The Daily Carnage

The savvy marketer's hub for industry news, insights, resources, and culture.

Today’s Issue

The Popemobile 🛞

And other stories.

Issues

View All

Stop with the Stock

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Did you know that 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional marketing?

That really shouldn’t come as a surprise though. We all know the game is changing.

As consumers continue to crave authenticity, our content must adjust accordingly. And where does it start (or should we say stop)?

A. Stock imagery

It’s time swap out the stock for UGC (user-generated content).

Here are 4 reasons why.

Is this real life? Consumers need and want to get a sense of a real-life product or experience. Swap out your stock imagery and video to show real people doing real things. Our friends at Have Fun Do Good do a killer job showcasing their experiences with real people.
People are creating better imagery: There’s a reason why Apple ran an entire ad campaign titled ‘Shot on an iPhone.’ It’s because our cell phones take ridiculously good photos. Don’t be afraid to use a cell phone photo. It’s 2019 people.
It’s all in the data: Brands utilizing UGC are seeing some staggering numbers. Look no further than Visit Indy. They saw their CTR increase three-fold by using user-generated video.
People like to see themselves: If you’re looking for a sure-fire way to get some re-shares, user-generated content needs to be at the top of the list. People will share your brand when you feature their content. It’s that simple.

A Content Plan for Your Instagram

OCTOBER 1, 2019

We’re gonna get right to it today.

Instagram likes consistency when it comes to posting. A Talewind study found that brands who post once a day get substantially more engagement. Duh, right?

But, posting once a day takes time and energy.

{{ Insert any inspirational quote on planning here }}

The name of the game is consistency and committing to the long haul.

To help you commit, allow us to introduce the VALUE framework.

“The VALUE framework lets you quickly create an Instagram content plan for five weeks at a time. It also ensures that your followers find something worthwhile in their feed, so they click to your site for more valuable content.”

Value is an acronym for:

Valuable: content that educates your audience.
Aspirational: tangible content to help attain a vision or a goal.
Lifecycle: build awareness, nurture relationships, or encourage action.
Unique: branded content based on your business.
Evergreen: timely, relevant, and built to last.

If you lay the Value framework out as a grid, you’ll be able to easily assign a day to each letter.

And voila, your Instagram content strategy just got a little easier.

Make sure to dive in deeper below.

Why SMS Marketing Doesn’t Suck

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

How many times do you check your phone per day?

If you’re like most, it’s right around 85 times. 😲

Over 80% of millennials say they check their phone as soon as they wake up.

Why do these numbers matter?

Let us tell ya.

SMS (short message service) open rates hover at 82.1%. We get a pretty killer open rate with the Daily Carnage, but 82%? Hot dang.

Hopefully, we piqued your interest in SMS marketing. If so, here are 5 advantages to consider.

Texting has by far the best engagement rate of any marketing medium: Most of us read texts right away. It’s just not the same with emails and phone calls.
Trackable platform: Just like ESPs, (email service providers) there are plenty of tools that track who opened your text message, what they clicked and who ignored it. These detailed metrics help you manage your campaign right from your desktop.
Interactive content: Want a quick response? SMS allows for instant feedback from your recipients.
Immediate delivery and data: Mobile marketing is fast, really fast. You can fire up a campaign in a matter of minutes and get instant data.
Personal touch: Texting gives you a unique opportunity to speak to your audience in an informal way. It’s like talking to your crew.

Now you know the advantages, dive into the basic components of SMS marketing below. It’s 🔥.

Why You Need to Have a Sitemap

SEPTEMBER 29, 2019

It’s SEO Monday!

Today, we’re talking about sitemaps. Ready to get schooled?

What the heck is a sitemap?

A sitemap guides visitors through your website. Example: Let’s say you can’t find what you’re looking for in the main navigation of a site. Where do you go? Probably to the link-filled footer of the page.

From a marketing standpoint, sitemaps help your users efficiently navigate your website.

From an SEO standpoint, sitemaps help search engines discover you.

Here are 2 sitemaps to familiarize yourself with:

XML sitemaps: These help search engines and spiders discover the pages on your website. XML sitemaps are great for large websites with a lot of pages.
HTML sitemaps: HTML sitemaps are a clickable list of pages on a website.

Now that you know what sitemaps are, let’s chat through a few reasons to use them.

Organization: Inevitably, your website will grow. It’s important to keep things organized to avoid confusion for visitors. To get started with this step, fire up a Google or Excel sheet and list every page on your website.
Speed: When your website is organized with an HTML sitemap, it helps speed up the search engine crawlers by spotlighting your most important pages.
Increase visibility: We all want to be found, right? An HTML sitemap will assist bots (website crawlers) in verifying that your website links make sense. Why does that matter? If your site makes sense to the bots, they’ll crawl it for longer and in turn, increase your rankings.

Takeaway: There’s a lot to unpack with sitemaps. Our suggestion is to start simple. If you don’t have XML or HTML sitemaps, use the tools featured below to get on the right track. 👇

6 Tips for Getting on the Instagram Explore Page

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

It wasn’t too long ago when Instagram had 400m active users on their platform.

Today, over a billion people are actively using IG. 25m of those folks are using business profiles. Take a second and wrap your head around those staggering numbers.

With Instagram hitting all-time highs, it’s no surprise that brands are having a much harder time standing out.

It’s time to explore.

If you’re looking to reach new audiences, we have some gold for you. It’s all about landing on the ‘Explore Page.’

For you IG noobs, the ‘Explore Page’ helps users find new accounts based on their previous likes and follows.

So, how do you land on the ‘Explore Page’? Great question. We can’t make any promises but trying some of these tips won’t hurt.

Use hashtags: Hashtags still work. You can use up to 30, although it’s not recommended. Try to get hyper-specific with your hashtag categories. Ie: Use #dinnerrecipe over #recipe.
Tag people or brands: Tagging equals more engagement (especially if you’re tagging the right people). Try to find strategic folks to work with that’ll share and tag you as well.
Follow the trends: The key here is to incorporate a creative brand spin on trending topics. It might work, it might not. Don’t force it. It needs to stay relevant to your brand.
Don’t repost: Reposts and the IG algorithm aren’t friends. Just say no.
Use calls-to-action: The goal with any call to action is action (clearly). In this particular instance, we’re looking for engagement. Give your audience a reason to respond by asking them questions, having them tag a friend, etc.
Use videos: Videos and the algorithm are friends. Use them and use them frequently.

Declutter Your Marketing Plan Like Kondo

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Any Marie Kondo fans in the house?

For those of you not familiar with Marie, she’s a famous Japanese organizer, author, and consultant.

Her method is simple when it comes to organizing; Place your hands on all of your items. If they don’t spark joy, discard them.

So, how does this methodology relate to marketing? Stick with us.

The folks at MarketingProfs outlined a way to think of your marketing plan like Marie.

Kondo says: Lay out all of your clothes on the bed. Marketing translation: Idea purge.
- In the words of Michael Scott, “CONFERENCE ROOM NOW!” Bust out those whiteboards and assemble your marketing team. No idea, concept or strategy is off-limits. Fill as many whiteboards as you can. The sky is the limit.
Kondo says: Pick the clothes that mean the most to you. Marketing translation: Narrow it down.
- When done right, your marketing plan should attract new customers, retain current customers and enable your team. Take some time to focus on initiatives that excite your team and spark joy.
Kondo says: Fold things neatly. Marketing translation: Focus on one thing. When you fold an article of clothing, your sole focus is on that particular piece. Apply the same principle to your marketing plan. Focus on one channel, activation, tactic, strategy, whatever at a time. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to all of the things.

The Art of a Landing Page

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

If you aren’t using landing pages to convert leads, you’re doing it all wrong.

Don’t believe us?

Hubspot conducted a study that showed that marketers saw a 55% increase in leads when they increased the number of landing pages on their site from 10-15.

The main distinction between a landing page and any ol’ page on your site is that a landing page is designed to capture customer information with no distractions (ie: navigation).

Just because you’re using landing pages doesn’t mean they’ll actually convert. It’s all about that optimization.

So, here are 4 parts of your landing page to focus on to increase your leads.

Offer: Your offer is the crux of your landing page. To formulate a solid offer, focus on your headline and your call to action. Make sure these two elements are above the fold so folks can see them without scrolling.
Form: Your form needs to be as simple as possible to avoid friction in the prospect’s journey. To keep your form simple, just ask for the minimum amount of information possible. Whatever you do, don’t overwhelm your prospects.
Trust: How can you achieve trust in a matter of seconds? Design, relevant trust icons, real testimonials, and clear privacy policies. Look no further than Casper. They nail all of these things.
Visuals: Enter the visual hierarchy. Your visuals should guide the eye of your customer to the highest priority sections of your landing page. You don’t want your images competing with your call to action. They need to complement each other.

Dive in deeper below. 👇

Essential SEO Ranking Factors You Need to Rank #1 in 2019

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019

If you’re new here, welcome. Every Monday, we talk about SEO.

Sometimes, we get weird and call it SEO Monday.

Today’s SEO section is all about what you need to do to rank in 2019. We’re gonna keep it short and sweet because it’s Monday. To dive in deeper, make sure you smash that button below.

Alright, here’s what you need:

A secure and accessible website: In order for your site to rank, Google needs to be able to crawl it. Make sure you have a robots.txt file (it tells Google where it can look for your site) and a sitemap, which lists all of your pages.
Page speed: Google is putting a lot of emphasis on mobile page speed. If your site is slow, it could get take a hit on your SEO rankings. Takeaway: make your site faster. Check out Google’s mobile testing tool to see how you rank.
Optimized content: If you’re not using relevant keywords in your content, you’re gonna pay for it. Google’s algorithm is built on keyword research. Spend some time doing keyword research and make sure you’re building your content around what people are actually searching for.
Links: Google likes links. Inbound links, Outbound links, and Internal links. Make them your best friends. They’ll help significantly to boost your search rankings.

There are 6 more tips below. Get after it.

What the Heck is a Pixel?

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

We’ve all experienced talking about a product with a friend and bam, next thing you know, you’re getting hit with an ad.

You just got PIXEL’d.

Whether you’re explaining what a pixel is to a potential client or you just have no idea what a pixel is, we got you.

It’s time to go to pixel school.

What is a tracking pixel?

Pixels are tiny pieces of code that gather information about your web visitors. Tracking pixels are great for us marketers because they allow us to measure campaign performances, and get hyper-targeted with our ad efforts.

Different types of pixels:

Retageting pixels: These pixels focus on the behavior of your website visitors. Once a visitor lands on a specific page, they’ll then be served specific ads based on their page activity.
Conversion pixels: Conversion pixels track sales from specific ad campaigns. It’s important to have conversion pixels properly installed to accurately track the purchase.

Takeaway:

If you want to get a better handle on users’ behavior and shopping patterns, we highly recommend incorporating pixels in your next ad campaign.