You're in a startup. Your idea is solid. You've got products or services ready to go. You have a feeling that if people only knew what you were offering, they'd be all over your company.
Now, the only question is, how am I going to make this thing visible? Your biggest marketing problem for startups is visibility and exposure.
More specifically, startups need a cost-effective solution to drive awareness quickly.
Here's your ultimate, step-by-step guide to getting media exposure for your startup.
Ready? Here we go!
Before you go off trying to get media exposure for your company, you need to build a solid foundation—meaning you have to develop your brand and your online presence to a sufficient degree in order to support your media efforts. Why? For starters, media outlets need a reason to feature you. If you don't even have a website or a fleshed-out brand, they'll be unlikely to cover your story. Even if they did, where would all your newfound visitors and brand enthusiasts go?
There would be no website or base of operations to which you could funnel them. Building brand awareness is essential for securing media coverage and aligning with industry trends. The strength of your foundation will dictate your ease of entry into the media world and help you realize the benefits of your efforts, including free media coverage from your preferred media outlets.
First, you need to have a grasp of your brand story, which many media sources will use to judge the strength of your potential coverage. Journalists are incentivized to write stories that people want to read—so is your brand exciting? Is it relevant? Is it different?
These are the qualities that will let them know:
(Image Source: Nestle)
(Image Source: Wall Street Journal)
Once your brand "story" is developed, your next biggest concern should be where your readers are going to go once, they've read about you in a media piece. Surely, you'll receive some referral traffic, but how you handle that referral traffic can make or break its value. For most startups, this will be your main website, but you might also create specific landing pages as destinations (or target specific internal pages).In any case, your design and copy need to be tight. They need to accurately portray your brand for an unfamiliar public, and appeal to them with new angles and extended descriptions. Remember that your media coverage will likely only skim the surface of who you are and what you do. You'll also need to focus on a PR strategy geared toward conversions, which is going to help you turn these barely familiar web visitors into leads or customers.
For this, you'll either need to point your visitors in the direction of your products or services pages through the use of your web design, or else present them with signup opportunities throughout the site. Run some AB tests to optimize your conversion efforts before you start seeking media coverage; otherwise, that traffic could go to waste.
It's also worth noting that a dedicated website isn't the only place you can funnel media traffic, especially as a new startup. For example, let's say SMB Sam is working on a new type of beverage to bring his usual coffee drinkers, but he needs capital to be able to fund it. He creates a page on Kickstarter to attract donations. Clearly, there's an incentive to get people to his website, but for the moment, what he really needs is more donors; this makes his crowdfunding campaign page a higher priority.
Crowdfunding pages aren't the only alternative destinations you can consider. For example, you might also funnel people from your media outlets to your social media profiles, or an example of your work somewhere else.
Before you get involved in any media interactions, you should have a blog in place on your website, complete with many posts that show off your thought leadership and expertise. There are three main reasons for this:
You'll also want to consider creating or utilizing a personal brand, rather than just a corporate brand when trying to promote your business. Essentially, a personal brand works just like a corporate brand, except for you as an entrepreneur; you'll create an identity standard for yourself, build recognition and popularity, then reap the benefits by using your personal brand to also promote your company.
There are a handful of advantages here for media relations. First, people tend to like stories about other people more than stories about brands or companies. As the leader of your startup, you'll serve as a figurehead for your company, representing both the business and the personal side of things. You'll have an easier time working with journalists since you'll be able to form a more personal connection, and you'll seem less self-promotional since the corporate branding takes on a secondary role.
It's also worth noting that any media exposure you get as a personal brand will last longer than your startup, extending beyond the context of any one business. If you plan on starting multiple businesses, this is crucial.
Take a look at how Elon Musk has developed his own personal brand—he has his own section on Popular Mechanics as well as Entrepreneur.com, and his name is recognized more than any of his individual companies.
(Image Source: Popular Mechanics)
You probably won't achieve this level of fame, but your benefits will be similar.
For both your corporate brand and your personal brand, you'll want to start building a bigger social media following. You can do this by promoting your on-site content, sharing the work of others, engaging in conversations relevant to your industry, and reaching out to individuals who might be interested in your work.
A bigger, more relevant social following will help you in the following ways:
Here's a perfect example of how a strong social media campaign generated media exposure on its own:
(Image Source: ABC News)
For help growing your social media following, see 101 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers.
Early on, while you're still building your foundation, it's a good idea to strike up relationships with journalists you feel might be relevant to your brand. A major factor for success in the media exposure world is the strength and reach of your connections, so the sooner you initiate these connections, the better.
There are many places to look for journalists, some of which are more obvious than others. You can generally find their contact information on their respective publishers' sites, but a better way to find them is to meet them through social networking sites or in-person networking events. You can even find them in journalist-specific meetups. They likely receive an overwhelming number of queries through their professional emails, so you'll stand out more if you meet them in person.
You don't have to do anything special when starting a connection. Simply introduce yourself, ask them about their position and about their work, and leave the door open for future interactions. If you really want to stick in their memory, help them out in some way or take them out for lunch or coffee in the near future.
In addition to hunting down some journalists, you'll also want to create a kind of "watch list" for news sources and publishers who may wish to publish content related to your brand in the future. This will make things much easier when it comes time to shop around a potential story.
You don't need anything fancy here; a simple spreadsheet will do. There are four things you'll want to record, in addition to any special notes you might have.
(Image Source: Adam Sherk)
Finally, you'll want to start tapping into the power of influencers, if you can. Influencer marketing is the process of engaging with noteworthy, high-authority individuals (usually strong personal brands or other thought leaders in your industry) to gain exposure or authority for your brand. The best way to do this is through ongoing relationships with key influencers, such as regular conversations, content collaborations, or other exchanges of value. The earlier you scout for and build these relationships, the more power you'll be able to tap, especially later on.
Influencers will help your content and social media campaigns grow, multiplying the benefits of these foundational elements (which I've already covered above). They may also be able to help you find new journalists and new publishers, as they tend to be well-connected in their respective industries.
With all these aspects in place, your foundation will be more or less complete. From there, you'll be able to start doing the work of attracting and creating media exposure opportunities.
Once you've got your foundation in place, you're ready to start communicating with journalists and publishers.
Start by identifying which publishers to target. I covered seven essential quality metrics for evaluating publishers in my article at Search Engine Land. One of those, Google PageRank, has since been discontinued. Here are the other six:
There are many different types of news outlets, and many different ways you can approach your delivery of news content related to your company. These include writing and submitting your own press release, pitching a story, and collaborating with others for a joint project. I'll be exploring each of these in turn.
Your first option is the easiest (and the most approachable for entrepreneurs unfamiliar with garnering media exposure). In this process, you'll use a newsworthy event related to your company and distribute it to a host of potential news sources using a service like PRWeb, Cision, or just about any PR firm. Those sources may reject, edit, or publish your piece directly on their sites, giving you potential exposure across the web.
If this process seems easy, it's because it is. Just don't count on every publisher you encounter to run with your piece.
Collaborations and exclusives are different types of news stories, and they don't rely on the manual submission of articles to be published. Oftentimes, this is the joint work of a journalist and a personal brand/entrepreneur/individual, so you'll need either a pre-existing relationship with a journalist, or a strong enough reputation to earn these pieces on your own.
You'll get varying degrees of exposure and reputation boosts depending on the type of collaboration you choose. These are just a few:
One fantastic way to do so is to sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out), which will put you on an email list that will send you opportunities that may be of interest to you. Basically, reporters who need sources for their stories can solicit them via HARO, and if you find a story for which you think you could be a good source, you can contact the journalist and offer your assistance. It's free, and it's a great way to connect with journalists who write about your industry.
(Image Source: HARO)
Press release submission demands that you create your own material. Collaborations require that you have either something important, valuable, or knowledgeable to say, or have a pre-existing reputation.
Pitching, on the other hand, mandates neither of these requirements; you don't have to do the writing (unless you want to), you don't have to have a newsworthy event in mind, and you don't need to have a pre-existing reputation.
The idea here is to come up with a story that news readers would want to see. It could be an industry profile, a review of local businesses, or (depending on the source) something more niche along content marketing lines, like business strategies or economic tips. Then, contact a journalist and pitch your story. It could either be a story idea or the full written story itself. If the journalist likes what you pitched, they'll reply.
As always, the stronger your relationship with the journalist you're pitching to, the better chances you'll have of seeing your story written and/or published. And no matter who you're pitching to or what you're pitching, there are a handful of strategies that will help you be successful:
My favorite way to get media coverage is simple in theory but difficult in practice – become the journalist. You can do so by becoming a guest contributor, or even a regular columnist at your publication(s) of choice.
The general idea of guest blogging is to use your personal brand as a way to post your content on external publications, build exposure, reach new audiences, earn links, and earn a more authoritative reputation in the process.
Guest blogging is how I became a contributor at dozens of online media publications, including Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Search Engine Land, and more. It's a phenomenal tool for markers and shouldn't be ignored.
However, it's a subject that requires a guide of its own (trying to distill it into anything of value in this little section wouldn't do it any justice), so you can read my guide on guest blogging here: The Ultimate, Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Business by Guest Blogging.
Most of my tips in this section have been focused on online publishers, which are the most prominent, and generally the easiest to access. However, be aware that most of the strategies here—including pitching ideas and helping reporters with one-off contributions—can be applied to television and radio as well.
These mediums are more appropriate for some brands (such as retail and traditional industries) than others (like a tech startups).
Once you've started building a foundational reputation through media collaboration, and you've established a reputation for yourself online, you'll start receiving press inquiries from journalists.
That's when a media kit comes in handy. A media kit doesn't have any formal requirements. Instead, it serves a simple purpose; giving potential journalists and publishers all the information and assets they need in order to represent your brand appropriately in their material.
Some brands have a .zip file of this information, while others simply consolidate it onto a single page of their website.
Your first job will be to introduce your media kit to prospective users. Again, you have a number of choices when it comes to presentation. In your early stages, a simple standalone page of your website will do fine; include it in your footer and design it to show off the key elements of your brand in an engaging way. Eventually, media demand or your brand reputation may be such that it demands a more formal distribution system.
When making pitches or engaging in collaborations, it's also useful to send your media kit along as an attachment or a referendum. In some cases, it may serve as a type of resume to show off your brand authority. The mere fact that you have a media kit shows that you've had exposure in the past, plan on exposure in the future, and are prepared enough to address these situations professionally. It sets a good tone for the future of your journalistic relationship.
Your media kit needs to tell your "brand story," which I touched on a bit earlier. Here, you'll need to present this information with a bit more formality, so it's clear to the average user where you stand.
Journalists love to cite facts and figures, so the more objective data points you can include about your brand, the better. This also further incentivizes them to link back to your site, as they'll need a citation for the statistical data, which can help your SEO campaign.
To give you some ideas for what types of data to post, here are some suggestions:
It wouldn't be a media kit without media, right? But the media I'm referring to here is different from the "media" as it describes news sources and publications. This is the visual sense of the word "media," referring to tangible elements that a publisher may use to enhance or supplement their coverage of your brand:
If you have other brand assets, such as a specific typeface, a mascot, or other signature elements of your identity, these might be good to include as well.
It's also a good idea to include instructions and policies about how, exactly, people are allowed to use this information. You could hire a lawyer and draft up a formal agreement that digs into detail about how your assets and statistics are to be used, but this is generally more trouble than it's worth. For most brands, an informal, even conversational request is more than enough to make sure your information is used appropriately. Besides, all your brand assets are protected under general intellectual property laws, so you don't need to worry about plagiarism or theft. As a great example, check out MailChimp's brand assets page.
They take some time to show exactly how not to use their brand, clarify some common misconceptions, and then make a few simple statements about when you can and can't use their information. It's simple, to the point, easy to follow, and doesn't demand that your external publishers get legal representation before giving you free media exposure.
There are some ongoing considerations you'll need to bear in mind as your reputation grows, and you start striving for higher goals. Media relations aren't something that can be initiated or executed as one-time events; they demand management and refinement over time.
You'll need to manage your relationships with journalists, influencers, editors, and publishers on a regular basis. If you lose contact for too long, you could lose them from your network entirely; here's how to keep your contacts happy and engaged:
You'll also want to take advantage of any cross-promotional opportunities you can find. Usually, this involves supporting a press release or coverage article on an external publisher by using your own marketing campaigns.For example, you might share a positive press piece on your personal brand's social media channel, or email it out to your subscribers. Refer to my introductory section on media coverage's "relationship to other marketing strategies" for more ideas.
Finally, don't forget to take ownership of your latest publication opportunities by showcasing your affiliation with major publication brands. On your website, you should have a rotating list of publishers, or a collage of different logos of those publishers, to demonstrate social proof and make your reputation known.Similarly, you'll want to reference your partnerships and previous coverage in every new pitch or every new relationship you create; this will help you land even bigger and better opportunities in the future.
Media exposure manifests in so many different forms, it almost can't be categorized in a coherent, singular way. Press releases and guest posts are very different strategies, but they can be leveraged together as part of the same path to greater brand exposure.For a startup in the early stages of development, with few customers and not much to build on other than a central idea, the approachability, cost effectiveness, and scalability of media relations makes it one of the most effective marketing strategies you can pursue.Its power is multiplied even further when you use it in conjunction with other powerful online marketing strategies, provided you're following best practices throughout.There's no single list of takeaways I can leave you with here, other than to keep in mind that everything in brand exposure and external publications boils down to your relationships. The better you build and maintain relationships with your customers, journalists, editors, and even the general public, the better you're going to fare.Media exposure is very much connected in a self-perpetuating feedback loop, so the more visibility you earn, the easier it will be to obtain future visibility—but the only way to gain that initial visibility is by instilling trust in your earliest relationships. Maintain a brand and a strategy with integrity, remain passionate, and stay committed; the rest will come in time.If you don't have time to manage your PR strategy yourself, find the best digital marketing agency to help you with the process! Contact us today!
LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing social networking sites for professionals and businesses – and perhaps the most useful. It has grown to become the social media site of choice for small business owners, professionals, and executives who are looking to create gainful business relationships.
And with its recent redesign, LinkedIn is gradually transforming itself into the only social networking site that business-minded individuals need to network and consume information that matters to them most.
If you’re looking to create value and establish relationships with people that matter to your professional and entrepreneurial growth, here are some great tips for you to get the most out of LinkedIn.
By developing a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy, you can effectively reach your LinkedIn audience and share LinkedIn content that resonates with them. Leveraging LinkedIn for social media marketing allows you to gain industry insights and provide valuable insights to LinkedIn users, enhancing your professional network.
Entrepreneurs and employers you wish to reach out to may not know you very well. That’s why many prefer to get comfortable dealing with you initially by learning more about you through your LinkedIn profile.
The most important thing to do if you are to build trust with your target audience is to complete your LinkedIn profile. It enriches your personal or professional brand.
Remember that your LinkedIn profile is essentially your online resume, which can be made publicly available.
Your photo should present the natural you. If you feel like presenting yourself as someone people can trust, a little smile can help.
But don’t force your smile! Smile as though you are very happy to meet someone. Think of a time when you were introduced to someone you found yourself very pleased to meet for the first time.
If you’re uncomfortable smiling while posing for a headshot, just be yourself. But whatever you do, make sure you don’t get caught with that deer-in-the-headlights expression.
As for what to wear for your photo, select formal to semi-formal attire that you’re comfortable wearing. Remember, you’re not putting a photo on your Facebook profile. You’re putting your mug in a professional “place.”
You want prospects to know what you have to offer, upon seeing your profile. The best way to catch their attention is to create a relevant headline. The profile headline is located right below your name on your LinkedIn profile.
You can add a headline to your profile by editing the name field on the Edit Profile section of your account.
Tip: Be creative when writing a professional headline for your profile. Devise an inviting headline such as “Helping your company get found with the best ad copy” or something like that. BE CREATIVE!
Put in as much related experience or employment details as you can that add substance and weight to your prospects. If you are gunning for a freelance job as a content writer, for example, include as much relevant experience as possible on your profile to showcase your writing experience.
Be very specific when putting the name of the employer, the job, and a description of the previous jobs you’ve held. Make your job history as descriptive as possible.
Contact details. With a great-looking profile and a tempting professional headline, recruiters and businesses will be more likely to get in touch with you. Your LinkedIn marketing efforts will surely bear positive results.
Keep in mind, however, that only your 1st-degree contacts are shown your contact details. However, many folks actually include their email address in their professional headline so others can see that they welcome outreach.
You can have your professional headline read “SEO Expert – Helping You Get to Google’s No. 1 Spot – For more details, email xxx@abc.com”
First, a note on adding contacts on LinkedIn. You can add contacts on LinkedIn right after signing up by utilizing their invite forms which mine your existing email address lists.
Be careful not to add people you don’t know or who don’t know you. If you attract too many “I don’t know’s” from people you’ve invited, that can get your account manually reviewed for spam.
There is a way, however, to invite people to connect with you, even if you don’t know their email addresses and they don’t know you – by way of LinkedIn Groups.
As soon as you’re done sprucing up your LinkedIn profile, join LinkedIn groups that are related to your business or where you think you can find prospects. If you’re an online content writer, for example, and you want to find people who work in the SEO industry; the best groups to find them in are those that relate to marketing, SEO, social media marketing, etc.
Take note that you may only join up to 50 LinkedIn Groups, so choose the ones with which you want to be associated carefully. Also, take note that you may not be allowed to immediately join every group you apply for, but don’t fret. There are plenty of groups to go around.
To target the groups related to your target audience, you can do a quick Group search using the search box shown below.
Say you want to join groups relating to “retailers.” All you need to do is type in “retailers” in the search box above. There are currently 1,263 groups related to “retailers” on LinkedIn page. See below.
Now you want to target your prospects with absolute accuracy, but remember: you can’t invite people to connect with you unless you’ve already established some form of connection such as being in the same groups or working with them at a company previously.
To find exactly who you want to connect with on LinkedIn – who you think would find your service to be valuable – take advantage of LinkedIn’s Advanced Search.
Advanced Search allows you to filter your searches so you can find the people with whom you wish to connect.
Looking at the image above, let’s say you’d like to target the “owner” of retail stores. You can simply key in “owner” in the Title field and “retail” in the Keywords field.
Assuming you don’t have anyone on your contacts list yet, but you’re already a member of several groups related to the business of your target audience, click on Group Members under the Relationship field.
The search results will show all LinkedIn members who are owners of businesses connected with the retail industry. However, you can’t get to them or even send them messages unless you’re connected in some way within LinkedIn. But remember, we filtered our search to include only those who are fellow members of a group you’re a member of.
Look at the sample profile below:
As you can see from the example above, I’ve got two shared connections with the person who owns the profile. If I wanted to get in touch with him by sending him a message, all I’ve got to do is click on either of the groups above and find the person using the Members tab on the group’s page.
When you click on the Members tab, you’ll be taken to another page where you can find a search box on the left side where you can enter the person’s name and company.
After hitting search, you’ll then be taken to a search page result. As you hover over the person’s profile, options will come up on the far right side of the profile such as below:
Click Send message to reach out to the person. Remember, this is the only way you can message someone on LinkedIn when you’re not directly connected with each other.
I find that messages that are highly personalized, short, direct, and to the point get your prospect’s attention because:
• It doesn’t sound spammy
• It allow your prospect to feel that you respect their time
• It engages them by creating a specific point of interest keep my messages as short, direct, and to the point as possible.
Most of the time, I hear back from prospects asking me for more information, and some have ended up being my clients.
When I get inquiries, I always thank the prospects for their response and then proceed to show them how we can work together.
Conclusion
To generate leads and bolster your online marketing efforts, having a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy is crucial. You can also utilize LinkedIn analytics to refine your LinkedIn strategy. Make sure it complements other digital channels such as email marketing, creating a well-rounded online marketing strategy to attract potential customers.
A few take-aways here as we wrap up:
• Remember to keep your LinkedIn profile as descriptive and complete as possible.
• Target only prospects that are qualified for your types of products or services.
• Don’t spam! Always personalize your messages and keep them short.
• Use LinkedIn to its full potential to grow your business online.
For more information on our social media marketing services, drop us a line, and we will be happy to discuss a tailor-fitted digital marketing strategy for you.
Understanding your target market through thorough market research is crucial for your startup's success. Additionally, developing a solid business model and continuously gathering customer feedback can significantly increase the chances of your startup becoming one of the successful startups.
Incorporating user feedback is essential for refining your startup business and ensuring it meets the needs of potential customers. Additionally, implementing search engine optimization strategies can boost your startup's visibility and contribute to long term success.
Understanding your target audience is crucial for a business owner when crafting a business plan that ensures startup success. Additionally, maintaining the financial health of your business is essential for sustaining growth and stability in the long run.
For early stage companies, it's crucial to differentiate your startup idea from existing solutions in the market. A successful entrepreneur understands the importance of aligning marketing efforts with the needs of target customers to attract venture capital and ensure the business's growth.
As a marketer, have you ever wondered:
Of course, you have. We all have. The answers to these questions can help you understand your place in the marketing world, come up with better strategies, and prepare for the uncertain future of online marketing in dozens of specific areas.
Unfortunately, these answers aren’t clear; even if you talk to every marketer you meet in person, you’re still only getting a narrow perspective of the marketing landscape.
To gain a broader understanding, it's essential to explore various digital marketing channels, from social media marketing to search engine optimization. Balancing traditional marketing methods with innovative online advertising and content marketing can enhance your overall marketing strategy and ensure a successful campaign across different search engines.
At AudienceBloom, we’ve attempted to go a step further by creating, executing, and analyzing a survey to uncover the answers to these questions, and then some. Sprawling over 50 questions, we collected information from 357 of the nation’s online marketers, and the results spell an interesting and dynamic future for some of the most popular marketing strategies of our era. As a general trend, marketing budgets are on the rise, but that only scratches the surface of what we found.
Our findings indicate that an effective online marketing strategy must incorporate various digital channels, such as email marketing and Google Ads, to reach potential customers. By refining their social media marketing strategy and search engine marketing campaign, digital marketers can maximize their online marketing efforts and drive traffic to their web pages.
Find out:
If you’re ready to learn the answers to these questions (and more), or if you’re just curious how much we were able to learn, click here to download the full report – 100% free!
Email marketing is alive and well. In fact, 59 percent of B2B marketers assert that email marketing is the most effective medium for generating revenue available. Despite critics insisting that the rise of mobile devices and social media are stifling the potential reach of email campaigns, a creatively and thoughtfully structured email blast can still reach thousands of people and generate tons of new leads for your business.
The biggest problem facing email marketing today is not in new technologies or new formats (though a responsive email design is a necessity). Instead, the biggest challenge today is the same biggest challenge it faced a decade ago: getting people to open the email. And in order to get people to open your email, you need a great subject line.
These ingredients combine to make a good email subject line your email recipients can’t help but want to open:
Subject lines aren’t the place to get long-winded. You might be tempted to talk about the benefits your brand has to offer or the special deals that await your users inside, but you only have about ten words, so you can’t afford to do anything but convince your reader to open the email. Buzzwords and fluff content have no place here; instead, use simple, meaningful words to convey a single idea. If you’re struggling, go ahead and draft out a long version of your subject line, then cut it down word by word, focusing on eliminating anything that isn’t absolutely necessary for your message. Good email subject lines can be created by cutting down to just the essentials.
If you're looking for the best email subject lines, remember that the key to good email subject lines is simplicity.
Nobody wants to open an email that was obviously sent to everyone under the sun. If there’s no personalization factor, there’s no individual incentive to open the email. Some companies use personalized and catchy email subject lines to feature each recipient’s name. Other companies work to become familiar with their demographics and include something that’s very important to that portion of the population. Whatever you do, don’t make your subject line generic. Make it as personal as you can.
The best subject lines capture attention instantly and create a sense of curiosity. Effective email marketing campaigns rely on crafting a good subject line that resonates with the recipient.
Don’t give everything away up front. If users can get everything they need out of a subject line, they have no reason to open the email. Use a tease to draw users into your material, along the lines of “discover the long-held secret…” This implies that there’s something very significant on the other side of the email without telling your reader exactly what it is. A great subject line is a powerful tool that leads to many more opens.
Emails also tend to receive more opens when the subject line indicates some level of urgency. Don’t overly pressure your readers, but do subtly imply that your deal or offer is time-sensitive. For example, you could use the phrase “today only” or “24-hour sale” to make users react quickly and open your email. Otherwise, they could postpone opening the email and never get to it.
Though email subject lines don’t allow you much space to accomplish the feat, it’s important to distinguish your brand as an authority in the space. For some businesses, that means unveiling unique information by using words like “the latest data.” For other businesses, that means outpacing the competition by using phrases like “prices you’ll never see elsewhere.” The key is to make your brand (and therefore your email) stand out.
A little bit of humor goes a long way. Giving your readers something unexpected will make your subject line pop out in an oversaturated email inbox, and making them laugh will endear them to your brand. Take, for example, Groupon’s now-famous email subject line: “Best of Groupon: The Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve).” It was original, unexpected, and funny, and it got Groupon a lot of email opens and clicks.
Crafting funny email subject lines can be an effective strategy, but don’t forget to test your subject lines to see what resonates best with your audience. Remember, personalized email subject lines also tend to perform better, adding a unique touch that can boost your open rates even further.
People get dozens, if not hundreds of emails every day. If you want to get past the clutter, your subject line really needs to stand out. No more “try now” messages, or clichéd phrases that readers are sick of seeing piling up in their inboxes. Write something you know you’ve never seen in your own inbox before.
Questions tend to lead to more opens, especially if the question is one the user has had before. Recently, real estate platform Zillow distributed an email with the simple subject line “What Can You Afford?” A good email subject line conjures plenty of emotions and thoughts without bogging the user down with special offers or special values. Instead, it simply invites the user in to find out more.
People tend to remain idle unless prompted to do something. Using action words in your subject line is a perfect strategy to get people to take action and open your email. Of course, you don’t have to rely on straightforward action words like “open” or “read;” you can use almost any command verb as long as it is somehow related to your purpose or your brand.
Finally, your email subject line should convey some kind of value to the user. In the simplest sense, you can mention a freebie coming out for your subscribers, but try to go beyond the conventional. Use concise words to effectively demonstrate how users will feel or how their lives will improve after opening the email—even if you only imply it.
You don’t necessarily need to include all of these ingredients in your subject line, but it is important to include at least a few. You only have a few words to capture your audience’s attention, so make them count! Spend at least as much time writing your subject line as you do the rest of your email’s body.
Get in touch with us about your marketing today!
Good marketing campaigns are built on a foundation of research. The more you understand about your business, your industry, your target demographics, and the resources available to you, the more effective your messaging will become. Unfortunately, “research” is an ambiguous, general term. Telling someone to “research” to make their marketing strategy better will rarely point them in any meaningful direction unless they already have an idea of what they need to do to be effective.
The truth is, there are many different kinds of research, most of which are helpful, and some of which demand more investment and intensity than others. If you’re trying to make your marketing campaign as successful as possible, you’ll need to apply these five types of research, at a minimum:
I’ll start with one of the more obvious routes of research—your demographics. Market research is a well-known type of research, and is practiced, at least to some degree, by most businesses. Your original business plan and business model should be based on market research methods, but you’ll need to continue pressing for more information as your business develops to refine your expectations and respond to any trends and interest changes as they arise.
There are a few ways to conduct market research. One of the easiest is partnering with a market research firm, or relying on preexisting outside data (like census information) to inform your conclusions. You could also conduct primary research here, using surveys and other qualitative research assessments to learn more about your target audience. The main goal is to simply learn more about who’s buying your products and services—who they are, what’s important to them, and what they mean to your business.
Competitive research is all about knowing who you’re up against. No matter how original your idea is, you won’t be the only offer in town—at least not for long. Competitive analysis type of research allows you to see what strategies your competitors are using, and how effective those strategies are at attracting your shared target market. For example, are they producing more or less content than you are? How is it different?
There are two big things to watch for here: what are they offering that you aren’t, and what aren’t they offering that you can? The former will allow you to close a potential gap between the two of you, outperforming them in a new area with a new direction. The latter is a critical opportunity for your business to break away.
As the name suggests, channel-specific research is intended to help you better understand specific marketing channels that you could use in a campaign (or new tactics that improve your results and/or efficiency). Here, you’ll mostly rely on preexisting research conducted by other parties, unless you’re willing to pay for an experimental venture into a new kind of marketing.
Online research is your friend here; rely on marketing agencies and independent case studies of marketing success to inform your decisions. Look for any new outlets that you might not have considered, as well as older outlets that you could be using more effectively. Remain open to any new strategies, and always be willing to conduct more research—in this digital age, new outlets emerge all the time.
Original research takes a lot of different forms, depending on your industry and the needs of your target audience. Its primary goal is to give your audience valuable information as an objective offer in exchange for something else. For example, you could use your original research to write and post an article designed to attract new people to your site or develop your original research into an eBook that you give away in exchange for a few bits of personal information of individuals.
The key to original quantitative research is that it must be original, so you can’t rely on secondary market research for this one. You can conduct online surveys, collect quantitative data based on objective facts, or even rely on your own observations. The more valuable your information is to your users, the better.
Also, original quantitative research can be enhanced by conducting focus groups to gather in-depth insights about customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Unlike secondary research, this approach allows for precise data collection tailored to your brand research and marketing research needs, ultimately helping you better understand your target customers.
Finally, you’ll have to research how you’re performing in comparison to your competitors and in a way that highlights potential areas for improvement. In a sense, you’ll be researching yourself, which sounds easy—but drawing new conclusions when you’re so close to your business can be difficult.
Rely on a series of tools and/or agencies to help you understand key points of information on your performance, such as inbound traffic, user engagement, or online conversions. With each improvement or change, you’ll monitor these metrics closely, and ideally, they’ll grow over time. Performance research is hard to penetrate at first, as you’ll be drawing somewhat subjective conclusions about objective data, but you’ll get better at it the more you do it.
The great thing about these types of market research is their sheer utility—they can be applied to almost any marketing campaign you can imagine. Online, traditional, and alternative marketing directives all benefit from this additional information, leading to better messaging, and of course, better results. Like with any new skill, you may struggle when you first attempt more in-depth research, but the more you practice it, and the more you learn best practices for success, the more efficient you’ll become, and the more meaningful data you’ll be able to extract. It all starts with a commitment to learning more about your business environment.
Broad terms are great for buzzy platitudes but not for a targeted digital strategy.
"Digital marketing" is thrown around with broad strokes, but doing so does nothing to the furtherance of company growth. Today's marketing mediums are so diversified and disparate that grouping them under a common banner is less than ill-advised. It's reckless.
The companies who get the most out of their marketing budgets do so because they begin with the end in mind. They know exactly who their target demographic and customer persona is and what they want that person or group to do.
Then, they reach for the mediums that matter, crafting the messaging that will resonate with their end users.
What follows is a list of the 13 most common types of digital marketing campaigns, how they are used, and discussions on using them to achieve specific ROI.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website appear higher in search results and get more visitors.
SEO should indeed be part of a bigger digital marketing plan to help you reach your goals, but it should never be the end-all of your digital marketing strategy.
Google hates SEO (mostly) and actually likes to be in control of the content that is fed to users.
SEO creates a juxtaposition between the user, Google, and the marketer.
Content Marketing strategy relates to SEO when it comes to building visibility online and increasing website traffic which is definitely an essential components when developing successful digital marketing techniques!
Social media advertising is a powerful tool for connecting with customers, it creates brand awareness and engage potential buyers in whatever you are selling- may it be a product or a service.
Just like content marketing, it provides businesses with the ability to reach their target audience quickly and efficiently, as everyone and anything can already be found on social media.
Social media marketing can be used to promote products, services, or content in an effective way that resonates with consumers because most people spend their time scrolling wherever they are.
However, as part of a broader marketing strategy, it should be used as one piece of the puzzle when it comes to reaching your goals, as well as complementing other forms such as SEO or content marketing to make it really effective.
Paid search ads or pay-per-click (PPC) are a form of digital marketing where advertisers or marketers bid on targeted keywords to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs)- it's what you first see whenever you search on Google.
PPC campaigns can be used to drive traffic and visibility to a website, especially if the website appears on the first page of SERPs, and generate leads and conversions.
Display ads and banner ads differ from paid search ads in that they are more visually appealing- they're the real eye-catcher and capture the attention of potential clients.
These types of ads typically appear on websites, social media platforms, or other online properties. They are designed to capture the attention of potential customers quickly and effectively with high-quality visuals and creativity.
Also, display ads often have a call-to-action (CTA) button or link which encourages viewers to click through to the advertiser's website or relevant landing page. Such as, "Click here" or "Get started!".
Unlike PPC campaigns or Google ads, display ad campaigns do not require advertisers to bid on keywords or pay per-click; instead, they simply pay for impressions or more commonly, views.
Affiliate marketing is also an important part of any effective digital marketing strategy. The only difference among those that were already mentioned is that it is a performance-based form of marketing, and affiliates are rewarded when they successfully drive traffic and conversions to a business's website or products. By this, it can be a great way to increase website visibility and acquire new customers.
Affiliate programs are typically administered through a network that connects advertisers with affiliate partners.
When an affiliate partner is successful in driving traffic and sales, the advertiser pays them a commission for their digital marketing efforts. So, it is very important that metrics and analytics are properly laid out so advertisers and firms can assess whether the partnership is working.
Native advertising is a type of digital marketing that involves embedding advertisements within content, like newspapers, vlogs, blogs, or just a simple post. People like it when an advertisement is not an advertisement, it's like a genuine encouragement, not forceful and just subtle.
This form of advertising is mostly designed to look like editorial content, allowing businesses to reach their target audience in a subtle yet effective way.
Email campaigns are one way to help with digital marketing channels. They let businesses send messages about their products or services to people who have given their email address- you can barely see any websites that doesn't ask about your email ; because aside from using it as a credentials to their website, it is also a way for them to send you an email advertisements and updates.
This really helps businesses reach people who may be interested and helps them grow; it's already normalized.
The term "Marketing automation" refers to the usage of technology and software in order to automate the different marketing process the company could be carrying out.
It is used to simplify, streamline, and optimize processes such as customer segmentation, lead management, email communications, content delivery, and many more- by automating these activities; digital marketers can save time while still achieving their goals.
Because human labor is already eliminated thanks to automation, e-commerce marketing can be quickly, easily, and cost-effectively managed by firms- which was actually impossible before.
It enables companies to send custom emails, develop segmented marketing campaigns, monitor customer activity, and do a number of other actions, which helps businesses better understand the demands of their clients thus improving conversion rates and more revenue.
Influencer marketing is an effective way to reach your target audience and boost the brand awareness. This is more common nowadays as the so called "Influencers" came to rise at the start of 2020.
You don't need to pay celebrities anymore who are by the way expensive; influencers are now everywhere, and by partnering with them who are already established in their own niches, you can tap into their network of followers and build trust among potential customers.
When engaging in influencer marketing, it's important to clearly define what type of content you want them to create, like what I've said influencers have different niches or industry where they are known.
It's also beneficial to set clear goals and objectives so that both parties understand the end goal because aside from niches they also have different content ideas, some of them are comedic while others focus on how-tos. It's essential to track performance metrics such as clicks, impressions, conversions, etc., which will help determine if the digital marketing campaign was successful or not.
Video and YouTube marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves creating and publishing videos to promote products, services, or other content. These videos are more commonly known as "Vlogs," and the people who create most videos on YouTube are known as "vloggers."
These videos being created by them is like the videos you usually on other social media channels, however, it is longer and mostly detailed. These long-form videos can be used to reach potential customers with compelling visuals, including animations, product demos, interviews, tutorials, and more.
Mobile marketing is an integral part of the larger online marketing landscape because who doesn't have mobile phones nowadays? It leverages the ubiquity of mobile devices to reach consumers wherever they are, which allows businesses to engage with their target audience in a highly personalized and tailored way.
Just like email marketing when potential customers are asked with their mobile numbers, most companies use this information for their ads without violating their privacy as they, of course, ask for consent.
Aside from SMS being sent to potential customers, mobile marketing can also involve activities such as creating ads for mobile search, display, in-app or social media platforms; creating mobile-friendly websites.
Digital signage or digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is a form of digital marketing that utilizes strategically placed electronic displays to deliver targeted messages, announcements, and advertisements in public spaces.
If you are familiar with billboards and posters, you can understand that those were just digitalized thus the "Digital signage". It can be found in places such as airports, shopping malls, stadiums and other public venues- basically where a lot of people can see it.
It allows businesses to display engaging content such as videos, animations, images, and other visuals to capture the attention of potential customers- whether they are waiting in lines or just passing by.
Digital marketing has indeed become an increasingly important part of businesses' overall marketing strategies. With the right digital marketing efforts, companies can find more ways to reach potential customers and generate leads and sales conversions. From content creation to mobile advertising, having a strategy in place is essential for competing with bigger players on larger platforms.
By taking advantage of all 13 types of digital marketing available today, from social media campaigns to influencer outreach as well as using analytics to measure effectiveness and ROI – you can ensure that your business keeps up with consumer spending trends and makes calculated decisions about its digital presence going forward.
The success of a content promotion campaign is dependent on two factors: one, how good your content is, and two, how far your content is able to reach. With self-discipline, practice, and the understanding that constant adjustment and improvement are necessary, almost anyone can develop themselves into a great content producer. So, what happens if you’re writing valuable content on a regular basis, but nobody seems to be reading it?
A scenario like this means you have a reach problem. Theoretically, if you start with a decent number of readers, good content creation should carry itself to a much wider target audience through social shares, links, and word of mouth. But what if you don’t have a decent number of readers to start with?
Fortunately, there’s more than one solution—10 of them, by my count. Try using 1 or more of these 10 ways to increase the reach of your written content for free:
This should be an obvious step, but you’d be surprised how many new content marketers overlook it. Your social media platforms are made to get the message out, and everyone who’s liked or followed your brand so far will get to see it. Syndicate your content with a snappy title and lead-in, and be sure to hit every social media promotion you have. You can even syndicate older posts to give them a new boost of visibility.
Social bookmarking sites are an underrated tool in the content marketer’s arsenal. Submitting to platforms like Reddit and StumbleUpon is easy, free, and best of all, gives you the potential for thousands of new views. Just remember the catch—you’re only going to get seen by a handful of users at first. It takes the support of the community to escalate your post to meaningful levels of visibility, but if you have quality content, you’ll be able to get there.
The reach of your brand on social media advertising can only take you so far. The more people you have pushing your content out, the more new eyes you’ll get. In the early stages of your campaign, don’t be afraid to ask your coworkers, friends, and family members to support you with a little extra boost. It could get you dozens, or even hundreds of new eyes.
Use your content as a platform to request guest spots on outside publishers. If you’re accepted, you’ll have a chance to post some of your greatest material there, getting in front of all their traffic (and pointing it back to your site when you can). The bigger and better known your target source is for your blog post, the greater effects you’ll see.
Internal linking is a simple process of including links to other posts you’ve written on every new post you submit. It only takes extra few minutes to link relevant content within each post, and it has the tremendous benefit of keeping people browsing your site for content for longer. Plus, thoroughly interlinked sites get a boost to domain authority, helping you rank higher in search engines.
Manual link building is starting to fade as a cost-efficient strategy, but if you’re in the early stages of development and you’re desperate for some more visibility, it’s a viable option. Find relevant ways to mention your content on outside blogs and forums—just be confident you’re adding real value to the conversation by doing so.
Influencers are gateways to thousands of social media accounts or users. If you can convince one to share your material, you could instantly gain access to all those potential new readers. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
Get all your content readers, site visitors, and clients to subscribe to an email newsletter, and use that as a platform to send out your latest, greatest content. As long as you get a few interested users, it will be worth the effort for you content promotion tactic. As your email list grows, so will the benefits.
Content promotion strategies perform fine given enough time, effort, and quality; every content marketing strategy can become successful organically. However, if you need a little extra boost early on, you can consider a paid promotion option to complement your efforts. For example, you could use a Facebook ad or an affiliate link to generate some extra search traffic for your best posts.
This is an underrated strategy because it’s time consuming and outside the digital realm, but it has a real impact on your total numbers. Get to know the other professionals in your area, speak at events, and get your brand known in your local area—you’ll get tons of new traffic to your site.
Put some of these strategies to the test, and you’ll see results almost immediately. The wider your circles become and the more initial readers you can capture upon publication, the faster your content will be able to spread—that’s why content promotion strategy has such potential for exponential growth. Keep your focus on writing great content, syndicate as often and as thoroughly as you can, and the rest should take care of itself.
Want more information on content marketing? Head over to our comprehensive guide on content marketing here: The All-in-One Guide to Planning and Launching a Content Marketing Strategy.
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