The Blackwell Playbook

To build your audience, look at your competitors’ followers on social media. Not only will you potentially find qualified leads, but also, you can gain some insights into the market and their interest. Knowing what type of content these followers already like will help you better target your ads and connect with your prospective customers.

Retarget your frequent customers with a custom audience in your email marketing program or ad manager. When you have a new offering, run a campaign that targets this audience. Those who feel invested in or excited about your company are much more likely to engage when new products or offers become available.

If you’re trying to rank for a certain keyword or phrase, ensure that you include it in the first paragraph of your content. A good rule of thumb is to keep it within the first 100 words. Aim to have it reflect the title of the content as well, and work any keyword phrases or […]

Focus your Google AdWords on the goal you want to achieve. For example, to drive more traffic to your site, use cost-per-click (CPC) bidding. To get more impressions of your ads, use cost-per-view (CPV) bidding. Remember to keep your conversion rate in mind so that you bid an appropriate amount.

Your job applicants are great sources of leads. They’re interested in your company, so be sure to add them to your mailing list. Post jobs on multiple platforms, such as LinkedIn and Indeed. You can even create a custom audience for qualified applicants who may be interested in future jobs at your company. Never create […]

Host a giveaway for a product or service that complements yours. Be sure to collect email addresses from people in order to have people enter the contest! Selecting complementary products is a great way to further target your audience as you see what your leads and followers are interested in.

Twitter is a great source of events and holidays that you might not have thought of, whether it’s a commemorative day or a fun social media holiday such as #PizzaDay. Event targeting tunes into these events with content that can be included under the associated event tag.

It’s easy to have title tag issues that can really impair your search rankings. Use Google Search Console or a plugin such as Yoast to check your title tags and ensure that they are keyword-rich and properly formatted for each page.

When looking at your social media analytics, be sure to take a deep dive into which type of posts have the highest engagement — meaning clicks, shares, and comments (and views, for videos). Then, use those results to inform future content strategies.

Most search engine traffic comes from the top three results on any given search engine research page (SERP). That’s true even if you’re not ranked in the first SERP. Aim to be within the top 3 results on whichever SERP you rank.

Google allows you to target audiences who show an affinity for certain product categories so that you can show your ads to them while they’re browsing — even if they’re not directly searching for your target keywords.

Never be afraid to retweet others’ content, especially if they offer complementary services and products. You can even see good results from retweeting news articles and blogs that connect to your company’s themes and brand initiatives. You can add a plug for your own offerings that ties into something the linked content discusses.

Use high-quality, royalty-free images to help your pages rank higher in search engines. Google favors content that’s mixed with images. Just be sure that you add alternative text, aka alt text, to each one!

If someone mentions your company online but doesn’t link to your site, that’s a lost opportunity. Use a tool like Buzzsomo to track conversations about your company name, then encourage those linkless posts to link to your business. You can even offer an incentive to do so, such as a 10% off coupon.

Google now offers callout extensions, which are brief text snippets that draw out specific benefits or features of your advertised service. You can include up to 4 callouts of up to 25 characters. Using callouts can help improve your clickthrough rate (CTR) by adding context to your ads.

Users will often leave your site if it can’t load within 3 seconds. Use caching to pre-load CSS and other assets that drag down your site load time. There are many great plugins to help you achieve this. Remember, a quick-loading site is a site that converts!

If you send out content through Slideshare, spice up your presentations with inspirational quotes — ideally from people in your field. You can then reach out to that person and ask that they share the presentation. Including this type of engaging content makes your presentation fresher and more relatable.

Some IPs are known to host spammy sites, and sites served from these IPs have a lower reputation, and therefore lower search engine rankings. Ensure that you are hosting with a legitimate provider who can serve your site from a well-reputed IP.

Always invest in high-quality product images or screenshots for ad visuals — a blurry, pixelated image is a huge turnoff for buyers. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take photos of your products, or invest in a compelling video ad.

Give an incentive for both customers who refer you and the people they refer. For example, you can give both people a discount or credit on their account, rather than just rewarding the person who refers. You’re much more likely to get both referrals and buy-ins.

Be sure that you’re timing your emails appropriately — and keeping time zone differences in mind! You might also consider segmenting your list according to ideal times and days for different parts of your audience. For example, people who work 9 to 5 Monday through Friday tend to check their personal email before and after […]

Don’t forget to send an email to get people excited about your next product launch! A simple teaser email that doesn’t give away too many details builds hype and encourages your audience to talk about your company.

If you’re using influencers, be sure to devote someone to help manage their efforts and ensure that they stay in line with your marketing goals. Someone who is good at both project management and marketing would be an ideal candidate.

Your audience wants to feel special, valued, and “in the know.” Write ad copy that speaks to these desires, offers high status or value (such as an exclusive gift or how-to video), or that taps into people’s fear of missing out (FOMO) as a means of encouraging them to engage and buy.

SlideShare is a way of presenting content in a more digestible form than a long blog post or video. Many B2B companies find it particularly effective as a means of content marketing, because SlideShares are easily shareable and tied to LinkedIn.

Avoid using language so generic and broad that people won’t connect with it. Instead, tap into people’s regional lingo and national pride. You can reference famous landmarks, artifacts, or artwork, or use regional slang or references that are appropriate for your target audience.

Many sales reps feel like they need to schedule demos to move leads through the funnel. However, it’s often more effective to let people play on their own, nudge them toward upgrading or buying, and be there for any questions or concerns. Try offering a free trial that gives leads the freedom to experiment on […]

The hero section of your website plays a large role in your bounce and conversion rates. Don’t let a bad hero image or content drag you down. A/B test your design and CTA to ensure that you’re using the best options for your target audience!

When you need a very niche persona, you’ll need to use multiple criteria for targeting. Aim to layer psychographic, geographic, and other data to achieve an optimized target audience. Remember, casting too wide a net is less effective and can cost you more money in the long run.

Want to break out of your geographic area? Beta-test your product in a new region or country before going all in. The feedback you get from beta-testing is invaluable for planning your strategy to expand your market to a new geographic area.

If you want to improve your clickthrough rate (CTR) on your Twitter ads, consider eliminating the image from the ad. This shifts the audience’s focus to your call-to-action rather than distracting them with the image. 

If you’ve encountered a blogger who’s relevant in your industry but no longer publishes new content, inquire as to whether you can purchase their mailing list and roll it into yours.

Use a viral referral widget to incentivize social sharing of your content by offering rewards to those who do. If your page is already converting, you can double your conversion rate by encouraging people to share with their network — with no extra work required on your behalf.

Your audience already has a list of their preferred sources of news and resources, so target those sources’ followers to help refine your targeting. Look at major publishers in your industry and follow people who follow their pages.

MuckRack is a site where you can find journalists who specialize in your industry and pitch story ideas to them. If these journalists have established connections with editors, you could be looking at a large platform for your story to be told.

Carousel Ads cost 30-50% lower cost per conversion and 20-30% lower than cost per click than single-link ads and 20-30% lower cost per click. That’s because users are more likely to engage with carousel ads. Take a creative approach in which the carousel tells a story or illustrates the use of the product.

Social posts and profiles are great for raising brand awareness and engaging with your audience, but it can be challenging to deep link from social to your product pages, for examples. Try deep linking from product install pages, in-app pages, or individual tweets to help drive traffic to the specialized pages on your site.

Make live video part of your social media marketing strategy. Your audience will enjoy the chance to feel special and included in your behind-the-scenes content, surprise interview, or other fun content. Live video boosts engagement and helps get users excited about the brand, while leveraging the fear of missing out (FOMO) to encourage brand loyalty […]

Use Google Shopping ads to include your product’s price and description right there in search results. When people know the price before clicking, they’re actually more like to click — especially if you’re offering a good deal!

Whenever you publish videos or audio-based content such as podcasts, always offer a transcription. This boosts engagement with your content for people who prefer to read or those who are hearing-impaired. Plus, you’ll get keyword-rich content that can boost your page’s search results ranking.

Always indicate when an offer is for a limited time or if you are running low on quantity. People hate missing out, and giving them a sense of urgency encourages them to buy on impulse. You might even consider constantly running some sort of limited-time discount on a particular product so that your audience feels […]

Wouldn’t it be great if you could capture leads with your existing ads? With Facebook, you can. The social media platform will auto-fill your form with information from the user’s profile. This tactic helps you remove hurdles to your audience joining your mailing list.

Enter into an arrangement with influencers in which you each promote the other’s content. Choose your influencers carefully — you want people with followers who align with your target audience. Then, build an arrangement in which you each share posts that will resonate with your current followers, with a hint of whatever product or service […]

If you’re launching a marketplace site, you need suppliers. However, you’ll likely be short on suppliers when you’re starting out. Rent or buy a small amount of inventory to get your marketplace established.

Each page of your website should have a clear, keyword-rich title that’s also not clunky or overly long. Choose something exciting yet descriptive, and make sure there’s a consistent theme or phrase among all your pages. Consider A/B testing your page titles to see which option better drives conversions.

If you’re waiting for your own photos to arrive, use stock images in the meanwhile. Avoid ones that are obviously stock photos — they tend to be overexposed, posed, or generally fake-looking. Natural-looking photos will perform better and make an emotional connection with your reader. You can find stock photos for free on sites like […]

Use Facebook’s Audience Network for retargeting/remarketing campaigns. This program shows ads in approved partner apps and websites rather than on Facebook itself. This can be a great way to reach your existing audience in new ways or expand your market.

Social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow you to pin a post. Use this space to feature your intro video, your latest giving campaign, your email signup, a testimonial…anything that you don’t want users to have to scroll to find.

Target your audiences according to their interests that relate to your product’s or service’s category. For example, if you sell luxury bags, target those who like “fashion” as well as those who are searching for “luxury bag.”

People are selective about what they share on social media. If you want people to share your content, give them a powerful incentive to do so. Send a thank you message and give them a reward when their referral helps drive a conversion. Both the sharer and the person they referred will be more likely […]

Did you know that Google AdWords now permits 30 more characters for a subheading? Use this space to provide additional details about your product, highlight a special offer, or even offer a (brief) testimonial. This extra context can help entice people to click.

A lot of your users are busy people who might be interested in your articles but don’t have time to read at the moment. Offer to send the article to them by PDF. This is a great opportunity to capture their email address through your content marketing pipeline. Ideally, you would place a button that […]

Quora is a social networking platform that emphasizes questions people ask and answer. It’s a great place to advertise with longform content that can directly address your target audience’s pain points. With high traffic and well-defined interests, Quora users are a great place to market your product or service.

Always link new posts on your blog to older, relevant posts. Be selective in which blog posts you link so that readers will be motivated to continue following the links through your content pipeline. This is a great way to boost read times on your site and build a relationship with the user.

Some keywords might be costing you money. Look at the Dimensions panel in Google AdWords to see which search phrases are getting you clicks but no conversions, then add those keywords as negatives to your campaign so that you’re not spending money on phrases that don’t convert. Hyperfocusing your keyword targeting can help you get […]

People love free stuff, so be sure that you entice them to sign up for your mailing list by offering them a high-value, free resource, such as an e-book, worksheet, or how-to guide. Highlight the offer in your emails or social media channels and lead people to a landing page devoted exclusively to this free […]

If you have a lot of great content, why confine it to your site? Look for similar sites that could be partners and syndicate or cross-post your content. You’ll get access to their followers and also improve your SEO ranking for your articles! Just be sure to identify the canonical link.

Facebook allows you to target people who live or work near your business with local ads. Be sure to choose “Call Now” or “Get Directions” as your CTA to encourage users to get in touch or swing by!

Nostalgia is a powerful motivator for purchases because it taps into people’s sentimental side and reminds them of pleasant memories. You can tap into nostalgia by referring to times past or classic films, or even by asking your audience to reminisce about grade school or their parents or grandparents, for example.

If you have a blog or landing page that features a video, be sure that you place it prominently high up on the page to help boost the page’s search engine ranking. Add a bit of descriptive text to introduce the video and be sure to make captions available!

Trying setting a high budget and a modest cost-per-action (CPA) in your bid to allow you to leverage ad inventory days to increase your reach.

Customize your surveys to the user’s feedback by using branching logic. You can use Qualaroo or SurveyMonkey to achieve this. For example, you can ask further questions if someone says they have used a specific product, or drill deeper if they indicate dissatisfaction. You can even roll email signup fields into your survey to capture […]

Look to see who’s following companies or influencers that relate to your products or services — especially if they’re major brands. Then, target that audience in your advertising campaigns and engage with them on social media.

If you’re targeting a certain geographic area with your social media ads, make sure that you tag a location in any posts that are part of the campaign — even if it’s your own store! Plus, Facebook prioritizes such posts, which can improve your reach.

If you offer high-end products or services, be sure that you’re not wasting ad dollars on targeting people whose income doesn’t permit them to purchase from you. When creating your ad audience, use income data to define your scope. However, be sure to not set it too high and exclude those who might indulge in […]

If you’ve got the page real estate, use powerful images and videos — even audio — to command your audience’s attention. You can even boost their engagement through games and other interactive elements.

Set up Google Alerts or other monitoring systems to be alerted when new blogs are published in your niche so that you can engage with them. They might even follow your blog and backlink to it!

Tag your industry’s influencers in content inspired by them or whenever you’re developing partner content. (But don’t overdo it!) They may even share your content to their audience, thus increasing your reach.

Use a special character such as a colon or dash to add a keyword to your social media profiles. This also boosts your SEO by helping users searching for your industry or service to come upon your profile.

If you’re placing your logo or a single image in an ad, consider adding a light pattern to the background using a program like Canva. Choose a pattern that matches the tone and audience of your ad. This gives it a professional look and draws the eye’s attention.

Try running ads on networks with niche audiences rather than competing on a broader scale. These ads are more likely to net you qualified leads. Plus, directly targeting your niche helps you optimize your ad spending.

Create an advice blog article and tag or link to an influencer. Focus on offering advice in your niche. They may link back to your site, but even if they do not, you’re still offering value to your audience and supporting your content marketing pipeline.

Use your paid ads to assess your best-performing keywords, then use those for organic search by creating content, such as blogs and PDFs, that targets those keywords. You should also use them in your pages’ titles and meta descriptions.

Be sure to link to your website or landing page in the bio of your profile on sites such as Instagram. You can also use a service such as Linktree or lnk.bio to create a landing page especially for your social media profiles. Encourage all members of your team to follow suit.

Target your audience with keywords that relate to your offering’s category. For example, if you offer a luxury product or service, use keywords that relate to people interested in other luxury products or services. You can also target keywords for related products or services that your target audience is likely buying.

If you’re releasing a beta, make it invite-only to ensure that you have quality users evaluating your product. You can also offer rewards for these users, as well as if they refer other users. This can help make your beta go viral and build a community invested in your product.

The concept of social proof holds that people want to see that other people like them have benefited from your product or service. Never be afraid to ask previous customers or clients for testimonials of their experience. Ideally, you have them submit them through a verified portal or post on their own profiles so that […]

Enhance your content with professional-quality images. Low-resolution, pixelated, or badly lit images do nothing to help your brand reputation and may even harm it. People are also more likely to share articles with good images. Use free sites like Pixabay or Unsplash to get great images, or invest in Shutterstock or Adobe Stock. Or better […]

If you’ve received positive reviews on Yelp, Amazon, Facebook, or in local news media, be sure to link to those from your site or highlight them in your social media. If your market is oversaturated, these can be a great addition to your social proof. You can also copy the reviews into your ad copy.

If you notice that a certain gender is not performing well with your ads, remove that gender from your target audience in order to optimize your ad spending.

Quora, the Internet’s leading Q&A social network, has more than 80 million users per month. If you’re targeting keywords, answer questions that use those keywords with copy that subtly promotes your company. If your responses are high-quality, they’ll be ranked highly in search results and perhaps even featured in the Quora Digest.

Stand out about the bevy of apps in mobile devices’ app stores by optimizing your list. Be sure to write great content that’s packed with keywords and format your title accordingly.

People like to feel in charge, and they like the idea of customization and personalization. If you’re able to offer this through your product or service, whether it’s a customized service plan or a mix-and-match product, go for it. You’ll stand out from your competition and boost customer loyalty. You can also use language in […]

Accept guest authors on your blog to expand your readership and build your reputation in your industry’s community. You can also offer to write for their blog in exchange. By establishing such content partnerships, you can grow your audience.

Look for links that are branded through Bit.ly or HootSuite, especially if they’re guest posts, and follow the breadcrumbs to find potential content partners or backlink providers. You should also consider using branded links yourself!

Focus on your product’s durability in your ad copy. People are used to the concept of planned obsolescence, so seeing a product that makes them think they won’t have to replace the thing in a year can be very appealing to them.

No matter what action users take on your site, it’s important to provide them with confirmation that their entry or action went through successfully. Include a brief thank you at the end of every form or registration to assure the user.

It’s rumored that Google uses any public Whois information in your registration to assess the trustworthiness of a website. To that end, it’s helpful to make your Whois listing public to boost your SEO and build your customers’ trust.

Don’t forget to post daily on your social media accounts! There is so much content out there that yours will quickly be lost, and your audience with it, if you don’t regularly post and engage on these networks. 

Did you know that you can A/B test the content and format of your social posts? Try testing the tone of your posts (formal versus conversational), different images, or whether videos or still images perform better. Tip: Use Bit.ly to track link performance for each post in order to compare.

Poll your influencers, then report the results. This also encourages them to give you backlinks and social proof. Anything you can do to build your engagement with your influencers is a great tactic to grow your audience.

Always add target keywords to the title, description, and even the filename of any video that you upload to YouTube. This helps improve your search rankings and easily communicates to users what your video is about.

Use a time-delayed or exit intent popup to offer an exclusive, personalized demo for your users. The element of surprise can work here to drive people directly to your offer.  Part of your bounce rate is due to people simply not having any avenue to learn more — a demo offer can help sustain their […]

Use a Qualaroo NPS Survey to assess how likely your customers and clients are to recommend you to your friends. You can ask both new visitors based on their first impression and return visitors. Followup to ask for the reason for their score.

Target the people who follow an influencer in your industry or field. You can run ads that target audiences who are interested in these influencers in order to better reach qualified leads.

If you’re preparing a SlideShare or other presentation, consider including quotes from influencers. This adds relatability to your content and gives you an excuse to reach out to those influencers and notify them that you’ve quoted them.  They may just share the presentation and boost your audience!

Divide you content by themes that appeal to your various target personas. Once you’ve amassed a lot of content, you can republish the themes as new articles or use the themes to organize your blog section.  This also boosts SEO by providing headers and backlinks among your articles.

Only allow contributors to your blog via invite. This can raise the bar for content quality and encourage contributors to refer new contributors. Your select contributors will feel special and be more likely to be contribute. This is also a great way to build up influencers in your industry!

In your ad copy, focus on how new and innovative your product or service is. Customers like to feel like they’ve got the latest, snazziest thing, so play that up in your advertising. You can also use time-oriented language to make people feel like there’s something new for them even if your product or service […]

In your referral system, ensure that the links you use for referrals are deep linked within an app install journey. That way, you can get app installs and referrals at the same time. Branch.io is a good tool to achieve this.

If you have a good sense of the demographics and psychographics of your current customer base, use those characteristics to build an audience to target. Parameters might include interests, geographic location, age, mobile device, and so on. Use your successful customer definition to expand your audience to include new yet similar people.

Don’t be afraid to target your ads on a specific, geography-based level, especially if you have brick-and-mortar locations or only provide services in a certain area. Reaching people outside your geographic area is a waste of ad spending and can be frustrating for users who simply can’t access your services.

Did you know that you can exclude sites from showing your ads? If you don’t want to advertise your offerings on certain sites, you can identify categories you’d like for your ads to not show on.

The number of hashtags you should use on a post varies by your industry, audience, and platform, but you should test and track results to determine the optimal number of hashtags to use. Remember to use more hashtags for discoverability than branded ones!

You can also refine your audience according to their income levels in order to market your budget plans or luxury plans accordingly. If you have exclusively luxury products, you’ll want to only target people with an income level that would make qualified leads.

Sites like HARO are databases of sources for journalists. If you become registered as a source on one of these sites, you could be availble to chat with a journalist for a story in your business’ niche. Doing so can get your name out there and build backlinks to your content.

Host a Twitter chat to get your audience engaged, inspire new followers, and build up influencers. . Be sure that you find a relevant, timely topic to chat about, then promote, promote, promote. Advertise the chat with compelling images and if possible, a sense of expertise and authority. Then, ask open-ended questions during the chat […]

When you’re doing keyword research, look at which keywords your competitors are targeting. Target similar keywords, with some specific qualifiers to highlight what makes your offering special.

Use customized ads in retargeting to show related products based on customers’ previous purchases. This makes them more likely to buy again because they feel acknowledged and are seeing products that connect to their previous purchases.

Be sure to feature your top-priority keyword in the title and meta description of your pages. Just be sure to make the title and description relevant to the page’s content, and keep it clear and concise.

Be sure to focus on your product’s features in your ad copy. What makes your product unique? Highlight that. Make your features a selling point.

If your blog post doesn’t perform well, it may actually hurt your overall blog’s search ranking. Consider deleting the post and replacing it with an optimized version to drive new traffic.

If you’re evaluating changes in your business model, such as offering a yearly rate versus a monthly one, you can A/B test the concept with your ad copy. See which model performs better in your ad copy in order to better assess which option resonates more with your audience.

Did you know that you can define a Twitter audience based on keywords that users include in your bio? The tool Blockspring allows you to automate the process by gathering information from platforms such as  Meetup, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more, then comparing it to people’s Twitter handles to help you build a database of users […]

If your qualified leads are people of a certain seniority level in their workplace, why not use their job title as a means of limiting your target audience? Consider drawing upon LinkedIn data, which tends to be more accurate, as a way of defining your audience.

Use surveys to determine why one variant in your A/B testing did or did not convert. If you change the format of your call-to-action (CTA), a follow-up survey can ask users what they thought of it. By knowing the actual reasons why users are or are not responding to your content or design, you can […]

If you’re not sure if an app is right for you, or if it’s worth your time to develop a platform, you can A/B test ad copy propositioning different platforms and see which option better resonates with your audience.

Look at the keywords that your competitors use, then use those keywords to develop your own advertising campaigns. You might even find keywords that you hadn’t thought of. By using your competitors’ strengths to your advantage, you can better target your desired audience.

While high-quality stock photos are a great addition to your ads, you might also consider vector graphics that give your content a little something different. Look for sleek, interesting graphics that illustrate your company’s product or service.

Look for the authors of your competitors’ blog, and see where else they are publishing. Not only could their other platforms be a great place for you to guest post, but you can also see about developing a guest authorship relationship with them!

Set Pokémon Go’s Lures for your brick-and-mortar locations to entice customers to come near your place of business. This is ideal for food and beverage businesses who can help fuel hungry/thirsty Pokémon Go players.

If you hit a milestone, such as a new product, X number of years in business, or a certain number of customers, use that as a pitch for journalists who might be interested in featuring your accomplishment in industry news.

If you need to collect email addresses or garner signups, consider offering an e-book that’s accessible only if users provide their information. Make it relevant to their interests and take an authoritative approach that affirms your role as an industry leader.

Everyone is very busy these days, so it can be very effective to advertise your product or service’s time-saving qualities to your audience. Highlight that in your ad copy. You can even give estimates of the amount of time people will save by using your product or service.

Use browser notifications to alert your customers to new products, updates, or abandoned cart reminders. A service like Pushcrew can help you achieve this. These notifications are more likely to be seen and read than emails.

Encourage your existing customers to refer friends by offering an incentive, such as a free trial, exclusive discount, or other reward. Your users will be more likely to refer and share, and word of your generosity will quickly spread and motivate people to sign up.

Video ads for app installs are relatively affordable and can quickly and compellingly communicate information to users. Use screen captures or motion graphics to demonstrate an app’s capability, then post on Instagram or other channels where videos automatically play.

If your ad audience isn’t having the effect you want, try narrowing its scope. Broad audiences tend to underperform. A good rule of thumb is to narrow (or expand) so that your target audience is 1 million users.

You know that live chat helps encourage engagement with your business and moves your customers through the funnel, but how can you get your users to start a live chat? Offer an incentive, such as a coupon, if they do a live chat with your representatives. (Just be sure that you have the staff to […]

Have lots of white space in your web content. Break up long paragraphs into shorter ones, and use bullet points whenever possible. This tactic improves readability and thus lowers your bounce rate. Plus, it’s better for SEO!

Create a landing page for your app to build hype and serve as a countdown to launch. This page can double as a means for your beta testers to leave feedback. You can use this landing page in your email and social promo for your app.

Facebook allows you to retarget your site visitors, and you can filter your audience by the time they spent on the site. Aim to reach users who spent a lot of time on your page but did not convert. They’re interested, but perhaps got pulled away or meant to make a purchase later. Facebook can […]

Video content is not only a great way to showcase your product and build awareness of your brand, but also a way to reach a new audience through platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram. Consider making explainer or how-to videos, behind-the-scenes clips, or brief interviews to highlight your product.

If your product or service lends itself to sharing, consider leveraging that sharing as a means of incentivizing people to do so. Limit the functionality of the product or service until people share it on social media.

You don’t have to write all the content yourself! Curate content and organize by collections or “best-of” lists, then send out content on a regular schedule. Be sure that you tag or link to the curated content’s authors.

Widen your ad audience to include similar countries to the one in which you’re usually advertising. Be sure to include any spelling differences or cultural variations to accommodate new countries in your audience. 

Emphasize ease of use in your ad copy. People like to feel like products, whether physical products or apps, are convenient and will make their life easier. So, whether your product saves time, is ergonomic, or has automatic or convenience features, highlight those in your advertising.

Services such as SumoMe and Welcome Mat’s offer an ‘Instant Landing Page’ that locks the page unless users sign up. You can use this on gated content or on a campaign page where you want to ensure that you capture signups. Consider A/B testing content and design to find a winning combination.

Add a “click to tweet” button to your posts that auto-tweets out a quote or soundbite from your article. Some variations of this tactic allow users to instantly generate a tweet from any sentences in your article. By making it easy for users to share your content, you can help grow your audience and encourage […]

If you offer a wide range of products, target your ads to a specific product or category rather than doing catch-all advertising. Use a specific, narrow-audience campaign for each of your products or categories.

If you have a referral system in place: When one of your users’ friends signs up for the platform, send the user an email letting them know that they missed out on the reward for a referral. This can incentivize the user to share with other people in the future.

Use a promoted pin on Pinterest to drive signups for your webinar. Pinterest has a huge user base. Create a pin with actionable content or a compelling quote, then link it to your webinar signup page.

If you’re a B2B company, you should define your audience according to their business behaviors. For example, on Twitter, you can narrow down by company size and age, industry and occupational category, and sales revenue.

Is your campaign doing significantly better on mobile than on desktop — or vice versa? Consider isolating the campaign to one or the other rather than splitting your ad spend. This tactic improves the efficiency of your ad dollars.

Look for content that links to multiple competitors. This tend to be roundup or “best of” listicles or reviews. Reach out to the publisher and inquire about your company being included in the post. Better yet, offer a guest post that lists your competitors as well as yourself! If the content is high-value, it’s a […]

To reach new and different audience segments, increase your bid above the recommended level. This might unlock new groups who would not otherwise see your ad.

Email your most valuable users or customers with some sort of bonus or reward. This can increase referrals, as well as good word-of-mouth. Phrase the email in terms of a competition, perhaps on the basis of number of social shares or time spent on your platform. Once it takes off, you can announce the competition […]

If you’ve been regularly limiting content or features to registered users, consider opening up the doors to some of your content to all users. This may also improve your number of qualified users because people will be more likely to sign up out of genuine interest.

If you’re a B2B company, you should emphasize the solutions that you can offer other businesses with your product or service. Can you save them time? Fix their process? Help them be more efficient? Focus on that, and be assertive and confident rather than boring them with the fine print.

Use natural, casual photos of your product in action, rather than ultra-sleek, over-produced photos that make your product seem too show-y. Users like to imagine what the product will look like for them.

Define your audience persona by their job title to help you reach the most qualified leads. This doesn’t work as well in some industries in which titles are very generic or where people wear multiple hats, but it’s still a great start to zeroing in on the stakeholders and decision-makers who can help you win […]

In the skyscraper technique, you find great content and write your own version, then recruit backlinks. This is a great way to pick up traffic for a given topic, then provide search engines with a better option than the current top-ranking content.

Should you do Direct Sponsored Content or Text Ads on LinkedIn? If you’re not sure, you can A/B test different ad formats to see which one resonates better with your audience.

Become a trusted, authoritative user in a forum or question-oriented community, then link to your company in your signature. Users are much more likely to click on the link in your sig if you’re providing valuable content to the community.

Reddit is a vibrant community in which people share links, post images, and ask questions. You can create a subreddit that surrounds your topic or industry, and use it to cultivate a community of users who can build up your brand’s reputation. Even if your company’s name is in the name of the subreddit, you […]

The Twitter App Card is an interactive ad format that permits your audience to respond to your call-to-action (CTA) right there from their timeline. This can include app installs, image previews, retweets, and more.

The last thing you want is for users to land on your site, then immediately hit the Back button to return to Google. Google might even penalize you for this. If you link to high-value sites from your site, users will be more likely to click on those when exiting, which helps boost your search […]

When it comes to web hosting, you get what you pay for. Invest in better web hosting to reduce your page load times, ensure that your site stays up, and boost your security — all of which can improve your search engine ranking.

People get tired of reading the same old ad copy. Mix it up with a dose of humor, even surrealism. Channel the major auto insurance companies’ ridiculous ads that use wild characters and scenarios. You can also use compelling imagery, e.g. “Durable enough to survive a tornado” or “Powerful enough to fight the Minotaur.”

Emphasize not only the novelty of your product or service, but also any new features or offerings. People like to feel like they’re getting first crack at something, so let them know that they can be the first to try out your new stuff.

People are visual creatures, so be sure that you don’t leave it all to your marketing copy. Use compelling, high-quality images to illustrate your products and services, and consider reducing the word count in favor of prioritizing images.

If you’re retargeting, cap the number of impressions an individual user gets. You don’t want to waste your ad dollars reaching the same people again and again, especially because many first-time users will reengage upon initial retargeting.

Always reply to people engaging with your content on Twitter, and retweet their content that mentions you (when applicable and positive, of course). It’s easy to just “like” all the comments, but you’ll build your brand’s reputation and gain more followers if you engage with them.

Port your mailing list into Facebook and create a lookalike audience to help expand your target audience. Layer the comparison to see where the optimal level of audience similarity is, e.g. a 2% lookalike (excluding 1%) or a 3% lookalike (excluding 1% & 2%).

Use large rectangle ads (recommended dimensions 336×280 pixels) on the Google Display Network to encourage user interaction. Because people read left to right, horizontally oriented  (landscape) ads perform better than tall or square ads.

Because most websites targeting U.S. customers are hosted on servers in the U.S., international visitors may experience slow loading times. Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to make copies of your content available at different locations around the world. Your users can have the content served from a location convenient to them, which reduces their load […]

Your audience is more likely to trust an outside party’s recommendation for your offering than to take your own word for it at face value. This is where influencers come in. Get influential people in your industry to speak about your product or service on your behalf.

If you’re a B2B company, you likely have certain companies or industries you want to target. You can refine your ad audience by where people work to ensure that you reach only the most qualified leads.

On LinkedIn, you can target both public and private groups on the platform with your content. This enables you to hone in on a specific audience that’s already tailored to your industry!

Drive your existing email subscribers to YouTube by linking to your latest videos in your email marketing campaign. The best types of video content to include are behind-the-scenes videos, explainer videos, or other immersive content that can complement your email copy. Save the testimonial videos or promo spots for your landing pages.

Never be afraid to tap into emotions — especially around the holidays! Craft ads that resonate with emotional themes, such as family, inspiration, or nostalgia, and express that your company can make an emotional connection with your customers via your product or service.

Social media network’s native algorithms never show your content to everyone who follows your page. Use the Edgar tool to reschedule old social content to reach people who may have missed it the first time you published.

Angle for keywords for major events in your area or industry to potentially reach a new audience. Create ads that target people who follow or engage with these keywords.

If your target audience is likely to frequent a certain section of a site (e.g. the “Technology” section”, you can set site placement targeting Google AdSense to ensure that your ad appears where people are likely to see it.

Only 60 characters appear in the titles of Google search result listing, so make sure that your page titles are within this limit so that they are not cut off. This makes it more likely that people will click on your listing.

If your company has done research that may be of use to other people (think about survey results relating to an industry topic), or has unique data about the use of your product or service that highlights an industry trend, pitch journalists and public relations (PR) professionals with these facts. They may find it interesting […]

If you quote or otherwise cite industry influencers in your blog or other content, be sure that you let them know. Drop them a line and invite them to read/comment on/share the post.

Most of your followers won’t see what you post in their feed. It’s an unfortunate fact of the social media algorithms. Plus, some of your newer followers may have never had a chance to see your best old content. Regularly re-release and promote your top-performing content to reach a wider audience.

Use Google’s AdWords Editor to set up a “mobile app install” campaign. You simply tell Google the location of your app, set a budget, and Google AdWords advertises your app install to users and makes it easy for them to visit your app store link.

Your website may look neat, but have you looked under the hood? Clean code helps boost your SEO. Common things to look for include empty <a> tags, misplaced or extra <div> tags, and incorrect heading structure. You might also have “junk” code from certain plugins or addons. Clean this up and watch your search result […]

Don’t forget to set up ads targeting keywords that directly describe what you’re selling! If you have a brick-and-mortar location or serve people in a certain geographic area, you may also consider localizing your keywords so that searches such as “computer repair near me” turn up your business in search results.

If your video content involves someone talking to the viewer or a “how-to” guide of some kind, start your video by teasing content at the end of the video. This tactic encourages viewers to finish watching the video. The longer a viewer spends on your video, the better it will rank on YouTube.

Google Correlate allows you to use primary keywords to generate longtail keyword phrases that you can target in your SEO. It works by finding related searches and determining auto-completes, similar to those you might see when doing a Google search yourself.

If you’re in publishing, connect with the founders of similar publications and feature them in interviews or Q&As in your publications. This will encourage cross-pollination of your respective audiences.

Be as direct as possible in ad copy — don’t beat around the bush! When editing, cut out any extra words and use active, rather than passive, language.

Hacker News is a social network focusing on computers, technology, and entrepreneurship. If your company falls within this realm, you can use Hacker News to connect with potential influencers. Tip: Ask for feedback when making posts rather than directly promoting or being “sales-y.”

It’s never too late to do market research on your current mailing list subscribers. Send them a “personality assessment” or “preferences quiz” to get insights into what makes them tick. Offer a small incentive, such as a discount code, if they participate.

People want products and services with instant gratification and a quick speed. Phrase your offerings in terms of time: how little time it takes, how much time they’ll save, how quickly they can expect a response.

Use alternative text, also called “alt text,” for any non-decorative image on your site. This not only boosts your accessibility score for users with visual impairments, but also helps your SEO by providing additional context for the search engine crawlers to figure out the content and meaning of your page.

Emphasize urgency in your ad copy to encourage customers to buy now. You can focus on a product going out of stock soon, a sale ending soon, or a limited number available to make customers feel compelled to make an impulse buy.

Monitor question-oriented sites such as Quora and Reddit to find questions related to your topic or industry. Then, provide high-value answers and subtle links to your content. This tactic establishes you as a thought leader and helps you connect with potential leads.

Reach out to your most valuable customers and have them write blog posts describing their accomplishments with your product. They’ll be more likely to refer the product, plus they’ll share the content with their personal networks, which brings more traffic to you.

If you have a limited budget, your best bet when advertising on Facebook is to configure your ad spending for website visits, rather than any other call-to-action (CTA). This helps optimize spending to get users to your homepage.

Add a call-to-action (CTA) to your YouTube videos to direct traffic back to your homepage or blog. This could be an annotation link, a link in the video description, or a direct reference in the script or captions of the video. This way, if users stumble upon your content via YouTube, they’ll have an easy […]

Rather than listing all your product’s technological features in a boring fashion, simply emphasize your product’s cutting-edge, state-of-the-art quality in your ad copy. Customers like to feel like they’re getting the best of the best, so let them feel that way by emphasizing your offering’s high-tech quality.

Recruiting new talent? Require applicants to test-drive your product. You’ll get better-qualified applicants who better understand your product, and even if they don’t finish the application process, you’ll have potential new users.

If you have something for users to download, such as an app,  incentivize it by offering a discount or reward. For example, if a lot of your users simply visit the mobile website and you’d rather they use your app, give them a free first month if they use the app.

Raven Tools can help you find thin content on your site and increase the word count. Low-word-count content doesn’t rank well in search engines and provides little value to your users.

Keep your blog post introductions short and direct. As they say in journalism, don’t “bury the lede.” Use your top-ranking keyword phrase in the first paragraph and get right to the point in expressing the overall topic of the blog.

In your ad copy, express to your audience that they can achieve some sort of accomplishment by using your product. Indicate that they will win the race, conclude their project, etc. People often feel like they need completion and finality in their life, so offer them that in your ad copy.

Target specific search keyphrases that relate to your company’s offerings, even if they’re not wholly descriptive of what you do. For example, if you’re a travel agency, target some ads and content to “spain vacations” rather than just “ vacations” or “travel agency.”

Every product is unique in some way: highlight that in your ad copy. Even if the unique feature is something minor, you can emphasize it and give it power with carefully crafted copy. Remember: customers want to feel special! If they think your offering is special, they’ll be more likely to buy it.

Everyone likes to indulge in a bit of luxury and feel like they live a glamorous lifestyle. Play up your offering’s luxury quality. This tactic works especially well for services that make yout customers’ lives more convenient.

The average smartphone user has at least 30 apps on their phone. Yours might be lost among the crowd. Get users back on track with a promoted Twitter app card that leads them back to the app.

On your landing page, ensure that your menu uses keyword-rich commands or content that reflects the keyphrases that brought the user to the page. This helps provide a more seamless experience for users and encourages them to explore your other content by honing in on what brought them to your landing page in the first […]

Using SumoMe, you can configure a trigger that generates a Link Builder. Access the SumoMe dashboard, create a List Builder campaign, and then use Click Triggers to configure the action button. SumoMe will then set up a custom URL for your action button.

Use LinkedIn’s publishing platform, Pulse, to share high-value, top-quality articles in your industry or target topics. Be sure to quote or otherwise include your industry influencers, and use LinkedIn groups and trending topics to get your content in front of more eyes.

Believe it or not, people do sometimes like to read long articles or lists. Longform content, such as how-tos, reviews, guides, and feature essays perform well because they are full of SEO keywords and offer a great opportunity for your users to share.

Never keyword-stuff your copy: Always get to the point quickly and write your message as though your user has the attention span of a goldfish. You’ll notice more engagement and higher conversion rates with your content.

When retargeting, adjust your strategy to how far they got down the sales funnel. If they looked at an item, retarget with an email featuring that item. If they added the item to their cart, followup with an abandned car message, and so on.

The risk of sharing other creators’ content is that it might lead users away from your content! Try using the tool Sniply, which utilizes iFrames to ensure that a call-to-action (CTA) leading back to your site appears with your curated content. 

Subtly promote your product or service in a subreddit tailored to your industry or that’s in line with your target audience with a high-value post. Ensure that you offer useful or entertaining content rather than a heavy sales pitch, and be sure that you follow the rules of the subreddit!

Job titles often don’t describe all that someone in that role does. Imagine what your target customers does on the job — especially if you’re in the B2B space — and build your marketing around those keywords.

Target your video ads to appear before competitors’ videos, with a strong call-to-action (CTA) to visit your channel. With luck, your audience will be so compelled by your content that they won’t even watch your competitors’ vids!

When writing ad copy, think about cause-and-effect or feature-benefit relationships that you can highlight. When customers are shopping, they want to buy more than the product or service — they want something more that you can tap into. Phrase your copy in such a way that users feel like they are going to become more […]

A click magnet word is one that drives up your clickthrough rate. No matter what your company or industry, click magnet words are proven to work. They include “new”, “proven”, “now,” and “top.”

If subtle posting in target communities on Reddit isn’t working for you, consider running a sponsored post. These posts can reach people outside a given subreddit and enjoy prime real estate in Redditors’ feeds.

Celebrating an anniversary? Reached a certain number of followers? No matter the milestone, your target audience appreciates your accomplishments. You might be surprised by the engagement you receive on a post promoting your milestone. People love to feel like they’re part of a celebration, so let the confetti fly!

If you’re jealous of your competitors’ amazing content, don’t sulk — use it. You can set up alerts for when your competitors’ content gets a backlink, then write a post on the same topic and ask the backlinker to include your content. This tactic works exceptionally well for review sites and “top ten” articles.

Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews after your customers make a purchase. Many customers don’t think to leave a review, or they do, and they simply forget. Remind them to do so and enjoy the boost to your social proof, plus valuable feedback — even if they don’t love your product.

Don’t let your text ad fade into the background: include a pop of color as the background or with a compelling symbol to draw eyes to your ad. The more eye-catching your ad, the better it will perform.

If you’re down to the last two variations of your new logo (remember, you should develop and test this with a limited audience), A/B test minor variations (e.g. color, font size) to see which combination performs better.

many users will search for keyphrases such as [competitor] alternative’ or ‘[your product] vs [competitor].” Tap into these solution-seeking users by creating content that compares your offering to your competitors’. Ironically, targeting these keyphrases can help you rank above your competitor — even though you’re mentioning them explicitly!

Most people don’t just search for a product: They add qualifiers, such as “cheap,” “easy,” “affordable,” or “near me.” Target these combinations to better reach your most qualified leads.

If a certain placement on the Google Display Network hasn’t been netting you a lot of results, exclude it from future campaigns. .

People like to be in the “in-crowd,” so incorporate social proof into your call-to-action (CTA) to encourage users to take action. You can draw out a top quote from an influencer, review, or testimonial and associate it with your CTA to inspire users to click. 

Don’t be afraid to use funny memes or cartoons in your advertising to reach a younger audience and cultivate a feeling of relatability and connection. Just be sure that you research and fully understand the origins and general use of the meme first!

When getting started with Google AdWords, your brand name should be one of the first keywords you target. Especially if your name contains a generic word, your competitors could easily steal your keywords out from under you. Bid on your brand name as a keyword to ensure that you rank as the #1 search engine […]

Each advertising platform is unique in their algorithms and audience creation methods. Use the same creative assets across different platforms to get a sense of the variation among them. Then, you can make informed decisions about how to optimize your ad spending and copy.

Your audience segments may have similar interests or industries, but don’t forget the effects of age on your ad performance! Evaluate which age-based audience segments are underperforming in your campaigns, then exclude those groups to optimize your ad spend.

If you’re looking for fresh content as well as backlinks, find relevant articles in another language and translate it. Republish it with permission on your site and ask the original author to link to it.

If your content has a lot of sharable images, such as infographics or quote graphics, use a tool such as SumoMe Image Sharer to enable readers to instantly share images to their platforms and create a backlink to your site.

Deploy a waterfall effect in your PR: Once you get a notable bit of coverage from a well-established publication, use the link to that article as proof with which you can pitch other journalists. That first piece of coverage can cause other smaller publications to also want to cover you, which then leads to even […]

When running ads promoting a special deal or product update, roll in quotes or endorsements from influencers who will be recognizable to your audience. This boosts your credibility and serves as a compelling form of social proof. Ensure that your influencers are ones followed by your target audience.

Your audience is more likely to engage and convert on certain days of the week. There are no hard-and-fast rules — it varies by interest, industry, and other factors. Take a deep dive into your ad insights to see when these are, then exclude low-engagement days to avoid wasted ad dollars. 

Seek out advice from influencers before you start featuring them in your ad copy and social media posts. By establishing a relationship with them before you dive in, you’re more likely to garner press attention and high-profile followership.

Sometimes, you’ll find that a page on your site is unexpectedly getting a lot of traffic. Perhaps a high-profile blog linked to it, or a social media influencer shared the link on their platform. Either way, don’t let this surge of traffic meet a dead end: Add a call-to-action (CTA) to your high-traffic page to […]

Use videos in your ads to boost engagement. You can share a compelling customer story, take viewers behind the scenes, or illustrate the use of your product. The cost per mille (CPM) of video ads tends to be lower than other types of ads, so video ads are a cost-effective way of building interest in […]

If your blog or website includes original visuals, such as infographics or high-quality photos, it’s likely that someone has poached them. Run a Reverse Image Search on Google to locate other pages using your images, then ask for a backlink, which is more valuable (and effective) than asking the poacher to take down the image.

A lot of customers don’t think about how much they’re spending, but they’re very interested in how much they’re saving. Play on this by offering a cost–benefit analysis in your ad copy and web content. For example, you could compare your pricing to that of your competitor and show users that they’d be saving $5 […]

Increasingly, consumers like companies that take a casual, self-deprecating approach rather than painting themselves as the best thing since sliced bread. Plus, customers are more likely to feel positive about your brand if you make them laugh, and you’ll create a sense of trust with them. Try ad copy such as, “The best coders you […]

If you collect data on your users or platform that would be of interest to other people in your industry, create reports, whitepapers, blogs, infographics, and other content that highlights your findings. Think of how OKCupid started releasing data about matches formed on its site and gained the attention of social scientists, relationship experts, and […]

Rhymes not only remind people of pleasant childhood memories, but they’re also more likely to stick in people’s heads. Incorporate rhyme into your ad copy to better connect with your target audience. 

Keep gender in mind when crafting your ad copy, then run different campaigns targeting each gender. See which copy and constructions resonate better with different genders, then adjust your new ads accordingly. Be sure that you don’t rely upon stereotypes to achieve this — that can backfire easily!

Don’t underestimate the power of real-world advertising. If you’re targeting a specific geographic area, especially an urban area, use flyers, posters, stickers, and handbills to reach potential customers. Do your research to learn where people in your target audience congregate — coffee shops, coworking spaces, etc. Then place your print assets in high-traffic areas.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. This is especially true for major social platforms where you might gain a lot of followers, but few of which are qualified leads. For example, on Instagram, you might receive a lot of engagement on your posts but experience few conversions. That’s because a […]

Your page titles and meta descriptions are crucial to your page’s search engine optimization (SEO). Keep your top-performing Google AdWords in mind, and adjust your titles and descriptions accordingly. Remember to abide by ideal character counts (about 60 characters for titles, about 160 for descriptions). 

If you collect data of any type, think about the ways it might be useful to others, then create a blog post, whitepaper, report, infographic, or other piece of compelling content that you can post and share. You can also conduct surveys to add context to your data, for example by sharing your users’ experience […]

When advertising on Facebook, you can narrow your audience according to users’ spending habits. Whether you want to target big spenders for your luxury products, impulse shoppers for your lightning deals, or even people who are more frugal in order to promote your “budget” offering, you can optimize your ads to reach the people who […]

If you’re targeting an audience based on a shared interest or industry, call it out in your ad copy to better collect qualified leads and improve your clickthrough rate (CTR). Note that for Facebook Ads, you cannot directly call out or mention your audience’s race/ethnic group, religion/spirituality, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, medical status, […]

Release content that taps into current news trends surrounding your industry. Offer timely yet authoritative comments on the topic on social media, release a blog answering frequently asked questions about the topic, or share your original data that relates to the topic. This tactic establishes you as a trustworthy leader in your industry.

If you’ve got a low ad budget and want more qualified leads, join and post in LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, and subreddits related to your industries. Share your articles or other content and engage with other users. Just be sure that you follow the group rules and don’t spam!

If a user comments on your post expressing interest in a certain product or service, don’t assume that they’ll track down your site or store of their volition. Reach out to them in a private message to encourage them to try your offering. Be personable, and refer back to their original message in conversational style […]

Submit content to social networks where your target audience tends to gather. For example, if you’re in the tech sphere, submit your content to Quibb. If you’re in the self-improvement or productivity sphere, post on Medium. By introducing relevant content to these platforms, you can better connect with influencers who might reshare or engage with […]

Advertising platform algorithms favor new ads. So, if you love your current ad creatives but want a wider audience, give your content a refresh. Try adjusting the font, text size, colors, and proportions for a new look that might perform better.

Know how news platforms will add content and updates to developing stories? You can do this with your blog posts. This tactic works especially well with listicles, how-tos, and other content that can be updated every month or year. Plus, these articles are already ranked, so adding new keywords via updates can further boost the […]

Most customers have come to expect free quotes from service providers. No one likes sticker shock, and customers don’t want to pay money just to know how much something costs. Don’t be afraid to give free quotes — it’s a great way to nurture leads and start establishing a good relationship with them! Consider using […]

If you’ve got a successful campaign, widening the audience may seem like a good idea. However, if you’re not careful, you might reduce the proportion of quality leads by expanding the audience beyond its niche. Keep your expansion numbers-based, such as by targeting the top 200 web development companies rather than the top 100.

Even the biggest companies have sometimes had to restyle their product name — or give it a whole new one — to help their marketing get better results. Avoid this headache by testing your product name during pre-launch to see which variation best resonates with your target audience. Possible variations include pluralization, capitalization, spacing, and […]

Ultimately, people aren’t just shopping for things — they’re shopping to improve their life or affirm their sense of status, personality, or preference. Capitalize on this psychological tendency by creating ads that focus on the lifestyle your customers will have after they make a purchase, rather than the product itself. Think about how deodorant advertisers […]

Target previous customers by entering their email addresses as unique IDs (UIDs) on advertising platforms. Your past customers are your best source of new sales, because once they buy, they’re much more likely to buy again. Retargeting is much more cost-effective than targeting new leads and can help you build a base of loyal, lifetime […]

Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards are powerful advertising tools, but they also scream “ad.” Some users are trained to skip over ads and will ignore your card. Instead, promote a tweet with a simple image or link, plus some compelling copy, to help it get seen.

Between 60 and 75 percent of subscribers on any given email list haven’t actually opened or read an email from the marketer in months. They simply forget to unsubscribe or delete without reading. These leads aren’t a lost cause. Run a campaign that specifically targets dormant subscribers with an offer they can’t refuse.

You likely follow and engage with a lot of content publishers in your field or industry. Offer to promote their content if they promote your product or service. Often, publishers will be happy to toss you a shoutout — or even publish content promoting your offering — if you promote their work to your followers […]

Alliterative sentences contains words that all or mostly start with the same letter. This construction is engaging and eye-catching, which makes it great for ads! Turn a phrase and make a memorable tagline by drafting copy that uses alliteration, e.g. “Make magical memories” or “Dare to Discover your Dreams”

Boosting a social media post is usually a dirt-cheap, effective way to get results. Boosted posts operate differently from ads. They’re usually rolled into people’s feeds rather than occupying ad sections, and they capitalize upon existing engagement. Users who are trained to skip over ads are more likely to engage with a promoted post.

A/B test various value propositions for your offering. Sometimes, the benefit you think will resonate with prospective customers falls flat, but your target audience is more interested in a different proposition. Test variations with each of your audiences to determine the best value proposition to promote.

Use special characters, such as parentheses, brackets, or em dashes, in your page title to distinguish it from other search engine results. This formatting trick can boost your clickthrough rate (CTR) and help readers parse the title better. Always A/B test your title formatting to see which variation works best.

Segment your audience and target based on people’s skills, as determined by the advertising platform. For example, you can focus on people who have coding or web development skills noted in their profile or interests. This tactic is especially effective in B2B advertising.

Many people offer a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of their blogs or other content to encourage people to sign up for a mailing list or download an ebook. But what if your CTA was to enter a giveaway? Your visitors will be delightfully surprised and more inclined to engage with and share the content. […]

Don’t skimp on your YouTube video descriptions. The platform parses these descriptions for keywords and ranks you accordingly, so videos with brief descriptions are less likely to rank highly.

After you’ve established your lead list, figure out what/who those leads “look like” and build an audience accordingly. For example, if most of your leads are marketers in the Philadelphia area, create an audience of Philadelphia-based designers, copywriters, social media strategists, and so on.

If your company has a similar business model to a well-known company but is in a different industry, play upon that to help explain your company in a nutshell. For example, if you rent out your backyard as a doggie day care, you can call yourself an “AirBnB for dogs.” You can also use a […]

Ads typically comprise an image, body copy, a headline, and a call-to-action (CTA). Within each element, there are additional variations, e.g. photo vs. graphic, descriptive vs. persuasive, etc. To optimize your ads, A/B test each element with the others remaining constant, then combine the winners of all tests. You can also use Facebook ads to […]

Tap into people’s festive sense by linking your promotions or discounts to the current seasons and holidays. Offering a 20% discount for no apparent reason isn’t as compelling as advertising a “Summer Fun Sale!” or “Black Friday Blowout!”

If you have a referral program, don’t let it hide at the bottom of emails or landing pages. Make a referral a call-to-action (CTA) where appropriate. If you have a platform, allow users to easily access their referral link in a prominent location.

Sponsor an issue of a well-established newsletter in your industry. This helps build a good working relationship with a publisher in your field and helps you gain access to potential new followers and customers.

Add buttons to your website content to facilitate easy sharing on social networks. You can even auto-generate tweets that communicate the blog’s core message, or allow users to share pullout quotes so that you can ensure the user is sharing the points that you want shared.

Add a “no-index” meta tag to pages with dynamic URLs (e.g. PHP pages that are generated by user input) to prevent search engines from indexing them. Remember, you want your permanent pages indexed to avoid frustration by users arriving from search engine results pages (SERPs).

Be conversational and inviting in your ad copy, rather than forceful or rigid. Imagine how you would talk to a customer in the real world, then emulate those patterns of speech in your ads. By creating a sense of camaraderie and comfort in the potential customer, you make them more likely to trust you enough […]

SumoMe offers an app, Discover, that locates sites with audiences similar to yours. It then features links to your articles on those sites to capitalize on their traffic.

Use tools like Import.io or Kimono to collect business emails from companies that are in your industry or field. Focus on businesses that are in your target geographic area or company size. Once you’ve “scraped” an email list, send them a drip campaign to pitch your products and services.

Ensure that your website’s pages each link to other relevant pages on your site. This tactic not only  makes your site easier for search engine bots to crawl, but also makes a better user experience. It can also deboost your relevancy ranking in search engine results

Place a title card or graphic overlay, also called an “end slate,” at the conclusion of your video. This tactic allows you to maintain the viewer’s attention and reinforce your brand before the “related videos” start taking over the screen. The end slate is also a great place to add a call-to-action (CTA) for a […]

If you have a national or international audience, you might not be reaching your users at the peak time you think you are. Most email marketing providers offer you the opportunity to adjust your emails by time zones and send emails at the optimal time depending on where subscribers are located. Do this to improve […]

Write Top 10 lists (or Top 20, Top 5, etc) for products in your industry or field, then ask the creators of those products to promote the link to the published list. This tactic is a great way to build good relationships with companies in your niche and provide high-value content that drives traffic.

When launching new web banners, social media ads, or email campaigns, especially for new products, toss out a small discount. Even 10% off or $5 off can be very enticing to customers who are afraid of missing out, and it’s usually worth the boost in conversions to offer this small discount. Tip: Make the discount […]

Create lookalike audiences on Facebook by targeting users with interests similar to those who follow your page (or your competitor’s).

When someone books a call, appointment, or meeting, use a tool such as Calend.ly to automatically generate a calendar invite that will add the event to the customer’s Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook Calendar.

Longform content such as blogs and how-to guides perform well in search engines, but busy readers may not have time to read all your wonderful content. Offer a summary at the top of the blog to help them out. They’ll be more likely to share the content if they can obtain a quick understanding of […]

If there’s a podcast focused on your industry niche — and there likely is — reach out and pitch yourself as a potential guest on the show. You’ll enjoy exposure to all podcast listeners and the opportunity to establish yourself as an authority, all for minimal effort.

Reach out to journalists who frequently write in your industry niche or about topics related to your enterprise. Pitch yourself and your business as a potential human interest story, or tap into current industry news and trends and offer yourself as an expert source or new development in this trend. Tip: Include any links to […]

Add site extensions to your search engine ads to direct your audience right to your targeted destination.This tactic is useful for viewers who know your company but need to be pushed toward a current campaign, new product, or email signup.

Use the “People who like your Page” and “Friends of People who like your page” in your Facebook ad targeting to send boosted posts right into the feeds of the people most likely to engage with them.

If your advertising platform insights show that your ads perform poorly at certain times of day, remove those times from your ad configuration to reduce wasted ad spend.

When retargeting, configure your audiences according to the time that’s elapsed since their last engagement with your site or platform.  Users who haven’t been on in a week need to be targeted differently than people who have been gone for months.

Psychologically, people tend to feel ownership of something that they obtain and use. That’s why free trials are so effective: your users get accustomed to having access to the product or service and don’t want to give it up. Offer a free trial that’s short enough that people can’t take advantage of it to the […]

A portrait ad offers you an opportunity to combine image and text in a compact yet effective format. Run a portrait ad that will appear in sidebars on Facebook and other major ad platforms. Aim to make the size 300 x 1050 px for most platforms.

If you’re in a business where you’d provide a service for a client, offer that for free and ask the client for their email address to send them your results. This tactic is a great way to generate leads while boosting interest in your company.

Share content that’s located on your app via SMS or email marketing. This tactic will encourage users to download or install your app if they haven’t yet. Plus, users are more likely to click on links in SMS or email messages that offer them direct benefit or satisfaction.

Connect with influencers regularly to build good business relationships. Don’t just go to them and ask for endorsements without putting in the time and reciprocity needed to make it worthwhile for both of you!

LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms system leverages the profile information that LinkedIn members already have their profiles to help fill your lead capture forms. Use this system if you want to reach professionals in your industry.

Test your ad placement. For example, Facebook ads might appear in the sidebar of the desktop experience or in the feed on the mobile app. Optimize your ads for where they perform best.

In select situations, you can bid on the brand keywords for your product suppliers or competitors. Just be sure that you are not in violation of terms of service by doing this.

Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAG) improve relevancy between your keywords and ad copy. This will help improve  your clickthrough rate (CTR) and overall efficiency of your ad spend.

Include a list of references in each article in your blog, or perhaps a “Recommended Resources” section on your site. Then, reach out to the publishers of the linked content. You just may get backlinks!

Rather than rolling out flat frontal shots of your products, take a cue from the fashion models and show your product’s best side. Place it at an angle to show how it would most often look when your customers encounter it. Plus, customers are used to this positioning of objects photographed for advertising.

Take a different approach to targeting leads by tapping into the tools they use. This can be a good way to reach people you would not otherwise be able to configure in an ad audience. For example, if you wish to reach people who are interested in “productivity,” target those who follow Trello’s social media […]

When targeting your ads, configure your audiences to include those whose interests complement your product category. Roll in keywords that are related to the lifestyle or subculture of those who would want your products. For example, if you sell natural products, target people interested in “organic food.” Just remember that your Facebook ads cannot target […]

Some ads perform worse when triggered by certain words. You can configure Google to remove these negative phrases. For example, you might want to avoid users who are searching for related phrases that are actually not related to your business, because those people are likely not interested in your company. Don’t waste your ad dollars […]

If you’re a B2B business, target your ads to companies of a certain size and word your ad copy appropriately. Mom-and-pop shops have different need and priorities than large enterprise-level clients would. Targeting the wrong size business is a good way to waste your ad spend.

When choosing your stock photos or arranging photo shoots, opt for subjects that resemble the end result you want your audience to associate with your product. For example, if you’re selling haircare products, choose models with shiny, healthy hair.

Create ads that suggest exclusivity and secrecy. Offer a special code to sign up, or roll out a special membership option. Use language such as “Join the club” and “Get the VIP treatment.” People like to feel included and special, so this approach taps into that psychological need.

Offer accumulating referrals to incentivize users to regularly refer friends and family. For example, you could give them a discount code that increases with each referral, or gradually lower their subscription rate until it’s free. This tactic can reward loyal customers while encouraging them to keep making referrals.

Did you know you can target a Twitter audience based on hashtags? This tactic is especially useful for advertising to people interested in an event. Create a Twitter list using this hashtag. Then, use an automation program such as Zapier or IFTTT to populate the list with this hashtag. Finally, import the list to Twitter […]

If you have email subscribers who haven’t purchased from you, retarget them on a different platform to remind about your company. They are more likely to recognize the brand, and seeing content tailored to them will boost their interest in making a purchase.

Get engaged on discussion-based sites such as Reddit and Quora. These platforms feature huge numbers of users looking to solve problems in their lives. Offer authoritative responses on relevant topics to drive interest in your profile. Just be sure to follow the community rules and don’t be “sales-y.”

Use aggregator sites such as Alltop or Mix to conduct market research in your chosen industry. You can see relevant news and garner content ideas, plus share your own content as well. Such sites are a great opportunity to tap into trending topics.

The key to SEO is keywords. Choosing good ones is an art. Here’s a tip to find keyword phrases that you can use to generate content ideas and optimize your webpages: Check out the top-selling books in your industry niche and look at the phrases in the table of content. You’ll find that they give […]

Place your call to action on the left side of the landing page, where it’s more likely to capture users’ attention. Plus, it’s more likely to stay above the fold on mobile.

Most search engines penalize websites that have duplicate content. Unfortunately, this can be easy to have happen if you repurpose content or don’t have a good content scheme. Use a site audit to find and remove duplicate content. If you quote content, say on your blog, use the rel canonical tag to identify the original […]

The Google Search Network with Display Select ads combine traditional pay per click (PPC) search engine advertising with advertising on Google’s Display Network, which appears on more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps. This two-for-one approach allows Google to optimize your ads for their platform and display options, thereby reducing your overall ad spend.

Establish your authority in your niche by hosting “Ask Me Anything” session, aka an AMA, on a site like Reddit or Twitter. Share insights unique to your position and talk about your expertise in order to drive qualified leads and encourage brand awareness.

Before you launch your company or product, track down the journalists and bloggers who have written about your competitors. Draft a release describing how you out-perform those competitors, along with a pitch of something newsworthy or human-interest driven. This tactic will help you get press coverage headed into your launch.

At the end of your video or other multimedia post, remind users to like and share it.  You’d be amazed by how many people genuinely enjoy your content and simply forget to hit the Like button. A simple reminder can go a long way.

Create an ad in which text appears over a translucent layer on top of an image. This tactic enhances readability on text-and-image combinations and gives the post a sophisticated look.

Reach out to conferences in your industry niche that need speakers. Speaking at a conferReach out to conferences in your industry niche that need speakers. Speaking at a conference is a great way to establish your authority and share your experience, as well as subtly promote your business.ence is a great way to establish your […]

Tap into emotional themes, such as nostalgia, ambition, and heartwarming stories, to guide your ad copy into something that compels viewers to make a purchase. Dull, straightforward copy can easily be lost in the noise. Focus on the human element to drive conversions.

After you’ve scraped an email list, create a custom audience based on their interests and import it into your ads system. This tactic helps ensure that you are reaching people who could be invested in your company and brand.

Sponsor a checkout page on an affiliate’s site to tap into their customer’s buying journey. Customers will feel like there is something a of value being offered to them and often happily follow the rabbit hole to your site. You can arrange with your affiliate to have a portion of sales shared for purchase made […]

Encourage your VIP customers, as well as family and friends, to give you five-star ratings. If you want genuine feedback, offer a friends and family trial or discount so that they can legitimately give you a good review.

Build cross-promotion partnerships with complementary apps to help improve customer satisfaction and therefore loyalty. You can offer discount codes for signups at each other’s services and cross-pollinate your blogs and content marketing schemes. 

Endorse tools and apps that you like. This establishes your authority in your niche and helps you build a reputation as a knowledgeable influencer and creator. It’s also a great way to generate backlinks to your company site. 

Many of your users are expatriates, meaning that they left their home country. Rather than targeting them based on their current residence, connect with them based on their home country to tap into their nostalgia and sense of identity.

Be sure to pay attention to your ads’ Quality Score. A low-quality score can reduce impressions and rankings, and potentially cause you to pay more in your bids. Be sure to follow best practices on each platform to help your Quality Score rise.

Instantly respond to Twitter mentions by using a service such as Tweetfull. This saves you a lot of time, while encouraging your followers to engage with you.

Target the keywords “alternative to [competitor]” or “[competitor] alternatives” to reach an audience who’s interested in your competitor but looking for a better option — as in, you! Aim to be the top search result for that search phrase.

Getting a listing in an online directory is a great way to get a high-value backlink as well as a new source of traffic. 

Influencer marketing involves establishing a content-sharing relationship with an influencer, i.e. someone who is known in your field or industry for their expertise and advice. Have an influential blogger guest-post on your site or do a social media takeover. Their followers will come to your page.

Most ads are short, and as people’s attention spans shorten, so do the ads. However, there is a place and a need for longer-form ad copy. Consider full-page ads that tell a compelling story, or get an “advertorial” (ad + editorial) published in a newspaper or industry magazine. These formats can draw in readers who […]

When people engage with your content on social media, be sure to follow them! They’re likely to follow you back. Do not use the “follow–unfollow” method. This “trick” harms your credibility and can breed resentment among your followers. Instead, follow as many people as you can, and regularly engage with your “VIP” audience: those who […]

The bulk of the content about your company or brand isn’t what you produce: It’s what your customers produce. These posts, photos, videos, etc. are called user-generated content (UGC). Leverage UGC creators as your brand ambassadors by sharing the best UGC content on your site. You should also retweet high-quality tweets about your brand, and […]

Narrow your ad audiences to align with your target personas. Don’t forget to include age, interests, geographic location, career or job title, and other key factors.

When your subscribers have an upcoming bill, send them a referral link that they can share with friends to discount their next payment. This tactic helps you gain access to qualified leads while boosting your retention rate. 

Use a tool such as the SumoMe Highlighter to allow your users the capability to quickly share text they highlight on your page to their social media profiles. This is an effective way of encouraging people to promote your brand with direct quotes from your content.

Create an ad audience that is a “lookalike audience” for your website visitors based on their demographic and shared interests. Major ad platforms now allow you to define a target audience based on the demographics and interests that users share with your current website visitors..

Square ads perform well on the Google Display Network (GDN) because they fit into pretty much any digital space. Be sure to include some in your rotation. The most common size is 250 by 250 pixels.

Look through the agendas from industry conferences to find useful keyword phrases. Not only are conference attendees entering these phrases into Google, but also, conference speakers tend to draw upon popular topics to title their speeches. Lean on them for content ideas.

Target your ad audiences for top-performing locations. Examine your results to see which locations are producing the most — and least —traffic. Then, turn off underperforming locations to exclude your ads from showing there and wasting your ad dollars.

Big chunks of text don’t perform well on the web. Break up your content into bullet points and/or shorter paragraphs, and use subheadings to label the content (these are also great places to tuck your target keywods). Be sure to keep lots of whitespace on your webpages!

Have you got a hot lead? Great! Are they the sole decision-maker at their workplace? Likely not. Be sure that you can identify all stakeholders in a company and tailor your messaging to reach each of them.

Send an email asking your audience to refer a friend. Research says that referred customers produced 25% higher profit margins and were 18% less likely to leave the company.

Name-drop press outlets who have featured your product or service in your ads, e.g. “As featured in Wired…”. This tactic adds a sense of authority to your advertising and impresses prospective customers. 

Automatically include new content added to your site or platform in your email or social media. This tactic boosts engagement while ensuring consistent content marketing. Use a tool such as Zapier, IFTTT, or a Twitter app to achieve this functionality. Tip: Cap the number of posts sent per day so that your followers don’t feel […]

Extend the delay for your retargeting cookie from 45 seconds to a minute. This ensures that you don’t track users who visited the page and immediately bounced. That way, you’ll be retargeting people who spent some time on the page. Your consequent ads will be more likely to reach leads who are activated and ready […]

Set up a Facebook ad with a call-to-action (CTA) to “Send Message.” Then, configure your page’s Messenger to auto-respond to customers. Be sure to follow up in person. This tactic can help drive conversions and give customers a good experience with your brand.

Create tutorials for your product or service and post them in a “knowledge base” on your website. This tactic helps boost retention by clarifying common problems your users may experience and showing that you care about their use of your product or service.

If you’re targeting businesses, narrow your audience to those with your desired sales revenue range. This way, you can fine-tune your ads to the level of enterprise you’re trying to reach.

Offer a free product or premium access to your service in exchange for a review. Remember, many review platforms’ terms of use state that you cannot reward only good reviews. However, simply rewarding users for submitting a review is a good way to provide social proof, and if you’re keeping your customers happy, most will […]

Create a lookalike audience that resembles the people who are already following your page.  This tactic helps you reach people with interests and characteristics similar to those who are already interested in you.

SlideShare presentations are a great way to establish your authority and drive traffic to your business. Insert a strong call-to-action at the end of a high-value presentation on a topic relevant to your industry.

Run a “flash sale” on your content to create a sense of urgency and drive reads/downloads.  Make some of your high-value content, e.g. an e-book, available for a limited time or for a limited number of users. Include some sort of counter or countdown to provide a visual indicator and help drive conversions.

If you have a brick-and-mortar location, use Yelp’s and Facebook’s “Check-in” features to offer a reward or bonus to customers who check in. This incentivizes customers to post your business to their social media. 

Reach out to an influencer who has a similarly sized audience and offer to promote them to your audience in exchange for them doing the same. This tactic works best if you have a similar number of followers with a large overlap in interests.

People tend to get stuck on the first information they receive. This is called the anchoring effect, and you can leverage it in your ad copy. The anchor can be a reference to a well-known competitor or a numbers-based offer. Examples: “3 metal straws for the price of one.” “50% more potent than Advil.”

Make stickers or buttons with your logo. You can also create designs that match your brand and the industry of your target audience. Then, give it out for free at events or with purchases. People love to decorate their stuff with this “swag,” which is free advertising that might reach unexpected audiences.

If you sell on Amazon, create keyword-targeted ads to drive traffic to your products. This takes a lot of time, but is worth the investment because your audience is usually primed (pun intended) to buy.

When reaching out to webmasters for backlinks, be specific about the page from which you want them to link, and include the destination link. Make it easier for them to understand what you want — and therefore say yes.

Spell out the benefits that customers will achieve by using your product or service. What will their return on investment (ROI) be? Look at your analytics and feedback to assemble some stats, such as number of hours or dollars saved, percentage growth, etc.

When replacing pages on your website, use a 301 redirect to send any traffic to the correct page. This tactic helps you retain the backlinks and search engine ranking, etc., helps prevent frustrating 404 errors, and provides a more seamless experience for your users.

Be sure that you highlight your referral program in your regular emails to your customers! Many of them might not know about it, so take this opportunity to boost their likelihood of referring a friend or family member to your business. Tip: Make forwarding the email count as a referral.

Optimize your ad bids and budget for the specific time of year. This tactic requires a deep understanding of your existing ads’ performance. Dive deep into your insights to drill down to the specific month, day, and time of day that your ads do best.

Index your app so that you can deep link to any page within the app straight. Use Google’s App Indexing project to achieve this. Branch.io is also a way to do this. This way, you can drive search engine traffic straight to your app from a Google ad or search result.

Be cautious with hashtags—avoid using generic ones with thousands of followers, and instead choose a variety of specific hashtags. Try to include one industry-specific tag, one that refers to the product or service you’re promoting, and one that describes your target audience. 

For ads that run a little larger, or for promoted social posts, consider using an infographic that illustrates your product or service. This tactic helps you stand out from a sea of generic stock-image ads, while providing value to your audience and answering common questions.

Identify your “top fans” — the people who comment on your content the most — and send them exclusive content or a teaser for a new release. This tactic will boost engagement and brand loyalty.

Use your ad copy to focus on the quality of your product or service. In an age of cheap offerings, customers respond well to claims of high quality. Bonus points if you can prove the quality with strong visuals or a video. You can also enhance your copy by targeting common pain points that customers […]

Configure your ad audience to include topics of interest. This tactic will help your ads appear on multiple pages.

Customers’ chief concern is the risk of buying a product or service. Will it be worth their money? Make it easier for them by emphasizing anything you offer that reduces their risk: a money-back guarantee, a warranty, a return policy.

Look for high-authority domains that are available for purchase, then 301 redirect them to your site to capitalize on their link authority.

Run ads that make customers develop a fear of missing out (FOMO). The copy could highlight a limited number of items or a sale that’s ending soon. This tactic triggers FOMO, which psychologically motivates the customer to take action before it’s too late.

Retarget users who were on your website but did not take an action. Often, users are interested, but get distracted or lose the site. Seeing an ad for the site on social media or in search will remind them of your site and lead them back to it.

Target people outside of the North American market. There are many nations with a large English-speaking audience who might be interested in your offerings, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and even the Philippines. Translate your content and reach people in your target demographics and psychographics in France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Israel, Singapore, and other […]

If you have a pop-up for your mailing list signup, some users will click it away to try to see your content. That’s a lost opportunity to capture leads. Try using a transparent background so that users can see your content and will be further motivated to sign up for more great content.

Promote your content on sites such as Tribber, Mix, ManyStories, Quora, and Reddit to connect with a highly engaged audience. These sites are great ways to build content sharing arrangements and influencer relationships.

Negatively associate your product with an established group, audience, or trend. For example, the “Not Your Mother’s” cosmetics brand uses this to its advantage. This tactic is great for brands with a whimsical approach.

Keep your URLs short: Abbreviate long page titles in the slug, and eliminate any elements of your permalink structure that you don’t need. For example, if you’re using WordPress to organize posts on your site but don’t need dates on those posts, remove the date field from your permalink structure.

Reach out to publishers that tend to publish content or cover products similar to yours, and ask them to provide a link to your site. When emailing them, point out a dead link on their site that you could replace, or highlight similar content with which your link could be included.

Create a lookalike audience based on your email list to capture people with similar interests.

When you sign up a user for an email list, send them an email with a confirmation link. By requiring double opt-in, you can weed out spam signups or signups via bot, and improve your chances of getting qualified leads on your list.

Include an interesting fact about or related to your offering. This tactic gives your audience a concrete thing to hold onto and can drive up your click rate. The fact can be about your customers, e.g. “52 percent of users reported improved productivity” or the thing itself, e.g. “Made in the USA by a team […]

Use a Sniply link to create a custom call-to-action (CTA) that accompanies your shared content. This tool drives traffic back to your site from your content shared on other sites.

Build a free tool or widget, e.g. a calculator or design tool, related to your industry. Other sites will likely link to it, which is a great source of backlinks for your site. It’s also a great way to boost your brand authority.

Retarget previous visitors based on the specific page they visited before. For example, if they were on your copywriting service page, show them ads related to your copywriting service. This specific approach performs better than generic ads directing them to your homepage.

Include a video on your landing page to concisely explain or illustrate your proposition. If you use this tactic, minimize the text on the page and ensure that you have a strong call-to-action (CTA).

Make sure that all your videos end with a title card, end slate, or embedded link with some sort of call-to-action, whether it’s to subscribe to your channel or watch a related video.

Use Google Suggest (the phrases that pop up as you type into the search bar) to get ideas for keyword phrases for your SEO targeting and content marketing.

Birds of a feather tend to flock together — and that means you can capitalize on your fans’ friends as a potential audience. Target an audience comprising friends or followers of your page’s fans or followers, and be sure to incentivize referrals to your company!

If you want to retarget your site visitors, be sure to add the AdWords Remarketing tag to your website with Google Tag Manager. You can then bid for high-volume spots in the Google AdWords platform.

Target people who work in your industry or related industries. Test out multiple configurations based on job title, degree, and other key factors. This tactic works especially  well in B2B scenarios.

Using Google’s schema markup helps you achiever a higher clickthrough rate on your search results. Create structured snippets and leverage data to improve the way your site appears on Google. By offering more options to users, you can boost traffic to your content.

Are your brand identity keywords driving traffic or is your content doing well on its own? Test your current situation by running campaigns with and without your tagline or brand language and see which type of ads perform better.

Guest write for industry publications to establish your expertise. Be sure that the sites have a large following and allow you the opportunity to include a bio that links to your company.

Incorporate social proof into your ad copy to help your audience feel like they’d be missing out if they ignore the ad. Name drop celebrities or influencers who like your product or service, and make it relevant to your target audience. You can also list the number of users satisfied with your company or mention […]

Use Google’s Search Partners to show your ads outside the Google platform. Often, your ad spend will be less on these cheaper platforms, and it’s easy to convert your ads from Google ads to partner ads.

Use Facebook’s Multi-Product Ads services to showcase multiple products. The advantage of this tool is that you can show a broad audience multiple images and lines of copy. Ensure that you use high-quality images and compelling product descriptions. This tactic is particular helpful when retargeting users who browsed your products or services on your website […]

Avoid stiff, formal ad copy that might bore — or even drive away — your potential customers. Try to keep it conversational, even casual, to better connect with your audience and make them feel like you’re a friendly, accessible brand. This tactic works especially well when targeting millennials and Generation Z.

Create a quiz on your landing page that’s easy to take and drives users toward conversions. Incentivize the quiz by offering a discount or coupon if the visitor completes. Keep it short — no more than 5 questions — and relevant to your company’s products or services.

Provide a glossary of definitions for popular industry terms and jargon. Interested publishers will link to your resource, and qualified leads will share your content. This tactic also establishes you as an authority, while making content that’s more likely to become a Google Featured Snippet.

Determine which areas or locations aren’t converting, then exclude those from your ad audience to avoid wasting ad spend. This tactic helps you optimize your ads for audiences that are more likely to buy.

Examine the existing AdWords ads for your target keywords and see which words they use. Then, use those words in your content and the meta description of each lagging page.

In your ad copy, draw a parallel to a well-established positive thing. Even if there is no direct connection to your product or service, it’s a psychological trick to help potential customers remember your brand positively. Examples: “The Uber of beauty.” “The gold standard in razors.”

It’s tempting to divide the parts of your website into subdomains, but it might be better for search engine optimization to organize it by folders. Search engines don’t always recognize subdomains as part of your site. Examples: domain.com/blog versus blog.domain.com.

Be careful and strategic with your stock images featuring people. Aim to include natural-looking photos of smiling people, but avoid overly cheesy or posed photos. Serious or angry expressions can backfire, so be sure you’re careful with your copy.

Create copy that’s reactive and relevant to current events, yet devalues your competitors. Be cautious with your timing and tone, but this tactic can be highly effective if you have a strong trending topic to tap into.

Use Facebook’s carousel ads as a means of showing a sequence of content or value propositions. Focus on short segments or “plot points” in the buyer’s journey, then add compelling images and conclude with a strong call-to-action.

Illustrate each blog post or section of your website with wide banner images to add visual interest and help define the layout of your site.

Sometimes, even the best stock images can backfire because they appear on so many websites, which can hurt your search engine ranking. Create on-brand graphics to illustrate your content and add unique visual engagement to your site.

Tools such as Rapportive and Clearbit Connect can help you accurately guess journalists’ and editors’ email addresses, which might otherwise be concealed or not listed. By getting directly into their inbox, you’re more likely to get your content featured on their site.

Include a link to your landing page or relevant content in the description of your YouTube video. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website and boost your video’s ranking in YouTube search results as well.

If you’re concurrently running multiple ad campaigns, it can be hard to assess results. Use a Campaign Structure test to compare the performance of different campaigns and determine optimal steps moving forward.

Send out a survey to assess how many of your customers feel like your product or service is essential — that they couldn’t live without it. A high percentage of respondents agreeing with this statement means that you’ve achieved product–market fit.

If your product has a well-defined use case (e.g. a specific use to solve a specific problem), focus on that in your advertising and tell the story of a buyer who’s done that use case. This can help customers imagine themselves using your product.

If your multi-factor ad audience is performing well, break it down into separate components to see which factor is driving the good results. For example, perhaps the interests segment is more important than the age group, and you could remove that to optimize your ad spend.

Be careful with your calls-to-action (CTAs) on your Facebook page and ads. Test out options to see which CTA text performs better, such as the very direct “Sign Up Now” versus a more inviting “.”

If you want to build a strong influencer relationship, start by interviewing them on your blog. This is a great way to begin driving traffic to each other’s sites, building backlinks, and leveraging the influencer’s expertise.

Rather than hiding calls-to-action (CTAs) on lead capture pages, use a tool such as Unbounce to have them appear as exit intent pop ups or site banners so that every page of your website can convert.

Build your Facebook ad audience based on users’ recent purchases. You can retarget your own customers, or specify an audience of people who recently bought something in your industry. For example, if they recently went shopping for lipstick, show them your ads for eyeshadow.

Locate and respond to tweets indicating a desire for a solution in your industry. Use TweetDeck to set up a feed for certain keywords, then engage with the users for whom your offering could solve their problem. 

BuzzFeed has more than 150 million visits every month, so being featured there is great for boosting your following! You can suggest content for a Community Feature, or pitch an advertorial to the editors.

Facebook Canvas ads open within Facebook and show additional content, rather than launching web browsers or other actions. This makes this format a great opportunity to leverage multimedia content and storytelling in your advertising.

Automation is hot right now, so use language related to that to make your product sound modern and intriguing. Examples: “Put your morning routine on autopilot.” “Streamline your style.” “Get results, instantly.”

Run ads that highlight a discount you’re currently running, or show it only to users who click on the ad to get to the product page. Tip: Regularly run discounts to boost customer loyalty by teaching them that they can always get a deal with you.

If your website has a lot of pages that aren’t getting high traffic (think product pages, event pages, etc), your SEO ratings could take a hit as the bots up your ‘crawl budget. Remove outdated pages or “no-index” them to get a boost in your search engine rankings.

Off-site targeting, also called “grape shot” targeting, shows your ads in page locations that Google or Facebook deems most effective. You’ll tend to pay a lower cost per click for whatever metric you want to track. Trust the advertising platforms to best place your ads in order to save yourself some money.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords are the recommended search phrases that appear at the bottom of a search engine results page (SERP). Mine these LSI phrases for your own targeting purposes and optimize your content for them. You’ll likely see a rise in your SERP ranking.

Few things work better to keep users engaged than to use intrigue, and Easter eggs are a great way to do that. These include “inside jokes,” surprise animations, or fun games hidden in your site. Easter eggs help drive traffic to your site as word-of-mouth about your Easter egg spreads. You may even be featured […]

Directories are still a thing, and they’re a great way to get your product or service in front of more eyes, as well as boost your SEO. Aggregators like AlternativeTo will review and hopefully accept your product into their directory, creating backlinks and improving discoverability.

When blogs shut down, they decay quickly, leaving 404 errors in their wake. When you want backlinks on your content, find dead blogs with similar content. Then find the blogs that link to them, reach out to alert them of the 404 error, and offer your content as a substitute.

Offer a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) or other such deal to encourage customers to make a purchase. This tactic works especially well for products that people would potentially want to restock or give as a gift. Highlight the BOGO in your ad copy by emphasizing what customers will gain by buying the product.

Stroke your customers’ confidence by playing to their sense of self-importance or self-esteem in your ad copy, e.g. “The perfect software for the savvy entrepreneur” or “ The sunglasses that cool girls wear”

Gated content such as an e-book hidden behind a lead capture form is a time-honored marketing technique. However, sometimes users simply aren’t interested in what they don’t see. The trick is to offer partial content, then place the rest of the content or an expanded version behind the gate. This way, users will feel enticed […]

Thank your customers for referring you by offering a discount to both the referrer even if the person they referred doesn’t sign up. This tactic encourages people to share because there’s no need to wait for another person to take action.

When launching a new product, encourage your friends and colleagues to all share the news at the same date and time. This tactic will help boost the news in social media platforms’ algorithms.

If you have longform content such as a blog, switch it up into a different format to connect with users who may not like to read long articles. Consider transforming your content into a SlideShare or Prezi, or distill the main points into an infographic or multi-slide post on social media..

Your target audience is seeing ads on a wide variety of devices. The responsive ad feature in Google Adwords enables your ads to run on the Google Display Network (GDN) in the size most appropriate for the platform, which can boost conversions.

Divert your ad spend to campaigns that are performing better. Determine which campaign has the biggest ROI (not necessarily the highest conversion rate), and focus on that if you need to optimize your ad budget.

Design specific ad audiences with keyword-rich ads for niche search terms that indicate high intent. This means that users are already primed to buy and are more likely to see your ads when they’re ready to convert.

The decoy effect is when people switch their preference away from two main options when given a third option. Give multiple options or make references to competitors, then present your offer as the “decoy,” i.e. the irresistible option. Think about the classic MasterCard commercials as an example.

Target your ads to appear in geographic locations that correspond to high commercial areas: shopping malls, commercial areas, downtown districts, etc. Users are primed to buy and are more likely to convert.

Send Facebook users directly to your app using deep links. Use a piece of enticing content that appears on the app to reward users for taking the action. This tactic helps provide a seamless user ecperience that builds brand loyalty.

Survey your existing customers to get input on what your landing page copy should be. One good question is to ask people what words or phrases they would use to describe your product.

Co-produce valuable content with a high-profile influencer or industry expert, then cross-post to both of your audiences. This tactic will help boost your audience and establish your own expertise.

People are good at tuning out “ads.” Avoid creating ads that look too advertising-y, and take a cue from your landing page: Combine a compelling image with a strong call-to-action (CTA) for a more engaging ad creative.

For every blog post you publish, create a social media graphic to drive traffic to that blog. You can distill key points into a multi-image post, or choose a powerful quote to highlight in your graphic.

The Add Sitelinks ad extension highlights specific pages of your website below your ads to funnel users directly to the most appropriate page for them.

Phrase your ad copy in such a way that asks a question to which you already know the answer. Tap into the user’s pain points — which you’re already trying to solve with your product or service — and acknowledge their need. Then, follow up with how you can fix it. Ex. “Need help with […]

Choose from in-market audiences in the Google Display Network to target customers who are actively searching for products and services similar to yours. Combine this audience with your remarketing audience to maximize ad spend

Define your Facebook ad audience to reach users within behavioral categories so that you can better connect with users who match your target persona.