10 Marketing Tricks From the Pros

Marketing is the lifeblood of any startup – without it, the company will be sure to sink. So for entrepreneurs looking to boost their productivity with simple tricks, I set out to find answers.

I recently asked some of the smartest and most experienced marketing people I know for their No. 1 marketing hack. While all provided extremely effective solutions, I was amazed at how simple some of them were.

Here is a list comprised of the top ten, categorized by marketing experts.

Social Media
1. Boost your posts. “Give your social media content a boost. Businesses are finding it more and more difficult to get their message heard. By the latest estimates, Facebook is showing only 6 percent of a business' content to their fan base. So give your content a paid boost. If you have more than 100 likes on your page, a 'boost' button will appear at the bottom of each post. Use it. For less than $30, you can get your message out to thousands of unique users.”
-Rob Wellman, CEO of Social5

Related: Is Your Marketing Message Getting Muddled?

2. Load up on data, and do it quickly. “Facebook advertising can deliver the cheapest CPM's in online marketing with the ability to test ad efficiency in real-time. Use the power editor "duplicate" tool to create hundreds of ads and change one element per ad. Give these a small budget, and you'll quickly see what works and what doesn't without breaking the bank. Double down on the ones that work, and kill the ones that don't.”
-Kyle Ivins, co-founder Envolve Agency

3. Retweet and engage “Don’t just tweet out stuff about your company. Engage with other companies, your customers and thought leaders in your market. Retweet their tweets and add your thoughts. Respond to tweets that aren’t directed at you and give your thoughts on those. Followers will start flowing your way.”
-Jason Barber, co-founder Friendemic

Advertising

4. Explore pay-per-click advertising. Google isn’t the only show in town when it comes to pay-per-click advertising.

 “Google has the most volume when it comes to their ad network. But they’re far from the only option. Bing provides great results for businesses targeting the baby boomer generation. You can also look into Google Search Partner Networks for other opportunities for higher ROI.”
-Jacob Baadsgaard, CEO Disruptive Advertising

5. One ad per keyword. “If you’re running a campaign with a dozen keywords and only have one ad, then you’re throwing money away. Create specific ad groups that target single keywords. Then create two to three ads for that one keyword. See which ad works best, then run with it.”
-Scott Cohen, CEO of 180Fusion

Related: 7 Marketing Truths Every Business Leader Should Know

Public relations

6. Don’t brag, give real value. “The greatest secret in media and public relations right now is that the press (and your potential customers) are most interested in the value added information that will help them succeed in a given area—not in hearing promotional information from you. By thinking of your readers’ needs first—not your own self-interests—you will receive business traction and audience engagement beyond your dreams.” 
-Cheryl Snapp Conner, Snapp Conner PR

7. One sentence “Here’s a pro tip that’s extremely obvious, but often completely ignored by entrepreneurs everywhere: You should be able to explain your startup in one sentence. That’s it. No exceptions.”
-Harrison Weber, Journalist and News Editor for VentureBeat

SEO

8. Poach your competitors’ mentions. “Create a Google Alert for your competitors’ brand names. Find out where they are being mentioned and in what context. Then, see if there’s opportunities to be mentioned alongside of them. Many times journalists and editors will write about one brand and be open to including a similar brand for parity.”
-Nathan Tanner, Foxtail Insights

Email marketing

9. Trim your subjects. "Get an immediate lift in email marketing revenue by reducing your subject lines to only one word. Choose that word carefully. It should induce irresistible curiosity, while staying relevant to your message. With the right word, your open rates will skyrocket. Do some testing to really dial it in."
-Tyler Dixon, Marketing Director for SpinGo

Outdoor advertising

10. Think outside the box. “Get creative when working with a budget and with advertisers. A client of mine recently secured a ‘pay for performance’ billboard on one of the busiest stretches of an interstate. They only pay the billboard agency if a sale results from that billboard. You’d be surprised what you can get accomplished if you only ask.”
-Matt Frisbie, CEO of ChiefMO

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5 New Apps That Reveal A Shift In Social Media Trends

Social media has gone a bit crazy. You see Instagram posts in your Facebook newsfeed, Foursquare check-ins on Twitter, and on the new app Path, you’re asked to import everything into one place. Sometimes it seems that when I log into one site or app, I’ve already seen a friend’s updates in another. Yes, your cat is cute but I don’t need to see her face on each of my feeds! When did everything start to overlap so much?

Despite this social over-sharing, I’ve noticed something lately. There are a handful of new apps and websites that serve a single, simple purpose. It’s as if these apps want to help us separate and de-clutter our lives. By focusing on one thing, and one thing only, new social sites and apps help us get rid of our social ADD.

Bondsy

While the first version was originally released in February, Bondsy just launched a new version. Think of this app as a Craigslist that’s only available to your circle of friends. It’s like an eBay that operates around your inner circle of trust. Bondsy’s developers market the app on their website by highlighting that they utilize “freeform pricetags,” which means that instead of offering say, $10 for a pair of headphones, you can offer lunch or a juicy secret to cover the cost.

The pros? Simply, Bondsy offers a more secure buying and trading marketplace by helping you circumvent shady Internet buyers. Also, Bondsy’s UI is clean, simple, and efficient. After trying it out I was trading books for a latte in no time!

The cons? The obvious issue here is that unlike Craigslist or eBay where the depths of the internet is your oyster, this puts you in a much smaller buyer/seller range, making it a little harder to make sales or trades. That is of course, unless your friends are dedicated to using Bondsy and you get a little market going between your group. On that note I’m not sure how efficient the app is in terms of making money, but it certainly can be a fun pastime to pick up with your friends.

Potluck

Although it’s only available online for now (an iOS app is in the works), Potluck is a very cool social site to get acquainted with. It’s a simple, copy/paste driven site, in which all users do is simply find links they’re interested in, then share them with their friends. It’s very laid back and stress free social networking because the upkeep is so minimal for the user. All you have to do is be interested in something and know how to maneuver the copy paste duo. What’s even cooler is that they don’t publish who shared the link: rather, they just show the link and how many friends left a comment.

The pros? It’s pretty revolutionary, and has an extra “cool” factor because it hasn’t really been done before. It’s also very user friendly, and it’s perfect for those social media fans who like to just sit back, click through, and soak up some information.

The cons? It’ll be interesting to see how they choose to design the iOS version and to see its functionality. I think for the site to really catch on and grow a cult following it’s going to need an excellent app debut, which is rumored to be soon. It’s also frustrating because the site doesn’t really become fun until you have friends on it (the more the merrier!). No one wants to be a sitting social media duck.

Poutsch

The Wall Street Journal describedPoutsch as “Twitter meets Survey Monkey.” Add in a dash of Yahoo! Answers, and that just about sums up the essence of Poutsch. Basically, you can ask questions, answer questions, vote in polls, voice your opinion in debates, and subsequently read other users opinions. They’re trying to highlight their “trending topics,” which while admirable, seems to me to be a bit too reminiscent of Twitter.

The pros? It’s a cool way to see what other people are thinking instead of having to troll the comments sections of various news websites. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of changes the app makes in it’s next version update, and even more interesting to see if it can gain a solid fan following.

The cons? I understand what Poutsch is trying to do, but it’s really a matter of opinion: you might find it unnecessary. I’m curious to see how long this app will survive.

Medium

Medium is an invitation-only (for now) social network that aims to have users share content that has a deeper value than what everyday pop culture has to offer. Instead of updates about the likes of whether Justin and Selena are still dating, Medium offers longer and more significantly crafted content that users can actually take something away from.

The pros? Not only is Medium informative, but it’s inviting in its purpose of sharing user-written content. It’s everything you could want to read from blog posts across the web, boiled down into carefully selected content. It’s great for inquisitive minds, and it’s also just neat to see the direction that the Medium staff is trying to take social media. Not to mention, the website is beautiful and eye-catching as well!

The cons? At its content-sharing core, Medium is not super interactive. However, if you’re more interested in reading and occasionally sharing a comment or two, this site is waiting for you.

Flayvr

Technically, Flayvr isn’t an actual social network, but a tool to help photo junkies prep their work to share across multiple, preexisting social platforms. This app organizes your photos based on events and helps reduce the chances that your photos get lost in the black hole of the cellular camera roll. All your beach pictures will be organized, your friend’s wedding pictures will be organized, and you’ll feel a lot more at ease knowing that you can easily locate your photos by event.

The pros? Gone are the days when you’ll have to spend unnecessary time scrolling through your photos to find what you’re looking for. Flayvr is your photo cleaning lady, organizing your photos so everything is easier to find. Plus, you can share your albums either by email or over your social network of choice. Easy-peezy.

The cons? Flayvr thinks it knows more than you do, so you run the chance of being occasionally annoyed when it wants to include photos you don’t want in an album, or likewise when it leaves out photos you think should have been included. It’s a little tricky to manually override what Flayvr selects, but it can be done.

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NEWS: Facebook introduces Audience Network

Facebook has launched a new mobile ad feature, Audience Network.

Audience Network allows businesses to extend the reach of Facebook campaigns onto third-party mobile apps, while allowing brands to monetise their apps.

The new tool aims to earn businesses money from in-app advertising. 

The social network offers apps high-quality ads in a range of formats, including banners, pages or customisable native units. Plus, it ensures advertisers reach their target audience by using the social network’s one million strong advertiser base. 

  

Image via Facebook

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NEWS: Twitter introduces ‘mute’ feature

Twitter has launched a new ‘mute’ feature allowing users to mute accounts they are following.

The social network believes this will allow users more control over the content they view on their news feed and improve customer experience.

Paul Rosania, product manager at Twitter, said in a blog post: 'In the same way you can turn on device notifications so you never miss a tweet from your favourite users, you can now mute users you’d like to hear from less. Muting a user on Twitter means their tweets and retweets will no longer be visible in your home timeline, and you will no longer receive push or SMS notifications from that user.

'The muted user will still be able to fave, reply to, and retweet your Tweets; you just won’t see any of that activity in your timeline. The muted user will not know that you’ve muted them, and of course you can unmute at any time.'

The social site plans to roll out the feature to all accounts in the next two weeks. 

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