Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Pinterest for Small Business

pinterest for small business


Pinterest may be the hottest social networking site right now, but also perhaps the most underused by businesses. This image focused site allows users to share pictures and videos from around the web with friends and followers. Most businesses are already using Facebook and Twitter to connect with consumers, and as Pinterest is rapidly growing it is also a great platform to increase your reach and engagement. Get your business’s Pinterest account started with these tips:


1. Pin your own content. Create boards and pin your product or service images to attract users’ attention and drive traffic back to your website. Use high quality and interesting images – the more captivating your pin is, the more likely it is to be repinned and seen by even more users.




2. Tell Your Brand’s Story. Use Pinterest to let customers get to know your business and what you stand for. Share photos of your employees and images from your business workspace to give customers a behind the scenes look.


3. Share others’ pins. Among your own original content, share repins of industry relevant images and articles. Use other pins to gain inspiration and ideas for more of your own content as well.


4. Add an open group board. Get your followers involved in your boards and pins. Having a group board where followers can post relevant images increases user engagement, makes your followers feel personally invested in your brand, and gives you automatic feedback about the interests and opinions of your audience.


5. Stay active. Just like with other social media sites, you can’t simply pin it and forget it. Keep your page fresh and updated. Pin new content every few days or repin relevant content you find on boards you follow.


Continually monitor and track your progress on the site with Pinterest’s own analytics tool. Take note of what resonates with customers and tweak your strategy accordingly. With Pinterest, the potential exposure for your content is huge. Consistently pin valuable images and articles, and you will most definitely see a boost in your traffic.


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

LinkedIn New Analytics

 


linkedin-icon1LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet with more than 238 million members. Now, in an effort to make itself even more attractive to business owners. LinkedIn has launched an enhanced analytics suite for company pages. The new analytics are designed to help businesses drive engagement with followers and track their pages’ performance.


The Analytics tab is currently located on the top middle of the company page. Company page administrators can access data divided into two sections — company updates and followers. The company updates section reveals information about a post’s reach and engagement, while the followers section reveals where followers are coming from, their demographics, trends, and competitive comparisons.


The top three metrics you should use to get the most out of your LinkedIn company page:


1. Engagement: This column refers to interactions + clicks + followers acquired divided by the total number of people who saw the post. Use this metric to measure which posts have higher percentages of engagement. Note the type of content, targeting, date, and time to optimize future posts.


2. Follower Demographics: This section allows you to determine followers by Industry, seniority, function, etc.  Use metric to segment your followers when you use the “targeted status updates” feature. Tailor your content and tone to target each demographic.


3. How You Compare: See how your company page stacks up against other company pages. This unique metric shows how many followers your business has as compared to the competition. Assess where you stand and use this ranking as a guide to determine long term goals for your marketing strategy.


LinkedIn’s new analytics are pretty impressive and will change the way businesses can monitor their effectiveness on LinkedIn. Expect to find these analytics useful not only in promoting your business’s updates and products, but also in attracting qualified, new employees. The new analytics are now available to all company pages. Have you experimented with the new analytics on your company’s page? What features are your favorite?


 


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

How to Get Higher Open Rates in Email Marketing

email open rates


Email marketing is great for engaging and targeting prospects and clients online. But first, you have to get your contacts to actually open your emails. You’ve got interested subscribers and a great segmented list, right? Now reel them in with these tips to increase your marketing email open rates:


1. Subject line: Start with your subject line to drive the tone of your email. It’s best to keep it short – under 50 characters preferably. The subject line should also be relevant to your content and never misleading. Avoid using “spammy” words and other spam filter red flags.


2. Content: Of course your content should be interesting and relevant, but also give your subscribers exclusive content and special offers they can’t get anywhere else. Deliver valuable content that benefits your subscribers so that they look forward to hearing from you. 


3. When to send:Day and time can have a big impact on your open rates. Send too early on a weekday and your email can get lost in the inbox among other work; send too late and it can get put off until later (and ultimately forgotten). Recent research by Experian shows that the best open rates actually occur on the weekend, when volume is lowest.


4. Mobile friendly: More and more customers are now using smartphones to check email. Be aware of just how many of your subscribers are opening your emails via mobile devices, and make sure your content is optimized for mobile users’ in appearance and functionality.


Keep in mind, message content and sending practices are not one size fits all; they will of course very depending on your business and customers. Track and measure your results often to determine what works best for your campaigns.


Image via RambergMediaImages at Flickr.com


 



How to Get Higher Open Rates in Email Marketing

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The New Gmail Inbox and Email Marketing

the new gmail inbox


Google’s Gmail recently made some major changes to the way it sorts and displays email. The new Gmail tabbed interface has raised many concerns about email marketing and how brand will continue to reach their customers. Google is obviously a heavy hitter in the digital media world, so changes to its setup and filtering of messages will likely have a significant ripple effect for businesses large and small.


The New Inbox


Gmail’s new inbox groups the users mail into categories under different tabs.  Users can enable up to five tabs into which Gmail will pre-sort all incoming messages:


  • Primary – Messages from individuals, like family, friends, and other contacts. Gmail gives this tab the highest priority and it is the default tab opened upon signing into your inbox.

  • Social – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social and gaming networks notifications.

  • Promotions – Where users will now find their marketing messages.

  • Updates – Automatic notifications of bills, statements, and reminders.

  • Forums – Messages from groups and/or forums you may interact and participate in.

Users also have the option to override the filtering of these tabs. For instance, if you don’t agree with the placement of a message under the tab Gmail selected, you have the option to drag the message to another tab and even route all future messages of that type to the same tab.


What Does This Mean?


According to a recent MailChimp study concerning the effects of Gmail’s new tabbed inbox on marketing emails, the new inbox is nothing for marketers to get worked up over… BUT, there has been a consistent decrease of about 1% in Gmail open rates since the new inbox’s launch. Any e-mail with markers such as headers, footers, and “unsubscribe” buttons will be filtered into the Promotions tab; there’s no way to escape the tabs if you’re sending mass e-mails. Of course, there is some good news: The large majority of Gmail opens happen on mobile devices, and the mobile version of Gmail’s email client does not have the tabbed inbox at this time.


Amp Up Your Email Marketing


The goal for email marketers now will be to ensure emails are seen by the recipient. How, you ask?


  1. Content and creativity are now more important than ever to engage customers. Start with a stellar subject line and continue with interesting, relevant content through to the body of the email. Be sure to also include a great call to action.

  2. Monitor your open rates. Different users and senders will have different experiences, but in all cases measuring and troubleshooting are the way to improve open and placement rates.

  3. Ask your clients to put you in their Primary tab. Educate your contacts on Gmail’s drag and drop feature to move future messages from you to the Primary tab. Certainly they won’t want to miss out on news and special offers from your business!

 


Keep in mind that this new Gmail inbox is still in it’s early launch stages, so we will have to wait a while to see what the long term effects may be. It’s best to experiment with your email marketing and Gmail’s open rates now to have an edge on the competition in the long run.


 


email marketing campaigns have taken a hit with the new Gmail inbox configurations. – See more at: http://blog.signalhq.com/2013/07/23/4-email-marketing-tips-for-dealing-with-new-gmail-inbox-tabs/#sthash.qqLEhuGl.dpuf


The New Gmail Inbox and Email Marketing