Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 31, 2012

Facebook Launching 9 More Targeting Options for Organic Updates

dart board

How great would it be if you could target your organic Facebook business page updates by more than just users’ location and language? That’d probably be pretty valuable — and more effective — right? If you’re nodding your head in agreement, we’ve got some great news for you. According to TechCrunch, it looks like Facebook has started rolling out powerful new post targeting options today called ‘Page Post Targeting Enhanced.’

New Facebook Post Targeting Options

Facebook hasn’t released a ton of details about its new targeting options yet, but TechCrunch reports that Facebook page admins will soon be able to target posts to segments of fans by a variety of characteristics in addition to the basic location and language targeting options admins are already used to.

Below is a list of the full set of targeting options that will soon be available to marketers.

Age

Gender

Interested In

Relationship Status

Education

College Grad: College Name, Major

In College: College Name, Major, Years

In High School

Workplace

In addition to existing options — Language, and Location: Country, State, City

Remember, up until this update, Facebook admins were only able to target their updates by those last options, language and location:

According to a post from a page admin who is a member of the closed Social Marketers Facebook Group, a Facebook rep has indicated that the new, ‘enhanced’ targeting options are available to a select number of pages today and will be rolling out to all Facebook pages over the next few weeks.

Just as with targeting by language or location, we’re told that all updates a page publishes — even if it’s targeted in one way or another — will still appear on the business’ Facebook page timeline. However, targeted updates will get displayed in the news feeds of only the appropriate users being targeted.

In other words, if HubSpot chose to target only females who are at least 20 years old for a specific post about Cyndi Lauper performing at our upcoming Inbound conference (it’s true!), that post will be visible to males visiting HubSpot’s Facebook page, yet that post wouldn’t appear in males’ news feeds.

More Targeting Options Means Better Facebook Marketing!

Face it — having more targeting options can only lead to better marketing. We already know how much more effective segmenting your email communications can be because it allows you to tailor your content and messaging to different audiences. Consider HubSpot’s own research, in which we found that targeted and segmented lead nurturing emails generate an 8% click-through rate compared to general email sends, which generate just a 3% click-through rate. Furthermore, Jupiter Research reveals that relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. Now imagine what better targeting can do for your Facebook marketing!

For example, if you’re a clothing store that sells to a wide range of ages — from teens to baby boomers — you could target updates about your new line of sparkly, pink tube tops much more appropriately, crafting your message language and copy accordingly and filtering out older generations from seeing that update in their news feeds. Or, if you owned an online dating site, you could target your updates only to Facebook users with relationship statuses of “single,” “divorced,” “separated,” “it’s complicated,” “widowed,” or “in an open relationship.” Pretty savvy, huh?

What do you think about Facebook’s new enhanced targeting options? Will you use them once they’re available to all page admins to improve your Facebook marketing?

Image Credit: Naomi Ibuki

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July 31, 2012

How to Write the Most Boring Content of All Time

how to write great copy

You guys ready for a total snoozefest?

Just kidding.

I doubt any marketer sets out to write boring content when they’re staring at a blank screen, but we’re all probably guilty of it — especially if we work in kind of … ahem … “boring” industries.

So, what do we do about it? NOT any of the things I’m about to list in this blog post, that’s for sure. Instead, let’s learn how to write fun, engaging content by highlighting what not to do. For the duration of this post, let’s all just pretend it’s Opposite Day, shall we?

Speak in incomprehensible business babble.

If you’re providing value-added solutions to anything, I’m out. Can’t we all just start saying what we mean, instead of worrying about how professional we sound? Not only is it condescending (look how much smarter I am than you!), but it also actually makes you a less effective marketer, because readers aren’t learning as much as they could from your content.

Your authority doesn’t come from sounding like a legal brief threw up on you; it comes from giving sound advice. And when your content reads like a conversation you’d have with someone face-to-face, you’re far more likely to retain readers through to the end — where they can do awesome stuff like convert on your calls-to-action and share your blog post on social media!

Take yourself EXTREMELY seriously. You are very important.

People love reading, especially when it’s stuff for work. Or maybe sifting through tax documentation. So when you make it a very serious, solemn task, they really appreciate it.

Oh right … that’s never the case.

If you never poke fun at yourself, never crack a joke, never give your audience’s brain the proverbial breather, you’ll lose ‘em. Granted, there are some companies for which this is easier than others. Take Moosejaw, for example — their copy is just plain hilarious, but then again, they sell outdoor sporting apparel. They’re not a very serious company to begin with. But even a serious company can inject a less serious tone into their copy without explicitly cracking jokes, by just writing naturally — you know, like a human being. Approach your content with a positive angle, and only focus on the solemn and serious when that’s the only appropriate tone for the occasion.

Ramble on.

Be concise in your writing. If you take too long to get to your point, you’ll lose people’s interest. Attention spans are short. Moving on.

Write in looooong chunks of text.

When someone gets to your content and they see hundreds of lines of dense copy, it kind of feels like someone threw an encyclopedia at your face. Part of getting your audience to stay with you through your content is making it easy for them to do so — and if it doesn’t look easy to get through your writing, many people won’t even try. Break up long paragraphs, use headers to separate content into sections, and use formatting devices to give your readers’ eyes and brains a bit of a breather — it’s easier for them to work in short sprints!

Don’t let anyone look at pretty pictures, ever.

You know in elementary school when your teachers made you put down the picture books, and start reading stuff full of just words. Ugh.

Don’t be the disciplinarian. Give the people what they want! And they want pictures. That means a few things:

Always include images in content to draw the eye and break up text.
Don’t choose boring, generic stock photography. Nobody thinks those people collaborating thoughtfully around the white board work at your company.
If you can tell a story visually, do it. Would you rather look at this content visualization to learn the definition of closed-loop marketing, or read 2,000 words on it? (If it’s the latter, color me impressed!)

closed loop marketing

Make sure not even a little bit of passion comes through in your writing.

We ask some of our colleagues to contribute blog content every month. Whenever they ask us what they should write about, we ask them, “What do you like to write about?” This is because every time we force a topic on someone (hey, you work in marketing ops, want to write a piece on branding?) the end product tends to sound, well, forced. When our marketing operations colleague writes pieces about how to conduct an analysis on lead intelligence from your CRM, however, the posts rock. That’s because it’s what she likes to do! She gets it! She rocks at it! That passion comes through in her writing, and it’s transferred to the reader.

If you’re writing about something you have no interest in, do one of two things: find someone else to write it, or if you’re the only resource, try to find something in the subject matter you can relate to so you don’t end up writing a total snoozer.

**Ignore what your audience wants. Write for you.**

Because marketing is all about you, really. It’s not like you spent hours upon hours creating buyer personas so you know exactly who you’re marketing to, and who your content should resonate with.

Oh right, you did do that. (Good for you!) So you know that the content you pump out is meant to be about the topics your readers care about. For example, a colleague of mine writes blog posts about cool mobile apps for her personal blog. Whenever she asks me what she should write for the HubSpot blog — because I want her to write about something she’s passionate about — we try to think of a topic surrounding mobile marketing. Thing is, our readers don’t want to hear about the latest version of Angry Birds. It’s not helpful, because it’s not making them better marketers. So unless we can find some important marketing lessons you all need to know from their latest update, we don’t write about it, no matter how much fun it would be for the writer.

Don’t feel the need to back up any of your points.

Just say things, all willy nilly. People are always happy to take things at face value, so you should never feel like you need to explain your rationale or anything. Certainly don’t reference any data points or third-party research. That would be ridiculous.

In reality, you’ll take your content from simple to interesting if you take your points one step further. Trying to explain why it’s important to segment your emails? Cite a data point that backs up that point — according to Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report, 39% of marketers who segment their emails experience higher open rates, 28% experience lower unsubscribe rates, and 24% experience greater revenue. Oh, really? I guess it is important. Don’t have a data point handy to help out? Just explain your logic — when you segment your email list, you’re sending to more niche groups of people, so you can create content that speaks to their needs more specifically than you could if you had to write content that appeals to a general audience. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation!

When you don’t leave readers hanging or make them fill in the blanks, they’re more likely to keep reading because they know you’ll paint the full picture for them — in other words, you’re being more helpful.

Talk about yourself some more. Really, it’s fascinating.

You know when your friend comes back from vacation and she sits you down for a half hour slideshow of all her awesome photos? That’s kind of what writing only about yourself is like.

There’s nothing wrong with a little self promotion now and again, but your content shouldn’t just be all you, you, you. It should be helpful, educational, positioned to inform your audience about what they need to know. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t release, say, a press release. But you can spin it to talk about why your recent announcement is relevant in your reader’s life, not just a series of pats on the back for your company. Keep your balance of content largely educational, sprinkling in just a bit of self-promotion now and again to ensure your readers don’t tune out.

What do you think makes for incredibly boring content? Share it so we can all just avoid it already.

Image credit: Sn.Ho

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July 31, 2012

10 Companies That Totally Nail Copywriting

brands with best copywriting

You all know The Old Spice Guy, right? “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign was successful for many reasons, but one of them was that it gave Old Spice a voice. A voice that came through in every video, commercial, tagline, Facebook update, tweet — you name it.

And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral?

Copywriters. The ability to find the exact right words to tell your company’s story isn’t an easy feat, and it’s even harder to do so consistently. So when we come across companies that are doing it successfully, we think their copywriters deserve a pat on the back (and a raise?). Take a look at some of the companies we think have stellar copywriting, and if you’re looking, maybe get some inspiration for your own brand, too!

10 Brands With Killer Copywriting

1) Hipmunk

Hipmunk should win for best copywriting on company name alone, no?

Hipmunk takes a familiar concept — comparison shopping — and incorporates a hilarious spin on the process of doing it for booking flights and hotels. For example, take a look at how they describe how to use features of their website, what we typically know as “Sort by Price” or “Sort by Distance” when we’re booking our travel online.

jipmunk copy

Hipmunk has found the words to describe how everyone feels in the midst of travel, and incorporated it into their product. It shows a remarkable understanding of their audience — down to that last call-out in the screenshot above, that speaks to the spiteful travel coordinator booking flights for the boss. Bravo to Hipmunk for understanding their audience, and then encapsulating that experience in a few mere words!

2) UrbanDaddy

UrbanDaddy has mastered the art of getting me to open emails. Take a look at this subject line:

ud copy

And I’m not even the target market for that email. But who wouldn’t want to know more about “A Few Ways to Look Even Handsomer”? I just love seeing what on earth they’re talking about. Here’s what:

ud copywriting

Talk about an opening line. UrbanDaddy’s copy entertains, tells a story (even about relatively benign products, like shoes), and makes the reader feel like the person he wants to be. That’s a dangerous combo for your wallet, but a great one for an email marketer’s open and click-through rates. Flattery will get you everywhere … maybe that’s another shameless marketing tactic we should have added to our list

3) Dropbox

Dropbox’s copy is clear, concise, and crisp. That’s an alliterative goldmine in the copywriting world, especially when you’re talking about instructional copy. Take a look at how they take you through the orientation process, for example:

dropbox copy

I mean, it’s file sharing … not super exciting, right? But Dropbox understands they don’t have to act boring just because their industry isn’t sexy. No, when you sign up for Dropbox, you’re going on a quest! In fact, you have seven quests to complete until you reach your reward. Sounds a little bit more like Lord of the Rings than file sharing!

Take a look at another way they add a touch of whimsy to their informative writing:

dropbox copywriting

Their copy perfectly matches the playful image above, encouraging users to work and play just like those adorable little computers sketched above. The tone of Dropbox’s copy completely matches the lighthearted design of their website, all while clearly and succinctly explaining exactly what the user needs to know to be a successful customer.

4) ModCloth

ModCloth is another brand that has an excellent grasp of their buyer persona, and it comes through in their pun-filled copywriting. All of their products are silly plays on words — any Outkast fans out there will recognize the humor in the name of this dress, for instance.

modcloth copy

Their product description copy is joyous, evocative, and clever — just like their customers! And it always tells the story of what you’ll do while wearing their items. After reading their descriptions, one can imagine what their life would be like if they owned this product. That’s like Copywriting 101, but so few brands can actually pull it off like the folks at ModCloth do!

5) Mozilla

Mozilla is another company that has mastered the art of saying a lot, with little words. Take a look at the copy on their homepage, for example:

mozilla copywriting

They do good work. They’re innovative. They provide secure, fast browsing. Awesome. Sounds like a company I want to do business with. They conveyed that all in fewer than 50 words, too. It’s not every brand that can convey their value proposition in 50 words or fewer — but everyone sure should be able to.

They carry over that concise copywriting throughout their website, too. There’s nothing worse than looking for a resource, and having to troll through lengthy explanatory copy to figure out whether you should click. But look how simple Mozilla makes it for the user! My favorites are their descriptions of the “Press center” and the “Mozilla blog.” They’re perfect examples of just saying what you mean, plain and simple, no bells and whistles.

mozilla copy

6) Uber

You know what’s never fun? Explaining unpopular rules. Especially when you’re a company with a brand as fun as Uber’s. So take a look at a snippet from their blog that explains a rule that, frankly, can be kind of a bummer for customers:

uber copy

When you put it that way, I get it. I’d love to fit my 5 friends in the car, but you’re right, “having to cancel your Uber ride because the driver won’t take your 5 friends is an altogether lame experience.” Uber understands how to put a spin on a customer service issue that’s helpful, informative, and playful so everyone walks away happy — drivers and customers alike.

7) GymIt

GymIt has figured out how to craft evocative and powerful taglines that are short and snappy. If you’ve never tried to do that, holy cow, is it difficult! These taglines explain the gym’s value proposition, totally resonate with their target demographic, and require no further explanation. As a relatively new gym, they tell a great story of who they are with the three taglines currently rotating on their website. First, they convey that feeling of first joining a new gym:

gymit copy

Then, they answer what makes them different from everyone else:

gymit copywriting

That’s something I can get behind. You know what else I’m a fan of? This:

gymit copy example

Because we’re all human, we’re going to the gym to fulfill a basic need (to eat macaroni and cheese … also health), and GymIt gets that.

ZenDesk

As a company that provides help desk software, it’s critical that ZenDesk maintains a customer-focused approach to everything they do. So that needs to come through in their copywriting, as well — but they do so striking a great balance between professionalism and, well, being human. I love how their homepage tells “The story of support ticked #24,” for example. They take the anonymity many customers feel being just one more number in the customer service queue, and turn that into an actual story between two people that ends in, as they put it, a “relationship.”

zendesk copy

That mission of building better relationships carries through in all of their site copy, particularly on the typically business-babble filled “About Us” page. ZenDesk’s, however, is a refreshing change of pace. They’ve not only explained what their value is in a few short paragraphs, but they’ve also used data to prove their points — a wonderful way for companies to convey a message in few words. Plus, their customer-centric approach still shines through!

zendesk copywriting

9) Groupon

Groupon is another company that makes the list of excellent copywriting because of their stellar email copy. This email succeeds because it’s funny, timely, and resonates with the recipient. Take a look at this subject line that should make you chuckle:

Getting that email in the middle of a heat wave (which I did) is some seriously timely humor … not a bad way to get me to spend some moolah. And they carry the theme through in all of their email’s copy! They’ve given the deals in this issue a category — “Beat the Heat” deals — and use the tagline “Load up on refreshing deals to beat the summer heat.” Groupon has done a great job committing to their theme in this copy!

groupon copy

10) UncommonGoods

Like UrbanDaddy, UncommonGoods is another brand that’s rocking it with email marketing copy. Their copy is fantastic for two reasons: they pick a theme and run with it, and it’s all extremely personalized. Take a look at this email, starting with the subject line. Any fans of The Princess Bride out there? Try not to open an email with this subject line:

ucg copy

Once you get into the email, you see that it’s all about customizable goods made just for you. They carry this through every single part of the email, including very descriptive words in the top right corner for groups of people who might want gifts customized to them. In other words, it’s not generic groups like “women” or “mothers.” It’s “geeks,” “animal lovers,” and “travelers.” And notice in the top left corner? They’ve even customized the copy that lets readers click through to a website to see images to fit the theme of the email! Now that’s one dedicated email copywriter.

uncommon copy

What other brands do you think have amazing copywriting? Share in the comments!

Image credit: charliecurve

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July 31, 2012

How to Optimize Your Google+ Content for Lead Gen, From the Experts at Google

google

Pause for a moment to think. Are you really making the most of your Google+ presence? As in, are you leveraging Google+ for all its lead gen potential? The most organic way to use Google+ to generate leads is by posting compelling content updates that include links back to your website.

And in order for this to work, you need marketing content that will interest your audience and capture their attention. This includes content such as blog posts, videos, webinars, ebooks and whitepapers, reports, and interviews. When you share compelling content on your Google+ business page, you’ll not only engage your audience and generate discussions, but you’ll also drive your followers back to your website where they can read/view the entire resource. And from there, you can convert them into leads!

In this article, which is an excerpt from our new, free ebook, 6 Ways to Generate Leads From Google+, featuring insights and best practices from Google+’s team itself, we’ll walk you through the steps you should be taking to optimize your content updates and improve your organic lead generation from Google+.

Share Compelling Content

First and foremost, give your followers a reason to visit your page! Share content that grabs their attention and fulfills a need/want, whether it be in their family, personal, or professional lives. A data-driven approach to identifying the types of content you should share is to look at your marketing analytics and identify the most popular pages on your website. For instance, in HubSpot’s software, we look at the Landing Page Analytics tool to figure out which marketing offers (e.g. ebooks, webinars, kits, presentations) are most popular. We sort these pages by views and check their conversion rates so we can easily pinpoint the type of content that our audience gravitates toward.

If you haven’t created many marketing offers or you don’t have access to such comprehensive landing page analytics, you can also check out the analytics for your blog. That should give you a good idea of which topics are most popular to your audience. Once you have identified the content that drives the most traffic, use them as fodder to share on Google+. Through this data-driven approach for selecting content, you’ll increase the probability of grabbing the attention of your Google+ followers.

Optimize the Timing & Frequency of Your Updates

Posting all your updates at the same time isn’t going to do anyone any good. You need to space them out; otherwise, your followers’ Google+ feed will get overwhelmed with a sudden flow of content. If you intend to publish 3-4 posts per day, Google explains, make sure you stagger them throughout. This approach is very similar to a marketer’s behavior on other social channels, like Twitter and Facebook.

While there are general industry suggestions for optimal time and frequency of posting, it’s important to test your timing and frequency with your particular audience. You might find that your followers are a bit different in the way they access and engage with information. Look at your target persona(s), and take into consideration their locations, lifestyle habits, and activities. This context will point you in the right direction for discovering when and how often you should be posting content to your Google+ business page.

Google+ Tip: Create a posting schedule, and post an update at least once a day. (HubSpot has even created a customizable, free social media scheduling template to make this process very easy!) The best times to post are between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Remember to +mention (more on this later) others who you may add valuable commentary to your post so they feel the love and share your post with more people.

Learn From Other Successful Companies on Google+

Many companies, like the following two, are making a good use of Google+, using best practices like mentioning specific people in their updates and using hashtags.

Cadbury

The UK chocolate manufacturer Cadbury, which is liked by and in the Circles of close to 2 million people, presents a great case study for using Google+ effectively. Specifically, Cadbury is a good example of how to effectively incorporate hashtags in Google+ updates. You can easily create a hashtag — just start your keyword phrase with the # symbol and don’t use any spaces. While the post below is not designed to directly generate leads for the company, it certainly helps Cadbury increase its following on Google+. Just a few hours after going live, the update had generated more than 140 likes and 60 comments.

cadbury g

SEOmoz

With its nearly 18,000 +1s and more than 15,000 followers, SEOmoz is another company that shows us a great example of using Google+ updates the right way. SEOmoz is consistent with its use of Google+ mentions. In the example below, SEOmoz has tagged the author of a blog post featured on its website. This adds a layer of personalization, as Google+ followers can learn more about the authority and experts behind SEOmoz’s writing.

seomoz g

Personalize Your Posts

It turns out that making your posts more personal is a best practice that Google strongly recommends. As we saw with SEOmoz, tagging other Google+ users in your updates is one way to achieve personalization. Let’s look at some other ways:

Mention Other Google+ Users by Adding the + Sign

Simply add a + sign in front of the name of the person who you want to tag, and select the right user profile. By mentioning other Google+ users and pages in your posts, your update will appear in search results when people look for them on Google+. This gives your content even greater reach.

Add Personal Signatures

At HubSpot’s we’ve found that personalized signatures work great in our email marketing. So why don’t you try incorporating them in your Google+ updates? Signing your posts with your name gives your page more personality and enables the user to identify with the people behind your content.

Use Your Own Voice

Be consistent in the language and tone you use across the various different social networks you participate in, as well as on your blog and other marketing assets. Make sure that your voice represents the identity of your company, and also engages your audience so it sparks discussions.

Optimize Visual Content for Lead Generation

Visual content on Google+ can open up a lot of lead generation possibilities. Similar to Facebook’s new timeline design, on Google+, you have the ability to add a cover photo and a profile image to your business page. You can also create albums with visuals, and leverage the ‘Videos’ tab to add clips. The trick — for lead generation — is to always accompany your visual content with a link back to a landing page on your site.

The important thing to remember with visual content and video, is that there are two pieces of real estate to which you can add your landing page link:

Add a landing page link to the actual image/video.
Add a landing page link to the description of the image/video.

featured g images resized 600

By adding links to both of these locations, you’ll increase the chances of Google+ users clicking on the link and visiting your landing page. In other words, you’ll drive more traffic to your website that you can then focus on converting into leads. To make this work, of course, you need to share compelling visual and video content. Google+ recommends sharing exclusive photos and videos with your fans and followers. Don’t forget that you can edit your photos directly in Google+ and can even share animated GIF images — a great way to draw attention to your page.

Now let’s look at a few great examples of companies using the above mentioned lead generation tactics in their visual and video content. We will also cover a few companies that have compelling cover and profile photos to instantly capture the attention of their Google+ visitors.

Adding Links to Image Descriptions

In its public album ‘Trend Update, 2012,’ H&M took advantage of the best practice to include links in the descriptions of its featured photos. The fashion brand not only showcases some of its trendy recommendations, but also tells people where they can learn more about these items and potentially purchase them. “See our latest trend collection at http://bit.ly/OsL5bT,” reads one call-to-action in H&M’s photo album.

h&m g resized 600

Adding Links to Actual Images

Don’t forget that your visuals themselves can feature links! If you think that the message you’re trying to convey can benefit from a reference to a specific page, then go ahead and feature a URL. This is especially easy to do if you’re using an image of your logo for branding
purposes. Below, check out how The New York Times managed to incorporate a link right beneath its logo.

nytimes g resized 600

Adding Links to Your Videos

In this example, General Electric is featuring a video on its Google+ page. The company is following best practices by including a hashtag in its update and even mentioning specific Google+ users in the comments section. If you play the video, you will see that it features a link to get further engaged with G E— this is their call-to-action. One recommendation
we have for GE is to also include its desired link in the description of the video as they post it on Google+. This would increase the chances of people clicking through and learning more about the stories behind GE.

ge g resized 600

Etsy is another company that has shown us great use of video calls-to-action on Google+. In the example below, Etsy showcases its most recent product feature and also links to the page on its business’ website where users can get access to the feature.

etsy g resized 600

Surprise Users With Unique Visuals

You can also capture people’s attention with some creative and unorthodox visuals. Verizon, for instance, features five individual animated GIFs on its Google+ Page that come together to convey one message. Since this is something new and unexpected in this virtual environment, it grabs the attention of the user and directs them to take a specific action, which in this case would be to check out Verizon Wireless for faster movies, music, and apps.

verizon resized 600

Forever 21 is another company that used animated GIFs to make its cover picture stand out.

forever 21 resized 600

Are you effectively optimizing and leveraging your best content for maximum Google+ lead generation?

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July 31, 2012

Second Indian outage in two days cuts power to more than 600 million people

Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET: NEW DELHI – Half of India’s 1.2 billion people were without power Tuesday as the grids covering 19 states broke down, the second major blackout in as many days.
Stretching from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts … Continue reading →

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July 30, 2012

Heatmaps Show Only 3%-13% of Users See Facebook Ads on Smartphones [Data]

iphone

Just last month, we reported on data from 3 of Facebook’s biggest ads API partners that mobile Sponsored Stories were generating more than 13 times the click-through rates of all Facebook desktop ads. Compelling as that data may have been, it was also some pretty early data, considering Facebook had launched the ability to purchase mobile-only ads just 2 weeks before.

So today, when we stumbled across a study conducted by EyeTrackShop, the results raised our eyebrows a bit. EyeTrackShop had tested and analyzed ads with various placements surrounded by identical content on a desktop, an iPhone, and an iPad. The study revealed that iPhone users (and, by extension, other smartphone users) were the least likely to see ads on Facebook, with only a 3% to 13% chance of being seen if they were located ‘below the fold.‘

EyeTrackShopAttentionLevel resized 600

EyeTrackShopFixationOrder resized 600

So why do desktop ads get more visibility than their mobile counterparts? According to EyeTrackShop, it’s because desktop ads are located in fixed positions, which gives them a better chance of getting seen. The study even found that Facebook ads were actually the second thing desktop users looked at on Facebook, and that the performance of these ads had improved since Facebook introduced timeline. Mobile ads, on the other hand, were seen by fewer people, for less time, and had significantly lower recall.

Okay — so we know that Facebook ads on smartphones are getting less visibility than desktop ads. But wasn’t there a third test subject involved in this study? So how did the iPad ads fare?

Even better than desktop ads, in fact! EyeTrackShop reports that ads served on the iPad were seen by 18% more people. Those people even spent 29% longer looking at them and recalled the ads at a level similar to desktop/web ads.

To Use Mobile Ads, or Not to Use Mobile Ads …

That is probably your question. So here’s the thing. From this data, you’d infer that your ads would get the most visibility on tablets and the least visibility on smartphones, right? So maybe you’d decide to purchase Facebook ads just for tablets and desktops. The problem is, while you can purchase mobile-only ads, you currently can’t purchase only tablet/iPad ads. In other words, ads that get served on tablets are lumped in with smartphones in the mobile category of Facebook’s advertising platform. So while the data from EyeTrackShop’s study is interesting, Facebook doesn’t allow you to take much action as a result. Not yet, anyway.

Furthermore, remember that this study is only reporting on the visibility — not the click-through rates — of Facebook ads. So while it’s good to know the difference between your Facebook ads’ visibility from screen to screen, it’s important to recognize that visibility and eliciting action are two separate things. Remember the report we referenced earlier in this article? While smartphone ads may have the least impressive visibility, if they’re still generating 13x the clicks of desktop ads, who cares?

The only true way to ensure you’re getting the most out of your Facebook ad spend is to conduct your own tests and closely monitor your analytics. If your desktop ads are performing well, but your mobile ads are floundering, mobile might not be the best investment for you regardless. Oh yeah, and cross your fingers for some smarter, tablet-only ad targeting from Facebook

What do you make of this EyeTrackShop data? Will you make any changes to your Facebook advertising approach as a result?

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July 30, 2012

11 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Less of a Time Suck

Social media marketing: tweet a hashtag, post a picture of my lunch, like a photo in my news feed. Nailed it.

Uh, not really. And if you’re doing social media marketing — real social media marketing — you know that.

Thing is, if you add up all the hours you spend doing social media marketing in a week, it’s likely not that much time compared to all your other marketing activities. But because of the pace at which social media operates, our minds (and cursors) always seem to be floating over to one social media network or another. And if you’re anything like me, that kind of constant distraction is paralyzing to your overall productivity.

Luckily, we’ve found ways to minimize the distraction social media marketing leaves us all open to, and we’d like to share some of those efficiency tips with you. Take a look at 11 ways we use (and love) to keep social media from becoming the total time suck it has the potential to be.

11 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Take Less Time

1) Compose your updates in advance.

Let’s say you have to update your company’s Twitter account with new content every hour during the business day. Do you click around trying to find content to power those eight updates every hour, or do you find that content in advance and bookmark it? Hopefully, it’s the latter … otherwise you don’t have much time left to do anything else but search for social content.

That’s why we created a social media publishing schedule — an Excel template that lets you input all of your social media status updates for each social network, organized by the date and time you’d like to publish them. Take a look at one of the worksheets in the template; this one’s to help you organize your Twitter updates, specifically:

Using a template like this, you can set aside an hour on Friday before you leave the office and input all of your social media updates for the following work week. That way when you get into the office Monday morning, you’re not left scrambling to find enough compelling content for all of the social networks you need to manage.

Click here to download the social media publishing schedule template you see featured above.

2) Maintain a content repository.

Did you just laugh at the idea of crafting a week’s worth of social media updates in an hour? If so, you might need a content repository. We actually included a content repository right in our social media template, because we find it so useful to have it to refer to within our scheduling document. Here’s what it looks like:

Basically, this is the place that you can keep all the content you’d like to promote and resurface in social media — because the more content you create, the harder it will be for you to keep track of it all. So put in your ebooks, your blog posts, your infographics, everything you will want to re-promote at a later date in social media. Then you’ll be able to jump over to this tab in your spreadsheet every week and quickly find content to promote! Just be sure to include an expiration date if the content isn’t evergreen so you don’t accidentally promote, say, a webinar that has already taken place.

No more pulling content out of thin air, marketers!

3) Use a collaborative tool to share your schedule.

Social media content can come from more than just you, you know! Take the burden off of yourself and make your social media presence richer by including other people in crafting social updates. You can upload that social media scheduling template to a Google Doc, and share it with other people in the marketing department or throughout your company. When you have the days and times for when you’ll be publishing updates in the spreadsheet, it makes it easy for everyone to see what slots are available for promotion. You can even block off certain slots as “Reserved” for your own updates to ensure the content you need to promote doesn’t get swallowed up by other people’s updates. Just make sure you communicate three notes about this collaborative approach to social media content creation: Establish a deadline for when content needs to be added for the following week; communicate that the spreadsheet is first come, first serve; and make it clear that the social media manager has authority to veto updates that aren’t appropriate or in line with the team’s goals.

4) Schedule your updates to auto-publish.

Now that you have all this content ready and raring to go, dip your toes in some automation to make your life easier.

I know, I know, social automation is the worst. Except that it really isn’t if you approach it correctly — we’ve recently published a blog post that breaks down the do’s and don’ts of social media automation if you’re on the fence.

Now, not every social network makes it easy to auto-publish, so you’ll have to do some manual updating (on LinkedIn, for example). But you can still automate a good chunk of your publishing using a tool like HubSpot’s Social Media tool or HootSuite. If you’re interested in auto-publishing social media content but need some help, we’ve broken down the nuances of doing so in this blog post.

5) Set up social media monitoring.

While creating your content in advance is a serious boon to productivity, social media marketers should still be leaving room for timely updates, too. What if a news story breaks? Or someone covers your company in their publication? Or someone publishes an excellent blog post you’d like to share with your network? That real-time content is critical, and you can set up monitoring to ensure you see it coming through. We’ve set up Google Alerts and alerts in our own social media monitoring tool for not only our name and our executives’ names, but also industry terms we like to write about, too. That way we don’t have to rely on visiting the right site at the right time to hopefully see an important story in a timely fashion.

6) Establish your company’s social media policy.

If you know exactly what you should and should not do on social media, it becomes much more natural to create content and respond to fans and followers. Think about it — how laborious is it to comment on a picture of a friend’s new puppy? Not too hard, right? Because it’s you talking. If your company has a social media policy that details exactly what you should and should not say in social media and the tone you want your company to convey, it’s way easier to quickly create content and interact with your fans … because that kind of detail and forethought gives your company an actual personality. It’s much easier to be social when you have a personality

Check out some noteworthy examples of corporate social media policies if you need help getting started on your own.

7) Set up a triaging methodology.

Part of being in social media means you have to be, you know … social. That means people will start coming to you for lots of things. Do you have a resource for this? Do you sell that? Why did you screw these up? I want to talk to someone in your sales/customer service/accounting/IT department!

That can all get extremely overwhelming and cause a lot of fumbling and scrambling around … if you don’t have a methodology to triage all of the requests coming at you from your social networks. For example, if a sales or customer service inquiry comes in to us through social media, we know exactly what to do without even a moment’s thought:

Go to Salesforce.com, and search for the person’s name.
If they’re in Salesforce, identify their lead owner or dedicated customer service representative. If they’re not in Salesforce, send the request to a manager to assign to one of their reps.
Contact their dedicated rep, send the request that came through on social media, and ask them to contact the fan or follower.
Respond to the fan or follower — privately if that nature of the request requires it — saying their dedicated rep will be in touch via their preferred contact channel.

It runs like clockwork, and everyone in the company is used to this protocol, making it easy to triage these issues and ensure everyone gets prompt social follow-up!

Leverage networks’ admin features.

Sometimes, more hands are better than one. Sometimes.

It can get a little scary for social media managers, though, when too many people are involved in social media marketing. Specifically, if they all have administrative access to the accounts. Because while you know the nooks and crannies of each network, not everyone is as knowledgeable as you. So how do you leverage the help of your fellow co-workers without having them, essentially, screw everything up?

Make use of the admin features on social networks! On Facebook, for example, you can now assign specific roles for users that limit their ability to do things like create posts, respond as your company in comments, or create ads:

LinkedIn and Google+ let you assign admin roles, too, but you’re out of luck with Twitter. So either keep your company’s Twitter login credentials under wraps, or give some serious training to anyone you give those credentials to!

9) Pre-schedule your checkins throughout the day.

Even with a monitoring tool set up, you’ll have to check in to each of your social networks throughout the day to respond to comments and interact with fans and followers. Some marketers feel like they need to respond to everyone on social media immediately. While immediacy is great, your network also understands that you aren’t glued to your computer screen at all times. It’s alright (and important for your productivity if you don’t have an employee dedicated only to social media monitoring) to set aside specific times during the day for social media monitoring.

Depending on your level of engagement, a good schedule might look like: 9:00, 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00. At those two-hour intervals, you can pop in to each social network for a few minutes, respond to people as needed, and then get back to work without having monitoring looming in the back of your mind every ten minutes.

10) Use tools to create visual content.

You know you should be creating visual content to share on social media, but you’re not a graphic designer. What do you do? Leverage some of the visual content creation tools that make the task easy as pie! If you have a smartphone, you should have no trouble finding apps that make you look like a visual content creation genius. There is, of course, the much-loved Instagram to take your photos from blah to beautiful. And there’s a new favorite of many marketers, Over, that lets you overlay text over photos for that kind of content that will get you seriously high engagement. And if you’re loving the proliferation of memes, you can create your own in seconds for free over at memegenerator.net. The key to all of this is that these tools are insanely simple, and with them it takes you literally seconds to create the visuals you need to power your social media marketing.

11) Eliminate the clutter in your analytics.

Social media is one of those channels that marketers have simultaneously too much data to analyze, and not enough. Don’t get bogged down in all that high-falutin’ data! Spend less time looking at the fluffy metrics that really mean nothing to your overall marketing success, and just focus on a few core metrics.

For example, have you ever exported Facebook Insights? Man alive is that spreadsheet huge. You could spend days sifting through that data, and probably not find much actionable insight in it (makes the name ironic, don’t it?). In reality, you can narrow that spreadsheet down to just three columns to get the information you need to know. You can also take advantage of closed-loop social tools, like the integration between HootSuite and HubSpot, that lets you quickly align your social media activities with lead generation and customer acquisition. You know, the whole reason you’re doing social media in the first place.

How do you make social media marketing less of a hassle? Share your efficiency tips in the comments!

Image credit: Nick J Webb

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July 30, 2012

A Simple Calculator to Determine Your Monthly Traffic & Leads Goals [Template]

leads goal calculator

You know when your boss asks you what your leads goal is, and you don’t know how to answer because it’s basically just a shot in the dark? Or how about when he asks how your new fangled inbound marketing is going to help you drive leads to the sales organization? It’s hard to make the case for inbound to a non-believer when your projections aren’t based on math, isn’t it?

It’s high time to start making your monthly inbound traffic and leads goals based on your business’ growth goals. And we’re here to tell you how! The good news is that it’s ridiculously easy, and with the help of our friend Greg Elwell over at B2B Inbound, we’ve created an Excel template that you can download and save to make this goal-setting easy as pie every month. With just a few quick inputs, this template will do all the math for you, and you’ll be able to know exactly how much traffic and leads your inbound marketing efforts need to drive each month for your sales organization to hit their numbers, and your company to meet its growth goals.

Download the excel template now so you can follow along with the instructions on how to use it below!

How to Calculate Your Monthly Inbound Traffic and Leads Goals

Step 1: Enter Your Monthly Revenue Goal

This number is how much new monthly revenue your sales team needs to book, which you are going to attribute back to leads generated from inbound marketing.

revenue goal

But wait, what if you’re only using inbound marketing to generate new customers? Let’s go to the next step!

Step 2: Enter the Percentage of New Revenue Driven From Inbound Marketing

Here, you’ll input how much of that new revenue will be driven by inbound marketing. So if you’re only generating leads via inbound marketing, well, go ahead and put 100% in there. For the sake of this example, we’ll just say you’ll drive 80% of your monthly revenue from inbound marketing.

rev needed

Step 3: Enter Your Average Revenue Per Client

Now, it’s time to input your average revenue per new customer. If you don’t know this, a simple way to calculate it is by taking your total revenue collected over the past 12 months, and dividing it by the number of customers you have.

asp

And in this step, you’ll get your very first calculation — right there in that orange box. Now you know exactly how many new customers you need your inbound marketing efforts to generate to meet your growth goals (based on the information you’ve input thus far). Pretty good information to know, eh?

Step 4: Enter Your Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Now, enter your current lead-to-customer conversion rate to determine how many leads you need to actually get those customers. You can also input a goal if you’re targeting a better conversion rate to see how that affects the number of leads you need to generate to hit your goals.

monthly leads

If you’re not sure how to find your conversion rate, simply take the number of new customers you acquire each month and divide it by the number of leads you generate.

Step 5: Enter Your Visitor-to-Lead Conversion Rate

Finally, let’s figure out how much site traffic you’ll need to generate! Enter your current visitor-to-lead conversion rate, and this template will deliver the number of visitors you need to bring to your site. Again, you can also enter a target visitor-to-lead conversion rate if you’re looking to improve upon this metric (and by extension, get a bit of a traffic reprieve and still meet your goals).

traffic goals

Not too difficult, eh? Now it’s your turn. Download this Traffic and Leads Goal Calculator, and see how your inbound marketing efforts can help your company hit its growth goals next month!

How do you calculate your monthly traffic and leads goals right now?

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July 29, 2012

The B2B Marketer’s Blind Spot and Other Marketing Stories of the Week

stevendepolo

Oh man, how good does that egg look?

It got me thinking … you know what would make this Sunday round-up better? If I could somehow make this a Sunday marketing brunch. Got your two eggs sunny side up? Crispy bacon with a side of the most tantalizing marketing stories of the week? Alright then. Start sipping your mimosa and join me in reviewing the most interesting inbound marketing stories of the week!

B2B Marketers Have a Blind Spot: The Buyer’s Journey From Forrester

This story comes to us from Jeff Ernst’s Forrester blog. He discusses the transformation of the B2B marketer’s focus, saying the process is changing faster than marketers can keep up with; more and more marketers are being held to direct revenue growth goals, as opposed to less tangible analytics such as reach or awareness. This is a change that many marketers aren’t prepared for, and has resulted in a tendency to neglect an essential portion of the buying cycle: the middle of the funnel. He argues that the marketer’s role doesn’t end at just attracting leads, but that lead nurturing is just as essential to marketers’ success as things like public relations and event planning. We couldn’t agree more! Check out the full story here.

Facebook Launches New & Improved Recommendations Plugin for Websites

As usual, Facebook changed something this week. The latest update from the ever-evolving social network is a concept called the ‘Recommendation Bar’ for websites to install. But wait, didn’t they already have that? Why yes, they did. But this is a little bit different, in that the Recommendation Bar is more interactive and auto-publishes stories that users have read to their Timelines and newsfeeds in order to further bolster engagement and referral traffic. It’s the latest addition to Facebook’s Social Plugins Suite, which includes the external Like button, Subscribe button, and Facebook Comments section. Still confused as to what exactly changed? We break it down for you in the full story, so check it out here.

How to Pin with Purpose on Pinterest From MarketingProfs

It’s been far too long since we’ve discussed Pinterest in the weekly round-up. Thankfully, MarketingProfs offered up this nice feature on pinning with purpose. The article offers tips for pinning marketers of all levels to make the most of their business Pinterest account. The tips cover both strategy and common mistakes, such as always remembering to label your visual content. The importance of scheduling pins in advance, instead of carelessly pinning everything from your website to Pinterest in one day, is also highlighted. Finally — and perhaps most importantly — the article emphasizes that your pinned content should contain links to optimized landing pages. After all, you do want to generate leads from Pinterest, right? Check out the full story here.

Google “Reveals Index Secrets”: Charts Indexing of Your Site Over Time From Search Engine Land

Our friends at Search Engine Land brought us the latest update from another company never short on changes — Google, of course. They’ve released a tool called Index Status that charts the number of pages on your site that have been indexed over time. The information shown is purported to be accurate, albeit on a lag time of several weeks. The tool shows the pages on your site that have been crawled and indexed, the total amount of pages on your website that have been crawled, and the pages that have been blocked from crawling. The full story contains a lot of in-depth analysis on exactly how this data can become actionable for you, so be sure to check it out here.

72 Fascinating Social Media Marketing Facts for 2012 From JeffBullas.com

Our last feature comes from JeffBullas.com, and it’s a spectacular list of 72 facts about social media marketing and inbound marketing. The article cites one of our favorite statistics in its intro — that leads generated through social media and content cost half as much as leads acquired from outbound marketing. The post then launches into what essentially amounts to the state of social media marketing in 2012. For example, did you know that only 27% of B2B leads are sales-ready when first generated? Or that 52% of Facebook users have stopped following a company because its updates became too boring or repetitive? Needless to say, there’s some pretty useful information in the list. Check out the full story here.

What was the best inbound marketing story you found this week? Share it with us in the comments!

Image credit: stevendepolo

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July 27, 2012

Talks ongoing to allow Saudi judo fighter to compete wearing hijab

Olympic and Saudi Arabian officials are in talks with judo chiefs to find a solution after the sport’s governing body ruled the Saudi’s female competitor would have to fight without a hijab, or Islamic headscarf. On Thursday, the head of the International Judo Federation (IJF … Continue reading →

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July 27, 2012

If You Were a Social Network, Which Would You Be? [Decision Tree]

With more and more social networks popping up over the years, marketers continue to ask, “why do we need another one?!” Truth is, each network (at least the ones that last) truly does serve its own purpose, because they each have a distinct audience! But instead of sitting down and trying to figure out which is right for your business … let’s just have a little fun?

Have you ever wondered which social network fits your personality? Follow the flowchart below to see where your persona aligns with five of the most popular social networks. And when answering, try to really get in touch with your inner social media self. You know, be real … just like you are on social media

So, spill it. Which social network are you?

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Monthly Archives: July 2012

New Facebook Post Targeting Options

More Targeting Options Means Better Facebook Marketing!

Speak in incomprehensible business babble.

Take yourself EXTREMELY seriously. You are very important.

Ramble on.

Write in looooong chunks of text.

Don’t let anyone look at pretty pictures, ever.

Make sure not even a little bit of passion comes through in your writing.

Ignore what your audience wants. Write for you.

Don’t feel the need to back up any of your points.

Talk about yourself some more. Really, it’s fascinating.

10 Brands With Killer Copywriting

1) Hipmunk

2) UrbanDaddy

3) Dropbox

4) ModCloth

5) Mozilla

6) Uber

7) GymIt

9) Groupon

10) UncommonGoods

Share Compelling Content

Optimize the Timing & Frequency of Your Updates

Learn From Other Successful Companies on Google+

Cadbury

SEOmoz

Personalize Your Posts

Mention Other Google+ Users by Adding the + Sign

Add Personal Signatures

Use Your Own Voice

Optimize Visual Content for Lead Generation

Adding Links to Image Descriptions

Adding Links to Actual Images

Adding Links to Your Videos

Surprise Users With Unique Visuals

To Use Mobile Ads, or Not to Use Mobile Ads …

11 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Take Less Time

1) Compose your updates in advance.

2) Maintain a content repository.

3) Use a collaborative tool to share your schedule.

4) Schedule your updates to auto-publish.

5) Set up social media monitoring.

6) Establish your company’s social media policy.

7) Set up a triaging methodology.

Leverage networks’ admin features.

9) Pre-schedule your checkins throughout the day.

10) Use tools to create visual content.

11) Eliminate the clutter in your analytics.

How to Calculate Your Monthly Inbound Traffic and Leads Goals

Step 1: Enter Your Monthly Revenue Goal

Step 2: Enter the Percentage of New Revenue Driven From Inbound Marketing

Step 3: Enter Your Average Revenue Per Client

Step 4: Enter Your Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Step 5: Enter Your Visitor-to-Lead Conversion Rate

B2B Marketers Have a Blind Spot: The Buyer’s Journey From Forrester

Facebook Launches New & Improved Recommendations Plugin for Websites

How to Pin with Purpose on Pinterest From MarketingProfs

Google “Reveals Index Secrets”: Charts Indexing of Your Site Over Time From Search Engine Land

72 Fascinating Social Media Marketing Facts for 2012 From JeffBullas.com

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**Ignore what your audience wants. Write for you.**