Creative Ways to Share Social Media Content [infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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How to Boost Engagement and Sales on Facebook

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The best thing about Facebook is getting the opportunity to use their thriving platform to keep in touch with your fans, friends, and customers. With over 1 billion daily users, Facebook offers business owners of all sizes the chance to connect with individuals from around the world and engage with them.

Here are some tips to boost engagement and sales on your Facebook Business Page:

Boost Engagement with Interesting Updates

Always remember, the more interesting and relevant your post updates are, the more likely your audience is to engage with these posts. If your company has news to share, Facebook is an excellent place to make an announcement. Alternatively, you might consider sharing related content in your niche or industry which your audience would find useful.

For best results, keep your post copy short, sweet, and fun! The use of videos and striking images also help capture the attention of your fanbase.

Manage Your Time Better By Scheduling Posts

If you are managing your own business, the chances are good that you run a tight schedule. Facebook offers users the ability to schedule posts that will publish automatically at the time and date you set. Undoubtedly, this is advantageous for increasing productivity. Scheduling allows you to release updates at times when you might not typically be online, such as late at night or after business hours. You can streamline the time you spend sharing by setting aside a window of time to schedule all of your posts for the week.

Use The Facebook Pages Manager App

Do you take your business on the road? If so, the Facebook Pages Manager app provides the tools to publish updates, even if you are “on the go!” This app works on both iOS and Android devices and empowers you to share images, videos, and updates at the same time! Are you participating in or hosting a live event? You can take pictures and share them instantly with your audience, which could influence them to join you at the venue.

Boost Engagement with Facebook Live

Want to share the energy of your small business with your fans on Facebook? Facebook Live allows you to broadcast directly from your store or location, as things happen! Share special moments and special events with your audience who are unable to attend. If by chance, you have an online store, you might also use Facebook Live to showcase or demonstrate products to anyone watching the live stream. By doing so, you are helping to create awareness of how the products or services you sell make people’s lives better. With a convenient checkout button, anyone who decides that they want to purchase your goods can do so quickly and easily.

Extend Special Offers To Your Audience

Want to let your audience know that you have a sale, promotion, or a special offer? Be sure to make a post about it! Alternatively, you might announce and invite customers to events, publicize the addition of new products and services, and to share these with friends, increasing the reach of your posts. Coupons and free offers are a great incentive to help you start building a new customer list!

Make Use Of The Pinned Post Feature

The Pinned Post feature is perfect for setting a keystone post to get prominently displayed at the top of your page. Additionally, you can embed this post on your third-party website, so when someone visits your site, your Pinned Post is conveniently displayed there, as well.

Boost Your Posts To Reach A Broader Audience

When you want more people to see your update, the way to do it is by boosting your post. Luckily, promoting a post is pretty easy to do. Just add the post to your timeline. Once published, click on the button that says “Boost Post” and follow the instructions provided to complete the promotion. Boosted posts are a form of paid advertising, so publishers get more tools to control who sees the update. You can fine-tune your demographics for people who already like your page or friends of those who like your page. Alternatively, you can establish a brand new demographic by selecting your ideal customer by location, age, interest, and other metrics.

When working with your Facebook Page, just remember that everything is a progression. It can take time to see results from your efforts. Make a few changes using these tips and give them time to take root. If you aren’t seeing any changes in your metrics after a few months, make a few more changes and wait a few more months to see if you see a difference.

The biggest key is consistency. Whatever efforts you do, be consistent with doing them and you will surely see results. If you try any of these tips, we would love to hear from you and the type of results you had. Leave a comment below and let us know your results!

6 Social Media Content Ideas [infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Email Marketing Best Practices

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Don’t Overlook the Importance Of Email Marketing In 2018!

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As a small or medium-sized business, having effective and affordable marketing campaigns is your secret weapon for increasing sales and profits.

One of the most potent marketing mechanisms that business owners can use to tap into their customer base is Email.

While you might think that Email marketing isn’t useful, the truth is quite the opposite. Currently, there are over 1 Billion Gmail users worldwide, with predictions that this could catapult to over 3 billion users by the year 2020

Looking forward to 2018, here are some Email marketing tips to help you improve your metrics, conversions, and sales.

Refine Your Mailing List

If you have been collecting Email addresses from a variety of sources such as newsletter opt-ins, website signups, recent customers, or offline signups, it’s worth taking the time to segment these lists. By doing so, you can incorporate very targeted Email messages (campaigns) to increase engagement with ‘stale’ clients and active customers

Have a Defined “Call To Action” In Every Message

Sending out an Email message without giving recipients a clear “Call To Action,” also know as a CTA, is ineffectual for you and the person who gets the message. After all, if you don’t know what action you want the recipient to take when they open the mail, how would they?

Depending on the objective of your message, there are several goals you can consider. These goals might include responding to a digital offer, requesting more information on a product or service, or downloading marketing assets. If you are making a sales offer, you might consider giving recipients a promo code and a link to your ecommerce website or direct checkout to take advantage of the deal.

Other objectives include sending visitors to blog posts or encouraging them to interact with you on major social media platforms.

Regardless of what CTA you choose, just be sure that you offer something for your Email readers to take your desired action.

Don’t Forget to Personalize!

Email personalization is something that doesn’t cost extra and can significantly improve the metrics and results you get from your campaign

By merely adding a recipient’s name in the subject field or the Email opening, you can increase the engagement – and ideally – the results you get from the communication

Send From a Legitimate Email Address

Think about the Email messages you get when you check your Inbox. How interested are you when you get a message that originates from a “no reply” Email address? The answer is probably ‘not very.’ The same idea applies when you send to your Email list.

As a best practice, don’t send emails from a “no-reply” email account. By offering a legitimate reply-to Email address, if potential customers have a question, all they need to do is reply to the message to contact a representative immediately.

Try Sending On Different Days and Times

Have you ever felt like there is a pattern to your Email sending schedule? Perhaps you send every Tuesday at 12:30 PM? It’s no secret that the middle of the week is when most businesses send their Email, so you – along with everyone else – is trying to capture the attention of readers. Instead, try posting on a Monday, a Friday, or even a Saturday.

Before mailing to your entire list, always be sure to send a test message to yourself first. Double check that all of your links are formatted correctly to avoid missed opportunities from bad links.

You might find you get exceptional results just by trying a different approach.

Undeliverables Are Unavoidable

When evaluating the results from your Email marketing campaigns, there is always going to be some amount of natural churn and shrinkage on your list. People’s tastes, needs, and interests are constantly changing. It’s natural for some people to unsubscribe. They could have moved away from the area or no longer want to get offers from you. Perhaps they aren’t interested in the services or products any longer.

Other types of undeliverable Emails include sending to inboxes that are full or getting sent to a suspended or non-existent Email address.

While none of these situations are ideal, they are part of the Email marketing game. To keep your sender reputation in high regards, follow best practices to suppress and manage undeliverable and unsubscribed Email.

Choose A Compelling Subject Line

There is an art to writing compelling Email subject lines. You want to use this part of your Email copy to capture the attention of readers and compel them to open the Email to find out more.

You want these topic lines to be honest and straightforward, without sounding – or being – clickbait. While clickbait titles might be excellent for getting people to open, if they find a discrepancy between the subject line and the body of the message, this negatively affects your click-through rates and probably your business reputation.

To get the best result, craft a message that is personalized and to the point. Always be sure to read subject lines out loud before you send it. Does it read OK? Would it make you want to click and open it?

When you vary the times and days that you Email, you’re opening up the chance that you’ll connect with someone who is interested in what you have to offer and takes advantage of it.

Consistency Matters

The most critical thing to keep in mind is that Email is a dynamic way to build trust and rapport with new, existing, and potential clients.

By maintaining your Email list and contacting them with relevant offers, your clients know that you are still out there providing products and services if they need them.

Additionally, by Emailing regularly, you keep your company or brand fresh in the mind of the people who are interested the most.

The best part is that you don’t even need to wait until 2018 to start implementing these best practices to fine-tune and extract more value from your engaged Email lists.