Likewise, the idea of seamlessly transitioning from one device to another, never mind using one device to control another device, would have seemed a far way off.

However, now that users have so many ways to access content, buy products and use services, it’s crucial that marketers and advertisers identify the opportunities that lie ahead of them and figure out how they can make the most of them.

We’ve decided to take a look at what we consider some of the most prominent opportunities that are available for marketers and advertisers at the moment.

Video – Everywhere!

You may have read the statistics on how much video people are consuming, but what you might not be aware of is just how many platforms support video, and encourage video content ahead of written content. What’s more, the number of ways in which video content can be created and consumed has developed.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the way people are using video is changing. For example, it’s estimated that 70 percent of YouTube viewers watch videos for “help with a problem” that they’re having in their hobby, studies or job.

Also, live streaming has literally exploded in the last 2-3 years, and it’s important for marketers to note that live videos on Facebook have an engagement rate of 4.3 percent compared to 2.2 percent for non-live videos. In general, live streaming will carry with it a higher engagement rate.

Looking for a quick hack relating to video that can give you immediate results? Try adding the word “video” in an email subject line – it could boost your open rates by 19 percent and clickthrough rates by 65 percent.

The key takeaways when it comes to marketers and video?

• Crank up your efforts in regards to live streaming video content
• Figure out what questions your customer/target audience want answers to, and how you can use video to deliver those to them

Privacy is more important than ever

If 2018 has taught us anything, it’s that you can be as cautious with whom and where you share information online as you like but ultimately, it’s equally down to your friends and family to be secure and protect both their own and your data.

Sharing data across apps, sending messages across multiple platforms and generally sharing your location can all amount to a fairly unprotected existence online.

With people more conscious of what they do with their own personal information, and interested to learn how companies are using their data, it’s important as a marketer and advertiser that you respect their concerns

Becoming aware of legal and regulatory matters such as GDPR and CASL is now paramount. Even if you’re a U.S. company with 99 percent U.S. customers, you might still be receiving traffic from Europe, in which case GDPR regulations could, and will, apply.

One thing you can do today is to take time to understand what your users are concerned about in relation to their security and find out what they expect from you as a marketer or advertiser.

People don’t use one device at a time

So, as I’m writing this I’m currently using five devices. That’s right – not one, two or three. FIVE. A smartphone for on-going quick searches and references. My laptop to type and create the content. A tablet to quickly read longer texts and sources. The “smart” TV is on in the background – I’m using it to watch some YouTube footage while researching this topic. And I’m occasionally asking Alexa a few questions, too.

It might all seem a bit much and I probably don’t need all these devices running at once, but it is a sign of the times. People no longer use one screen to do everything. They’re constantly searching for ways to optimize their work, automate their homes with smart sensors, and improve their entertainment—highlighting the growing need for mobile device management to seamlessly handle multiple devices and keep them secure. This trend allows users to gain access to everything more easily.

As a marketer – do you know how your consumers or target audience are viewing your content? Are they trying to find your website or information by asking Alexa? Are they eager to see some of your video content on YouTube? Maybe they’re expecting you to produce some podcast coverage so they can squeeze in your insights on their commute.

Figure out where your audience is and how you can get a direct line into their daily routines.

Other trends and habits to look out for

We’ve only just hit the tip of the iceberg here, but the point stands that you really need to keep a continuous eye on what your audience is doing and how they’re accessing content online.

Don’t be the marketer that expects hourly pre-scheduled Tweets to smash engagement numbers through the roof in 2018. Adapt to the ever-changing online habits of your audience and you’ll find consistent success in your efforts to reach them. A few other concepts and habits to keep in mind:

In-app/platform shopping

Shopping through social media is slowly picking up the pace. Can you market your brand/product in a seamless way through an Instagram post? Or YouTube channel?

Avoid the ‘traditional’ advertising

Traditional social media advertising is become what banner ads were a couple of years ago.

People can spot them from a mile away and they know they’re just another “ad” – use content that resonates and fits into the lifestyle and rituals of your target audience so that they feel you’re advising and guiding them into new brands or services, rather than forcing new things upon them.

The post The way people use technology has changed: Do you know what’s new? appeared first on Strike Social.

However, the numbers don’t lie, and with 188 million daily active users, it’s fair to say that Snapchat is having its fair share of influence on consumers.

But, what about businesses? Is there any way that Snapchat can be used from a B2B perspective? Your initial reaction might be a straight up, no – surely not, isn’t it mainly just kids and young adults who use it? Well, there is still 29 percent of users who are above the age of 25. That’s a fairly healthy amount of people!

Let’s look at an example of a B2B brand that is bullish on Snapchat – VaynerMedia. This might seem like an obvious one since their CEO, GaryVee is iconic in the social media marketing world, but their approach to Snapchat is one that has been incorporated by several other large B2B firms.

They take the ‘behind the scenes’ approach to showcasing life at their agency. Normally, service firms are notoriously difficult to gauge or compare with competitors, so you’ll commonly see them choosing to shed light on the people within the company.

Vayner Media allows their employees to put their own spin on life at the company that makes it a special place to work.

Ok, so we’ve mentioned one example – that’s not exactly a compelling enough case for you to suddenly start pitching Snapchat to your CMO (chief marketing officer) as the key to success for your B2B marketing strategy. However, we’ve got a few key reasons why it’s at least worth considering.

How to start B2B marketing in Snapchat

It’s a great way to tell your brand’s story

Storytelling is an important aspect of content strategy as a whole, and there’s arguably no better platform to tell your story than Snapchat.

You might want to take the angle that VaynerMedia does and focus on the behind-the-scenes side of things, or you might opt to document an event or series of days at your office in an interesting way.

Snapchat allows you to build a story, over time, using 10-second video clips. Your followers can then consume these as if they’re a short story. Over time you’ll accumulate a library of content through these short stories that paint a much bigger picture than your website ever can.

You can incentivize your audience to get involved

Snapchat offers a different way for you to engage with your audience. Instead of sending out tweets and communicating via text, you can incentivize your audience to engage with your brand and in return, get discounts or take advantage of special time offers.

For example, if you’re a B2B platform selling cloud hosting software you might want to offer your Snapchat followers a really impressive discount if they screenshot your snap.

Not only will this send your engagement figures through the roof, but it will also encourage more people from your target demographic to follow you on Snapchat in the future in case you release any additional discounts. In turn, you’ll be able to leverage your increased following on Snapchat to discuss topics about your product/service, etc.

You can build meaningful relationships with your audience

There’s an important aspect of your workforce that you need to consider, and how that might impact your decision making when it comes to social media channels. They’re now the generation that grew up with social media as the norm. The youngest employees now think Snapchat is a fairly standard platform, and thus, there is a heavy presence of young professionals who actively use the platform.

We mentioned that 29 percent of Snapchat users are over 25, but we’d expect that number to even increase slightly, given that as users get older, they’ll tend to stick with platforms they’re familiar with. So, what might seem like a non-conventional channel to you or your management team, is just the next ‘norm’ for someone else.

The post Snapchat for B2B marketing: Why and how you should get started appeared first on Strike Social.

You’ve outlined your goals and you’ve painted a clear picture of whom you need to reach with your social media activity, now you need to determine the best ways and places where you can do that.

Finding a social media platform that enables you to drive more traffic back to your website over time is ideal. This starts with considering your audience (unsurprisingly).

Will they prefer long-form or short-form content? How do they use social media – are they regularly checking all of their social accounts or do they leave all their social activity until later in the evening? Do they spend their time-consuming video content or do they prefer photos or written posts?

With that in mind, we’ve selected a few key B2B social media platforms that will help you drive traffic, and outlined a couple of key points that you should know about each.

The best social media platforms for B2B businesses

Let’s kick off my mentioning how we’re going to separate the good from not-so-good in relation to the best B2B social media platforms. We’ll use several criteria and checks, but in short, we’re on the lookout for:

• Platforms that are business-friendly
  • Do they allow businesses to set up their own page, run ads, promote the fact they sell a product or service, etc.
• Platforms that have regular activity and users
  • There are hundreds of micro-social media sites and apps, but while they might be excellent for niche audiences or content, you’re going to struggle to get the volume of traffic that you would from the larger social platforms.
• Platforms that have the potential to grow and add new features
  • This is important for you as you grow your own business page/account, but also in general from a user retention perspective. If users are going to get bored with a social platform they’ll eventually leave it.

LinkedIn

Let’s start with the obvious option for all B2B social activity. LinkedIn has quickly gone from being an online CV to so much more than that. In the last 24 months, they’ve rolled out a series of new features to make the platform much more engaging, and they’ve seen their user base grow to 562 million users across 200 countries.

If you’re trying to reach B2B companies, this is probably your first port of call. You can create long-form or short-form written content, post videos or images, share business-related news and product updates, post directly to groups, and much more.

Twitter

This is dependent on your business, but in general, it’s wise to at least have a presence on Twitter. Using the platform from a customer service or support angle can be incredibly powerful and helpful.According to Sprout Social’s 2018 Social Index, “half of all consumers have taken to social media to raise questions and concerns to brands.” One of the first stops is Twitter, where you’ll find brands like Samsung using a separate account for country-based support.

Facebook

If you’re really looking to drive traffic to your website and scale your B2B social media strategy you need to have a Facebook presence. Creating a business page takes literally a few minutes and it’s arguably the fastest way to establish an online social following on a platform.

If you’re struggling to see how Facebook is a worthwhile approach when you’re targeting business-only users, it’s not unheard of for some B2B companies to thrive on the platform by using their powerful ads.

A cloud hosting company got new business leads from Facebook ads and a whitepaper for $59 each. Some ads even brought in new leads at $29 apiece.

On the topic of unexpectedly good performance, don’t be put off a platform just because it hasn’t worked for other B2B companies. Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and many more social platforms can be and have been, used by some B2B companies to generate vast amounts of traffic and leads.

The post Scale your B2B social media strategy using these platforms appeared first on Strike Social.

Regardless, we’re about to set you on your way to becoming a master at Pinterest. Before you know it, you’ll be pinning like there is no tomorrow, all thanks to these handy Pinterest for business tips.

But first, a quick introduction, and a (very) brief summary of what Pinterest actually is and why it’s useful for your business.

Knowing your pins from your boards

Pinterest is essentially an online pinboard that people use to discover, save and share ideas. For example, it might be a recipe, an interior design project or the perfect summer outfit. Whatever you decide to “pin” is pinned onto a – you guessed it – board.

But why is this useful for a business, you might ask? Well, unlike some other tools or browser extensions, Pinterest can be used by businesses to highlight products, increase brand awareness and even increase sales.

Pinterest for business tips that will turn you into a master pinner

We’re going to keep this pretty basic for two reasons:

1. It’s always important to get set up properly before you start flaunting your skills on a new social platform
2. Pinterest is arguably one of the most straightforward social channels to use as a business – as you’re about to find out

1. Set up your business page

We’re just putting this in here to showcase how easy it is to get started. Sign up here, confirm your details, register your businesses website and that’s it!

2. Create 2-5 boards

Great! You’ve got your account set up and now you’re ready to create some boards for your pins to go. Boards are essentially groups that will be home to categories of your pins. For example, let’s say you ran a car dealership. You might opt to have a board dedicated to one particular type of car, or maybe even one particular color of car.

Oh, and don’t forget to name your boards appropriately. The title of your board is one of the main factors that contribute to whether it shows up when people search for the related topics.

Our top tip is to align your boards with your core content topics. A great way to think about this is to look at your blog taxonomy. How do you categorize your blog content currently? If you’ve split your articles into 3-5 key topics then you might want to do the same for your Pinterest.

3. Start pinning items to your boards

You can either pin things that you find on the web or that you already have on your computer. A ‘must-have’ for avid Pinterest users is the browser button which makes saving random things online as easy as doing in a couple of clicks.

If you’re stuck for what to actually pin, then try to think of your boards as just another channel for your content that your audience are going to consume. For example, if your product is sportswear for gym-goers, you might want to add images of athletes performing exercises, or offering advice on what exercises to do.

4. Follow your target audience and re-pin their content

A little bit of Pinterest ‘hacking’ to finish up our quickfire introduction to the platform. You can also follow users on Pinterest and see what they’re pinning.

This is a fantastic way to keep an eye on what content your target audience is enjoying and sharing. What you can then do is re-pin this content, which is the Pinterest equivalent of re-tweeting, and add their pins to your respective boards.

It’s a quick, yet powerful, way to engage with niche communities, and if done consistently (we delve deeper into the importance of consistency here) you should be able to build up a solid following yourself.

That’s a wrap for our introduction of Pinterest for businesses. All you’ve got to do to get started is to:

1. Set up your business account
2. Create boards based on your core business topics
3. Start pinning items relevant to your boards
4. Interact with your target audience by re-pinning and following other people

The post Pinterest for business tips that will take you from apprentice to master appeared first on Strike Social.

Do you want to increase the awareness of your brand throughout your target audience? Do you want to use a social channel to drive more traffic to your website? Maybe, you just want to use social media ads to gauge interest in a new product you’re about to launch? Regardless, the context matters.

That said, there may well be certain types of ads that are most effective based on your company and its objectives. We’re unable to run through every single possibility, but we’ve listed a series of scenarios where using a particular ad type on social media could be more effective than others.

What are the most effective social media ads?

There’s no secret recipe, but there are definitely a few key factors that relate to all great social media ad campaigns. Rather than list ads that we think might work well for your brand, we’ve mentioned some tips for three prominent social channels: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

1. Leverage the reach of Facebook video ads

Let’s cut to the chase – Facebook has over 1.47 billion active daily users. Using the line, “my target audience doesn’t use Facebook has never been more redundant.”

At a tentative level, Facebook is a great place to test new advertising content and material, but its real power lies in its reach and the in-depth targeting options that are available to your business.

One of the most effective ad types that you can test on Facebook are video ads – and they know it. They’re not shy to promote the fact that videos ads of all style and length can be effective on their platform, and it’s not surprising.

For some fantastic examples of success stories from companies who used Facebook video ads, you can check out their case study section, including this Color Run campaign.

2. Get your creative funk on and advertise on Instagram

Instagram boosts some of the most impressive engagement rates compared to their social media rivals. Instagram content has shown 58 percent more engagement than Facebook and 2000 percent higher than Twitter. That’s not a typo!

So how can you get the most from Instagram ads? Well, while standard photo/video ads are great, and carousel ads definitely have their place, we actually suggest you focus your attention on Instagram Stories.

These ads will slot in between the Stories that your target audience follow, making it a fairly frictionless ad placement (that is, if you create a great story!).

For fantastic examples of how powerful Instagram Stories ads can be, you should look no further than fitness apparel brand Gymshark, who returned 9x on their ad spend at a 50% lower cost per acquisition compared to other ad placements.We also have an article covering some of the best Instagram Stories ads examples.

3. Channel your inner Spielberg on YouTube

Ok, so maybe that’s a little ambitious, but creating an effective video ad on YouTube can be incredibly powerful. In terms of what type of ad, we’re going to stray slightly from what you might be thinking and suggest that you sponsor a YouTube channel or creator.

This type of ad will rely on the creator to put together a 60-90 second slip promoting your product or brand, accompanied by a link in the video description. It’s a combination that you’ve probably come across before, for example:

• Blinkist sponsored PickupLimes to promote their app.
• Audible sponsored Jon Olsson to promote their audiobook service

What do these both have in common? Well, the products that both of these ads are promoting perfectly resonate with the YouTube channel’s target audience. As a result, more of the desired users for both Audible and Blinkist are viewing the ads, and in turn, both brands experienced higher conversion rates through the subscription link in the description below the video.

So, which social media ads should I try?

In summary, we’re going to recommend that you take a look at the following types of social media ads:

1. Facebook video ads
2. Instagram stories ads
3. YouTube channel sponsorships

The post Helping you identify the most effective social media ads for your brand appeared first on Strike Social.

With over 2.2 billion active monthly users, it’s simply a platform that you cannot afford to be leaving to one side. However, there may well be some Facebook features for business that you’re unaware of – some of which could give you an advantage against competitors who are also using Facebook.

Here are a few tips and features that you might not have heard of, or maybe you know about but you just aren’t using to their full capacity.

Facebook features for business that your business should start using

1. Watch other pages and compare their activity to yours

Call this a little R&D, if you like – with the “watch” feature, you’re able to follow up to 100 different brand pages. You’ll be able to quickly compare and contrast page activity with your own, including some basic performance figures, e.g., estimated views, engagement and audience growth.

This is a priceless way to gain valuable insight into your competitors and the way they’re using Facebook. Of course, they can also follow you as well.

2. Messenger chatbots make your life easier

Hey, we’re all human and we all have lives outside of our businesses. That’s when chatbots can be so helpful. If you’re on vacation, sleeping or just busy with other things, your chatbot can answer the basic questions that anyone who visits your business page might have.

There’s also an added benefit that is overlooked – it promotes a policy of proactive customer support, rather than reactive or passive. What does that mean? Well, with your Messenger chatbot you’ll be able to start a conversation with each customer at any time of the day.

In turn, you can expect higher engagement rates as you’re virtually saying “hello” to every user who lands on your page.

Oh, and we nearly forgot about the obvious financial benefit of using chatbots. By implementing a fully functioning chatbot, it’s cheaper and faster than creating a cross-platform app or hiring another employee.

3. Make use of the powerful audience insights

This slightly ties into the paid advertising side of things, but we couldn’t write this article without mentioning Facebook’s audience insights. They’re a fantastic way to gain valuable insight on your users (like the Google Analytics of Facebook).

The access to such detailed and relevant information about your users will ensure you’re in the best position possible to create content that resonates with those people the most.

4. Hashtags aren’t just for Twitter

The hashtag has risen from the dead to become one of the most used symbols on your keyboard. But it’s not just Twitter where they can be an effective tool – particularly for businesses. Yes, hashtags are most definitely a thing on Facebook… using them to start a conversation with a specific group or comment on a trending topic are the most common approaches.

While we’re talking about Twitter – pinning posts to the top of your feed is also a feature on Facebook. This is a great way to keep important or popular content at the top of your Facebook business page. For example, that might be a company announcement or a product launch.

5. Take your photos and imagery to the next dimension… literally

This is a bit of a bonus point, but it could help you set your business page apart from your competitors. 3D photos are now available – they’ll live in your news feed just like any other photos.

The exception occurs when you scroll across them, touch or click them, or tilt your phone. According to TechCrunch, “They’ll respond as if the photo is actually a window into a tiny diorama, with corresponding changes in perspective.”

In summary, help your company stand out from the crowd with these Facebook features for business:

1. Watch other pages and learn from your competitors
2. Make the most of chatbots in Messenger
3. Dig through the audience insights to learn more about your users
4. Start introducing hashtags where you can
5. Add a little flare with 3D photos

The post The Facebook features for business that you never knew existed appeared first on Strike Social.

We’ve put together a few points that will show you how to optimize social media ad campaigns – oh, and why you should actually be doing it. Truthfully, a lot of the same principles that apply to SEO will carry over to social media ad campaigns, but there are obviously a few differences, too.

How to optimize social media ad campaigns

1. Check your headline text (and copy)

HubSpot put together three key tips when creating a Facebook ad headline, but honestly, the same principles can be applied to most, if not all, social media ad campaigns. Ensure that your headline text is:

• Customized
• Clear
• Concise

Source

Shopify’s ad headline is short, sweet and to the point – getting the message across immediately.

Your headline is the perfect chance to push your key selling point or promotion. Use plain English, and keep it short… nobody likes a long headline!

2. Have you set up your target audience appropriately?

Once you’ve selected your target audience, it doesn’t mean you can’t change it in the future. In fact, it’s important to tweak your target audience, ideally by refining it, over time.

The team over at Sprout Social has suggested a few key pointers when it comes to defining your true target audience. Keep these in mind when you’re choosing who you’d like to target with your social media ad campaign. Then, once your ad has been running for a while, revisit your target audience and ask yourself the tough questions.

Are these people really our target audience? Do we need to change our focus to a younger generation? Is it actually young professionals, not just senior heads of departments we’re targeting with these ads?

3. Are your images eye-catching or off-putting?

Along with your headline, the imagery you choose to use for any social media ad campaign is crucial. It’s the first thing that catches the eye of the user. If it’s unappealing, irrelevant, or offensive, you’ll have a hard time getting the engagement or acquisition numbers you were hoping for.

Source

Slack’s ad image uses bright colors and because it’s a little out there than generic images, it captures attention fast.

Oh, and we cannot stress the importance of getting the correct image size dimensions for each particular ad campaign. Luckily, Canva has put together an image sizing list to help you get the shape/format of your graphics spot on.

4. Does your call to action make sense?

If you’ve read our piece on top performing CTAs for social ads you’ll know exactly what they all have in common. In short:

1. They’re logical: Focus on the basics above all else. Does it make sense for the CTA to say “Buy Now” when you haven’t described any product or service that someone could purchase?
2. They’re compelling: “Buy this” is not compelling, but “Start free trial” is a lot more enticing.
3. They’re easy to read: Just like your headlines, CTAs are not the place for long, obscure language. Keep it simple, concise and clear.

5. Are you budgeting for success or failure?

It’s crucial to understand what you’re paying for with your social media ad campaign. A large part of its success will be your ability to apply more budget to higher performing ad versions and reduce your expenditure on those ads that aren’t doing so well.

You’re not completely on your own though. Facebook, for example, has a budget optimization tool that uses an algorithm to automatically optimize your budget distribution across ad sets and based on your audience size, etc.

Key takeaways to help you optimize your social media ad campaigns

Optimizing your social media ad campaigns is a surefire way to ensure you’re constantly improving their performance. In summary, our five tips on how to optimize social media ad campaigns are as follows:

1. Check your headline
2. Check the audience you’re targeting
3. Review the imagery you’re using
4. Ensure your CTA makes sense
5. Use your budget wisely

The post A quickfire guide for how to optimize social media ad campaigns appeared first on Strike Social.

“We tried using social media, but to be honest, our niche is quite dull and boring, so we didn’t have anything exciting to post.”

Have you ever heard this spoken about your brand or product before? Maybe you’ve even uttered the words yourself! Either way, it’s one of the typical excuses why B2B companies don’t take social media seriously.

Truthfully, it has long been one of the weakest reasons for not doing something we’ve ever heard, so we decided to make it as easy as possible for you to start using a B2B social media strategy.

Before we begin, a quick note: there’s often an inclination to try to sell, sell, sell when you’re in the field of B2B marketing. However, as Rand Fishkin, formerly of Moz and now Founder of SparkToro, puts it, the “best way to sell something [is not to] sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, & trust of those who might buy.”

Best way to sell something – don't sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, & trust of those who might buy.

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) February 4, 2015

Just because your product or service might be designed for companies to use doesn’t mean that a company purchases it. That responsibility will rest with an individual or group of individuals – something to keep in mind when you’re creating content for any of your social media channels.

Steps to creating a B2B social media strategy

1. What do you want to get out of this?

You’ve got to start by asking yourself what you want or need to get out of a potential B2B social media strategy. Are you just doing this because you read it in an article online or are your reasons justifiable?

Start with considering how using social media can help your company achieve its goals. For example, if your company wants to increase the number of people who visit the website, can social media potentially help you create another traffic source? Of course!

Once you’ve figured out what you want to gain by using social media, try to create goals around that. For example, “increase the amount of traffic landing on the website from social channels by X%.” According to Jeff Bullas, using the intuitive SMART paradigm (the acronym for “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound,”) is your best bet to create reasonable, clear-cut goals.

2. Do you understand the people you’re creating content for?

We mentioned earlier that any B2B social media strategy will target people – just like any B2C strategy will. The difference is that you arguably have to understand not only the people in the businesses you want to sell to but also their motivations and who actually makes the decisions in their company regarding new products or services.

This is the type of in-depth understanding that will help you create content for your social media channels that resonates with your target audience.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a bonus benefit of using social media for your B2B company, look no further than building an even deeper understanding of your audience. As Rene Power puts it, B2B social media activity “also provides the opportunity to access a huge market to test, trial and crowdsource new ideas about your products and services.”

3. What are you going to create and where will you post it?

The nitty gritty of your B2B social media strategy will focus on the ‘what’ and the ‘where.’ You’ve outlined your goals and you’ve painted a clear picture of whom you need to reach with your social media activity, now you need to determine the best ways and places where you can do that.

For example, do you think there’s any value in creating content on Snapchat for a 54-year-old engineer? It’s possible… but you’d probably be better off creating the content for a different channel.

Will your audience prefer long-form or short-form content? How do they use social media? Do they check regularly or do they leave all their social activity until later in the evening? Do they spend all of their time-consuming video content or are they old school readers through and through?

Get started on your B2B social media strategy

Bringing it all together, our quickfire three steps to getting started with a B2B social media strategy are:

1. Determine your goals and how you’ll measure those
2. Understand your audience (deeply)
3. Figure out which channel(s) you’re going to use and what you’re going to post

The post The ultimate guide to creating a B2B social media strategy appeared first on Strike Social.

For example, ‘Click here to buy now’ tells the user what to do (click), where to ‘click’ (on this button or link) and what clicking will result in (buying the item now).

The copy of any given CTA will vary depending on the context which includes factors such as audience, verticals and what your actual offering is. Let’s say you’re selling a product and you want to launch a series of ads to promote that product launch. The obvious CTAs would contain words such as “Buy” or “Shop” or maybe even “Get.”

If you were to offer a service or a class, you might consider using action words such as “Learn” or “Discover” or “Sign Up.” The impact that each word has on a CTA is amplified by the simple fact that there are usually only 2-4 words used.

What all top performing CTAs for ads have in common

There are a few things that all great CTAs have in common, so it’s best to keep these in mind before you start piecing together your next campaign.

1. They’re logical: don’t try to reinvent the wheel with the CTA copy. Focus on making sure they make sense to the reader above all else. At the end of the day, they’re just 2-4 words on a button – they can’t be anything else!
2. They’re compelling: “Buy this” is not compelling. “Start free trial” is a lot more enticing, and placed after some compelling lead/headline copy and you’ll be onto a winner.
3. They’re easy to read: CTAs are not the place for long, obscure language. Keep it simple, concise and clear.

So, are there any examples of top performing CTAs for ads that you can apply to some future campaigns? Sure, let’s take a closer look at some actionable copy that will leave your users with no choice but to convert.

Examples of top performing CTAs for ads

One thing to keep in mind with CTAs is that you’ll notice similar copy being used across ads, homepages, pop-ups or newsletters. The point is that regardless of where you place the CTA, the copy has to make sense.

That’s why you’ll notice in some of the below examples that we’ve drawn copy from CTAs that are used in places other than ads.

Try [INSERT PRODUCT] free

The first example of a CTA that performs well is one which suggests the user can try a product or service for free. It’s a win-win situation. If you like the product – brilliant, you’ll probably want to then go onto the paid model. If you don’t like it, at least you’ve had a chance to test it out and who knows, you might know of someone who could benefit from it where you didn’t.

The example below is from Prezi, the presentation design tool. They’re offering users the chance to try out ‘Prezi Next’ for free. Pretty clear, right?

Sign up for free

Next, let’s take a look at one of the most commonly used CTAs (as seen utilized by Evernote below). “Sign up for free” is similarly effective to “Try for free” but it is applied to a different context.

For example, Evernote has a free version that you can use, so when they say sign up for free, they mean you’re literally signing up to use their service for no cost – no strings attached. It’s yet another example of how important using a clear and concise CTA is.

With some practice and plenty of testing, you’ll be running some high-quality CTAs of your own in no time!

The post Top performing CTAs for ads: What you need to know and which copy to use appeared first on Strike Social.

Whether you’re reporting on a breaking news story, promoting an event or launching your latest product, hashtags allow you and your followers to group together messages and content on a specific topic.

However, while using hashtags can be a useful social media marketing technique, it can always be a great idea to use a tool or platform to help you choose, create and track hashtags that you use in your business posts.

We’ve rounded up seven of the most powerful hashtag tools for you, the social media marketer, can use to enhance the performance of your social content.

7 hashtag tools for social media marketers

1. Hashtagify

These guys have been at the top of the hashtag tool game for a long time now. You can identify the top hashtags and influencers in your niche or industry. If you’re currently focused on Twitter and/or Instagram, then it might well be worth checking Hashtagify out.

In their own words, “[Hashtagify] will help you amplify your reach, identify and reach the right influencers, track your competitors and make smarter marketing decisions to secure new business.”

2. Keyhole

Keyhole is an automated social media analytics platform. You’ll be able to measure real-time and historical social media data and use the platform to track URLs, hashtags, keywords and @usernames on Twitter and Instagram. As a social media marketer, you’re probably licking your lips!

3. RiteTag

If you’re completely bamboozled by hashtags and have no idea where to start, RiteTag might be worth a try. You’ll get hashtag suggestions for images and copy based on what people are currently engaging with through hashtags in real-time.

4. Trendsmap

Keen to know what is trending in your town or city? Trendsmap shows you the latest trends from Twitter based on location. It’s pretty useful if you’re a business based in a particular area. The platform will let you know of trending hashtags, users and phrases in an area that you search for. Oh, and it’s a pretty nice tool to use as well!

5. TweetChat

Following hashtags over time can be quite an effective way of gauging how people are interacting with that brand or topic. With TweetChat, you search for a hashtag and it will show a stream of tweets with the hashtag attached. The platform lets you engage with the users who have used that hashtag.

6. Mention

Mention acts a lot like Google Alerts, but offers much more for marketers. In short, you’ll get live updates about your brand from around the web, including social media. Hashtags obviously form an important part of that, but for an all-purpose media monitoring tool you’ll be hard pressed to find a better option than Mention.

7. AutoHash

If you’re tired of having to manually add hashtags to your social posts then AutoHash could be your favorite hashtag tool of the year. AutoHash finds the best hashtags for your Instagram photos based on the objects in your photo. The days of copying across previous hashtags from that list in your ‘notes’ app are over!

We’d suggest you take some time to figure out what you really need to get from a hashtag tool and then have a look through these seven options – some might be better suited to your needs than others.

The post 7 Powerful hashtag tools for social media marketers appeared first on Strike Social.

Of course, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media channels have their own advertising policies, but in general you should always keep an eye out for things like:

• Image sizing: Each ad type will have different sizing requirements and ads will be rejected if your imagery doesn’t meet those dimensions.
• Audience: Know who you’re targeting. If you’re promoting an alcoholic drinks brand, you should take into account how laws in certain countries affect your ads. For example, it’s legal to purchase alcohol in the UK at 18 years old and in the U.S. at 21 years old, but in parts of India it’s 25 years old.
• Explicit content: If you’re using guns, pornography or fake official documents in your ads, don’t expect them to be approved.

Most of these are common sense, but for specific platforms you can check out the respective policies: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Google and LinkedIn.

What should you do if your social media ad is disapproved?

So, your ad has been disapproved and while you might be tempted to react in total disbelief and shock at how the best ad ever created could possibly be rejected, there are a few steps you can follow to assess the disapproval, make the appropriate changes and get your ad ready for approval again.

1. Refer back to the relevant policy

If your ad has been disapproved, you’ll likely receive a notification from the platform informing you of why and what caused the ad to be removed. You can use this information to refer back to the ad policy (one of the documents/pages listed above). For example, Facebook will typically point out what part of their policy you have breached.

2. Make the required tweaks

Hey, this isn’t dating—in most cases it’s not the social media platform’s fault, it’s definitely yours! Make the necessary tweaks based on the alert/notification you receive and apply for approval. Run through the basics such as copy, imagery, targeting and make sure you’ve got multiple versions of each ad.

3. Appeal the disapproved ad

This might vary from platform to platform, but typically you’ll either have to appeal a disapproved ad or resubmit the ad for assessment. Either way, there are two things to note here. Firstly, this will obviously take some time so make sure you adjust your timeline and expectation of ad delivery if required.

Secondly, if you do have to put together a written appeal (Facebook), make sure you focus on the fact while you recognize the initial ad may have breached a particular policy, you have also made retrospective changes and the ad should now be fully inline with the platform’s t’s & c’s.

4. What if your ad is disapproved multiple times?

If your ad is rejected again this probably means there is something substantially wrong with it. Here’s what you can do:

• Significantly change the ad imagery and/or copy
• Duplicate the ad and submit it again (mistakes can happen!)
• Rethink the wider campaign if several ads are disapproved

Overall, the best thing you can do is spend some time familiarizing yourself with the advertising policy of the social platform you intend to promote content through. After that, there’s nothing better than testing the waters and getting a feel for approval times, what does and doesn’t work and ultimately figuring out what ads do well and which perform poorly.

The post Social media ad campaign stalled? Here’s how to appeal a disapproved ad appeared first on Strike Social.