by Sameeha Junejo | Jan 8, 2020
Social media is a highly effective way to engage with target audiences, however posting when you feel like it even if it is consistent is not enough. There are times that are optimal to post on social media and will bring you better results.
There is no set answer as to what the best hours to post on various social media platforms are as each social media network’s users browse at different times.
Heres the thing: Social media timing matters.
Marketers should conduct their own research to see what timings are most effective for their audience.
HubSpot has provided a few guidelines and tips from their extensive research on social media timing.
Determining Your Optimal Frequency
Frequency is a crucial aspect of your organization’s social media presence, too many posts can be annoying, and too little can show poor presence. Getting the right frequency is very important for social media updates.
The General Guideline
Don’t crowd your content. Companies that allow each shared link a buffer zone of at least an hour on either side see higher clickthrough rates overall according to HubSpot.
How to Find Your Personal Sweet Spot
Start by taking an informal audit to see how many followers your typical follower has. If most of your active followers don’t follow many others you’ll want your sharing habits to be less frequent, You should also do some testing to determine your optimal publishing frequency.
Here is a simple one to get started:
Week One: Schedule your shares two hours apart as HubSpot recommends
Week Two: Increase publishing frequency gradually, but keep the caliber of the content fairly similar
Compare the activity levels of each week. Separate all forms of engagement such as retweet/reposts, replies/comments, clicks. You may notice that one methods could vary, for example one could result in fewer comments but more clicks and vice versa, determine which method meets most share of your goals as a marketer.
Determining the Best Time for General Engagement
After understanding the frequency of posts for your business, it is important to find out which days and time of day work best for generating the most engagement and activity for your posts.
The General Guideline
Twitter: Late in the day and week are most retweetable times
The analysis found that on weekdays, later in the day between around 2pm and 5pm (Eastern Time) was when the greatest retweet activity occurred
Facebook: Shares are at their highest during the weekend
Facebook saw more activity during the weekends.
How to Find Your Personal Sweet Spot
Start by looking at your past shares to understand which days of the week and what time of the day works best for your business. Sort your past engagement by number of clicks in whatever social media publishing tool you use.
Next look for trends in the posts that generated the most clicks (what time and day they were posted).
Determining the Most Targeted Time for Lead Engagement
Finding the time the overall users on a social media platform are active at does not mean that this time is optimal for the acquisition of leads and customers. As a business it is important to differentiate and seek out users that are on the road to becoming customers.
For that your business will need a social media tool that is directly connected and integrated with your marketing database or CRM.
Creating a Well-Balanced Schedule
Settle on a schedule with the best times to post on each platform and posts, lock it into your publishing tool. HubSpot has a free social media scheduling template that can be very useful: https://offers.hubspot.com/social-media-content-calendar
Go back and re-evaluate to make sure the effectiveness of your timing and day doesn’t change over time.
General Guidelines
- make sure you’re not sharing the same content, types of content, and method of positioning of your content repetitively. Mix it up!
- Visual content helps to drive engagement on Facehook
- On Twitter mix in @replies and retweets of other people’s content
- On LinkedIn share blog posts and details from within it
Read full article at: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33601/a-marketer-s-guide-to-nailing-the-timing-frequency-of-social-media-updates.aspx
by Sameeha Junejo | Jan 7, 2020
Social media plays a crucial role in reaching target audiences and if done correctly can be very effective to a business. In today’s digital age businesses have access to a variety of social media platforms to establish presence on. With so many social networks to publish on, staying organized and having a plan for when to post and what to post can play a key role in your business’s social media success.
This post consists of the most helpful tools and templates for any business to use in order to build an effective social media content plan.
Social Media Content Calendar
Social media content needs to be consistent and provide value to your target audience. Without a plan of what to post and when, your social media can lack consistency and quality. A social media calendar will keep track of what content to post on which social media platforms and when.
Benefits of Using A Social Media Content Calendar
- Calendars help you get organized, marketers can plan out posts for entire weeks or months in advance. This will help you be consistent on social media and save time in the future.
- a calendar helps you plan for each social network to customize posts rather than posting the same message on all platforms
- Calendars can help you track performance and plan for future posts. With a calendar you can look back and analyze which content performed best so they can adjust their strategy accordingly
- Businesses can plan for holidays and observance days to tailor their content and engage a wider audience
- Social media calendars improve efficiency,.
4 Social Media Content Calendar Tools to Plan Your Messaging
1. Trello
Trello has flexible assignment cards and customizable boards and lists to map out to do lists, manage a content calendar, plan a campaign and more.
link to Trello: http://trello.com/
2. Microsoft Excel
Excel can be customized according to whatever priorities or metrics a team is focused on, so it’s a great tool for planning ahead.
free downloadable social media calendar template using Microsoft excel: https://offers.hubspot.com/social-media-content-calendar
3. Evernote
Evernote is a note-taking app that marketers can use to keep track of all the moving parts that comprise a social media campaign.
The tool also features yearly, monthly, weekly, and hourly logs, which make it easy to keep track of when you’re publishing content on social media, when you’re producing blog content, and other team-wide priorities.
link to Evernote: https://evernote.com/
4. Google Drive
Google Drive has several helpful features that make it easy for social media marketers to build out an effective content calendar.
Marketers can also use shared Google Sheets to schedule posts on social media, track the status of different pieces of content, and assign tasks to team members — all on the same platform as their calendar.
With the help of Google Docs, users can keep comments all in one place and can collaborate on different projects without emailing back-and-forth or having to schedule a meeting. This is a particularly useful feature when editing content for social media, which may need to be drafted and approved quickly.
Social Media Templates
HubSpot’s social media calendar template:
https://offers.hubspot.com/social-media-content-calendar?_ga=2.201700881.1850661801.1569879294-1582690004.1559596502
HubSpot’s Social Media Content Calendar Template for Startups
https://offers.hubspot.com/startups/social-media-content-template-for-startups?_ga=2.8150450.1850661801.1569879294-1582690004.1559596502
Read full article at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-calendar-tools
by Sameeha Junejo | Jan 6, 2020
1. The MQL’s Irrelevance
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead who has been deemed more likely to become a customer compared to other leads.
Gartner predicted in 2017 the MQL will become irrelevant as a result of marketing teams aligning with sales and service to bring in new leads while maintaining strong relationships with current customers.
“Next year, siloed marketing goals like MQLs will be irrelevant — instead, marketers will focus their efforts on aligning with overarching company goals to drive value across the board.” – Latane Conant, CMO of 6sense
2. Google Crackdowns in Some Industries
In 2019 61% of marketers said improving SEO and growing organic presence was their top marketing priority, in 2020 this percentage will grow.
In 2020 marketers may see a shift towards more organic approaches in their SEO optimization methods.
“Those that make this pivot quickly and strongly stand to gain a substantial market share in the long run.” – Russ Jones, Principal Search Scientist at Moz
3. Growth of Experimental Marketing
A study by Harris Group found that 72% of millennials now prefer to spend money on experiences over products. In a 2018 global survey, 93% of respondents said their organizations place priority on hosting events, in 2020 this will continue to grow.
Consumers add value to experience and ease of use, it will become increasingly important for businesses to focus on providing their consumers with high quality experiences which will include live events.
Gen Z and Millennial consumers are prioritizing experiences over products. “Innovative marketers can take advantage of these trends by shifting marketing focus to live events, which can create direct connections between customers and brands,” says Ben Carlson, co-President and co-Founder of Fizziology, a social insights firm.
4. New and Evolving Email Strategies
Email is a dominant and powerful digital marketing strategy, it is constantly evolving and finding new ways to reinvent itself (Anthony Chiulli).
“I anticipate we have not crested the peak of acquisition activity in the email ecosystem just yet, and will see a steady dose of those seeking further competitive advantages in an aggressive email industry market in 2020.” – (Anthony Chiulli).
5. Artificial Intelligence And Text Recommendations
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide, spending on AI systems will reach $97.9 billion in 2023, which is more than two and a half times the $37.5 billion that was spent in 2019.
“AI will be able to recommend more on the segments and groups from a business database on who reacts better or worse to certain messages, helping them to stop outreach to disinterested parties,” says Mattt Reid, CMO of EZ Texting, a leader in SMS marketing software for business.
It is important to not leave all the contact to AI and use it as a leverage to human contact in order to create the best communication model.
6. Google’s Discover Tool Will Continue to Improve
Google’s discover tool will continue to improve and serve personalized content to users in 2020. Discover’s algorithm predicts what users will find interesting based on their search and web history and interactions with Google products.
“Google launched Discover in 2017 and has been improving the tool ever since” – Christina Perricone, a Manager of Pillar and Acquisition Content at HubSpot.
Read full article at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-marketers-are-focusing-on-this-year
by Sameeha Junejo | Jan 6, 2020
Facebook being a social media giant with over 1.8 billion active users each month is an ideal place to reach new audiences as people are spending a significant amount of time there. Facebook’s business platform has grown to give advertisers a variety of tools and options to reach these new audiences. With so many different options it can be difficult for businesses to figure out which Facebook ad is best to use.
This post will give a description of each Facebook advertisement and examples of their use to help you align and choose the ad that best fits your campaign’s objective.
1. Post Engagement
With Facebook post engagement ads, you can drive more engagement on individual posts and expand its original reach. This helps you generate more activity on your posts and helps you get more organic followers quickly by offering them the kinds of posts they’ll see more of if they follow you.
In the example above, the Fashion Stork Club ad promotes an update this company made to their Facebook photos. Notice that the add displays the post engagement (likes, comments, shares) along with the post to encourage viewers to engage with it.
2. Instant Experience
While app engagement ads are intended to highlight specific features to drive in-app engagements, app install ads are focused on generating new users. Instead of calling out specific features, app install ads are more likely to showcase the app’s core purpose and main functionality.
3. Video
The video ad features help educate your audience about your product features using video. In the example below, Spotify’s ad uses a creative, colourful video that focuses on finding new music and playlists for users to enjoy.
4. Event Responses
If you would like to bring awareness to your business’s location you may want to use the local awareness ad type to drive brand awareness in specific geographic regions. This ad type is largely the same as brand awareness ads, but will be more oriented and targeted via location. 
For example, Cold Stone Creamery used a local awareness ad to target people in a geographic area when their store in Bangladesh opened.
5. Offers
The offer claim objective allows you to customize your ads with calls-to-action specific to the offer. For example, you might use a “Learn More” call-to-action if you’re offering something that’s good only for the first 500 sign-ups, like in the ad example below:
The offer claim Facebook Ad type should lead your users directly to a sign-up page on your website where they can claim the offer you promoted.
6. Lead Generation Ads
In a traditional lead generation conversion path, users are driven to a landing page where they fill out a form. For example, you might use a Facebook offer claim ad (like we discussed in the previous section) to drive users to your website and have them fill out a form there.
Here’s an example that shows the conversion path the user goes through on a Facebook lead ad.
First, the user see a traditional conversion-focused ad:
Once the user clicks on the add and/or call-to-action (in this case, Sign-Up), they see this pop up within the Facebook app:
Next, the user can click the register button and see a form (of your choosing) with their information auto-filled.
Once the user submits the form on the lead ad, they can click out of the ad and go back to browsing on Facebook. It’s a great user experience and Facebook will sync with your CRM so your leads are right where you want them.
7. Page Likes
In some cases, you may want to use Facebook Ads to expand your organic reach. When this is your campaign goal, you should use the page like ad type to encourage new users to “like” your page. Once they do, they’ll be able to see your organic content when you post it.
Page like campaigns are best for businesses that put lots of effort into their social media presence and produce content specifically for their Facebook users to drive engagement.
8. Slideshow
Slideshow ads are close to the video category of ads but not quite a video. Think of them as billboards: they move quickly and can give an immersive ad experience. Slideshows are an affordable alternative to video, and also provide a quick loading time, so you can capture the attention span of someone who doesn’t want to wait for videos. These are a possible option for you if you want to quickly make ads. Facebook gives you the option of choosing from stock images and free video editing tools to make your ad spectacular. You can even choose music.
9. Carousel
Carousel ads are very diverse and Facebook hosts them on their website, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. Carousels lets you show up to 10 images or videos in one ad. This expansive ad space embraces creativity. Common ways to use carousel ads are product demos, product highlights, showcasing specs about a product, and a way to tell stories.
10. Collection
Collection ads are pretty much like an online store, with a primary image of the product along with four images customers can tap through. If they decide to purchase, they can do so without leaving the platform.
11. Image
With a single, stunning image and little text, you can create a stunning image ad, where that picture will be the focal point. Images on Facebook gives you a format to use, with spaces to make sure your photo is incredible and you have the option to include copy.
How to Choose Which Facebook Ad Type to Use
1) Define your campaign goal.
Before you begin any ad campaign, you first need to determine what the goal of your campaign is.
2) Choose relevant types you could use.
Once you’ve defined the goal of your ad campaign, take a look at the different Facebook Ad types available to you. Luckily, you already know what each of the ad types are.
Choose the type most relevant to your goals.
3) Narrow down your options.
Once you’ve chosen which ad types are most applicable to your needs, choose the one you think will work best for you campaign. Or, use the same creative, copy, and targeting options to set up a campaign test using different ad types and see if one performs better than the other.
4) Write copy and create assets.
One great feature of Facebook’s Ads Manager tool is the wide range of creative and layout options you have available to you. Not only can you choose between image, video, photo grid, and carousel layouts, you can also customize your ads for mobile and desktop audiences.
As you run different ad campaigns, make sure to test and analyze what works best for your audience.
5) Use different ad types for different campaign goals.
Don’t just stick to one ad type for all of your campaigns. Instead, make sure you’re optimizing your ads for the right campaign objectives. Try out different Facebook Ad types and different ad campaigns to optimize your ad strategy for your audience.
6) Target the right audience.
7) Test, analyze, and repeat.
Once you’ve defined your campaign objective, selected your ad type, created your ad, and targeted the right audience, it’s time to analyze your results.
Read the full article at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-facebook-ad-types
by Sameeha Junejo | Dec 28, 2019
Webinars are online events that combine video, audio, and polls to engage audiences from anywhere. Online webinars are very useful to any business as they make communication with prospects, employees, partners, and customers easy and efficient and can be done from anywhere. You can use webinars to give presentations, perform demos, answer questions, or deliver messages to multiple people at a time. Creating an informative and memorable webinar will give you great results.
How to Create a Webinar Step by Step
Step 1: Choose a date and time
Schedule your webinar for a date and time that majority of your attendees will most likely be available on.
Step 2: Choose your webinar topic
Make sure the webinar topic is useful to attendees.
Step 3: Customize your branding
Choose a theme for your webinar, pick a relevant image for your landing page and add your logo to make sure the design reflects your brand.
Step 4: Create a hashtag for your webinar
Successful webinars require promotion. Creating a hashtag is a great start, and it gives people an easy way to talk about it on social media.
Step 5: Send out your webinar invitations
This is when you should really publicize the event. Send the invite to your email list. Post about it on your website or blog. Use the hashtag on social media.
Step 6: Build Webinar content
Take care with the content you’ll present during the webinar. Engaging slides, polls and handouts will make a big difference.
Step 7: Do a practice run
Get your speakers comfortable with the webinar controls and make sure things go smoothly by doing a test run using the webinar software or tool beforehand.
Step 8: Host your webinar
The day’s arrived. This is when your preparation pays off. Don’t forget to record your webinar as well in order to upload it to a video-sharing platform or your website later!
Step 9: Follow up
Check up on your attendees shortly after the webinar, preferably within 24 hours. Ask whether there are any more questions or requests.
Step 10: Make your webinar recording available
A recorded webinar is a great way to keep generating leads long after you’ve finished hosting. Publishing the recording can broaden your reach and attract extra interest for the product, service or information you offer.
Read the full article at: https://www.gotomeeting.com/webinar/resources/how-to-create-and-host-a-webinar
