The Power of Running Awareness Campaigns on Social Media: Generating Leads, Conversions, and More without Remarketing

In today's digital landscape, social media platforms have become essential tools for businesses to reach their target audience, create brand awareness, and drive sales. Many marketers tend to focus primarily on strategies that involve retargeting and remarketing, often overlooking the potential that high-funnel awareness campaigns can bring. In this blog post, we'll explore how running awareness campaigns on social media can still generate leads, conversions, and foster brand recognition without the need for remarketing efforts.

The Impact of High-Funnel Awareness Campaigns

1. Boosting User-Awareness

High-funnel awareness campaigns are designed to introduce your brand and product offerings to new audiences. These campaigns aim to capture attention and spark curiosity, creating an initial connection between the user and your brand. When done correctly, they can significantly improve user awareness by establishing a solid foundation for a potential customer's journey.

By leveraging visual storytelling, engaging content, and strategically targeting audiences based on interests, demographics, and behaviors, high-funnel awareness campaigns can effectively reach new users who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.

2. Enhancing Brand Recognition

Brand recognition is essential for businesses to thrive in competitive markets, and high-funnel awareness campaigns play a crucial role in building this recognition. By consistently sharing content that showcases your brand's unique selling points, values, and personality, you can create a strong brand identity that sets you apart from competitors.

Through the use of eye-catching graphics, videos, and informative content, you can make a lasting impression on your target audience, ensuring that they remember your brand when making purchasing decisions. Moreover, social media platforms provide the perfect opportunity to engage with users, fostering a sense of community and loyalty towards your brand.

3. Generating Sales without Remarketing

While remarketing efforts are known for converting warm leads into customers, it is possible to generate sales through high-funnel awareness campaigns alone. Here's how:

Remarketing campaigns are undoubtedly effective in driving conversions, but they shouldn't be the only strategy in your marketing arsenal. High-funnel awareness campaigns have the power to generate leads, conversions, and foster brand recognition without the need for remarketing efforts. By focusing on user-awareness, brand recognition, and implementing sales-driving tactics, businesses can maximize the impact of their social media marketing and drive growth in the long run.

 

How to Split Test to Improve Performance

In today’s digital landscape, paid advertising is key to driving growth and success. Effective ad campaigns reach the right people, with the right message, at the right time. It’s so much more than simply creating ads and launching campaigns. Every setting matters. Ad copy and creativity also have a massive impact on the overall success of each ad campaign. To fully understand what resonates with your audience and how you should be optimizing your campaigns, you should utilize a magic tool called split testing. 

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is the art of comparing two versions of an ad or landing page to see which one performs better. In a true A/B test, all variables remain the same except for the one that you are testing. This allows you to identify what your audience responds best to and continually improve your ads’ performance. 

With so many settings and variables involved in a paid ad campaign, you can split-test almost any and every aspect of your campaign. While the possibilities for split testing are endless, it’s best to focus on the highest impact test first. 

Wondering what you should split test to improve your campaign performance? 

  1. Test Your Headlines 

The headline is one of the most critical components of an ad. It’s one of the first things your audience sees. It needs to capture their attention and encourage them to take action. A good headline can be the difference between your audience clicking on the ad or just scrolling on by, so it’s very important. However, writing effective headlines can be tricky. What works for one group of people might not work for another. That’s why testing is so important! By split-testing different headlines, you can see which one generates a stronger performance and use that insight to create more effective ads in the future. 

  1. Test Your Ad Copy

Just like headlines, ad copy can also have a major impact on performance. Ad copy is a little more creative so you can test a variety of different things when split testing including length, tone, messaging, and calls to action. By testing different copy variations and phrasing, you can identify the type of language and messaging that performs best with your audience. Once you have these insights, you can use it to create more effective ads in the future. 

  1. Test Your Ad Creatives

Ad creative is the visual component of an ad that grabs attention and helps communicate the overall message. It includes images, videos, graphics, animations, and other visual elements. When running a split test, try testing different formats (ex: photo vs video), layouts, imagery (ex: lifestyle vs product shots), and colors. A red call to action on an image may or may not outperform a green call to action. Or your audience might respond more to video creatives than static images. The only way to know that is to test! 

  1. Test Your Landing Pages

The page that a user lands on after clicking on your ad is just as, if not even more, important than the actual ad itself. This is where users take action - making a purchase, filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, etc. That’s why it’s so important to split test! 

Not only can you test different landing page layouts, content, and calls to action, but you can (and should) also test different copy, headlines, and visuals on your landing page as well. You can also test different forms and checkout processes to see what improves user experience and increases conversions. Depending on what landing page builder you use it will likely have a split test function available to make testing as simple as possible. 

Insights gathered from a landing page split test can not only be applied to future landing pages, but also to ads, emails, and other website pages as well. 

  1. Test Your Targeting

Split tests aren’t limited to just the ads themselves. In order to reach the right people at the right time, you need to be targeting the right audiences. This can be challenging, especially when using affinity or interest-based targeting. And even if your audience selection is on point, some audiences will still respond differently than others when shown the same ad. By testing different demographics, interests, behaviors, and geographic locations you can really hone in on who your target audience is. You can also split test ad placements to see which platforms perform best for your audience.

  1. Test Your Ad Schedule

Timing and frequency of ad delivery can also have an impact on performance so it can be worth split testing. Ads delivered too frequently can lead to ad fatigue, while ads delivered too seldom run the risk of not being seen enough to convert. Similarly, if most of your ads are shown during days/times when your audience is away from their devices, your ads aren’t serving you the best and you’re not getting the best bang for your buck. By testing different ad schedules, you can identify when your audience is most active and start to learn how often your audience wants to see your ads.  

  1. Test Your Bidding Strategy

Lastly, let your money do the talking.  How you optimize your campaign and bid in the ad auction can drastically impact your campaign performance. Testing the same ad in a conversion campaign versus a traffic campaign might deliver some surprising results. During a split test, you can also test different goals for your bids, max clicks vs target CPC, or max conversions vs target ROAS. 

Whatever split tests you decide to run, just make sure that you are keeping the rest of the variables the same except for the one that you are testing. This will allow you to identify what your audience responds to best. Then you can use that insight to create more effective ads and inform future split tests on other variables.

What To Do With a Problem Like Twitter

For many years, Twitter has been the little brother that has a big impact in the world of social media. For many businesses and individuals, it’s been a great place to connect with and build community, and it’s had an outsized impact on the news, political discussion, and public conversation. 

Nothing highlights this quite as much as the uproar over the last few weeks. All of the information in this blog post is accurate as of midnight PST 11/11/22, but it will likely change, and change quickly. However, our recommendations for what to do about it are not likely to change quite as quickly. 

TL;DR Recommendations

 

The basics of the situation 

Elon's made quite a few changes at Twitter, many of which are leading to significant brand safety and advertising concerns. Specifically, the ability to buy a blue checkmark for $8 has led to a very high number of fake accounts that appear official, causing serious concerns. 

For example, a fake pharma account claiming they'd make insulin-free, a fake Lockheed Martin account claiming they'd stop all sales until human rights abuses in customer countries were addressed, a fake Chiquita account claiming to have taken over governments, etc. There are also less "serious" but just as concerning situations where verified-appearing accounts have impersonated sports figures, celebrities, and more.

Obviously, this is causing a number of brand safety concerns. There's also the less immediate but just as real concern that the technology backbone of the company is already at risk, with a high number of engineers and tech employees having been laid off.

A big part of the legal team, InfoSec team, and SecOps team have been laid off, or more notably, have resigned in the last few days. There is significant speculation this is because the FTC has asked for leadership to personally vouch that security procedures and infosec procedures are being followed.

In a call (Twitter Spaces voice chat, specifically) with advertisers in the last day or so, Elon's made it clear that he has no idea how to handle the content moderation concerns, laying out zero actual plans, and contradicting himself several times in wanting "free speech" but also wanting to keep Twitter "brand safe." The headline quote is “freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” 

Stepping entirely out of the political questions, it appears that there will be a return to shadow banning, and also very unequal application of any rules, as we've seen in the last few days.

It is possible that this will all settle out and an equilibrium will settle out. However, given the financial burn rate of the company and the financial realities of this deal, it is more likely bankruptcy, restructuring, and/or shutdown is just as likely.

 

There is historical precedent

Unlike the slow death of MySpace or the natural reduction in use of Facebook as younger users choose different networks, this downfall of Twitter is more analogous to what happened with AM radio. As radio stations shifted to FM, AM stations became the purview of talk radio and religious broadcasters. There are a number of complicated social and financial reasons for this, but the end result is that unless the infrastructure is completely destroyed, it will still get used. 

At the moment, it appears that those with more extreme viewpoints are the ones sticking with the changes on Twitter and looking forward to the changes being made by its current CEO. 4Chan/8Chan and the like followed a similar trajectory. 

 What to do about your brand accounts

If you’ve spent a lot of time and energy building up a following on Twitter, it can be tough to step back and make a logical call on what to do about your accounts. However, as quickly as things are moving, just waiting and not doing anything is not likely to be a good solution for you. You should take at least some basic action today. 

First and foremost, set up brand monitoring if you haven’t yet. This could be a saved search on Twitter, a Zapier tool that sends search results for your brand on Twitter to your company Slack or email, or a search on your social media management tool. However you do it, you and your team need to know if there’s an imposter account so you can reply as soon as possible – even if it’s proving nigh on impossible to get those accounts removed at the moment.

Second, take a very close look at your target market – and your actual market. Many user groups are already fleeing Twitter, and many others are just ghosting - keeping their accounts but not logging in or checking on things. If your user base is still active on Twitter, then it could be worth putting energy into creating content there, but beware of any scheduled content, and triple-check the current news before you post to make sure there’s not a Chiquita situation impacting your market. If your target market isn’t on Twitter, or likely won’t be, then start researching where they are going instead and follow them if you can.

If you’re still advertising on Twitter, very carefully consider your ad spend, and even more carefully consider your creative. Be ready to change your spend on a dime, and consider if spending on Twitter is in alignment with your brand’s mission, vision, and values. 

Finally, no matter what you do, if you have a brand account on Twitter, you should keep your handle and name. Customers are still likely to tag you and reach out to you, and the possibility of an imposter makes it important that you have an official account. For most brands, that means turning Twitter from an actively managed network into a response-only network. If you aren’t actively posting there, pin a post that tells users where they can find you instead. 

 

No network is your friend

At the end of the day, this is a great example of the fact that no platform is your friend. You, as a brand or organization, should own your content and have it stored somewhere that you have control of. Social networks are there to help you share and spread your message - not to host your content. 

Save off anything you have on your networks to ensure that you maintain control of that content - and continue to do so regularly for all social networks, regardless of what happens with Twitter. 

Where to go instead?

So, if not Twitter, where? Twitter has been a stalwartly unique social network and has functionality that many platforms just can’t duplicate. The reality is that you need to follow your market, and that market may be different for each business. There are a few platforms that may be worth exploring, depending on your unique niche. A few options to start with could be:

 

At the end of the day, the reality of social media is that the reality is always changing. There are times of relative stability, and times of very fast and furious change. The next few weeks, if not next few months, are a great opportunity to re-evaluate your social platform choices while experimenting, exploring, and downright playing with new options.

What you need to know about the iOS 14 Privacy Update for Facebook Ads

What’s going on: 

Apple’s release of iOS 14 now gives users the choice of whether or not they want to be tracked. Facebook is calling foul, accusing Apple of being greedy, and doing this in the name of profits rather than security.  

Implications: Anyone running ads on Facebook will suffer in both performance and reporting transparency if you aren’t prepared appropriately for the changes. 

Luckily, there are some steps you can take that will mitigate the overall impact to your Facebook Ads Campaigns. Here, we’ll discuss those steps.

Let’s get started. 

Facebook has been asking for businesses to verify their businesses in Business Manager for a while, but recently, they’ve doubled down on the importance of this step as it pertains to the iOS 14 update. This is especially true if the business has multiple business units and multiple domains (Verification must be done at the effective top level domain plus one: eTLD+1).

You can verify your domain in Business manager under Brand Safety, then Domains. 

Similar to Domain verification for Google Search Console, you’ll be able to verify via an HTML file upload or a DNS TXT record. Additional documentation on how to complete this step can be found here. 

Since the iOS 14 Privacy Update roll out, each Facebook Pixel will only be able to “host” 8 conversion events. For some businesses this won’t feel so limiting, while others will need to make some decisions here. These 8 conversion events will be your only options when it comes to account optimization. Now, you’ll still be able to track more web based events from your Pixel, you just won’t be able to configure any more than 8 conversion events. This is how Facebook is able to utilize it’s aggregated event measurement protocol for users that opt out of the iOS data sharing option. 

If you don’t delegate the conversion events yourself, Facebook will define them for you based on the ones Facebook thinks are most relevant to your business.

You’ll be able to configure your preferences (i.e. define these events) in the Events Manager. There will be no need to make changes to the pixel or Conversions API Implementation.

If a user opts out of tracking, we would only see purchase (highest priority event) reported in events manager/ads manager. If the user opts-in, we will see all events as we do currently (example: VC > ATC > IC > Purchase)

Offsite conversion events will be reported based on the time the conversions occur and not the time of ad impressions. AKA - you’ll no longer have delayed attribution. There are also reports that it can take up to 3 days from when a conversion event occurs for it to be passed back to Facebook, as opposed to how it was recorded where data is passed when the event occurs.

Delivery and action breakdowns are not supported for offsite conversion events.

On the measurement front, 28-day click-through, 28-day view-through, and 7-day view-through attribution windows will no longer be supported (historical data for these windows will remain accessible.) Thus, certain attribution windows will immediately have only partial reporting available, and metrics won’t include all events from iOS 14 users.

Instead, 7-day click will be the default attribution window moving forward, with the new attribution settings supported being:

Another important change to take into account is that custom audiences are now much smaller. Exclusions will be less accurate (you may have past purchasers in your prospecting campaigns).

The best move is to be proactive. Identify the most important conversion events in your funnel then reduce them down to 8 key conversion events prior to the update.

New Items:

Utilize UTM’s

UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module) are simple code snippets that can be added to the end of your URLs to provide data to Google Analytics. This is significant because you can then see conversion/traffic data specific to certain channels, campaigns, creatives, etc. UTM’s are also very easy to configure, and there are many websites that will automatically make the URL for you. 

Now that you have UTMs set up, you can filter your Google Analytics data by the above fields in order to see detailed information about how your campaign performed.

We always recommend using UTMs for an added layer of data analytics. Additionally, if you’re using multiple platforms - odds are your attribution reporting doesn’t match across them all. However, if you’re using UTMs you can look at all the campaigns using the same attribution lens your Google Analytics account utilizes.  

Setup a GA4 Property

Google Analytics has released the newest version of analytics called Google Analytics 4. This will become the new standard for Google Analytics, although you can still utilize your UA profiles. Google Analytics is a must have tool that provides detailed reporting on website visits, conversion tracking, and insights that will help you bring your website to the next level. 

Google Analytics 4 will bring new insights and data about why users are on your website (or app), and will be able to more accurately attribute actions and data properly. 

If you already have analytics set up on your website, Google makes it simple to switch to GA4. Within your ‘Admin’ tab to bring up your settings and underneath the ‘Property’ tab the first option should be Google Analytics 4 Property Setup Assistant. From here, simply follow the steps and Google will create a GA4 version of your analytics. 

Full steps on how to add a GA4 Profile to your existing Analytics account: Here

If you don’t have analytics on your site at all; your first step is to create an account. From here, you will be able to enter your websites information and be given options on how to get the Google Analytics tags onto your website. 

Full steps on how to create your brand new Analytics account: Here

Facebook Dynamic Ads: How To Use Them To Drive A Better ROI Than Any Other Channel

Facebook Dynamic Ads are the first - and sometimes the only - opportunity to make a good first impression, when you're trying to attract fresh audiences on the platform. Therefore, making those ads, compelling and relevant, is highly essential to your social media marketing campaign.

So, why don't you scale a regular ad unit, and add more content to it?

Let me explain that…

In a regular ad unit on Facebook (or anywhere else, for that matter) there's a limit to the amount of content that you can put in it.

But with Facebook Dynamic Ads, you can display 3-5x more content, in the same amount of space, on both mobile and desktop feeds.

Well, what's the big deal about them?

Facebook is the only company that offers this. In other words, you get this feature on both Facebook AND Instagram.  Major brands like AliExpress, eBay, Target, etc. have been using this advertising structure from the beginning. They still use them because they generates a lot of sales for them.

Also, they have glowing reviews about this too.

Facebook has published a case study about Jewelscent - a retailer of fragrance and beauty products - which revealed that by using multi-product ads, the brand reduced its cost-per-click rate by 3x, and invested less to drive more visitors to its landing pages.

Also, major brands like Target and Shutterfly reported a 20% increase in conversions and click-through-rate with Dynamic Ads, compared to other ad formats they’ve tried and tested.

Having more content (i.e.,images, links) inside a single ad gives a marketer the ability to achieve different objectives within a small window. For example, media brands get to showcase different stories in a single ad unit rather than creating multiple ads to promote each of them.

But why choose standard when you can have custom, right? Here are some unique ways of targeting audiences with Dynamic Ads…

  1. Utilize User-Generated Content.

Ads with user-generated content have received far greater engagement than average ads, and it'll give you a better chance at conversions.

In fact, ads with user-generated content were reportedly had a..

The best way to promote your business or brand, is by demonstrating how real people get value from using your product/service/offer.

You can even use images that were submitted by your customers for your advertising campaign.

  1. Explain a process/different steps.

One of the flaws in the default Facebook ad, is that you have to outline steps or a process in the written copy. That’s because you can only use a single image, and so marketers have to resort to written words to fill the gap, which may not be the best option considering the character limit.

With Facebook Product Ads and multi-product ads, you can explain steps, or a process via visuals.

For example, Australian Institute of Business gives a perfect explanation of what people need to do, in order to earn an MBA in 12 months, by showing the 4 steps of the process, using a multi-product ad.

Also, given that you can put different links into the CTA of each image - or the same one for all of them - it's ideal to explain things, such as;

Etc.

Just make sure to write a unique description and headline for each image in the step. Another thing you could do, is use a bigger font for the call-to-action used in the last step.

facebook dpa example

  1. Promote your culture.

Having a culture within your brand / business is very important, as it results in better productivity and employee motivation, as well as other branding and positioning benefits.

But have you ever thought of showcasing your culture through Facebook ads?

These images will increase people’s awareness of your brand/business. If they see what's happening inside of your company, and what kind of a culture that they’re going to be a part of, they'd want to know more about different aspects of your brand, thus increasing the chance of a conversion.

  1. Create a catalog with striking images.

Do you have a unique product line, or different varieties of the same product?

Then you can use multi-product ads to showcase them in more detail than plain Facebook ads. All you have to do is group items together while creating an ad.

However, this tactic isn't just for ecommerce stores. Businesses in every industry can take advantage of catalogs with multi-product ads.

For example, if you’re selling real estate, you can create a catalog that highlights different attractions around the property you’re promoting. Attractions include nearby beaches, parks, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. 

  1. Showcase various locations in the area.

To be specific, multi-product ads can be used to promote various locations - i.e., a city. The first question anyone would ask while researching a city is where to go - whether for a meal, a walk, a night out, etc. Likewise, people in a particular area might be searching for restaurants in that area.

So, instead of showing them one place related to a city, or recommending a single restaurant through a regular ad, why not display a couple of more options in both cases?

  1. Offer deals, promos and discounts.

Another way to use multi-product ads is to include content that are related to deals and discounts. Don’t have to spend time creating multiple ads for multiple deals. 3-5 offers can just be advertised in a single unit.

This is an ideal way to attract audiences who are looking for specific deals within a brand.

For example, someone might not be interested in a 10 percent discount on a 3-day subscription to a service, but could be motivated to click-through the ad when they swipe left and see a 30 percent discount on an annual subscription to the same service. Or it could be the opposite case as well.

Also, you could promote seasonal deals and discounts with a relevant theme. For example, a chocolate brand can promote deals and discounts for different types of chocolate during the Christmas season or Valentines' day. They vary the discount given on each chocolate.

Always give as much options as you can to your prospects – you'll never know what might tempt people to check out your offerings.

  1. Showcase progress with a time-lapse canvas.

Companies that target mobile users, such as mobile game development companies, have used “a flipbook” to showcase the player’s progress when they reach different levels. This was - and still is - very popular among those brands, and have attracted a lot of users, due to the anticipation it builds within the audience's minds.

You can also create a canvas of different upgrades a player can get by collecting points/completing objectives.

Final thoughts

Facebook Dynamic Ads and Multi-product ads provide marketers to have more real estate within a regular ad unit. You can leverage the tips mentioned above to increase engagement and conversions, and drive more traffic to your landing pages.

Top 10 Must Have Social Media Management Tools in 2019

Social media has become something that almost no one can live without. Even great companies can't get by, without their social media accounts.

It's how we reach out, and communicate with each other.

And, as a business, reaching out to your customers - and any potential customers - and communicate with them frequently is really important. It strengthens the buyer-seller relationship you have with each other.

The best (and ideal) platforms that businesses use to reach out to their customers and prospects is social media. After all, that's where the masses are at, in millions, and sometimes, BILLIONS.

But, who said you can only use social media alone for this?

Below, is a list of MUST HAVE social media marketing tools that you can use, in order to spice up your social media game in your business.

1. Biteable

social media management tools - biteable

Did you know that visual content get much more engagements on social media, than other content forms?

Well, you do now.

All the big brands understand this, and they have gone all-in, investing a lot of money in video teams, equipment, etc.

So, why not capitalize on that?

Biteable is a tool that you can use to create engaging, informative, as well as entertaining short form video content easily, and share them on social media, without much fuss.

You can use the database of free video templates, footage, music, and animated scenes they offer, to make your videos look irresistible to the viewers, without spending the top dollar on expensive resources. It's an invaluable resource for your social media marketing efforts.

2. Buffer

buffer

Buffer is doing exceptionally well, as a platform which started as a scheduling tool for Twitter. As a matter of fact, it's one of the top major platforms of its kind.

You can do some pretty great things with this, including…

- Share content on the go, with its Chrome extension, by adding articles and content from the web pages you visit, to your Buffer queue.
- Automatically shorten the links you share. If you have a Bit.ly account, you can connect it with Buffer, and use it as well.
- Upload custom-made photos and videos.
- Use content from the articles you've shared.
- Utilize complex analytics to track your accounts’ performances.
- Reply to posts from within the platform.

Social media management tools like Buffer not only help you fill your social media feeds with relevant and entertaining content, without making you spend half of your time on each platform, but also keep an eye on their metrics, so that you can keep improving your social media game for good.

3. Buzzsumo

SMM tool - buzzsumo

If you don't already know, research plays a major role in marketing. That includes keeping an eye out for your competitors, and be in the loop of what they're up to, and whatnot.

Buzzsumo is one of the social media management tools that help you get to the next level of your content marketing game.

That includes, but not limited to…

- Finding content that's shared most on social media platforms. You can enter your - or someone else's - domain, and see what's been shared.
- Finding influencers related to relevant topics.
- Getting alerts triggered by brand names, links, author names, domains, or other keywords.
- Tracking competitors and perform analyses, based on their content.
- Finding interesting and new content to share or search for content, based on what's performing well.

The list goes on, and it makes a content marketer drool. Literally.

So if you're not checking out this one, well, don't blame anyone or anything else for lack of success in your business.

4. Missinglettr

missinglettr.com

Let's be honest.

Even if we use social media content schedulers to automate publishing, we still have to create the content, and schedule them, and we have to do it manually.

Missinglettr changes that.

It helps you automate the process of creating content for social media, by scraping your blog posts, and creating a year's worth of content. All you have to do is review, and make edits if necessary.

That's one thing crossed off of the weekly to-do list, if you ask me.

Now, you can really focus on just creating long-form content on your blog(s), while Missinglttr takes care of sharing little bites of those blog posts via your social profiles.

5. Hootsuite

Hootsuite

Here's the thing;

Managing multiple social media platforms is tricky, to say the least. On a good day, it's chaotic.

Hootsuite helps you manage that chaos, by bringing all of them into a single dashboard. Yes, that includes platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and Storify.

You can see your comments and mentions, all in one place. You can also assign tasks, plot social media calendars, schedule updates, collaborate across team members, and a lot of other things.

On top of that, with Hootsuite Podium, you can check out free online social media courses, in order to develop your social media skills, and learn the fundamentals of SMM.

Oh, and if you think you can handle that, Hootsuite can give you an in-depth breakdown of the analytics.

6. Mention

digital marketing platform - mention

Ever wonder what people are talking about you?

With Mention, staying on top of the conversation between you and your customers and prospects, in easy.

Basically, it's one of the social media management tools built specifically for social listening. It monitors any mentions of your brand, your products, or even your competitors, in real time.

So, if someone is talking about you, you'll hear it. And then you can see what they're talking about you, and jump right in to the conversation, if it's needed.

7. IFTTT - If this, then that.

SMM API - ifttt

Don't you ever get tired of doing simple tasks, again, and again?

Well, this tool helps you automate those simple tasks by creating a set of rules, that gets triggered in to doing specific actions, when a predefined thing happens.

For example, you can create a rule, to automatically add the emails of the people who request email support, into an email list of your email marketing platform. That way, you get a new list of slightly-warm leads to work on.

IFTTT helps you eliminate the manual back-and-forth, and streamline your processes in a way that emphasises, as well as enhances your productivity.

8. Zapier

automate - Zapier

This is another tool, similar to IFTTT, but clearly has its differences.

IFTTT is easier to learn, and ideal for lighter automation tasks, while Zapier is a great tool for businesses that want to take their automation to next levels.

The thing about Zapier is that it's compatible with a lot of popular and widely-used services, apps, and tools out there. So you have the ability to automate even some of the bigger tasks that gets repeated.

They even have a huge list of possible automations that you can set up with their platform.

9. AdEspresso

adespresso expert

Have your ever thought of taking the guesswork out of how your ads are performing with their respective audiences?

Well, that's exactly what AdEspresso does.

This is one of several social media management tools that allows you to perform A/B split tests, gives you real-time analysis of Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads, and shows you how your ads are resonating with your audiences in accordance with your campaign name and targeting details.

You can create and manage ads for all three platforms in a single dashboard, and then see what’s working and what’s not, while your campaign is live. You can test different images, headlines, ad copy, and so on, until you find the perfect combination.

Ad creation and optimization is quick and easy, with a customizable dashboard, that allows you to keep an eye out for the most important metrics. You’ll end up with always-on campaigns that will monitor your Facebook Pages, and immediately promote relevant posts, and use smart filters to determine what’s going to be promoted, and for how long.

If you want to take the guesswork out of a complicated system and boost your efforts, you definitely should give AdEspresso a go.

10. Bit.ly

social media link shortener

Most of the URLs we share are lengthy ones. Since a social post have a limit on the number of characters you can put in, a long URL can reduce the space you can write. Especially on Twitter, with its lower amount of maximum characters per Tweet.

That's where Bitly comes in. It's a link shortener, that takes lengthy URLs, and shrinks them into much smaller ones.

Also, it'll tell you who clicked on what, when, and where, and so on.

It's a very simple, yet very useful tool. In fact, it’s been proven so handy, that Google has built it into their Google Campaign URL Builder to shorten links and track campaign performances.

BONUS - Canva

canva

Canva is definitely is a game changer in content creation.

It makes it very easy to create gorgeous infographics, cover images, thumbnails, quotes, and other image content for your social media accounts, with its drag-and-drop image creator, pre-packed with a selection of attractive, and ready to use templates.

Similarly, they have pre-sized designs optimized for every platform. Want to create the perfect pin? Select ‘Create a Pinterest Graphic’ once you’re logged in. That is the perfect size according to Pinterest’s best practices.

This magnificent tool is the only tool you'll ever going to need, to create image content for every one of your needs.

Pro-tip: Test

Social media marketing tools are very useful for promoting your business on social platforms. They can help you create content, automate publishing, generate leads, as well as engage your audience, all in a more effective manner.

You can use the social media marketing tools mentioned in this article, to successfully promote your brand on social media and take your social media game to a whole new level.

How To Work With Influencers To Elevate Your Brand And Get More Business

So, you want to tap into influencer marketing, eh?

That's GREAT!

But, you're not sure how to work with influencers?

I mean, for some, influencers are out-of-the-budget, and for some, the plethora of options is just frustrating and confusing.

In this article, I'm going to teach you exactly how you can do influencer marketing, by selecting the exact influencer that matches your brand, without breaking the bank.

Let's start.

  1. Figure out your brand category.

This is the basic level of self-awareness in branding. Knowing what category your brand belongs in, helps you narrow down the list of the influencers to approach. Or, you'll just waste your time, pitching influencers that are outside of your niche.

  1. Define your target audience.

If you haven't already figured this out, you need to stop everything that you're doing right now, and do this. If you don't know who you're selling to, you won't sell to anyone.

The easiest way to do this, is to imagine your ideal customer. Multiply that across possible demographics. Voila! There's your target audience.

But, more importantly, this goes beyond, "oh, I just sell to serial entrepreneurs", or "my target audience is self-published authors".

You need to know what demographics do they belong to, what jargon they use, what binds them together, and what they have in common.

Here's why you'll need this. Each influencer's audience (followers) are different, unless that influencer is someone like Selena Gomez, or Kim K. People only follow influencers who share their own values, that they can relate to.

So, if you really know the people you're targeting towards, then it's way easier to find out which influencers do they flock around, and follow.

Also, since all of you (your brand, the influencers, the audience) have something (or more than that) in common, it'll be easier (and smooth) to connect with the influencers, and pitch them the idea. They'll agree to it, since it resonates with them, as well as their audiences.

influencer marketing services

  1. Decide whether you want global influencers, or just local influencers.

Some brands are local. For example, steak houses, bars, restaurants, salons, etc. For them, an influencer - or more - who's nearby will just suffice. They don't necessarily have to be residents. An influencer who's in town for a visit might suffice. Just make sure they like your brand category, and you offer something valuable to them.

Some brands require a more global approach, since they can cater to a wider audience across many different demographics. Ecommerce / dropshipping shops, online service providers (email hosting, web hosting, web domains, etc.), franchises, chain stores, etc. fall into this category.

These brands can either use local influencers from different demographics, or they can just use ones with a wider audience across the relevant demographics around the world. Although, the latter will be more expensive than the former.

  1. Find out where your target audience hang out.

Which social media platforms do they frequently stay active. Not everyone uses every social media platform. Different demographics are attracted to / resonate with / frequent different social media platforms. It's just how it is. So, after you've figured out who your target audience is, you need to find where they hang out. It might be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, VK, or any other platform for that matter. This is where having a proper social media marketing plan in place can help you save time and be more effective.

  1. Research influencers your audience is already following.

Compile a list of the most prominent ones, who are within your brand category.  Now, if you don't have clarity, and you're just testing the waters, you shouldn't work with more than a handful of influencers. When you're selecting influencers, evaluate their social media content, and any other content they have. Do their content align with your brand identity? How much engagement do they have for those content? How large are their following on the platform?

what is influencer marketing

  1. Find out what your brand can offer to an influencer.

Like I said, almost all the influencers charge top dollar for sponsorships. So, smaller brands are easily intimidated by this, simply because (they think) they have no chips to bargain with.

But, that's wrong thinking.

You'll always have something to offer. It doesn't always have to be monetary.

If you sell physical products, you can give away some for them for free. This is why I said before that you need to make sure that your brand and the influencers have something (or more) in common. That way, your brand will be able to offer them more value.

One influencer marketing tactic that was used by several clothing brands was giving away discount codes for influencers, so that they can share them among their audience. Those discount codes weren't available in any other places. One had to get them via an influencer. This was a win-win-win for all of them involved.

Connecting with an influencer, and going forward with the deal is much easier if you follow these steps exactly.

If your brand is a smaller one, approaching big-time influencers with a huge number of audiences won't be realistic. Instead, by approaching larger micro-influencers (influencers with a medium amount of following) you'll be able to get your brand name 'out there', and you'll get a more than decent ROI on your money. 

After you've compiled a list of influencers you'd prefer to work with, just contact them via either private messages on the social platforms, or plain old emails. Or if you have any mutual contacts, they might be able to introduce you to them, with some 'glowing' review, if possible.

If done correctly, influencer marketing can be a game changer for your brand. I've seen it happen, many times. On both local and global levels.

 

Jay Kalansooriya is a professional writer, and a freelance copywriter, that helps influencers and brand by crafting compelling messages. Connect with him on LinkedIn.