BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Half of your leads are not even ready to make a purchase while filling out your lead form. Over 80% of these leads don’t even convert, but hey, don’t fret. These results can be dramatically improved by working on lead nurturing after lead generation. In fact, businesses that implement a well-defined lead nurturing strategy bring 50% more sales at significantly lower costs!

If you haven’t focused on lead nurturing, continue reading this guide, as we will cover all you need to know about it.

Why Does My Business Need a Lead Nurturing Tool?

Lead nurturing, itself, is the process of developing relationships with your prospective buyers at every step of their sales journey – starting from product awareness to purchase. The end goal is to turn leads into repeat customers.

This process is crucial for your business because it allows you to build credibility and trust with your audience. Through lead nurturing, you can make a lasting impression on your client – which convinces them to make the purchase.

This process is time-consuming as you need to interact with customers, gather their data, recognize patterns, and develop your marketing strategies accordingly. But thanks to the technological advancements, automation tools are available in this area too. Let’s talk about the top 5 of them!

Here are some of the must-have lead nurturing tools that will cater to your business requirements:

HubSpot

If you know SEO and Digital Marketing, it’s a safe bet you’ve heard about HubSpot. It has almost everything you need to run a cohesive campaign and ensure you convert your leads to hard cash. Their “Operations” software helps you acquire, curate, and store customer information. Their CRM is extremely mature and is backed by a long history of market-leading solutions. HubSpot has one of the most comprehensive suites of tools you can find for CRM and Lead Nurturing.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Good pedigree in the market
• Comprehensive suite of tools
• Cohesive Workflow

Cons:

• The Starter plan has very limited tools.
• Business and Enterprise plans are expensive.

Pricing:

• Pricing starts at $45 per month.

ProxyCrawl

ProxyCrawl is an all-in-one data crawling and scraping platform that helps businesses carry out data mining or SEO without worrying about worldwide infrastructure or proxies. This platform allows you to crawl and scrape websites in a matter of minutes. Even though it can be utilized differently through its range of products, we should stick to our motto: nurture leads.

Generating leads off any website can be as quick as toasting a bread. With the Leads API, you can get thousands of leads off anything on the internet.

With ProxyCrawl’s Crawler, you can put your mind at ease since you save costs and countless hours on system design and actual task processing. With close to zero failures at your end, you can be focused on getting enough leads in your pipeline.

This is why ProxyCrawl’s Crawler is popular amongst enterprises that want work done at scale, faster and better!

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Offers a free trial
• Does not charge for failed requests
• Supports enterprise-grade, large-scale data scraping projects
• Supports Cloud and On-site setup
• Offers asynchronous queries to be run on the cloud
• Allows to build data pipelines
• Very low failed requests

Cons:

• Limited video content for new users..

Pricing:

ProxyCrawl offers various packages for the tool suite it brings to boost your business. The pricing for ProxyCrawl starts as low as $29 per month for the Leads API.

Churnfree

Whether you have an already successful business, one falling apart or starting a new one, you need to know how you can help them draw maximum value out of your product or service at every stage. For that, you need to know if they are stuck, need some help with setting up, or have no idea what to do next.

You don’t want to lose customers by letting them use your product or service without getting enough value out of it. Plus, you need to educate them and notify them of new features. Churnfree is a marketing automation and customer retention tool that helps you build customized flows to retain customers by keeping them engaged through real-time analytics of all flows, thus reducing churn.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Comprehensive Tool
• Supports customized flows
• Detailed Analytics
• Quick Deployment

Cons:

• No free trial

EasySendy

With easy, drag and drop templates, an email campaign can be set up in a very short time. Grow your subscriber lists with customizable opt-in forms. With drip campaigns, you can keep your users and users engaged so that you give them the most value, make them make a life-changing decision and in turn, scale your business.

EasySendy can be integrated with Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon SES, Zapier, and 20 other tools.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Customizable Design
• Easy Integration
• Simple User Experience For New Users
• Email Verification
• Free Version

Cons:

• No A/B Testing

LeadBoxer

LeadBoxer comes with lead scoring technology that allows marketing teams to estimate how likely a prospect is to purchase a product. In addition, this tool also lets you identify and track anonymous leads.

LeadBoxer is another beneficial marketing and sales strategy tool that brings more than just campaign management to the table. This tool offers detailed behavioral analytics and campaign personalization, which are crucial in lead nurturing.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Comes with a user-friendly interface.
• Highly cost-efficient.

Cons:

• Brings low-quality leads.

Pricing:

The pricing for LeadBoxer starts at $195 per month.

Ortto

As one of the leading lead nurturing software, Ortto works with over 10,000 companies. Formerly known as Autopilot, this company allows businesses to segment their audience across the customer lifecycle. It also offers omnichannel experiences coupled with personalized communication automation.

The best part is that this tool works well for cross-channel campaign management by integrating multiple third-party apps such as Microsoft, Livechat, and Patreon.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Easy workflow.
• Free 14-Day Trial
• Covers all the necessary tools for a cohesive marketing campaign.

Cons:

• Limited email customizations.
• Complicated UI.

Pricing:

The pricing for Ortto starts at $29. This tool also offers a free plan for businesses that may want to run a trial first.

4 Most Highly Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics

You got the tools. You got the concepts. But to effectively implement these tools, you need tactics that bring better customer retention, increased revenue, and enhanced customer loyalty. Here are some of the tried and tested tactics you can couple with your chosen lead nurturing tool to extract optimized results:

• Use multiple channels: You can reach a wider target audience through a multi-channel marketing approach. For this to work, you can use a combination of paid retargeting, marketing automation, and social media posting.
• Create Targeted Content: One size does not fit all in the lead nurturing world. So make sure every single content piece is written with a unique buyer persona, specifically targeting their goals, interests, and objectives.
• Focus on Personalized Emails: Again, a personalized email holds the power to trigger a response from the right people at the right time.
• Follow-Up Timely: Follow up on each one of your emails promptly while keeping them engaged and interested in your particular brand.

These tactics will surely get your desired customers in your store and retain them for longer than usual. Just make sure you are being compassionate and realistic. Nobody wants to be dealing with bots.

Final Words

So there you have it; the top 5 must-have lead nurturing tools that your business needs to survive the market in 2022. As a bonus, we have also added some highly effective lead nurturing tactics. So what are you waiting for?

Get these tools and implement these tactics to get the most leads for your business.

The post Top 5 Must-Have Lead Nurturing Tools In 2022 appeared first on noupe.

If you have a website, it’s probably on WordPress!

Currently powering 43% of the web, WordPress is primarily popular because of its wide range of built-in features and incredibly active community. However, a common issue with WordPress is that it isn’t reliable when it comes to sending emails.

If you want to ensure reliable email deliverability from WordPress, you need to use an SMTP plugin. And in this article, we’ll discuss the best SMTP plugins for WordPress.

But before that, let’s understand what is an SMTP plugin and why you must have an SMTP plugin installed on your website.

What is a WordPress SMTP plugin and why do you need one?

WordPress comes with a wide array of powerful built-in features. This CMS lets you build excellent websites with many functionalities, including email sending. The email-sending feature helps you send vital notifications and transactional emails such as:

• Sign-up confirmation emails
• Password reset emails
• Form submission notifications
• purchase notifications and invoices

These emails are often vital for a website’s security and reputation, and failing to deliver such emails can cause serious issues.

Unfortunately, the default emailing functionality of WordPress isn’t reliable. Since WordPress is built using PHP, its email functionality also depends on a PHP function called wp_mail(). Whenever an email is triggered from WordPress, WordPress uses the wp_mail() PHP function to package the email and send it to your hosting server for authentication and delivery.

Most hosting servers aren’t optimized for emailing, and some don’t even offer email sending. Moreover, PHP isn’t a reliable method for authenticating emails. As a result, most hosting servers blocks PHP emails from sending, and email clients filter them to the junk folder.

This is where a WordPress SMTP plugin comes in. A WordPress SMTP plugin replaces the default mailing functionality of WordPress and authenticates WordPress emails via SMTP. You can also integrate a reliable email-sending service of your choice to ensure inbox placement.

5 Best SMTP Plugins to Fix WordPress Email Deliverability

An SMTP plugin can help you solve most of your WordPress email deliverability issues. You can choose any SMTP plugin if it supports integration with your preferred email hosting service. However, it’s ideal to choose a plugin that offers easy configuration and email logging.

Here are the 5 best WordPress SMTP plugins we’ve chosen depending on the integrations and features they offer:

FluentSMTP

FluentSMTP is undoubtedly the most powerful SMTP plugin for WordPress at this moment. It comes with the highest number of email service integrations and features. Moreover, the configuration process is easy for most email service platforms because it supports API integration.

Currently, FluentSMTP supports Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Sendinblue, PepiPost, SparkPost, and Elastic Mail integration via API, and you can connect Gmail/Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 via OAuth. FluentSMTP also supports Zoho and other email services using SMTP credentials. 

The plugin comes with some of the most advanced features compared to any available SMTP plugin. Here’s what FluentSMTP is capable of:

• Email logging: View logs of all emails sent from WordPress
• Email test: Test email deliverability by sending a sample email
• Email resending: Resend failed emails in bulk
• Multiple SMTP connections: Use two or more email-sending services for different purposes
• Email fallback: Route emails via a different service if your primary
• Reporting dashboard: Get a visual report of all emails sent from WordPress
• Auto-delete email logs: Keep your WordPress database clean by auto-deleting old email logs
• Email Summary: Regular email summary notification to stay updated about WordPress email deliverability

Despite being a relatively new plugin, FluentSMTP offers way more features than any other plugin. And the best part? —FluentSMTP promises to remain free forever! No wonder why more than 100K users have adopted this plugin!

WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is the most popular SMTP plugin for WordPress. More than 3 million websites are utilizing this plugin to send their WordPress emails. The plugin comes with all of the key SMTP features and has an excellent setup wizard to guide you through SMTP configuration.

WP Mail SMTP offers several built-in email service integrations, which include Gmail/Google Workspace, SMTP.com, SendLayer (#1 Recommended), Sendinblue, Mailgun SMTP, SendGrid SMTP, Postmark SMTP, SparkPost SMTP, Microsoft 365, Amazon SES, Zoho. And like FluentSMTP, WP Mail SMTP lets you connect many other email services via SMTP credentials.

Key features of WP Mail SMTP include:

• Email logging: This Lets you view a log of all emails sent from WordPress
• Email reporting: Get visual stats for WordPress emails
• Open and click tracking: Track email opens and clicks for WordPress emails
• Email failure alert: Instantly sends an email notification if a WordPress email fails to send
• Email Summary: Get weekly WordPress email sending statistics notification
• Notification control: Control which WordPress email notification to send and which not to send

As an Awesome Motive product, WP Mail SMTP is the most reliable SMTP solution available for WordPress. The base plugin is free however, crucial features such as email logging is only available in the premium version, which starts at $99/Year. You can also get hands-on assistance for setting up SMTP if you need it.

Post SMTP Mailer

Post SMTP Mailer is another reliable SMTP solution with excellent features and multiple email service integrations. With its intelligent setup assistant, you can set up any supported email-sending service and test email deliverability.

Unlike the aforementioned plugins, Post SMTP Mailer only supports API integrations. This means you can only integrate Post SMTP Mailer with the supported email-sending services. Post SMTP Mailer currently supports integration with Gmail or Google Workspace, Hotmail, Yahoo, Mandrill(MailChimp’s transactional email service), Mailgun, SendGrid, Sendinblue, Amazon SES, and Office 365.

Post SMTP Mailer offers better security for sending WordPress emails. Key features of this plugin are:

• Email debugging: Test WordPress email deliverability for sent emails
• Email logging: View logs for emails sent from WordPress
• Email notification control: Control email notifications sent from WordPress
• Email fallback: Use a secondary email service if the primary service fails to deliver WordPress emails
• Security: SMTPS and STARTTLS (SSL/TLS) support for secure email delivery

Like WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP Mailer also provides hands-on assistance for configuring your email service. Post SMTP Mailer is a great solution if you’re using any of the supported email services. However, a vital feature like email logging is only available as an extension. Membership prices start at $39.

Mail Bank

Mail Bank is a WordPress SMTP plugin that offers fewer email service integrations and features however, it does what it says on the tin. This plugin supports OAuth 2.0 integration with Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. Additionally, you can connect MailGun and SendGrid email services via API.

Feature-wise, Mail Bank is pretty basic. Here’s a feature overview:

• Email logging: View email delivery status on email logs
• Debug log: Shows which emails failed to deliver and why
• Connectivity test: Helps you check the connectivity of the email service you’re using
• Encryption: SSL, TSL, and no encryption
• Role management: Determine which users will get to access SMTP settings

Mail Bank is a good SMTP plugin if you’re looking for a free core plugin. However, some features are locked behind the pro, which starts at $29.99/Year.

Easy WP SMTP

If you’re looking for the simplest SMTP plugin for your WordPress site’s email deliverability, Easy WP SMTP is the right tool for you. This plugin has no built-in email service integration however, you can connect any email service that allows integration via SMTP credentials.

Since this plugin supports SMTP credential integration, practically, it’s possible to integrate with any email service that supports SMTP authentication. Easy WP SMTP offers some unique features such as:

• Email testing: Test and debug email deliverability
• Domain check: Prevents using SMTP settings for additional domains

Easy WP SMTP is pretty easy to set up and delivers WordPress emails securely. It’s an excellent free option if you’re not looking for too many SMTP features. However, since this plugin doesn’t have any notification or logging feature, it can be hard to determine whether your WordPress emails are getting delivered or not.

Start sending WordPress emails the right way!

Some emails are simply too important for an authoritative website. So WordPress email deliverability failure is an alarming issue for most website owners.

Every WordPress site needs an SMTP plugin to deliver WordPress email reliably, and our list of the best WordPress SMTP plugins offers reliable email deliverability. Hopefully, now you’ll be able to choose a quality SMTP plugin and solve your WordPress email deliverability issue once and for all!

The post 5 Best SMTP Plugins for WordPress appeared first on noupe.

Being a marketer means using a lot of innovation in order to get your brand’s message across, but you need to be careful about crossing the line between innovation and copyright infringement. In this article, we’ll share five tips for staying on the right side of copyright infringement law.

Marketing is a creative business, and proactive marketers are often required to think outside of the box when it comes to creating effective ads and messages while saving money. While this is necessary, copyright lawyers may be finding that marketers are either deliberately or inadvertently breaching copyright laws.

In this article, we’ll be sharing eight tips for avoiding copyright infringement as a marketer.

What is Copyright Infringement?

This is the term for when somebody uses or shares work that belongs to somebody else, and which is protected by copyright law. Copyright protects a person’s intellectual property, and unlawful use can result in legal action in some cases.

Tips to Avoid Copyright Infringement

Some examples of how to avoid copyright infringement in various media include:

1. Social media

Social media often makes up a sizable chunk of your overall marketing and, as such, it’s important to get to know the platforms that you’re using. Each platform, for example, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube has its own set of rules and regulations when it comes to content. Familiarising yourself with these will help you to stay on the right side of the law.

2. Photographs and video

No social media marketing campaign is complete without photographs and videos. Marketers will often make light work of searching the internet for appropriate images before quickly copying or downloading them for use in their campaigns. In many cases, a marketer will assume that, if a photograph is not watermarked then it’s up for grabs, however, this isn’t necessarily the case. 

Before copying and using any photograph or video, it’s the responsibility of the marketer to find out if copyright applies – in which case, they will need to contact the owner of the work to request permission. A safer option is to use a specific site that offers royalty-free photographs, such as Unsplash.

This can protect you against possible copyright infringement issues. However, you may find that the images that you use are also being used by a large number of other businesses.

3. Plagiarism

Creating content for marketing campaigns will often involve quoted content from other people and websites. Largely speaking, it’s absolutely fine to quote content from others.

However, you should always credit this as appropriate – for example, by crediting the owner by name or by linking to the original content. The latter can be done quickly and easily by creating a hyperlink.

4. Music

Just like written content, photographs, and videos, music is classed as intellectual property and is, therefore, ‘owned’. Music can be a great way of adding depth to a marketing campaign, but it can also land you in legal hot water.

This month, Prime Minister, Liz Truss, caused a stir when she used a track by M People for a political event, without permission. In almost every case, a piece of music is subject to copyright and, therefore, you must gain permission from the owner to use it in your campaign.

Failing to do so, can result in your post or campaign being removed or, in some circumstances, legal action which can be costly for your brand in terms of finance and reputation. If in doubt, it’s best to use a site such as Stripe to secure music for your marketing efforts. 

5. Celebrities

A surprising number of marketers take part in the dishonest practice of claiming support for their brand from celebrities or high-profile persons. They often do this under the mistaken belief that it doesn’t do any harm and that nobody will find out.

In reality, celebrities employ teams of people whose job it is to scour the internet for mentions of their name in order to identify the use of that name without permission. Because of this, marketers rarely get away with doing this. 

This was the case with television personality Esther Rantzen, who discovered that a CBD company was claiming that she not only supported the brand but was actively involved with it. Ms. Rantzen was entirely unaware of this improper use of her name until a relative came across it whilst browsing the internet. 

Unlawful use of a person’s name can potentially damage their public reputation. Because of this, unlawful use of a celebrity’s name will result in legal action against you and your brand – something which can severely harm your brand’s own reputation. The only way a celebrity’s name should ever appear in your marketing is when you have that person’s express permission to do so. 

Staying on the right side of the law

As a marketer, there are plenty of ways in which you can add creativity to your campaigns without infringing copyright law. As well as keeping you out of trouble, using original photographs, videos and content will add a unique dimension to your brand and help you stand out from the crowd.

Should you wish to use intellectual property belonging to somebody else, it’s vital that you always acquire permission – and make the payment if necessary – to ensure that you are not putting your brand in harm’s way by infringing copyright laws.

The post 5 Tips to Avoid Copyright Infringement as a Marketer appeared first on noupe.

To attain success in any industry, you need to establish a personal connection with prospects. The same stands true for real estate agents who need to build strong relationships with their current and potential clients to stay in the business. A few years back, the most reliable and easiest way to create those connections was by phone calls or messages. However, most of those calls went unanswered. 

Fortunately, with the evolution in marketing strategies, real estate agents now have a more effective and result-driven tool- videos. Over 93% of agents prefer emails to communicate with their customers and promote their properties. However, only one-third of them use real estate video marketing to make their emails powerful and showcase their listings.

Sharing Videos in Emails Is a Good Idea

According to a study, for 97% of marketers, video marketing has increased user understanding of their goods and services. Moreover, 76% of them have agreed that videos surely increase sales by driving more traffic to the website and engaging prospects for longer. Hence, ensuring quality leads and improved sales. 

Yes, videos are simple to play, where users just have to click a button and they can enjoy a beautifully-shot clip of listings. But, the primary benefit is that it makes them feel connected to that brand. 

No wonder videos can generate 403% more inquiries and compel 85% of homebuyers to buy properties from the agents who share videos of their listings. Email marketing strategy supported by videos can make you stand apart from the crowd by adding a unique element to your promotional campaigns. 

Importance of Videos in Real Estate Business

Real estate is a business that purely works on your strengths and video campaigns give you that opportunity. You can showcase the best features of properties and highlight all the details in a video. Moreover, the videos attached to your email signify that you follow the latest marketing trends and are willing to put in your best efforts for your clients. 

You can use this clip of a few minutes to influence your prospects’ buying decisions by selling them directly. According to a survey, videos help real estate agents get 81% more replies, convert 68% more leads, and get 56% more referrals. Also, it increases the click-through rates of emails by 96%. 

Types of Videos to Include in Email Marketing

An effective video marketing strategy comprises different types of videos that target diverse customers. These videos include:

Listing Video 

Create a touring video of the property, highlighting all the features, rooms, amenities, and neighborhood. This is the perfect mode to show off the best listings. 

Educational Video

Prospects often face numerous challenges while buying a property. So, you can help them through videos that give them insights into key concepts, answer their queries, and educate them. 

Neighborhood Video

Nearby locations and surroundings play a critical part when deciding on a property to buy. Thus, share videos that give a sneak peek into the neighborhood, including restaurants, markets, schools, and community so that prospects know the potential area they are moving into. 

Customer Testimonial Video

There is no better way to build a brand image than successful client stories and word-of-mouth referrals. Create real estate listing videos with interviews of your existing clients and share their journeys to convince new customers that you are a reliable and driven real estate agent.

Open House Video

When prospects visit a property, make a video of their reactions and reviews. Also, show each feature of the listing and community to give that exclusive feeling to your leads.

Tips to Improve Your Video Email Marketing Strategy

Here are a few out-of-the-box ideas to ensure successful video marketing for real estate agents. 

Mention ‘Video’ in the Subject Line

Video is a powerful marketing strategy and it can generate excellent results when used the right way. A study revealed that 73% of buyers are likely to buy from real estate agents who include video content in their marketing campaigns. Videos are fun to watch and help prospects assess the property before they visit the place. Whether you are targeting renters, landlords, homeowners, or homebuyers, dropping a video in the inbox would grab their attention. 

Make sure to add the word ‘video’ to the subject line so prospects know it’s not a random marketing mail. The subject line is the first impression on recipients and it should compel them to check their mail. Moreover, you can inform them via a message to check their email, and once they open the video, it will tick another goal for you. 

Answer Frequent Questions from Prospects

Your property video marketing campaign should just aim at promoting your business but also focus on potential buyers and their needs. As an expert in the industry, you must try your best to resolve their doubts, no matter how bizarre or small they sound. You can host a Q&A session every two weeks to answer all the questions of your clients. This will also assure them of your proficiency, honesty, and credibility. Moreover, it will create a platform for you to directly interact with the target customers, educate them, and promote your listings. 

You can also mail them Q&A videos to understand if your potential clients prefer such content. This will pave the way for you to build stronger relationships with them. 

Create Follow-up Videos

Writing a follow-up email after every client meeting or discussion can be daunting and time-consuming. Hence, it’s time to switch from the traditional method to a modern and efficient one by creating videos. All you have to do is create a friendly video that sounds genuine and builds trust. Once they visit a property, send them the video within the next few days to show you care about their opinion and views. Also, it will assure them that you want them to find their dream home. If you can collect interesting information to personalize the follow-up videos, then this lead-generation real estate marketing technique can work wonders. 

Business Analytics

Analytics has become an integral part of every business across all industries. It shows companies who are interested in their emails when they opened their videos, and how did they react to them. So, integrate email analytics into your marketing campaign to get regular market updates. It will help you refine and redesign your marketing activities for better results. 

Conclusion

Video marketing is rapidly catching up with other marketing techniques and in no time, it will have an edge over others, especially in the real estate industry. The greatest news is it’s an economical promotional method that can generate excellent results. It provides a platform for you to reach a wider audience, talk about your listings, interact with prospects and answer their queries, and share your success stories.

The post Video Email Marketing Can Boost Sales for Real Estate Agents appeared first on noupe.

Maximizing social media channels has become a buzzing topic across all industries. From B2B SaaS to DTC retail to local mom-and-pop shops, everyone wants a slice of the social media market pie.

And we can see why.

In 2021, over 4.26 billion people used social media around the globe — a number projected to increase to nearly six billion by 2027.

In other words, there’s a limitless supply of marketing and relationship-building opportunities on social media.

If you’ve decided the time to make the most of your channels is now, then you’ve come to the right spot. In today’s article, we’re sharing some of our best tips for maximizing social media channels to increase brand awareness. 

Grab a notepad and a pen, and let’s get started.

1. Use a multichannel approach 

Nearly 91% of retail brands use two or more social media platforms to connect with their target audience. 

But here’s the deal — if you’re going to spread your eggs across multiple baskets, make sure you choose the right ones for your business. 

In other words, stick to only building a presence on channels that your audience uses most. 

For instance, if you sell one-of-a-kind virtual fashion pieces, you’ll likely focus on channels that target the younger demographic, such as Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. If your company sells space in a colocation data center, you’ll likely focus on channels that thrive in the B2B sector, like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Whatever the case may be, be sure to find out:

• What channels your audience uses and why
• How often they frequent said channels — bonus points if you can dig up specific days and times
• What kind of content they devour on social media 
• What messaging and style preferences they have

Once you’ve chosen your dedicated social media platforms, strategize ways to integrate them with other marketing activities, such as blogging, email marketing, and guest posting.

For instance:

• Add a call to action (CTA) at the end of blog posts inviting readers to follow you on social media 
• Set up an email sequence that highlights user-generated content and customer stories you’ve collected from your social channels 
• Invite email recipients to follow you on social media in your email signature line 
• Use thought leadership insights you’ve shared on social media as screenshots and examples in your guest posts

2. Befriend data 

Whether you’re getting ready to sell your company or you’re just interested in improving your lead scoring process, leveraging data can help you set yourself up for success. 

So, how do you do that exactly? 

Create a data pipeline. 

While it may sound fancy, a data pipeline is just a compilation of information from a variety of sources that you analyze for marketing purposes. 

With a data pipeline, your business has a centralized data source allowing you to get a more robust view of your audience and make data-driven decisions. 

In other words, you have insights at your fingertips you can leverage to boost your social media presence. 

For instance, your data might show you that your audience values encouraging content. Or, your data might reveal that your audience is curious about NFTs and virtual goods. 

Whatever the case may be, you can use centralized data to learn more about your audience’s:

• Pain points and needs
• Social media purchasing habits
• Content preferences 
• Social media activity 

You can then turn those insights into action by improving your social media strategy as you discover more about your audience.

Psst, feeling overwhelmed by the thought of gathering your own data? Consider opting for a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that can do the heavy lifting for you. 

3. Plan thematic caption sequences and batch your content

Our third tip is probably our favorite. 

Why? 

Because it includes the formula every brand needs to deliver valuable and engaging content on social media — consistently.

Yes, we’re nodding to the hardcore truth that consistency is vital to: 

• Discovering what kind of content performs best on social media 
• Developing an understanding of your audience’s questions, needs, and concerns
• Positioning yourself as an industry expert
• Building trust and loyalty with your audience 
• Understanding how to course correct when your strategy goes awry 

So, what’s the secret formula brands need to win on social media? 

First, plan thematic caption sequences. Then, batch your content. 

If you’ve never heard of planning thematic caption sequences, it just means choosing a series of caption themes (based on your goals and target audience) and rotating them out. 

For instance, the caption themes you rotate might include:

• About me
• Behind-the-scenes
• Offer pitch 
• Encouragement
• Value-driven
• Humor 

Or, you might choose:

• Brand story 
• Sustainability tips 
• Company wins
• News 
• Specific offer 
• Industry insights 

Let’s take the second example list and explore this a bit further. If you decide to post on social media Monday through Wednesday, then your caption theme list for the month would look like this: 

• Monday: Brand story
• Tuesday: Sustainability tips 
• Wednesday: Company wins
• Monday: News 
• Tuesday: Specific offer 
• Wednesday: Industry insights 
• Monday: Brand story 
• Tuesday: Sustainability tips
• Wednesday: Company wins
• Monday: News
• Tuesday: Specific offer
• Wednesday: Industry insights

See? Pretty easy.

Next, choose visual product themes to rotate along with your caption themes. 

Taking the second example, your visual product themes might include:

• Candid photo of staff, management, or work location
• Professional custom photograph of plants, trees, oceans, or general nature scenes
• Custom text and announcement image  
• Visual clipping or infographic from reputable news source 
• User-generated image showcasing company product
• Visual clipping or infographic from reputable industry source or peer-reviewed journal

Once you’ve laid all of that out, use a social media management tool to create your captions, upload your images, include your hashtags, and schedule your posts in batches. Aim to schedule your content at least 30 days out. 

If you’re using an in-house marketing team or going the DIY route, lighten the load by getting access to caption templates and professional images through a membership with Social Curator.

4. Build in time for daily community engagement 

With internet users spending on average 147 minutes per day on social media, building in time to communicate with them is vital.

If you’re worried you can’t invest too much time on community engagement, remember it’s more about quality and consistency than quantity. In other words, it’s about the quality of the time you put in and the discipline to show up every day — even if it’s just for 30 minutes a day. 

If all else fails? Hire a virtual assistant and train them on how to engage with your audience on behalf of your brand.

Here are a few quick tips to help you stay active and engaged with your audience on social:

• Respond to comments and questions as soon as possible — bonus points for sharing tips and resources, too
• Leave comments and questions on your audience’s posts — bonus points for leaving words of encouragement and sharing personal experiences 
• Initiate questions, quizzes, polls, and sliders in Stories
• Show up for live video Q&As
• Post and respond to thought leadership content on LinkedIn

5. Give users a reason to pay attention to your brand on social media

Sometimes your audience needs a little extra incentive to pay attention to you on social media. 

So, give them a reason to by putting some more oomph into your posts. 

Here’s how:

• Share tremendous value: Give your audience advice, tools, tips, and tricks on the topics that matter most to them
• Utilize giveaways: Reel your audience in with irresistible prizes they can enter to win
• Give out freebies: Share free downloadables, guides, and ebooks 
• Use storytelling techniques: Paint a picture and hook readers with real, meaningful stories — bonus points for drawing on emotion or weaving in humorous content

Wrap up 

Maximizing social media channels is a key topic of discussion across industries worldwide. 

With increasingly more users joining social media platforms, it’s no surprise brands are motivated to grab their slice of the market share. 

And with a limitless supply of social media marketing and relationship-building opportunities, social media will continue to play an integral role in connecting brands with customers. 

If you’re ready to make the most of your channels, we hope the best practices we shared will help you increase brand awareness and build lasting customer relationships. 

For quick reference, here’s another look at the tips we shared:

• 1. Use a multichannel approach
• 2. Befriend data
• 3. Plan thematic caption sequences and batch your content 
• 4. Build in time for daily community engagement 
• 5. Give users a reason to pay attention to your brand on social media 

And that’s it for today! Now go forth and nurture your social media audience, friends.

The post Relationships 101: Tips for Maximizing Social Media Channels to Increase Brand Awareness appeared first on noupe.