Pinterest is a virtual pin board service. Users can create boards that they pin content to. This content is usually in the form of pictures but it can sometimes be video. A user can have multiple boards spanning different topics.
Marketers love Pinterest because it sends customers to their websites. In fact, Pinterest is one of the best social media platforms to use if you’re trying to sell a digital product. Here’s how to use Pinterest to get more traffic which will in turn help you build your list…
Think of boards as categories. Some marketers struggle with the concept of Pinterest boards. That’s why it can be helpful to consider boards as categories for your content.
If you’re in the health and wellness niche, you may have content on topics like ‘healthy meal prep’, ’10-minute workouts’, or ‘weight loss success stories’. Take each of these categories and turn them into a board on Pinterest.
Describe your pin. It isn’t enough to just grab an image from your website or blog and add it to your Pinterest board. Take a moment to describe what the content is that you’re linking to.
Tease readers about what they’ll get and make them eager to clickthrough. Don’t share something boring like, “Learn 5 Tips for Clean Eating”.
Instead, spice it up a bit. Try using this instead, “Discover the 5 Secrets All Clean Eaters Must Know to Succeed. If you’re struggling with clean eating, these tips will motivate and inspire you. Be sure to download the free eating plan mentioned.”
Sign up for a business account. If you’re using Pinterest to send traffic back to your website, you should make sure you have a business account. This will give you access to statistics about your pins. You’ll know when the best time is to pin, what keywords your audience loves, and which pins get the best traction.
If you’re already created an account, you don’t have to lose your pins. You can simply convert the account by going to Pinterest Business Accounts and filling out a short form.
Use group boards. Some Pinterest users create a group board and allow other members to contribute pins to it. Often, the group board is built around a theme that other users may find helpful like ‘Best Weight Loss Tips for New Moms’ or ‘Styling Tips for Petite Women’.
Group boards usually get thousands of followers, so pinning to one is a great way to increase your traffic. But you need to read the owner’s rules before you attempt to pin. Some owners will want you to email them so they know you’re a real person. Others may ask you to follow them on social media before you contribute.
Pinterest is a great source of traffic, but it can also be a huge distraction if you’re not careful. To keep this from happening, try to schedule your posts and only login when you have a few spare minutes. Otherwise, you may find your productivity goes down when using the site.
LinkedIn is one of the top 30 sites in the world, which means when used right you can be certain of visibility.
Using LinkedIn affords you the opportunity to reach more prospects which leads to the possibility of making more sales.
There are multiple ways to stand out on LinkedIn. Once you start to apply the suggested methods and strategies below You will be on your way to LinkedIn success.
What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is a social media site designed to help professional people, and businesses, connect with each other. Create your personal profile. Include your education, current and previous employment, interests and skills, as well as other info. LinkedIn will start connecting you with people you are likely to know. It is a great way to connect with long-lost friends and colleagues, as well as discover new friends, potential business associates, and prospects.
Through your initial connections, you can get to know other people in their circle, who may be working in the same niche or industry. Beyond your immediate connections, you can also connect with people the site suggests. These are often the movers and shakers.
Follow prominent people in your niche. The content you see on your home page will be from them, and/or chosen by the network, as something that might be of interest to you given your background and current job. In this same way, you can also get followers who are interested in the content you post.
Why use LinkedIn? LinkedIn is the most trusted social media site on the Internet. The reason is that you have to be honest about who you are and what you do to be able to make connections on the site. There is no way to hide behind a cloak of anonymity or pretend to be someone you are not. It is very difficult to create fake profiles on LinkedIn because they restrict your contacts to people you might already know.
It also gives you a great opportunity to showcase who you are and what you know, positioning yourself as an expert worth working with. Around 80% of job recruiters and Human Resources professionals use LinkedIn to find people to fill the posts they are hiring for, and to learn more about you. The last thing you want people to see are your Facebook photos of wild parties. LinkedIn helps you establish a professional profile online and link with like-minded people.
Make the Most of LinkedIn In order to start marketing yourself successfully on LinkedIn, you will need to put a few things in place to build your LinkedIn foundation. Once your profile is complete, there are additional things you can do to increase your success and your authority level.
Building Robust Profile Pages Building a robust profile page for LinkedIn can take many hours, but the effort will be worth it. It also starts with a great headshot photo of yourself and a custom header image that captures who you are or what your industry is.
The summary section is like an executive summary of who you are and what you do. Try to create one that speaks to the needs of your target audience. Why would they want to hire you or do business with you? Think of some of the most common problems people have in relation to your niche. You have 2,000 characters to sell yourself well, so make the most of them.
Listing Employment and Schools Note that as you list these, the top part of your profile will be populated with the data. You can manually edit some of it, such as your current title, by clicking on the little pencil icon to the right of the date field. In other cases, however, the information from the employment and colleges section can’t be edited. Whatever you list first in that section is what will appear.
Having said that, you can drag and drop the content up or down, so while it might be out-of-order chronologically, it might mean listing a more prestigious school first, for example. Note that as with a résumé, you should list all of your employment starting with your current job, and work your way back in reverse chronological order.
Listing Your Skills This can be one of the most convincing sections of your profile, where you list what you are able to do. It is important not just to show what you can do. It is also a chance to get endorsements from people who know you.
Getting Recommendations You can also get recommendations from others to boost your authority and provide social proof. These can be turned on or off, if you don’t want the information to show.
The easiest way to get skill endorsements and recommendations is to give them yourself. Once you have filled in your profile as much as possible, take a few moments each day to visit profiles of the people you know best. Go down to the skills section and click the plus button (+) next to the skills you wish to endorse.
To give a recommendation, look at the top area of their profile. Click on the three dots (the more button) and toggle down. Choose to recommend the person. Note that you can also request a recommendation on that same menu.
Endorsements and recommendations, like customer testimonials, provide proof that you have the skills and knowledge that you have mentioned on your profile. If you’ve worked with or for leaders in your niche, having your name linked to theirs will help to build trust with others. Make it a priority to give and ask for endorsements and recommendations.
One of the simplest ways to gain traffic and therefore building a list is to leverage a big platform filled with readers who are already interested in your niche.
You can do this by finding popular blogs and guest posting on them. You can simply write a guest post, submit it and hope for the best. But if you want to increase the chances that your post will actually be published, follow the tips below…
Pick blogs in your niche. When you first hear about the benefits of guest posting, you may be tempted to start looking for any blog that you can guest post on. But that’s a big mistake that wastes your time and effort.
Instead, you want to focus on finding blogs in your niche. A small blog that can send you a steady stream of relevant traffic is better than a large blog whose readership isn’t interested in your business.
Look for the guidelines. Most blogs that accept guest posts have guidelines somewhere on the site. These guidelines will answer most common questions and tell you how to submit your work.
It’s important that you read these guidelines carefully. Some bloggers don’t want to see a completed blog post. They’d prefer that you submit a short summary instead. They do this because they want to help you create the post and make sure it aligns perfectly for their audience. Be open to receiving this feedback and advice from a more experienced blogger.
Interact with the blogger. Most bloggers get dozens of pitches in a single week. The more popular the blog is, the harder it is to stand out in the blogger’s mind.
You can make it easier for the blogger to remember you by interacting with his or her community. Do this by participating in the blog’s Facebook group, commenting on the blogger’s Instagram posts, and retweeting their latest posts. Activities like these will help the blogger remember who you are and gives you a better chance of making it through their submission pile.
Link to an opt-in page. When you do land a juicy guest spot, don’t squander the opportunity. Inexperienced guest posters will link to their website and hope the new visitors magically join their mailing list.
But smart marketers link to a landing page with an opt-in offer that will appeal to their target audience. This ensures they capture the traffic from their guest post and put it where it counts—in their sales funnel!
Make your opt-in relevant. When you do link to your landing page in your author bio, think carefully about your opt-in gift. You want it to be relevant to the post you just wrote so that visitors can’t wait to sign up for your list.
I want to share with you a strategy to significantly increase not only your engagement, but your conversion rates.
It’s something you’ve most likely heard of before, and has been proven effective, but a surprising number of companies still aren’t doing it.
List segmentation!
Most marketers understand how important email is to their marketing strategy, but not all are aware of the benefits of list segmentation.
Segmenting your email list simply means that you slice and dice your list based on certain demographics and tailor your emails and/or subject lines to appeal to them more effectively.
For example you could separate based on location, gender, age, or slightly more complex things like previous purchase history, personal interests and needs, etc.
Although it may seem complicated (or pricey) the statistics speak for themselves as far as effectiveness.
One study found that emails with a personalized subject line generated a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented list campaigns!
That’s right. A 760% increase!!
Now that’s a number we all want to be seeing in our monthly reports!
Here are 4 reasons you might consider using list segmentation
Your Engagement Will Improve.Your readers will be much more inclined to engage when you are speaking to them more personally. This practice, over time, will also improve your email reputation. Your audience will come to expect that your content will always be interesting to them and will be more likely to pay attention to what you have to say over the long-term.
Your Buyers Aren’t All The Same.Even if your selling a product to a very specific market, the people on your email list are still going to have unique characteristics or life situations. With list segmentation you can become more sensitive and intuitive as to what they want to hear AND what will make them click-through and become buyers.
Your Contacts Are At Different Points In The Sales Cycle. Most likely you didn’t get all of your email subscribers in a single shot. Some might be completely new to you and your product, while others might be just on the brink of becoming a true customer. Knowing where each of your contacts sits can help you market to them more effectively.
Your Overall Results Will Improve.The Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report found that when marketers used list segmentation, 39% of them experienced increased open rates, 28% experiences lower unsubscribe rates and 24% experienced both increased sales leads and greater revenue.
If separating your email list is such an effective thing to do, why aren’t more people doing it?
There are some challenges with list segmentation that take a little skill to navigate. I’ll cover these in a future email as well as give you more in-depth information about how to use this marketing tool effectively.
Are you ready to take more power in your business NOW and leverage the tools I discussed today? I’ve opened up some space on my calendar this week for one-on-one coaching sessions with my readers. I am offering these sessions at no cost and would love to spend some time hearing about your business. Click here to claim your spot.
My calendar always fills up quickly so don’t hesitate to put your name on my schedule.
Another great way to find free traffic is to use a tool you already have available, and that’s Facebook Live.
This can be useful if you’re counting down to a big launch and want to share it with your community or if you want to show off a new product you’re reviewing.
To get the most out of Facebook Live streams and send traffic back to your website, you’ll want to do these things…
Engage with your viewers. You can do this by paying attention to the comments on your video and responding to them out loud.
Focus on interacting with your viewers throughout your live stream. This builds relationships and makes people want to learn more about you and your business.
Brainstorm content suggestions. It’s great for those days when you feel blocked and can’t come up with any content ideas on your own. Let your audience help you brainstorm something different. You can use this technique when you need new content for your blog or when you’re looking to create a low-cost product.
Once you’ve finished your creation, come back and start a new Facebook live. Tell them about your new content and give a link to it. Doing this is a simple way to drive traffic back to your site. Plus, it makes your viewers curious to see if you used their suggestion.
Have a content upgrade ready. If you’re live-streaming and you want to transform those views into site visits, consider putting together a content upgrade. This should be a relevant gift that your community will enjoy like a quick start guide, fun printable, or a case study.
When you create a content upgrade, make a special landing page for it. Then link to the page in the comments section of your live stream. Viewers who are enjoying your stream can quickly click-through and download your gift.
Ask viewers to share your video. This is a simple way to get more traffic and exposure for your brand. In the middle of your video when you’ve gotten a few viewers, encourage them to click the share button.
You could say something like, “If your bestie is always looking for new makeup tips, share this video with her so she can follow along!”
Now you’ve asked them to share but you’ve done it in a way that reminds them your content is valuable. You’ve made them eager to share because they can discuss your topic with their friends later.
Facebook’s live-streaming feature is a great way to get traffic flowing back to your website. But make sure you have something valuable to share before you start the camera rolling. You want your viewers to remember you and your brand for all the right reasons.
As most of you know Instagram is a picture-sharing social network. Users can upload pictures they take and share them on their profile. Instagram has a fan base of over 800 million users that are eager to interact with the brands they love.
You can harness the power of Instagram to send traffic back to your website. Like all social networks, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind before you get started…
Include your link. When you’re signing up for Instagram, make sure you include a link to your website in your bio. Instagram doesn’t make links clickable on the website or through their app, except for the link on your profile.
This means if you want to get free traffic from Instagram and potential subscribers you’ll need to use your bio for that. Many brands put a link to their most recent blog post or content piece in their bio. They update this link each time they add new content.
Once you share a photo and you want to direct users back to your website, say something like: “Link in bio” or “Read in bio”. This lets your followers know to click on the link in your profile if they want to read your latest content.
Use hashtags. Hashtags are one of the most popular features on Instagram. It’s how users find content they enjoy and the social network allows you to use as many hashtags as you’d like.
Just make sure the hashtags you’re using are relevant to your post. Otherwise, you may get flagged as a spammer and have your account shut down.
If you’re not sure what hashtags to use, there are plenty of websites that can help you research this information. Try a site like TagBlender or Hashtags for Likes.
Include a call-to-action. When you’re creating a post on Instagram, ask your viewers to take the next step by including a call to action. This is where you’d say something like, “Visit our website to read the full post.” But you don’t want to just ask viewers to do that or they may stop noticing your CTA.
Mix it up sometimes by asking viewers to double tap your photo (this signifies a ‘like’ on the platform), tag a friend, or leave a comment. All of these activities create engagement, which drives the post higher in the news feed, leading to more views.
Create a branded hashtag. Since hashtags are a huge part of Instagram, use that to your advantage. Come up with a branded hashtag for your product or service.
Tell followers to use this tag when posting about you. For example, if you sell planners, then encourage your customers to share a peek into their weekly planning session with the hashtag you chose.
When their followers see the hashtag, they’re likely to click on it and discover your brand. Then they’ll be more likely to follow you on Instagram and click through to your website and want to learn more about you and sign up for your list.
