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- 20 Apr
How to Write a Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide
Not all business ideas are good ones. A lot of people have business ideas. It’s whether these ideas are any good that really matters. That’s precisely why, if you intend to actually build a business from your idea, it’s helpful to create a business plan so you can build out your concept in detail. And then prove that it can really work, both logistically and financially.What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a living document that maps out the details of your business. At its core, a business plan helps you prove to yourself and others whether or not your business idea is worth pursuing. It’s the best way to take a step back, look at your idea holistically. And it can useful to solve issues years down the road. Even before you start getting into the weeds.
Now. to find some very useful tips for writing a business plan, and see an outline of what to include and business plan examples, read the full article at HubSpot.com.
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- 19 Apr
The Decline of Organic Facebook Reach & How to Outsmart the Algorithm
You’ve likely noticed, over the past few years, a fan engagement drop on your Facebook page. This has shown up in how many of your fans have been viewing and interacting with your organic posts. This decline in organic Facebook reach came to a head in 2014, when marketers started picking up on and complaining about the situation.
The two main reasons for the organic reach decline?
First, there’s simply too much content being published on Facebook, making visibility in the News Feed increasingly competitive. Second, Facebook is deliberately trying to show people the content that is most relevant to them, as opposed to surfacing all the content available.
The good news in all of this is that there’s a lot you can do to counteract these changes. To learn how you can improve your Facebook Page’s organic reach, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 18 Apr
How to Grow Your Audience on Snapchat
When it comes to Snapchat, you know that it has marketing potential. But, you’re just not sure how to use it. As with any, it’s always a challenge to grow a new social media audience from scratch and to do it well. And unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, discoverability is a challenge on Snapchat.
And The bad News?
There’s no quick and easy solution to gaining more followers on Snapchat. The good news? It is possible.
Snaplytics provides account management and analytics for brands using Snapchat. And they recently produced a report on how different organizations are using Snapchat. The report reveals insights about how brands are growing Snapchat followings. And it shows exactly how marketers are posting content on the platform and gaining audience growth.
To see how you can use Snapchat for your #MarketingSuccess, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 17 Apr
How to Align Email Marketing to The Buyer’s Journey
Online search has changed everything. Time was that acquiring a customer online was easy. But not anymore. Today, consumers can research a product online. They compare brands on cost, reputation and more. And then decide which provider is best for their needs.That Was Then . . . This Is Now
This progression—from becoming problem-aware to making a purchasing decision—is called the buyer’s journey. And it’s one of the most important marketing concepts you need to be familiar with. And yet, identifying the buyer’s journey is a real challenge for most marketers.
So, exactly what is the buyer’s journey? And how can you map it?
In this article, you will learn how to map your email marketing campaigns to the buyer’s journey. How you can match the right offers to the right prospects at the right time. And of course, how to develop lifelong relationships with your existing customers while doing so. Read on at KISSmetrics.com
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- 15 Apr
eMarketer Unveils New Estimates for Mobile App Usage
from eMarketer.com
It seems that Americans are spending more time within mobile apps. And with that, they are spending less time within mobile browsers. However, additionally, the number of apps being used regularly is dropping.Mobile Gains Focus on Fewer Apps
According to the latest eMarketing.com projections, in 2017, the average US adult will spend 2 hours, 25 minutes per day using mobile apps. This is a jump of 10.3% over last year, and slightly higher than previously forecast.
To see the data and more insights, read the full article at eMarketer.com
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- 15 Apr
Steal These 5 Subject Line Tips for Increasing Your Email Open Rates
121 . . . That’s the number of emails the average person receives per day. This according to a study by the The Radicati Group. However, does this mean that sending email marketing campaigns is futile? Is there simply too much clutter in the inbox for your company to break through?Heck no!
While there is definitely steep competition for attention, a strong subject line will put all eyes on your email. As an example, according to the Email Institute, email subject lines that create a sense of urgency can lift open rates by up to 22%!
In fact, there are 5 great examples. And, if you want to Steal These 5 Subject Line Tips for Increasing Your Email Open Rates, read the full article on Jeffbullas’s Blog.
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- 14 Apr
Five Effective Neuro-Marketing Principles That Boost Marketing Efforts
Neuroscience is the study of human behavior at the sub-conscious level. And as marketers, it can help us understand customers’ behavior. It can give us a deeper insights into what works and what doesn’t. And it helps us better understand what it takes to persuade our customers to buy.Head Games or Smart Marketing?
Simply stated, neuro-marketing takes the proven principles of neuroscience and applies them to marketing. And as a persuasive technique, it can help boost your efforts to achieve massive benefits. If applied properly.
Here are the Five Effective Neuro-Marketing Principles That Boost Marketing Efforts at MarketingProfs.com. When put into practice, they can help to boost your marketing and advertising campaigns.
NOTE: A Free Registration pop up opens on this site. Registration is not required to read the article.
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- 13 Apr
LinkedIn’s New Lead Gen Forms vs. Facebook Lead Ads
by Allen Finn
It can easily be said that in the past, LinkedIn sponsored content was clunky and overpriced. That made it damn near impossible to leverage the social network’s robust business-centric targeting. It sucked.Today? Less So . . .
Per LinkedIn, their new Lead Gen Forms are “a new solution that helps you drive even more high-quality leads from your Sponsored Content campaigns. It does this by removing the main barrier to mobile conversion: making someone complete a clunky contact form on a smartphone.”
This might be LinkedIn’s route to viability as an ad platform. Now, to see how they work and how you can make them work for you, read the full article at WordStream.com
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- 12 Apr
3 Unusual Tactics For Making Your Testimonials More Persuasive
I bet you’ve seen this sort of advice before. When using a testimonial, you should always list the customer’s name. It should also include their picture. And, above all else, avoid unbelievable, over-the-top praise.Those Are All Fine Tips to Follow
But they’re really just starting points. Thats because optimizing your social proof requires just as much strategy and testing as improving a headline, hero image or call-to-action button. It seems that social proof affects different audiences in different ways. The complexity of your offer, the demographics of your visitors and a host of other factors all influence how persuasive your testimonials will be.
And that means you may want to try optimizing them in ways that seem counterintuitive at first. So, don’t use testimonials unless you’ve seen these 3 unusual tactics for making your testimonials more persuasive first at KISSmetrics.com
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- 11 Apr
Quality Drives Decisions to Buy Local
from MarketingCharts.com
A majority of US adults claim to buy local at least half the time they shop for products. And one-quarter of those adults say they buy local most or all of the time. This was according to an AYTM survey of 1,000 US respondents. Perceived quality of goods was the top reason for choosing to shop local. That was followed by convenience and economic impact. Of note, economic impact seems to be of greater importance than environmental impact.Local Market? Need a Business Driver? Project High Quality
The perception of quality is the biggest driver of people seeking locally sourced ingredients. Indeed, 69% believe that buying local gives them access to more quality products. Convenience and economic impact are also consistently important factors, with economic impact counting a bit more when it comes to food. And while the vast majority of respondents agree that buying local can help the economy, far fewer said they are willing to pay a bit more for it.
To see all of the data, charts and additional insights, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 10 Apr
6 New LinkedIn Features You May Have Missed
If you’ve logged into LinkedIn over the past few weeks, you may have noticed something different. Actually, almost everything is different. That’s because LinkedIn completely overhauled its desktop site.Ch-ch-ch-changes, . . . Can Be Difficult
After Microsoft acquired the networking website in 2016, LinkedIn announced it would redesign its desktop website. It seems that they wanted it to more closely mirror its mobile apps. A rational enough move. After all, the website redesign was meant to “create more value” for members.
However, with all of the changes, some may have slipped past you. So to help you out, here are 6 New LinkedIn Features You May Have Missed at HubSpot.com
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- 08 Apr
11 Ways to Turn Prospects into Customers
by Allen Finn
As you may be painfully aware, most of the time people just aren’t ready to convert at first contact. Their just not ready to purchase your product or become a bona fide lead, after your first interactions. And, depending on your industry, that could take minutes. Or it could take months to close a prospect. That means that in that time, there’s very little you can do to stop a prospect from being swayed by your competition.That Very Little is Called Nurture
A nurture program can help. Nurture is a system a business can put in place to move a prospect down their conversion funnel. And it is a means of turning a window shopper into a cash-paying consumer. Unfortunately, most businesses seem to think nurturing begins and ends with email. And while email is an invaluable channel for interacting with your prospects, it has its limitations.
But what exactly can be done beyond email? So, how can you use paid search and paid social to make your nurture marketing funnel more effective? To find out, read the full article at WordStream.com and learn 11 Ways to Turn Prospects into Customers.
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- 08 Apr
How Special Offers in Email Subject Lines Impact Performance
by Ayaz Nanji
Have you ever wondered How Special Offers in Email Subject Lines Impact Performance? Well, here is the answer to that question.Special Offers Work Well, Right?
Surprisingly, it seems that emails from brands with special offers in their subject lines tend to underperform. Yep, you read that right. They were far less affective than those without special offers in their subject lines. This was according to recent research from Yes Lifestyle Marketing.
To see the data and read the insights on this report [download available], read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
NOTE: A Free Registration pop up opens on this site. Registration is not required to read the article.
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- 08 Apr
Social Commerce Not a Hit—Except When It Is
from eMarketer.com
Let’s face it, social commerce has been a tough nut to crack. And, in all likelihood, it will continue to be.Does Social Selling Even Work?
In many cases, consumers just aren’t interested in buying something while they’re on a social platform. After all, they’re there to socialize not shop. However there is new data that suggests that of those people who are clicking on Facebook ads are far more likely to buy.
March 2016 research from the retail search agency conducted by market research company Survata looked at how internet users interact with Facebook ads. For the most part, a plurality of respondents across all ages said they hadn’t clicked on a Facebook ad in the past 30 days.
To see how those clicks fared and for more insights, read the full article at eMarketer.com
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- 07 Apr
13 Urgency-Inducing Tricks to Drive Sales
by Brad Smith
It was one of Cialdini’s bedrock principles. The one that created demand out of thin air. That compelled people to finally, at long last, take action. To buy, share, and break through the inertia that prevents any change whatsoever.It’s urgency.
Scarcity provides that sense of urgency that forces us to make a decision, to change, even though we’re hardwired not to like change. Sure, we want the upside. But we can’t stomach the downside – change – in most cases. So nothing happens.
So how can you break through that barrier? Here are 13 tried-and-true urgency-inducing tactics you can start using to increase sales at WordStream.com
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- 06 Apr
The Changing Content Preferences of B2B Buyers
by Ayaz Nanji
A recent research from Demand Gen Report and Uberflip [report download available] has some interesting indications for B2B content marketers. It seems that B2B buyers say they are now paying more attention to the trustworthiness of content sources when evaluating products/services.Mobile Content Moves Up the Preference Chart for B2B
The report revealed that some 72% of B2B buyers say they have been placing a higher emphasis on the trustworthiness of content sources over the past year. While 52% say they have been increasingly preferring mobile-optimized content. And even more importantly, 46% say they’ve been preferring shorter format pieces.
For all of the data and insights, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
NOTE: A Free Registration pop up opens on this site. Registration is not required to read the article.
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- 05 Apr
How to Write a Case Study Prospects Actually Want to Read
by Dan Shewan
The case study has long been a staple of marketing departments everywhere. However, despite the prevalence of marketing case studies and their potential impact, most of them are dull, boring, and forgettable.It’s Not About Me, It’s About You, The Customer
In fact, most case studies are bland and instantly forgettable. That is because marketers ignore the fact that case studies are stories in the most literal sense. They get preoccupied with things like brand voice or messaging matrices and forget to leverage the narrative form that makes stories so compelling. Or, even worse, they simply can’t stop themselves from harping on about how great their company is, the gravest of sins when case studies are concerned.
So how can you write a case study that prospective customers will actually want to read? What is it that makes a case study a compelling document? To learn how, read the full article at WordStream.com.
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- 04 Apr
6 Quick Hacks for Increasing Organic Social Media Reach
by Disha Dinesh
It has been noticed recently that the organic reach of content published by brands on Facebook is dropping. But, no fear, Facebook is going to “solve” that issue. In an attempt to make feeds more relevant to their users, Facebook has prioritized content shared by friends and family.The Cure May Be Worse Than the Disease . . .
It is important for marketers to remember that social networks are little more than search engines in their own right. And just like Google or Bing or Yahoo, they will continue to focus on their users. They want to give them the most relevant content to them – and not advertisers.
However, as a brand, how do you make sure that your content continues to reach a high percentage of your target audience.? Paid advertising alone isn’t going to cut it. That probably won’t get you the exposure or brand recognition that you are hoping for. So, what is to be done then? Here are six smart ways to boost your social media reach organically from JeffBullas.com
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- 03 Apr
For Youth, Social Media Increasingly Means Just Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram
vfrom MarketingChats.com
MarketingCharts.com has been keeping score of teens’ changing social media preferences over the past few years. And in that time, they have seen some startling changes in how teens are engaging in social media.But, how about the broader 12-24 age group?
In the latest edition of The Infinite Dial report [click for instant download] from Edison Research and Triton Digital, there are indications of a change in trend. In that report, they noted that social media use among the larger 12-24 age group is increasingly limited to three top platforms.
To see how the data breaks down and what that can mean to your youth-marketing efforts, read the full article and see more insights at MarketingChats.com
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- 01 Apr
Tips to Act on Social Listening – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
90% of marketers report that social media is important to their businesses. So that means keeping a watchful eye on what the customers are saying on social is crucial.If a negative comment goes unnoticed, it can quickly turn into an ugly mess for the brand. It can spread virally with the potential for others to jump onboard with their own negative comments. Positive comments are just as important as they are the eyes and ears to the customer. Those can tell you what they’re thinking, what they like, what they don’t like and what they want. Consumer comments have a wide variety of uses, but the key is to pay attention to every word.
This article from Entrepreneur.com shares three ways comments on your social channels can help improve business, as well as how to respond to comments, both positive and negative. Read the full article
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