The Daily Carnage

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The Science Behind the Best Instagram Bios

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

We’re gonna keep this short and sweet today…because let’s face it, you’re likely checking out at work.

So, let’s chat about your IG bio for a hot second.

Everyone is fighting for attention. (Over 1 billion people to be exact on Instagram).

Just like a website homepage, you have a matter of seconds to hold the attention of your visitor. Here are some quick tips to get the most out of your IG bio.

Make the most of your limited space, and drive people to take an action from your Instagram bio: You have 150 characters to use in your bio. Focus on ONE action for your audience to take. Not 3 or 10, but ONE. See YETI Instagram for inspo.
Use line breaks: Aka, the return key. Line breaks are a great way to get your message out in a clear and concise way and keep your profile clean.
Put an emoji in your bio: Fact – Emojis stand out. Try adding an emoji after a line of text, but be sure to keep it on-brand.
Use a hashtag: Hashtags will help folks discover you. It’s that simple. Use them. In addition to hashtags, think about your username and display name. They’ll help you show up in search results.

There’s a caveat to all of this. There’s no perfect profile. Good marketers test and test often. Try a few of these tips out and see if anything moves the needle.

How to Use Images to Increase Search Visibility

NOVEMBER 24, 2019

Fact: Search is becoming more visual.

Why it matters?

There’s a great opportunity to build organic visibility using images and, in turn, show up higher in search results.

Ok, how do I use images in search? Follow these 3 tips.

Have an image mindset: “Because images naturally draw the human eye, visual content becomes an organic search competitive advantage. A search snippet with an image is more likely to be clicked than a text-only snippet.” If you want to generate visual search snippets in Google, we recommend checking out Google’s guidelines here.
Get your images featured: Featured snippets are a format that is supposed to provide users with a concise, direct answer to their questions – right on the search results page, without users having to click through to a specific result. If you’re trying to get your images featured, we recommend checking out a keyword search tool like Ahrefs to identify featured snippet opportunities. If a featured snippet article is featured, but doesn’t have an optimized image, Google will likely pick an image from a different site. Takeaway: optimize your images.
Promote with consistent imagery: Your imagery should stay consistent across channels and re-targeting opportunities. We’re visual creatures. If an image from a Google search leads to a click, you’re much more likely to engage if you see that same image again.

Smash that button below to dive in deeper to image search.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Ideas

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Are you ready for the biggest retail dates of the year?

According to the National Retail Federation, the average shopper is planning to spend $1,047 this holiday season, which is a four percent increase from last year.

Sales in November and December are expected to reach $725 billion.

So, ya, folks are gonna be doing some spending.

If you’re selling a product or service this holiday season, check out some tactics below to ramp up your efforts.

Hourly flash sales: Think about how many social media posts you can fire out from Black Friday – Cyber Monday. A lot. Flash sales are a great way to keep folks attention and get them excited.
Update your design assets for each of the holidays: If you have the bandwidth to do this, do it. Colors, fonts, imagery (and more) all increase ad recall. Get creative with the seasons.
Use Facebook Messenger: According to Retail Dive…during Black Friday 2018, there were reports of brands getting 2000% ROI from using SMS campaigns during the Black Friday weekend. That’s pretty staggering. Whether it’s SMS or Facebook Messenger, don’t knock it ’til you try it.
User-Generated Content: We’ve talked about UGC at length in the past so you know it’s important. Put a unique spin on your UGC by incentivizing your audience with holiday deals.
Go all-in on Stories: Last year, 63 percent of shoppers either watched or posted videos on Stories and more than a third of shoppers claim that videos were influential in choosing what to buy. Stories work. Enough said.

Best Instagram caption ideas for engagement

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

A study by Rival IQ found that the median engagement across all industries on Instagram is 1.60%.

What about Facebook and Twitter, you ask?

0.09% and 0.0048%. Big difference, eh?

When we get into the nitty-gritty of Instagram, we see a lot of missed opportunities. Folks tend to spend so much time on the visuals that they neglect to post a thought-provoking, engaging caption.

Fear not. We have a few tips for you to step up your IG caption game.

Give more context to the post: Don’t assume that your audience understands the context of your post. Instead, share your thought process. What were you thinking when you took the photo? Where was the photo taken? What do you want your audience to do?
Use consistent tone: If your brand voice is conversational on your website, and other communications, keep it that way in your captions. It’s all about consistency.
Keep it short and easy to process: We don’t know about you, but when we scroll through the feed, we scroll quickly. Use line breaks and short sentences to improve readability.
Be Helpful: From how-to instructions to recipes, the opportunities to post helpful content are endless. Try to think of a few ways to spin your product or service into valuable, non-salesy content.
Ask questions to drive engagement: It’s fairly easy to get a like on Instagram. A comment is a whole other challenge. One way to remedy that is to ask your audience a question or give them a specific call to action in your post.

It’s Time for a Cleanup

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

If someone sat at your desk right now and fired up your computer, would they be able to navigate it? For most of us, the answer is, probably not. We all have a method to our own madness.

Let’s dive a little deeper…

If someone took over your Google Ads account, what would that look like?

Did reading that give you some anxiety? If so, it’s probably time for a quick PPC (pay-per-click) audit.

Here are 5 super easy steps to clean up your ads account right now.

Be Sure Conversions Are Being Tracked (Properly): A recent report from Disruptive Advertising found that only 58% of the 2,000 accounts featured in their study had at least one conversion registered. Yikes! Tracking your conversions should be priority #1. Learn more here.
Review Target Settings: This step can be knocked out in 5 minutes and it’ll have a profound impact on your account performance. Make sure you’re checking on ‘Network Settings, Mobile Big Adjustments and Target Locations.’
Assess Ad Group Relevancy: The general rule of thumb is that an ad group should never contain more than 15-20 keywords. The goal is to get super granular with your keywords. Don’t make the mistake of ending up with big ad-groups.
Review Keyword Match Type Settings: Any ideas on one of the most common ad account mistakes? Running all keywords on the same match type. This mistake will not only cost you a lot of money, it’ll also result in a disastrous click-through and conversion rate and lead to poor Quality Scores.
QA Your Negative Keyword Lists: A negative keyword is a type of keyword that prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase. You need to be proactive with your negative keywords as they’ll prevent unqualified searchers. Be on the lookout for terms that you do not want to continue showing for and set them as negatives.

Bonus: Looking for a shortcut? Head to the tool section. 👇

Alright, alright, we just threw a lot at you there.

Make sure you smash that read more button below and dive into this article. It’s jam-packed with 3 more tips.

What You Should Know About “People Also Ask”

NOVEMBER 17, 2019

Close your eyes for a moment. Actually, scratch that. Head over to Google and type in a random search.

The results will likely spit out some different elements like featured snippets, Knowledge Graphs, local packs and ‘People Also Ask.’

Those are called SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages; the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a searcher.

We’re gonna dive into some specifics on the PAA or People Also Ask element.

Do PAAs have a limit? Moz says “no-ish.” PAAs have the ability to trigger a potentially infinite number of questions on the topic of interest. Why should you care? It’s all about the opportunity. The more questions you can scrape, the better.
PAAs can trigger video results: Back to opportunity. If you use YouTube, start optimizing your video descriptions to show up in PAAs. Videos will continue to gain steam in search results. Don’t get left behind.
PAA questions are frequently repeated for the same search topic and also trigger featured snippets.
PAAs have a feedback feature: The feedback feature gives you the opportunity to flag irrelevant links to Google. This is helpful if you’re trying to show up in search for those specific questions.

This article is jam-packed with super helpful information on PAAs. Make sure you bookmark and give it a read.

Formal vs. Informal Writing

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Let’s talk about writing.

Whether you’re sending an email to your boss or compiling a sweet daily marketing newsletter (😉), most of us write every day.

Deciding how formal your writing needs to be can be tricky at times. It’s like picking an outfit for the right occasion.

So, what’s the difference between formal and informal writing and which style should you choose?

Grammarly defines informal language as to how you communicate with people you know well and can relax around. We can get down with that definition. We keep the Daily Carnage informal because we can know we can relax with you.

Think of informal writing as the way you converse with friends. Very few contractions mixed with slang, abbreviations, and expressions of emotion. We’re not suggesting you need to be informal with your friends at all times. It really depends on the context.

Moving along…

Think of formal language as the front of a mullet; all business. “It’s more serious, and features more buttoned-up construction, longer words, and little to no slang. A professional might use it to write a cover letter, business proposal, white paper, or legal brief.” Exclamations with formal writing are frowned upon.

So, how do you choose?

Choosing between informal and formal language comes down to knowing your audience and knowing them well. When in doubt, err on the side of formality. It’s always easier to start with the business side of the mullet and move to the party in the back.

4 Ways to Focus in a Distracted World

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

We’re mixing it up today because let’s face it; you can’t do your job well if you’re distracted.

A UC Irvine study showed that, on average, we are interrupted every 11 minutes, and it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back on track.

25 minutes is a long time to get back on track.

So, what’s the fix?

A quick Google search will give you a lot to process, but we think it all starts with the calendar.

Here are 4 easy steps to take:

What’s the source? Start by understanding where your disruptive notifications are coming from. Is it Slack, Instagram, Facebook, etc? Set aside one day this week to take note of where your distractions are coming from.
Create buckets: The goal here is to minimize task switching. Let’s say you have 2 projects that require a lot of writing. Put those 2 items in your writing bucket. Now rinse and repeat with your other projects.
Time Blocking: You’ll want to use your calendar for this tactic (we have a pretty killer recommendation in the tool section below 👇🏽). Set aside specific blocks of time to work on specific projects. Time blocking will help you proactively plan and manage your day.
Shut it down: You’ll need to dig deep for this one, but you’ll thank us later. The goal with a time block is to focus specifically on the task at hand. When you start your time block, turn off all notifications on your phone and computer. Just do it!

Winning at Content with Gen Z

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

While marketers don’t have millennials completely figured out, they have a pretty good handle on what they want and how they buy, but…

A new challenge is here. Any guesses?

A.) Generation Z.

Generation Z was born between 1997 and 2012. That puts the oldest of them at 22 years young. Gen Z is said to hold about $143 billion in spending power.

As marketers, it’s in your best interest to dial in your Gen Z strategy now. A connection with these folks is nearly impossible without amazing content.

So, here are some tips to ramp up your engagement and win with Gen Z.

Digital is king: 65% of Gen Z members prefer email for brand communications. This generation doesn’t know anything but being connected. Don’t confuse connectivity with ignorance though. Gen Z expects diversity and inclusion. Keep your content as authentic as possible and avoid words, slang, and imagery that are exclusionary.
Video is key: Gen Z averages 68 videos per day across their favorite platforms. 68! A survey by Ispos and Google found that Gen Z’eers chose YouTube as their number one way to cheer up and relax. Don’t overthink your video strategy. Just keep it real. Seriously.
They want to learn: 80% of Gen Z’ers have used YouTube to become more knowledgeable about something. Spend some time figuring out what your Gen Z audience cares about. Then, teach ’em. Short videos or skill-based blogs are a great place to start.

Get a couple more tips below.