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Instagram is more than Facebook’s jet-setting younger sibling or Twitter’s ultra-trendy cousin.
With more than 800 million monthly users (and growing), Instagram is the place to document life’s moments, big and small, in beautiful little snapshots.
Instagram has also rapidly become one of the hottest marketplaces in the world. By 2023, the app is projected to generate $6.8 billion in mobile ad revenue.
On Instagram, users actively invite the brand into their feed – 80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one brand.
E-commerce brands are particularly well-suited to thrive on Instagram, with 14 percent of users likely to make a purchase directly on the app, not to mention view-through conversion opportunities.
Let’s explore seven tactics to power your Instagram sales funnel to steady success.
Tactic 1: Add a Call to Action in Your BioOne simple tactic is to add a call-to-action (CTA) in your bio directing your followers back to your e-commerce store.
If you have a current product special, new featured line, or anything else you’d like to promote, use your bio to direct followers where to find out more.
Here’s a good example of how to invite followers to “Shop our Instagram” directly from the bio:
With Instagram’s default functionality for accounts with fewer than 10,000 followers, that’s the only link opportunity you have. Use it wisely.
You can use a paid tool like Link in Profile to have multiple links in your bio.
Check out this example below, where each photo is linked back to your site:
Tactic 2: Link in StoryThis feature is only available to accounts with more than 10,000 followers – all the more reason to prioritize Instagram and start building that audience.
Eligible accounts can include links in Instagram stories.
Instagram stories, added last year, allow users to combine photos and videos into a temporary slideshow that disappears after 24 hours.
Elite users can now put a CTA in the Instagram story for people to swipe up to read more.
You can direct followers to your website, a specific product, collection, blog post, and more.
You can even hide hashtags in your photo, using the photo match tool on the left side, next to the color swatch. Use the dropper to match the background of your photo.
By adding hashtags to your Insta-story, you’re giving a new audience an opportunity to find you and navigate to your e-commerce store using the CTA feature.
If you choose this option, make sure to use hashtags relevant to your brand.
While niche hashtags don’t have massive search volume, you are more likely to find a converting customer, so get very familiar with the key hashtags in your space.
Want to use popular hashtags? The sweet spot seems to be between 100,000 to 500,000 uses. More popular, and there’s no way your brand will have visibility in all the noise.
Tactic 3: Collaborate With InfluencersBrands spend an estimated $1 billion annually on Instagram influencer marketing.
Influencers, who range from local fitness trainers or photographers with small followings to A-list celebrities, have turned social media marketing into an art form.
While top influencers like Beyoncé can earn more than $1 million per post, the average sponsored post costs about $300.
With the right strategy, your brand can strike up a strategic partnership with influencers that generates great return on investment in terms of conversions and brand awareness.
In working with influencers, you’re able to leverage their network and brand to bring awareness to your e-commerce offerings.
Even with tightening restrictions on sponsored content transparency, followers continue to welcome endorsements from trusted Insta-stars.
Daniel Wellington does a great job of working with influencers and has made a big footprint on Instagram with their watches.
If you are dipping your toes into influencers waters, be vigilant. Just because they have a high follower count or charge a heavy price doesn’t make it a good fit or guarantee success.
To start, make sure that their audience is real. Type their username into Social Blade and you can see some of their Instagram Analytics. If they have a real following they should generally have a gradual increase. If their following has a lot of peaks and declines, they most likely bought followers.
Real Followers:
Fake Followers:
You can also ask for their demographics/media kit to ensure they are the right fit for your campaign. The higher the following, the higher the price per collaboration so micro-influencers are becoming more popular. These influencers have a modest but engaged following and often have a niche which helps to target your marketing.
Tactic 4: Free Product, Just Pay ShippingThis can be a great approach to get your product out there and into the hands of consumers, especially if it is a product people are likely to buy more than once.
This strategy can draw a lot of attention, but you have to make sure it is executed properly.
Be wary about viewing these buyers as guaranteed future customers.
People might accept a free item, but that doesn’t mean they need or want to pay full price for an equivalent product in the future.
Just like social contests bring a lot of attention but rarely result in sustained success, this tactic has the same downside.
Additionally, you have to make sure you have enough inventory to follow through.
There have been a few scams using this tactic where people never received the product, and you don’t want your brand to be given a bad reputation due to inventory issues.
Tactic 5: Shopify IntegrationShopify is currently in the testing phase of shoppable Instagram posts.
This integration allows e-commerce stores to sell to buyers directly through the Instagram app, without ever having to navigate to a website or outside platform.
This feature is now available to some accounts as a beta release.
If you would like the option for shoppable posts ahead of the full Shopify/Instagram rollout, chúng tôi is a good alternative. This app allows you to take a screenshot on Instagram and shop directly in the app.
Tactic 6: User-generated ContentE-commerce products work exceptionally well with user-generated content.
Encourage followers to repost photos of your product in use, tagging your account or using your branded hashtag.
This practice creates a culture/community around your brand and helps to promote awareness.
One great example is Spivo, a company that has a selfie stick as its primary product. They do an awesome job with encouraging customers to share both video and image content that was produced using their product. They then re-post the content and tag the customer in it, increasing their visibility and engagement.
Tactic 7: Instagram AdsThe key with Instagram is cost per acquisition.
If you can get this into a comfortable range where you make a profit on every transaction, you can scale the campaign by upping the budget and find even more success.
Instagram StoriesThoughtful imagery is essential, and may need to be dramatically different from the visual assets that work on Google AdWords or Facebook.
In the Feed ConclusionInstagram is more than a social media platform; it’s an e-commerce store owner’s paradise.
These tactics can help set up and streamline an Instagram sales funnel that opens the door to a new world of sales success and brand loyalty.
From simple, free tactics like adding a CTA to your bio, to comprehensive paid ad strategies that sync with your larger marketing efforts, you can find an approach that works.
Instagram credit: @toofaced, @pinchofyum, @dynamiteclothing, @your_passport, @belfordwatches, @champagneandmacaroons, @spivostick
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7 Simple Steps For How To Use Canva (With Tutorial!)
Have you ever discovered something that you were so excited about you wanted to share it with the world? Maybe your new favorite show, a great book you recently finished, or if you’re like me: A marketing tool that makes your life So. Much. Easier.
Me, thinking of sharing this with you.
Here’s a little story: About eight years ago, one of my coworkers told me about this new tool she found called Canva. It allowed you to make really cool images for free. As a social media manager, this was the holy grail. I was always looking for ways to make custom images for my clients. And this tool was not only easy to use, but it made my meager design skills look pretty good. My clients were thrilled. My social media posts looked great. I was hooked.
It’s been almost a decade, and my love for Canva has only grown. I use Canva every day for the blog posts you see on LocaliQ and for our social media posts. I’m a Canva enthusiast. And I’m here to help you become one, too. Allow me to introduce you to this simple guide for how to use Canva.
Canva guide table of contentsIn this guide to Canva, I’m sharing:
Here we go!
What is Canva?Canva is an online graphic design tool built for beginners for both business and personal use. Canva’s mission is to “empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.” And they live up to it—letting you easily create shareable images from your desktop or from the app.
Launched in 2013, Canva has continued adding helpful features, sharing options, and even integrations to make getting your designs where they need to go—and in the format they need to be in—extremely easy.
With Canva, you can create designs for your business like:
Social media posts
Presentations
Posters
Calendars
Business cards
Logos
The list goes on and on.
See?
Why use Canva for your businessSo you might be wondering why you would want to use Canva for your business. Here are some of the top reasons.
1. It’s freeYou can also download these assets for free in a number of file formats.
2. It’s (pretty) easy to useCanva was built to be easy for the average person to use. And it really is once you understand how to use it (which we’ll detail with step-by-step instructions in this post!)
Like any marketing tool, practice makes perfect. And after playing around for a little bit within Canva, you can easily get a handle on the elements it offers for your designs.
3. You can create images fastThere are times when it’s best to work with a graphic designer. For instance, you want to invest in high-quality and well-designed images for your website and printed materials like menus. But there are times when you might need a quick event poster or social media post right away, and it’s something you could make if you had the right tool. This is that tool.
It once took me six hours to create a brochure, so I would have loved 1,243 brochure templates at my fingertips.
4. It’s versatileAs I mentioned, Canva gives you the opportunity to create a lot of different types of designs. This versatility is helpful when looking for a marketing tool to help with your design needs. You don’t have to worry about skipping around to different programs or problems with file compatibility—you know you can make pretty much anything you need with Canva (on desktop or on the app!).
5. It’s collaborativeCanva isn’t just easy for one person to use—it’s easy for teams to use, too. You can share your designs so others on your team can edit. Or if you created a design you love, you can share it as a template so others on your team can use it for their own creations. This is helpful if you have multiple employees helping with social media or asset creation.
6. It’s great for social media How to use Canva: Step-by-stepNow to the fun part: How to use Canva! I’ll walk through the steps for creating a new image from start to finish. And I even created a helpful little tutorial video for you to show you the steps in real time.
1. Create a Canva account (if you don’t have one)The first step is super simple—it’s just creating a Canva account (unless you have one—in that case, you can sign in).
Technically, you can use Canva without creating an account, but we suggest creating one because it will save all your designs in one place and allow you to log in from different browsers or the app to continue editing and creating your designs.
2. Choose your design type (or determine your custom size)
Choose from a suggested templated size (such as Instagram post, Facebook cover photo, and more)
Create your own custom dimensions
Upload a file or photo to begin editing
Choose the option that works best for the design you’re hoping to create to get started.
3. Look through pre-made templatesOne of the biggest benefits of Canva is that you have a library of design templates at your fingertips—even when you create a design using custom dimensions. This makes creating new designs simple, and you can easily edit the template to align with your brand identity.
You can find templates on the left-hand side of your page. You can scroll through the options or search for some templates that meet your needs, such as:
Quotes
Promotions
Events
Contests
And more
Canva also has grouped its templates into suggested buckets to make finding the right one easier for you.
(Speaking of winter Instagram posts, we created winter Instagram captions with curated Canva templates.)
4. Choose a template–or decide to design from scratchIf there aren’t any templates you’re interested in, you can also start your design from scratch. For beginners, I suggest choosing a template that has some elements you like so you can get a feel for your options. Remember, you can edit anything in the design, including font, all colors, shapes, and more.
5. Add or edit design elementsNow that you’ve chosen a template (or decided to start from scratch), it’s time to add or edit your design elements. I personally like to get my design to a good place before adding or editing my text.
You’ll want to get really familiar with the editing pane at the top of your page—this is where you will be able to choose the types of edits and changes you want to make.
Here are the controls you have available for design elements:
Color: This is where you’ll choose the color of the element or your background. You can choose from a color wheel or add in the specific HEX code (this is especially useful for your brand colors!).
Edit Image: If you have any type of image in your design, such as for the background or in a frame, you can edit the image by removing the background (a very helpful feature!), adjusting the brightness, contrast, or saturation, adding a filter, adding a color tone, and more.
Crop: You can crop your image or design element.
Flip: You can flip your image or design element either horizontally or vertically.
Animate: This is a cool feature that allows you to add some movement to your design. If you use this feature, you’ll need to download your design as an MP4 Video or a GIF.
Position: This lets you choose whether an image is behind or in front of other design elements. You can also align elements to the page or to other elements within your design. This is helpful when you have textboxes or want to make sure your designs are spaced evenly.
Copy style: This allows you to apply a style or format to a specific element. It applies to color, font, image filter, and more. This can help you easily match your design elements for cohesion.
Transparency: This allows you to adjust the transparency of your specific design element or image.
Link: You can add hyperlinks to your designs—this might be useful if you’re creating a PDF or a presentation.
Lock: This allows you to lock specific elements of your design so they can’t be moved or changed.
Copy: This lets you make a copy of a specific element.
Group/Ungroup: If you select multiple elements, you’ll also get the option to group or ungroup items. This will let you move or resize them together.
How to change or edit an element
How to replace or add an image
How to add a new element
For my example, I’ll add another image. To do this, I’ll scroll to “Frames” and choose one that I like.
6. Add or edit textNow that your design is in a good place, it’s time to edit your text.
You have even more options for editing when it comes to your text. In addition to the options we already covered for editing a design element (which you have for editing a text element), you also have:
Font: You can change the font of your text. Canva has pre-loaded a good amount of free fonts, and you can even upload your own font if you have a premium subscription.
Font size: You can specify the font size in the box or you can drag and stretch your text box to make the font larger.
Font styles: You can choose from Bold, Italic, Underline, and Uppercase (meaning all your letters will be uppercased) for font styles.
Alignment: You can choose from left-justified, centered, and right-justified.
Lists: You can add bullets or numbered lists.
Spacing: You can make the letter and line spacing closer or further.
Effects: You can choose from specific text effects such as Shadow, Neon, Hollow, and more.
As you can see, there are plenty of options available to personalize your designs!
How to edit text
For example, I’m going to edit the text in my design to a quote from my customer along with her name and title and then change the font and colors to align with my brand.
How to add new text
After you’ve added the new text to your design, you can make edits or changes.
7. Download your Canva creationOnce your design elements and text elements have been edited, changed, and added, it’s time to give your design a final look before you export it! (But, don’t worry—you can make changes after downloading).
Downloading your design is really easy:
Choose your file type. You can choose from PNG, JPG, PDF Standard, PDF Print, SVG (for premium subscribers), MP4 Video, and GIF.
If you have more than one page in your design, choose the pages you want to export. If you export more than one page, it will export as a zipped/compressed file.
And, voila!
Canva tutorial videoHere’s the video I promised. In this Canva tutorial, I’ll walk through how to create an Instagram quote image in less than five minutes.
Canva has also created a library of tutorials you can check out for more in-depth how-tos.
Canva features for businesses to tryNow that you’ve got the basics down, let’s talk a little bit about some of the cool features you can expect from Canva for your business.
Pre-made social media templatesIn my opinion, Canva’s pre-made social media templates are what make it such a great free marketing tool for growing businesses. The ability to get perfectly-sized social media images with some designs that are pretty much good to go is a busy business owner’s dream!
I curated some free social media templates I love for you here:
Canva also has pre-made video editing templates so you can create social media videos in a flash!
Canva presentationsIf you don’t want to use Powerpoint or just want to spice up your presentations, Canva has some really great presentation templates to help you out. You would follow the same process to make edits and changes to the design elements and text, and you can export as a PDF to present through your pages. Or you can present directly through Canva.
This is also a helpful feature if you’re trying to collaborate with other team members or want an easy way to access or share your presentations on the go.
Canva logo makerAnother feature small businesses love, especially, is the Canva logo maker. Canva has created some pre-made logo templates you can choose from and personalize. This is a great feature if you’re starting a new business or looking for inspiration before working with a professional designer to create your logo.
We put together tips and Canva templates to help you design a small business logo here.
Sticker creatorAnother cool feature Canva added is the ability to design your own custom stickers you can then print (or have printed directly through Canva). Branded stickers add a nice touch to packaging or customizing boxes, bags, or other items. Plus, stickers are very cost-effective.
But you don’t have to stop at branded stickers. You can also use the Canva sticker templates to create fun stickers that add a little flair to your business–and make your customers happy!
Background remover (premium feature)This is a cool feature because it can elevate your images super fast without having to learn Photoshop. You can use this to make nice quote images or to crop out noisy backgrounds of your images. This feature is only available for premium subscribers.
To remove a background in Canva, you:
Add your image to the design
Brand kit (premium feature)One feature that I personally love is the brand kit option from Canva. With the brand kit, you can upload your logos, colors, and fonts so they’re easily and readily available to you and those on your team.
This helps you keep all your designs cohesive, which is a big benefit for your business. And it makes it easier for you and your team so you don’t have to keep adding your HEX colors to every new design.
Go forth and create with CanvaNow that you know how to use Canva, it’s time to make some creations of your own! Canva is a valuable free marketing tool to add to your arsenal that can help you craft winning social media posts, stellar presentations, and more—all while keeping your brand identity clear and cohesive.
If you love free tools like Canva, you might also love our free website grader! Find out how your website stacks up and get actionable tips for improvement.
Stephanie HeitmanStephanie is the Associate Director of Content for LocaliQ and WordStream. She has over 10 years of experience in content and social media marketing and loves writing about all things digital marketing. When she’s not researching the latest and greatest marketing news and updates, she’s probably watching reality TV with her husband, reading, or playing with her two pups.
Other posts by Stephanie Heitman
How To Do Reverse Image Search On Instagram: 7 Methods
There are two general cases when you can use Instagram reverse image search. First of all, in case you are looking for a long-lost pal, you can use their picture to get instant results from their profile.
Second, you can use it to locate plagiarism, the reverse image search helps you find your fake profile or an account that is using your images as theirs. It is beneficial for locating accounts that are stealing your photography, art images, and other original content.
However, it is not always easy to perform the reverse image search on Instagram as it doesn’t provide this feature directly. Hence, we have listed some of the best and simplest ways to perform reverse image searches on Instagram.
Method 1: Reverse Image Search on Instagram using Social Catfish
Social Catfish is an online investigation platform that helps in verifying people’s identities. It is capable of analyzing image size, resolution, location, email address, phone number, and other parameters for accurate results.
Let us now look at how you can use it for Instagram reverse image search:
Step 1) Start by simply going to the official website of Social Catfish
Step 2) Select the Image option and upload the Instagram image.
Step 3) Now, browse and upload the image in the provided area.
Step 4) Wait till the scanning completes and then check if the results match who or what you are looking for.
Method 2: Using Best Instagram Reverse Image Search ToolsHere are some of the reliable tools you can use to perform Instagram reverse image searches.
PixsyHere is how you can use Pixsy to search Instagram photos:
Step 1) Sign up for free with Pixsy and import the image into its dashboard.
Step 3) Log into your Instagram account
Step 4) Connect your social media account with Pixsy, where you usually upload your images manually.
Step 5) Get a total overview of how many matches your image has.
Step 6) You can then choose to take it down, submit a legal case, or ignore it.
TinEyeTinEye is a reverse image search engine. It has one of the highest reverse image search success rates. Using its drag-and-drop feature you can bring the image straight to the search bar or upload it from your mobile. You can also reverse-search an image using the image’s URL. Here is how you can use it to perform a reverse image search:
Step 1) You must first visit its main page. Here you will find two options, first is to upload an image you want to search.
Both methods shall display the same results.
SauceNAOSauceNAO is a reverse image search tool, the name SauceNao comes from a common sentence used across similar sites ‘Need to know the source of this Now!”.
Here are the steps on how to search Instagram photo with SauceNAO:
Step 1) Go to SauceNAO’s website
Step 3) This will display a page with similar-looking results to the image.
BerifyBerify is a search engine that helps you reverse-search images and videos. Along with using its own exclusive search solution, it also uses Google, Yandex, Bing, and more to locate images and videos. This extensive search offers you vast results and provides accuracy.
Following are the steps on how to perform a reverse image search with Berify:
Step 1) Visit chúng tôi to understand how it works and sign up for free.
Step 2) Now upload the image you want to reverse search, this will take you to a signup page. You must sign up for the free version to perform the search.
Method 3: Google Image SearchGoogle Image search for reverse image search is a widely used feature and is a powerful tool for finding source images. Using it for Instagram reverse image search discovers several accurate and similar results within seconds. It is easy to use as all it takes is to upload images onto the search engine.
Furthermore, you will receive additional information related to the profile if you use its URL.
Here are the simple steps on how to perform a reverse image search on Google.
Step 1) Go to Google Images’ main page and open the camera icon.
Step 2) You will then get two search options, the first one is the Paste image URL.
The second option says Upload an image.
Both the option will provide you with the same results.
Google Image search with Chrome BrowerIf you use Chrome Browser, you won’t have to locate the source image on the internet. This method is generally used for images that have already been uploaded online and found while browsing.
Reverse Instagram image search on Android, iPhone, and iPadFollow the steps below to perform a reverse image search on these mobile devices:
Step 2) Now, tap on the selected image and open it.
Step 3) Next, tap on the Scanner camera button to view the result.
Step 4) This will display similar images to the selected image.
Google reverse image search with Chrome on Android
Step 2) It will display the following menu, choose “Desktop Site” from the menu.
Step 3) Finally, repeat the same steps provided in the previous method.
Method 4: Bing Image SearchBing is one of the search engines that work similarly to Google. Hence, it comes with an almost identical feature for searching Instagram profiles or information with the help of an image.
It follows a similar process to Google, however, we have provided the steps on how to perform reverse image search with Bing.
Step 2) It will display a popup with two options, Drag and Drop or Browse the Image from your computer.
The second option is to paste an image or an URL.
Both these options will display the same results.
In case you want to reverse image search with Bing on your smartphone or other mobile devices, you can follow two options:
You can use Bing Website
Use iOS and Android Bing app and follow the same steps mentioned above.
Method 5: Yandex Reverse Image SearchYandex is a search engine with its own Instagram reverse image searching capabilities. It is an expert tool for finding matching and similar faces on social media. This is a Russian tool and a powerful alternative to Google. However, it is used worldwide for searching images with the help of a picture because of its accuracy.
Following the steps below, you can use to perform a reverse image search using Yandex.
Step 1) Open the main page of Yandex.
You shall be provided with two options, the first option is to select a file or drag it here for uploading.
In the second option, you can enter the image URL.
Both options will display the same results as given in the image below.
For using Yandex on iOS, you can download its browser application, as for Android users, it has a mobile. In order to perform a reverse image search on your smartphone and other mobile device, you can follow the same steps provided above.
Method 6: Use Hashtags to Perform Instagram Reverse SearchHere are the simple steps on how to perform a simple reverse image search on Instagram
Step 2) Now type #carparts in the search bar, and it will display results with the term you are looking for and anything associated with it.
Method 7: Search with Instagram likesYou can perform a search with Instagram likes, if you double-tapped a post and want to look for it, you can trace it back from your liked posts.
Here are a few simple steps for performing social media reverse image search using likes:
Step 3) Now, it will take you to a new page with the following menu.
FAQAt present, there is no official way to perform a reverse image search on Instagram. Instagram is a social media application and is constantly adding new features, thus, we can hope in the future that it may add this functionality. However, you can perform reverse image searches of Instagram images in other tools like Google Images, TinEye, Pixsy, and more.
Instagram provides its own copyright policies. If you catch the culprit directly or by using the reverse image search methods, you can ask them to remove the images immediately.
In case they refuse to do so, you can report this to Instagram. This social media platform has a very simple way to report copyright issues through a report form. You can also reach out to Instagram’s designated agents for this law break.
ConclusionEven if there is no truly verifiable way to find out where the Instagram image appeared, you can still make your search parameters close to specific by using digital imprinting and metadata.
The Instagram reverse image search cannot be directly performed using the official app, but you can always try other search apps.
7 Tactics To Help You Stand Out As A Marketer And Get Better Jobs
As a marketer, getting better jobs will be a target at one point in your career. Of course, a great job could mean different things to different people
To some, a better job means better pay. To some, it’s better flexibility at work. To some, it’s the ability to take on challenging work.
Whatever a better job means to you, it’s vital to stand out to get those jobs. In some ways, being able to land great jobs shows your level of expertise.
Having said that, what are the tactics that can make you stand out to potential employers? What will give you an edge when a great client needs a marketer?
In this blog post, discover 7 tactics that can help you stand out as a marketer and get better jobs:
1. Focus on a nicheEvery type of business on earth needs a marketer. After all, every business needs to promote their products or services to their ideal audience.
Considering that, being a jack of all trade can still be a bad move for you as a marketer. Think about it, if you need to market a product in the tech industry, will you go for a marketing expert in the tech industry or one who works in every niche imaginable?
Frankly, businesses with the biggest resources want a marketer with a lot of experience in their industry. Focusing on a niche helps you to develop expertise in that industry. Consequently, this gives you an edge when attracting clients in that industry.
2. Optimize your websiteBefore a client decides to give you a job, one place they’ll check out is your website. Without exaggerating, you can be a great marketer and still lose a job because of a poor website.
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Put simply, you have to make your website mobile-responsive, fast, and well-designed. Then, you have to add important pages a potential employer might look at.
These include:
Homepage: Here’s where you have the first impression on a visitor. Easily, you can show your unique selling proposition and tell visitors what to expect on your page.
About: Here, you can tell a personal story about you that relates to your marketing career. More importantly, your “About” page should be about the benefits your visitors and potential clients can get from you. Here’s an example from Marcus Sheridan:
Blog: As a marketer, one evidence of your knowledge in the industry is the content on your blog. Potential employers can see how you approach different marketing issues.
Portfolio: Who have you worked for? What interesting projects have you worked on? Have you achieved some milestones in the marketing field? On this page, an employer can judge if your experience suits their needs.
Testimonials: Social proof is a great tool in marketing. Likewise, it’s a great tool to promote yourself as a marketer. On this page, current clients can talk about the results you’ve achieved for them and the problems you’ve solved. Here’s an example from my very own testimonials page:
Through your website, you can position yourself as a marketing expert and convince clients that you’re the best candidate for the job.
3. Improve your presence on LinkedInAs a social media channel for professionals, LinkedIn is a gold mine for marketers. Considering that you’ll be interacting with businesses, most of your contacts are on LinkedIn.
Download our Individual Member Resource – Smarter LinkedIn marketing guide
For B2B marketing, LinkedIn is a vital way of communicating with prospects and customers. At a personal level, it’s also essential to your career. Developing your network and showcasing your experience is part of business life and progression.
Access the Smarter LinkedIn marketing guide
However, just creating a LinkedIn profile is insufficient. You have to optimize it for potential employers who visit. In a way, your LinkedIn profile can be your portfolio.
Important tips to keep in mind while optimizing your LinkedIn profile include:
Using a professional profile and cover picture
Writing a detailed “About” section showcasing solutions you can provide to clients
Writing a LinkedIn article to show your expertise
Adding relevant marketing skills
Encouraging recommendations from clients
Through these optimizations, it’s easy to showcase your skills and reputation as a marketer.
Beyond optimizing your LinkedIn profile, this is also a platform to connect with other marketers and potential clients. One way to exploit LinkedIn is to share your expertise through LinkedIn posts. For instance, John Lincoln regularly shares marketing videos on LinkedIn.
4. Be a great storytellerTo convince prospects to buy a product, you need to tell a great story of how their lives will be better with it. Likewise, you need your storytelling skills to stand out to potential employers.
Two great ways to be a great storyteller are:
Unique selling propositionThis is your elevator pitch. Even though what most marketers do is similar, why should a client pick you ahead of other marketers? What can you offer on top of the general marketing skills to stand out? Check out Ann Handley’s page:
AboutApart from your about page, there’s a short “About” section on your website pages and after your guest posts. Here, you can give a short pitch that will make a potential client take notice.
See an example from one of my guest posts:
5. Create great content on your websiteIn the internet age, content has become a vital aspect of standing out to your audience and prospects. Before you even engage in marketing campaigns, the first sign people want to see is how good your website content is.
Therefore, you need to run a functional marketing blog on your website. Here, you can tackle important marketing topics and provide value to your audience.
An example of a marketer who produces great content is Brian Dean at Backlinko:
6. Guest blog on authority websitesTo reach a wider audience, you have to create content for bigger authority websites. After all, there’s a limit to your blog’s reach.
However, to get the best results from guest blogging, it’s better to blog for marketing blogs. These blogs are in the marketing niche and are likely to have your ideal audience.
As a result, your great content can convince some of them to check out your website and become customers down the line. For instance, Neil Patel blogs on some big marketing blogs such as Forbes, HubSpot, Search Engine Journal, and Marketing Land.
7. Build strong relationships with industry professionalsTo stand out, you need to be a recognized marketing expert. Unfortunately, you can’t achieve this without connecting with other marketing professionals.
Two ways you can build relationships with other experts in the marketing field include:
Attend industry events: Attending or speaking at industry events is an occasion to meet other experts and increase reach. Some popular marketing conferences include the Social media marketing world, search marketing expo (SMX), Inbound, MozCon, Dreamforce, etc. Here’s an attendee to the Inbound 19 conference:
By connecting with industry professionals, you’ll increase your sphere of influence. Consequently, you’ll have access to even more great jobs.
Conclusion
Considering the number of marketers today, the only way to land better jobs is to stand out as a marketing expert. This way, you can convince potential employers that you’re better skilled, better informed and ready to transform their marketing strategy.
Use these 7 tactics and you’ll have an edge on other marketers for the best jobs in your niche.
11 Simple Ways To Propel Your Linkedin Profile Into ‘All
Convinced? You should be. So, we’ll wait here for a second while you sign up.
Now that you’re all signed up for LinkedIn, here comes the most important part: Your profile.
Obviously, your profile needs to contain vital information: job experience, skills, education, etc. But when 50 percent of users have an incomplete profile, how can you get noticed? Instead of just being another LinkedIn user with an unfinished profile, stand out from the pack by becoming a LinkedIn All-Star.
While that may sound like an extremely difficult task, you can achieve this status by following these 11 fast and simple adjustments.
1. Updated and Appropriate PhotoYour LinkedIn profile picture should be recent, professional, and recognizable. After all, your image is most likely the first thing that people will see about you and it should reflect who you are as a professional.
For future reference, make sure that your profile is not grainy or pixellated, a selfie, poorly lit, or from an inappropriate time, like at a party where alcohol is flowing. Finally, if you want to stand out, have a black and white image. Since the majority of photos are in color, you’ll get noticed instantly.
2. Catchy HeadlineYour headline is most likely the most crucial 120 characters on your profile since it’s announcing to the world who you are and why you’re an asset. The headline should include important and descriptive keywords, such as your title or job function.
Also include your unique set of skills that sets you apart from the crowd. Another way to improve your “searchability” is by adding multiple titles. This will display the various roles/positions that a person could search for related to your profession.
3. Update ExperienceThis section needs to be up to date – LinkedIn states that by including your two most recent positions can make your profile 12 times more likely to be found. However, instead of only listing job duties, describe how you’ve impacted the company. You can also use this section to detail the specific responsibilities, awards, honors and accomplishments you had with previous and current businesses.
If you’re a student or unemployed, make use of this section by illustrating your passion, skills, expertise and how you can be an asset. Since most of us don’t have the time to read a book, try to keep this section short and to the point, about 150-250 words should suffice.
4. Get RecommendationsYou may have noticed that when someone endorses you it will appear below your work experience on your LinkedIn profile. And, next to each endorsement you’ll see how many people have endorsed you for a particular set of skills, which LinkedIn is very high on. However, good-old fashioned well-written recommendations remain the optimal way to boost your reputation by adding credibility.
The best way to secure a great recommendation is to simply ask for one. It’s probably a good idea to personalize the message and send one at a time, even though you can request up to 200 people at a time. And, don’t hesitate to offer a recommendation in return.
5. Make Sure You Summary is CompleteThis is prime real estate for people to learn more about you, since it’s where you can describe your expertise and educational background. So, why not make sure that the 2,000 words in the Background Summary module is complete?
Introduce yourself in a conversational, yet professional, manner and try not to be entirely self-focused. This is also the area where you can provide links to your portfolio.
6. Join Groups and Get ConnectedWhy is this so important?
Since there are over 1.8 million groups to choose from, this is the perfect opportunity for you to increase your relevancy, discover new people to join your network, and the ability to send direct messages to people who are not in your network. However, to prevent “email overload,” you should adjust each group’s contact settings to your liking. And, make sure that they are professional connections as well.
7. Follow the Company You Want to Work For 8. Include MediaYou can easily add videos, images, links, documents or presentations in your profile just by utilizing the “square plus sign” icon in either your Summary or Experience sections. By including media you’re able to effectively showcase who you are as a working professional and individual. It’s one thing to describe your work; it’s another to actually show what your talents are, which could lead to a meeting, phone call or useful connection.
9. Post FrequentlyWhen you post frequently, you have the chance to increase engagement, which in turn, will also increase the likelihood that you’ll appear in others’ LinkedIn profile searches. Post relevant industry news, blog posts, or articles once a day as a status update. People are most active between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM on weekdays (just don’t get busted for updating your profile at work!).
10. Privacy SettingsDouble-check your privacy settings to know what is and what isn’t being displayed. Within the privacy settings, you’re allowed to change the information that others see about you, such as contact information, your contacts and how others are connected to you. And, if you’re just snooping around on others’ profiles, you can always set your profile to anonymous. This way they won’t know who you are.
11. Make Use of a Vanity URL, Badges, and SignaturesYou should probably convert your LinkedIn profile into a personal brand statement for the world to see. To accomplish that, you’ll need an easy-to-remember address to type into the browser’s address bar. However, since the default LinkedIn URL for your profile isn’t the most in-depth, you’ll have to customize the URL as a vanity URL.
You’ll also want to add some LinkedIn Badges to your profile – which is found underneath the setting for the vanity URL. Badges are cool graphics that can be placed onto blogs, emails, online or resumes, to name a few. All you have to do is to select your preferred button and copy-paste the HTML code in the box.
Finally, promote your profile by adding your LinkedIn URL in your email signature. Just that quick addition is essentially attaching your resume to anyone you email.
Are you a LinkedIn All-Star? If so, how did you achieve that status? And, if you weren’t aware, SEJ is now on LinkedIn. So, head on over to LinkedIn and connect with us!
In Post Image: Screen Shot taken by Danielle Antosz, 11/2023
3 Search Marketing Tactics To Drive Last
Whether it’s stock management or making the most out of seasonal selling, there are always opportunities to maximize your search marketing approach to generate last-minute sales.
I’ve worked on hundreds of short-duration digital campaigns with the goal of increasing online revenue, and share some of my most effective tactics in this post.
However, you can shorten the distance from interest to purchase for quick wins with these three tactics.
1. Target Free Product Listings on GoogleMany companies are missing out on a substantial volume of product listing opportunities within the search engine result pages (SERPs) by only targeting the paid product placements, or not targeting them at all.
In 2023, Google made an announcement that companies can begin to appear spanning a number of the Google search properties including Google Search, Shopping, Maps, and Lens if your company has physical (brick and mortar) location(s).
As is often the case, this rollout started with the USA in April, and since then has moved into international rollout for qualifying ecommerce companies.
As detailed on the Google Merchant Center Help, to be eligible for this you need to:
Submit both your product feed as well as your local product inventory feed through the standard Google Merchant Center.
Ensure that you opt in to list your local products for free on Google; you do this by choosing the relevant item in the Google Merchant Center.
For online retailers, regardless of whether you’ve paid shopping product listings or otherwise, you can complete the necessary steps to gain free exposure targeting people who are ready to buy.
I would also extend this tactic to other structured data (quick technical SEO updates) which can also be made to help target other Google Rich Results and help with your web page and total website visibility in search.
There are many ways to use schema mark-up to enhance ranking and results within the search engines; learn more in:
2. Increase Focus on Your Core ROI & Commercial Impact PagesThis may seem obvious but there are always quick wins to make your highest commercial intent pages perform to a higher level in a shorter timeframe, and often the updates are already in your data.
If you have not already done so, now is the time to incorporate conversion rate optimization (CRO) with SEO and other search marketing activities.
Whilst CRO should be seen as an always-on element of your marketing activity, it can certainly speed up results when introduced to existing approaches, and empower companies to see results sooner.
There are many tried and tested CRO experiments to run which can often deliver repeated wins. And while your data should always be the first place to prioritize which to run with, here are some more examples to help you get going:
Test persistent CTAs including other conversion elements like the use of short forms, and ensure both mobile and desktop users have CTA variations in place based on the data sets most applicable to each.
Refresh the content. Bring it up to date and include new data, statistics, and more to enable the content to generate fresh ranking signals and target wider audience areas using GSC data and known audience questions, informational barriers, and wants/needs.
Include visual CTAs as well as in-text CTAs, targeting a variety of commitment levels for the user. A social share CTA, for example, has far less commitment for the user compared to a CTA to buy.
3. Leverage the Value of Your Home PageThis is one of the most overlooked tactics by companies looking to positively impact short-term sales from websites.
The home page, in most cases, sees the highest volume of landing page entries into a website from organic search and other marketing channels, excluding paid.
This means that minor improvements to the home page can drive dramatic increases to the value derived from higher volumes of your existing and new website visitors.
Try these updates to quickly improve home page performance:
Prioritizing the content coverage and display of high ROI product ranges and services.
Adding a clear primary call-to-action and de-cluttering conflicting messages that may distract the user and prevent them from taking the desired action.
Improving page speed, loading time, and related core web vitals, which are both rankings factors as well as usability improvements directly tied to conversion gains.
Including clear trust signals and other content which removes barriers to the user converting without the requirement to view any other content.
Ensuring the page (and site) is HTTPS (secure), mobile-friendly, and responsive in its entirety.
A home page must fulfill many functions and it should be an ongoing, iterative improvement focus each quarter.
This is so that you are constantly refining, enhancing, and maximizing the value derived from this high-impact part of your website.
When you require quick results, need to manage stock levels, or want to drive users towards specific, new, or changing outcomes at different times of the year, the home page can be your primary “go-to,” underpinning other activities for increased gains.
More Resources:
Image Credits
Screenshot taken by author, December 2023
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