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9 Tips to Optimize Facebook Ads in 30 Minutes or Less

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Facebook Advertising

If you’re looking to get better returns on your Facebook ad dollar, look no further.

When you take the steps to ensure your message is always connecting with the right audience, improving the performance of your ads might be much easier than you think.

This article will explore several simple ways you can set up and optimize your Facebook advertisements, all in 30 minutes or less.

1. Segment Your Audience

Facebook has an almost immeasurable number of distinct groups of audiences.

Consequently, slightly different interests will yield vastly different performance among even within the same niche.

That’s why it’s a good idea to group interests that you want to target into topics, and then create separate ads for each topic.

For example, if your target interests including Internet marketing, Facebook marketing, and online advertising, then your first ads that might include content pertaining to Facebook, the second set online advertising generally, and so on.

This simple segmented approach allows you to optimize on the basis of interests, and ultimately create more focused advertising campaigns.

2. Separate Desktop and Mobile

The differences between the mobile and desktop platforms are often underestimated.

The fact is, the way people access the net, their behaviors, and even the sites they visit can vary depending on the device they’re using.

That’s why when you use a separate Ad Set for each type of platform, it’s possible for you to greatly improve your optimization, including conversions and bids for both devices.

This separation will also help you fine-tune your call to action, making it desktop or mobile specific.

3. Optimize Newsfeed and Column Ads Separately

If you’re not already, it’s vital that you set up segmented advertising, completely separating the ads that appear in a desktop newsfeed and ads that run on the right column of Facebook.

Content that appears in the desktop newsfeed tends to have has substantially more space available, which translates to room for much larger images.

This considerable difference in structure means that identical ads will perform very differently depending on where you place them.

Facebook enables you to choose where your ads will be seen in the Placement section at the Ad Set level.

4. Test Several Images

The single most important element in your Facebook advertisements is without a doubt the photos you use.

This is because several studies have shown that photos are leading factor in helping people decide if they’re going to click on your posts are not.

That’s why it’s important to test out several different images, and then determine which ones are offering you the highest click through rate and conversions.

After you’ve identified your highest performing images, you can use that information to use more images of the same style future.

5. Use a CTA (Call to Action)

As you may know, Facebook allows you to choose a call to action when posting an ad.

Using a CTA can greatly improve your click through rate and conversions, and should be tested with the same enthusiasm as the images you use.

The CTA button is available in the Ad Setup menu, and the default choices include: Download, Learn More, Shop Now, Book Now, and Sign Up.

6. Use Facebook Pixels

Although this tip is somewhat obvious, enough businesses neglect to do it that it’s worth mentioning.

Pixels are a Facebook feature that allows you to signal an event that occurs while someone is browsing your page, like registering or viewing a specific product.

The value of that type of knowledge should be almost immediately obvious.

You can install a pixel by logging into your ad manager, going to the top menu, choosing Assets, and then Pixels.

On the following page, select Create Pixel button and follow the setup wizard.

After you have been provided with your pixel code, just install it on your site, and you can carefully track the results of all your Facebook marketing energies.

7. Target Behaviors

Countless businesses use Facebook advertising as an opportunity to target interests.

Unfortunately, many businesses gloss over the opportunity to target behaviors instead, which often are more apt to pay off.

Facebook allows you to target dozens of behaviors that may indicate someone is ready to make a purchase, ranging from the browser they use to the games they play.

You can target these behaviors by selecting them from ad set menu.

8. Target an Email List

Another feature Facebook marketers often overlook is the ability to create an advertising audience on the basis of email addresses.

Head to Facebook ad manager, select Create Audience, then Customer List, and Facebook will prompt you to provide your email list.

All you have to do is provide Facebook with a text file with one email per row, or list of phone numbers in the same format, and let Facebook do the rest.

9. Schedule Your Ads

Like many popular advertising platforms, Facebook allows you to schedule when your ads are run, both in terms of day of the week and hour of the day.

Many businesses overlook this feature because it’s only available with a lifetime budget as opposed to a daily budget option.

If you’re not familiar with lifetime budget, it refers to the total budget for a set of ads as opposed to the daily limit for those ads.

If you have a campaign that isn’t offering somewhat reliable performance over time, this setting may not be for you.

However, if you know exactly when you want your ads to be seen you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more important customization option.

Time for Action

Set up and targeted appropriately, Facebook advertising can offer your business a sensationally profitable means of advertising.

As you become more familiar with your marketing possibilities on the platform, you improve your ability to access these opportunities.

Although learning the ins and outs of Facebook advertising isn’t something you can tackle in an afternoon, with a little persistence, concrete improvements to your ROI are well with

A Ton of Digital Marketing Stats

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Digital Marketing

The following list comes from Hubspot. I made this post because I wanted a text-only list of the stats. Please visit the original for some great infographics. Plus, I got to use #shitton in the title of a post!

SEO Stats

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. (Econsultancy, 2016)

The first position on Google search results on desktop has a 34.36% clickthrough rate. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015)

The first position on Google search results on mobile has a 31.35% clickthrough rate. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015)

For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them. (Econsultancy, 2016)

Ecommerce

81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchases. (Retailing Today, 2014)

44% of people go directly to Amazon to start their product searches, compared to 34% who use search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for products. (Marketing Land, 2015)

Mobile commerce makes up 30% of all U.S. ecommerce. (Internet Retailer, 2015)

Local SEO

72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (WordStream, 2016)

30% of mobile searches are related to a location. (Google, 2016)

28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Google, 2016)

Local searches lead 50% of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day. (Google, 2014)

78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases. (Search Engine Land, 2014)

Mobile Search

More Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan. (Google, 2015)

49% of B2B researchers who use their mobile devices for product research do so while at work. (Google, 2015)

65% of smartphone users agree that when conducting a search on their smartphones, they look for the most relevant information regardless of the company providing the information. (Google, 2015)

51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2015)

48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine. (Smart Insights, 2016)

26% of consumers start mobile research with a branded app. (Smart Insights, 2016)

Organic Search

Google gets over 100 billion searches a month. (Mashable, 2015)

The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. (Backlinko, 2016)

50% of search queries are four words or longer. (WordStream, 2016)

66% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2016)

71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search. (Google, 2015)

B2B researchers do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site. (Google, 2014)

72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic. (Ascend2, 2015)

40% of marketers say the most challenging obstacle to search engine optimization success is changing search algorithms. (Ascend2, 2015)

Voice Search

19% of people use Siri at least daily. (HubSpot, 2015)

37% use Siri, 23% use Microsoft’s Cortana AI, and 19% use Amazon’s Alexa AI at least monthly. (HubSpot, 2015)

20% of search queries on Google’s mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches. (Search Engine Land, 2016)

60% of smartphone users who use voice search have begun using it within the past year, with 41% of survey respondents having only begun to use voice search in the past six months. (Search Engine Land, 2015)

43% of mobile voice search users do so because they say it is quicker than going on a website or using an app. (Statista, 2015)

21% of mobile voice search users do so because they say they don’t like typing on their mobile. (Statista, 2015)

Content Marketing Stats

Blogging

60% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2016)

1 in 10 blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time. (HubSpot, 2016)

Compounding blog posts make up 10% of all blog posts and generate 38% of overall traffic. (HubSpot, 2016)

Over its lifetime, one compounding blog post creates as much traffic as six decaying posts. (HubSpot, 2016)

Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. (HubSpot, 2015)

B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015)

B2C companies that blogged 11+ times per month got more than 4X as many leads than those that blog only 4-5 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015)

Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts. (HubSpot, 2015)

75% of HubSpot’s blog views and 90% of blog leads come from old posts. (HubSpot, 2014)

Some 15% of internet users read or comment on discussion forums such as reddit, Digg, or Slashdot, while 10% use the blogging website Tumblr. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

43% of people admit to skimming blog posts. (HubSpot, 2016)

Titles with 6-13 words attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic. (HubSpot, 2016)

Content Strategy

8% of marketers plan to add Medium to their marketing efforts in the next 12 months. (HubSpot, 2016)

On average, B2B marketers allocate 28% of their total marketing budget to content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

Only 30% of B2B marketers say their organizations are effective at content marketing, down from 38% last year. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

55% of B2B marketers say they are unclear on what content marketing success or effectiveness looks like. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

32% of B2B marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

28% of B2B marketers say they have a documented editorial mission statement. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)

96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)

Podcasts

15% of marketers plan to add podcasting to their marketing efforts in the next 12 months. (HubSpot, 2016)

Podcast listening grew 23% between 2015 and 2016. (Edison Research, 2016)

64% of podcasts are listened to on a smartphone or tablet. (Edison Research, 2016)

21% of Americans age 12 or older say they have listened to a podcast in the past month. (Pew Research Center, 2016)

Weekly podcast listeners consume five shows per week on average. (Edison Research, 2016)

Social Media Stats

Facebook

72% of adult internet users use Facebook. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Only 45% of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. (Buzzsumo, 2015)

Facebook continues to have the most engaged users — 70% log on daily, including 43% who do so several times a day. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Facebook sends 82% of social media traffic to longer stories and 84% of social traffic to shorter news articles. (Pew Research Center, 2016)

63% of Facebook and Twitter users say each platform serves as a source for news about events and issues outside the realm of friends and family. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

73% of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes. (HubSpot, 2016)

In the past two years, content consumption on Facebook has increased 57%. (HubSpot, 2016)

76% of people use their Facebook feed to find interesting content. (HubSpot, 2016)

Facebook has 1.13 billion daily active users. (Statista, 2016)

Instagram

On Instagram, photos showing faces get 38% more Likes than photos not showing faces. (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014)

28% of adult internet users use Instagram. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

59% of Instagram users are on the platform daily, including 35% who visit several times a day. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Instagram has 500 million monthly active users. (Statista, 2016)

Over 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram every day. (Instagram, 2016)

25% of adult internet users use LinkedIn. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

46% of online adults who have graduated from college are LinkedIn users, compared with just 9% of online adults with a high school diploma or less. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

32% of employed adults are LinkedIn users, compared with 14% of online adults who are not employed. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

In the past two years, content consumption on LinkedIn has increased 21%. (HubSpot, 2016)

LinkedIn has 450 million members, but only 25% actively visit the professional social network each month. (VentureBeat, 2016)

31% of adult internet users use Pinterest. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Pinners are just as likely to purchase as users from other social channels, but spend 50% more on average compared to other social channels. They also spend 20% more than users referred from non-social channels, including search. (Pinterest, 2016)

Pinterest has 100 million monthly active users. (The New York Times, 2015)

71% of Pinterest’s users are women. (Search Engine Land, 2015)

45% of people on Pinterest use the app while watching TV. (Pinterest, 2016)

Snapchat

Snapchat has 150 million daily active users. (Statista, 2016)

Every second, 8,796 photos are shared on Snapchat. (CEWE Photoworld, 2016)

52% of Snapchat users are under the age of 25. (Statista, 2016)

30% of U.S. millennial internet users use Snapchat regularly. (eMarketer, 2015)

Social Media Management

88% of marketers want to know how to measure their return on investment for social media activities. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Only 42% of marketers say they are able to measure their social activities. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

92% of marketers say that social media is important to their business. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

More than half of marketers who’ve been using social media for at least two years report it helped them improve sales. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

90% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

By spending as little as six hours per week, 66% of marketers see lead generation benefits with social media. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

At least 61% of those investing a minimum of six hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

6 in 10 small business owners are not able to track ROI from their social media activities. (eMarketer, 2015)

Social Media Usage

64% of marketers are using social media for six hours or more and 41% for 11 or more hours weekly. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Nearly 19% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

83% of all marketers actively pursue social media marketing initiatives. (Aberdeen, 2016)

As of 2015, 35% of all those 65 and older report using social media, compared with just 2% in 2005. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

As of 2015, 90% of young adults use social media, compared with 12% in 2005. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Nearly one-third of the world uses social networks regularly. (eMarketer, 2016)

Twitter

23% of adult internet users use Twitter. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

3 in 10 online urban residents use Twitter, compared with 21% of suburbanites and 15% of those living in rural areas. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

30% of online adults under 50 use Twitter, compared with 11% of online adults ages 50 and older. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Twitter accounts for 16% of referrals to longer articles from social sites and 14% for shorter news articles. (Pew Research Center, 2016)

Twitter has nearly 4X as many users internationally as in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2016)

In the past two years, content consumption on Twitter has increased 25%.

Twitter has 313 million monthly active users. (HubSpot, 2016)

Video Marketing Stats

Visual Content

Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Buffer, 2014)

Articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images. (Buzzsumo, 2015)

71% of online marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. (Xerox, 2014)

Research has shown that when people hear information, they are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (LifeLearn, 2015)

Infographics are liked and shared on social media 3X more than any other type of content. (Mass Planner, 2015)

Product Video

4X as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. (Animoto, 2015)

Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google, 2016)

53% of smartphone users feel more favorable towards companies whose mobile sites or apps provide instructional video content. (Google, 2015)

4 in 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful.

Shoppers who view video are 1.81X more likely to purchase than non-viewers. (Animoto, 2015)

Social Video

39% of marketers plan to add Facebook video to their content strategy in the next year. (Adobe, 2015)

45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week. (HubSpot, 2016)

100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook. (TechCrunch, 2016)

82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter. (Twitter, 2015)

90% of Twitter video views are on mobile. (Twitter, 2015)

Video Analytics

55% of people consume video content thoroughly. (HubSpot, 2016)

43% of people want to see more video content from marketers. (HubSpot, 2016)

Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users. (Aberdeen, 2015)

Nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under 60 seconds. (Animoto, 2015)

51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. (Adobe, 2015)

YouTube

48% of marketers plan to add YouTube to their content strategy in the next year. (HubSpot, 2016)

On mobile alone in an average week, YouTube reaches more 18+ year-olds during prime time TV hours than any cable TV network. (Google, 2016)

Two-thirds of YouTube users watch YouTube on a second screen while watching TV at home. (Google, 2016)

YouTube is more commonly used by larger businesses. For example, 71% of businesses with 100+ employees use YouTube, compared to 38% of the self-employed. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of all people on the Internet. (YouTube, 2016)

In an average month, 8 out of 10 18- to 49-year-olds watch YouTube. (Google, 2016)

Among millennials, YouTube accounts for two-thirds of the premium online video watched across devices. (Google, 2016)

The time people spend watching YouTube on their TV has more than doubled year over year. (Google, 2016)

Email Marketing Stats

Email Clickthrough Rate

54% of marketers say increasing engagement rate is their top email marketing priority. (Ascend2, 2016)

11 a.m. ET has the highest clickthrough rate for email sends. (HubSpot, 2015)

15% of marketers surveyed say their company still does not regularly review email opens and clicks; only

23% say they have integrated their website and emails to track what happens after a click. (MarketingProfs, 2016)

Email notifications about abandoned carts have a 40.5% open rate. (eMarketer, 2015)

As the number of images in an email increases, the clickthrough rate of the email tends to decrease. (HubSpot, 2014)

Email Copy

64% of people prefer rich text emails. (HubSpot, 2014)

One-third of millennial workers are comfortable using emojis to communicate with a direct manager or senior executive. (Adobe, 2015)

Email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have the highest above-average engagement levels. (Adestra, 2015)

Nearly half (47%) of marketers say they sometimes test alternate subject lines to optimize email performance. (MarketingProfs, 2016)

Emails that included the first name of the recipient in their subject line had higher clickthrough rates than emails that did not. (HubSpot, 2014)

The open rate for emails with a personalized message was 17.6%, compared to 11.4% without personalization. (Statista, 2014)

Email Segmentation

42% of marketers do not send targeted email messages; only 4% use layered targeting. (MarketingProfs, 2016)

83% of companies use at least basic segmentation for their emails. (Econsultancy, 2016)

The ability to segment email lists and individualize email campaign messaging are the most effective personalization tactics for 51% and 50% of marketing influencers respectively. (Ascend2, 2016)

Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. (The Direct Marketing Association, 2015)

Email Usage

Three-quarters of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to “good” ROI. (Econsultancy, 2016)

Email use worldwide will top 3 billion users by 2020. (The Radicati Group, 2016)

Gmail has 1 billion active users worldwide. (Statista, 2016)

66% of unsubscribes occur between 5 and 10 p.m. (Tomasz Tunguz, 2015)
86% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly, and 15% would like to get them daily. (Statista, 2015)

51% of marketers say enriching contact data quality is their most significant barrier to achieving email marketing success. (Ascend2, 2016)

78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many emails. (HubSpot, 2016)

Mobile Email

Two-thirds of emails are read on either smartphones or tablets. (Marketing Land, 2015)

Outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email while watching TV (70%), from bed (52%), on vacation (50%), while on the phone (43%), from the bathroom (42%), and even while driving (18%). (Adobe, 2015)

75% of Gmail users access their accounts on mobile devices. (TechCrunch, 2015)

48% of emails are opened on a smartphone. (Movable Ink, 2015)

41% of emails are opened on an iPhone. (Movable Ink, 2015)

Lead Generation Stats

Demand Generation

80% of marketers report their lead generation efforts are only slightly or somewhat effective. (BrightTALK, 2015)

Lack of resources, such as staff, funding, and time, remains the biggest obstacle to successful lead generation for 61% of B2B marketers. (BrightTALK, 2015)

For B2B marketers, the ideal number of fields on web registration and download forms is between three and five for 79% of respondents, while only 16% said it was six or more. (BrightTALK, 2015)

53% of marketers say half or more of their budget is allocated to lead generation, while 34% say less than half of their budget is allocated to lead generation. (BrightTALK, 2015)

Only 17% of marketers say outbound practices provide the highest quality leads for sales. (HubSpot, 2016)

65% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge. (HubSpot, 2016)

58% of marketers say their lead generation budget will increase in the coming year. (BrightTALK, 2015)

Nearly 80% of companies not meeting their revenue goals attract 10,000 monthly website visitors or less.

For those exceeding their revenue goals, 70% report attracting more than 10,000 visitors per month. (HubSpot, 2015)

The less companies know about their KPIs, the less likely they are to meet their revenue goals. 74% of companies that weren’t exceeding revenue goals did not know their visitor, lead, MQL, or sales opportunities. (HubSpot, 2015)

Marketing Analytics

59% of marketers rely on total lead volume as a top metric. (BrightTALK, 2015)

42% of B2B marketing professionals state that a lack of quality data is their biggest barrier to lead generation. (BrightTALK, 2015)

Inbound organizations are 4 times as likely to rate their marketing strategy as effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

Just 61% of marketers believe their marketing strategy is effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

24% of marketers don’t know whether their efforts resulted in closed-won deals. (BrightTALK, 2015)

28% of marketers say securing enough budget is their top marketing challenge. (HubSpot, 2016)

Marketers that calculate ROI are 1.6 times more likely to receive higher budgets. (HubSpot, 2016)

43% of marketers say proving the ROI of their marketing activities is their top marketing challenge. (HubSpot, 2016)

72% of organizations that calculate ROI say their marketing strategy is effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

Marketing Automation

B2B marketers say the #1 benefit of marketing automation is the ability to generate more and better leads. (Pepper Global, 2014)

Marketers using automation software generate 2X the number of leads than those using blast email software and are perceived by their peers to be 2X as effective at communicating. (Autopilot, 2015)

67% of B2B marketers say they see at least a 10% increase in sales opportunities through lead nurturing, with 15% seeing opportunities increase by 30% or more. (Demand Gen Report, 2014)

74% of marketers say converting leads is their top priority. (HubSpot, 2016)

More than 60% of marketers use mass email blasts to stay in touch with customers, however, only 13% are using automation software. (Autopilot, 2015)

Marketing technology represents 33% of the average marketing budget. (Gartner, 2016)
28% of marketing technology spend goes to infrastructure (e.g., servers, storage, network) to run marketing software. (Gartner, 2016)

Marketing technology spend is now higher than advertising spend for companies. (Gartner, 2016)
64% of marketers say they saw the benefits of using marketing automation within the first six months of its implementation. (Regalix, 2015)

Nearly 70% of businesses are using a marketing automation platform or are currently implementing one. (Aberdeen, 2014)

Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. (Demand Gen Report, 2014)

37% of marketers state that budget constraints hinder them from conducting an efficient marketing automation strategy. (Pepper Global, 2014)

Online Paid Advertising Stats

Adblocking

87% of people say there are more ads than two years ago. (HubSpot, 2016)

Adblocking has cost publishers nearly $22 billion in 2015 alone. (PageFair, 2015)

Adblocker Plus, the most popular ad blocking app, has reached 300 million downloads worldwide. (HubSpot, 2016)

77% of consumers agree that they would prefer to ad filter than completely ad block. (HubSpot, 2016)

41% of ad blocker users found out about ad blockers by word of mouth. (HubSpot, 2016)

64% of ad blocker users do so because they believe ads are annoying or intrusive. (HubSpot, 2016)

419 million people worldwide have installed an ad blocker on their smartphone. (PageFair, 2015)

Display Advertising

91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than two years ago. (HubSpot, 2016)

73% of people dislike pop-up ads. (HubSpot, 2016)

4 out of 5 of people have left a webpage because of a pop-up or autoplaying video ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

One-third of marketers think outbound marketing tactics are overrated. (HubSpot, 2016)
33% of inbound marketers and 31% of outbound marketers rank outbound marketing practices, such as paid advertising, as the top waste of time and resources. (HubSpot, 2016)

72% of consumers say they would have a lower opinion of a brand if they subjected the consumer to a pop-up ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

81% of consumers have closed a browser or exited a webpage because of a pop-up ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

34% of consumers say they have mistakenly clicked on an online ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

Mobile Advertising

70% of people dislike mobile ads. (HubSpot, 2016)

Mobile ad blocking has increased 90% year-over-year. (HubSpot, 2016)

75% of Google’s mobile search revenue comes from apple devices. (Search Engine Land, 2015)

The average clickthrough rate for a mobile search ad on Google in the first position is 27.7%. The average clickthrough rate for the second position is 9.2%. (Search Engine Land, 2014)

Google drives 95% of all paid search ad clicks on mobile. (Business Insider, 2016)

8 in 10 marketers worldwide use location targeting for mobile advertising. (eMarketer, 2015)

By 2019, mobile advertising will represent 72% of all U.S. digital ad spending. (Marketing Land, 2015)

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online. (WordStream, 2016)

The average conversion rate in AdWords across all industries is 2.7% on the search network and 0.89% on the display network. (WordStream, 2016)

The average clickthrough rate in AdWords across all industries is 1.91% for search and 0.35% for display. (WordStream, 2016)

The average cost-per-click (CPA) in AdWords across all industries is $2.32 on the search network and $0.58 on the display network. (WordStream, 2016)

When it comes to paid social media ads, the overwhelming majority use Facebook ads (84%), followed by Google ads (41%) and LinkedIn ads (18%). (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

Video Advertising

51% of people have a lower opinion of brands that use autoplaying video ads. (HubSpot, 2016)

70% of U.S. marketers plan to use social video ads in the coming 12 months. (eMarketer, 2016)

82% of consumers have closed a browser or exited a webpage because of an autoplaying online video ad. (HubSpot, 2016)

YouTube’s net U.S. video ad revenues account for 18.9% of the U.S. digital video ad market. (eMarketer, 2014)

Video ads have an average clickthrough rate of 1.84%, the highest clickthrough rate of all digital ad formats. (Business Insider, 2014)

56% of viewers are likely to skip online video ads. (Marketing Land, 2014)

15% of viewers believe a video ad should be no more than 15 seconds in length. (Marketing Land, 2014)

Marketing Technology Stats

Messaging Apps

20% of marketers plan to add messaging apps to their content strategy in the next year. (HubSpot, 2016)

Roughly 3 in 10 online adults (29%) use messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Kik, or iMessage. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

36% of smartphone owners use messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Kik, or iMessage. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

14% of online adults use apps that automatically delete the messages they send, such as Snapchat or Wickr. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

17% of smartphone owners use apps that automatically delete the messages they send, such as Snapchat or Wickr. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

Half of smartphone owners ages 18-29 use messaging apps. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

There have been over 4 billion downloads of messenger apps. (HubSpot, 2016)

6 of the top 10 most used apps globally are messaging apps. (KPCB, 2016)

7 in 10 Snapchatters use Facebook Messenger too. (GlobalWebIndex, 2015)

Among WeChat users in China, 60% open the app more than 10 times every day. (eMarketer, 2016)

By 2018, chat app users will represent 80% of smartphone users. (eMarketer, 2015)

4 out of 10 mobile users use Facebook Messenger. (eMarketer, 2016)

Mobile

Mobile commerce is now 30% of all U.S. ecommerce. (Internet Retailer, 2015)

There are 2.6 billion smartphone users globally. By 2020, there will be 6.1 billion. (TechCrunch, 2015)

One-third of people use their smartphone as their primary device to access the internet. (HubSpot, 2016)

82% of smartphone users say they consult their phones on purchases they’re about to make in a store. (Google, 2016)

34% of online retail purchases now happen on mobile devices. (Google, 2016)

35% of smartphone users check their phone more than 50 times per day. (AdWeek, 2015)

66% of Americans own at least two digital devices — smartphone, desktop or laptop computer, or tablet — and 36% own all three. (Pew Research Center, 2015)

80% of millennials have their smartphone at their side, day and night. (Google, 2015)

85% of adults ages 18-49 use multiple devices at the same time. (Google, 2016)

Consumers spend 85% of time on their smartphones in apps. (TechCrunch, 2015)

Consumers spend 84% of time on their smartphones using just five non-native apps they’ve installed from the App Store. (TechCrunch, 2015)

Only 39% of marketing executives say they are able to understand their customers’ cross-device behaviors. (eMarketer, 2016)

90% of time on mobile is spent in apps. (Yahoo, 2016)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

80% of respondents believe AI improves worker performance and creates jobs. (Narrative Science, 2015)

AI will replace 16% of American jobs by the end of the decade. (Forrester, 2015)

32% of executives say voice recognition is the most widely used AI technology in their business. (Narrative Science, 2015)

Sales Stats

CRM

22% of salespeople don’t know what a CRM is. (HubSpot, 2016)

17% of salespeople cite manual data entry as the biggest challenge using their existing CRM. (HubSpot, 2016)

Only 21% of salespeople consider their CRM software’s integration capabilities with marketing software or other tools to be high quality. (HubSpot, 2016)

40% of salespeople still use informal means such as Microsoft Excel or Outlook to store its lead and customer data. (HubSpot, 2016)

29% of salespeople are spending an hour or more on data entry each and every day. (HubSpot, 2016)

Nearly half (45%) of companies are using some form of CRM to store lead data, and 84% of those companies have a standard in place for scoring lead quality. (DMN News, 2014)

Selling

70% of companies say closing more deals is their top sales priority. (HubSpot, 2016)

Prospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process for salespeople. (HubSpot, 2016)

58% of buyers want to talk about pricing in the first sales call, while 65% of salespeople want to keep the conversation on goals. (HubSpot, 2016)

57% of salespeople believe buyers are less dependent on salespeople during the buying process. (HubSpot, 2016)

Only 29% of people want to talk to a salesperson to learn more about a product, while 62% will consult a search engine. (HubSpot, 2016)

40% of salespeople say getting a response from prospects is getting harder. (HubSpot, 2016)

43% of salespeople struggle most with prospecting. (HubSpot, 2016)

63% of prospects are “somewhat” or “not at all” knowledgeable about a company before a sales rep makes the first contact. (HubSpot, 2016)

34% of salespeople say closing deals is getting harder. (HubSpot, 2016)

Service-Level Agreement (SLA)

Only 22% of respondents have a formal SLA between marketing and sales. (HubSpot, 2016)

Only 5% of salespeople said leads they received from marketing were very high quality. (HubSpot, 2016)

Only 22% of salespeople said marketing was their best source of leads (HubSpot, 2016)

Organizations with an SLA are over 5X as likely to be effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

59% of marketers say they provide salespeople with their best quality leads, while salespeople rank marketing-sourced leads last. (HubSpot, 2016)

82% of marketers with an SLA think their marketing strategy is effective. (HubSpot, 2016)

Social Selling

28% of companies are prioritizing social selling. (HubSpot, 2016)

Buyers who use social media have larger budgets — typically 84% larger than the budgets of buyers who do not use social. (IDC, 2014)

61% of organizations engaged in social selling report a positive impact on revenue growth. (Feedback Systems, 2015)

72% of sales professionals feel that they are not proficient with social selling. (Feedback Systems, 2015)

46% of social sellers hit quota compared to 38% of sales reps who don’t. (Aberdeen, 2014)

6 Overlooked Ways a Facebook Page Can Help Your Business

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Social Media

Are you getting the most out of your business Facebook page?

While most businesses understand they can draw traffic and referrals from Facebook, there are actually dozens of different ways that you can benefit from your page, provided you know how.

Below you can learn about seven of the most effective ways to get your Facebook page working for your business, often in as little as 30 minutes.

1. Capturing Reviews and Testimonials

If your page is categorized as a local business, it’s a little known fact that Facebook allows your page to collect both reviews and testimonials.

Although their terms of services do not allow you to explicitly incentivize your customers to do this, you are permitted to let your fans know they can leave you reviews on your page.

After you’ve received a few good reviews, you can add some of the more noteworthy ones directly to your site to serve as testimonials.

To do this, click on the timestamp section of the post, select the drop-down box, and then choose “Embed Post.” This will allow you to embed that positive review directly on your site, which helps demonstrate its authenticity.

2. Engage with Fans

More than a hub for posting content, Facebook is a platform for connecting with fans and creating conversations.

Your fan base is composed of at least four different groups: current, potential, former customers, and fans of your content.

Understanding this, you should create content that can help you engage with all of these groups. To do this, you can follow the age-old rule for engagement known as the 80-20 rule.

This rule means that 80% of your content should be designed to appeal to your audience, and the remaining 20% should be shameless self-promotion.

In short, the vast majority of your posts should be designed to help get your fans to interact with your page.

This can be done by actively encouraging them to participate and share at every possible opportunity.

When a majority of your posted content follows these guidelines, you’ll almost inevitably form an audience that will be more receptive to the self-promotional content that follows.

3. Request Feedback

If you can make use of insight from potential, current, or former customers, consider surveying them with your Facebook page.

A survey will encourage your fans to engage with you, and may also provide you with invaluable feedback regarding the kinds of services they’re seeking.

You can poll your audience for free with the use of Facebook polling apps, and choose an app depending on how you want the data complied.

You can also use this as an opportunity to collect fan information, including email addresses, or other types of information you can’t collect through a public Facebook page.

4. Capturing Blog Comments

Drawing posts from your Facebook page can be a very effective alternative to using a comment section on your blog.

Just post a link to your Facebook at the end of any blog post, and then ask your fans to head there to discuss things further.

This enables you to disable comments on your blog, avoid the problem of dealing with automated spam, and promote engagement at the same time.

Additionally, anyone who sees the discussion on your page is apt to click on to read the post that everyone is talking about!

5. Share the Views of your Business

If you find yourself posting comments on a blog within your business niche, post as your own Facebook business page rather than your personal profile.

When you use your Facebook page to comment, you set up an open invitation for people to connect with your page.

Apart from a small increase in traffic from relevant and highly targeted users, this also can create backlinks to your page, and any user that is an administrator or moderator for your page can post this way.

You can post as your business by clicking on the drop-down menu next to the “comment” button, and selecting the page that you want to post as.

6. Fight Negative Search Results

If you end up getting negative results in a prominent position in a search engine page, you can push them to the bottom with only a little Facebook maneuvering.

This is because Facebook is a very potent domain that enables you to easily rank well in a search results page.

While your Facebook page probably won’t rank as high as your website overnight, an active page can help you get in the top ten results in a SERP in only a few weeks, which can help you push negative results lower down the page.

Getting Started

As you’ve seen, many of these tips can be implemented by doing very little additional work.

Taking actions as simple as posting comments under your business name, or even embedding testimonials, can prove invaluable to your business. There’s no reason for you not to get started right away!

The Start is What Stops Most People

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Mindset

“The start is what stops most people.” – Don Shula

Have you ever seen a little kid get on a diving board for the first time?

Most of them hesitate and make a real serious assessment of whether this new activity is a good idea.

Of course there is a range. There are always a few brave souls who jump without thinking and a few who have to be forcibly pushed.

The majority do the calculation that, if kids before them didn’t die, they’re probably going to be ok.

I was a cautious kid and I’m probably a cautious adult. They didn’t have to throw me off the diving board, but let’s say, everybody was getting really bored by the time I finally jumped.

What kind of kid were you?

I have chosen a livelihood that is full of risk.

Starting a business and being an entrepreneur is just one long series of new diving board experiences.

The thing is, now we’re not in an environment that has been designed for our safety. Some of these jumps may be our last. Hence most people will not follow this path for long.

The stress of constantly assessing risk and then taking it, wears them out.

I think this is where support of mentors plays a big role.

If you’re in a new venture, find people willing to share their experiences.

They can be the other kids in the pool, who say, “come on in the water is fine.”

But choose wisely.

This reminds me of the scene from Vacation, when Christie Brinkley jumps in the pool naked and invites Clark Griswold to join her.

He strips down (to his boxers), and stands by the edge of the pool for a ridiculous amount of time, swinging his arms, chanting, “This is crazy, this is crazy….”

Sometimes when a start a new venture, I feel like Clark, “this is crazy, this is crazy…”

But eventually I jump… and start. How about you?

Aim for the Heart Not the Head

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Copywriting

Have you ever tried to get someone to change their opinion by presenting a rational argument? How did that work out for you? Outside of scientific arenas, I do not think this works very well at all.

Professional marketers and psychologists know people make decisions emotionally and then use reason to rationalize them.

Daniel Goleman, author of “Emotional Intelligence”, puts it this way,

“Our emotional mind will harness the rational mind to its purposes, for our feelings and reactions– rationalizations– justifying them in terms of the present moment, without realizing the influence of our emotional memory.”

As decision makers and consumers we are at a disadvantage, the influence of our emotions, once we’ve come up with our rationalizations, fades from our recollection.

This is why most people when they learn about this phenomenon respond in protest, “That’s not me. I make decisions based on the Facts.” No one does. That’s not how our brain works.

It’s why science has been developed as a discipline.

It’s an external framework that forces humans to arrive at conclusions based on evidence – not something we do naturally.

However as marketers this works to our advantage if we recognize it and use it.

Evoke emotion first, then give reasons to support the feelings.

This isn’t really manipulation – though at first it can sound like it. It is just good communication. It’s communicating in a way that is natural for humans. Feelings matter.

In fact when we are forced to accept a point of view that upsets us, based only on overwhelming reason, we feel resentful.

And in truth, after the age of four or five, our sense of will is so strong we will likely never submit ourselves to accepting any position that is forced upon us by reason alone, especially when it clashes with our sense of the world.

When Customers or Clients Behave Badly

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Customer Service

Every business wishes to keep its customers or clients happy. After all, they provide the revenue that allows the company to stay afloat. However, there are certain kinds of customers or clients who hurt rather than help the business’s bottom line. It’s important for every business to identify these parties and to take action to limit the financial damage they cause.

Here are six profiles of customers or clients behaving badly.

1. The client who makes a request that is unethical and/or illegal.

One example is the client who requests a receipt showing an amount that is different from the actual amount for the transaction. Another example is the client who wants the transaction to be “under the table.”

Obviously, you must refuse to participate in such transactions. The viability and longevity of your company depend upon your commitment to act with integrity and according to the law at all times.

2. The customer who is abusive.

If a customer abuses you or your staff verbally or physically, it is necessary to take action to terminate the relationship. And, of course, the police should be called if the abuse crosses the line into criminality.

3. The client who makes unreasonable demands.

This can occur, for example, in a business-to-business supplier arrangement.

If a client responds to a free delivery offer by placing regular small orders instead of one large order, in order to reduce his own inventory costs, the client is taking unreasonable advantage of your offer.

At a certain point, it may be appropriate to withdraw the free delivery option for this client.

4. The customer who complains on social media.

In the modern era, customers often express concerns on social media about products or services.

This is a difficult scenario for businesses to navigate, as they must keep customer confidentiality concerns in mind.

As a first step, it is appropriate to respond on the social media platform, without overreacting or attacking the customer.

As a second step, if the customer consents, the discussion can be shifted from the social media platform to a private conversation between you and the customer.

5. The client whose actions result in costs that are in excess of revenue.

This may occur in a business-to-business arrangement, where – for example – the client makes excessive use of support services in relation to software.

In this instance, the client may be using your business as a trainer instead of instituting training for its own staff.

At a certain point, after appropriate cautions and warnings, it may be desirable to terminate the software supply arrangement.

6. The customer who returns a large proportion of purchases.

There are customers who abuse retail return policies. Some buy a product – such as an item of clothing or an electronic device – with the intention of using it temporarily and then bringing it back for a refund.

Others purchase multiple similar items with the intention of trying them out and then returning all but one. Such customer conduct has a negative effect on inventory and warehousing arrangements.

Where such abuse continues, it is appropriate to first issue warnings and then to begin refusing refunds.

By identifying problem customers or clients, businesses begin the process of formulating a response to these individuals.

It is in the best interests of both your bottom line and your staff’s morale to develop policies and procedures to deal with such customers and clients.

Guest Post By John Dunnery

7 Ways a Local Business Can Dominate Google

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Local Business

Local businesses understand the need for a prominent position on Google. Many business owners, though, don’t always understand how crucial to long-term success search engine visibility really is.

The Mobile Movement Study found that 77% of mobile users contacted a local business after conducting a local search.

BrightLocal also reported that 98% of web searchers visit a site featured on the first page, with very few people even bothering to move onto secondary pages.

If your business is reliant on web traffic, it is clearly important to focus on SEO. However, trying to get your website ranked is only the start if you are ambitious.

Local search rankings offer the chance for businesses to seize the initiative and take multiple spots on the first page.

Google doesn’t just rank individual websites but instead likes to offer a variety of options to users. Each of the following platforms can be used to get extra listings, potentially leading to a domination of the search real estate for your favored keywords.

1. Main Website

Ideally, your main website will achieve the top position. Most of the following platforms allow you to link towards your main site, so you should naturally generate authority.

For local terms, gaining citations can be enough to rank, with local directories, forums, and blogs linking to you.

If you are struggling to rank, search for powerful authority sites in your locality and niche, then look for content syndication opportunities with guest posts.

2. YouTube Video

Google naturally likes videos featured on their own platform. Most local businesses, though, don’t produce video content, so don’t realize how easy it can be to rank.

When creating the content, ensure you use keywords within the title and include a detailed description. With some backlinks and embeds, you can quickly see your video ranking.

3. Industry Directory

There are many directories online, but some will be harder to rank than others. Specialist industry directories can rank well, but check to see if they already feature on one of the first few pages before you attempt to promote them.

Choosing a powerful site means the domain already has authority, so you may only need a small amount of promotion to rank your own page.

4. Google Local Pack

The number of sites featured in the Google Local Pack has gradually been reduced, but that does mean you will stand out more if you can be included.

Getting listed involves joining Google My Business, completing your profile in detail, getting clients to leave reviews, and getting citations with your full address details included.

A local listing can feature your site name, map listing, images, and street view, so it is good for branding and click-through rate.

5. Google Images

For many niches, images are featured on the main Google results page. Images naturally stand out, increasing the chances of searchers clicking further.

To raise the prospects of your images being shown, use alt tags with keywords, ensuring the image is correctly labeled.

Also, add geotagging information to the metadata, so the image is recognized as a local term.

6. News Reports

Press releases and news reports can often feature in the search results, particularly if the news has a broader context.

It might not always be possible to target a relevant news story, but getting alerts on keywords and industry news should flag opportunities for creating news stories.

It is also possible to become a featured writer for an established site, whether this is industry-related or a larger site like The Huffington Post.

7. Paid Advertising

Finally, you can secure a prime position by paying for Google advertising. Of course, you need to make the ad cost work by carefully tracking your spending, but local advertising will usually be far cheaper than broad search terms.

It is important to track and test your results, calculating how much it is costing to find leads and make sales.

Depending on the competitiveness of the search term, it is possible for a local business to have multiple listings on a page.

The first few listings receive the bulk of the traffic, with numbers falling as you move down the page. If you can rank a few sites, you should receive most of the traffic while heavily branding your business as the major authority.

There is a lot of potential to be found in local search, so there is no reason you shouldn’t make an ambitious plan for a strong Google presence.

Front Porch Metaphor for Social Media Marketing

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Social Media

I got into Facebook advertising by way of Google SEO and AdWords.

I learned AdWords from Perry Marshall.

Therefore when I decided to learn Facebook Advertising, I liked him so much, I picked up his book on the subject.

His book mentioned this metaphor, called the front porch metaphor.

Since first reading about it, it’s always been my go-to metaphor for for social selling.

Everything Old is New Again

Maybe it’s also because I grew up in an older neighborhood with hundred-year-old homes.

Those old homes had front porches and I remember sitting in front of my grandparents house on the front porch in the evening.

My grandparents would interact with their neighbors as they walked by.

As they were sitting there talking to us kids and having a conversation among themselves, when a neighbor came by, they would wave.

If they were little friendlier they would chit chat about something going on in the neighborhood or the weather.

Then every once in awhile there was a particularly friendly person and that person would come up and join the conversation on the front porch.

That’s the whole concept right there!

Social Media is the Front Porch for Your Business

You imagine that there’s a front porch in front of your business and there are people out there conversing in plain sight of the people walking past.

As the passers by get curious about what’s going on, they realize that it’s about something that they’re interested in.

Eventually, the ones that are going to be interested are drawn up onto the front porch to engage and interact.

This is all to the benefit of your business.

Obviously on Facebook there’s nobody walking past our business, instead our post moves past as they scroll through their Newsfeed.

Our front porch for the day whizzes past in the form of a post. And if that post is engaging, which means that it’s funny, helpful, inspirational, or invokes some emotion, it makes them stop.

Maybe they hit the like button, the equivalent to a friendly wave.

Maybe they leave a comment, the equivalent to a little chat.

But maybe they get into a conversation with either the business owner or with other people conversing in the comments on the post.

This is an uncommon thing on pages that are not run very well.

But on well run pages, it’s a common thing.

Moreover, they share that post, the equivalent of inviting their friends to join the party on the front porch.

That’s what we want. That’s the opportunity that exists on Facebook.

There’s Nothing New About Social Selling

There are businesses today that still use social selling offline.

Think about barber shops, salons, bars, coffee shops, or restaurants.

These are all places that encourage socializing at their establishment for the benefit of the establishment.

If you like to B.S. with the guys down at the barbershop, you’re going to get your haircut more often because it’s fun! It’s an experience that you enjoy

It’s the same tactic employed in the old days by a General Store.

The General Stores literally had a front porches in front of the store.

They will put benches and chairs. They would actively encourage people to be out there socializing.

But while socializing, patrons are seeing that there’s a special on on this type of drink or a special on some item in the store.

Then they maybe they buy a drink because they’re out there talking.

It makes it an easy excuse to go to the store because you know that there’s something interesting happening down there.

This is exactly the opportunity nearly every business has with on Facebook.

So keep this metaphor in mind in regards to everything you do on Facebook.

What Not To Do

From this point of view, you can see where the worst thing you can do is to do a hard sale from your Facebook page.

There are other places in Facebook to make offers. Namely, advertising.

The great thing is when you get ready to make a direct offer you can choose to deliver it to people with whom you’ve already built up a relationship.

On your page you’re going to stay funny, engaging, and socializing.

You’re not going to stand up on your porch with the big bull horn and yell at the people in the street to come up.

It’s just not the right place for it.

That’s my take on the metaphor.

If you want to chat with other marketers who embrace this approach, join us at the Front Porch Marketing Club, a private group on Facebook.

If you’d like to see how to execute a Facebook advertising campaign that will grow your business and make you the celebrity in the area, learn more about my Local Social Ads course.

Is Your Marketing a Welcome Guest or an Unwanted Pest?

by Ahryn Scott | Nov 8, 2017 | Social Media

This is from an old riff from Dan Kennedy, but it’s more valid today than ever.

Today people will go to great lengths to avoid advertising, like paying for premium content and ad blockers.

However, there is always room for a welcome guest and there are so many ways to be that welcome guest.

Here are my two favorite ways:

1. Be human on social media.

What happens when humans meet humans? They make friends, not with everyone, but even those become important.

As a group of friendly folk grow, they stand in contrast to those who don’t share their values and, for lack of a better word, style.

Once this happens a community begins to form. It’s natural!

There is a feeling among community members to help each other out and stick together.

One person’s annoying offer is another person’s salvation. This happens all the time in hobby niches.

I like aquariums. I always have, since I was a kid.

Now there is a thriving aquarist community on YouTube. I love it!

I learn way more than I could by myself and even though the communication is one way, I feel like I know and trust the content makers.

For this phenomenon benefit businesses, it doesn’t need to be complete. It’s just the hint of this that gives you an unbeatable edge over your competitors.

People only shop price when that is the only perceived difference.

That you have feelings of like and trust towards one brand complicate the decision making process… in your favor!

My second favorite way is the method Dan Kennedy was alluding to 30 years ago (and it was an old concept when he started touting it).

2. Irresistible Offers!

They’re irresistible! They take away, or significantly reduce, the risk on the part of the customer/client.

Before there were Sales Funnels, there was Product Mix.

There have always been a class of products, services… OFFERS, that were specifically designed to bring people “in the door” or “on the lot.” They were designed to “make the phone ring.”

Now did 20% of the people take the irresistible offer and run for the hills? Yes.

But did 80% of the people that came in on the irresistible offer upgrade their order with something extra, bigger, better, nicer, more luxurious, or more complete? Yes!

The problem with most advertising boils down to brand recognition and value proposition.

I’ll leave off with two parting shots:

1. In a social media world, even the smallest companies can start playing a sophisticated game of branding without spend huge resources.

2. Creating offers that provide an irresistible value proposition requires owners who have the courage and confidence in the value proposition of the remainder of their offerings.

Agree? Or disagree? Let me know.

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