The Essential Guide to Content Curation

12Nov

Managing an effective content marketing strategy is challenging. Between sharing the latest news, monitoring your competitors, and creating your own content, you might feel like you’re not sure where to start.

The good news is that you’re not the first person to need some help, and there are industry best practices to help you avoid the common frustrations. Now, I’m going to walk you through how to handle all your content curation responsibilities!

Gather Information
Before you share or write anything, you need to know what people are saying around your industry. One great source of information is Feedly, which will give you a variety of sources relevant to whatever keywords you search.

Another resource is Google Alerts, and it offers some unique advantages. Like Feedly, it lets you track certain keywords to see what’s new on those topics. Google Alerts, however, will send notifications about new content in these areas, which can be surprisingly helpful.

Say, for example, you sell glasses. You’d probably track phrases like “eyewear” and “optometry.” But why stop there? You could also track a competitor or their CEO. This way, you’ll be able to learn from their successes and mistakes. Similarly, make sure you’re signed up for any newsletters or eAlerts they distribute.

How does that help? Well, once you’re aware of what your competition is doing, you can see how it’s working. What kind of content are they posting? Maybe they’re posting five blogs a week, but is that getting them engagement from their audience? Determine what is and isn’t working for them, then build your content strategy on the back of that information!

Develop a Content Mix
As you might imagine, posting the same type of content every day is going to bore your audience to tears. That’s why you’re going to need to plan out a compelling content mix.

You’ve looked at your competitors, and what did that information show you? Were they sharing news related to your industry that customers would find appealing? Did they offer unique insight in the form of regular tips or advice? Look for alternatives to promotional content, because too many promos are going to make your brand look overly sales-y and less relatable.

How do you find the right promo ratio? You experiment. If your competitor saw a lot of success posting three promotional pieces a week, see how your audience responds to four. Viewer engagement and clicks on your posts will quickly tell you what you’re doing right and what needs to change.

Remember that, ultimately, your viewers are coming to your page to create value for themselves, and your content should reflect that goal. You may want to spend an entire week talking about your new frames, but your audience wants to learn more about how to take care of their contact lenses. If you want to keep their attention, you need to meet them at that point of need.

Work Smart, Not Hard
One piece of advice that content managers often find surprising is that you should recycle your best content. It can sound sacrilegious to people who have been told all their lives to always create completely original work, but if a piece of content does well, why not make the most of that great article or blog you created?

Of course, you don’t want to just post the same story verbatim. Update it a little! Try experimenting with new headlines or images to freshen things up. If you’re feeling like the article could be better-structured, then by all means, move things around. This will all still take less time than writing and posting entirely new content.

As a rule, you want to wait at least two weeks between an initial publication and recycling that post. This way your readers won’t feel like you’re sharing the same thing over and over, but you’ll still get to members of your audience who missed it the first time around.

Know Your Stuff
Above all, the most important part of content curation is that you need to know what you’re talking about. Whether that’s reading and sharing industry news or creating compelling blog content, compiling information is going to make you a much more effective marketer.

Could you use a little more advice on content curation? Reach out and schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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Go!TV Episode 10

By Christopher Tompkins

9Nov

GoTV, Social Media

Welcome back to another Go!TV episode recap! We’re bringing you the information you need to have a successful social media campaign!

Social Media Management Tools
Managing your business’ social media is going to be all but impossible without some extra help. Between graphic design, writing content, and scheduling your final posts, it’s just too much for one person to handle!

That’s why we’re sharing the social media management tools that you absolutely need to use. We look at scheduling softwares to let you plan an effective content posting strategy, design tools to make sure your visuals are drawing in your audience, and writing tools so you’re not wasting hours trying to come up with new ideas for content!

The Go! Agency

And that is the end of another Go!TV episode recap! As a marketer, you need to use your time as efficiently as possible! Take the initiative and check out our podcast and blog for even more useful social media guidance!

Want to see what other marketing advice we dish out? Check us out across social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter!

The Essential Social Media Manager Tools

By Christopher Tompkins

7Nov

Social Media

You’ve set up your social media pages and you’re ready to get posting, but you’re quickly finding that keeping up with all these different platforms is next to impossible. It’s a common feeling among social media managers, and there is a solution!

In a word: tools. There are plenty of great resources out there to make your job easier and let you get ahead on your social media strategy!

I’m going to share the social media management tools that my team uses every day to make sure our clients’ pages are running smoothly and getting them closer to their goals!

Scheduling
Nobody has the time to go through and publish each individual post at just the right time every day. So what’s the solution? Scheduling tools! These little guys can let you write up a bunch of content, then schedule it to post at specific times on your preferred platforms:

Hootsuite: This is one of the most intuitive scheduling tools out there!
HubSpot: If you want a scheduling tool with all the bells and whistles (including monitoring your content’s performance metrics), this is the program for you.
Buffer: While not quite as well-known as the other items on this list, it’s a great program if you find that the other options aren’t suiting your needs.

Instagram is notoriously finicky for its scheduling, which is why you should consider using a tool that’s optimized for Instagram. I’d suggest:

Photos
Need to find stock images for your visuals? I’ve got a few resources that have always done right by us:

Pixabay: Want a huge, international stock of public domain photos, graphics, and footage? Look no further!
Unsplash: More than 70,000 photographers post their content here, all copyright-free under the Unsplash license!
Pexels: Another great source for public domain photographs!

Design
You’ve got your images, but how do you alter them to create your own unique, branded visuals? Try these tools:

Canva: This is a great tool for beginners, as it’s popular among professional and rookie graphic designers alike!
Photoshop: If you’re comfortable using more complex programs, this tool should be right up your alley!
Animoto: This is one of the top platforms for creating video slideshows and other short, moving content!
Ripl: A comparable product to Animoto, Ripl makes it easy to create animated visuals!
PicMonkey: Want to go back to basics? PicMonkey is a no-fuss image-editing program that’s also great for graphic design!

Writing
Writing up heaps of copy and content is no walk in the park! Creating content takes time, which is why I recommend not just creating original content for your business but also curating content from other sources. Instead of searching the internet for hours, these tools gather the content into one spot for you!

Feedly: Feedly lets you search by topics and pulls up great, usable content to help springboard your ideas!
Grammarly: To proofread any technical issues you may have missed!
Google Alerts: Set up alerts on industry-relevant keywords to make sure your writing is current and following trends in your field!
Hootsuite Streams: Track keywords and hashtags to see what others in your industry are posting. If you know what your competitors are talking about, you can figure out how to fill in the gaps they’re missing!
Hashtagify: Not sure what hashtags will get you attention? Use Hashtagify to track the impact of a hashtag and see what’s best for your posts!

When linking to another site, it’s important not to include the full URL. Many link shorteners allow you to see how many times the link has been clicked, which can help you track how your audience responds to content. Use any of the following tools to get shortened, convenient URLs for your posts:

Don’t Feel Overwhelmed
Being a social media manager is stressful, especially if you’re not using the right tools. Skip that anxiety and use these resources to make sure you’re not only doing your work efficiently, but as easily as possible. No social media manager can be successful without a little extra help, and that includes you!

Do you feel like you could use a little extra help? You can have a free consultation with our team of marketing experts!

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7 Social Media Marketing Things You Should Know but Don’t

By Christopher Tompkins

5Nov

Social Media

Social media marketing is constantly in flux, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon. The best practices of yesterday are painfully outdated now. As a marketer, you’ve got two options: fall behind your competition, or stay sharp!

I’m going to share the seven biggest things across social media that every marketer should know—but most don’t. Let’s see how up-to-date your knowledge is!

1. You Need Tools
Social media management tools aren’t just flashy programs for people with money to burn. They’re an integral part of social media marketing, and if you’re not using them, odds are you’re falling behind.

Unless you like the idea of manually posting multiple updates across social media every day, writing error-ridden content, and having low-quality visuals, you’re going to need some help!

2. You Need to Curate Content
Thinking of fresh, original content every day isn’t going to work if you’re not seeing what other people in your industry are posting. Content curation lets you share relevant, valuable news with your followers and can give you ideas for how to produce your own unique content!

3. You Need to Understand Metrics
Nobody likes to learn a lot of jargon, but it’s there for a reason. In marketing, it’s not enough to just “go with your gut.” You need to have hard, quantifiable data to support your social media marketing strategy, and having a working understanding of metrics and when to track them is the only way to get that information.

4. You Need to Work on Visuals
Graphic design often gets pushed aside by marketers who chant the Bill Gates quote, “Content is king.” And sure, your written content is important, but nothing can replace the impact of quality visuals. Think about it: Would you read a blog with Pulitzer-worthy writing that looked like its visuals were made by a toddler? Of course not, because you never would have clicked on their content to begin with!

5. You Need to Find and Engage With Your Audience
The appeal of social media marketing is that you can target specific consumers who are most likely to buy from you, so why wouldn’t you make the most of that? By creating buyer personas and optimizing your engagement for your audience’s preferred social media platform, you can make your campaign much more effective.

6. You Need to Watch Your Competitors
It isn’t enough to just look at your own successes and shortcomings. Your competitors are, by definition, appealing to a similar market, so see what you can learn from them! By tracking their movements on social media, you’ll double your opportunities to improve your own strategy!

7. You Need a Checklist
If you’re running a multi-platform social media campaign, you simply can’t keep it all straight in your head. There are too many moving parts for anyone to remember every little thing! By keeping a checklist and running through it on a regular basis, you guarantee that nothing will slip through the cracks!

Don’t Stop Learning
These are essential parts of social media marketing, but it’s not enough to stop once you’ve mastered these! Take this information as a way to get you started. From there, keep reading! Social media will never stagnate, and neither can your understanding!

Everyone could use some help staying competitive on social media. If you’re not sure what to do, just schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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GoTV Episode 9

By Christopher Tompkins

2Nov

GoTV, Instagram

Thanks for coming back for this week’s Go!TV recap! This week we’re focusing on Instagram and giving you all the information you need to market on this visual platform!

Instagram

How to Create Instagram Advertisements
Instagram’s ads work within a targeted system. What does that mean? Well, your ads will be sent to a specific demographic that you specify. This saves a lot of wasted time and effort marketing to people who would never want your product! This guide shares how to optimize your Instagram ads across posts, stories, and all other forms of visual communication!

Business 2 Community

Video Marketing on Instagram
Whether you’re creating branding, product, or tutorial videos, you absolutely have to know what you’re doing to get anywhere on Instagram. Instagram has a lot of users and other marketers flooding it with content, which means your video has to stand out if it’s going to help you reach your marketing goals. Check out this guide and see how you can create different types of Instagram videos that your audience will love!

AdEspresso

Thanks so much for stopping by this week’s Go!TV recap! The Instagram market is as lucrative as it is saturated with ads and marketers, so it’s important that you know how to stand out. If you want to learn more about social media marketing, come visit our podcast and blog!

Want to see what other marketing advice we dish out? Check us out across social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter!

The Essential Guide to Facebook Live Broadcasts

By Christopher Tompkins

31Oct

Facebook, Social Media

No matter what industry you’re in, there are probably a hundred other businesses who do more or less the same thing that you do. You can tout your special features and advantages, but ultimately, convincing someone to choose your business is going to largely come down to how you connect with them.

The good news is that you can use Facebook Live broadcasts to create completely unique content that sets your business apart. Even if there are a dozen other breweries selling ales that are identical to yours, they can’t replicate your personality! Your style, your tone, your energy; those are the qualities that will draw in customers.

Your Facebook Live broadcast only works if you can create something worth watching, though. Awkwardly shuffling in front of a camera and muttering for fifteen minutes just won’t cut it. That’s why I’m giving you the complete guide to Facebook Live broadcasts!

Have a Strategy, but Don’t Over-Plan
You don’t want to go into your broadcast with no idea what to talk about. At the same time, your audience will be able to tell if you just memorized a script, so don’t be afraid to speak organically.

A good method is to go into your broadcast with a few bullet points that you want to hit. This way you can have a real conversation with your viewers without meandering onto the topic of politics in Uzbekistan during your broadcast about your new IPA.

Set Up Before You Go Live
Nobody wants to watch you orient your camera for the first three minutes. Before you even think about starting the broadcast, make sure your camera is set up so that it’s straight and you’re in the center of the shot.

Think beyond just you and your camera, though. How’s the lighting? Nobody wants to buy products from a washed out vampire, so make sure you’re brightly lit without draining the color from your face.

And what is your area like? Think of what background would best suit your brand. Are you a grungy, casual brand that can get away with a more casual backdrop, or should you be recording this in a meticulous office? Regardless, clutter and dust are probably things to clear away before you go live. If your viewer is focused on the messy space around you, they’re going to tune out your message!

Once your equipment and setup are ready to go, give yourself a test run! There will be hiccups the first time you try anything, so why make your viewers watch a subpar version of your broadcast? You can set your broadcast to be viewable by “only me,” run through your ideas, then look back at the recording. This is a great way to find and fix any awkward sections!

Be Charismatic
I said that your audience will respond to your style, tone, and energy, and that’s true, but only if you have a personality.

Meaning, don’t shift anxiously throughout the broadcast. And please, for the love of God, don’t keep promising that you’re “just about to start once a few more people join!” Nobody wants to wait for you to get to the point, and you’ll most likely end up losing viewers who got sick of watching you stare at the screen.

If you do need to wait for something, at least make it interesting. A good strategy to keep people engaged with what you’re saying is to give them a teaser for your next topic. “Okay guys, in 30 seconds I’m going to give you the micro brewing secret that nobody else will tell you.” This is also a good tactic if you notice your viewer rate is dropping off before you finish one of your points.

In that same vein, engage with your audience! Say hi to people in the beginning, and answer relevant questions as they come up. Facebook Live is a unique opportunity to speak one-on-one with your customers, so don’t waste it!

Get Filming
You can sit around and plan forever, but your best move is just to get started. Use this guide to troubleshoot any Facebook Live roadblocks you come across. Now get out there and show your audience what sets your brand apart from your competitors!

Do you want to talk specifics with planning your Facebook Live broadcasts? Set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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The Essential Guide to Facebook Ad Split Testing

By Christopher Tompkins

29Oct

Advertising, Facebook, Social Media

As you plan your Facebook marketing strategy, how do you decide between one image style or another? Or find out what sort of ad copy your leads prefer? You could guess blindly, but you’ll be better off with split testing.

Split testing (or A/B testing) is the practice of sending out different ads to different sections of your audience. So Group A gets ad one and Group B gets ad two. From there, you can see which ad performed better, which informs the rest of your advertising strategy going forward.

Why is split testing worth it? How do you make an effective split test? I’ll go over the answers to those questions and more in this guide to creating successful Facebook ad A/B tests!

Why Bother?

For many people new to the idea, split testing seems like a waste of time and resources. Who wants to write double the ad copy and generate twice as many images? Well, as it turns out, you do.

Split testing has become an advertising best practice across the industry for a lot of reasons, but in short, it makes sure that your ad campaign is on the right track.

For starters, it’s an essential part of overall better marketing. If it turns out you’ve been appealing to people with the wrong angle, then you need to change that direction ASAP. Once you’ve made these corrections, you’ll probably see your web traffic, engagement and conversion rates all increasing.

This then translates to increased ROI. Basically, $100 of subpar ads may only generate half the attention that $100 of tested and optimized ads gets you. It’s a bit of extra effort now for increased effectiveness and revenue later.

So you know why you should be split testing your Facebook ads, but how do you get started?

Have a Goal and Expectation

Before you start writing up any ad copy, you need to determine what you want to test. Do you want to try a new headline style, or maybe you want to see what kinds of images perform best with your audience? Whatever it is, set one thing to alter. That way you’ll know exactly what changed your audience’s reaction between the ads.

This is where marketing and science start to blend. Form a hypothesis! Which ad do you think will perform better? Why? During this step, you’ll also want to establish what a successful split test will look like for you. If you’re advertising for your online store, maybe a 7% increase in site visits is a good goal for you.

Create the Ads

Now, draft your two ads with the one major difference. And really, it needs to be a MAJOR difference!

For example, let’s say you’re marketing for a gym and you decided to test the images used for your ads. You’re not going to have meaningful results if your first ad has a picture of a smiling, fit woman stretching and your second ad features a smiling, fit woman lifting weights. They’re just too similar to tell you anything important.

Instead, you might have your first ad feature the same woman sitting down, but your second ad could feature shots of your equipment or pictures of healthy foods and protein powders. This way, when one ad performs better than the other, you’ll know it isn’t just a coincidence!

Send Them Out and Analyze the Data

Now, publish your two Facebook ads and see what happens. Set which metrics you want to track based on your goals for this test, and may the better ad win!

Let the ads run for a set amount of time, however long your ads usually take to see optimal engagement, then step back and look at your results. If one ad outperformed the other, use this information as you plan your ads in the future!

If there weren’t significant results, don’t be discouraged! Make sure you made substantial changes between the ads or (if worst comes to worst) test a new part of your ads! There’s always something to improve on, and these tests are important to optimizing your processes.

Test, Test, Test!

The only way to improve is to identify problem areas, so get to work! You’ve got nothing to lose by testing, and a whole lot of revenue to gain!

Would you like to discuss your unique Facebook ad strategy? Schedule your free consultation with the marketing experts at The Go! Agency!

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GoTV Episode 8

By Christopher Tompkins

26Oct

Business, GoTV

Welcome to this week’s episode recap of Go!TV! We hope you’re ready for the breaking social media updates that are changing the industry!

Analytics

Free Programs to Monitor Your Competitors’ Social Media
Learning from your own mistakes is great, but learning from your competitors’ failings is even better. These five programs are completely free to you and let you monitor the social media ventures of your chosen business. By using these programs, you’ll be able to see what does and doesn’t work for the competition, which will enable you to adjust your own marketing strategy accordingly, all without paying a dime!

Business 2 Community

Google

Google Analytics Offers Valuable Traffic Tracking
Measuring your brand’s social media traffic is essential to improving your ROI. How else will you know which ads are working or what content your audience responds to? Google Analytics lets you easily do both of these, and you can use that information to optimize your social media marketing strategy!

Social Media Examiner

That’s it for this week’s Go!TV recap! More data is always your friend in the world of social media marketing, so make sure you’re staying in the know. For more information like this, go to our podcast and blog!

Want to see what other marketing advice we dish out? Check us out across social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter!

Amazon Holiday Marketing Strategies to Avoid

By Christopher Tompkins

24Oct

Business

The time of seasonal sales is fast approaching! For many marketers, you’ll be promoting your products on Amazon this year, and you want to get the word out. And you should! American online shoppers reported that 76% would use Amazon for most of their holiday shopping.

It’s fair to market your Amazon products, but sometimes the moves you don’t make are as important as the ones you do. The internet is chock full of bad marketing advice to boost your holiday sales via Amazon, and you need to know what to avoid.

Read on for the worst Amazon holiday marketing advice you’ll hear and why you don’t want to follow it.

Buying Amazon Reviews

The lie:
Paying for reviews is a harmless way to make sure your products are ranking higher on Amazon searches! It’s completely untraceable, and your store will get a convenient boost right before the holidays!

The truth:
Some marketing strategies are just bad news all around, and buying Amazon reviews is one of them. Ignoring the ethical issues of paying nameless internet faces to write positive reviews in exchange for money or free products, there are a lot of practical reasons to skip this can of worms.

When Amazon finds out that you’ve been purchasing reviews (and they’re Amazon, so they’ll find out), your store account will be in serious jeopardy. If you’re lucky, every single review will be deleted from your page. Yes, even the real ones. You’ll have paid for all that work and have nothing to show for it.

If you’re not lucky, your seller’s account could be closed, and suddenly you’re barred from the largest e-commerce site in the world.

Save yourself the hassle and wasted resources. You may be tempted to boost your holiday sales with some timely positive reviews, but don’t fall for that trap. Earning real reviews will better serve your business in the long run.

Sending Direct Traffic to Your Amazon Products

The lie:
Sending ad traffic straight to your Amazon store can only benefit you. Consumers who click on your ad are shown immediately how to buy from you, and you’ll generate tons of sales this way!

The truth:
Sending traffic to your Amazon page is ridiculously unlikely to be a lucrative venture. Why? Well, let’s say you put an ad on Facebook for your target demographic, and the ad takes users straight to one of your products on Amazon’s website.

What percentage of people who click on your ad are going to complete a purchase? One optimistic study puts that number at 26 percent. That’s a great number, but you’re still paying for the clicks of the other 74 percent who looked at your product and decided not to buy.

More concerning is what these users do to your Amazon ranking when they don’t make purchases. Every time someone clicks on your Amazon ad and leaves without buying, your Amazon ranking goes down. After enough clicks that don’t end in conversions, you may find your product sinking to the third, fourth, then fifth page of results, where users are unlikely to ever see it.

Ads can be a great way to make sales, but you shouldn’t put your Amazon ranking on the line. Link back to your own website or another e-commerce platform that isn’t tracking clicks and applying them to your rank. Of all the great ways to build your name on Amazon for the holidays, this isn’t one of them.

Dodge the Pitfalls

Like with many other topics on the internet, holiday marketing on Amazon is full of bad information. Don’t risk your livelihood by following poorly-thought-out advice. Now that you know what strategies won’t work, you can redouble your efforts in more reliable areas!

You know what not to do, but are you sure what the next best steps are for your business? Schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency to make sure!

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3 Ways to Get Your Shopify Store Holiday-Ready

By Christopher Tompkins

22Oct

Business

You’ve put a lot of work into your e-commerce platform throughout the year, but have you thought about what you’ll do for the holidays?

It isn’t enough to quietly lower your prices. There are a lot of Shopify stores out there, and you need to stand out! Thankfully, there are some simple steps to ensure you’re making the most of of the holidays.

Let’s talk about how you should customize your Shopify store for the winter sale season!

1. Start a Holiday Sale
This one is a no-brainer. Holiday sales are inseparable from the winter shopping experience, and frankly, most shoppers won’t consider your Shopify store if you’re not running a seasonal sale.

To set sale prices, you’ll click on the individual product you want to discount, and you’ll have two options, “price” and “compare at price.” The “price” box will be the sale price, and the other box will be its price outside of the sale. This is a classic marketing strategy. When interested shoppers see how much they’re saving with your sale, they’re more likely to jump on the chance to get your products at a lower rate!

Once you’ve set up your sale dates and prices, don’t stop there! For loyal customers on your email list or new shoppers who sign up for it, why not show them a little extra love with some coupon codes?

2. Prepare Coupon Codes
Special discounts give people that extra push to give your store a try. After all, what do online shoppers love more than a bargain?

You can create coupons for a specific dollar amount, a percentage off an order, or free shipping. Your Shopify discounts will also have a programmable range of dates when the codes can be used, the number of coupons you’ll accept per order, and any order minimums for your discounts.

A word to the wise: Test your coupon codes! If your customers go to checkout and their coupon codes won’t apply, they’ll be so frustrated that they’ll never spend a dime at your store.

Before sharing the coupons, create a buyer’s Shopify account and try to make a purchase from your store. If the code works, then full steam ahead! If you’re getting an error message, you may need to reach out to Shopify’s support team for help.

3. Limit Your Coupons
Remember how I said you can limit the number of coupon codes for each order? Yeah, you’ll want to make that a priority.

Let’s say you’re offering 3 different coupons: 15% off the order, $10 off all orders over $50, and free shipping. Individually, each of those coupons is an incentive for your customer to spend more money at your store. But together? Their $60 order is only costing them $41, and you’re left on the hook for shipping.

By programming your Shopify checkout to only accept one coupon at a time, though, your customers can choose which discount best suits their needs without completely draining the transaction of any profit.

Deck the Digital Halls

It’s a lot of work to get your Shopify store ready for the shopping season, but it’ll be worth it. Apply these tips to your e-commerce shop and you’ll be set to enjoy a holly jolly sleigh ride straight to the bank!

Do you have some lingering questions about optimizing your store for the holidays? Talk it out with the experts at The Go! Agency!

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