Keyword

Average Apr – Jun 2021

1. youtube 1.3B
2. facebook 1.1B
3. whatsapp web 618.0M
4. google 506.0M
5. gmail 414.0M
6. translate 14.0M
7. weather 388.7M
8. amazon 338.0M
9. google translate 338.0M
10. instagram 338.0M
11. traductor 338.0M
12. hotmail 226.0M
13. cricbuzz 176.7M
14. fb 173.7M
15. tiempo 162.3M
16. clima 142.0M
17. google maps142.0M
18. twitter 133.0M
19. nba 130.7M
20. yahoo mail 124.0M
21. yahoo 124.0M
22. satta king 124.0M
23. netflix 124.0M
24. tradutor 124.0M
25. weather tomorrow 116.3M
26. xổ số miền bắc 116.3M
27. погода 101.0M
28. maps 101.0M
29. livescore 91.7M
30. roblox 89.1M
31. ipl 88.5M
32. walmart 86.7M
33. переводчик 84.0M
34. speed test 83.1M
35. tiempo mañana 83.1M
36. outlook 83.1M
37. whatsapp 83.1M
38. ebay 78.1M
39. çeviri 78.1M
40. home depot 74.9M
41. yandex 73.9M
42. mcdonalds 72.3M
43. restaurants 68.7M
44. pinterest 68.0M
45. google traduction 68.0M
46. omegle 68.0M
47. meteo 68.0M
48. facebook login 68.0M
49. traduction 68.0M
50. traductor de ingles a español 68.0M
51. sarkari result 65.5M
52. hotels 65.5M
53. e devlet 64.8M
54. yt 63.9M
55. google classroom 63.9M
56. flipkart 63.9M
57. tik tok 63.9M
58. twitch 59.7M
59. вк 59.7M
60. ipl 202 159.0M
61. kea 56.4M
62. classroom 56.4M
63. wetter 56.4M
64. bbc news 55.6M
65. google tradutor 55.6M
66. ترجمة55.6M
67. amazon prime 55.6M
68. shein 55.6M
69. mp3 juice 55.6M
70. le bon coin 52.2M
71. юту б52.2M
72. traductor ingles español 52.2M
73. news 52.2M
74. google dịch 52.2M
75. cowin. gov. in 49.9M
76. satta 48.9M
77. bet365 48.9M
78. hava durumu 48.9M
79. satta matka 48.9M
80. ipl live score 48.3M
81. instagram login 45.5M
82. olx 45.5M
83. linkedin 45.5M
84. discord 45.5M
85. youtube to mp 345.5M
86. target 45.2M
87. starbucks 44.6M
88. serie a 44.2M
89. zoom 42.7M
90. traduttore 42.7M
91. calculator 42.7M
92. gmail login 42.7M
93. coronavirus 41.8M
94. facebook log in 41.2M
95. cowin 40.1M
96. bild 40.0M
97. canva 40.0M
98. mercado libre 40.0M
99. яндекс 40.0M
100. premier league 39.0M

Search volume is the average number of times a specific search query is entered on a search engine per month. In this study by search volume we mean an average number of monthly searches for the last 12 months.

Top 100 Google Most Searched Terms in the US Keyword

Average Apr – May 2021

Average Apr – Jun 2021

1. facebook 151.0M  151.0M
2. youtube 151.0M  151.0M
3. amazon 124.0M  124.0M
4. weather 101.0M  101.0M
5. nba 33.0M  68.0M
6. home depot 64.3M  55.6M
7. gmail 61.8M  55.6M
8. walmart 43.0M.  ​ 55.6M
9. google translate 45.5M  37.2M
10. yahoo mail 45.5M  37.2M
11. yahoo 37.2M  37.2M
12. target 40.3M  30.4M
13. restaurants 33.0M. 30.4M
14. ebay 30.4M   30.4M
15. fox news 30.4M  30.4M
16. food near me 30.4M   30.4M
17. restaurants near me 27.7M   30.4M
18. google maps 24.9M   30.4M
19. hotels 23.5M. 30.4M
20. nba scores 19.3M  30.4M
21. amc stock 9.3M    30.4M
22. instagram 30.4M  24.9M
23. translate 30.4M  24.9M
24. amazon prime 24.9M   24.9M
25. weather tomorrow 24.9  M24.9M
26. starbucks 34.6M   20.4M
27. mcdonalds 29.6M   20.4M
28. costco 26.9M  20.4M
29. best buy 25.4M   20.4M
30. lowes 24.9M  20.4M
31. usps tracking 22.7M   20.4M
32. craigslist 20.4M   20.4M
33. espn 20.4M  20.4M
34. zillow 20.4M  20.4M
35. you tube18.5M   20.4M
36. spanish to english 20.4M  16.6M
37. cnn 18.5M   16.6M
38. news 16.6M  16.6M
39. traductor 16.6M  16.6M
40. food 20.8M  13.6M
41. walgreens 20.8M  13.6M
42. calculator 20.4M  13.6M
43. bank of america 17.0M  13.6M
44. twitter 15.1M  13.6M
45. wells fargo 15.1M  13.6M
46. dominos 13.6M  13.6M
47. facebook log in 13.6M  13.6M
48. macys 13.6M  13.6M
49. netflix 13.6M  13.6M
50. maps 13.6M  13.6M
51. indeed 12.4M  13.6M
52. trump 11.4M  13.6M
53. covid vaccine near me 18.0M  11.1M
54. cvs 13.9M  11.1M
55. etsy 13.6M  11.1M
56. hotmail 13.6M  11.1M
57. autozone 12.9M  11.1M
58. fedex tracking 12.4M  11.1M
59. kohls 12.4M  11.1M
60. msn 12.4M  11.1M
61. aol mail 11.1M  11.1M
62. shein 11.1M  11.1M
63. speed test 11.1M  11.1M
64. ups tracking 11.1M  11.1M
65. dogecoin 10.1M  11.1M
66. gas 9.3M  11.1M
67. google flights 9.1M  11.1M
68. southwest airlines 9.1M  11.1M
69. dr. wu lien-teh 5.6  M11.1M
70. walmart near me 5.0M  11.1M
71. gas station 22.7M  9.1M
72. google docs 17.0M  9.1M
73. taco bell 12.0M  9.1M
74. dollar tree 11.4M  9.1M
75. pizza hut 11.1M  9.1M
76. roblox 11.1M  9.1M
77. sam's club 10.5M  9.1M
78. old navy 10.1M  9.1M
79. usps 10.1M  9.1M
80. grocery store 9.9M  9.1M
81. airbnb 9.1M  9.1M
82. capital one 9.1M  9.1M
83. linkedin 9.1M  9.1M
84. omegle 9.1M  9.1M
85. paypal 9.1M  9.1M
86. american airlines 8.3M  9.1M
87. donald trump 7.6M  9.1M
88. lakers 12.9M  7.5M
89. irs 11.4M  7.5M
90. burger king 9.3M  7.5M
91. fedex 9.3M  7.5M
92. ikea 9.3M  7.5M
93. hentai 9.1M  7.5M
94. pinterest 9.1M  7.5M
95. credit karma 8.3M  7.5M
96. chipotle 8.3M  7.5M
97. discord 8.3M  7.5M
98. dow jones 7.5M  7.5M
99. facebook marketplace 7.5M  7.5M
100. mlb 7.5M  7.5M

​Find keywords for your business

1. what to watch  9.1M
2. when is mothers day   3.8M
3. when is fathers day  ​ 3.4M
4. what is my ip  ​ 3.4M
5. what dinosaur has 500 teeth  ​ 3.2M
6. how to delete instagram account  ​ 3.1M
7. where does vanilla flavoring come from  ​ 2.3M
8. what time is it  ​ 1.8M
9. how to screenshot on mac  ​ 1.7M
10. when is father's day 202  ​ 11.7M
11. where am i  ​ 1.5M
12. how many ounces in a cup1  ​ .3M
13. when is mother's day 202  ​ 11.3M
14. how many weeks in a year  ​ 1.2M
15. what song is this  ​ 1.2M
16. what the font  ​ 1.0M
17. how many ounces in a gallon  ​ 1.0M
18. how to lose weight fast  ​ 882.0K
19. how are you  ​ 823.0K
20. when does senate vote on stimulus  ​ 757.4K
21. when is memorial day 2021  ​ 740.8K
22. what time is it in california  ​ 673.0K
23. how many liters in a gallon  ​ 673.0K
24. how many ounces in a pound  ​ 673.0K
25. what is love  ​ 673.0K
26. how to delete facebook account  ​ 673.0K
27. when is mothers day 2021  ​ 647.5K
28. what is the factorial of hundred  ​ 637.8K
29. where does vanilla flavouring come from  ​ 637.4K
30. what lies below  ​ 634.0K
31. what is the meaning of  ​ 632.0K
32. is ariana grande married  ​ 611.4K
33. what is critical race theory  ​ 601.7K
34. when is the next full moon  ​ 591.0K
35. is today a holiday  ​ 591.0K
36. how to tie a tie  ​ 591.0K
37. how many grams in an ounce  ​ 591.0K
38. how to download youtube videos  ​ 591.0K
39. what is 100 factorial  ​ 578.8K
40. when are taxes due 2021  ​ 566.7K
41. how long to boil eggs  ​ 557.7K
42. how old is queen elizabeth  ​ 555.7K
43. how many countries in the world  ​ 550.0K
44. what is the weather today  ​ 550.0K
45. how to solve a rubik's cube  ​ 550.0K
46. how to draw  ​ 550.0K
47. how old is bernie sanders  ​ 528.0K
48. who called me  ​ 516.7K
49. when calls the heart  ​ 489.7K
50. how old is donald trump  ​ 486.3K
51. how to pronounce  ​ 483.3K
52. what day is it today  ​ 483.3K
53. what is today  ​ 483.3K
54. how to earn money online  ​ 483.3K
55. who won yesterday ipl match  ​ 481.1K
56. what is mean in math  ​ 456.0K
57. how many people are in the world  ​ 450.0K
58. what is the  ​ 450.0K
59. how many  ​ 450.0K
60. how to deactivate facebook  ​ 450.0K
61. what does  ​ 450.0K
62. what is cryptocurrency  ​ 447.3K
63. who is kits mom bachelor  ​ 441.8K
64. is reddit down  ​ 441.3K
65. when is eid 2021  ​ 435.5K
66. when will senate vote on stimulus4  ​ 28.1K
67. what is the meaning  ​ 422.7K
68. how to screenshot on windows  ​ 422.7K
69. how many cups in a quart  ​ 422.7K
70. how to delete snapchat account  ​ 422.7K
71. why are flags at half mast today  ​ 411.3K
72. when is ramadan 2021  ​ 407.7K
73. when is mother's day in 2021  ​ 403.3K
74. where i can find happiness  ​ 400.3K
75. how many quarts in a gallon  ​ 395.3K
76. who is the richest person in the world  ​ 395.3K
77. what is a verb  ​ 395.3K
78. what is the time  ​ 395.3K
79. how many oz in a gallon  ​ 395.3K
80. what time is it in the uk  ​ 395.3K
81. how many seconds in a day  ​ 388.0K
82. when does summer start  ​ 382.0K
83. when is easter  ​ 380.0K
84. what if  ​ 373.0K
85. what time is it in hawaii  ​ 373.0K
86. what is computer  ​ 373.0K
87. how many days in a year  ​ 368.0K
88. what we do in the shadows  ​ 368.0K
89. what is an adjective  ​ 368.0K
90. how to make money online  ​ 368.0K
91. how to lose belly fat  ​ 368.0K
92. what is a noun  ​ 368.0K
93. how many centimeters in an inch  ​ 368.0K
94. how much  ​ 368.0K
95. how to lose weight  ​ 368.0K
96. when is eid  ​ 366.0K
97. how old is the queen  ​ 366.0K
98. how to register for covid vaccine  ​ 364.0K
99. what to mine  ​ 354.7K
100. how to take a screenshot on a mac   345.7K

The Top 100 Most Googled Questions in the US Keyword

​Average Apr – May 2021Average Apr – Jun 2021

1. what time is it  ​ 5.0M   3.7M
2. what to watch  ​ 4.5M   4.4M
3. when is mothers day  ​ 3.7M   2.5M
4. when is mother's day 202   ​11.3M  ​ 891.7K
5. what dinosaur has  500 teeth 1.1 M  ​ 1.3M
6. how many ounces in a gallon  1.0M   1.0M
7. when is memorial day 2021  ​ 946.5K   647.5K
8. how to screenshot on mac  ​ 911.5K   882.0K
9. where am i  ​ 911.5K   882.0K
10. when is memorial day  ​ 900.5K   620.5K
11. when is fathers day  ​ 873.0K   2.2M
12. when are taxes due 2021  ​ 836.5K   566.7K
13. how many weeks in a year  ​ 823.0K   823.0K
14. how many ounces in a cup  ​ 823.0K   823.0K
15. where does vanilla flavoring come from  ​ 817.5K   565.2K
16. when does senate vote on stimulus  ​ 757.4K   509.9K
17. when is father's day 2021  ​ 710.5K   1.2M
18. how to delete instagram account  ​ 673.0K   673.0K
19. what is my ip  ​ 673.0K   673.0K
20. why are flags at half mast today  ​ 562.0K   404.8K
21. how many ounces in a pound  ​ 550.0K   550.0K
22. what time is it in california  ​ 550.0K   550.0K
23. what song is this  ​ 550.0K   591.0K
24. when is mothers day 2021  ​ 550.0K   372.7K
25. what lies below  ​ 545.3K   383.7K
26. how old is bernie sanders  ​ 500.0K   483.3K
27. what time is it in australia  ​ 500.0K   415.3K
28. what time is it in arizona  ​ 500.0K   415.3K
29. how old is queen elizabeth  ​ 479.0K 374.3K
30. how to lose weight fast  ​ 450.0K   450.0K
31. how many grams in an ounce  ​ 450.0K   450.0K
32. is today a holiday  ​ 450.0K   450.0K
33. when is the next full moon  ​ 450.0K   450.0K
34. who is kits mom bachelor  ​ 441.8K   441.8K
35. when will senate vote on stimulus  ​ 428.1K   296.4K
36. is ariana grande married  ​ 416.5K   332.6K
37. how long to boil eggs  ​ 409.0K   395.3K
38. how many cups in a quart  ​ 409.0K   395.3K
39. how old is donald trump  ​ 409.0K   422.7K
40. how many quarts in a gallon  ​ 409.0K   395.3K
41. how to tie a tie  ​ 409.0K   395.3K
42. how many oz in a gallon  ​ 368.0K   368.0K
43. how many liters in a gallon  ​ 368.0K   395.3K
44. what is the weather today  ​ 368.0K   368.0K
45. when is easter  ​ 366.8K   255.5K
46. how did dmx die  ​ 356.8K   246.9K
47. when does the senate vote on stimulus  ​ 343.9K   234.2K
48. what day is mother's day  ​ 334.5K   227.0K
49. what is mean in math  ​ 334.5K   259.7K
50. what time is it in hawaii  ​ 334.5K   345.7K
51. how many seconds in a day  ​ 307.0K   249.7K
52. how many cups in a gallon  ​ 301.0K   301.0K
53. how many tablespoons in a cup  ​ 301.0K   301.0K
54. how many teaspoons in a tablespoon  ​ 301.0K   282.7K
55. how many feet in a mile  ​ 301.0K   301.0K
56. when calls the heart  ​ 301.0K   225.3K
57. when are taxes due  ​ 301.0K   203.4K
58. why are flags at half mast  ​ 292.5K   208.5K
59. what is memorial day  ​ 288.6K   203.4K
60. is jennifer love hewitt on 911 really pregnant  ​ 281.1K   281.1K
61. what is critical race theory  ​ 280.0K   593.3K
62. where is sugar bowl 2021  ​ ​280.0K   186.7K
63. did dmx die 277.7K   186.1K
64. what is april  24277.7K   185.8K
65. how many square feet in an acre 273.5K   249.3K
66. how much house can i afford 273.5K   264.3K
67. what time is the super bowl 2021 270.3K   180.2K
68. how old is joe biden 266.5K   300.3K
69. when does summer start 266.5K   300.3K
70. when is easter 2021 262.0K   188.2K
71. what time is the kentucky derby 2021249.8K   166.7K
72. how many steps in a mile 246.0K   246.0K
73. how many people are in the world 246.0K   231.0K
74. how many ounces in a quart 246.0K   246.0K
75. how many oz in a cup 246.0K   246.0K
76. how to screenshot on windows 246.0K   231.0K
77. how to write a check 246.0K   246.0K
78. what time does walmart close 246.0K   264.3K
79. what time is it in the uk 246.0K   246.0K
80. what is the weather 246.0K   231.0K
81. what is today 246.0K   246.0K
82. what is cinco de mayo 245.3K   166.8K
83. how to boil eggs 233.0K   210.3K
84. how to buy safemoon 233.0K   166.4K
85. what is cryptocurrency 233.0K192.0K
86. which wich 233.0K   222.3K
87. what happened to dmx 230.0K   156.0K
88. who is the most powerful doctor in the world 229.3K   158.9K
89. what did meyers leonard say 225.0K   225.0K
90. how to solve a rubik's cube 223.5K   231.0K
91. how to take a screenshot on a mac 223.5K   216.0K
92. how many grams in a pound 223.5K   216.0K
93. where am i right now 223.5K   231.0K
94. who is the richest person in the world 223.5K   204.0K
95. what is ramadann 221.0K   152.3K
96. where is my stimulus check 218.0K   170.0K
97. what is non binary 214.3K   197.8K
98. how to hard boil eggs 205.5K   173.7K
99. is reddit down 205.5K   237.3K
100. how many days in a year 201.0K   189.0K


Don't forget to share this post!

Think of your social media content strategy as your blueprint for your business's success across social platforms. If you don't take the time to put together a solid strategy, you will find that your social efforts lack direction and don't deliver the results you expect to see. 

You need to dedicate the time and resources to plan your approach, map out exactly what you want to achieve, how you will get there, and how you will measure the impact that your efforts have on your goals. 

But it isn't always easy to know where to start, especially if you have never put one together before.
In this guide, we will walk you through a proven 7-step process to developing a social content strategy from scratch, specifically looking at:

• Why You Need a Social Media Content Strategy?
• How to Develop a Social Content Strategy in 7 Simple Steps
  • 1. Setting Goals for Your Content
  • 2. Know The Profile of Your Audience and When You Should Post
  • 3. Choose the Right Social Platform(s)
  • 4. Plan Social Content and Choose Formats
  • 5. Create a Content Calendar
  • 6. Publishing Your Content
  • 7. Analyze and Measure Your Content's Performance

Continue reading, and you will learn a simple but effective process that you can use to plan your social content and take your growth from your chosen platforms to the next level.

Why You Need a Social Media Content Strategy? Strategy is underrated.

Sure, you might get away with posting something every day on your social channels without ever giving much thought to what you are posting, or more importantly, why.

But this isn't going to drive growth or real, impactful results. 

You will not acquire new fans and followers or convince these individuals to visit your website or convert into a customer or client by blindly posting whatever you feel like pushing out that day. That is just not how it works.

You need to know what you want to achieve to figure out how you will get there. And this is what a strategy is.

When you can craft a strategy that maps out the route you need to take to meet your goals, your chance of achieving these massively increases. It also helps everyone involved to focus their efforts, something that, in itself, can help to improve performance and returns.

Social media should be a channel that drives sales and inquiries; it is not just a vanity channel. But for this to happen, you need to have a strategy that everyone on your marketing team works towards.

How to Develop a Social Content Strategy in 7 Simple Steps

The reality is that developing a social content strategy is easier than you probably think.

And following a proven process can help you define your goals, create and publish content to a schedule that is right for your audience, and measure your efforts' impact.

Keep reading to learn how you can do this in just 7 simple steps, including a look at the tools you should be using to make the whole process that little bit easier.

1. Setting Goals for Your ContentHave you ever heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals?

It is important that you start creating every strategy by knowing what you want to achieve, as this will help shape the path you take to make this happen. Otherwise, you are working blindly. And that is not very strategic at all.

Without goals and KPIs, you will also not be able to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. 

Setting goals is all about having an indicator of success that allows you to determine your social strategy's ROI. 
If you are not familiar with S.M.A.R.T goals, these are goals that are:

• Specific (Goals should be clear and specific to allow a solid focus on what needs to be achieved)
• Measurable (You must be able to measure the progress of goals to know when you've achieved them)
• Attainable (Goals should be realistic, yet should be challenging enough to motivate you)
• Relevant (Goals should be relevant to your wider business objectives and make sense when achieved)
• Time-bound (You should always set a timeframe for goals to be measured against to maintain focus)

​

Your social content strategy should start with goal-setting, as this is something that will help to shape the following steps in the process.

Having clearly defined goals means that you can align every piece of content, and every post that you publish, with these.

2. Know The Profile of Your Audience and When You Should Post

Knowing your audience's profile means that you can tailor your content to talk directly to these people.

After all, taking a targeted approach is almost always more effective than trying to engage too wide of an audience with a single strategy.

Knowing the times when your audience is the most active on each channel can also help you to generate an increased level of engagement by sharing your content at the right time. And the great news is that you can gain these insights from your main social channels.

Facebook

Facebook Insights provides an absolutely phenomenal amount of data on your audience, and if you are not already using this to inform your social efforts, then you need to dive deep into the tool.

Head to your Facebook Business Page, and you will see an 'Insights' tab on the left-hand menu:


From here, you can gain a wealth of data around the performance of your page. But, for the purpose of putting together a solid strategy, you need to head to the 'people' tab where you can see information around who your key audience is:


Next, head then to the 'posts' tab to gain an understanding of the times and days when your audience is most likely to be online:


Twitter

Unfortunately, Twitter deprecated its powerful audience insights dashboard earlier this year. However, you can still use the Analytics tool to gain some insights into your own Tweets' performance. 
Head to Twitter Analytics and hit the 'Tweets' button at the top of the page:


On this page, you can see the days when your recent Tweets have performed the best:


While this isn't as useful as Facebook Insights, it can help you to spot patterns of the days when your Tweets are the most likely to perform to the best of their potential. We will have some upcoming tips on how to get more insights on each of the social platforms. 

LinkedIn

If you are a B2B marketer, LinkedIn can give you a phenomenal amount of insights about your audience and those who follow your company page.

Head to the 'analytics' tab on your company page dashboard and navigate to 'Followers.'


From here, you can access insights on:

• Follower metrics
• All followers
• Follower demographics
• Companies to track (how you compare to similar companies)​

However, when it comes to understanding your audience, the 'follower demographics' section is insanely valuable, helping you to understand the exact profile of those who follow your page.


You can also gain insights into your audience on Instagram, TikTok, and  YouTube. However, the most powerful insights are those that we have walked through above. 

3. Choose the Right Social Platform(s)You don't have to use every available social platform.

Let's repeat that — you don't have to use every available social platform.

In most instances, it makes sense to focus your efforts on the platforms where your audience is active and likely to engage with your business, rather than spreading your time and content too thinly across every available platform.
You will no doubt already have a good idea, by this stage, as to the platforms where your audience is the most active, but we recommend choosing a couple of these and executing a really solid strategy.

Trust us when we say that you will see far better results doing this than trying to be present everywhere. 
As a general rule of thumb:

Facebook is effective for both B2B and B2C businesses, with support for a whole load of different content formats, ad targeting options, and users. There are very few businesses that should not include Facebook as one of their core channels.

Twitter isn't for every business, due to the platform's fast-moving nature and the fact that it is still very much based around a simple Tweet format. However, it is the perfect customer service platform for businesses that deal with high volumes of support and service queries.

LinkedIn is perfect for B2B service businesses and is the perfect place to position individuals and companies as experts through a content strategy based on thought leadership and a strong focus on editorial content.

Pinterest is a favorite amongst eCommerce retailers and owners of businesses that are easily promoted visually. 

YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine, and pretty much all sectors can benefit from the platform. However, you need to be prepared to consistently publish engaging video content, something that not all businesses are set up to do. 


Instagram is often the first or second-choice platform for B2C businesses that have access to (or can take) engaging photos and images and engage their audience. It is usually of lesser-importance to B2B businesses.

TikTok is the newcomer to the social scene, and there are plenty of examples of brands winning big on the platform, but the format and nature of the content isn't for everyone. It is perfect for lifestyle-focused B2C brands. 

4. Plan Social Content and Choose Formats

Once you have chosen the main social platforms that you are going to focus your efforts upon, you need to plan out your content and the formats that you are going to create.

And our guide on  15 Social Media Content Types (with examples for ideas and inspiration) is a great starting point to inspire you to create awesome content that resonates with your audience.

A great starting point is to map out the key messages that you want to share with your audience (ideally mixing sales-focused product or service posts with educational, information, or inspirational content), alongside the formats that you can create content around.

You need to balance different formats to ensure you are getting your key message across effectively, and some of the more popular ones that we recommend include:

• User-generated content
• Live streams
• Contests & competitions
• Case studies
• Influencer marketing collaborations​

Don't rely on a single content format if you truly want to drive engagement from your audience, but be sure to balance the time needed to produce each different piece with the importance of maintaining a consistent publishing schedule. 

5. Create a Content Calendar

Once you have started planning out your content, you need to set up a content calendar that your team can use for organizational purposes.

And this is important for a simple reason; it keeps you accountable.

Once you have set a publishing schedule and mapped it out on a content calendar, you have made a commitment. And this is often what is needed to keep your efforts focused and on track. It also helps you work with other teams to complete goals.

For example, if you know in 2 weeks, you are launching a new campaign and need graphics, your content team and graphics teams can both view the calendar and ensure tasks are done on time. 
​
And creating a content calendar couldn't be easier to assign your social content with your wider digital marketing campaign:

Just make sure to keep your calendar updated so your whole team can use it as a reference point. 

Get into the habit of adding in your planned social content and sticking to it; this is often the motivation that most marketers need to keep on track.

And let's not forget that committing to regular social publishing is one of the main drivers of success. It is hard to stick to, and very few do. But this means that those who keep on track are typically the ones who gain a competitive advantage. 

In terms of how frequently you should be posting on each platform, we recommend a baseline schedule that looks like this (depending on the platforms you are using):

• Facebook: 5 to 7 posts per week
• Twitter: 3 to 5 Tweets per day
• LinkedIn: 1 post per day
• Instagram: 1 post or story per day
• Pinterest: Focus on creating interesting boards and sharing relevant images rather than a set posting schedule
• TikTok: At least once per day

​

6. Publishing Your Content

Publishing your content on social media can be a time-consuming task.

And that's why many marketers choose to schedule their content in advance, making it easier to block out time each week to create your content and have it automatically post across your platforms at the time that you deem to be the most impactful.

Start by connecting your chosen social networks:

Once you have connected your channels, you will be able to schedule posts across each of these to have shares go out at your chosen time.

We recommend setting aside a regular time in your calendar each week to schedule your social content for the coming days. Again, this keeps you focused and on track to consistent publishing.

7. Analyze and Measure Your Content's PerformanceRemember the goals you set when mapping out your strategy?
You need to track your content's performance against those goals; otherwise, you won't know how successful your efforts are. But how you track this very much depends upon the goals that you set.

We talked about ensuring that each goal is measurable, and this is where you should have identified what you will measure success as and how you will do it.

If you have set a benchmark for your performance, you can easily identify which posts are exceeding this.
We recommend analyzing the performance of your social efforts on a weekly basis and measuring these against the goals and KPIs that you set.

If you are on your way to achieving your goals, great. If not, a weekly check-in on progress means you are able to make adjustments and improvements to your strategy to get things back on track. 

Don't underestimate the power of putting together a solid social content strategy.

It is your roadmap to success, and having a clear plan of action that can be communicated across your team and key stakeholders and time invested in putting this together is time well spent.

Just be sure to follow a clear process, know your goals and checkpoints, and maintain a consistent approach to publishing great content! 

Don't forget to share this post!
​

Brands need a video marketing strategy — this idea isn't new. What has changed is how important video has become on every platform and channel.

Video is no longer just one piece of your overall marketing plan. It's central to your outreach and campaign efforts … especially your social strategy.

Video has absolutely dominated social. Swift Digital Marketing Research shows that four of the top six channels on which global consumers watch video are social channels.

Why is this important? If you aren't creating video, you're likely falling behind. But don't fret. For most videos, the more simple and raw it is, the more authentic the content seems … and that's what really matters to your audience.
Better yet, video production is more cost-effective than ever — you can shoot in high-quality, 4K video with your smartphone.

Regardless, between camera equipment to lighting to editing software, the topic of video marketing can still seem pretty complicated. That's why we compiled this guide.

Continue reading learn everything you need to know about video marketing strategy, or use the links below to jump to a specific section.

1. Types of Marketing Videos
2. How to Make a Video for Your Business
3. How to Create a Video Social Media Strategy
4. Using Video Throughout the Flywheel
5. Measuring Your Videos

Video Marketing

Video marketing is using videos to promote and market your product or service, increase engagement on your digital and social channels, educate your consumers and customers, and reach your audience with a new medium.​

Why should you focus on video marketing today?

The last handful of years saw a surge in the popularity of video as a content marketing format.

Specifically, in 2017, video rise to the top of your marketing tactic list. Video as a tactic was likely streamlined by your creative team as a one-to-many awareness play, with lots of focus on expensive production and little analysis to show for it.

2018 and 2019 transformed video from a singular marketing tactic to an entire business strategy.

Today, video is a holistic business approach, meaning video content should be produced by all teams in a conversational, actionable, and measurable way.

More than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands … more than any other type of content.

Video on landing pages is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80%, and the mere mention of the word “video” in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%. 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions.

But video hasn't only transformed how businesses market and consumers shop; it's also revolutionized how salespeople connect with and convert prospects and how service teams support and delight customers. In short, video is incredibly useful throughout the entire flywheel — not just to heighten brand awareness.

Video can be a versatile tool for salespeople throughout the entire customer buying journey, and it can do much more than increase engagement. Backend analytics also help salespeople qualify and prioritize cold or unresponsive leads.
According to Gary Stevens, head of research at HostingCanada.org, "retargeting our website visitors on social media has led to a 47% increase in visitor value site-wide." The granularity of video analytics on platforms like Facebook is one reason why, in 2018, 93% of businesses reported getting a new customer on social media thanks to video.

The options are also endless for service teams — onboarding videos, knowledge-based videos, meet the team videos, support video calls, and customer stories are just a few ways that video can create a more thorough, personalized customer support experience.

Lastly, according to Swift Research, consumers and customers actually prefer lower quality, “authentic” video over high-quality video that seems artificial and inauthentic.

Video is within reach for businesses of virtually any size — team and budget alike. 45% of marketers plan to add YouTube to their content strategy in the next year. Will you join them?

The 12 Types of Marketing Videos

Before you begin filming, you first need to determine the type of video(s) you want to create. Check out this list to better understand your options.

1. Demo Videos

Demo videos showcase how your product works — whether that's taking viewers on a tour of your software and how it can be used or unboxing and putting a physical product to the test.


2. Brand Videos

Brand videos are typically created as a part of a larger advertising campaign, showcasing the company's high-level vision, mission, or products and services.

The goal of brand videos is to build awareness around your company and to intrigue and attract your target audience.

3. Event Videos

Is your business hosting a conference, round table discussion, fundraiser, or another type of event? Produce a highlight reel or release interesting interviews and presentations from the gathering.

4. Expert Interviews

Capturing interviews with internal experts or thought leaders in your industry is a great way to build trust and authority with your target audience. Find the influencers in your industry — whether they share your point-of-view or not — get these discussions in front of your audience.

The video above is more than just a surface-level interview, it's a deep-dive with an industry expert offering concrete takeaways for viewers interested in creating viral content. Don't be afraid to get tactical with your interviews — your audience will grow from your hard work. 

5. Educational or How-To Videos

Instructional videos can be used to teach your audience something new or build the foundational knowledge they'll need to better understand your business and solutions. These videos can also be used by your sales and service teams as they work with customers.

6. Explainer Videos

This type of video is used to help your audience better understand why they need your product or service. Many explainer videos focus on a fictional journey of the company's core buyer persona who is struggling with a problem. This person overcomes the issue by adopting or buying the business's solution.

7. Animated Videos

Animated videos can be a great format for hard-to-grasp concepts that need strong visuals or to explain an abstract service or product. 

8. Case Study and Customer Testimonial

Your prospects want to know that your product can (and will) solve their specific problem. One of the best ways to prove this is by creating case study videos that feature your satisfied, loyal customers. These folks are your best advocates. Get them on-camera describing their challenges and how your company helped solve them.

9. Live Videos

Live video gives your viewers a special, behind-the-scenes look at your company. It also draws longer streams and higher engagement rates — viewers spend up to 8.1x longer with live video than with video-on-demand. Live-stream interviews, presentations, and events, and encourage viewers to comment with questions.

10. 360° & Virtual Reality Videos

With 360° videos, viewers “scroll” around to see content from every angle — as if they were physically standing within the content. This spherical video style allows viewers to experience a location or event, such as exploring Antarctica or meeting a hammerhead shark. Virtual reality (VR) allows viewers to navigate and control their experience. These videos are usually viewed through devices such as Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard.

11. Augmented Reality (AR) VideosIn this style video, a digital layer is added to what you are currently viewing in the world. For example, you can point your phone's camera at your living room and AR would allow you to see how a couch would look in the space. The IKEA Place app is a great example of this.

12. Personalized Messages

Video can be a creative way to continue a conversation or respond to someone via email or text. Use videos to  record yourself recapping an important meeting or giving personalized recommendations. These videos create a delightful, unique moment for your prospects and can drive them further down the purchase journey.


How to Make a Video for Your Business

1. Plan your video.
2. Script your video.
3. Understand and use your cameras.
4. Set up your studio.
5. Prepare your talent.
6. Shoot for the edit.
7. Organize your footage.
8. Edit your video.
9. Choose your music.
10. Record your voice over.

There's a lot that goes into making a video. This section will walk you through the detailed process of creating and publishing a video for your business. Grab your camera and follow along.

1. Plan your video.

Before you set up, record, or edit anything, start with a conversation about the purpose of your video. Why? Every decision made during the video creation process will point back to your video's purpose and what action you'd like your audience to complete after watching it.

And, of course, without a clear purpose agreed upon by your team, you'll find yourself in a whirlwind of re-shooting, re-framing, editing … and wasting a lot of precious time.

There are typically a lot of players when making a video. How can you ensure they're all aligned?

Create a questionnaire using Google Forms or SurveyMonkey and pass it along to the stakeholders of the project. This way, you can ask the same questions of everyone and aggregate your answers in one place.

Who's your target audience?

What buyer persona are you targeting? This may be a segment of your company's typical buyer persona.

What's the goal?

Is it to increase brand awareness? Sell more event tickets? Launch a new product? Ultimately, what do you want your audience to do after watching the video?

Where's the video going to live?

On Facebook? Behind a landing page form? You should begin with one target location — where you know your audience will discover the video — before repurposing it for other channels.

What are the creative requirements?

With your budget, skills, and resources in mind, think about the creative roadblocks that might arise. Do you need a designer to create lower third graphics? Are you going to create an animated video or a live-action video?

What will constitute success for the video?

Choose several key performance indicators that correspond with your video goals — or hop down to the chapter in this guide on measuring and analyzing video.

2. Script your video.

There's a time and place for videos to be off-the-cuff and completely unscripted. You have tear-jerking documentaries, vlogging rants, and, of course, the holy grail: cat videos.

That being said, most business videos need a script.

If you skip this step, you'll find yourself editing more than you need to, releasing a video longer than it should be, and probably losing your audience along the way.

Start writing your script the way you would begin a blog post — with an outline. List out your key points and order them logically.

Do all of your drafting in Google Docs to promote collaboration and real-time commenting. Use the “Insert > Table” function to adopt one of television's traditional script-writing practices: the two-column script. Write your audio (script) in the left column and insert matching visual ideas in the right column.

Don't make the viewer wait until the final seconds to understand the purpose of your video … we promise they won't stick around. Similar to a piece of journalistic writing, include a hook near the beginning that states the purpose of the video, especially for educational and explainer videos.

Notice, in our example below, that we don't let the audience get past the second sentence without understanding what the video will be about.

As you begin creating videos, you'll notice a key difference between video scripts and your typical business blog post — the language. Video language should be relaxed, clear, and conversational. Avoid using complex sentence structures and eloquent clauses. Instead, connect with your audience by writing in first person and using visual language. Keep the language concise, but avoid jargon and buzzwords.

Following the “Little-Known Instagram Hacks” example, note how a section from the original blog post could be transformed for video by using fewer words and relying on visuals.

• Blog Post Version: “When someone tags you in a photo or video on Instagram, it's automatically added to your profile under "Photos of You," unless you opt to add tagged photos manually (see the next tip). To see the posts you've been tagged in, go to your own profile and click the person icon below your bio.”
• Video Script: “The bigger your following gets, the more people will tag you in their posts. You can find all of these under the “Photos of You” tab on your profile.”

Most video scripts are short … probably shorter than you think. Keep a script timer handy to check your script length as you write and edit. For example, a 350-word script equates to a video that is nearly 2 minutes long.

Words on paper sound a lot different than they do when read out loud. That's why we encourage organizing a table read of your script before you start filming. The point of a table read is to smooth out the kinks of the script and nail down inflection points.

Have a few people (writer and talent included) gather around a table with their laptops and read the script multiple times through. If you accidentally say a line different than what the script prescribes, think about why and consider changing the language to make it sound more natural.

3. Understand your camera(s).Too often the fear and uncertainty of equipment keep businesses from trying out video marketing. But learning to shoot video doesn't have to be overwhelming.

It's likely you have a great, easy-to-use camera right in your pocket: your iPhone.

Shooting with Your iPhoneBefore filming with your iPhone, ensure your device has enough storage. Also, don't forget to enable your iPhone's Do Not Disturb feature to avoid distracting notifications while filming.

Once you open the iPhone's camera, flip your phone horizontally to create the best possible viewing experience. Then, move close enough to your subject so you don't have to use the zoom feature — it often makes the final video look pixelated and blurry.

Shooting with Prosumer and Professional Cameras

While iPhones are great for filming on the fly or becoming acclimated with video, at some point you may feel ready to graduate up to the next model. With all the digital cameras on the market, there are a ton of choices to pick from. Below we've identified a few options to simplify your search.

The first choice you make will be between purchasing a “prosumer” camera and a professional camera.

Prosumer cameras are considered the bridge between basic compact cameras and more advanced cameras. They're perfect for someone interested in creating more video but want the option to just press record. Most have a fixed lens to keep things simple.

Professional cameras, like DSLRs, give you fine control over the manual settings of shooting video and allow you to achieve the shallow depth of field (background out of focus) that people rave about. While they're primarily used for photography, DSLRs are incredibly small, work great in low light situations, and pair with a wide range of lenses — making them perfect for video. However, DSLRs do require some training (and additional purchases) of lenses.
 
ApertureAperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens. Like a human eye, a lens opens and closes to control the amount of light reaching the sensor. Aperture is measured in what's called an f-stop. The smaller the f-stop number, the more open the lens is, while a larger number means the lens is more closed.

This is where you can begin to see how the three factors of the Exposure Triangle work together. When you have a low-lit situation, for example, you may choose a lens that can shoot with a low f-stop to let more light into the camera and avoid making the shot too noisy with a high ISO.

If you're just starting out with manual video settings, don't be overwhelmed. Understanding the ins and outs of the Exposure Triangle takes time and a lot of practice. Here are two tips to beat the learning curve:

• Start with photos. By switching your camera off video mode, you'll be able to see the relationship between aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. Take a ton of photos and change each setting incrementally. Over time, the numbers will be less intimidating and switching between settings will make more sense — and become easier to apply to video.
• Form a process. Every videographer has their own method, but we suggest setting your shutter speed first according to the math described above. Then adjust aperture according to the depth of field you want to create. Then, ISO. Finally, circle back to shutter speed for any fine adjustments.

While aperture, shutter speed, and ISO may be the three main pillars of manual photography and videography, there is a fourth piece of the puzzle that's just as important: white balance.

White Balance

White balance tells your camera the color temperature of the environment you're shooting in. Different types of light have different colors. For example, incandescent bulbs (like what many people put in a lamp) have a very warm color. The fluorescent lights (if you're reading this in an office, look up) are a little bit cooler. Daylight is cooler yet. Before you begin shooting, you have to adjust your camera's white balance according to your setup.

To help you understand the importance of setting your white balance, consider the difference between these two photos. The environment is lit with yellow fluorescent lights. You can see how the appropriate setting looks natural, while the daylight setting adds a blue tint to the scene.

Focus

Focus isn't one of the key settings of shooting, but it's definitely important to keep in mind. With a DSLR, you have the option to shoot with autofocus or manual focus. It depends on the camera and lens you have, but typically autofocus is not the most accurate.

4. Set up your studio.

When you begin building your in-office studio, the purchases can add up quickly. Not only do you need a camera, but the more you read, the more you realize you need tripods, lights, microphones, and more.

Take a breath. With a little bit of know-how, building your studio doesn't have to be overwhelming. There are plenty of cost-effective choices and DIY hacks to make sure your videos look top-of-the-line.

Basic Equipment

Always shoot with a tripod. It should go without saying, but the handheld method you use for your Snapchat story isn't going to cut it. Tripods will ensure you maintain a steady shot and not break any expensive equipment in the process.

Along with the tripod, stock up on camera batteries and SD cards. Recording video will cause you to run through both much quicker than taking photos.

Audio Equipment

If you've begun testing out your camera's video capabilities, you've probably noticed that it has an internal microphone to record audio … don't use it.

If you set up your camera at a reasonable distance from your subject, you'll quickly learn that the internal microphone isn't powerful enough to adequately record audio. Instead, you should begin investing in a few pieces of quality sound equipment.

When you're shooting with your iPhone, there are a ton of microphone options that are all easy to use and decently cheap. For example, the Movo MA200 Omni-Directional iPhone microphone will give you a plug-and-play solution for capturing audio on the fly.

Opinions vary greatly among sound engineers on the best method and equipment for recording audio with a DSLR. You've likely seen many videos that use a lavalier microphone — the small piece that clips below the collar of the talent's shirt.

Lavaliers come in both wired and wireless options. However, lavaliers can be a bit obtrusive both for the talent (who has to have a wire threaded down his or her shirt) and for the viewer (who has to see a microphone for the whole video).

Instead, if you know you're recording in a controlled environment (like a conference room in your office) we suggest recording with a shotgun mic. They're reliable, remain out of the shot, and record background noise in a natural-sounding way.

 The Zoom recorder will allow you to record audio separately on an SD card and adjust the gain for the environment you're shooting in.

5. Prepare your talent.

If you have experienced, confident actors in your company, you're lucky. Video talent is a rare resource. But with a little bit of coaching (and a fair share of nervous laughter), you can help your teammates thrive in front of the camera.

No matter if it's your first video or your fiftieth, remember that getting in front of the camera is scary. Schedule plenty of time and give your talent the script early — but make it clear they don't need to memorize it.

Instead, place a laptop below the eye-line of the camera. Break the script into short paragraphs and record it section by section until you capture a great take of each. If you plan in advance when the final video will show b-roll (supplementary footage or screenshots), you can have your talent read those lines directly off the laptop like a voice over.

During the shoot, your job goes beyond pressing record. First and foremost, you need to be a coach. Balance critical feedback with support and be quick to give encouragement after each take. This is why conducting a table read during the scripting process is so important: It's easier to give feedback when there's not a camera in the room. Remember, be a little silly during the shoot or your talent will be on edge and uncomfortable — and it will show in the footage.

But while you're maintaining the fun level on set, remain vigilant. It's your job to pay attention to the little things, like making sure all of the mics are on or noticing if the lighting changes. Record each section many times and have your talent play with inflections. When you think they've nailed the shot … get just one more. At this point, your talent is already on a roll, and options will help tremendously during editing.

Finally, circle back to the beginning of the script at the end of your recording. Chances are your subject got more comfortable throughout the shoot. Since the beginning is often the most crucial part of the video, record that section again when they're feeling the most confident.

Composition Basics

There are some films that are simply beautiful. It's not the story or even the picturesque setting. In fact, the scene might take place in the dingiest of sets, but somehow each shot just feels right.

That's the power of composition. When objects appear where they should in the frame, the quality of your video increases exponentially.

For video, the rules of composition are similar to what you may have learned in a photography or art class. First, consider the rule of thirds — the idea that you can create a sense of balance by imagining the canvas with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. Key elements should occur at the intersection of these lines.

For example, if you are shooting an interview or a how-to video, the subject's eyes should align with the top horizontal line around one of the two intersections. For this “talking head” shot, you can also improve your composition by leaving enough (but not too much) headroom. This is the empty space above the person's head.

One of the best ways to improve the look of your video is to include b-roll. B-roll is the supplementary footage included as a cutaway. This might include shots of a customer service rep talking on a phone, a designer editing your website, visuals of your office, or even screenshots of your product. The key with b-roll is to make sure each and every piece enhances the story.

When you're collecting b-roll, include a mix of shots from varying angles and distances. In fact, film professionals use different names to describe these variations.

• Establishing Shots: Wide shots allow the viewer to see the entire scene. These are great to use when introducing the scene at the beginning of a video.
• Medium Shots: Tighter shots that focus on the subject or a portion of the scene. Your classic interview shot could be considered a medium shot.
• Close-ups: Tightly cropped shots zoomed in to show detail. These might feature someone's hands typing on a keyboard or pouring a cup of coffee.

As practice, try telling a story with your b-roll and planning out a shot sequence. For example, your subject might open a door from the hallway, walk into their office space, sit down at their desk, open their laptop, and begin typing. Seems simple, right? But a shot sequence showing this 10-second scenario might consist of six or more different b-roll clips.
Here's where the final lesson of composition comes in: continuity.

Continuity is the process of combining shots into a sequence so that they appear to have happened at the same time and place. A key part of continuity is making sure any ancillary objects in the scene — for example, a cup of water on a desk — stay in the same place (and have the same amount of water) throughout all of the shots.

The other part of learning continuity is match on action. For the scene described above, you'd want to record the subject opening the door and walking in from both inside and outside the room. In post-production, you could then flip between the clips at the exact right time to make the cut seamless.

6. Shoot for the edit.

When it comes to video, some are better at shooting while others are better at editing. Whatever side you claim, you should understand the process and pain points of each.

For instance, as the person behind the camera, you may believe you collect ample footage and ask all the right interview questions. But to the editor, you may actually be shooting too much of one type of shot and missing out on some that would make their job easier.

Filmmakers teach a valuable lesson here: shoot for the edit. By remembering that the footage you record will be edited later, you can make smarter decisions and save countless hours in the editing room.

The first step in adopting a shoot-for-the-edit mindset is remembering to leave a buffer at the beginning and the end of each clip. There are called handles and can save editors from the headache of cutting too close to an important shot.
In the section on preparing talent, we discussed how to record your script in short sections. If the editor were to stitch these sections together side-by-side, the subject's face and hands might abruptly switch between clips. This is called a jump cut, and for editors, it poses an interesting challenge. Thankfully, this is where b-roll comes in handy, to mask these jump cuts.

Example of a jump cut

As a producer, your job is to capture plenty of b-roll to make sure your editor never runs out. Create a shot list of more b-roll ideas than you think you'll need and mark them off as you record them.

To mask jump cuts, you can also shoot with two cameras, especially if you're recording an interview without a script. Camera A would be the traditional, straight-on shot. Camera B should be angled 30 to 45-degrees to the side and capture a distinctly different shot. The editor could then flip between these two views to make the cut appear natural.

A note about shooting with two cameras: Your editor will need to sync the footage between the different views. To help them do this, clap your hands loudly in the view of both cameras right before you ask the first interview question … yes, just like an old fashion clapboard. Modern editing software has auto-sync features, but this loud clap will help you initially line up the clips.

Finally, mark your good clips. Even if you're recording a scripted video, you might have to record each section 10 or more times. Once your subject nails the take, wave your hand in front of the lens. That way, the editor can scrub directly to this visual cue and save time on footage review.

7. Organize your footage.

Yes, file organization is boring. But when video editing, it just might save your project.  

On your external hard drive, you should create a separate top-level folder for each project. Within this folder, there should be a prescribed set of “buckets” to store your video footage, audio, design assets, and more. Create a template project folder that you can copy and paste for each project using the image below as a guide.

When you import your footage from your camera, place it in the “footage” folder on your hard drive.

Even with a perfectly organized external hard drive, you're not yet out of the weeds. You need to back up your files (and maybe even back up your backup files). It's not uncommon to have an external hard drive for everyday work, another external for backups, and a third set of backups in the cloud via Dropbox or Google Drive.

8. Edit your video.

Okay, you've filmed your video footage. Congrats — you're halfway there!

Now it's time to talk about editing. We get it, video editing can be confusing. It's easy to feel overwhelmed at first, especially when you see software price tags! Luckily, there are many options for video editing based on your skill level, operating system, and budget. There are even free programs and mobile apps! Let's go over a few options.

Intermediate: Apple iMovie

iMovie is Apple's video editing software. Compatible with Macs and other iOS devices, iMovie is simple, user-friendly, and free on all Apple products. iMovie allows you to create and edit your videos by cutting together clips, adding titles, music, sound effects, basic color correction, filters, and special effects.

The program even provides helpful templates that simplify the editing process. The platform supports high-quality clips like 4K video footage and makes it easy to share your work directly to a video hosting platform. Limited access to advanced color correction and editing features mean it isn't commonly used by professionals, but iMovie is still a great option if you're just starting out.
​
Advanced: Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro is a leading video editing software program used by amateurs and professionals alike. With a customizable interface and numerous advanced editing tools, the platform is often called the industry standard for video editing and has been used to edit major Hollywood movies like Gone Girl and Deadpool.

Premiere makes it easy to collaborate with other editors, organize your material, and sync with other programs in the Adobe suite like After Effects and Photoshop. The platform supports high-quality footage (4K and higher) and includes advanced, built-in color correction and grading tools that set it apart from cheaper or free options like iMovie.

The only downside to Premiere is the cost. A year-long subscription to the latest Premiere Pro CC comes in around $240. If you're new to video editing, you may want to experiment with a cheaper option like iMovie or Adobe Premiere Elements before investing in the Premiere Pro. On the fence? Check out some Adobe Premiere Pro tutorials here.

9. Choose your music.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about video? I'm guessing the actual video footage. While it's important to concentrate on your video footage, don't forget to factor music into your overall plan and budget.

Music is a powerful tool that can alter your video's mood and tone — just watch the videos above! Choosing the right music often makes the difference between an amateur project and a professional piece of content. When used properly, it can help keep your viewer's attention, evoke emotions, and define your overall editing style.

Next, consider your audience and the overall mood for your production. Are you targeting a small audience that will appreciate the newest, underground hip-hop track, or do you need something that will appeal to many demographics? Are you creating a practical product tutorial or an upbeat event recap? Be sure to choose music that enhances the overall tone of your video.

In addition to considering your audience, be sure to contemplate the purpose of the music. Do you need background music or something with real impact? Will you be narrating or speaking in the video? If so, don't let the music get in the way of your content. Sometimes the best music is the music you don't remember at all.

After you've determined the type of music you need, it's time to start analyzing potential songs. Consider the song's pacing. Songs with a steady rhythm are easy to change to suit your video style. Hoping to include your favorite, Top 40 hit? 

Try to choose simple songs that are easy to loop. If you're looking for an instrumental song, be sure to find something that was recorded with real instruments. Songs made with digital samples can make your video feel unprofessional and out of date.

Finally, consider adding intro and outro music. Intro and outro music, or bookends, can serve as a theme for your content. These are a great choice if you don't need music throughout your entire video. Bookend music can help set the tone for your video, naturally split your content into chapters, and leave your viewers feeling they had a complete experience.

While some videos feel unfinished without background music, others just need a few tunes to tie the project together. Pay attention to videos that have a similar style to see how others utilize music.

10. Record your voice over.

You have your video footage and music — now it's time to chat about voice overs. A voice over is the separate video narration that's not spoken by the speaker on-camera. Voice overs are an effective tool that can help make your content more relatable, emotional, and fluid.

It's important to remember that video audio is just as important as video visuals. The good news is that you don't have to be the next Don LaFontaine or hire a professional to record a great voice over. Below are a few tips to capture audio on a budget.

• Find a location. Decide on a spot to record. If you can't go to a professional studio, try to pick a quiet room away from distracting external sounds like sirens, opening and closing doors, and people talking on the phone. Read your script aloud, and pay attention to the room's acoustics. Does your voice echo or sound muffled? If so, consider recording in a different space or adding furniture to fill in the room.
• Prepare. Practice makes perfect! Before you record, read through your script a few times and take note of any difficult pauses, transitions, and words. On the big day, be sure to stay hydrated and avoid wearing noisy clothing or jewelry. Also, use a stand, laptop, or teleprompter while recording so you aren't rustling through a printed script.
• Test and listen. Think you can record the perfect voice over in just one take? Think again! Invest in a good pair of headphones and keep an eye on your audio quality throughout the recording process. It's easier to get a new take of audio than trying to fix it during the editing process. We recommend running through your script a few times, especially the first few paragraphs, to ensure that your voice is fully warmed up. If you hear popping or hissing sounds, try standing further away from the mic or invest in a pop filter.
• Relax! Be sure to read slowly, pause, and take breaks while recording your voice over. Sometimes all you need is a sip of water to get back on track.

Video Hosting Platforms

You're ready to publish your video. You shot the footage, edited it together, added music and a voice over, and exported it for the web. Now it's time to get your video online so your audience can start viewing, sharing, and engaging with it.

You have several options for hosting videos online, and in this section, we'll talk about some of the best ones.
YouTubeWhen you ask your friends which online video platform they use, the answer you probably hear the most is YouTube.

YouTube is the largest video hosting platform and the second largest search platform and second most visited website — both after Google.

Every single day, people watch over five billion videos on YouTube. It's also free to upload your videos to YouTube and optimize them for search.

In addition to its massive audience, YouTube offers several other features that make the platform a good option for hosting your video. Because YouTube videos are hosted on individual channels, the platform allows you to build a dedicated audience of subscribers. Users who follow your channel are more likely to see additional videos you upload.
Within your channel itself, you can also organize videos into playlists, making it easy for your audience to search within your content.

As a social platform, viewers can engage with your videos by liking and commenting on them, providing you another chance to interact with your audience. YouTube also offers a variety of advertising options for more sophisticated targeting.

Although YouTube offers the benefit of reaching a large audience with no cost to upload and host videos, there are several downsides to the platform. While video ads can be a great tool for promoting your own content, the number of ads on the platform from other advertisers can detract from your viewer's experience.

YouTube is also (surprise, surprise!) highly addicting. 83% of viewers prefer YouTube over any other video platform. Once viewers are on the platform, they usually stick around to watch another video … or 20. This can make it difficult to drive traffic back to your site from the platform. Despite these barriers, YouTube is a great platform for hosting videos and growing your audience.

VimeoIf your friends didn't answer your earlier question with “YouTube” then they most likely responded with Vimeo, the second largest video hosting platform.

Vimeo's audience is significantly smaller (715 million monthly views) than YouTube's, but there are still many benefits that make it a favorite for content creators and viewers alike.

Among these is a simpler, cleaner, user interface that makes it easier to navigate the platform. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo has very limited ads and commercials that would otherwise detract from your viewers' experience. Videos on Vimeo also tend to be higher quality than on YouTube, and the audience on the platform is likely to be more professional.

Vimeo offers several different premium account options to better suit businesses. The premium accounts provide additional storage, advanced analytics, customer support, player customization, access to lead generation tools, and much more. In addition to premium accounts, Vimeo also partners with businesses to produce quality marketing content.

If you're looking to showcase high quality, artistic content, Vimeo might be the platform for you. Its engaged audience and beautiful aesthetic make it a great place to host creative videos. However, if you're focused on quantity over quality and increasing your reach, you may want to explore other platform options.

Vidyard

Vidyard is a video hosting platform built specifically for businesses. It's not just another option to store and manage your videos; instead, it allows you to become a fully video-enabled business. Here's what we mean.

These days, we know posting your video to YouTube isn't enough. You need channel-specific video content for Facebook and Instagram, not to mention for your website. Enter: Vidyard. The platform allows you to publish and update to all of these places from a central location.

From this portal, you'll find all sorts of viewer insights. Discover what types of video content your audience likes and how they watch their videos. Then, channel those insights directly into your marketing automation software or CRM. For example, if that prospect you've been monitoring views your latest case study video, you'll be notified straight away.

One of the coolest features of Vidyard is the ability to personalize videos with the viewer's name or company directly in the video design. This is a creative addition as you begin working video into your marketing and sales strategies.
How to Create a Video Social Media StrategyWe've learned how to create high-quality videos for your business. Now, let's make sure those videos fit within each social network's best practices.

Creating and posting videos on social media should always help you drive toward your existing marketing goals.
For example, if your goal is to get more people to download an ebook, you could create a short teaser or how-to video and post the full link to the ebook's landing page in the copy of your social post.

Let's drill down into best practices for each social network.

Twitter

Promote a new blog post, engage with your audience, or even drive viewers to a landing page with Twitter videos. When teasing a blog post or piece of content on Twitter, always keep your video short and sweet – brevity is a core factor on this channel.

Short clips that are easy to consume tend to perform the best. Try pinning your video to the top of your profile for some added exposure.

If you want to get a little more experimental with using video on Twitter, you can try making short, custom videos to engage with your audience. These highly personal, one-to-one response videos are an awesome way to make your brand more human while building personal connections with your engaged followers.

Facebook and Instagram

When you walk onto a bus or train for your morning commute, how many people are scrolling through their smartphones to see the news and content they've missed overnight? Pretty much everyone – but not everyone is wearing headphones.

For this reason, make sure your video works with or without sound. BuzzFeed is the master of silent auto-play — just take a look at their Facebook page. The reason their silent auto-play strategy works so well is because of this rise in mobile video views and the way people scroll through and consume content on social media. They often post quick recipes or quick how-to’s, often with easy-to-follow imagery or helpful text to describe what is happening.

Facebook also favors longer videos in their newsfeed algorithm. The goal with this shift is to better surface videos that are most relevant to the viewer.

So what does this mean for you? Don't panic; this just confirms what we already know is true. Creating the "right" content for your audience is more important than churning out it out for the sake of it.

Secondly, upload videos directly to Facebook. Facebook continues to make a compelling case for uploading your videos natively to the platform — the primary reason being that your content will be seen by more eyes.

Brand awareness videos that are light-hearted and entertaining tend to perform well on Facebook for this very reason – their algorithm takes into account a user's previous video-related actions when determining what videos to show them on subsequent visits. Make a video that's super relevant to your audience, share it on Facebook, and see what type of engagement you can drum up!

Lastly, grab attention instantly... and keep it. Did you know that Instagram was the first social channel to initiate silent, auto-playing videos? It's true! Shortly after, Facebook followed suit, so it's safe to say that catering to this type of video when creating content for social media is the way to go. It might seem daunting to try and grab someone's attention so fast and without sound, but here are a few best practices you can use to make things easier:

• Start off your video with motion to grab your viewer's attention while they're scrolling through the feed.
• Videos that feature people speaking are great for landing pages or your website, but try to stick to visually stimulating videos for Facebook and Instagram (unless you're going Live, which we'll talk more about later).
• Incorporate text or include captions so that viewers can follow along with or without audio.

YouTube

On YouTube, post with a specific strategy in mind. Think of YouTube as a giant library of video content where people go to either educate themselves or to be entertained. YouTube reports over 1 billion unique users per month – sounds like a social media gold-mine, right? Well, sometimes, yes.

There are, however, a few questions you should ask yourself before going forth with posting every video you've ever made to your YouTube account:

• Can you make the specific video content they're searching for there?
• Do you need these prospects to end up on your website?
• If you're purely seeking some broad brand awareness, YouTube could be an awesome channel for you? (Just don't expect much in the way of driving tons of traffic back to your site.)

Establish and grow a dedicated channel of subscribers by creating informative, educational content that is in high demand, and you'll start to see some real success!

Live Video: Facebook & Instagram

While Instagram's traditional features let users record short video clips and post them online afterward, new live features on Facebook and Instagram take a different approach, allowing users to post live video streams of what they're doing at that very moment.

When you’re setting up videos for Facebook Live or Instagram Live, make sure you’re following the steps in the first section of this guide. If you do this, you’ll have much higher quality live videos, which will set you apart from other live videos being shown. In addition to these steps, we have a few more things to keep in mind.

Consider timing.

Keep in mind that your live video will be broadcast from the platform (Facebook or Instagram) itself, so that's where you'll be promoting your broadcasts primarily. Do some research on your Facebook/Instagram audiences to find out when they're most engaged with your posts.

Even if some of your followers miss out, the app will save your videos to the app by default (although you can delete them manually if you want to), and they'll be available for viewing by your followers after the fact.

As for the length of your video broadcasts, remember that most people's attention spans are fairly short — especially on mobile. If your broadcasts aren't captivating from the get-go, users will likely stop viewing your stream.

Spend time coming up with a compelling title.It's vital that your title describes what your video is and why people should either tune in now or replay your stream later (up to 24 hours). Here are a few styles that make effective titles:

• Straight-Forward: Sometimes, the most effective title will tell people exactly what you're going doing in the video. For example, Elijah Wood once posted a live video with the title "Jellyfish" whilst visiting the aquarium — which is exactly what the video showed; nothing more, nothing less.
• Exclusive: A title that lets users believe they're seeing exclusive footage can be super compelling. For example, you might broadcast a video titled, "I'm live from my show!" for all the viewers at home. Another version of this could be "A Backstage Look Into..." or something along those lines.
• Unique: Broadcasting something unique, rare, or just plain weird? Own it. One of my personal favorites was, “My Fridge: 100 Viewers and I’ll Drop Eggs."

Respond to comments live.

One of the coolest features on Facebook is that people who are watching your stream in real time can comment and "like" the broadcast (which show up as hearts, like on Instagram). Other viewers are able to see these comments and the number of hearts your video has. Acknowledge or even respond to these comments out loud on the live broadcast to encourage engagement and make the experience feel like more of a two-way conversation.

Experiment with use cases.

Since Facebook and Instagram Live features are still relatively new, there aren't solidly defined ways to use it, especially for brands. This is a unique opportunity for you to experiment with different ways of using it and what type of content your audience likes most.

Facebook Live lets you analyze a few key stats you'll want to keep track of while you're figuring out what works. Once your video ends, the app lets you see how many live viewers you had, how many viewers replayed your video, and how many hearts your video received (this number updates automatically as users continue "liking" your video from the time it ends until it expires).

Considering the time, money, and resources involved, video marketing can't be an impulsive guessing game. Instead, you need to create a comprehensive video marketing strategy that applies to every facet of your flywheel. This means thinking in the context of the inbound methodology.

The inbound methodology is the marketing and sales approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful. Each video you create should acknowledge your audience's challenges and provide a solution. Looking at the big picture, this content guides consumers through the journey of becoming aware of, evaluating, and purchasing your product or service.

In the following sections, we'll cover the types of videos you should create for each stage in the image above. To start, plan to create at least two videos for each. Don't forget to include call-to-actions to help lead your audience through their purchase journey and into the role of "promoter." Over time, you can improve based on conversion rates and the content gaps you discover.

Attract The first step of the inbound methodology is to attract — or turn strangers into visitors. Consumers at this stage are identifying their challenges and deciding whether or not they should seek out a solution. Therefore, the videos you create should empathize with their problems and introduce a possible solution in your product or service.

Ultimately, the goal of this kind of video is to expand reach and build trust. Because you are looking to garner shares for your video, it'll likely be more entertaining and emotion-evoking than educational. But, you should still provide enough information to associate yourself as an authority on the topic.

Examples of videos in the “attract” stage include snackable social videos that show off your brand's personality, thought leadership videos that establish you as a source of industry news and insight, brand films the share your values and mission, or explainers and how-to videos that provide relevant tips for solving your audience's pain point.

Let your brand values and personality be your north star(s). Finally, because these videos can live on a variety of channels, keep in mind the strategies of each platform. For example, a Facebook video might have a square aspect ratio and text animations for soundless viewers.

Convert

Now that you've attracted video viewers and website visitors, the next step is to convert these visitors into leads. With most inbound marketing content, this means collecting some sort of contact information via a form. Video can aid this process by visualizing a solution to the buyer's problem, whether that's before the form on a landing page or as the offer itself. Overall, the goal of this kind of video is to educate and excite.

"Convert" videos may include a webinar filled with tactical advice, product demos sent via email, landing page promotional videos, case studies, or more in-depth explainer and how-to videos. For example, while an "attract" video might provide a quick tip for nailing a sales pitch, a "convert" video could be an animated explainer video that breaks down the inbound sales methodology.

Close

You've attracted a new audience with your videos and converted the right visitors into leads. Now's the time to close these leads into customers. Yet, as important as this stage is, "close" videos are often the most overlooked by marketers and salespeople.

At this point, the consumer is weighing their options and deciding on the purchase. Therefore, the goal of this kind of video is to make your audience visualize themselves using your product or service — and thriving. There's a reason 4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. Videos are able to display functionality and leverage emotions in ways a product description never could.

Great "close" videos include testimonials of customers with relatable stories, in-depth product demos, culture videos that sell viewers on your quality of service, or even personalized videos that explain exactly how your product could help their business

Delight

A purchase may have been made, but there's still a lot of video can do to leverage the post-conversion stage of your flywheel. During the "delight stage" of the inbound methodology, your goal is to continue providing remarkable content to users that makes their interaction with your product or service as incredible as possible.

It's also in hopes that they'll tell their connections about their experience or up-sell themselves. Therefore, the goal of this type of video is to encourage your customers to embrace your brand and become brand evangelists.

Your first opportunity to delight comes directly after the purchase. Consider sending a thank you video to welcome them into the community or an onboarding video to get them rolling with their new purchase. Then, build out a library of educational courses or product training videos to cater to consumers who prefer self-service or simply want to expand their expertise.

Defining Your Goals and Analyzing Results

At this point, you know how to create a video and where to host it. You're ready to get started, right? Not quite. Before you dive in, you need to define your video goals and identify the best metrics for determining whether you've accomplished those goals.

Before launching any marketing campaign, it's important to determine your primary video goal. This could be to increase brand awareness, engagement, or even conversions for a free trial. It's crucial to pick out just one or two goals for each video. When you define more than that, your video will seem unfocused, making it difficult for viewers to determine what they should do next.

When thinking of your goals, be sure to keep your buyer persona and target audience in mind. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their interests? How do they typically consume media? What stage of the buyer's journey are they in?

All of these questions can help determine what type of video you should make and where you should post it. For example, if your target audience is not familiar with your company, you probably want to make a video that focuses on brand awareness before producing an in-depth, product video. You'll also want to host your video on a site that already has a large reach, like YouTube.
​
Next, let's talk about metrics. Understanding these will equip you to define and measure your success and set your goals. When you post a video, it's easy to get obsessed with one metric — view count. While view count can be an important metric, there are many others that may be more relevant to your campaign.

Finally, what about your video social media marketing strategy? How do you measure that?

Measuring performance on each social media platform provides valuable information, especially to determine whether video really is the right content type for your audience on each platform.

Across all platforms, in addition to the metrics above, be sure to measure views over time to determine the life of your videos. You may find that videos need to be refreshed every few weeks, or months, in order to stay relevant with your audience. You also want to always be tracking and comparing engagement of your videos. This will help you determine which topics encourage the most sharing, and therefore will have a higher and longer lifetime value.

Ready, Set, Action!I'm guessing you're feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Don't worry, you're not alone. Video editing and marketing can seem daunting at first, but with a little practice and patience, you can easily produce high-quality content that is unique to your brand.

With 71% of consumers watching more video online than they were a year ago, brands can no longer ignore their growing popularity. Thankfully, creating great content has never been easier!

Try turning a written blog into a video or create a product tutorial. Using video to showcase information in a new, interesting way is sure to interest and delight your audience. Pick up a camera, start filming, and watch your engagement levels increase. It's time to make video a key part of your marketing strategy!


Video Marketing Don't forget to share this post!

You know you're a marketer when you're sitting in traffic on the highway, it's completely bumper to bumper, and all you can think about is "Why can't I drive traffic to my website like this?"

If you've struggled with driving traffic to your website, you're not alone. According to 2020 research done by Content Marketing Institute, 63% of content professionals are challenged with finding enough staff skilled in content strategy which is one of the top drivers of website traffic.

Between writing a new blog post, posting on social media, and strategizing for a new email campaign, it's hard to look back and see what's driving traffic to your site and what isn't.

The list below will help you increase the traffic to your website, generate more leads, and improve ROI.

Free Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website

1. Content Creation
2. Topic Expertise
3. Organic Social Media
4. Website Analysis
5. Collaborate with Influencers
6. Email List Building
7. Community Engagement
8. On-Page SEO
9. Quality Backlinks
10. Video Marketing
11. Content Repurposing
12. SEO Tools
13. Historical Optimization
14. Voice Search Optimization
15. Local SEO
16. QR Codes
17. A/B Testing
18. Internal Linking
19. Technical SEO
20. Community Building
21. Content Offers
22. Media Coverage and Public Relations
23. Social Share Buttons
24. CTR Optimization
25. Academy and Knowledge Base Posts
26. Social News Sites

1. Content Creation

Inbound marketing focuses on attracting the right people to your company. One of the best ways to do this is by creating content through blogging.

To come up with content that will attract the right visitors to your website, you must first understand the buyer persona you’re targeting. Once you know your audience, you can create content that will naturally attract them to your website.

But how do you write a good blog post that will draw in the right audience? Follow these five steps:

• Identify your buyer persona: Find out more about your target market. Understand everything from job title to pain points.
• Conduct SEO research: Learn what your audience is searching for on search engines so you can provide the best content.
• Write a draft: Begin by drafting a post that answers your audience's questions. Use interesting angles to make your post stand out.
• Publish: Publish your post on your blog site. Use SEO tools to optimize your content.
• Promote: Promote your blog post on social media and email newsletters to generate traffic. The more traffic your post generates, the higher it will rank in search engines.

2. Topic Expertise

Ranking higher in Google will increase the organic traffic to your site. Google favors sites that are known to be topic experts on the subject matter they're writing about.

To be seen as an expert, you can create a pillar page, which is essentially a longer blog post that broadly covers all aspects of a topic. Then, you write "cluster content," or supporting blog posts, targeting long tail keywords that show you've covered a topic exhaustively. Focusing on long-term traffic will help you rank higher on search engines

The pillar cluster model organizes content on your site around a single topic and search term through internal linking. This organization helps search engines easily crawl and categorize all of the content that you have on a particular topic, thereby making it easier for you to rank for that search term. When the model is done right, it also helps visitors navigate your site and move through related pages, boosting traffic for all of the pages in your topic cluster.

3. Organic Social Media

Organic social media is not a new strategy, but it's still something marketers should pay attention to. Besides posting on social media platforms, you can also use Instagram Stories (hello, swipe up feature!), live video, IGTV, or Facebook Messenger. The key with organic social media is to be an early adopter of new features.

For instance, Facebook released an automated lead generation feature on Messenger, allowing businesses to create an automated chatbot experience within Messenger to link to content offers on your site. This is a great feature for sending traffic to your website.

It's also important to have a diverse social media strategy and use the right social media platforms — not just Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Platforms like YouTube or Pinterest can generate a lot of traffic to your site.

Here are two things regarding organic social media. "First, don't spam your audience — it costs a user nothing to scroll past your post, and if you don't offer them any value, that's exactly what they'll do. Know your audience, and craft content that speaks directly to them," Franco says.

"Second, stay active with community management. People love when brands like and reply to them — it'll humanize your business, and keep people coming back for more content."

4. Website Analysis

Let's do a little reverse engineering of our thought process. Before you drive traffic to your website, it's important to learn about your audience. To do this, analyze your website using platforms, such as Crazy Egg, to see where you're losing and gaining visitors. With this information at your disposal, you can create the right content to drive the right traffic to your website.

5. InfluencersWe know that customers are more likely to buy from organizations with excellent word of mouth, but how do you create great word of mouth? First, delight your customers. Second, work with influencers.

Influencer marketing isn't a passing fad. In fact, it's a budget-friendly option to drive traffic to your website. When influencers post discount codes, links, reviews, or giveaways, you are tapping into their audience to drive traffic to your website.

6. Email List BuildingUsing your current readers and customers is a great way to drive traffic to your website. When you post a new blog or content offer, you can promote it to your followers/subscribers for a quick traffic boost. With content-heavy websites, having repeat readership is helpful for traffic goals, conversions, and lead generation.

To get started with this, build an email list or grow your current list. Below are a few strategies you can use:

• Content offers: Publish content that requires visitors to share their email address to access it. Include CTAs for content offers on your website.

• Easy-access newsletter sign-up: Include sign-up forms on your website, from your homepage to your about page. If a visitor had a delightful experience on your site, they might want to sign up for a newsletter.
• Social media: Promoting your email newsletter on social media, whether through a post or contest/giveaway, is a great way to convert your current followers into subscribers.

7. Community Engagement

The more brand recognition you have, the more traffic you will drive to your website. One way to achieve brand recognition is to be active and engaged within the market. You can implement an engagement strategy today by participating in Facebook group discussions in your industry, answering questions on public forum websites, and interacting with your followers on social media.

One of my favorite brands on social media is Taco Bell. Taco Bell delights its customers on social media just about every day. See a couple of examples from the company’s Twitter below.

Just remember to be helpful and human. No one likes spammy links or self-serving rhetoric when they're asking a quick question online.

8. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO can help your website rank higher in search engines and bring in more traffic. Some on-page SEO elements include the bpage title, header, meta description, image alt-text, and the URL (plus more). Showing up in search engines will generate more traffic for your site.


9. Quality Backlinks

In order to drive traffic to your site, you need to rank high in search engines. In order to rank higher in search engines, you need to be an authority in your industry. One way to do that, besides the topic/cluster model described above, is by acquiring quality backlinks. If websites with high authority link to your site, that gives you more credibility.

There are two main ways in which high-quality backlinks can help drive more traffic to a website: boosting ranking and driving referral traffic. On the one hand, backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for every major search engine out there. By constantly earning high-quality backlinks from relevant websites, you'll improve your rankings in SERP and, as a result, see a lift in your organic traffic.


Nica adds, "On the other hand, backlinks can also drive a substantial amount of referral traffic. That's something to be expected if you get mentioned on a popular news website. You can also see referral traffic coming through if you're mentioned (and linked to) in an article that's already ranking well for high search volume keywords and is getting a constant flow of traffic.

10. Video Marketing

It's time to add video marketing to your content strategy because the audience is looking for video content. Statista reports that 77% of internet users ages 15 - 35 are using YouTube to consume video content.

You can create videos for Instagram or Facebook Stories, live videos, IGTV, Facebook Watch, news feed videos, YouTube, etc. 
​
11. Content Repurposing

Need content to drive traffic to your site but struggling to come up with ideas? I get it. A great way to overcome this hurdle is to repurpose old content. Take a well-performing blog post and repurpose that into a video. Or if you have a podcast that did really well, write up a blog post on that topic. Using content that has already performed well will continue to drive traffic to your site.

12. SEO Tools

To drive traffic to your website, it's important to be a student of SEO. Learning SEO tools such as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush will help you develop a strategy to generate traffic to your website.

These tools will help you learn and analyze what's working on your site and what isn't. Plus, these help you come up with ideas for content that has the potential to generate high traffic. Check out our roundup of the best SEO tools to monitor your website.

13. Historical Optimization

Historical optimization is the process we use at Swift Digital Marketing to update old blog content and generate more traffic and leads. If you're anything like us, a majority of your monthly blog views and leads come from older posts.

Historical optimization is a tactic best-suited for a blog that's been around for several years because you need to 1) be generating a significant amount of organic search traffic, 2) have built up a critical mass of blog subscribers and social media followers, and 3) have a sizable repository of old posts at your disposal.

Historical optimization should be a piece of your overall blogging strategy — not the whole strategy.


14. Voice Search Optimization

Remember in "The Little Mermaid" when Ariel wanted to go where the people were? That same principle applies to digital marketing. In order to drive traffic to your website, it's important to show up where people are searching.

Voice search is an increasingly important area in which to rank. In fact, according to eMarketer, voice searches will have increased 9.7% by the end of 2021. That's why optimizing your content for voice search is essential.

Here are a few tips to get started:

• Research long tail keywords: When people use voice search, they speak in full sentences rather than short phrases. To optimize for voice search, start researching longer-tail keywords.
• Write answer-focused content: The content you write should answer your audience's questions.
• Optimize for snippets: Smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home look for short, concise answers. Writing quick summaries in your posts makes it easier for search engines and smart speakers to find the answer they need.

15. Local SEO

If your company is a brick-and-mortar store, local SEO is an important factor to consider. She says, "To gather information for local search, search engines rely on signals such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user."

For example, when someone types in "best soul food restaurant" on Google, the results are generated by the user's location. Tools such as Google My Business and Moz Local help businesses manage their directory listings and citations so they show up in local searches. 

To rank for local search:

• Ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistent on your Google My Business and social media pages.
• Use a directory management tool to monitor directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Best of the Web, etc.
• Research and use location-based search terms on sites like Google Trends, which analyzes popular search terms across various regions.

16. QR Codes

If there’s one thing that brings technology and the real world together better than any other tool, I’d bet my bottom dollar it’s the QR code. This interesting image of pixels can drive traffic to your website from just about anywhere with a flat surface. And they’re not just for restaurants trying to operate safely during the Covid-19 pandemic — marketers love them because they drive traffic.

The main catch with QR codes is that you have to give the user a reason to scan them, so you can’t place them haphazardly. That shouldn’t be too difficult though, think of it as creating a real-life CTA button. If you make it enticing and accessible enough, people will scan it, and you’ll get to assess the success of that QR code’s placement in real-time. That’s something you’d spend weeks figuring out in a digital-only traffic campaign.

17. A/B TestingBesides driving traffic to your website, you know you're a marketer when your motto is, "Test, test, and test again."

A/B testing is a split test that helps you determine what version of a campaign performs best. These tests can give you key information about your audience so you can create tailored content and offers that drive traffic to your site. There are a lot of tools you can use to get started. 

18. Internal Linking

When a visitor comes to your blog, your goal is to get them to continue reading on other pages of your website. That's why internal links — links to other pages on your site — are very important. When visitors continue to other pages of your website they're more likely to convert and become a brand enthusiasts.

For example, you can create an internal linking structure using the pillar/cluster model described above. Pillar and cluster pages link back and forth, which boosts your site's credibility on search engines, while also increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

19. Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses on the backend of your website to see how the pages are technically set up and organized. Factors include elements like page speed, crawling, indexing, and more. 


To get started with your technical SEO, use some of the tips, including:

• Fix broken links and redirects.
• Create an XML sitemap for your subdomains.
• Set up language meta tags.
• Add custom H1 and introductions to topic pages.

20. Community Building

Building a community of brand enthusiasts is a great way to continuously drive traffic to your website. You can build a Facebook group, Twitter chat, LinkedIn Group, or Quora Space specifically for your followers and others in your industry where you create value, while also linking back to your site.

A great example of community building comes from career coaching business CultiVitae. They have a closed Facebook group where Emily, the founder, answers questions and provides networking opportunities.

These types of communities keep you top of mind in your customer's eyes. Plus, it's a great way to engage with your followers and learn more about your audience as they evolve over time.

21. Content Offers

Content offers, sometimes referred to as lead magnets, are a way to use content to drive traffic to your site and generate leads. Content offers vary depending on what stage of the buyer's journey your customer is in, but can include webinars, guides, reports, trials, demos, checklists, and more.


22. Media Coverage and Public Relations

Earned media coverage is a great way to drive brand awareness for your company and traffic to your website. If your marketing and public relations teams work together, you can generate traffic to your site and create excellent word of mouth.

Although most outlets these days try to stay away from including backlinks in their stories (it's usually against their editorial guidelines), that doesn't mean that a good story won't drive folks back to your site.

Media coverage provides great third-party validation for your company. Stories about new products or services, your company culture, or even industry thought leadership can all be great drivers for a reader who maybe hadn't heard of your company before and wants to learn more."

23. Social Share ButtonsSocial share buttons are links that make it easy for your readers to share your content on social media. When your readers become promoters of your content, your traffic will increase. Here's a quick cheat sheet on creating social share buttons.

Once you've created your social share buttons, how do you get people to share your content? Here are a few tips to get started:

• Ask people to share on social media.
• Create strong content.
• Include quotable content.
• Add multimedia such as images, videos, infographics, etc.

24. CTR Optimization

Once your content is posted and you begin ranking on search engines, make sure people are clicking through to read your posts. Your click-through rate (CTR) measures who clicked on your post and read it against the number of people who viewed the link to your post (e.g., the landing page, email, or advertisement) in total.

A great tool to measure your organic CTR is Google Search Console. To get more people to click through and drive traffic to your site, it's important to write compelling and apt meta descriptions and titles. To write quality meta tags that are click-worthy, make sure your titles are short and snappy, and your description leaves visitors wanting more. This ties into on-page SEO, described above.

25. Academy and Knowledge Base Posts

One form of content that can drive traffic to your website is educational content. If you create courses, certifications, or educational posts that are helpful to your audience, you'll likely see an increase in traffic.


26. Social News Sites

Have you heard of Reddit and Quora?

These are social news sites and they’re great for driving traffic to blog articles. By nature, these platforms are similar to social media because they foster asynchronous connections between users. The difference is that these types of sites engage people around a question or topic, and external content can be shared to help explain the users’ points of view.

Another way external sites benefit from increased traffic via social news sites is when they’re shared in popular channels. You can share your website’s content on these sites yourself if you’re just starting out, but do so carefully. Just like on traditional social sites, too much self-promotion is frowned upon in the Reddit and Quora communities. You’ll fare best when you share your content in context of the topic and when it’s the best information to answer the user’s question.


Paid Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website

1. Paid Advertising
2. Contests and Giveaways
3. Guest Posting
4. Thought Leadership

1. Paid Advertising

You can drive traffic to your website quickly with paid advertising. With search engines, you can run pay-per-click or retargeting ads. With social media you can run display ads or sponsored posts. Your strategy will most likely include a combination of different types of advertising like social media, display, and search ads. In fact, according to the 2020 CMO Survey, firms expect social spending to rise by 62% over five years.



2. Contests and Giveaways

A simple way to drive traffic to your website is through contests and giveaways. This can give you a quick boost, while also rewarding your followers. You can host giveaways on social media, through your email list, or both.
​
Implementing a strategy like this can be simple. Just follow these six steps:

• Decide what platform on which to host your giveaway. (You can use multiple.)
• Choose a prize. (Free tickets, discount, etc … )
• Select the criteria. (Website comments, email sign up, etc … )
• Write the ad copy.
• Create the graphics.
• Post and promote the contest or giveaway.

3. Guest PostingIn that same vein, writing guest posts can generate traffic to your site. Guest posting shows you're active in your community, while also linking to your website — more on generating backlinks below.

To implement a guest posting strategy, you need to find a site that would be a good fit for your company, draft a blog post, and then write a pitch.


4. Thought Leadership

According to Edelman’s and LinkedIn’s 2020 research, more than half of decision makers spend an hour or more reading thought leadership content each week. It’s clear that people have an interest in this topic, so why not dedicate more of your calendar to it?

Just about every industry has several well-respected people with words of wisdom to share. Even if they come from a completely different background than what your company specializes in, influential thought leaders have transferable knowledge that can be helpful for your readers.

When choosing a thought leader, the most well-known person isn’t your only option. Instead, look for great storytellers. The Swift Team recommends keeping your eyes peeled for up-and-coming experts as well as individuals who thrive in less hyper-digital industries like agriculture, food and beverage, and humanitarian work like Sippie Siphiwe Mungaraza does at Mealtime Limited.


Website Traffic Is Waiting For You

Driving traffic is a never-ending task, but it’s also a task that yields results long after you get started. There are so many paths your future customers can take to reach your website, all you have to do is find the one that works best for your business. Try one of these methods in your next quarter’s demand generation strategy to see a significant traffic boost.

SEO. Don't forget to share this post!