The Daily Carnage

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It’s All in the Reviews

MARCH 11, 2019

Most of us have no problem talking up our product or service. But, can you back it up?

How about letting your customers do the heavy lifting? When it comes to effectiveness, research shows that testimonials take the cake for content marketing.

Here are some other interesting stats:

-78% of people trust reviews as much as recommendations from acquaintances.

-30% of folks suspect some #Fake~~News~~Reviews.

-3-5 testimonials appear to be the sweet spot.

Types of Testimonials:

Quotes: These should be pretty easy to get. Keep them short and sweet. Try to include as much information from the reviewer as possible to show trustworthiness.
Case studies: If you’re a B2B company, you’ve likely been asked for a case study (or a hundred). To create a killer case study, address the problem your client was facing, why they chose you, and what impact you had.
Videos: We’re becoming increasingly visual, so when it comes to believable and impactful testimonials, videos may be your new best friend. Videos allow for potential customers to connect with you in a different way.

Now that you have 3 types of testimonials, it’s time to collect.

Surveys are a great place to start, but you may have to offer some type of incentive to get people engaged.

Or you could simply ask people what they think about your product or service. Alright, free Daily Carnage stickers to the first 10 people who send us some love!

Your Marketing Roadmap

MARCH 7, 2019

There’s a good chance when you’re driving somewhere new, you open up Google Maps or Waze. No disrespect MapQuest.

The app of your choice conveniently tells you where to go and voila.

Do you know where you’re going with your marketing plan? Do you have a roadmap?

If you don’t, you’re about to. If you do, maybe you’ll find a nugget in the following exercise. 3-2-1-GO.

Step 1: How will your product move the market? Start with 2 boxes and answer the following questions; Where is the market today? Where do you want the market to be?

Step 2: Who are your target personas? Write them out. For example, Director of Marketing, Content Manager, etc.

Step 3: Map out your company narrative to each persona by noting various pain points. Our Director of Marketing persona may read like this: “Am I actually seeing ROI on these Facebook Ads? Does our content make a difference on the bottom line?

Step 4: Lead your persona on a journey. After you draw out pain points, it’s time to educate on how your product or service can help. Break it down into stages; Awareness, Consideration, Purchase.

For our Director of Marketing persona, the awareness stage might consist of an article on what a paid strategy looks like in terms of ROI.

The consideration stage could be a case study of a similar company having success with Facebook ads.

The purchase stage might be a demo or day in the life guide of your product or service.

Ok, that was longer than usual. Sry. But, hopefully, it steers you in the right direction.

Avoid These FB Ad Mistakes

MARCH 6, 2019

Yesterday, we talked about forming habits to stay sharp. If you’re running paid traffic with any platform, particularly Facebook, it’s crucial to stay up to date on trends and changes to the platform.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty.

If you’re doing these things with your Facebook ads, stop, stop it right now.

Not knowing your objective. Don’t run ads to run ads. Choosing the wrong objective will cost you money and time.
Not having the proper pixel installed. Are you running an ad for email leads? Is your pixel firing when someone signs up? Make sure your pixel is set up properly to determine the ROI on your ads.
Disregarding the importance of images. We process images before text. Too often, folks think that a random stock photo will do the trick. Don’t think like that. Split test multiple images that have a connection to your product or service.
Bad headlines: Your headlines need to garner as much attention as your ad creative. Try to highlight the benefits of your product or service in less than 40 characters.
Focusing on the bottom of funnel only: Facebook ads are all about creating an experience for potential customers. Too many brands go for the hard sell right away. Not only do customers see through this tactic, but Facebook will penalize you for low-quality content.

Get Better at Content Creation

MARCH 4, 2019

Calling all content creators and those who manage content creators…

Part of being successful in any position involves constantly sharpening your skills. Technology is moving too fast to play the ‘set it and forget it’ game.

A great way to stay sharp is to develop habits. And yes, habits can be adopted for better content creation.

Here they are:

Read: If you’re putting out relevant and up to date content, you need to have your ear to the ground. It’s crucial to know what’s going on in your industry in order to relate to your audience.
Write: Wanna get better at writing? Write more. Carve out 15-20min a day and write free form. There are a ton of resources on the interwebs. One of our personal favorites is ‘On Writing‘ by Stephen King.
Study: It’s critical to know your audience inside and out. How old are they? What makes them tick? What’s their job title? Take time to consistently learn about your audience.
Be You: You’re not the only one producing content within your industry. Folks can find information anywhere. The goal is to offer a unique voice to keep them coming back.
Know Your KPIs: Don’t overlook this one. It’s important to know why you’re creating the content (you’re creating).

Check out a few more below.

Make Better Emails

MARCH 3, 2019

Let’s kick off this week with an email about email (so meta of us). We’re challenging you to make some minor tweaks in your email marketing. Let us know how it goes. Srsly.

Here they are:

Readability: Take a look at your last few emails. See if you can use fewer words. Attention spans are short. Keep it clear and concise by saying more with less.
Choose Carefully: How are your subject lines? Are you using preview text? The goal is to give just enough insight to garner an open.
Sequences: If you’re not personalizing the email experience, you’re doing it wrong. Take the time to setup automation and sequences. Speak to your subscriber.
Encourage Engagement: Please don’t tell us your email says noreply@. That’s not cool. Give your subscribers the chance to interact with you. Pro tip: if they email you; email them back.
Mobile Display: Make sure your emails are displaying properly on mobile by sending yourself a test.
Always Be Testing: Step out of your comfort zone and have some fun with your emails. Try some different things.
Referrals: Here’s a low hanging fruit. Encourage people to share your emails by offering some swag. Shameless plug: check out our custom referral system at the bottom of this email. If you need your own, hit us up.

The Power of Micro Conversions

JANUARY 30, 2019

Remember when Jim and Michael from The Office split managerial duties. Jim focused on the day to day and Michael was big picture stuff. Today, we’re focusing on Jim. Let’s call Jim micro conversions.

Macro conversions consist of the overarching goals of your site (a sale, consultation signup, etc.) while micro conversions are the true needle movers.

A micro conversion is:

An email signup
A social share
Ebook download
Viewing a video
Creating an account

These conversions are all about understanding your customer’s behavior and in turn using that data to run highly targeted campaigns that convert.

So, how do you track these micro conversions?

Good question. Enter Google Analytics. If you’re not using GA, get on it!

Define what micro conversions you want to track
Login to your GA account and click ‘admin’.
From the column view, click ‘new goal’.
We recommend selecting a templated goal, but you can also create a custom goal.
Name your goal and how you’ll choose to track it.
Voila. You can now track everything through the ‘conversions’ page.

The Ultimate Facebook Engagement Guide

JANUARY 27, 2019

It’s no secret the ol’ FB algorithm is a big fan of engagement. If your posts are getting more engagement, you’re going to be favored by the algorithm and in turn, spend less on reaching your target audience.

But, how do you get more engagement?

It’s all in the data. Lucky for you, the folks at BuzzSumo analyzed over 777 million posts (yowzers). It’s a 🔥article and we highly recommend giving it a read when you have some time.

Here’s the highlight reel:

Go video: you’ve been hearing it for a while, but the numbers don’t lie. Video outperforms photos by 73%.
Time it: 9p-11p (EST) appears to perform best for posts. It’s not foolproof, so do some testing with some of your better content and take note of the results.
Don’t rest: The day of the week matters. Sunday is often overlooked, but the data shows some awesome engagement on Sunday nights.
Less is more: Keep your posts under 50 characters. People are always distracted.
Video time: Keep your video between 3-5 minutes and include CTAs and branding early and often.

As always, there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach here. Start with these tips, but make sure you’re always testing.

About Those TPS Reports

JANUARY 21, 2019

Whether you need to prove your worth in your current ‘social media’ role or you just want to have a bang-up report, the folks at Sprout Social got you covered. When it comes to reporting, think about these things:

What’s your frequency? Weekly, monthly or quarterly. If you report quarterly, you’ll have a lot more data to show trends with. Either way, make sure your frequency is dialed in.
Who’s looking at it? A productive report will have you speaking to the right person(s). A marketing team is likely going to look at a report differently than a CFO. Make sure your reports speak to the person(s) reading them.
KPIs on KPIs: Key performance indicators are v important. Things like, reach, new followers, posts and conversions should be featured somewhere in your report.
Keep it real: Your report can include all the data in the world, but it needs to have some context. For example, what’s the average engagement rate of a business in your industry? Sprout Social calls this principle SMART.
Action items: If you wanna leave a good impression, end your report with specific action items based on the data. For example, I’m going to run more ads based on this finding.

Close More Deals with LinkedIn

JANUARY 16, 2019

When it comes to B2B, LinkedIn is the MVP (Most Valuable Platform). If you’re posting pictures of what you did last night or pictures of your pets, you’re doing it wrong. Ain’t nobody finding value in that! Head over to Facebook for that ish.

Here are some quick stats on LinkedIn:

277% more effective than any other social platform for B2B.
More than 80% of all B2B leads generated from social media come from LinkedIn.
There are 8.2 million C-level executives on LinkedIn.

That’s some compelling data right there.

So, how do you effectively use LinkedIn for closing deals?

Connect: Who is your ideal client? What challenges do they face? Who is the decision maker? Go into the advanced search and find that person(s) based on your criteria. Make sure to create a search alert to receive new notifications. If you do connect with them, send a personalized note. Put some actual thought into it.
Build Rapport: There’s no point in being a ‘connection troll’ on LinkedIn. If you’re going to put effort into connecting with folks, be ready to put some time into getting to know them. It’s no different than connecting with someone in real life. Show some interest in them by asking ‘appropriate and relevant’ questions.
Give em’ what they need: We’re not in the pitching sales phase quite yet. Once you’ve built some rapport, it’s time to show your stuff. When it comes to sharing content, think about these questions: What are they interested in? What is important to them? What problems do they face?

Alright, there are a few more tactics here, but that should give you enough to get your connect game on.

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