Simple, effective, and viable, email marketing is a way to reach out and bring subscribers back to your website. Strategies employed on email hinge around getting you that CTR, otherwise referred to as click-through rate. If your CTR is low, you know there’s a problem that needs correcting.

7 Ways to Increase Your Email Click-Through Rate to Connect to Customers and Prospects

The ideal CTR varies according to industry. A lot of marketers will tell you 10% or higher is worth aiming for. This may seem low but you have to acknowledge that the vast majority of people won’t open your message. Even so, the higher your CTR, the better. Here are some ways to improve your email click-through rate.

A/B testing

There are a lot of variables affecting open rates and CTR. A/B testing can show a lot of insight towards what’s working and what isn’t. You may want to switch things around, test out different subject lines, sending out at different times of day, experiment with different CTAs, and more. Testing’s all about trying new things and seeing what sticks.

Subject line

Top strategies for subject lines include to write something urgent or time-sensitive, to ask a question, to be concise, and/or to incentivize. Also, studies show personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. If/when possible, personalize your subject line. They matter! If you don’t capture attention in two seconds or less, you run the risk of having your email passed over.

Segment

Segment your email subscriber list into different groups. Email marketing programs do this with ease. Divide according to demographics, location, age, gender, and more. This way, you can blast an email with ease. Segmented email campaigns have an open rate 15% higher than campaigns which haven’t been segmented.

A double opt-in

A lot of brands will collect email subscribers with a single click. This may leave you with fake or incorrect emails though which will flood your click-through rate with no activity. Instead, use a double opt-in where someone initially signs up to be an email subscriber and then, opts in again in a confirmation email received after the original sign-up.

Action-oriented language

Use action-oriented language, with a clearly marked CTA, and with consistent branding throughout. When we use action-oriented language, it means you’re pulling the reader towards an action. An effective marketing email message has a defined goal and target. Every word, image, and layout choice is crafted around making the desired action.

User experience

Put yourself in the audience’s shoes and ask yourself, does your email offer something of value? Stuffing someone’s inbox with yet another email is junk. You don’t want your email marketing campaign to come across like spam or junk mail. Focus on crafting the perfect UX in design, messaging, and approach.

Layout

Mobile responsive email design should be priority as you never know what type of screen you’ll have it opened on. Ensure any functional components, like buttons or your call-to-action, are easily displayable. Consider doing some testing on your own devices to verify the layout works. Visuals and text should both be presented as you intend, piquing interest and encouraging that click-through.

Launch a high-performance, results-driven email marketing campaign today with Unlimited Exposure’s expertise. Blend it with social media, video, photo strategies, web design, content marketing, and more. Get creative, tap into the right tools and resources, and let’s boost that click-through rate to heights it’s never seen before! Contact us today.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1091-7-ways-to-increase-your-email-click-through-rate-to-connect-to-customers-and-prospects.html

If your brand stays relevant and of use to its customers, they won’t ever leave your side. Marketing’s an ever-changing minefield but if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed about content marketing it’s these 7 truths.

7 Truths About Content Marketing You Can Use to Keep Your Brand Relevant and Useful

Content can sustain a business

Every brand is selling something and to some, what you’re selling is all in the content. Buzzfeed utilized content to build a multi-million dollar platform where it now exploits different product sponsorships and initiatives to generate further income. Content builds audience. If you grab attention and you’re good at holding onto it with consistent content, you can make a lot from that.

Grab audience that’s already there

It’s less expensive and carries less risk to tap into an existing audience than to build an entirely virgin one. Although content marketing plans work on momentum building and creating audience, you can tap into guest blogs, influencers, sponsorships, and other opportunities to popularize your brand and make people aware of your existence. If you want audience, don’t just rely on your own content marketing. Find a way to tap into others.

Most people don’t know what they’re doing

Content marketing initiatives fail usually not from a bad performance but because the value of this channel isn’t pre-established. A lot of content marketers don’t know what they’re doing, regarding both creating the content and then, measuring its success. If you’re pursuing a digital marketing strategy like this, identify its value, how to measure, and know how to achieve the targets you set for yourself.

Do what you do well better than anyone

We can’t be great at everything. When you’re developing content, focus on what’s working, eliminate what isn’t, and do what you do well really, really well. Using niche digital and content marketing strategies, you can build a sizeable audience. Even if you have multiple brands or product lines, it’s much more lucrative and momentum-driving to have a large small audience than multiple small audiences that you can’t turn into conversions.

Content marketing sales funnel

We focus a lot in content marketing on attracting leads, converting those into sales, and then moving on. This does not treat your customer with as much value as they warrant. When writing out a content plant, consider customers at different stages. How can you make a one-time customer into a return customer? What would keep a lead coming back to be re-converted regularly? These are questions that have answers which will strengthen your brand-customer connection.

Content sits on your own land

Platforms like social media and Google are always changing, with algorithms that are never set in stone. Developing content for these platforms, you exist on rented land. If these platforms eventually disappear, slowly lose favor, or run out of value for you, you don’t want to be stuck. High quality content marketing written well and hosted on your website provides your followers with a destination you have full control of. This is an asset and a platform you own. Build it.

Patience

It can be frustrating seeing how slow digital marketing or content marketing can be. For the momentum to build and to do it organically, it does take time – days, weeks, and months. Assuming you can get that snowball rolling though, or if you have a piece of content that goes viral, you may see a significant spike in numbers down the line. Today though, it’s about laying groundwork and putting in the effort to set yourself up for success.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1090-7-truths-about-content-marketing-you-can-use-to-keep-your-brand-relevant-and-useful.html

So many social media platforms and strategies, so little time and money. Where to focus your energy relies on knowing where the best return is. Instagram and Facebook are the world’s two biggest social platforms, almost with equal audience in size though key differences in demographics, marketing method, and return. Here are a few points to hang onto when creating and crafting a cohesive social media marketing plan for Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.

7 Must-Know Info Points to Start Your Instagram and Facebook Marketing Campaign With

Emotions

Sharing on social media is all about tapping into people’s emotions. It makes it matter. Connect emotionally with a user and they’ll remember you. The emotion can be whatever you need it to be, whether that’s enjoyment, sadness, anger, happiness, or otherwise. The important thing is soliciting a response from the user so that they make that connection. The most successful social media marketing campaigns drip with emotion off every word.

Buyer personas

You may not be able to get completely in the head of a buyer/customer but with the right research, you can build a buyer persona. These describe your ideal buyer and you can tailor content accordingly. Identify key elements such as the type of work they do, interests, income, location, age, how they share content, their pain points, life goals, and things they like to do.

Ask questions

Use social media to do some market research. Ask questions. Help yourself understand your customers better by giving them a voice and listening to their comments or votes. It’s a free opportunity for you to learn and it lets a follower feel heard.

Using a clear CTA

Call to actions in line with brand messaging and tone should be given in every message. When a user knows what action you expect them to take, they’re more likely to comply with the desired result. It might be to share, like, subscribe, comment, or otherwise. Creating conversation can involve trial and error but once you know how and where to employ CTAs, you’ve solved an element of social media marketing that every successful brand before you has conquered.

Influencers

For millennials and younger generations, influencer marketing’s a major influence. Influencers advertise product to their followers. Many can move mountains in an eighth of a heartbeat, establishing new brands. They have personal connection with their audience and setting up a campaign through influencers can achieve a level of brand awareness that’s probably not otherwise possible. Instant results.

Demographics

Be it Facebook or Instagram marketing, both carry different audiences. Instagram tends to be younger, for example, while Facebook has accounts from people of every age, culture, and background. Before you commit to a social media platform, investigate if in fact your buyers actively participate in the conversation there.

New tools

Social media’s always advancing and expanding with new tools. Every year, something new introduces itself on Instagram or Facebook. Not to mention there are new hashtags every day you may be able to piggyback on. There’s also digital marketing automation tools which makes posting to multiple platforms, procuring photos, and monitoring the conversation around your brand so, so easy.

Social media’s a powerful tool. Key social points like these can really form the basis of a highly effective campaign. No digital marketing strategy in 2019 is complete without a social element. Tap into yours with Unlimited Exposure today.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1080-7-must-know-info-points-to-start-your-instagram-and-facebook-marketing-campaign-with.html

Location-based smartphone marketing is winning brands big sales. Digital marketing focuses so much on what goes on behind a computer that sometimes we forget the majority of people will be coming to a website through their smartphone. Here are 5 top mobile digital marketing strategies that have won big based solely off intelligence in design, perfection in execution, and targeting audience by location.

Location-Based Smartphone Digital Marketing Campaigns to Win You Instant Sales

Mazda

Mazda launched a clever campaign that saw a video of a car crashing into one’s smartphone screen, then showing the visual of a cracked screen. The ad was to discourage customers from distracted driving. It was to the point, direct, and honest. The video itself demonstrates how powerful a visual is, perhaps more so than any content marketing can be. Mazda’s campaign shows a timely and impactful message done right in mobile form.

Dr. Who

BBC’s Dr. Who show came up with a mobile smartphone campaign that put the Dr. Who character as a side kick on a set of high-profile websites. Targeting teens and young adults, this type of influencer led marketing and essentially sponsorships resulted in an ultimately award-winning campaign. This campaign acted as a supplement to what a user was reading or consuming. Creative campaigns like this aren’t necessarily possible for every brand but when you’re fortunate enough to have the budget to experiment, this was a smart way to go.

Gordon’s Gin

Gordon’s Gin used location tagging to advise delayed train passengers that they could enjoy a Gordon’s Gin. Pre-qualified adults were sent an MMS whenever a train was delayed. This saw 155,000 messages sent which resulted in more than 32,000 purchases. If you have a brick and mortar, and are interested in mobile marketing for smartphones, using location to capitalize on audience that’s already physically in close proximity is the right route.

Cheapflights

Cheapflights launched the world’s first ever emoji search engine, mapping emojis for over 40 destinations worldwide. For example, a koala was given to Sydney, Australia, and a shamrock for Ireland. This was coupled with some social media marketing on Facebook to do a holiday bot search, offering live weather search, currency converter, and other tools to travelers through Cheapflights. This campaign kept customers coming back to the brand for the entirety of their journey. Instead of advertising product or services, they gave value – a lesson well worth learning.

Justice League

Justice League, like any Hollywood blockbuster, used multi-channel marketing in a big way. Through mobile clients like AT&T, sponsored previews were given with behind-the-scenes looks, Facebook skins were distributed, a free mobile app called Justice League VR allowed users to play their favourite superhero, and more. Although you may not have the same size budget to play with, smaller brands can still find value in launching a mobile app, incorporating VR, and partnering with influencers on social media.

Location-based smartphone campaigns, mobile marketing, and integrated social media marketing’s an approach every brand with a physical location should be taking. Even without, there are opportunities to appeal to people when they are most likely to buy. Through tracking location, one can send qualified leads messaging that pulls them closer to making you a sale. Digital marketing is all about cultivating leads and nurturing them until they’re ready to buy. Through advanced campaigns like the ones overseen by Unlimited Exposure, you can turn those leads into concrete sales and conversions.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1079-location-based-smartphone-digital-marketing-campaigns-to-win-you-instant-sales.html

Changing ways of searching for information online has included more consumers using voice search on their smartphones, tablets, and devices like Google Home, Microsoft Cortana, Alexa, Siri, Amazon Echo, and more.

Add to this more consumers are moving to mobile devices instead of browsing the Internet on laptops, desktops, or tablets. A lot of searches get done through voice, such as finding a local restaurant, getting directions, or finding out the weather. By 2020, about half of all Internet searches will be done through voice.

How to Shift SEO to a Voice Search Optimized Content Strategy

Positioning your brand for long-term success is key to understanding voice search. Unlike written words, voice search is more conversational, natural in tone, and statements made or queries are longer. The future of SEO is voice search which is why we’ve put together this quick guide on elevating brands to where they need to be to ensure they remain successful in tomorrow’s landscape of search engine optimization.

Microdata

Microdata can come in many forms. One such is a sitemap submitted to Google which would include data such as your location, pricing, store hours, and address and phone number. Microdata markups can also be written to communicate various things relating to your business and the products or services offered. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper is a great tool, in this sense.

Experiment with voice search yourself

To better understand how people are using voice search, use it yourself. Look up and try to understand how users in your target market may be using it. If you understand interactions like these, you can then transfer this knowledge to how you supply voice search SEO questions with answers. It’s all about meeting the demand with supply from you and your website rather than a competitor’s.

Scannable content

Anyone viewing content on their mobile wants to do so quickly. Use short, simple sentences. Paragraphs should be kept short. Headers should be used to help break up the content. Make it easy to read.

Google ‘My Business’ listing

If you haven’t already, register a Google ‘My Business’ listing. This optimizes an existing SEO campaign and legitimizes your brand in Google’s eyes, identifying your industry, address and location, business hours, and other pertinent information. This makes it more likely that when a voice search is performed, especially if the keyword of location-related, you come up.

Long-tail keywords

When we converse, we don’t do so in short sentences. Most of us are detailed, use more words than we need to, and are more natural in our spoken word. When using voice search long-tail keywords are recommended. Think about real speech and possible keyword variations. A lot of voice search involves asking questions. The more long-tail keywords you use, the more likely you will grab someone who is asking their voice-enabled device a question using the same word sequence.

New voice search SEO strategies will certainly present in the years to come as more people shift away from screen Internet and jump on screen-less use. Digital marketing will have to adapt. Rightfully with voice-centric SEO, you can get your brand in a good position so that you stay ahead of the trend rather than having to play catch-up a few years down the line. For these and other digital marketing related to video, SEO, email, content marketing, eCommerce and more, speak with an expert at Unlimited Exposure today.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1078-how-to-shift-seo-to-a-voice-search-optimized-content-strategy.html

For small business owners and entrepreneurs new to using social media as a business tool, it’s common to make mistakes. There’s understandably a lot to learn and using sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn for business can be completely different from how you would use it on your own time. Come on too strong with a hard sell and your leads go running. Approach it too casually and you won’t ever find the leads you want. Here are some quick dos and don’ts of how to approach social media marketing for beginners.

Dos and Don’ts of Social Media Marketing for Beginners Looking to Sell, Sell, Sell!

Do set a goal

Before you start on any social media campaign, know your goal. How many leads? What’s your targeted conversion rate? How many social interactions or impressions do you want to have weekly, monthly, or for the full campaign? These answers will help you determine the details of a campaign.

Don’t not have a way to measure success

After you set your goal, install the analytics you need to monitor whether a strategy is working. Without knowing the details of a campaign’s performance, you won’t know when you’ve achieved success or failure. As you measure progress along the way, you may also decide to adjust your campaign according to the results you’re getting.

Do engage one-to-one

Powerful social media brands get to their spot by engaging in one-to-one communication, between brand and lead. Just like you would at a networking event, make your way across comments, likes, and shares, and be responsive to questions. Facebook marketing in particular hinges on interactions like this.

Don’t be generic

Using social media generically with the run-of-the-mill marketing messages of ‘Please buy this!’ isn’t the right approach to take. You won’t build relationships and you’ll probably lose followers. This isn’t personal and it holds no value. Social media’s not just another marketing channel. It requires a whole different type of posting strategy.

Do be real

Consumers want authentic, honest, real brands. If you’re always trying to sell, there’s no point in following a brand like that from a user perspective. Be unique. Show some personality. The more authenticity to show, the more you’re putting out for prospects to connect with and the easier you’ll find it to accumulate impressions.

Don’t sell

It’s counterintuitive in any sort of marketing digital or otherwise to not sell but don’t. Social media users don’t want to be sold to. They’re there to interact, pass time, have fun, and be informed or entertained. Instagram marketing or Twitter marketing isn’t built on sales pitch after sales pitch. Any time you blindly pitch products or services, you’re wasting money and effort. It’s much more effective to start a conversation or join an existing discussion. If people want to buy, they know where to find you.

Do listen

Above all else, keep your eyes on the screen and ears to the ground. What we mean is there’s useful info out there on social media channels. You can learn what your customers want, competition’s successes and failures, market positioning, and local industry news. If you pay attention, you may even come across some opportunities to build on for your brand.

Not sure about doing the whole social media marketing thing? No problem! Hire social media experts to get it done on your behalf. Unlimited Exposure are here to act as your guide through the tricky world of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, and more!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1077-dos-and-don%E2%80%99ts-of-social-media-marketing-for-beginners-looking-to-sell,-sell,-sell.html

The dreaded bounce rate. It’s something a lot of sites struggle with, even the best ones. People leaving your page after a short period of time can happen for many reasons. Let’s say your marketing and branding’s strong enough to get a user to click on your site. Now they’re there. How do you get them to buy in? Well, conversions are a whole other ballgame. Cultivating the lead is one thing. Now you’ve succeeded there, we’ve got to focus on improving those conversions.

Avoid High Bounce Rates in Digital Marketing with a Focus on Content, Blogs, and Web Pages

The best way to avoid high bounce rates is to focus on improving the quality of your content. Whether it’s a blog or a web page, the look and information on it count for everything in taking care of those bounce rates. Ideally what you want to have happen when someone clicks on a page is for them to start reading and never stop. If you can get a user to read at least halfway through, you have a real opportunity to entice them into buying in. ‘Buying in’ can mean many things. It can be actually buying a product, signing up for a service, subscribing to an email, following social media accounts, etc.

Without quality content, you’ll never be able to get the user to buy-in. This is where your talent in content marketing comes into play. Content is there to provide value. It’s also there to assure prospects that you’re a legitimate brand that knows what it’s talking about and which has a quality product or service to provide.

It can be tough knowing where to start so let’s start at the beginning. The hook. You need something that’s going to catch attention. The subject title and an intro that teases sub-topics is a great place to start. Incorporating keywords also improves SEO and read-through rates. Next, eliminate all the boring parts. Let’s say you put together a 2,000-word blog post. Read it through. Is every section as pertinent to the main topic as it should be? If there’s fluff, cut it out! Fluff only distracts and it’s not worth losing a lead over because you wanted to write a lengthier blog.

You may also want to re-write certain sections that may not be working so well. There are a few approaches you can take to re-writing content to increase conversions. As we mentioned, you can cut the filler out or delete the section altogether. Alternatively, maybe a paragraph gets easier to read when it’s put into bullet points. Another way to make content more insightful is to do some research and present some examples or statistics to back up what you’re saying. Cliffhangers also work. End one section on a cliffhanger, to keep the reader hanging on for the next sentence. Then, deliver the payoff in the next section.

When in doubt, go to your analytics and look at where you’re losing people. A key mistake a lot of websites make is not including a clear CTA for the reader. If there’s not a clear action for the user to take, you may see them get lost along the way and unsure about what’s expected. High bounce rates happen for a reason. Let’s be clear, a website will always have a bounce rate of some kind. That said, you can limit them by writing and re-writing, using eye-catching titles, incorporating high-return SEO keywords, making content more exciting, and watching analytics.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1076-avoid-high-bounce-rates-in-digital-marketing-with-a-focus-on-content,-blogs,-and-web-pages.html

Every new website that sets sail wants the same thing – results. Ideally without spending a ton of money, you want leads, sign-ups, sales, subscribers, and success. With the right digital marketing agency to execute and a creative approach, you can wow your customers with strategies that go beyond the norm. Here are 11 uncommon ways to fast-track your website to complete success.

11 Uncommon Ways to Jumpstart a New Website Digital Marketing Campaign

Hashtags

Social media’s your most powerful digital marketing weapon. Join in on friendly, non-political hashtags and you can get a lot of views from this strategy. By participating and engaging with others, this is one social media marketing campaign that can turn you from just a company looking for customers to having an active, personalized voice.

Photo contests

Hold a campaign encouraging followers on Facebook or Instagram to submit a photo with a specific hashtag, instantly putting them in a draw for a free prize. It’s easy. Photo contests are increasingly becoming the norm, with so many great examples to pluck from for a general template.

Influencer

Try partnering with an established business that isn’t a competitor to help you meet your goals. Corporate brands do this all the time, referring customers back and forth with ease. This can benefit both business partners and is an avenue worth exploring for an instant hit in traffic.

Copy others

Launch a content marketing campaign with blogs, videos, and photos that take on a similar approach to what’s working on viral sites like Buzzfeed or Upworthy. Look at what’s trending for them and what gets the most shares. The subject may be different but if you adapt this sort of approach in headline, structure, and promotion, this sets up your website and a blog to hit the most amount of people.

Giveaways

Giveaways aren’t anything new but they bring attention to you and they do drive brand awareness. Diamond Candles promised a ring valued between $10 and $5,000 with every purchase of a candle. It resulted in more than a $1 million in sales in 18 months. As long as you aren’t losing money and can surprise a customer with something they love, try it.

Grab a competitor’s customers

This one’s a little too conniving for some but if there’s a competitor offering something similar but aren’t following through on giving their customers something great, target this audience. For example, when they first started, Airbnb reached out to people posting ads on Craigslist advertising their home as a place to say and disguised their messages as from a friendly Craigslist user. It worked! It’s a difficult, manipulative, and risky tactic to use but it can pay off.

Video contests

Video contests done through a YouTube or Facebook video marketing campaign gives users a chance to submit their own videos to be used on your channel in exchange for a free gift or discount of some kind. Also, if your brand has the audience for it, a daily or weekly prize giveaway isn’t a bad idea.

Referral program

Want to grow social media followers fast? Offer a referral program that allows a customer to promote your product for you in exchange for a discount code. Once you have decent momentum acquiring fans on platforms like Facebook or in an email campaign, definitely consider it.

Free gift!

A branded free gift like a sticker, a pen, or a fridge magnet proves to be surprisingly useful for companies looking to get their face out there. If there are multiple stickers, consider starting a campaign of collect all ‘x’ number and receive a discount code.

Your product goes viral!

Find something your product solves. Turn it into a challenge or a social media game campaign. Charities and corporate brands all the time launch these sort of viral share-friendly challenge campaigns via video that encourages user participation while also creating a viral moment for some of them.

Invite-only

For some businesses, they may want to start off offering products and services on invitation-only. This creates a sense of exclusivity, excitement, and drives interest. Advertising an invitation-only dynamic on Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms can further stoke attention around your brand. Many brands have used this tactic to grow their user base and have done so successfully within a matter of weeks.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1075-11-uncommon-ways-to-jumpstart-a-new-website-digital-marketing-campaign.html

When a brand stops taking itself so seriously and starts to have a little fun with their perceived image or rebels against what’s expected of them, it can really resonate with a user base. On Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, brands do this all the time, toying with their corporate voice and showing some personality.

6 Brands Using Humor in Social Media Marketing to Connect to their User Base

Humor can be a tricky thing though. Some brands try and fail at it with unfunny, offensive posts. Those that get it right however do so because they know their audience and can successfully deliver something that’s funny, quirky, or cute rather than simply being weird or inauthentic. Here are some of the best brands who do funny in social media marketing.

Charmin

Charmin launched a recent campaign under the hashtag #tweetfromtheseat which brought together bathroom humor pins, some pop culture referencing, and capitalizing on humor to promote branding. For some brands, a similar campaign can be a risk but for products appropriate to the humor, it’s hard not to laugh at hashtags like this that seem so obvious.

Old Spice

Old Spice is well known for its viral commercials, already establishing the brand for having funny voice. Since the whole brand is the prevention of male body odor, one can only imagine the laughs a brand can have with it. A more over-the-top use of humor on social media by the brand was when Old Spice tweeted Taco Bell about their fire sauce, claiming it was false advertising because it didn’t contain real fire. The Twitter exchanged that followed was entertaining and attracted attention. A true win-win.

Oreo

Oreo has been very quick on the draw with their social posts, capitalizing on in-the-moment happenings. The result is more attention given on to them. For football fans, they remember the power outage during the Super Bowl in 2013. It only took Oreo less than 15 minutes to post an image of a single Oreo in a shadowy backdrop under the caption ‘You Can Still Dunk in the Dark.’ The meme was re-posted more than 10,000 times in the first hour. Though not all brands can be quick, timely humor grabs likes and shares better than anything.

Moosejaw

Moosejaw claims to be ‘the most fun outdoor reilater on the plant.’ Its social media posts on Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere regularly drop one-liners sometimes completely unrelated to business. This works well for Moosejaw, keeping them anything but boring. That said, most should be careful about how disconnected one’s jokes on social media marketing are. Connection to branding is important.

Taco Bell

Taco Bell regularly sets up one-liners, clever meme-esque photos, and delivers strong, funny comebacks that make people smile. The way they use humor really brings out the humanity behind the brand. Taco Bell has one unique brand personality and to fans of the fast food joint, social posts right in line with their audience’s sense of humor.

Denny’s

Another fast food restaurant working wonders with humor on social channels is Denny’s. The accounts ranging from Twitter to Instagram regularly feature puns, borderline nonsensical, and bizarre posts about pancakes, syrup, and breakfast-friendly memes. Denny’s ongoing feed of jokes and never-boring laughs is what’s continued to bring the brand to the attention of millennials, Generation Z, and appreciators of one-liners.

Are you ready to use humor and other tools to connect to a whole new audience on social media? See the experts at Unlimited Exposure and fast-track your brand to peaking its numbers with weekly strategies on how to create awareness and convert those prospects into followers.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1074-6-brands-using-humor-in-social-media-marketing-to-connect-to-their-user-base.html

Stay in the marketing industry long enough, and you see trends come and go. Some prove effective while others tend to hang around a little longer than they really should. Digital marketing’s always evolving and as marketers ourselves, we’re always looking at where the next opportunity is to build something from. These are 5 unfortunate digital marketing myths we’ve found people continue to hang onto to this day even though they have little value.

5 Digital Marketing Myths You May Be Surprised to Know Aren’t True Yet They’re Still Followed

Fake reviews

If you’re posting fake reviews to help boost your brand’s value, it’s sketchy and eventually it’s almost a guarantee you’re going to be caught. When these reviews are removed, your brand’s rating will sink and you’ll be flagged. This isn’t growth hacking digital marketing. It’s being manipulative, misleading, and just plain dumb. Over 90% of consumers rely on reviews when buying a product or service. If you want high rated reviews, get them the hard way.

Organic Facebook marketing

As we’ve known for years, organic Facebook marketing’s been on the decline. Facebook, for all intents and purposes, is now a pay-to-play marketing hub. These days, when you post on the platform, only 2-6% of your audience will actually see it. Fortunately, you still have social media marketing on Instagram as well as other high-value platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Pop-up ads

Pop-up ads still prove to be popular even though many consumers have ad blockers and progressively hate having their browsing experience disrupted by them. If you’re relying on pop-up ads for leads, you’re probably throwing money down a hole you won’t get anything from. Unless your pop-up involves some sort of eCommerce marketing-related offer, discount, or promotion, it’s best to avoid them.

Content marketing quantity over quality

Are you in a race to create and release as much blogs, articles, and content as you can? Stop. Quality is so much more important than quantity, as you’ll find with SEO algorithms and social media. High quality, high-value content marketing is what drives leads and builds brand awareness – not low quality mountains of dribble. To get the most from a blog or content marketing, put in the time to research and write, and really make your post stand out.

Written word only SEO

SEO’s so much more advanced today than it was even a decade ago. Consumers want multimedia. Images, videos, and more all contribute to content value. People can search now using their voice or via image. If all you’re posting is made from words, it can be a little boring. Add some graphics, photos, or videos when/if appropriate. Ensure they’re all optimized for SEO with alt-text, file-name optimized, and meta-data included. By throwing different media at users, you’re keeping their attention to the page.

Since the dot-com era, digital marketing’s evolved to a whole new set of rules and channels. Growing with the consumer base is a part of staying on top of how to get results. Let go of outdated, malfunctioning digital marketing myths and together, let’s embrace what works. Unlimited Exposure are the experts in social media, content marketing, video, email, SEO, and more. Elevate your brand with what works today – not what worked a year ago or a decade passed. Results are guaranteed! Contact a representative for more information.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1073-5-digital-marketing-myths-you-may-be-surprised-to-know-aren%E2%80%99t-true-yet-they%E2%80%99re-still-followed.html

Topic clusters are a great way to uncover new headlines for blogs, help SEO, and new content marketing ideas. These clusters of keywords can be a catalyst to helping elevate your site to the top of search engine results pages. Although it can be a long journey to get there, starting in on topic clusters is another SEO strategy that can help your brand.

Writing Out Topic Clusters to Weaponize Your Digital Marketing with Top Notch Power

What are topic clusters?

Topic clusters are a collection of content pieces that live on your website and which have an overarching theme. Topic clusters work to provide insight on what your site is about and the content it features.

In addition to topic clusters, you have what is called pillar content which are pages and articles built from broad keywords with a high search volume. Topic clusters alternatively focus on small search volume keywords. This creates a hierarchy where blogs and content marketing build around keywords pulled from topic clusters that can then be hyperlinked back to pillar content. Thereby, you get search traffic from highly focused keywords and phrases while helping your overall rankings for pillar content.

Presenting your website to Google

Content marketing designed like this lays the appearance for how your website’s going to be presented to search engines as well as to users. When a search engine bot sees your website, it is pillar content which will lets a corporation like Google know the value of your site, what the content is, and how to classify it.

Another bonus to having topic clusters is that you can build evergreen content. This is long-term content with ongoing value that builds and builds. This helps you rank with SEO. Also, you can update this content every six months or more frequently with new data, tips, more relevant examples, and more value. This continues to build value on value for your website.

Starting a topic cluster

Let’s say you’re about to start your first topic cluster. Go for the low-hanging fruit – that is, small volume keywords you know you can rank for quickly. This is a long-term strategy that has to rely on building momentum. This is how you do that, slowly nudging your site higher and higher.

Let’s say you’ve achieved a pretty good job search engine ranking for small volume keywords. Now you can move your content marketing strategy to the next phase. Build out your topic clusters with more keywords, including some with a larger search volume. If you start small and rank on those small volume keywords, a brand can generate the momentum and authority in the eyes of search engines like Google needed to get them in an excellent place to rank for more competitive keywords.

Interlinking

Within and outside of a topic cluster, be sure to pursue internal linking across your site interconnecting it in an SEO-friendly way. Internal linking helps search engines understand the relationship between pages, their perceived value, and relevance. Ideally, interlinking content should focus under a topic cluster umbrella. This will only support your site structure, SEO, and ranking on these keywords.

Topic clusters are powerful from a strategic standpoint, yes, but they’re also fun. You can come up with all sorts of content ideas from them and they can help provide a focused direction for sites reliant on ranking high on SEO.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1072-writing-out-topic-clusters-to-weaponize-your-digital-marketing-with-top-notch-power.html

Growth hacking isn’t cheating. It’s taking opportunity and flipping it on its head, getting you everything you deserve and elevating a brand, product or service to superstardom.

Growth hacking was originally coined as a term in 2010, advocating for a throwing out of the traditional marketing playbook and replacing it with creative, scalable solutions to achieving growth. Growth hacking comes in the form of email marketing, PPC, blogs, and using time and effort rather than money or advertising to get you the results you want. You don’t need all the resources in the world to growth hack. It’s all about being smart, lean, and agile with your marketing – nothing more, nothing less.

What is Growth Hacking and 4 Examples of Digital Marketing Campaigns who’ve Used It!

Let’s be clear in communicating that this isn’t a cure-all for any and all digital marketing woes. Some fail with growth hacking, just like others succeed. Here are a few examples of campaigns that have done it right however, to learn from.

Beyonce

The music industry is built all around smoke and mirrors, a lot of hype and excitement, and arguably anything but the music product itself. In 2013, Beyonce released an album recorded completely in secret with no notice, no hype, and nothing more than the product. The growth hacking takeaway here is to be bold and make your own headlines at whatever the cost. Already an established brand, Beyonce’s album blew up, shifted more than 828,000 copies in 3 days, brought with it more than 8 million copies sold overall, and was a viral hit.

Tinder

Tinder has millions of users all over the world speaking in more than 30 languages, a long ways away from being the college campus app it once was. Tinder’s biggest growth hack strategy was to succeed where other dating apps failed. Getting women to join is a sure marker of whether any dating app succeeds or fails. Tinder encouraged women to join by offering free gifts, going so far as to visit sorority houses to offer cookies, balloons, and underwear. To this point, some growth hacking strategies may take you offline and force you to put in the work on-the-ground.

Slack

Slack is a team messaging app that’s grown from a user base of 15,000 to over 6 million. Central to their success was growth hacking and nothing particularly revolutionary or creative. Their marketing identified Slack as something familiar, a necessity to their audience, and most importantly, they provided a free version that showed off features in a new way. This increased premium version purchases by 30%. The takeaway here was to offer it free and to give it away, eliminating any and all barriers to trying it. Once they’re hooked, they were hooked for good!

Hubspot

Hubspot wanted to build content and spread it so that they could receive inbound leads they could turn into sales. Their growth hacking strategy involved investing a lot into blog writing, eBooks, and education-based tools. They also invested in webinars, social media, and teaching manuals, all in an effort to engage. The focus in engagement paid off as Hubspot’s become a company generating more than $250 million/year. The strategy here was to educate and be useful – a strong growth hack still used today.

Successful growth hacking strategies are an art. No one-size-fits-all. Know your product, understand the scale to which you want to take it, set your goals, and analyze and optimize as you go. In digital marketing, where the rules are always changing, growth hacking stokes creativity, effort, and resources to give any brand an opportunity at exploding!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1071-what-is-growth-hacking-and-4-examples-of-digital-marketing-campaigns-who%E2%80%99ve-used-it.html

There’s no sector of brick-and-mortar as competitive as restaurants. Corporate chains v. small family-owned affairs. In cities and towns across Canada, every day, restaurants are opening with the best of intentions while others are closing down shop. What makes a successful restaurant in a city like Toronto? Well, a lot of things. Digital marketing and brand reputation management online are perhaps the two biggest influences, at least in terms of attracting leads.

See the Most Important Social Media and Digital Marketing Trends for Restaurants

Unless you’re a regular customer of a restaurant, you’re probably not going to inherently want to try a new place. After all, you could end up disappointed either in the food, the service, the parking, the location, etc. There are a lot of variables. With a place you’ve been getting food at for years, you know exactly what you’re getting. You know what to expect and there shouldn’t be any surprises. For new restaurants, this is the battle they face every day – how to attract customers away from the competition.

From the moment a restaurant opens officially, they are accumulating expense. Profits are a necessity to keep going and preferably, the sooner, the better. So many small businesses ignore the potential that restaurant digital marketing brings with it.

In a city like Toronto, there’s over a million people out there on their smartphones at any given time. Some of them are looking for a restaurant just like yours. Digital marketing comprises of content marketing, email, social media, video, and so much more. Where are you most likely to hit them – social media. Here’s a few restaurant facts about how social media’s used.

 34% of restaurants have a dedicated employee whose full-time job is to market said restaurant through digital marketing ads, promotions, and social media posts.

 12% of restaurants don’t market at all on any social media, surprisingly.

 The #1 social media platform for restaurant marketing is Facebook with more than 91% leveraging their bets on this channel. Instagram however is on the rise, from 24% of restaurants using it in 2017 to 78% using it this year. Meanwhile, Twitter comes in third place with 39% of restaurant brands using it to promote their posts.

If you’re looking to be successful, sure, you need to have great food, great service, and atmosphere. You need all that but what else you need is a way to get people through the door. Registering accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter lets people know you exist. These accounts get people connected to your brand, liking and sharing posts.

Is it possible to be successful without social media for a restaurant – absolutely, but why would anyone want to be? Social media is a quick way to a sale. When someone’s looking for a recommendation or searching out a restaurant on their smartphones, your name shows up. If you’ve got the goods, you could make a repeat customer right then and there. Do this enough times and you’ve got a customer base strong enough to keep you thriving in a busy urban hub like Toronto. Customer by customer, this is how you do it.

To the 12% of restaurants who don’t market their brands, we think it’s a big loss. Facebook has billions of users out there, millions spread across any given restaurant’s general vicinity. Build awareness, find customers, and have an infrastructure to get the word out on deals and promotions. This is your ticket. Make it happen!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1070-see-the-most-important-social-media-and-digital-marketing-trends-for-restaurants.html

‘Ephemeral content’ is a term brought into the lexicon by Snapchat and is now perhaps most widely used on Instagram. This type of content can be highly valuable in generating leads and conversions right then and there in the moment. So what is ephemeral content?

Is Ephemeral Content Right For Your Brand – What It Is, How to Use It, Where, and When

Ephemeral content is any visual content – so it needs to be either an image or video – that is available only for a certain period of time. For example, on Instagram and Snapchat, you can communicate in photos or videos that are viewed once and then they disappear. Especially on Instagram, brands have used ephemeral content marketing to share product demonstrations, jokes, live streams, and more.

Part of the attraction to this method of content marketing on social media is that it encourages creativity. Users can enjoy the content and then, it’s gone, ideally replaced with something new. So it’s also encouraging posts and for any platform, the more posts, the more engagement. Nobody wants to be on a network nobody’s on. So for a platform like Snapchat, it opens on a camera screen encouraging the user to post. Then, their posts are set on a time limit. This is all to create an atmosphere of ongoing posts, comments, and consumption.

Because ephemeral content is temporary in nature, it may allow you to do things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Especially with video, let’s say you have a YouTube video marketing strategy. The videos you release should ideally be professionally produced, with a mix of video sources, narration, and graphic designs, and made to be evergreen. An ephemeral video does not need to worry about any of that. A video doesn’t have to be professionally produced, shouldn’t be evergreen, and doesn’t need to have as many effects on it.

Getting started with this type of content, a lot of the same digital marketing rules apply. Speak with your audience, pay attention to analytics data and respond to what’s working, and if it catches fire, you can promote your Snapchat or Instagram content on other platforms. The best ephemeral content is engaged storytelling. Don’t overthink it. Brands that post in these places should produce something cohesive that instantly engages a follower and gets them hooked in three seconds or less.

If you’re not yet convinced, know that in the ephemeral world of content, you can experiment without having to keep a piece of content. This means you can try different product demos, tutorials, new product announcements, industry tips, discounts, or promotions, and these videos or photos don’t need to hang around forever. Here is some other key information to think about.

 Snapchat has nearly 200 million daily active users, while Instagram Stories has over 250 million.

 Snapchat and Instagram combined make for more than 18 billion daily video views. Audiences are ready to hear your message!

 Over half of the audience on these platforms for ephemeral content are under 34 years of age. By 2020, millennial spending power will surpass $1 trillion. If this is your market, get on board.

Ephemeral content is growing at a rapid pace. While Snapchat arguably may have plateaued, Instagram certainly hasn’t. Engagement is still massive on both platforms. Tap into a new type of content marketing and most importantly, have a little fun with it!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1069-is-ephemeral-content-right-for-your-brand-%E2%80%93-what-it-is,-how-to-use-it,-where,-and-when.html

The social media age we live in spins on the access of one platform above the rest – Facebook. Comprising of the widest array of demographics from all over the world, Facebook has virtually every audience you can think of waiting to be tapped into by willing brands and marketers. Interested in growing your Facebook followers? Shape your Facebook marketing campaign to achieve your goal with these exclusive tips.

Here’s How Anyone Can Use Facebook Marketing to Grow Your Followers, From the Experts

Be personal

If you’re funny, quirky, passionate, or disruptive, be that way on Facebook. When you act like yourself, you’re taking on a voice unique to you. Although it may not appeal to everyone, your unique voice will resonate with a percentage of Facebook users.

Converse

If you want a social media marketing campaign that produces user engagement, engage yourself. Answer comments and questions. Answer DMs. Build relationships. Comment on other businesses’ posts. Be active in creating conversation on Facebook using your branded account.

Content that’s shareable

More than a community of people, Facebook’s a collection of shares. Each one more relevant, interesting, or fun than the one before it. The posts you make on Facebook should stimulate, encouraging shares without ever having to ask.

Don’t be afraid to repost

The most valued form of content is evergreen content marketing. This is content that doesn’t expire, which you can repost and still have it be relevant six weeks, six months, or a year from now. Choose content that’s performed well in the past and repost occasionally. You may choose to update an article like this with new information, in preparation of sending it out.

Tagging other businesses

When appropriate, you may want to mention, promote, or link to another business. This can help gain you more exposure and establish authority by association. Do not tag just any business though. You must have a reason. You may also want to reach out beforehand and confirm it’s alright to link to them.

Switch up content type

Offer followers a variety of content. Only 20% of your posts should be promotional in nature. The rest should be social. Common content types for social media posts include native video, high quality images, live stream video, and text with links back to blogs, eBooks, or other forms of content marketing.

Use Facebook Insights

The single most important Facebook marketing tool you is Insights. They will show you all sorts of information about your audience, how they react to your posts, and how effective your messaging is. This is top of the line analytics you won’t want to ignore.

A/B testing

Start measuring the performance of what you post by doing some A/B testing. Produce near-identical versions of a post and see which performs best. This can tell you a lot about what you’re already doing right and where you may be going wrong.

Growing Facebook followers takes a lot of tiny steps but once you get the hang of it, you will be set up with the infrastructure you need to hit it out of the park. People don’t use Facebook to be sold to though so remember that the name of the game is engagement. If you can get a user engaged and caring about you, you’re well on your way to turning them into a follower.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1068-here%E2%80%99s-how-anyone-can-use-facebook-marketing-to-grow-your-followers,-from-the-experts.html