How to Kill it with Instagram Marketing

Are you using Instagram to its fullest potential?

If you have a visually striking product or brand (and even if you don’t!) and you’re not on Instagram, you’re missing out on one of the biggest visual trends on social media today. And considering that images are often the most engaging aspect of social posts, that’s saying something.

Whether you’re new to Instagram marketing or you’re struggling to find the ROI of your photos, we’ve got a four-step process to help you kill it with Instagram marketing.

Step 1: Pre-Campaign Data and Insights

If you want to find success on Instagram, you’ve got to do more than just publish beautiful photographs. Your strategic thinking should begin well before you post a single image.

Before launching an Instagram campaign, consider exploring all of your available data and insights. What do you know about your audience? Who are they? What is their browsing behavior like? Where do they shop? What is their lifestyle?

If you are using a social insights platform, you should be able to apply what you know about your audience on other channels, like Twitter or Facebook, to your Instagram marketing to give yourself a great head start.

Step 2: Campaign Execution

Now it’s time to launch your campaign: Snap photos, create captions, insert hashtags and engage your audience.

Be sure that your bio is completely filled out, and that you are posting fresh, new content on a regular basis. Whether you’re running a one-off seasonal campaign or a long-term brand awareness campaign, you’ll need to keep your presence active in order to be successful.

Some tips for great Instagram photos:

• Set your smartphone camera settings to “square” if available, so that all the photos you snap will be Instagram-friendly
• Drive traffic to your website by always including a URL in your caption
• Plan your Instagram photos in tandem with other posts across your social networks
• Encourage your community to share photos of your product, using a branded hashtag

Step 3: Post-Campaign Measurement

After your campaign, or (better yet) at regular intervals while it’s running, you’ll want to capture metrics that show how successful your efforts have been.

Examples of Instagram metrics:

• Number of comments
• Number of likes
• Number of followers
• URL clicks
• Branded hashtag mentions

What you measure will be determined by the goals of your campaign. Is it to drive traffic? Measure URL clicks. Brand awareness? You might want to look at comment sentiment and hashtags.

Step 4: Analysis

No social media strategy is complete without analysis. During your campaign, be sure to check in on the metrics you’ve decided to measure, and see whether they’re indicating growth.

You can analyze the demographic and psychographic makeup of your audience; the reasons why certain images performed better than others; what time of day gets the most engagement and more.

Analysis is a key component of a great Instagram strategy, as even not-so-successful campaigns can teach you what works and what doesn’t. By feeding this information back into your strategy for the next campaign, you’ll be in a better position to reach and engage your audience with your beautiful photos.

Try applying these four steps to your next Instagram campaign to better connect your content with your audience, and get the most out of your branded visuals.

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How Native Advertising Fits Into Content Marketing

Did you know that you are 475 times more likely to survive a plane crash than you are to click a banner ad? According to these statistics provided by online marketing research firm Solve Media, it’s obvious that run of the mill standard ad formats just won’t cut it anymore. People have wised up to general placement games – they know when and how they are being targeted during their web surfing sessions. Grabbing the attention of a modern audience brings up new obstacles. That’s where a successful native advertising campaign can breathe fresh life into a pay per click campaign.

What is Native Advertising?

Native advertising is generated, paid content that has been creatively constructed and placed to flow naturally with the original content of a website. Native advertising has the potential to read much like an advertorial, which is written in the same tone and format as other scheduled content within a publication. Native advertising however, is subject to less rules and regulations concerning how they must be labeled online like other ads.

When thoughtfully designed and implemented, native ads often pass as organic content to the untrained eye. For this reason, successful native advertising campaigns have the potential to generate strong brand awareness by generating clicks, shares and comments for the advertisers. This kind of content is much more likely to encourage audience engagement, and click-through-rates are typically stronger than average banner ads.

According to Copy Blogger’s 2014 State of Native Advertising report, there are some key takeaways that all advertisers should know:

• Nearly half of all consumers are unaware of native advertising’s existence.
• Of the consumers who are familiar with native advertising, more then 50 percent are skeptical of the ads presented to them.
• Three out of four online publishers are currently offering some kind of native advertising on their websites.
• 90 percent of publishers have either already launched, or plan to launch some form of native advertising campaigns in the near future.
• More than 40 percent of advertisers are using native advertising as part of a larger promotional strategy.

What makes a successful native advertising campaign?

As stated previously, effective native advertising campaigns are carefully crafted to appear to consumers as original content. As with any campaign, the ads should be informative as well as interesting and entertaining, but most importantly, they should sell the brand. Because building awareness is usually a central goal of any native advertising campaign, the tone, visual appearance and strategic placements are essential to the campaign’s success.

Of course, native advertising isn’t something that is embraced without question. Many consumers are skeptical of the ads, and are resentful when they feel as though they are being “tricked” by ads that have been presented to them as website-generated content rather than something that has been paid for by an advertiser. Others say that native advertising threatens the integrity of true journalism, an enterprise that continues to experience significant transformations in the digital age.

How does Native Advertising Fit into Content Marketing?

Content marketing is all about creating and delivering relevant and consistent content that provides value to the consumer and promotes a certain action. When a native advertising campaign is thoughtfully designed to not only entertain, but also to deliver rich information to the consumer in the form of advertiser-generated content, it has the power to build brand awareness, drive clicks and encourage loyalty. Effective content marketing campaigns also possess a clear understanding of their audience. Native advertising should be applied similarly. When these paid ads blend in naturally with surrounding articles, the consumer will naturally engage, often before even realizing the type of content they are reading. If value is thought of first and foremost, the line becomes fine between content and ad.

Who is using Native Advertising effectively?

The brands reaping the biggest benefits from native advertising are those that have a clear idea of the audience they are trying to reach. Take this H&R Block campaign that was created to run on The Onion’s website as an example. The Onion, known for its entertaining, satirical look at current events and trends, was a perfect platform to reach young people who are new to preparing their own taxes without the help of mom and dad. By duplicating the same tone and spirit of an article that would regularly appear in the online publication, H&R Block was able to create a piece that poked fun at the tedious nature of preparing one’s own taxes online. The campaign not only generated clicks, but was also shared by hundreds of loyal readers.

This entry was clearly labeled as a ‘sponsored post,’ however the content still had sharable qualities because it was highly entertaining and easy to digest. This effort supported H&R Block’s goal to build brand awareness, in this case among a specific target audience: younger people who may be doing their taxes on their own for the first time and who could likely use the help of a professional. By creating and delivering relevant, consistent and informative content through an ad filter, H&R Block was able to achieve their goal on numerous levels.

The Future of Native Advertising

As long as content is king, native advertising will have a strategic place alongside social media as a promotional tool of choice for brands. As more and more advertisers begin to utilize this tactic, however, native advertising faces the danger of burning out, or becoming as dull as the static banner that can’t even draw a click. It’s up to advertisers to continue doing the research to truly understand their audiences before taking the necessary steps to create content that not only provides entertainment, but also provides their readers with something useful.

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3 Steps to Creating a Powerful Email Marketing Campaign Through LinkedIn

Imagine you were at a networking event, and you spot someone you don’t know but would like to connect with. Maybe she runs a very successful business you would like to model yours after, a potential joint venture partner or perhaps a journalist who covers stories in your industry.

Would you ever walk up to this person and request them to promote your business, write an article or request for his or her time?

And if you do happen to try your luck, chances of them fulfilling your request would be little to none simply because you haven’t built a relationship with them.

Same goes for LinkedIn, I see so many people making the fatal mistake of promoting/pitching their product or service to me as soon as I connect with them. Quite frankly it’s lazy, it’s unprofessional, and it’s highly unlikely to get a response.

It might seem like common sense, but I can’t tell you how many people I see squandering this opportunity by sending brief or automated messages that don’t give people any meaningful reason to respond or engage.

This in turn can potentially burn the relationship with that person, have them report you to LinkedIn and even disconnect with you.

There are no short cuts to marketing success, before you start selling anything to anyone in today’s business world you must first build a relationship with them, showcase why you’re the expert and build the necessary trust for them to listen.

Now the amazing thing about LinkedIn is that it allows you to connect one-on-one with nearly anyone in the world, and then email market to them once there in your network.

If properly executed this can help you get your marketing message in front of 100’s if not 1000’s of key decision makers in your industry every single month.

I don’t know about you but I can’t think of any other social media platform that gives you the same capabilities!!

Below I’ve provided you a 3 step process on how to create a powerful email marketing campaign through LinkedIn, so you can start turning your connections into leads and sales for your business.

1. Segment your contacts

In today’s marketing world, it is more important than ever to reach out effectively to your customer. To do so, the keyword to focus here is on “relevance“. For example, a person in an executive role requires a different piece of content than someone in an intern role. What resonates with one audience doesn’t necessarily resonate with another.

Many people aren’t aware that you can segment your connections into topic categories within LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to segment (classify) your connections by subject areas. LinkedIn refers to this progress as “tagging”.

Tagging allows you to organize your connections by industry or subject. This is quite useful as it allows you to then tailor your messages to your network so they are most relevant to your members. Before you send your next email take one step back and segment your existing contacts to ensure everything you send is as targeted and personalized as possible.

2. End in mind

Once you have your contacts segmented, your next step is to design your call to action. This is the process of starting with the end in mind and really thinking about what action or step you would like your contacts to take once you have built a relationship with them.

This could be downloading a whitepaper, attending one of your webinars, phone meeting or even a face-to-face meeting. It really depends on the price for your product/service, target demographic and your company sales cycle.

For example at Linkfluencer, our call to action is a free LinkedIn webinar or a download of our E-book. This works particularly well for us because it allows us to educate our audience and showcase our methodology on how they can leverage LinkedIn within their business.

What action or step would you like your contacts to take once you’ve build a relationship with them?

3. The LinkedIn email marketing campaign

Now that you have your contacts segmented and designed your call to action, the 3rd and final step is to create an email marketing campaign where you provide targeted and very relevant content to your connections through a series of emails prior to promoting your call to action.

The purpose of the emails in the sequence is to establish you as the subject matter expert and build trust with your target market whilst remaining top of mind. These emails could include:

• Sending a link to an article that is relevant to them and their industry
• Sharing a business tip/strategy
• Download to your whitepaper

It’s about adding value before pitching your products or services. I essence it’s just common sense. It’s a lot like dating!

Author: Alex is an entrepreneur and founder of Linkfluencer, the world’s leading online community for LinkedIn training. He loves playing basketball, travelling and covering the latest stories on entrepreneurship. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook

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How to generate leads with a focused social media campaign

Landing pages make all the difference

If you’re like most real estate agents, chances are you have at least started to build a presence online. More and more agents understand the need to have a website or blog — it is your virtual storefront.

More than half of homebuyers start their home search online. It’s clearly important to have a website (storefront) for customers to enter and browse (figuratively speaking). Your website or blog helps you capture natural traffic, i.e., people looking for an address, a neighborhood, a golf course home, and so on. The concept is similar to consumers seeing an intriguing new store in a favorite shopping center, then going inside. They may browse around, find something they enjoy, and give you their information or make a purchase.

You’ve heard the saying “location is everything” — and it really is, but what if you’re not getting that natural traffic?

If business isn’t pouring in, then it’s time to start advertising. In order to make the highest return on investment, you want your advertising to be as targeted as possible. You should target not only the demographic but also the service you are promoting.

Human beings are a lot more likely to make purchasing decisions or give out personal information when they are not overwhelmed by a large number of choices and when you make the process easy for them.

Don’t confuse your prospects

Recently, a colleague of mine saw a limited-time offer in a Facebook ad and was intrigued. She saw that season passes were 40 percent off at a local ski resort, and she thought she’d found El Dorado.

Sadly, this is where the ad took her.

Landing on this page after clicking a Facebook ad for 40 percent off a season pass leads to a broken heart. Cold, lost and alone. There’s not a single hint of a season pass here, just a bunch of distractions.

You can’t expect a prospect to behave how you’d like if you send them to a page that doesn’t acknowledge where they came from or what they hope to do.

Don’t do this with your real estate social media campaigns. Instead, send visitors to a dedicated landing page.

Targeted marketing

If you’re promoting your service or listings on social media, then there is no reason to send people directly to your home page!

If someone clicks on your ad, they are likely looking for your service. So make it easy to find and use!

For example, I run targeted Facebook ads to generate seller leads.

I link every targeted ad to a dedicated landing page that continues the conversation that the ad started.

I match the headline of my Facebook ad to the headline of my landing page, which tells the visitor that they are in the right place. I also keep a consistent design across all channels. The design of the landing page is familiar to the prospect and has already enticed them to act once.

Using this technique, I have seen a significant drop in my cost per lead throughout my businesses. Landing pages make all the difference in social marketing.

What’s your favorite way to farm leads from Facebook? Have you experimented with using landing pages in real estate? Let me know in the comments — and remember that although the examples reflected in this article should apply to most of you, never assume results. Test everything!

Next time, I’ll share my step-by-step guide for setting up real estate Facebook ads.

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SocialMedia vs. Email Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]

There's a heated debate inside marketing circles right now about whether email marketing or social media is better. While there are many valid and profitable reasons for adding social media marketing (SMM) to your toolbox, the current research shows that it would be a costly mistakes to toss email marketing out just yet.

Take a look at this infographic, created by Emaildelivered, and find out which marketing channels is more effective - social media or email marketing?

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Top 7 SEO and Content Predictions for 2015

In just two weeks we’ll be into 2015 (scary, I know!) – so with that in mind, today seemed like the perfect time to start looking ahead to 2015 to see what the next 12 months might hold for the digital industry.

Seeing as how I work mainly in SEO and Content, I thought I’d throw my two cents in and take a stab at what the next 12 months might hold for these niches.

1. Penguin That Ticks The Boxes: OK, so we might have got the Penguin 3.0 update we’d been waiting for for over a year back in October – but a quick glance at any SEO blog shows that this update was… well… a little underwhelming for many. And it’s not surprising really. Google bigged the update up, claiming it was going to “shake” the industry – and while it did certainly change a few SERPs, it wasn’t anywhere near as big as the industry expected or hoped.

According to various blogs, the algorithm was still updating last week – something which is pretty uncommon for Google (normally their updates are complete world wide within a week or so) – which has led many to question just what Google is doing and if Matt Cutts’ absence is to blame. That said; whether Matt Cutts comes back to the search team or not in 2015, I think in the next 12 months, Google’s going to come out with a bigger Penguin update that makes waves – and following that update (which I guess would be Penguin 4.0), I think, just like Panda, we’ll see Penguin rolled into the ongoing monthly algorithm updates.

2. More Of A Focus On Mobile When Ranking Sites: It’s no secret that mobile is big business and in 2015, I think we’re going to start to see it affecting SEO a lot more. Why? Because Google have already starting to tag websites which are mobile-friendly in the SERPs which means it’s already starting to identify which websites have mobile-friendly features (both in terms of the technical issues and user experience) – and I think these factors are going to start to directly affect where sites rank when someone uses Google on their mobile device more and more in 2015. Why? Because they’ve already told us this is something they’ve started to experiment with on their very own Webmaster Central Blog:

3. More Personalised Content: Thanks to Big Data, brands have more data about us than ever and as a result, in 2015 I think we can expect to see brands to placing a larger focus on delivering more personalised content that meets the needs and preferences of individual users and customers.

4. More Data/Tools In Organic SERPs: Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen Google introduce more and more tools and information into the Knowledge Graph and organic search results – and we’d be foolish to think this is about to stop anytime soon. Whether it’s right or wrong, I think Google’s going to continue to add its own tools, such as mortgage calculators, and pull more content directly into the Knowledge Graph in a bid to better answer search queries directly.

5. SEOs Will Start To Chase Brand Mentions As Much As Links: In these post-Penguin times, it goes without saying that link building is much trickier, with many SEOs and digital marketers now much more wary about what links they pick up and from what site. With that in mind, and the fact that SEO is now merging more and more with online PR, I think in 2015 we’ll see SEOs and digital marketers starting to chase brand mentions on high authority sites as much (if not more than) links. Why? Two reasons – a brand mention on a high authority site can be pretty powerful – and with no link, SEOs don’t have to worry about possible repercussions next time Penguin rolls around.

6. SEO Will Merge With Other Roles: As I just mentioned, SEO has already begun to merge with some roles such as online PR, and I think that trend is only going to continue throughout 2015. In addition to becoming even more integrated with Social and Content, in terms of job trends, (as I mentioned in my 2015 job trends blog), I believe we’ll start to see more in-house hiring and a move away from agencies as brands look to take more control over their digital marketing, particularly around SEO.

7. Content Campaigns Across Multiple Channels & Platforms: With more platforms available than ever before, in addition to creating more personalised content, in 2015 I think we can expect brands to start delivering more integrated content campaigns which span across multiple channels and platforms, both on and offline. This content will be different for every platform and will really meet the needs of the users on each platform. This means brands will have to put real time and effort into creating content which will not only provide real value to users – but also content which is unique and relevant to every platform it’s created for.

So there we go; my top seven predictions for the SEO and Content industry in 2015. Agree with any of my predictions – or have some of your own you’d like to share? Leave me a comment below.

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