14 Ways to Grow Your Small Business

Gary Vaynerchuk is the Belarusian business mogul who transformed his fathers $3 million wine business into a $60 million empire. He used YouTube to startWine Library TVwhich now has over 15,500 subscribers. His love of video marketing and staying on top of the latest Internet advances led him to createVayner Media; a social-first digital shop that focuses on storytelling across platforms.

Vaynerchuk loves to share his knowledge about entrepreneurship and growing your small business using content marketing, creative campaigns and social media. Here are 14of his most inspirational business quotes for entrepreneurs.

1. Im a counter puncher in a world where everyone wants to be an aggressor.

This is the opening phrase from Vaynerchuks website and sets the tone for the rest of the content on the page. Its a bold statement that instantly gives you an impression of who he is and what he stands for. Vaynerchuk recognizes his uniqueness and personality in one simple sentence; can you do the same on your website?

2. You need to bet on your strengths and dont give a **** about what you actually suck at.

Whilst presenting an Entrepreneurship Keynote at USC, Gary spoke(language in this video may not be work-friendly)about growing up poor and struggling at school. This gave him a strong sense of belief in himself and his strength. He recommends that you audit who you actually are in order to grow your own sense of self belief, which will further your belief in your company and supercharge your drive to make it a success.

3. You have to understand your own personal DNA. Dont do things because I do them or Steve Jobs or Mark Cuban tried it. You need to know your personal brand and stay true to it.

Its easy to become obsessed with the latest and greatest entrepreneurs or motivational speakers. Vaynerchuk urges small business owners to use experiences and advice as a guide, not a mantra. Find your own style and methodologies for success.

4. You need to spend all your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value.

Focus your efforts on quality over quantity. Whats the point in pushing out 10 short blog articles or five press releases if nobody reads them? Wouldnt it be better to spend the time crafting one in-depth, detailed article that gets shared hundreds of times on social media and brings thousands of visitors to your website?

5. People are chasing cash, not happiness. When you chase money, youre going to lose. Youre just going to. Even if you get the money, youre not going to be happy.

This message will resonate with many small business owners. All too often we end up chasing the next invoice, the next sale, the next pay check when instead we should be focused on creating a happy, fulfilled life for ourselves through our business.

6. Surround yourself with people who give you permission to [] take risks

Gary says that the ability to stay focused on your goals should come from deep within yourself. However, we all need some level of social acceptance from those closest to us. He recommends that you surround yourself with people who give you permission to take risks. These peoplebelieve in you; that helps you to believe in yourself and your business.

7. You need to be wherever your customers are paying attention.

Social media is huge. Theres the big boys like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, but also the new kids on the block like Snapchat and Periscope. Rather than try to cover all the social networking platforms, do some research into which ones are used most frequently by your target market and focus on those.

8. Ignoring platforms that have gained critical mass is a great way to look slow and out-of-touch. Do not cling to nostalgia. Do not put your principles above the reality of the market. Do not be a snob.

You should always be looking for the next opportunity to grow and market your business. In the past few years, thats expanded from simply having your own website to being found on Google, growing your social media accounts, building a mobile app, creating video content on YouTube and countless other online opportunities. Dont be afraid to embrace the changes in the marketing landscape to ensure you stay ahead of your competitors in an ever-crowded digital marketplace.

9. A broad trend Im completely obsessed with is mobile commerce. Like completely. Im completely convinced that everybodys going to be buying from their mobile devices.

We hear you Gary, and we totally agree! 2015 was the first year that mobile browsing overtook desktop browsing. Smartphone and tablet usage is still on the rise ignore responsive design and mobile apps for your small business at your peril. If youre looking for an easy to useapp makercheck out Bizness Apps.

10. If youre in business, first and foremost, you have to be nice. Show your customers that you care.

This again links to the rise in social media and the importance of customer relations. These days, a negative review on Twitter or Facebook can be devastating. Treat your customers with respect, praise them, appreciate them and theyll do the same for you.

11. Be reactionary. React to what the market wants. And the market wants one-on-one real time engagement.

Customers dont just want to purchase your product any more. They want toexperienceit. They want to know the story behind it, your vision for your small business, your inspiration and your goals. Share your journey with them and interact when they ask questions; theyll reward you with loyalty to your brand or business.

12. All your ideas may be solid or even good But you have to actually EXECUTE on them for them to matter.

How many times have you jotted down a product idea or marketing plan on a piece of paper, only to bury it in a drawer a few days later and forget about it? You can spent all the time in the world planning how to grow your small business, but without following those ideas through, you will stay exactly where you are now.

13. Im just always looking forwards. I spend very little time, looking backwards

It can be highly demotivating when you put a plan into action and nothing comes of it. Maybe youve spent hours writing an eBook that nobody buys, or have just launched a new product line that hasnt gotten the sales you were expecting. Dont sweat it. Look forwards; not backwards is there a new way to market the products that might resonate better with customers? Could you offer your eBook as a free download when people subscribe to your mailing list? Think of future possibilities and opportunities rather than wallowing in self-pity when things dont quite go how you expected them to.

A penguin cannot become a giraffe, so just be the best penguin you can be.

Lastly, remember that its your purpose and goals that set you apart from everybody else. Dont try to copy competitors (or even the businesses that inspire you) just for the sake of trying to fit in. Embrace your own individuality thats the best way to make your small business shine.

Image: Wikipedia

This article, "14 Ways to Grow Your Small Business" was first published on Small Business Trends

8 Instagram Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

Instagram, Instagram, Instagram.

These days the image sharing social networking site has taken the stage and everyone including celebrities, entities, marketers, creatives and of course the general public istapping into this networkevery day. Humans love visuals, and thats probably why the image-sharing concept is rapidly gaining popularity.

So, what do marketers do? Run the race and sign up for Instagram just to share pictures? Well, thats part of it, but what about the rest? More often than not, just sharing pictures isnt enough and it definitely wont make your brand stand out of the millions of accounts that get created every day for the same purpose!

Dont mistake presence for quality marketing!

Here are 8 Instagram marketingmistakes you should avoidwhile operating your business account.

1. Setting your account to private

Source: Business2Blogger

This could be an unintentional mistake but definitely a major one!

Having your images and videos set to private may make sense for personal accounts, but it sure doesnt make any sense for company accounts that are meant to be marketed to the general public.

You could come across any business or individual in the Instagram community who has an interest in what you have to offer. By setting your account to private, you are only limiting your opportunities.

Make sure your account is set to public, so that you always have a higher chance of reaching out to a massive audience and pulling out potentials that could be your next favorite fan or follower.

2. Posting random photos or videos

Source: Its Erin James

You might be the sole social media marketer for a company, or perhaps a solopreneur marketing your own business.

You may like to share random photos of your coffee mug or your dog, or maybe even a new place you visited.

However, keep in mind that although you want to be social, this is a business account, not a personal one in which you get to share anything in the world you like.

By posting pictures that are not relevant to your brand, you run the risk of appearing unprofessional. Theres nothing wrong with being a little personal once in a while and putting a face to your brand. However, try to keep a fine balance between your random posts and relevant ones.

3. Low quality photos

Source: Klear

As a business, you need to appear as professional as possible.

Prospectsare judging your brand as well as your brands quality in various ways. Believe it or not, but the quality of your pictures and videos also sends a message about the quality of your product or service.

High resolution photos are automatically associated with quality and professionalism. The opposite is true for crappy photos with poor resolutions.

Make sure your pictures are twice the recommended size (meaning 1280 by 1280 px) so that the picture turns out to be a high quality image. Also make sure that your images are sized correctlyand perfectly centered without any odd-seeming cut outs.

4. Not using hashtags correctly or not using them at all

Source: Yina Goh

What definescorrect hashtag usage?

First of all, your hashtags should be searchable thats the whole idea behind categorized hashtags.

Second, they should be short and relevant because #we #all #know #how #annoying #a #hashtag #overload #is!

Plus, make sure you are following popular hashtags that are relevant to your niche.

Not using hashtags at all is another mistake many brands and businesses make. Hashtags provide reach to others in your community and vice versa. As a result, it creates a gateway for more potential fans and customers who are also following and contributing to popular hashtags you frequently post to.

5. Not posting consistently

Source: HubSpot

You know what they say, consistency is the key. And this is definitely true in this case as well.

Posting on social media, blogs, or any media channel for that matter requires consistency. When you are consistent you are predictable and fans and followers like a predictable frequency.

One more thing to note is that you shouldnt mistake quantity for consistency. Spamming your followers feeds with a plethora of images every day is not a good idea. It increases the likelihood of you annoying your prospects and alienating them after they decide to unfollow you. Try to spread out your posts with relevant and engaging content that is high quality.

6. Not following your followers

Source: Sprout Social

Clever marketing strategies usually call for getting to know your customers as best you can.

If your fans decide to follow you, make sure you treat them with at least a follow back. You dont have to comment or communicate with them on their personal account, of course. However, following your followers will give you the chance to get to know them better and find out what interests them.

With this information youre better prepped up for getting their attention and meeting their needs.

7. Not proofreading

Source

Misspellings and grammar mistakes Yikes!

This is one easy way to make your brand look unprofessional. Missing punctuation, sloppy spelling, and careless grammar can make people cringe.

They are also quick to ruin impressions in front of a massive audience. A great example of this is a recent York University advertisement that spelled engineering wrong and made the news.

8. Not engaging with your audience

Source: Seen Moment

Engage, engage, and engage!

This is the number one tip every social media marketer should be looking into. Engagement is all about connection. The best way to connect to your customer is to interact with them.

If your audience is commenting on your posts and asking questions, make sure you respond!

Sum up

Be wary of these Instagram marketing mistakes and avoid them at all costs!

Sometimes, even the smallestand simplest of mistakes can turn off prospectsand be the reason for people unfollowing you and being unfollowed hurts!

Guest Author:Skornia Alison works as a social media manager at an online service that offers online college essay help. When shes not circling or tweeting friends, she loves writing blogs on social media marketing, content strategy development, and more.

The post 8 Instagram Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

17 Tips for Successful Facebook Contests

Are you planninga Facebook contest? Want to make sure itsa success? An easy-to-followchecklist of tips and best practices will help you launchFacebook contests your audience will love. In this article Ill share 17 tips tomake your Facebook contest a success. #1: Review Facebooks Terms of Service Facebook periodically changes its rules and regulations about contests [...]

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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Link Building Lessons from the Real Estate Industry

Are links doing more harm than good? With the rules for link building constantly changing, it can be hard to know what's a smart link building strategy and what will land you in hot water with Google.

Last year, Google's webmaster trends analyst, John Mueller, surprised the SEO world with his pronouncement that link building, once considered essential to SEO, was no longer advisable.

Cue shock, confusion and chaos. Once the dust settled, it's clear that links themselves aren't dead. In fact, they can still be very valuable. The type of link is what matters. Links are a critical part of Google's ranking algorithm because links convey trust, credibility, and authority. In order to create great links, you'll need great resources and great content.

Why Real Estate is Dominating Online Link Building and Content Marketing

One industry you may be surprised to learn that's killing it in the link building department? Real estate.

The digital house hunt is real, with the majority of buyers finding properties via online search and 34 percent using a mobile or tablet website or app to access properties, according to the National Association of Realtors. Savvy brokers, agents and property managers are finding new ways to create valuable online content that attract house searchers, especially those who are searching for property in parts of the country (or even another country!) where they do not currently live.

Julian Walker is a London-based agent with the British property company Spot Blue, specializing in properties in Turkey for British vacation homes.

"While the market for vacation homes is strong, we've had to adjust to how we target customers and sell these homes," said Walker. "With overseas real estate, you can't just pop by an open house on the weekend to have a quick look around. The vast majority of the hunt will be conducted via the computer, so smart link building strategies are key to connecting with the right prospective home buyers."

Here's how agents at Spot Blue and other top brokerage firms are building authoritative links to better connect with prospective clients -- and what your business can do, too.

Build Quality, Authoritative Linking Power with Content Marketing

There's no denying content links are the strongest and most authoritative option for linking back to your website. Real estate and property companies are increasingly emerging as media companies in their own right, creating content around cities, communities and lifestyles to attract prospective home buyers. For example, U.S.-based real estate company Movoto builds out city and community pages with creative content like a St. Louis restaurant guide (that's garnered 350,000+ views and counting) geared towards millennials.

Takeaway: Get creative about the content you share. It doesn't have to be identical to the products or services your company offers. Depending on your industry niche, you could build guides, white papers, and listicles that align with your customers' unique interests. Don't ignore the power of guest blogging, either.

Target the Right Resource Pages on Authoritative Sites

Yes, simply submitting your website to a link building directory won't get you very far. But what if your link was included on high-quality resource pages? That's exactly what real estate agents and property managers do with university-affiliated off-campus housing resource sites. For example, the University of Pennsylvania's Off-Campus Services department runs a website dedicated to off-campus housing; listings are exclusively for the Penn community and can only be accessed with student login identification.

Philadelphia-based property managers can contact Penn's Off-Campus Services department to have their listings added and linked back to their website. Property managers don't need to limit their thinking to local listings, however; schools often offer comprehensive listings to help students find housing during summer internships in other cities. Wake Forest, for example, runs an "Intern Housing Site" with resources for Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and more.

Takeaway: Target resource pages for authoritative sites in your industry within your local community, be that veterinary care resources or health and wellness resources. Take a page out of the real estate playbook by looking for natural partnerships with colleges or universities, too. Receiving authoritative links from university websites (.edu and .ac.uk) will strengthen the relevancy and authority of your website, too.

Use Link Bait to Your Advantage

Link bait is content that's designed to maximize clicks through catchy headlines and beautiful images. Link bait also has a well-earned negative reputation -- it's associated with articles that general lack substance but get clicks anyway thanks to the ultra-catchy headlines ("click-bait"). So why then am I recommending link bait? Like certain SEO tactics, the concept itself is neither good nor bad -- it's all in the execution. Real estate agencies know this, and successfully use this tactic to showcase destinations to prospective home buyers. For vacation homes, a list of top celebrity vacation destinations is sure to generate clicks (who can resist a little celebrity voyeurism?), but also get would-be second homeowners thinking about where they'd like to own a vacation home.

Takeaway: Don't shy away from catchy headlines and listicles. Use link bait to your advantage by creating content that aligns with your brand and share accordingly. Just be sure there's substance behind the headline and these articles are one component of a well-rounded link building and content marketing strategy.

Bottom Line

Yes, building links can do more harm than good, but only if you build the wrong ones. Submitting your website for inclusion in a long list of website directories won't get you anywhere; being part of an authoritative page of local resources will. The same goes for links gained through content.

A poorly written article that's been hastily researched (or worse, contains plagiarized information) is a waste of time; it won't be shared on quality sites and you'll fail to gain any "link juice." High-quality content will produce the high-value, low-risk content-based links that build your online authority and boost your Google rank.

Real Estate Agent House Key Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Link Building Lessons from the Real Estate Industry" was first published on Small Business Trends

Facebook to Open Instant Articles to All Bloggers: This Week in Social Media

Welcome to our weekly edition of what's hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What's New This Week Facebook Opens Instant Articles Program to All Publishers: Facebook "will be opening up the Instant Articles program to [...]

This post Facebook to Open Instant Articles to All Bloggers: This Week in Social Media first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

7 Ways to Get Great Results with Gmail Ads

Gmail Ads are one of the more intriguing opportunities Google has given advertisers to reach people where they spend a lot of their time online - in their inboxes. I've been obsessed with mastering them lately and today I'm going to reveal what I've learned.

What Are Gmail Ads?

Gmail ads target users based on the account activity of their personal Gmail accounts and appear within the Promotions tab. Formerly known as Gmail Sponsored Promotions, they've been around since 2013 and finally became available to all advertisers (for the second time, no less) in 2015.

So what do we really know about these native Gmail Ads? Quite a lot now, actually.

After collecting massive amounts of data for more than a year from spending a few million dollars on this ad format, this post summarizes my top 7 most exciting findings on Gmail ads and my best recommendations for making the most of this AdWords format.

Gmail Ads Tip #7: Raise CTR & QUALITY SCORE!

Hi, my name is Larry Kim, and I'm obsessed with Quality Score. We've researched the heck out of it - for AdWords, the Google Display Network, Twitter, and Facebook.

Guess what - quality Score absolutely exists in Gmail Ads.

Gmail Ads doesn't actually show you the Quality Score. In search ads, you can view the keyword-level Quality Score, whereas in Gmail you can't see it. But even though you can't see it, a Gmail Ads Quality Score still exists.

Here's an example, looking at the Cost Per Click vs. Click-Through Rate (email open rate) for one particular campaign:

It's not linear, but there are clearly huge rewards for high open rates and huge penalties for low open rates. Put simply:

Higher CTR = Much Lower CPC

Lower CTR = MUCH higher CPC

You absolutely have to maximize your open rates because the Gmail Ads Quality Score will give you huge rewards. It's the difference between $0.10 clicks vs. $1.15 clicks, based on the awesomeness or terribleness of your subject lines.

So what do we do about this? Write irresistible email subject lines, duh! But how?

Gmail Ads Tip #6: Leverage Existing Email Marketing Campaign Data

Email marketing is the most popular lead generation channel. Most companies do email marketing - 87% of them, according to a survey by Chief Marketer:

So how can you leverage your existing email marketing campaigns to improve your Gmail Ads?

Even if you haven't done Gmail Ads before, you should have a library of emails you've sent out before and the ability to figure out whether they did well.

Log into your email marketing system (we use Marketo, but use whatever you have, whether it's Constant Contact, HubSpot, Salesforce, or something else). Pull an email performance report. Sort by the open rate.

Will emails that have done well for you organically do well in a sponsored email ad format? It's very likely. Sorting by open rate will reveal your unicorns. Don't bother promoting the garbage ones because no one's going to open them to begin with - and when they do it will cost you an arm and a leg.

I can't share all my secrets, but our best performing email by open rate is over 40% and the subject line is: "Quick Question".

You'd be crazy to not leverage your existing treasure trove of email subject lines when doing Gmail Ads.

Gmail Ads Tip #5: Use Emojis

You knew this was coming. It's really true. Emojis increase open rates.

Inboxes are such a competitive area to get people's attention. Emojis really make subject lines pop - especially on mobile, where about half of email opens occur (though there is substantial variance in this figure, as it depends heavily on audience and industry).

It makes no sense not to use emojis. Almost any business in any industry can find a creative reason to include an emoji in the subject line. (OK, maybe not if you're in an uber-serious business like a funeral home.) Otherwise, you should feel pretty confident that adding emojis to your subject line will increase open rates by around 30%.

Just make sure your emojis are topically relevant - don't just use a smiley. If you're advertising a doughnut shop, use a doughnut emoji; if you're advertising a pizza special at your restaurant, include a pizza emoji.

Gmail Ads Tip #4: No Remarketing? Do Keyword Targeting

Remarketing works so incredibly well because past browsing history is a great predictor of future commerce activities. Think about your email marketing. Even if you have a huge list of half a million opt-in emails, aren't you better off focusing on people who have interacted with your emails sometime within the last few months? Yes! Why?

People lose interest. Some hot prospects go cold. Someone who signed up a year ago, but hasn't opened any emails in more than six months, probably is no longer in the market for your thing now.

So how do you target people who have shown recent interest in your stuff in Gmail Ads?

Unfortunately, the most common display ad options of remarketing and "In Market Segments" are not available targets within Gmail Ads and likely won't be in the future, due to regulations around personally identifiable information related to email marketing.

BUT there is a clever trick to get around this problem. You can do keyword targeting as a substitute for remarketing.

When people enter our funnel, we send them emails as part of marketing automation drip campaigns that contain the word WordStream, which end up in their Gmail accounts. So I can target with recent interest from WordStream by targeting my own trademarks.

Why target people who are already familiar with you and in your funnel?

Well, let's say your emails have an open rate of 15 or 20%. That means 75 to 80% of people in your funnel aren't interacting with those emails. So there's plenty of upside of targeting them with Gmail Ads, even if they're already in your funnel.

Targeting people who are familiar with your brand will also increase CTR and Quality Score, thereby lower CPCs.

Gmail Ads Tip #3: Go Nuts With Competitor Keywords

Why stop at your own trademarks? Why not also target people who have recently shown interest in the things your competition sells?

In addition to targeting your own brand terms, you can also be keyword targeting your competitors' brand terms with Gmail Ads. People who are in the market for your competitor's products are getting emails from your competitors that mention their brand terms right now.

Targeting the trademarks of your competitors is a clever way for you to potentially steal some sales! The fact that they're in market for a competing solution will dramatically increase Quality Score and lower CPCs.

Gmail Ads Tip #2: Don't Forget Deep Click Analytics

Open rates are obviously important, but you still need to check what people do after they open the Gmail Ad.

Google has all these Gmail-specific campaign metrics that aren't even turned on by default! It's critical to enable and monitor these (forwards, saves, clicks to website) to track the health of your campaigns:

Gmail Ads Tip #1: Mix it Up With 4 Different Ad Formats

Gmail Ads offers four different ad formats to choose from:

• Gmail image template


• Gmail single promotion template


• Gmail multi-product template


• Gmail catalog template

Use them all. You might find that different types of offers work best with different Gmail ad formats. For example, having more stuff to click on might increase the chances of people finding something interesting to click on, especially if you're promoting products. The multi-product template ad looks similar to the marketing emails that Etsy sends out.

Notice What's Missing from the List? Customer Match

Why isn't the new Customer Match on this list? You know, the amazing new feature that lets you target Gmail Ads based on user email addresses? Weird, right?

The reason: I'm struggling with it.

For whatever reason, even when I upload a huge list of emails, we're having trouble accruing a large number of ad impressions. We've seen this on quite a few accounts. For example, we did a campaign where we uploaded a gigantic list with 100,000 email matches and we were only getting several thousand impressions. We don't know why.

Hopefully, we'll soon see the very promising Customer Match feature reach its full potential for advertisers.

Final Thoughts on Gmail Ads

Google presents many interesting opportunities to advertisers so they can make the most of the Gmail Ads format - you can reduce costs by optimizing several aspects of your campaign, reach your own (and a new) audience, and measure post-open success. Yet there are quite a few restrictions and limitations unique to Gmail Ads which are above and beyond the normal limitations in search ads.

Hopefully we'll see Google open up Customer Match feature a little bit more in the future and relax some of the ad policies.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Images: Wordstream

This article, "7 Ways to Get Great Results with Gmail Ads" was first published on Small Business Trends

Nurturing Leads With Social: How to Warm Up Your Following

Do you engage with your customers and prospects on social media? Want tactics to warm up your leads? To discover how to move people from fans to customers, I interview Kim Walsh-Phillips. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy [...]

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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

6 Ways To Use Social Media To Make More Business This Easter

According to the National Retail Federation, more than $16.4 billion will be spent in the USA, before and during the Easter weekend - on apparel, decorations, gifts, candies, food and flowers. Businesses that seek to achieve success during this period need to, according to Facebook Insights, target women of all ages and consumers who are 18 to 34 in particular, as they are the most important drivers of the Easter conversation.

In the U.S. and U.K., where the holiday is celebrated with chocolate Easter eggs and candy baskets, this time is especially lucrative for the confectionary industry. But experiences from Australia or the Philippines, where the holiday is mostly associated with travel, show that you don't necessarily need to sell candies to make cash. Restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, florists and clothing stores are using this time to showcase their spring offers and advertise their deals at a place where their customers plan, celebrate and share their experiences widely and instantly: social media.

If you have already started filling your shelves with traditional spring and holiday merchandise, but still don't know how to attract your customers, check out these few Easter ideas. You can organise these ideas in your store and promote them on social media with the help of a simple and free design application called Content Creator. This application allows you to create eye-catching social media covers, posts, ads and other types of promotional material that will make you stand out and achieve eggcellent sale results this spring.

1. Embrace the spirit of Easter

Easter is known as the time of the year when light, pastel colors are in high demand, so use their gentle power to decorate your social media profiles or create digital Easter cards.

Play with Easter motifs such as eggs, bunnies or simple spring flowers, as they will set the proper tone and gently remind your customers that the holiday is just around the corner, and that they should start planning what to give or how to spend those days with friends and families.

We have prepared several Easter-inspired design templates, but if you want to change existing designs and add some personal touch, feel free to do it! Content Creator's designs are customizable so you can opt for different colors and font styles that match your brand.

2. Host an Easter Egg Hunt

The best way to create buzz and drive massive traffic to your business in a single afternoon is to hold a family-focused event such as an Easter Egg Hunt. If you want to try out this idea in your store we suggest you hide plastic eggs with messages, funny tips and discounts for your products that are redeemable on any purchases made that day. Even if you don't have an actual physical location you can hide digital eggs in different places on your website and award the person that finds them first.

To successfully publicize and promote your event, remember not to put all your eggs in one basket (no pun intended). Embrace multiple social channels and create sponsored Facebook posts, Carousel ads or simple online banners using one of Content Creator's ready-made Easter templates.

Customize your visuals just as you would decorate an Easter Egg by changing background color or shape color. When it comes to the selection of font we suggest you stay with the script font family, as they are perceived as more friendly, personal and relaxed.

3. Be ready for Easter sweet cravings

Baskets of chocolate eggs and the excitement of unwrapping them is one of those things that make Easter mornings so awesome. Almost 90% of those celebrating this holiday will spend their money buying candies for friends and family, so retailers are motivated to prepare special time-bound offers that create a sense of urgency and inspire customers to act immediately or risk missing out on a good deal.

If this is something that your business can benefit from, gather several items that make good gifts and put them together in a gift basket. Inform your audience on the special offer with a custom-designed ad and make sure you emphasize words such as "discount", "sale" or "special offer" with bigger size or different font color.

Remember to brand your post with your logo as that will build trust and help viewers understand where the offer is coming from. The logo should ideally be placed in the corner of the photo where it will make a quiet but consistent statement, without being too distracting.

4. Spring into savings

Easter brings spring weather that reminds us how it's time for renewal and a fresh start. It's out with the old and in with the new, and the industry that takes full advantage of this "spring fever" is clothing retail. The invitation to clean out closets and make room for a new wardrobe is very effective, as almost 45% of those celebrating Easter say that they will spend their money on clothing purchases. If you want to learn from their experience and motivate people to come in and spend money in your store, treat Easter like every other major holiday that deserves special time-limited discounts.

You can choose to give a discount to "bunny" marked images or you can have some Easter fun by giving customers a chance to determine their own Easter discount. For example, place a large format sticker on the floor to measure long jump distance, and right before checkout have customers see how far they can jump and give a discount based on distance. To maximize the impact of your sale try to promote your Easter deals weeks before the holiday through social media, emails or any other channels you feel will make the best results.

Spring makes people think of the warmth of the sun and happier times so adjust saturation and brightness of your photo and use bright colors to put people in a good mood. For more inspiration check out the templates we have prepared in Content Creator and follow our simple and quick instructions.

5. Gather families around your table

The National Restaurant Association estimates that around 33 million Americans choose to dine out for Easter, which reflects a cultural shift toward enjoying holiday meals with family and friends in restaurant settings rather than at home. To seize this lucrative opportunity in an industry where the competition is fierce you need to give your customers a compelling reason to visit your restaurant over another. This is why you need to start thinking on time about special Easter menus, timely reservations and ways to make this experience kid-friendly.

Once you create your special Easter offer, the best way to promote it is to create an ad that will showcase your delicious Easter food or your restaurant as a place where families can relax and spend time together. Arrange text in a way that respects the principles of visual hierarchy and gives bigger size to the most important pieces of information.

The easiest way to achieve this hierarchy and play with different fonts is to use Content Creator ready-made templates. They will help you create focus, and make your message stand out by leaving enough white space that significantly improves readability of your message.

6. Celebrate the Easter long weekend

A long Easter weekend means that there is more to the holiday than egg hunts and chocolate binging. With all that free time people will be looking for events that will keep them busy, so hop on this opportunity and organize parties with special incentives that will help you stand out from the crowd. Outfit your street team in bunny costumes to attract attention and hand out club card flyers to invite customers in, but don't forget to harness the power of social media and attract a wider audience.

Start by creating a Cover Photo that will share the spirit of celebration and help you communicate basic details about your special offer. Bring the focus to a certain part of your image by applying one of the filters from Content Creator (such as Vignette) and using one of the templates from our Easter selection.

Since local is the name of the game, invest in geo-targeted ads that ensure that only users within a specific radius from your club see your ad. This will help you save money and showcase your ad only to the ones that can really come to the party. If you are using only Facebook or Instagram advertising, remember the 20% rule according to which your copy should not cover more than 20% of your photo.

As you can see Easter is a highly anticipated holiday that offers a great chance to get creative, so make sure you don't get left out of the conversation when your followers and customers are getting excited about this day. Put these ideas to use with the help of Content Creator and celebrate in the spirit of the holiday with your social fans.

Guest Author: Aida Gadzo is a Social Media Strategist at contentcreatorapp.com. She helps small and medium businesses master the "what", "why" and "how" of producing and delivering engaging digital and social media content that will activate audiences and drive sales.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Content Creator.

The post 6 Ways To Use Social Media To Make More Business This Easter appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

How to Advertise on LinkedIn

Are you looking for more leads from LinkedIn? Want to use LinkedIn ads to help? LinkedIn's advertising platform lets you reach highly targeted groups of professionals with your customer acquisition message. In this article you'll discover how to use LinkedIn ads to reach the most relevant professional audiences for your business. #1: Choose an Ad [...]

This post How to Advertise on LinkedIn first appeared on .

- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

Marketing via Snapchat: Who's Doing It and How?

Should marketers "Snap" to it?

Ever since Snapchat blasted its way into the social media world in 2011, marketers have debated whether this app is a passing craze or the next big thing.

In many ways, Snapchat has similar photo-sharing and video-messaging capabilities as Instagram. What makes the app unique is that Snapchat users can control who receives their messages (called "Snaps") and for how long. (The range is 1-10 seconds.) Even more intriguing, once the chosen recipient has seen a Snap(s), and the time limit is up, then poof, it disappears!

Do Brands Have a Chance at Marketing via Snapchat?

Although millennials, a highly sought-after consumer demographic, use Snapchat in record numbers, most brands are still wondering how (or if) they can reach them via the app.

Column Five's infographic for the NewsCred blog breaks down Snapchat's user demographics and behaviors in order to help marketers see the different ways they can leverage this social media channel for marketing via Snapchat.

Insightful Snapchat Data for Brands

A survey of 100 Snapchat users provided the following insights that marketers may find useful:

• Snapchat has over 100 million daily active users.


• 8,796 photos are shared on Snapchat every second.


• Snapchat users collectively watch six billion videos daily.


• A majority of Snapchat users (54 percent) engage with the app on a daily basis.

But of course, there is one major downside for brands: money and celebrities are of little-to-no interest to Snapchat users. Snapchat users almost entirely consider this an app for self-expression and connecting with friends--not for following celebrity accounts. So they probably won't use it for following brands, either. At least not yet.

Do you think there is potential return for brands when marketing via Snapchat? Check out this infographic to learn more about Snapchat's evolution, the app's users and their behaviors:

Republished by permission. Original here.

Image: Column Five

This article, "Marketing via Snapchat: Who's Doing It and How?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Use This Publishing To-Do List to Boost Website Traffic

Whenever you create a piece of content, SEO might be on the brain. You want to make sure that guest content is going to an authoritative and relevant website, and you want to make sure that your blog content is continually pushing the envelope and keeping users engaged. Whatever the case may be, crafting that perfect article takes a lot of work. Between research and different content types and internal linking and author bio links and great images, finally seeing something published feels like a relief.

However, it's important that businesses and writers remember that your job isn't finished when an article goes live. You may have done a great job writing an engaging article and/or earning that great natural link, but you can improve your SEO by focusing on several things even after the article has been live for several days. And in fact, many editors now insist on it. Below are steps to take to get the full benefits.

Publishing To-Do List

Promote the Article on Social Media for Several Weeks

This is probably the most obvious step, but what many are still missing is the importance of sharing an article on social media beyond just one or two days. You certainly don't want your social accounts to be nothing but promoting one or two articles (you should be also promoting other people's work), but sharing content over several weeks can help keep the momentum going. You should never assume that your audience would all see one tweet or one Facebook post. Vary the days and times you share, cover all of your platforms, and keep it consistent.

I recommend using a social media sharing platform like the Buffer app or SocialMention to help schedule social posts, keep everything up to date and not get too overwhelmed. Dashboards like Hootsuite and TweetDeck are also great tools to utilize. Below is a screenshot of a Hootsuite dashboard for social:

Link Back to the Article on Your Website

Once your article is live, you don't want to forget about it. Although you are likely hoping for natural links from others reading the article, you can still help out by building backlinks to that post if you're ever writing about something else that is relevant. If you can refer back to that article on your own blog, that's a great way to build up the article.

Respond and Continue to Check Back for Comments

This point works very similarly to the first point about sharing the post on social media. It may seem obvious, but what still isn't obvious to many is the idea of responding to comments after more than a few days. It's your job as an author to continually check back for comments no matter where the article is published.

Many websites allow you to actually subscribe to comments through a service called Disqus, which is crucial to take part in if you're the author. This will make sure that every time there is a comment on your post you get an email right to your inbox so you don't miss anything. When you login to comment through Disqus, you will automatically be subscribed to the comment thread. The email looks like the following:

Even if a website doesn't have this feature, set a reminder for yourself to go back and check for comments. I personally have gotten into the habit of checking all of my live articles every Friday, which works great. After several months, the article should die down and you can start putting your energy elsewhere.

Stay Connected with the Editor and Readers for Better Online Relationships

This of course refers only to when you're working with editors, but it's important to keep your relationships going even after your article goes live. This means potentially writing another article or sending story ideas to get something in the pipeline, sharing other articles posted on the website, and connecting with the editor on social media.

If you write a post and get your link and then disappear (especially if you ignore comments and social sharing), then the chances of that editor helping you in the future are slim. Editors can also talk with other editors about how you are as a guest author, so you want to keep your reputation positive. If you're really lucky, a great relationship will also transfer into some social sharing for your own site from that editor.

Copy and Save the Live Link for Your Records

When your post is finally live, you'll want to record this in some sort of master spreadsheet, particularly if you're working with guest posts. If you don't get into this habit, you're on your way to getting overwhelmed and letting some content slip through the cracks. Remember, you should be going back to your articles months after they've been live to respond to comments and re-share, so this can get tough if you don't have all of your URLs in one place.

Way in the Future, Revisit Your Article and Make Updates

As discussed earlier, after several months your post will likely die down in popularity and you can start to focus your content efforts elsewhere.

However, way, way in the future (maybe two or three years) you will want to refer back to that spreadsheet of URLs and check on your post to make sure it is still up to date and relevant. If it's not, then you should work to make changes to your post to bring it back to life. Make sure your statistics are up to date, your links are not broken, and all of your information is still correct.

Republished by permission. Original here.

Working at Computer Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Use This Publishing To-Do List to Boost Website Traffic" was first published on Small Business Trends

7 Content Marketing Trends That Will Reign Supreme in 2016

Once upon a time, SEO and content marketing were separate concepts...

They are quickly becoming one and the same.

Google places value on high quality content and ranks your site based on the experience visitors have with your content.

Gone are the days of aggressive link building and over night SEO strategies. Instead marketers are encouraged to play a long-term game by creating resourceful pieces of content that will naturally attract attention from credible websites and social media networks.

This Google trends graph pits "link building" against "content marketing"...

It's no surprise to see a decline in search volume when it comes to link building and a continuing growth for content marketing.

Content marketing is becoming more and more popular to build relationships with your audience, and if you don't take action now and build a solid content marketing strategy your competition will get ahead.

To stay ahead of the curve, it is essential to keep up to date with the latest content marketing trends. To make it easier for you, here are top 7 content marketing trends that will rule 2016.

Trend#1 - The magic of user-generated content

There is no one better than your customers themselves to create content for your business.

It will be authentic, trust-worthy and appealing to your target audience (as they are your target audience). Plus, people naturally want to know about a product or service from the user's perspective.

The Guardian rightfully states that 70% of consumers place peer recommendations and reviews above professionally written content. And this is what happens with everyone, right? So, ask your customers to create content for you and display it on your site or in your store to gain the trust of more and more people.

One great example of user-generated content is Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign in which the company produced Coke bottles with customers' names on the labels and handed them out throughout different cities.

They asked the customers to share pictures of their personalized coke bottle on Twitter and other social media platforms. The company attributes the campaign to a 2% increase in US sales.

What do the experts say?

"User generated content (UGC) allows you to collect, moderate and publish at scale from content collected and curated from brand advocates and fans." - Jeff Bullas, world's #1 Content Marketing Influencer, Social Media Marketing Strategist & Speaker.

Trend#2: Zero in on interactive storytelling

People are not mere spectators these days. They demand content in which they can get involved, without feeling targeted. They seek a visual story that's powerful and out of the box.

A blog published at TruConversion.com suggests to be mindful that your target audience is more likely to remember and react to great stories.

By interactive storytelling I mean that you can present your content through or with images, videos, infographics, quizzes, calculators, assessments, generators, or graders.

According to IMPACT Community Coordinator, Carolyn Edgecomb, storytelling is one of the best ways you can develop deeper connections with your target audience.

Have a look at the video content made by New York Times T-Brand Studio.

What do the experts say?

"There's so much static content out there on the Web that it's important for businesses to produce content that yields enough power and substance to capture the target audience's interest right from the get-go. This is where interactive content provides an optimal solution to businesses, especially to small businesses. It is perhaps the best way to increase traffic and conversion among small businesses." - Rahul Aggarwal, Founder - Designhill.com.

Trend#3 - Episodic content is a must-have

Breaking your content into parts and organizing it over a time-period will keep your audience engaged. It builds anticipation as you create a narrative and give breaks in between.

Episodic content has a long lasting impact on the reader's mind which cannot be achieved by one piece of writing. If you are able to create suspense in your reader's mind through the first episode of your content, they will most likely come back to watch or read it.

An article on SEMrush explains how to take care of the timing of episodes with a long enough gap to ensure that your target audience actively seeks the next instalment.

There are many examples of episodic content that you come across everyday but hardly notice. This technique never fails to generate curiosity about your brand. For instance, an example of episodic content is Serial. Serial changed the podcast game and produced a captivating story in weekly, hour-long segments. Every episode of Serial ended with the host leaving her audience with a cliffhanger, thus creating a desire to hear the next episode.

What do the experts say?

"Thousands of people are, usually collaboratively, producing a lot of short-form, episodic fiction and hundreds of thousands more are reading it." - Anna Rafferty, Director, Digital Marketing Strategies, Penguin.

Trend#4 - Try personalizing your content

Simply creating content is not enough anymore.

The challenge is to produce something that connects with your audience at an altogether different level. With so much content being produced every day, people are getting immune to even the best of it. Therefore, you need to add a flavor of personalization to your content in order to get the desired results.

Wouldn't it be great to have different content for different types of visitors? I mean, you can design your page in a way that visitors feel that the page speaks in their language.

According to TruConversion, personalized content talks directly to your target audience and offers the exact solution he/she is looking for. And an article on Conversionxl.com states that content personalization makes money.

For instance Paramore, an American rock band's merchandise store, uses geo-location data to direct visitors from different parts of the world to their respective pages. This helps the buying process for customers as they are able to see prices in their national currency. This is how it looks when people visit the site from US:

(Image source: conversionxl.com)

And this is how it looks when anyone visits the site from the United Kingdom:

Whenever you're personalizing your content, make sure that everything in the content - whether it's the font, words or the overall voice --speaks to your target market and resonates with them in the best way. So that when they look at it, it's their experience, their voice, their taste they see.

Also, don't forget to ensure that content is laid out in a way that highlights your branding elements such as logo design, icons or symbols. This will make customers remember your brand along with their experience for a really long time.

What do the experts say?

"The name of the game in 2016 is personalization. Marketers will have more opportunities than ever to deliver the exact content that people want when they want it." - Shawn Fitzgerald, VP/Digital Marketing Group at Thomasnet.

Trend#5 - Select social media for content distribution

An article published on Designhill explains that social media has become increasingly popular amongst small businesses, who are using social media hacks to reach out to their customers and reinforce their brand.

In fact, Social Media Examiner's Industry Report 2015 reveals that 92% of marketers report that social media is important to their marketing mix. In 2016 too, more and more marketers will make use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. for distributing their content.

Thoroughly research the platforms where your target audience hang out and choose the right platforms. Facebook has almost 1.4 billion users and Twitter has 302 million active users. So, use these platforms to distribute content and increase your leads.

Kissmetrics explains that you must define a good distribution schedule for each network and map it out in a simple timeline.

(Source: Kissmetrics)

What do the experts say?

"No longer can you rely on Facebook to provide free traffic to your website or blog. It's become just another paid advertising channel. All social networks are now in this game and as social media has become just another media channel, that reality is not going away. You are going to need to adapt." - Jeff Bullas, World's #1 Marketing Influencer, Strategist & Speaker. CEO at Jeffbullas.com.

Trend#6 - Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand

SEO and content marketing complement each other.

Content marketing fulfils the demand created by SEO. The more unique and fresh the content is you create, the better it will be for your search rankings.

Who doesn't want to be on the first page of any search engine?

An article published on Search Engine Land explains that being found in organic search results and attracting traffic to your site makes it possible to engage people and convert them into fans and customers.

(Source: Brafton)

What do the experts say?

"Content is king, and it is expected to play an even bigger role in 2016 digital marketing. Content should be educational, entertaining or enriching, rather than a message centered around a direct sales pitch. A strong strategy of creative, personal, interesting content is eclipsing more traditional areas like SEO management and advertising."- Ben Silverman, Marketing Writer for Brafton.

Trend#7 - Budgets will skyrocket

2016 will see a rise in the investments by marketers in content marketing.

In the past, marketers did not see content marketing as something they could invest in. But as time goes on, content marketing has proven to be one of the most effective methods of driving website traffic. But it takes money to create effective interactive content to draw traffic, generate leads and increase conversions. Therefore, more and more marketers are willing to spend thousands of dollars on their content marketing efforts.

An article published on Hubspot notes that 71% of marketers are getting an increased content marketing budget.

Plus, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 54% B2B marketers will increase their budget for content marketing significantly over the next 12 months.

(Source: Contenthook)

What do the experts say?

"I'd say that things are getting serious: content marketing is not yet a science but a proven methodology for it has emerged and gone are the days when you could simply rely on pure creativity and... luck. While content generation remains key, successful content marketers invest at least as much time and budget in the other parts of the content marketing cycle: planning, distribution as well as analyzing what works and doesn't." - Guillaume Decugis, CEO & Co-Founder at Scoop.it.

Wrapping it up

With the beginning of a new year, marketers have already ramped up their content marketing strategies for 2016.

It's important for you as a marketer to keep up to date with the latest content marketing trends and stand out from the crowd.

I hope that these content marketing trends will help you somehow in achieving new heights for your business in 2016.

Have a great year ahead!

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments, if you enjoyed this post share it on twitter, and never hesitate to hit me up with any questions, critiques, or feedback.

Guest Author: Saumya Raghav is a content marketer who works at Designhill, one of the world's fastest-growing custom design crowdsourcing marketplace. A blogger, columnist, content marketing expert, editor, marketing instructor, and conversion scientist by day and a reader by night, he loves to write on topics related to digital marketing strategies, technical and international SEO, web analytics, startup and small business strategies, growth hack strategies, conversion optimization strategies, etc. You can engage with him on Twitter - @saumyaraghav, Facebook - and LinkedIn.

The post 7 Content Marketing Trends That Will Reign Supreme in 2016 appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.