The Daily Carnage

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Cliche Finder

There are times for fluff. Like sandwiching fluffy marshmallow sweetness between chocolate and graham cracker then roasting it over a roaring fire in your back yard. Anyone else counting down the days to summer campfires?

But back to business. There are places where fluff doesn’t belong, such as in PR pitches about your business’s stance on COVID precautions. We came across this nifty tool that gets the fluff out of your writing. It’s called Cliche Finder.

This free tool finds and highlights clichés in your writing. Your writing should improve as Cliche Finder identifies and helps you eliminate words, expressions, and phrases that are trite, stale, or overused.

WordPress Plugin: Icegram

We’re all about WordPress plugins and Icegram is another one of our favorites. With it, you can easily set up awesome opt-ins and CTAs to turn visitors into fans. Here are just some of the features you get with this multi-purpose plugin…

Grow your subscriber list by choosing from four different attention-grabbing, high converting email opt-in forms and message styles
Display powerful call to action buttons and drive visitors to any page you like.
Easy integrations with email marketing services like Email Subscribers, MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse, and InfusionSoft
Mobile responsive design
Unique Headline Generator that creates engaging headlines – so you get a copywriting headstart
Decide where and when to show your campaigns and opt-in forms whether it’s on specific pages, categories, or posts; to certain users; on a specific schedule, via shortcode.

Free Google Ads Performance Grader

Interested in a second opinion with your Google Ads? WordStream’s performance grader can help ya out with a free, detailed review that involves areas like…

Wasted Spend
Quality Scores
Click-Through Rates
Long-Tail Keywords
PPC Best Practices

Give it a go, friends!

Coolors

Looking for a pretty slick tool to up your color game? Y’all we just spent way too much time playing with a palette creation tool called Coolors.

We talked a bunch about how colors play a fairly big role in your homepage. So if you’re planning a redesign, or want to discover more colors that can complement your current brand, Coolors is the tool to use.

- It’s incredibly easy to use (almost game-like).
- Search through a 5 color palette with the push of the space bar.
- Create your individualized palette with the locking feature.
- Use the inspector feature to input colors you already have.
- Upload an inspiring photo and automatically extract the palette.

Build a Better Site with Elementor

We’re about to spill secret sauce – ready? One of the main tools used in the project with BILT was a nifty tool is called Elementor. Like we said above, among other important tasks, the BILT team needed the ability to make changes to their own site.

We turned to Elementor as it offers the ability to edit pages in a completely visual way. And hang on to your socks folks ’cause there’s more to this tool…

Control every aspect of your web design workflow from one place
Reap the power of 100% visual design
Build websites that load faster, and speed up the process of building them
Offer pixel perfect design, yet produces 100% clean code
Integrate your site with your favorite marketing tools – generate more traffic, leads & conversions.

Can you tell we’re big fans?

Free Intent Data Tool

It’s true, buying has slowed in recent weeks, but not everything’s on hold. So how can you find out who’s still searching for what you sell, and who should be left alone for a while? It’s like they say, “work smarter not harder.”

And your key to working smarter is Intent data. It can provide clues about which businesses are actively researching topics relevant to your business across various digital channels. In other words, you get the opportunity to prioritize email outreach, ad targeting, and direct mail campaigns.

Bombora’s free Company Surge® Alerts tool helps you quickly get started with B2B Intent data. It takes less than 10 minutes to create an account and you’ll receive:

an immediate report of 10 companies showing elevated interest in your topics
a refreshed report delivered to your inbox every Monday morning.

Ready to work smarter?

Text Overlay Tool

While we’re on the subject of Facebook and Instagram, let’s pivot to ads for a hot minute.

Stop guessing whether or not the text in your creative will get disapproved or affect your Reach. Facebook’s Text Overlay Tool is a go-to resource for us when we’re getting creative prepared for ads. Just upload the creative, and bang, the tool gives you a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Save time and give it a go.

Captions on Facebook Video Ads

Captioned videos on Facebook should go together like PB&J. Why? Well, we’re gonna tell ya.

85% of a video on Facebook is watched without sound.
76% of video ads need sound to be understood

What do you do when the majority of a video is viewed without sound but needs sound to be understood? Captions, my friend, and here’s how to do it.

Begin creating an ad in Ads Manager by clicking Create.
Choose an objective and then click Continue.
Choose your targeting, placements, budget and then click Continue.
In the Formats section, choose Single Video or Slideshow.
Click Upload Video / Upload Slideshow or Browse Library to find a video for your ad.
In the Video Captions section, choose to Upload Your Own or Generate Automatically.
- If you upload your own, a window will appear. Click Select file and find the .srt file you wish to upload.
- If you choose to generate automatically, a Review Your Captions window will appear. Hover over the caption to edit or delete the caption. You can correct grammatical and spelling errors or manage length of time.
After you select the file, click Save. Your captions upload to the video or slideshow.

Email Marketing with DirectLync

It takes diligence and creativity to stay on top of your email strategy, especially since inboxes are crowded with emails. That’s why a flexible, easy-to-use editor that allows you to customize the email experience for your readers is worth its weight in gold.

Cue DirectLync’s Email tool.

Where most email editors lack flexibility and customization, (unless you’re proficient in HTML) DirectLync’s drag and drop email editor gives you the flexibility you need to create the perfect email without knowing any code.

But here’s the kicker – you can personalize your readers’ experience with the ability to hide content blocks on desktop or mobile. And to top it all off, you’ll have access to over 500,000 free stock photos to create graphically engaging emails.

Check it out and see what others have to say about DirectLync!