Archive for digital media

How to Increase Sales with Marketing Automation

What You Need to Know about Marketing Automation

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 January 9, 2018
Reading Time: 3 minutes

You’ve got a fabulous WordPress website and you’re blogging regularly. You’re sharing your blog articles on your social networks and driving people to your website. You’ve got a terrific call-to-action (CTA) offer and are getting visitors to convert into leads. NOW WHAT? Are they being nurtured into sales? Probably not. Here’s where marketing automation (MA) comes in.

Affordable Marketing Automation

I’m sure you’ve heard of HubSpot and Infusionsoft. They are some of the giants in MA. However, their price tag may make it difficult for the little guy to afford. Enter MailChimp. You can get Marketing Automation with the FREE MailChimp startup plan! It’s free up to 2000 contacts in your email list (which is perfect for startups) and 12,000 emails per month. Now, unless your business takes off like a rocket, you can probably stay on the free plan while you’re growing. (Plus, if it does take off, you won’t mind spending $10/month.)

So how does Marketing Automation Work?

This short video from WishPond explains how it works:


Basically, MA allows you to:

  1. Focus on what your customers want.
  2. Let the system do the hard and time-consuming work for you.
  3. Improve the customer experience.
  4. Lead potential customers through the buying cycle.
  5. Develop relationships with your potential customers.
  6. Send your potential customers targeted content.

For instance, if you have 3 distinct products — one for college students, the other is for millennials and the 3rd for GenXers. When someone clicks on that CTA, the landing page form should ask them for…

  1. Name
  2. Email
  3. Age bracket – with 3 choices

(No more than 5 questions. You can always segment them more later with subsequent emails.) Based on their answer, they should get …

  1. Welcome email with the offer download
  2. In a few days, they get an email with a video to watch or a link to a blog article that pertains to their age bracket.
  3. If they watch the video, or click to the blog, then they get another email with yet another article that walks them further to buying.

At the end of these blog posts, you ALWAYS want to have another CTA. You’re more likely to get the buyer to buy if you’re showing them things that interest them. The college student isn’t going to want to see the product for the GenXer and vice-a-versa. Of course, if they buy at any time, they go into yet another MA campaign catered to new customers. It just keeps going.

My favorite email marketing service is MailChimp. Instead of my having to do a video from scratch, showing how it works, I found this excellent one for you…

The video below from Media Leaders shows you how to setup Marketing Automation on MailChimp:

All this might be a bit overwhelming for you. I offer 1:1 digital marketing coaching to help get you on the right track. Click here for details.

(See, that’s a CTA!)

Categories : Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , ,
How to Effectively Market Your Business with Videos on YouTube

How to Effectively Market Your Business with Videos on YouTube

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 May 5, 2017
Reading Time: 1 minute

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine next to its parent, Google. “How to” is the most searched-for phrase. This class covers the basics of YouTube and the 2nd video covers how to optimize your channel for SEO and branding.


Here are the class notes: https://azsocialmediawiz.com/wp-content/uploads/YouTubeBasics.pdf

How to Optimize Your YouTube Channel

 

Related articles

Save

Categories : Master Class, Video Marketing, YouTube
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
How not to let today's marketing technology drive you crazy

How Not to let Today’s Marketing Technology Drive You Crazy

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 February 7, 2017
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Let’s face it, business owners, Marketing Technology (or MarTech to the techie folks) can get out of hand. What happened to the days when putting your shingle outside your store and an ad in the Yellow Pages (remember those?) was enough?

Take a look at the infographic depicting all the marketing technology choices out there in 2016:

You can click on it to view a larger image, but don’t go cross-eyed trying to make sense out of it.

How not to let today's marketing technology drive you crazyThis goes to show you the ridiculous amount of marketing technology choices out there.

You can’t be on all the networks all the time!
It’s impossible!

Here are 10 Logical Steps You Need to Follow to keep Yourself Sane in this crazy MarTech world.

  1. How not to let today's marketing technology drive you crazyClearly Define Your Target Marketing Niches – You can have more than one target market! But you MUST identify them. Start with this FREE Workbook.
  2. Do some research on your target, which social networks they use most often and figure out the best way to reach them. Create personas for each niche.
  3. Get to know your target audience. What do they like or don’t like? What are they looking for? How can your product or service make their lives better, easier, more fun, etc.
  4. Get to know the networks. Each one has its own culture. What works on Twitter doesn’t work on LinkedIn. Do you even have to be on Snapchat?
  5. Make a plan. Brainstorm with your team or a mentor. Work out some strategies on how to engage your target audience on the social networks. You don’t have to be on all the networks! Focus on the ones that your target market frequents the most.
  6. Make a content calendar. What are you going to blog about? What does your target audience need to know that will make their lives better…. etc.? (What’s in it for them?)
  7. Optimize EVERYTHING. Each and every description, about section, bio, web page and blog post must be optimized not just for Google, but for the powerful internal search engines that each network has.
  8. The first step towards getting somewhereTake time to learn. You can never waste your time learning how to do something better and more efficiently.
  9. Use it or lose it. Apply what you learn right away so you don’t forget it. Don’t be afraid to wander around Facebook or LinkedIn even Twitter and Google+. You’ll get faster and savvier, the more you participate and engage.
  10. Have confidence. As you learn how to properly and effectively use the social media networks to engage with your target; as you get more comfortable creating the content that your target audience wants to see, you will feel more confident with your marketing efforts and you’ll also start seeing results.

Learning

That’s why I created Your Social Savvy Solution Members Only. It’s where you can go and get all the knowledge that you need, in a logical progression, to become the confident, savvy marketer so you can….

  • Drive traffic to your website
  • Generate more leads
  • Grow a following
  • Become an influencer
  • Increase sales
  • Get on the first page of Google
  • Be more effective

What are you waiting for? Special Introductory Price…. Learn More….

Your Social Savvy Solution Members Only

Save

Related articles

Save

Categories : Digital Marketing, Learning Technology
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , ,
Benefits of Video Marketing

11 Powerful Benefits of Video Marketing

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 June 6, 2016
Reading Time: 1 minute

You’ve got the latest webcam in your pocket in your smartphone. Why aren’t you using video marketing to promote your business?

Here are 11 Powerful Benefits of Video Marketing:

  • Video increases conversions by 52%.
  • Shoppers who watch a video are 174% more likely to buy than shoppers who don’t.

  • Video increases front-page Google Results by 53x.

  • Web visitors stay twice as long on pages with video.

  • People prefer watching over reading.
  • 
Video in an email increases click-thru rates by 96%.

  • Video appears in 70% of the top 100 search results.

  • Explainer videos increase conversion rates by 20%.
  • The human voice conveys emotion.

  • The brain is hot-wired to trust the human face.

  • Movement captures & keeps people’s attention.


Learn how to do Video Marketing right! 

Video Marketing Class June 9th

Live Streaming Video Class June 16th

Categories : Video Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,
The Social Savvy Consumer

The #SocialSavvy Consumer

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 February 10, 2016
Reading Time: 4 minutes

“Buyer Beware”

Back in the day, whenever you purchased something, the advice was, buyer beware. Before you bought something or hired someone, you had to see credentials, check reviews, or asked a friend or colleague.

Today’s buyers are savvier and more demanding. They expect more. And, if you can’t provide content they can actually use, they will go elsewhere. They are…

Social Savvy

They know where to look. They know who to ask. They know.

They buy from those they know and trust.

Why You Need to Become Social Savvy

To be successful in today’s marketing, you need to know your target market inside and out. You need put yourself in their shoes. Where are they hanging out online? What are they going to enter into the search box to find you? When they have a problem (a pain point) where are they going for answers? How are you going to solve their pain point?

People get online for a variety of reasons:

  • To be entertained
  • They need or want something
  • They have a problem and are seeking help
  • To know what’s going on, see what happened, curiosity, see what’s trending
  • To keep up with their friends and family
  • To learn about the latest products
  • To keep up with fashion and style

The Social Savvy ConsumerWhen your potential customer discovers your website, what do they find?

Articles with answers to their problems? Stories about people like them who have the same issues and how your business solved their issue? An easy-to-see, clear, call-to-action where they can join a list, get a freebie or more info? Entertainment?

When that person finds your Facebook, Twitter or Google+ page what will they find?

A logo graphic that’s cut off? A cover graphic that’s fuzzy or has text that is blocked by page features? Or good quality graphics that instantly tell them what it is that you do? Your last post was over 2 months ago, a few minutes or hours ago? The posts are all about how great the business is — selling, selling, selling?

Having an incomplete or fuzzy-looking social media page is like having a sloppy lobby.

These pages are your company’s façade. They’re your online image. Everything from pictures, the about section and what your posting is part of your brand. What does it say about you?

Are you Social Savvy? Or does it say that you clearly don’t know what you’re doing?

Folks, it’s 2016. Social Media is not going away. You either have to have your act together and get in game or start planning to close or sell your business (if that’s where you have to go, I have someone who can help you).

Start here: Download the Free Define Your Target Market Workbook to find your niche.

Then do some research – where are they hanging out online? Which networks do they prefer?

Learn about the networks. They are like foreign countries with their own culture and lingo. Find communities where your target markets are as well as referral sources.

Make sure your social media profiles and website are optimized for search. Each of the networks has their own powerful, internal search engine.

Think Keyword-Centric

Develop a strategic and a tactical social media marketing plan. This will be updated every month based on your analytics and insights, which tell you what’s working and what’s not working.

If you keep doing what’s not working expecting different results – that’s insanity!

Remember, not being Social Savvy is no longer an excuse. You can learn, practice and succeed at social media marketing with a little help from your friends at AZ Social Media Wiz.

We can do it for you or teach you how to do it yourself.

Click here to schedule a free, 30-minute phone consultation so we can analyze your current online efforts and help decide the best direction for your company.

 

Related articles
Categories : Social Media Marketing, Social Media Training
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Conquer Video Marketing

Videos – the Condiment to Your Marketing

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 January 11, 2016
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Taylor Luke, Financial Potion, Guest Blogger

Videos-the Condiment to Your Marketing Who doesn’t love condiments? Ketchup, ranch, BBQ, buffalo; all condiments that add more flavor and flare to a meal to make it that much more memorable. Videos are your condiments to marketing.

By now every business owner knows they need a mobile website, and active social media sites to truly survive. However in order to thrive, businesses needs to pour videos onto these platforms like BBQ sauce to a rack of ribs.

It’s proven that when a video is on the top fold of the home page of a website, visitors will stay on the site at least three times longer than when there isn’t a video on the home page. Videos are first impression clones that allow people to get to know you and your business faster; making them one step closer to a confident buying decision. Sure, you probably have a lot of great content on your website, and you need that for SEO, however people retain 60% of the information given in a video versus only 20% when read. If someone decides to only visit your site once, how much information would you like him or her to retain?

People love to use videos for research because it’s a fun and easy way to obtain information.

According to comScore 45% of all Internet users view 1 video a month and the average views 32.2 videos in one month. If your target demographic includes Millennials, then you need to have video to educate them since 98% will watch at least 1 video a day to research content.

In 2006 Google bought YouTube because they knew it would be the future for communication. Google favors websites that have videos on them, and we all know Google runs the search world.

More social media platforms are leaning on video because it’s what people enjoy. Videos that are uploaded to YouTube can be simultaneously posted on Google+ and Twitter as well. Contents posts with a visible video attract three times more inbound links. On Instagram people can post short 15 second videos because of that fact alone. Periscope, a link of Twitter, is becoming very popular. This app allows people to live stream and become a reporter anywhere at anytime.

People want to work with people they know, like, trust and would hang out with. Videos create transparency for a business, and allow viewers to get an authentic view into the culture. A single video can be placed on multiple platforms to clone your message that could provide you a higher ROI than any other marketing tactic. Marketing is like a recipe, stick to a few basic rules, add your own ingredients and personality, then make sure to add plenty of video for flavor to make that meal, or your business, that much more memorable.

About the Author:

Taylor Luke of Financial PotionTaylor Luke has been practicing the art of video production for over ten years. Originally from the East coast, she moved to Arizona in order to get a way from the snow, cold, rain, humidity and expensive living.  In Arizona she earned her bachelor’s degree in Film and Video Production at Collins College. During school she was a project manager at a video marketing company in Phoenix, then worked two years at a studio in Scottsdale, and since July of 2014 has been co-owner of her own video production company; Financial Potion. Her and her business partner believe video is the potion to relieve business owners of their financial worries. It’s an entertaining and effect way to communicate and educate people, and what she loves most about video production is the opportunities it grants to interact with so many different people and industries.

Related articles

Save

Categories : Video Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Are you throwing money down the drain advertising online?

Marketing Effectively on Social Media on a Shoestring Budget

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 November 13, 2015
Reading Time: 3 minutes

As a small business, budgets are tight. And, any entrepreneur knows that marketing – especially social media marketing – is a key factor for any business that wants new customers. However, today’s social media and digital marketing tools, are free to use if you know how to use them properly and effectively.

Sure there are tons of shortcuts out there that you can take, but are they really effective? Have you planned out the strategy? If you’re going to spend money, you need to have a clear plan as well as a budget. You must have clearly defined your target market so you can specifically target them.

Do social media ads actually get seen?

Think about this: when you’re watching TV, are you paying attention to the commercials or do you tune them out – or do you watch on a DVR and fast forward through them? Now, there are ad-blockers online and for mobile apps so you don’t have to see ads online either!

This study of social media users in the UK shows why most people block online ads:

Ad blocking doesn't work - so learn how to market on social media for free. I like “irrelevant”. Nothing is worse than irrelevant content whether it’s blog or social media posts or advertisements.

Learn to manage your social media marketing!

What this boils down to and what I tell my clients when they ask, “Should I spend money on social media advertising?” — My answer? — Don’t. Do it for free for 3-6 months following my instructions. Check your analytics, insights and website statistics monthly, see what’s working and what’s not working, then adjust your strategy and tactics accordingly.

You have 2 choices:

  1. Hire someone to do it for you.
  2. Learn how to do it yourself.

Option 2 is your most cost effective – about 1/10 of the cost of hiring someone to do it for you. Here’s why I recommend learning how to do it all yourself:

  • No one knows your business like you know your business.
  • The “social” part of social media is about building relationships – who do you want building relationships with your current and potential clients? A stranger or someone in your organization that knows your business.

Though it may seem daunting, learning how to market your business on social media in a logical, progression that makes sense, will get you set-up, optimized and with strategic and tactical marketing plans in hand ready to take control of your marketing!

Click here to check out our upcoming classes. We recommend our 5-day boot camp. It’s 5, 3-hour sessions covering everything you need to know to properly and effectively market your business online.

Giselle
AZ Social Media Wiz

Graphic courtesy of Wallblog.co.uk: http://wallblog.co.uk/2015/11/13/the-ethics-of-attention-and-the-inevitable-future-of-digital-advertising/

Related articles
Categories : Social Media Marketing, Social Networks
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Legalities you need to Consider when Live Streaming [Infographic]

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 October 22, 2015
Reading Time: 1 minute

Periscope and live streaming bring up some legal issues that you should be aware of.2015 will go down as the year of the Live Streaming apps when Periscope and Meerkat allowed the average smartphone owner to broadcast live from wherever they are.

Here’s a post I wrote with a podcast that explains how you can use live streaming to promote your business.

Live broadcasting from wherever you are brings up some legal issues.

  • You can’t live stream a concert, play or any other intellectual property without written permission.
  • Don’t live stream an event that you paid to get in.
  • Respect other peoples’ privacy – get model releases of people that you might interview or show on the live stream.
  • Get a location release from the owner of the property where you’re broadcasting if it isn’t yours or your company’s

This infographic from lawyer Kerry Gorgone highlights some main points.

Live Streaming legal caution checklist

If you’re not sure how to use a tool like Periscope to market your business, check out our classes where we cover video marketing and tools, tips and tricks.

Related articles
Categories : Live Streaming, Social Media Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,

Video Q&A: Is There a Business that Doesn’t need to be on Social Media?

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 September 7, 2015
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Business on Social MediaSomeone once asked me, “Are there any businesses that don’t need to be on social media?”

I answer the question in this video:

 

You don’t need to be on social media if…..

  • If your only client is the government
  • Or if you’re a wholesaler and you have all the clients you need
  • Or the dog walker who has as many dogs as she can handle
  • Or the pool service guy who contracts with a Realtor servicing all the pools in the properties that she manages

Basically, if you don’t need to attract new business, you don’t need to be on social media.

However, most businesses do.

And face it — social media is here to stay.

Back in the day, before the Internet, it was – if you’re not in the Yellow Pages, you don’t exist. In the 90s it was – if you don’t have a website you don’t exist. Now it’s if you’re not on social media, you don’t exist.

But what’s different about social media, is the social part. It’s not enough to just build your Facebook page and say, “OK, I’m on!” You have to be social. You can automate a lot of the media part, but you still have to be social.

Learn the best practices for gaining engagement on FacebookThink about it. Before, you couldn’t start building a relationship with a potential client until they called you, walked into your place of business or you cold-called them. Now, you can start getting to know them as they get to know you – and get to trust you.

Want to or not, you have to be on social media if you want to grow your business. Period. You can hire someone to do it for you, but A: you’ll need a hefty budget and B: do you really want a stranger to build relationships with YOUR potential customers?

You CAN learn how to do it yourself with your full-access pass at Social Savvy Solution Members Only. And you’ll have complete control of your marketing!

 

Your Social Savvy Solution Members Only

Save

Related articles

Save

Categories : Social Media Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Video: An Overview of Pinterest

Posted by Giselle Aguiar on
 September 5, 2015
Reading Time: 1 minute

Video: an overview of PinterestIf you have a business that sells to consumers, you need to be on Pinterest! One thing to remember is that more and more people are using their mobile devices to shop online and Pinterest is a major player.

Here’s a quick overview of Pinterest and why it needs to be a part of your social media marketing plan.

If Facebook is selling the past, and Twitter the present, Pinterest is offering the future.

What’s Hot on Pinterest

  • Bridal
  • Babies
  • Food & Drink
  • Travel
  • Fashion & Beauty
  • DIY – Gardening, Decor & Crafts

It really helps to Define Your Target Market before you start all this, so we have a free workbook to help you do that. Click here to download.

 

Related articles

Save

Categories : Pinterest, Social Media Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Next Page »

I’m HubSpot Certified!

Free Workbook!

Free: Define Your Target Market Workbook!

Free Download: Define Your Target Market Workbook
Click here to download the workbook

Categories

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Chosen LinkedIn’s ProFinder’s Best of 2016

Giselle Aguiar

We’re on LinkedIn!


Share this on LinkedIn!

Follow us on Twitter!

Proud Member of …

SW Veterans Chamber of Commerce

Circle us on Google+!