One of the bedrocks of social media marketing is the Facebook ad. With a staggering 1.5 billion members globally, Facebook is impossible to ignore as a digital marketing tool.
But why should businesses use Facebook ads in particular? Isn’t it enough to maintain a vibrant business page? Here are a few reasons that advertising is essential.
Organic traffic on Facebook is decreasing.
It used to be that business pages had a fair shot at appearing on users’ news feeds. However, recent algorithm changes by Facebook are increasingly keeping business pages off of members’ newsfeeds. In fact, the average organic reach of a business page on Facebook is just a little over 2 percent.
Unable to depend on organic traffic any longer, businesses like yours must find alternative ways to draw attention to their pages. Facebook ads, which get the brand name out in front of target audiences, are the way to go.
People (So Many People) Are On Facebook.
With about 1.5 billion members, Facebook is the place to go to reach just about any target audience you can imagine.
That means that using Facebook in your social media marketing is a smart move for just about any business.
There are few marketing channels that offer the same level of access to potential customers. You want to be where your customers are, and your customers are busy connecting with others on Facebook.
In order to find those customers among the sea of Facebook users, you can use the platform’s detailed and diverse targeting capabilities. Showing up where your target customers are means showing up on Facebook, even if your budget is small and your time limited.
Facebook ads allow you to target precisely.
You may have heard that Google Ads allow you to precisely target the audiences you wish to reach. What you may not know is that Facebook allows you to do the same, and with an impressive degree of specificity.
Facebook’s targeting capability allows you to narrow down your target audience according to almost any parameter you wish. Here are just a few criteria you can use:
Connections
Locations
Languages
Behaviors
Ages
Income
Job
With so many parameters from which to choose, you can easily find and target the people who will be most interested in your products and services.
Facebook ads make additional targeting easy.
Say you take advantage of Facebook’s targeting capabilities. You are reaching a target audience. You can find and target other audiences easily with Facebook’s Lookalike Audience feature.
This feature tells Facebook to show your ads to audiences who are similar to your target audiences. That means more people see your business with minimal work on your end. Using Facebook Ads in your online marketing campaign simplifies the process of reaching the right people.
Facebook ads are inexpensive.
No one wants to spend more than necessary on advertising their business. When you use Facebook ads in your social media marketing campaign, you tap into an advertising channel that is very inexpensive.
In fact, the cost to reach 1,000 people over Facebook is just 25 cents. That is far cheaper than the $32 you would spend on a magazine ad or the $2.75 you would spend on Google Ads. Reaching large numbers of your target audience for pennies is an amazing value. No business should pass it up.
Facebook ads are effective.
Facebook is the place to be for 1.5 billion people. This staggering number of members combined with the platform’s incredibly specific targeting abilities make Facebook an effective place to advertise your business.
People may log onto Facebook in order to connect with friends and family, but most of them also discover new products there as well. In fact, one study by Kleiner Perkins placed that number at 78 percent. That could be why 96 percent of marketers believe that Facebook offers the best ROI out of all the social media platforms.
Facebook ads work. That makes them a smart addition to social media marketing campaigns.
Facebook ads give you access to lots of analytics.
Building an effective marketing campaign of any kind includes using analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign. Without analytics, you just do not know what impact your marketing efforts are having.
Facebook ads, however, never leave you in the dark about your performance. Instead, they give you access to a huge amount of information. Learn the following:
Reach
Engagement
Likes
Clicks
Conversions
Comments
Click through rate
And more
Facebook ads are a vital part of any social media marketing campaign. Because of Facebook’s enormous size and reach, almost any business can find their target audience on Facebook and benefit from a campaign to reach them.
Using this social media platform to counteract the decrease in organic Facebook traffic, to reach the large audiences on Facebook, to take advantage of advanced targeting abilities, to save money, to enjoy results, and to enjoy access to detailed analytics can be a beneficial decision.
If you need help crafting a compelling Facebook ad campaign, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can leverage Facebook to enhance the success of your social media marketing campaign.
Video marketing is powerful. Just ask the consumer: 84 percent say they decided to purchase a product or service because of a marketing video. No wonder two-thirds of marketers use video in their campaigns.
Understanding the power of video and being able to leverage it for your own business, however, are two different things. When you are a small business, the need to create compelling videos on a budget makes the task seem even harder.
That is why we have compiled a list of some of the most effective and creative video marketing ideas out there.
Tutorials
Customers like to learn about your industry and about your products and services before they buy. In fact, 72 percent of consumers prefer to use videos to learn about products and services.
You can cater to this desire by creating tutorial videos. These videos should demonstrate how to use a product. You can also use these videos to showcase unique ways of using your products that customers may not yet have thought about.
For example, say you run an arts and crafts supply store. A tutorial on a craft that uses popsicle sticks can offer a creative idea that might also bring people to your store looking for supplies.
Tutorials can make your products feel intimidating to use. When customers have questions about how a product works, they can check out your video. When they buy a product and run into a problem, they can visit your video to see where they are going wrong. With that kind of information at their fingertips, consumers can purchase your products and services with confidence.
Product Reviews
Another type of product-focused video is the product review. The key to these videos is to have a customer review the product. You reviewing your own product will not compel customers to trust your brand, or your products.
Having someone who has purchaser and useful the product to review it, on the other hand, is an easy way to win over viewers’ trust, and hopefully their business. A product review should include a look at the product and what it does, as well as an honest examination of its pros and cons. Make sure these videos are honest and genuine in order to win over viewers’ trust.
Customer Testimonials
A product review by an actual customer is known as social proof. Social proof is any recommendation or affirmation by a customer that a business or a product is worth patronizing.
Social proof is extremely valuable in marketing. People trust other customers’ reviews and opinions. If you can get customers to support your products and services, you can improve how potential customers perceive and interact with your brand.
Videos can serve as a kind of social proof for your business. If you can find customers who are willing to leave positive reviews and testimonials on camera, you can tap into video marketing gold.
These videos can be compilations of customer testimonials. They can focus on one customer’s experience, like a case study. Whatever format you choose, highlighting happy customers on video makes your business look good in front of viewers.
About Us
Customers often like to learn more about the companies they are thinking about patronizing. Giving them fun and useful insights into your business can be an entertaining way to fill this need to learn more about your brand.
About us videos should be engaging glimpses into your company’s culture, values, and goals. There are a number of forms these videos can take. Consider trying some of the following:
Introducing team members
Giving behind-the-scenes tours
Providing a visual history of your business
Telling the stories of the people your nonprofit serves
Education
Video marketing, as with any other type of marketing, is sometimes useful as a way to establish your expertise in your industry. People naturally want to patronize businesses that know the most about the industry. They believe that experts can provide the best products and services.
If people recognize you as an industry leader, they are also more likely to remember your company’s name when they need products and services that you offer. Establishing yourself as an industry leader makes it easier to win leads and conversions.
Video marketing can help you to establish your expertise by giving you an avenue to use to educate your viewers. These educational videos can address many topics in your industry.
The key is to use these videos as a way to tap into the talent and knowledge you have within your company. You can make a one-time video on a subject, or create an ongoing video series. If you think the topic will interest your viewers and you think that you have the expertise to handle it well, an educational video can be a good choice.
Using video marketing to reach out to potential customers is an effective technique. Because you have so many options for creating videos, it is also a good choice for many businesses with many different types of budgets.
Making compelling videos does not have to be expensive or time consuming. If you want help together started with a video marketing campaign, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can help you brainstorm and develop videos that advance your marketing goals.
If you want to enhance your online presence in other ways, we can do that too. From Google Ads to video marketing, we can help you leverage online advertising for your brand’s advantage.
Nonprofits change the world. To do so, they depend upon the support of donors and volunteers. They also depend upon their ability to reach their target recipients. A homeless shelter, for example, needs to be visible to the individuals who need its services.
Receiving that support, and reaching those recipients, often requires marketing, which does not always feel natural to nonprofits. They want to focus on changing the world, not on buying ads.
Effective business advertising for nonprofits requires some work, some help, and some savvy. What it does not require is a huge budget, which is good news for budget-conscious organizations.
Here are some tips to get your nonprofit started in the business advertising realm. These tips are not only effective; they are inexpensive too.
Use the Facebook “Donate” button.
Calls to action are important for encouraging people to take the steps you want them to take with your organization. Getting people to donate is probably at the very top of the list of actions you want people to take.
Facebook makes it easier for people to give directly to your nonprofit by placing a “Donate” button directly on your page.
Only registered 501(c)3s qualify for this button. You will also need to enroll your organization in Facebook Payments to gain access to the Donate button.
You should be able to place this button on your page by going through the “Add Button” function on your page. Since the process is so simple and the potential rewards so great, it should be one of the first things you do as you develop your business advertising for your nonprofit.
Go live on Facebook.
Facebook introduced its Facebook Live feature in 2016. In just two years, more than 3.5 billion Facebook live broadcasts had been made. In 2019, users spent a collective 3,000 years watching videos on the social media platform.
Users love video, and they especially love live video. In 2019, the conversion rate of live videos was almost twice that of non-live videos, earned 35 percent more engagement and received 10 times more comments.
Take these statistics, add in the fact that Facebook Live is free to use, and you have a perfect business advertising avenue for nonprofits.
Need ideas for videos to create? Why don’t you answer FAQs, introduce viewers to the recipients of your organization, show volunteers at work, and more? The sky really is the limit as long as your videos are providing content that your users will find relevant and compelling.
Embrace the power of videos.
Facebook Live is a powerful way to use video to your advantage as a nonprofit. However, it isn’t the only way. You can also make regular, non-live videos part of your organization’s business advertising endeavors.
These videos make great additions to social media and to your website. They can also be an effective way to capture, and keep, your target audience’s attention.
Consider, for example, the fact that 57 percent of millennials watch more video ads on social media than on TV. About 40 percent of marketers find that videos yield the best ROI. Just about everyone (93 percent) who goes online watch videos. Videos are a powerful marketing tool.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to take advantage of this marketing tool. You just need a little bit of creativity and a business advertising strategy that understands how to leverage video to your advantage.
Take advantage of Google Ads Grants.
Cash-strapped nonprofits don’t always have the resources to run Google AdWords campaigns. If this is you, don’t despair. Google gives away about $1 billion in free advertising a year through its Google Ads Grants. These grants allow qualifying nonprofits to spend up to $2 per click and $10,0000 a month in free Google Ads.
In order to access these services, you will need to follow Google’s application process. This process includes setting up a Google Ads account, setting up a Google nonprofit account, and filling out an application.
If selected, you can enjoy Google Ads campaigns for one whole year. If you do not qualify for a Google Ads campaign, you can also pursue paid Google ads. With the help of a digital marketing agency like Distinct Web Design, you can create ad campaigns that fall within even a tight budget while still delivering results.
Marketing your nonprofit on a budget can feel a little bit difficult. At the same time, doing so is critical to your organization’s visibility and success. The more people you reach, the more volunteers and donations you can receive. Do not discount marketing as a tool as you seek to change the world through your nonprofit. Marketing isn’t just for for-profit businesses.
Fortunately, there are many ways to market your nonprofit inexpensively. Some business advertising solutions, like the Facebook Donate button, or Google Ads Grants, are specifically designed to help nonprofits market themselves inexpensively. Others, like videos and Facebook Live, are free or inexpensive to pursue and can have a big impact.
If you need help creating a compelling online presence for your nonprofit, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can help you to get the visibility you deserve, within the budget you have available, so you can continue changing the world.
Social media is like a giant conversation. As a participant, you need to be a good conversationalist. Follow the basic rules of etiquette; be interesting, and give people space to talk.
As a business, being able to actively participate in the social media conversation is critically important. You wouldn’t talk to someone very long if they never responded, and you cannot expect your social media followers to keep engaging if you never engage back.
In order to build a compelling social media presence, you need to engage with your audiences. Here are a few suggestions for doing that more effectively.
Respond to all comments on your social media pages.
A comment on your social media page is social media marketing gold. It means that somebody cared enough to take the time to interact with your business. Someone has joined or started a conversation with you. That means they care enough about your business to say something, and they want to hear back from you.
In order to keep the conversation going, you need to start talking too. That is why you should respond to every comment left on your social media pages. You should also do so quickly: Within 24 hours, according to one research company.
What should you say? That depends on the comment. In general, here are some suggestions for crafting your responses:
Keep your response faithful to your brand’s voice and values.
Keep your response upbeat and positive. Consider using GIFs and emojis (in moderation) to give your responses a relaxed and welcoming feel.
Be authentic in your reply.
If you are responding to a complaint, try to keep your answer brief and move the conversation to a private format.
Create posts that encourage feedback.
You can do more with your social media marketing than simply respond to comments that others leave for you. You can begin conversations yourself by creating posts that encourage feedback.
For example, try asking a question in one of your posts. If you run a florist, ask your followers about the most creative or beautiful flower arrangement they have ever seen. If you run a clothing store, ask people to post pictures of themselves in outfits they put together with items from your store. Here are other ideas for encouraging feedback with your social media posts:
Contests
Polls
Giveaways
Input on changes in your business
Image requests
Surveys
There really are an infinite number of options when you want to engage your followers. Use your imagination and start a conversation that will interest and engage them.
Use hashtags in your social media marketing.
Your social media conversation might fit nicely with a broader conversation happening across social media. You can recognize and engage with the people having this broader conversation by using hashtags.
Hashtags link your post or comments to a broad topic occurring across social media networks and platforms. Use the right hashtags, and you can align your brand with that conversation. That can earn your social media marketing campaign attention and interaction from others who are part of the discussion.
Often, there are popular hashtags around holidays, major events, cultural trends, etc. A little research should uncover the ones that are most relevant to your business.
You can also create your own hashtags in order to build momentum around topics and ideas that are important to your business. Creating hashtags around promotions and contests can also help to generate buzz around those efforts.
Keep the conversation going.
You create a social media post. Somebody comments on it. That is great! You have made a connection that could be good for your business. How you respond next is an important step. You could give a short answer, like “Thanks!” However, that kind of engagement shuts the conversation down.
Instead, consider responding in ways that encourage the conversation to keep going. For example, ask questions to follow up on a comment. Attach a video to provide further information or entertainment. Share a little more about your business.
The key is to leave the conversation open ended. If you do it right, your follower, or other followers, have the chance to build on the conversation. That kind of ongoing interaction is valuable to your social media marketing campaign.
Don’t just talk about yourself.
You do not want to listen to other people talk about themselves all the time. Don’t be “that person” on social media yourself. If all you ever do is talk about yourself and your own business, you can be sure that other people will quickly grow bored and find another business to interact with.
Instead, spend time engaging in other ways on social media. Here are some suggestions:
Comment on other people’s and businesses’ social media posts.
Retweet others’ posts.
Ask your followers about their opinions and interests.
Participate in others’ surveys and polls.
Give shoutouts to other (noncompeting) businesses and people.
Part of your social media marketing strategy needs to include engaging with your audiences. Engagement creates and maintains relationships with the people you want to reach.
Make sure to respond to all comments. Create posts that encourage feedback. Use hashtags; keep the conversation going, and don’t just talk about yourself. When you can take those steps, you will be well on your way to crafting an effective social media presence.
Here at Distinct Web Design, we can help you create a social media marketing campaign. We can also help you to develop a digital marketing campaign that allows you to reach your business goals.
When you begin to explore the world of digital marketing, one term you hear frequently is “target audience.” The target audience will guide many of your marketing decisions, but what is it, exactly? Here is a look at what a target audience is, and the role it plays in your digital marketing campaign.
Target Audience: Definition
In the marketing world, effective campaigns do not reach everybody. Trying to make sure everybody sees and enjoys your marketing efforts isn’t just impractical from a cost and effort standpoint. It is, quite simply, impossible.
Even if you could get your message out to everyone, not everyone would be interested in it. Most people would find it to be irrelevant to their lives because they do not possess the interests or suffer the pain points that your business caters to.
In order to develop an effective digital marketing campaign, you need to reach a much more limited group of people. You need to reach the people who will care about your message. That group of people is called your target audience. They are the individuals who share certain characteristics that make them desirable targets of your digital marketing campaigns.
Target Audience: Characteristics
If your target audience consists of the people you want to reach with your digital marketing campaign, then how do you know who they are? The target audience you want to reach may not be the same as the target audience the business next to you wants to reach. A landscape business may want to reach a different audience than does a children’s playhouse.
The reason for these differences is that your target audience will consist of people who may be interested in your products and services. The people who are interested in your products and services may not be interested in another company’s products and services. The people who need a landscaper may not need a place to entertain their children, for example.
In order to define your specific target audience, you need to identify the characteristics that they share. For example, people who need your landscaping services are probably all homeowners within a certain inco.e bracket who live in your service area. You may even find that the ones most interested in landscaping are a certain age and do or do not have children.
There are many characteristics to consider when building a picture of your target audience. Here are some of the characteristics that can influence their level of interest in your business:
Age
Income Level
Location
Budget
Internet Device
Hobbies
Internet Search History
Prior Purchases
Prior Encounters with Your Business
Religion
Ethnicity
Marital Status
Number of Children
Pets
Career Goals
And more
There are an almost infinite number of demographics, and combination of demographics, that you can use to define your target audience.
For example, you may want to reach homeowners in Putnam County, while another landscaping business wants to reach customers in Montgomery County. The difference will probably be because of location: Your business is in Putnam County, and the other business is located in Montgomery County. Your job is to figure out which characteristics are shared by the people who most want and benefit from your products and services.
Target Audience: Identification
As you may have already figured out, identifying the target audiences for your digital marketing campaigns takes a little bit of investigative work. Before you go about finding the right audiences, there are three other things you should know:
Your target audience can change depending on your campaign.
You can have multiple target audiences.
You may have target audiences you haven’t even thought about.
For example, say you want to run a retargeting campaign. Your target audience for that campaign would be anyone who viewed your landscaping services on your website. It would not matter what their demographic information was. However, for a Google Ads campaign, you might want to target anyone in a certain location who types in a certain search term. The target audiences are different but the goal is the same: To reach people who might be interested in your products and services.
In order to successfully identify your target audience, there are a few steps you should take.
Analyze your current customers.
Who is buying from you right now? What qualities do they have in common?
Consult your online analytics.
Who is visiting your website and interacting with your social media? What qualities do they have in common, especially when they stay and engage?
Look at your competition.
Who is your competition targeting? Will these same people be interested in your products and services? Why or why not?
Following this process might reveal that you have been trying to reach the wrong people, or it might help you to uncover new groups of people to target. Either way, you should end up with a clearer idea of who to reach with your digital marketing campaigns.
When you need to identify and use target audiences in your digital marketing campaigns, you may want to hire a professional digital marketing company. Here at Distinct Web Design, we can help you find the right audience to target for each of your campaigns.
With our assistance, you can make sure that you deliver a compelling message to each of your target audiences. We help you speak their language, address their pain points, and win their business and their loyalty for an effective and powerful digital marketing campaign.
A digital marketing campaign is an exciting opportunity to build a strong online presence for your business. You can reach your target audiences right where they spend much of their time: Online. It also gives you access to a wide array of information about both your strategies and your audiences.
This information, obtained through analytics programs like Google Analytics, and through A/B testing, provides valuable insights. You can use these insights to guide your marketing efforts. In particular, analytics from your digital marketing campaigns can provide you with the following benefits:
Analytics help you understand your audience demographics.
Digital marketing analytics can give you some valuable insights into who is interested in your website and your business. In particular, analytics can give you demographic information about your website visitors and customers. Here is some of the information you can glean from your analytics:
Age
Gender
Location
Income
Interests
Not only can you see this demographic information, but you can also see how each demographic interacts with your business.
For example, if a quarter of your visitors are men in their 50s, but this demographic tends to bounce away from your site pretty quickly. Then you know something needs to change about your website if you are going to keep that demographic’s attention. Alternatively, you could adjust your digital marketing so that it no longer reaches men in their 50s. Analytics are suddenly helping you market yourself more effectively.
Analytics allow you to test your marketing strategies.
Practice makes perfect in the digital marketing world as much as anywhere else. You won’t get your strategies exactly right the first time. You need to test them and analyze their performance. Analytics allow you to do just that.
For example, say you build two Google Ads and need to know which one is most effective. You can use analytics to see which ad received more click throughs, resulted in more engagement on your website, and yielded more conversions.
Similarly, you can use analytics to see where people come from when they land on your website, and what they do after they arrive. From there, you can evaluate which aspects of your digital marketing campaign are going well and which ones need some work or may even need to be dropped. With analytics, you can craft a digital marketing campaign over time that is tailored to your needs and to your audience and is, therefore, very effective.
Analytics allow you to increase your digital marketing ROI.
The goal of your digital marketing campaign, obviously, is to help your business make money. In order to do so, your marketing efforts need to bring in more money than you spend on them.
If you simply implement a campaign and never check on its progress, you won’t know if it is making you money, how much it is making, whether it is worth the money you are putting into it, or even if you can make it more profitable. To answer all of those questions, you need analytics.
Analytics help you to determine (and improve) the ROI of your digital marketing campaigns by giving you insight into who responds to the campaign and how they respond.
For example, you can use analytics to test two Google Ads against each other. You find that one performs better than the other, or you find that one keyword delivers more conversions than another. You then devote more resources to those ads, keywords, or strategies.
Similarly, you can use keywords to determine the cost for every lead or conversion you acquire through your digital marketing campaign. You might find that the strategy that delivered the most website traffic did not yield the most conversions or profits.
You may also identify a strategy that is more profitable even though it appears to be less productive on the surface. Those insights can help you to focus your efforts on the higher-yielding strategies so you can maximize your digital marketing ROI.
Analytics allow you to identify weak spots in your campaigns.
Not every campaign is going to succeed. Not every strategy is going to go over well with your target audiences. If something isn’t working, you want to know about it so you can fix it. Analytics help you to identify the areas in your digital marketing campaigns that are weak or ineffective.
For example, if you are crafting a social media campaign, you may post at several different times of the day. Analytics can tell you that posting, say, in the early morning is much less effective than posting in the afternoon. Similarly, you may choose to craft an Instagram or Twitter story for your business, but find upon evaluating the analytics that the story did not go over well with your target audience. Understanding where you are falling short can help you to change your approach. You can put aside the ineffective approach and craft a new one that works better for your digital marketing campaign.
Analytics can help you identify weak spots throughout your digital marketing strategies. They can show you if you are failing to reach your target audience, if your content is weak, if your landing pages need work, if your Google Ads need tweaking. Once you know where your campaign needs improvement you can make changes that strengthen your digital marketing campaign and bring you the results you need.
Analytics are a smart and necessary addition to any digital marketing campaign. They provide critical information that can help you understand your audience demographics, test your marketing strategies, increasing your digital marketing ROI, and identify weak spots in your campaign. Distinct Web Design incorporates analytics into all of our digital marketing endeavors. We can help you gather and evaluate all the information you need to craft a powerful and profitable digital marketing campaign for your business.
Your online marketing usually has a goal in mind, something you want the consumer to do. You might want them to buy a product, take advantage of a discount, sign up for an event, or complete some other action. Once you decide what that action is, you need to invite consumers to complete it.
The button you use in your online marketing and on your landing pages is called the call to action, or CTA. It is one of the most important elements of your marketing because it tells the consumer what you want them to do. To that end, you should design a CTA that is visible and compelling. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Make the CTA look like a button.
Believe it or not, people do not intuitively know to click on the spot on your landing page that encourages them to “Buy now!” You need to make the CTA’s clickability clear by designing it to look like a button. Try some of these techniques:
Create a 3D effect.
Use shadowing around the edges of the button.
Use rounded edges.
Use a border to set the button apart from the rest of the page.
Use contrasting colors.
Since the CTA is the most important element of your landing page, it needs to stand out. Consumers need to find it immediately so they can click on it.
To that end, create the CTA button with colors that contrast with the other colors on the page. Green and red have often been touted as the most effective colors for a CTA. The reality, however, is that the most effective color is the one that sets the CTA apart.
Include ample white space in your CTA.
White space is an important element of website design. These areas of the web page that are not populated by text and images allow the images and text that you do have to stand out. As a result, it is easier for consumers to digest your messaging.
CTAs, similarly, should include ample white space. A little bit of extra space around your text can make the button look more appealing, and easier to read.
Begin your CTA with action words.
Your goal with the CTA is to get the consumer to act in a particular way. The words you use can determine whether you meet that goal or not. The best strategy is to use a powerful action word at the beginning of your call to action. Your first word should have the following characteristics:
Be an imperative
Encourage a specific action
Elicit emotion in the consumer
Be creative (i.e. instead of “Buy now,” try “Get your discount now,” or “Save money today.”
Keep your CTA short and sweet.
A lot rides on your ability to use the CTA to convince the consumer to act in a particular way. At the same time, you need to keep your CTA short and sweet. In general, a length of no more than 5 words works best. Concision must mesh with clarity in your CTA in order to create a button that is eye-catching, appealing, and effective.
Use numbers in your CTA.
Consumers respond to action words. They also respond to numbers. If you can include numerals in your call to action, you stand a better chance of winning the reader’s support. Consider adding in prices, discounts, and other positive numbers to give consumers a specific idea of what they will gain by taking action. For example, instead of saying “Buy now,” you could say “Claim your 20 percent discount now.”
Create a sense of urgency.
Consumers suffer from a fear of missing out (FOMO). Use this fear to your advantage in your online marketing by creating a sense of urgency. Use words like “quickly,” “limited,” or “today” to tell consumers that prompt action is required if they want to take advantage of your current offer.
Make your CTA large (but not too large).
As mentioned above, your call to action needs to be visible to your website visitors. If consumers are using a mobile device, they may also need to easily click the button with their fingers. On the other hand, avoid creating a CTA that is too large. Excessive size can make consumers feel put off or anxious. The right size encourages and facilitates action while still creating an appealing look and feel.
Place your CTA somewhere visible.
In order for consumers to take action, they need to see what you want them to do. To that end, place your CTA front and center. Do note that your CTA does not have to be toward the top of your web page (i.e. “Above the fold”). Instead, place it where consumers can see it after they have had a chance to read all the information they need about your product or offer. At that point, they will be ready to act, and a CTA can encourage them to take the next step.
Test, test, test.
The best way to determine which strategies, messages, colors, and placements work best for your online marketing is to test your CTAs. A/B testing is the practice of testing two elements of your online marketing at the same time. In this case, you would test two CTAs. The CTA that performs the best is the one you keep. You can then create a new CTA to test against that one. Eventually, you will discover the ideal CTA for your audience and your website.
Calls to action are important elements of your online marketing because they tell the consumer what to do next. In order to create compelling CTAs, make sure that your design creates a button that looks clickable, delivers a compelling message, is easy to find, and is proven to work.
Here at Distinct Web Design, we can help you to create effective CTAs, and an effective online marketing campaign. Allow us to use our expertise to improve your online presence and increase the effectiveness of your digital marketing.
When you engage in marketing online, you give consumers many opportunities to see and engage with your brand. Their next step, if they are interested, will be to click through your ad to your website.
The page they end up on is called the landing page, and it has one job: Encourage conversions.
The way you design that page will either help it do this all-important job or send potential customers running. In order to create a landing page that converts, try these design tips.
Match the landing page design with your ad design.
Consumers do not trust easily and are often on the alert for scams and fraud when shopping. One way to earn their trust when they click on an ad is to make sure the landing page design matches the design of the ad.
The consumer will instantly pick up on the design of the landing page. If it matches what they read and saw in your ad, they will be comfortable enough to continue engaging. If it differs, they may very well head right back where they came from.
In order to mesh your ad design and landing page design, match these elements between the two:
Colors
Language
Offers
Discounts/Promotions
Images
Minimize clutter on your landing page.
When you are marketing online, you want consumers to focus on (1 Your message and (2 Their next steps. This focus is particularly important on your landing page. Your landing page only succeeds if the consumer continues on to take specific actions (i.e. Filling out a form, making a purchase, etc.).
Help consumers focus on these tasks by minimizing clutter on your landing page. Simplifying your page means removing anything that does not contribute to the overall message of your page.
For example, remove your header and footer. Limit images to one or two compelling graphics. Create concise text in short paragraphs. When consumers have less irrelevant “clutter” to sift through, they can more quickly understand and act upon the main message of your landing page.
Use color to direct people’s attention.
The color you use on your landing page can have a big impact on how people interact with your page. Use color wisely to direct consumers’ attention where it should go.
In particular, consider using contrasting colors on the elements of your page that the consumer most urgently needs to read (i.e. deals, calls to action). By making these elements stand out with the contrasting color, you make them more visible, and more appealing, which means consumers are more likely to pay attention to them.
Design a visible call to action.
Perhaps the most important element on your page is the call to action (CTA). This button tells the consumer what to do next. It represents the conversion you want the consumer to carry out.
That button needs to be front and center and very visible on your landing page. To make it stand out, consider strategies like the following:
Centering the CTA
Using a contrasting color on the CTA
Making the CTA button larger than the elements around it.
Using clear, concies, action-oriented language
A visible, and compelling, CTA will attract consumers’ attention and, hopefully, encourage them to act in the ways you desire.
Include compelling images.
Minimizing distractions on your landing page when you are marketing online includes limiting your graphics to just one or two on the page. However, the ones you do include should be compelling.
These graphics should immediately catch the eye of the consumer and communicate your central message to them. In order to put your images to good use, try to select images that have the following characteristics:
Beautiful
Professional
High Resolution
Action-Based
Include People
Relevant to Landing Page Message
Eye-Catching
Unique (Avoid stock photos.)
Incorporate white space.
The specific design of your landing page will depend upon factors such as your brand, your goals, and your consumer. However, one thing that all landing pages need is white space. White space is any empty space on your page, any space not occupied by images, videos, graphics, or text. It may be tempting to fill every conceivable space with your messaging. However, consumers respond better to pages that embrace ample white space.
White space gives your page a simpler, more focused look. It also makes it easier for consumers to understand your landing page and find the elements that are most important. Use white space to make sure that your messaging stands out and that your page looks beautiful and professional to consumers.
Consider adding videos.
Videos may seem a bit unnecessary. Can’t you communicate your message with text? Taking the time to create and post a video when you are also busy marketing online in other ways may seem like a waste of your time. The reality, however, is that videos are unique and compelling, exactly the kind of content you want on your landing pages.
For example, videos, when used in marketing campaigns, lead to a 34 percent increase in the conversion rate of the campaign. People respond to videos because videos capture their attention and help them to remember your marketing more easily, and for longer.
Adding a video to your landing page can be the perfect way to engage consumers and help them to remember your brand and your products even after they leave your website.
Highlight deals on your landing page.
Finally, your landing page design should emphasize the deals that you are making available to your consumers.
For example, say your ad, when marketing online, promises a 20 percent discount on certain items. When consumers click on that ad, they should find a landing page that promotes that 20 percent discount immediately. Then, it should offer a link to the items that are eligible for the discount. Making these deals highly visible will ensure that consumers see and avail themselves of those discounts.
Landing pages can be powerful tools when you are marketing online. You simply need to design them correctly. From matching the landing page with your ad design to minimizing clutter, incorporating white space, creating visible calls to action, adding videos, and promoting your deals, the right design can attract, and keep, customers.
If you need help creating the perfect web design, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can help you craft a comprehensive digital marketing campaign that can include powerful, and effective, landing pages.
When you choose to pursue digital marketing for your business, you will probably need to use keywords for some of your strategies. While the term “keywords” might not be familiar, you already know what they are. You just need to learn how to use them in your marketing efforts. Here is a look at what keywords are and how to use them to create a more effective digital marketing campaign.
Keywords: Definition
Simply put, “keyword” is a synonym for “search term.” Any query that a user types into a search engine qualifies as a keyword. This means that keywords aren’t just single words. They can be multi-word phrases and even sentences.
“Keyword” tends to be a technical marketing term. When someone is simply searching for information online, the words and phrases they type into the search bar are called search terms. Those search terms are only referred to as keywords when they are used in marketing campaigns. As a result, the term “keywords” refers to the words, phrases, and sentences that you use in your marketing campaigns to lead people to your website.
For example, say you provide pest control services in Greencastle, IN. You might want people who type the phrase “pest control services, Greencastle” into their search engine to find your business. In this case, “Pest control services, Greencastle” is a search term for your consumers and one of your keywords for your marketing campaign.
Keywords: Characteristics
Any search term can be a keyword. This means that there are almost infinite keywords from which to choose when deciding which terms to focus on for your marketing campaigns.
However, not every search term makes a good keyword for your business. Every business has a different target audience, so every business should use different keywords in its digital marketing campaign. You need to narrow down your options to only those keywords that work for your business. What are the key characteristics that turn an ordinary keyword into the perfect keyword for you?
There are at least four characteristics to look for when choosing keywords for your marketing campaigns.
Relevance
Does the keyword refer to the products, services, and topics that your business sells and addresses? Do they address topics in your industry that interest your consumers? Would people who need your products and services be using these keywords in their online searches?
For example, as a pest control business, you would never use words like “diamonds,” or “curtains” in your campaigns. Your business has nothing to do with diamonds or curtains. Instead, your ideal keywords might include words like “pests,” “cockroaches,” and “yards.” These terms are very relevant to what your pest control company offers, and many people who need pest control will include these words in their online searches.
Specificity
In addition to relevance, the keywords you choose should also be very specific. The more specific they are, the more likely it is that they will be keywords that your potential customers will be searching for.
For example, instead of using “pest control” as a keyword, you may want to use “pest control, Greencastle, IN.” This keyword ensures that your website appears in the search results for people who are local to your business.
Adding specificity to your keywords will probably mean making them longer. Long-tail keywords include multiple words instead of just one or two words. These keywords, because they are so specific, are more likely to deliver people to your website who are interested in the products and services you offer.
Competitiveness
You will not be the only business trying to earn customers by using keywords. You will also not be the only company using certain keywords. For example, your competitor in the pest control business might very well be targeting “pest control, Greencastle, IN, in their marketing campaigns too.
In order to choose the best keywords for your marketing campaigns, you want to avoid terms that are too popular. If 100,000 businesses are targeting the same search term, you have a much smaller chance of being seen than if only 1,000 businesses are targeting that search term.
At the same time, you do not want to choose keywords that are too obscure. There might only be 10 companies targeting a certain keyword, but that probably means that there aren’t very many people who use that keyword in their online searches. You won’t have to compete with many people if you target that keyword, but you won’t be attracting many people to your website either. Instead, you need to choose keywords that hit the sweet spot of competitiveness and accessibility.
Keywords: Identification
How do you figure out which keywords are most relevant to your business, specific enough for your campaigns, and have the right balance of competitiveness and accessibility? There are a few approaches you can take.
Brainstorming
First, begin by brainstorming all of the keywords you can think of that relate to your business. This free-flowing exercise should leave you with many search terms to consider as you select the right one for your marketing campaigns.
Competitor Research
You may also want to see which keywords your competitors are targeting. This research might give you ideas about keywords you should also target. Just make sure that those keywords are relevant to your business as well.
Keyword Research
Once you have a good list of keywords, you can conduct keyword research. You can use any one of many tools to figure out which keywords perform well, how often they are searched, how competitive they are, and more.
Using this research you can narrow down your list to the terms that will work best for your business. In addition, once you have your keywords chosen and begin using them in your digital marketing campaigns, you can use A/B testing and your analytics to see which keywords perform best for your business.
Keywords can form the backbone of digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO) and Google Ads. The next time you need keywords, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can do more than build you a killer keyword list. We can help you put that list to use in your own digital marketing campaigns.
A sound digital marketing campaign uses a number of strategies to get your business in front of potential customers. Social media marketing, search engine optimization, Google Ads, and more, all work together to create a powerful online presence. At the heart of every single one of these digital marketing strategies is content. The material you create, whether it be images, videos, or text, is what people will see and interact with when they engage with your business.
Despite its centrality to online marketing, content is overlooked by many businesses. Instead of creating vibrant, fresh, engaging material, they use old, outdated, or subpar content in their digital marketing strategies.
However, businesses ignore content at their peril. Almost half of all customers engage with multiple pieces of content before making a purchase. And what customers see and read about your business will drive them toward or away from a conversion.
Content is important. But why, exactly, is it such a central element of digital marketing? Here are a few reasons.
Content is the heart of every digital marketing strategy.
You must have content in your digital marketing strategy because every single strategy relies on content to get your message across to your target audience.
For example, social media marketing often links to material that tells people more about your business or that shows off your expertise. You can link to and talk about another company’s content, but people will be more impressed by your business if you link to your own material on the subject.
For example, if you want to discuss tile choices for a bathroom, consider writing your own blog on the topic. Then, when you link to the blog on social media, you demonstrate your company’s expertise rather than showing off another business’s insights.
Similarly, ads lead to landing pages that must be populated with content. Websites have pages that need to give visitors information. Even links in the search results have to lead people to meaningful information. In order to do all that, you must have content.
Content establishes your expertise.
In the world of marketing, industry authorities are those businesses and individuals who have a reputation for possessing skill and expertise in their field. They are the ones customers go to first to get advice, learn new information, and yes, make purchases.
You want people to recognize your business as an industry authority. People trust industry authorities. They engage with industry authorities. They tell their friends about industry authorities. They buy from industry authorities.
The best way to establish yourself as an authority in your field, besides doing an amazing job for every one of your customers, is to produce some amazing content. Useful content shows off your knowledge.
For example, you might post a video on Facebook demonstrating how to place tile in an oddly-shaped corner. You might discuss on your blog the differences between two types of flooring material. You might deliver weekly DIY home renovation tips to your email list.
Over time, people will come to trust you and your content, as long as your material is accurate, engaging, and useful. Without that content, your business just becomes one name among the dozens clamoring for the customer’s attention, and it becomes an easy one to ignore as the customer pursues engagement with companies who demonstrate expertise in their field.
Content educates consumers.
The ultimate goal of your digital marketing strategy is to earn more business. Before people make purchasing decisions, however, they need to know a few things:
What the problem is
That they have this problem
What the solutions are
Which solution is best for them
That the best solution for them comes from your business
In other words, they need to be educated on the things that help them to make the right buying decisions for their particular situation. Your content can offer them this information.
For example, maybe they need to choose between two types of tile. Your content can help them understand the differences so they have an easier time identifying the tile that will work for them.
Maybe they are not sure if they need to replace their tile. Content that outlines when to replace tile can make it easier for them to make that decision.
Content must be part of your digital marketing campaign because you don’t just want people to buy from you. You want them to make informed decisions that relieve their pain points and leave them feeling good about their buying decisions and about your company. The right content educates your consumers so you and they can achieve your respective goals.
Content drives conversions.
Content does more than just establish your expertise or educate consumers. It also drives conversions. The conversion is almost the pinnacle of digital marketing success (topped only by loyal customers who not only make repeat purchases but also tell other people about your business). In order to earn those conversions, you have to have content.
Content drives conversions. For example, the content on an ad drives the consumer to your landing page. The content on the landing page (including the call to action) drives the consumer to take the next step, which is usually a conversion. They fill out a form. They make a purchase. They ask for a consultation.
They would not do any of those things if they had not encountered content that they thought was compelling and informative. Your digital marketing campaign has to have content if you are to maximize the number of conversions you earn.
Content drives search results placement.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the set of strategies you use to earn a place near the top of the search results for certain search terms. For example, you might engage in certain strategies to make sure your business is on the first page of the search results for the term “Flooring in Lafayette, IN.”
In order to succeed at SEO, you have to have content. The content on your website is what search engines evaluate when deciding where to place your website in the search results. The more compelling and relevant your content is to a certain topic, the better your website will rank doe that topic.
Without content, and particularly content that is geared toward the search terms that are most relevant to your business, the harder you will be to find in the search results. You must create content optimized for the right search terms in order to do well at SEO.
Content is the heart and soul of effective digital marketing. Not just any content will do, however. In order to drive conversions, educate consumers, establish your expertise, and achieve your marketing goals, it has to have a few characteristics.
Relevant
Your content needs to resonate with your target audience. It needs to address their questions and pain points. It needs to inform them about your business and products. It needs to answer questions they actually have.
Engaging
If your readers are bored while consuming your content, they won’t stick around for long. Your content needs to be interesting. It needs to engage them. It needs to capture their attention. This might mean using graphics, making a video, or simply writing with a clear and interesting voice.
Diverse
A blog article might reach some consumers, but others want videos, while others are looking for a Facebook post. Create many different types of content across many different channels for a comprehensive and successful digital marketing campaign.
Consistent
You need to deliver content on a regular schedule. Updating your blog once a month or your social media once a week is not enough. Consistently produce excellent content in order to enjoy a more effective digital marketing campaign.
If you need help kickstarting your digital marketing campaign and creating content for it, reach out to Distinct Web Design. We can help you with every aspect of your campaign, from choosing strategies to developing meaningful content so you can build up the profitability and visibility of your business
