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Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website

  1. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 1.jpg
    1
    Publish articles around your keywords on as many sites as possible. There are quite a few article sites that have articles you can use or edit for your needs. Then there are article submitters that will place your article on a bunch of sites at once for you.
    Ad
  2. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 2.jpg
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    Consider starting a 'webzine'. There are also webzines,(online-magazines), that specialize in articles, and have large memberships that will possibly read your article and hopefully follow a link to your site that you place with the article. Using this method causes links to your site from the sites you've put it on and results in more traffic.
    • Be wary of content farms. Google search is not nice to them.
  3. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 3.jpg
    3
    Another great way to get traffic is to join the social sites. They are popping up at an ever-increasing rate. By socializing with others on the net through these sites, everything you join or participate in gives you more people to see your site. And, if you're selling stuff from your site, you'll want to go to the places (interest groups) on the social site where people are interested in what you're selling.
  4. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 4.jpg
    4
    Distribute an E-book all over the Internet with your links in it. These can be made quite easily with software you can get by searching on Google or by checking at the bottom of this article for a link. These can also be put on social sites and webzines for them. Again, wherever you put them causes a link back to your site.
  5. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 5.jpg
    5
    Set up a blog. These are a very good method for getting traffic to your site and they are free. You can start one at one of many free blog sites. Then you set up a feed for content and then go to other blogs with the same topics or fields of interests and read and comment on their articles. As well a lot allow you to post your article which gives you more traffic.
  6. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 6.jpg
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    Have a Press Release. There are sites that will send a news type story about your new product or info on your site to a lot of other sites. Some of these are pay sites though, so you have to watch out.
  7. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 7.jpg
    7
    Use Google. Google Adwords is the most popular method for traffic. Since they are the top search engine right now it make sense to advertise there if you can afford it. You bid on keywords to get your site at the top of the search when your keyword comes up. There is more involved but it's all laid out at Google. There are a lot of other sites that use this advertising strategy called pay per click or PPC.
  8. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 8.jpg
    8
    Submit your site to search engines. Another popular way of getting traffic is with a search engine submitter, where a site will send your link to many search engines at once for a price. The more search engines you want to be on, the higher the price. There are a few free programs you can use but they usually don't submit to too many at once.
  9. Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website Step 9.jpg
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    Buy leads from a lead selling site. These are supposed to be email addresses of people that have signed up to receive offers. You just have to watch that they have good fresh "double opting" leads of people who requested more information about your particular field or you could be marked as a spammer. Some of these sites will email them for you with your own email or you can buy separate leads and use a separate email site for the mailing. There are email programs you can use but then you have a problem that Internet providers usually only allow up to 500 emails per day, and if you're doing it every day they might (rightfully) accuse you of spamming and shut down your connection.
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Sunday, 20 July 2014

how to write great marketing copy for your startup

You’ve got a great product, it can speak for itself, right? Wrong. Well, unless it can *actually* speak for itself like Siri or Speak and Spell. The point is, failure to communicate your brand’s message and your product’s place in the market can spell startup death. Here, copywriter Tim Gregg explains how to get the message right…
 typewriter
Bad communication is the leading cause of startup failure. For lack of a coherent message, many great ideas never get off the ground. The concept is lost in a fog of clumsy sentences and vague descriptions. No-one gets it.
Copywriting is a skill every entrepreneur should master. You might have the Next Big Thing up your sleeve, but until you can explain it convincingly to a general audience, who cares?
You don’t need a marketing agency or a degree in creative writing – just an appreciation of how language works. Follow these simple rules to write better copy for your website, press release, or email campaign…

Keep it short

Especially on the web. Brevity is the golden rule of online copywriting. The average netizen has a three-second attention span, so cut the bullshit and get straight to the point.
Never use five words when three will do. Look through your copy and delete every word that doesn’t need to be there. Strip each sentence down to its bare essentials.
  • Bad: “It’s our pleasure to announce the latest product in our range”
  • Good: “We’re pleased to announce our latest product”
  • Bad: “The new app we are building is for lovers of music”
  • Good: “We’re building a new app for music lovers.”
  • Bad: “We specialise in designing beautiful websites”
  • Good: “We design beautiful websites.”
Avoid phrases like “there are” and “you can”. Most sentences work better without them.
  • Bad: “There are three advantages to using our product”
  • Good: “Our product has three advantages”
  • Bad: “You can get updates by following us on Twitter”
  • Good: “Follow us on Twitter for updates”
Shorter sentences are clear and punchy, and let you fit more information in each paragraph. By writing less you can say more.

Use the inverted pyramid

 pyramid
Everyone reads your headline. Most people read your subhead; maybe half read your first paragraph. But less than 20 per cent will read your copy all the way to the end.
So don’t waste your opening lines – that’s the prime real estate. Structure your copy like an inverted pyramid: big stuff at the top, small stuff at the bottom. Your first 20-30 words should answer the most important questions:
  • What’s the product/service?
  • What does it do?
  • Who is it for?
  • What’s the USP?
Use the later paragraphs to present secondary features and smaller details. But always state the important facts at the very beginning. Readers should get the gist of your product or service at first glance.

Keep it simple

Big, fancy words are the telltale sign of an amatuer writer. The best copywriting uses plain English and a conversational tone.
Replace big words with smaller ones whenever you can. Sometimes you need two or three small words to replace a big one; other times one small word replaces an entire clunky phrase.
  • Bad: “We are embarking on a large project”
  • Good: “We’re starting a big project”
  • Bad: “We endeavour to provide an outstanding service”
  • Good: “We work hard to provide a great service”
  • Bad: “Our HQ is located in the vicinity of several major tech firms”
  • Good: “Our HQ is near several big tech firms”
Check the thesaurus before using a big word. And never (ever) use those lame corporate buzzwords such as “leverage,” “synergy,” or “value-added”. They mean nothing at all and make you sound like a certified dumbass.

Some pointers on style

Elements of StyleAnyone serious about writing copy should read The Elements of Style by William Strunk & EB White. The book is nearly a hundred years old, but the basic mechanics of good writing haven’t changed. For example:

Use the active voice

Sentences in which the subject performs the verb are tighter and more direct than sentences written in the passive voice.
  • Passive: “Our service is recommended by thousands of customers”
  • Active: “Thousands of customers recommend our service”
  • Passive: “New ideas are always being worked on by our team.”
  • Active: “Our team is always working on new ideas”

Use the positive form

Don’t sour the mood with negative words. Get rid of not, don’t, can’t and make a positive statement instead.
  • Negative: “We don’t accept bad-quality submissions”
  • Positive: “We only accept high-quality submissions”

Be certain

Make your statements clear and definitive. Cut out the weak quantifiers like mostly, almost, nearly, just about…
  • Bad: “We are mostly focused on social game development”
  • Good: “We focus on social game development”

Edit, then edit some more

No-one writes a masterpiece on the first draft. Relentless editing is the only way to produce lean, effective copy. Be hard on yourself – look critically at everything you write. Keep chopping and changing until you’re satisfied. The learning curve is steep, but soon enough you’ll find your voice. Now dust off that keyboard and get cracking…

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

How to attract new and repeat visitors to your blog


logging is an essential part of a business platform, especially for a writer, because it showcases your work and is an essential part of the branding and marketing process. The problem that writers run into is how to create a blog that consistently attracts readers—both new and repeat. The key is to learn what makes a blog successful, so you can put it to work for your writing business.

Characteristics of a Successful Blog

When you have a blog for your writing business, you have taken the first step to building a business and marketing platform to display your writing expertise. Maintaining a blog allows you to share your knowledge—either in writing or your topic of expertise. Simply starting a blog, however, is not enough. As successful writers have certain characteristics, successful blogs also possess characteristics.

Purpose or Focus

The first characteristic of a successful blog is it has to have a focus. The focus may be on writing itself, or it may be on a niche for which you write. The primary purpose of your blog is to be able to illustrate your skill in writing on the topic. To identify the purpose of your blog, first identify the audience you are writing to attract.
For example, if you are a fiction writer, your blog could cover various topics that revolve around this genre of writing, including industry news, news about you as a writer, your fiction writing business, tips and advice, how-to articles, and book reviews. If the purpose of the blog is to showcase your personal finance knowledge, then you may cover topics such as mortgages, loans, credit cards, and budgeting. The topic categories may still be the same: industry news, news about you as a writer, your personal finance writing business, tips and advice, how-to articles, and even book reviews.
Consider “blog wrangler” and social media expert Anne-Marie Nichols. She manages two separate blogs: The Write Spot and This Mama Cooks. The reason, of course, is that each of her blogs focuses on a different topic and has different audiences. The Write Spot shares information on writing, promotions for authors and writers, and how-tos on using social media and other marketing tools to promote a writing business. The This Mama Cooks blog still focuses on Anne-Marie’s writing, but from the perspective of a “foodie.” While there is some overlap in her audience, it is best for Anne-Marie to keep the two separate blogs, so each can focus on the respective subjects and audiences.

“Blogging is a platform for opening up conversations...”

A Title with Meaning

Start by giving your blog a meaningful name. While you can certainly weave your name or business name into the title, you can also use the creativity you have as a writer to put some thought into naming your blog. For example, writer Brian Clark named his blog Copyblogger. Tom Chandler named his blogCopywriter Underground, while Anne Wayman’s blog is coined The Golden Pencil.

Regular Updates

Successful blogs have fresh content on an ongoing basis. This means, you have to post to your blog at least two to three times per week. Fresh content is the foundation on which blogs are built, so you have to commit to regularly updating your blog in order to keep visitors constantly coming back for more.

About Section

Your blog should contain a page or block of information about you and your business. The about section of your blog adds credibility because it tells readers why you are the expert sharing the information with them.

Comments

Blogging is a platform for opening up conversations, where you share information; but readers share with comments, feedback, or posing questions. These comments may be in response to your post or allow your audience to start their own conversations—using your blog as the platform. Since comments and feedback are readable by all, other visitors to the site can also join in on the conversation.

Rich Site Summary (RSS) Feed

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. Essentially, a feed is an online subscription tool. When a reader subscribes to the RSS feed of your blog, they receive an automatic alert when fresh content is posted to the blog. This puts your updates on autopilot, so interested parties know when you have something new to share. RSS feeds tend to get picked up by news websites such as Yahoo! News, which can provide exposure you could never put a price tag on.

Categories

Create categories for your blog posts. Each time you write a blog post, choose the appropriate category or categories. Categories are a necessity because it allows visitors to easily find blog posts that cover topics of interest to them. An organized and easy-to-use blog is a valuable resource.

Archives

Your blog should also archive your old articles, either weekly, monthly, or annually. This helps to make your blog posts available to readers no matter how old the posts are. Archives are also searchable by the search engines, so archiving helps boost your rankings in the search engines, which gets your blog in front of the people who are seeking the information you provide.

Contact

Your contact information should be available on every page of your blog. Typically, the contact information is in a sidebar, header, or footer on the pages. Unless you are Gossip Girl, you want people reading your blog to know whom you are and how they contact you, if and when they need your writing services.

Permalinks

Each blog post receives a permalink of its own, which allows readers to go straight to each individual blog post, even as the posts get pushed down off the front page. Essentially, the permalink creates an individual page for each blog post, so it also helps to get each page of the blog listed in the search engines—ultimately increasing the exposure your blog receives.

Trackbacks

A trackback is another type of notification tool. A trackback sends you a message when another website or blog includes a link to your blog. Trackbacks work in the other direction, too, which is to alert a website owner or blogger when you link to or mention their site on your blog. Again, this helps with the whole linking situation, which can boost you in the search engines.

“When you provide relevant and useful information, you are positioning yourself and your blog as the resource.”

Ways to Attract More Visitors

With more than 100 million blogs to choose from, you really have to work to make your blog stand apart from the rest. While you may share useful and relevant content, if your readers do not see the value in your blog, you will have little chance of reeling them in and keeping them coming back for more. Fortunately, you can take three steps to be proactive about drawing in your crowd.

Become Your Audience

Put aside your writing hat for a moment, and put on the hat of the readers you are trying to reach. If you were sitting on the other side of the desk, what kind of information would you seek from an expert like you? When you provide relevant and useful information, you are positioning yourself and your blog asthe resource.
Consider blogger Susan Johnston and her blog, The Urban Muse. As a writer herself, who knows better about the trials and tribulation of a writer than another writer? From how to get referrals from existing clients to how to write your Twitter bio as a writer and author, The Urban Muse shares articles that pertain specifically to writers. And coming from a fellow writer adds credibility to what Susan shares on the blog.

Stay Engaged

Engagement is a necessity for a successful blog. Not only should you be sharing valuable information with your readers, but you should also commit to responding to comments, questions, and feedback from your readers. If your readers seek information you are not qualified to write on, but is relevant to your blog and your audience, seek out a guest blogger that can compose one or more blog posts to fulfill the need.

Integrate Technology

A blog should not be an island or standalone piece of your marketing and promotion efforts. Integrate your blog with your website. Include a link to your blog on your social media profiles. Invite the people you e-mail to visit your blog by adding a link to your e-mail signature. Use an all-in-one update tool such asHootsuite or Ping to send out alerts when you post a new article to your blog with a link to the blog post. As technology changes, adapt your blog to embrace it.

Contribute to Other Blogs

Find blogs that relate to your own blog. Write blog posts or contribute articles to other relevant blogs to draw readers to your own blog. In the author box or bio portion, typically at the bottom of the article, include information about you as a writer and the topics your blog covers. Include a link back to your own blog.
Thursday Bram shares her knowledge by guest blogging for other blogs. While Thursday maintains her own blog, sharing information that novice and veteran writers can use to boost their writing business, she also spreads her knowledge to other blogs. She has guest blog posts on blogs, including Distracted EnterpriseGiagom, and All Freelance Writing.

Comment on Blog Posts

Proactively go to other blogs that are related to your own blog. Read the blog posts and leave meaningful comments or pose questions. Interacting with other bloggers helps provide exposure for your blog as well. When you leave useful and insightful comments, it intrigues people enough to go over and check out your blog.

Offline Marketing

You should find ways to promote your blog offline as well as online. Add your blog address to your business cards and other marketing materials. Speak at meetings and other places on your area of expertise, and talk about your blog. When someone asks you a question, hand over the link to your blog, where an article sits on the topic or a post holds an answer to their question.

“Each blog post should contain one or two links where appropriate. The links should link keywords or phrases to areas on your website or blog...”

Anatomy of a Blog Post

After you get your blog up and running, you have to continue to deliver what you promise with the quality of your blog posts. Since the information you share is so important, you should learn the anatomy of a blog post.

Posts with a Purpose

Each post you write should have a purpose or focus. When you decide to write a blog post, keep the focus of the post in mind as you write it—from beginning to end.

A Title with Meaning

The title of your blog post should contain a headline that makes the reader want to read more. Make sure the headline is meaningful enough to provide a glimpse of what the post is about. Use your creativity to give it a name that truly shines. If your headline or title doesn’t rock, it may prohibit it from being read no matter how great the information it contains.

Links

Each blog post should contain one or two links where appropriate. The links should link keywords or phrases to areas on your website or blog, where readers can obtain additional information or to outside sources to obtain information or buy a related product or service. Links are valuable because search engines love links, so it can boost the search engine rankings of your blog. In addition, linking to products and services can help you to boost sales, and your readers to continue to see you as a valuable source for what they need.

Visuals

As a writer, you already have a love affair with words, but you are not the only one who loves words. Search engines and readers love words, but do not like to be overwhelmed with too many words. Break up the writing in your blog posts by using visuals where appropriate. Visuals may be a picture, photograph, chart, graph, or video. Visuals add meaning to your words and resonate with your readers. Websites such as Morgue File and Flickr are sources for pictures you can use free of charge, as long as they are have a Creative Commons license and you credit the photographers.
Blogging is an essential part of a business platform as a writer and part of the branding and marketing process. Now that you know how to create a successful blog and write amazing blog posts, you can hurdle the obstacle of consistently attracting new and repeat readers.

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Sunday, 13 July 2014

A Quick Trick for Writing 1 Page for 2 Audiences

My first startup was a realtor rating site called What Customers Say. On the home page for What Customers Say, we had to speak to two groups: 1) realtors and 2) home buyers and sellers.
Naturally, the value + benefits associated with using the rating site were very different for realtors than for home buyers / sellers. But we knew we needed to speak to both groups because, well, we were a startup, and we were trying hard to grow both sides at the same time.
My second startup was Page 99 Test, a site where fiction readers rate one page of a book submitted by a novelist.
Once again, we had 2 groups to attract… and 2 groups to keep on the site. All with a single home page as an entry point. And with a single headline on that page.
Is it easy to speak to both groups? Um, no. When you’re actually faced with sitting down and writing the copy, you can only pray that someone walks in and gives you something else to do.
But even then – eventually – you have to get back to the task at hand.
Sometimes, you choose one audience and subordinate the other. That’s the easiest approach, from a copywriter’s perspective, and it’s what TutorSpree has opted to do. Even though they’re connecting 2 groups, the goal is clearly to focus on attracting students first, tutors second (see the tiny button in the top right corner):
TutorSpree
Other times, you don’t have the luxury of choosing 1 group over the other, which then begs the question…:

What Happens When You Need to Attract 2 Groups Equally… on the Same Page?

Here’s what I do. When I’m helping my startup clients with this issue, I ask them to create a Venn diagram in which the values X, Y and Z audience derive from your product are listed, and the similarities overlap.
Simple, right? Well it’s amazing how rarely people actually sit down and do this exercise, given the simplicity of doing it + the heartache it can eliminate.
Here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say you were to write the home page for Appbackr, which is a marketplace-style site offering a solution designed for both app developers and app sellers / retailers. You want to speak to both groups in the same headline… so here’s what your Venn diagram might look like:
Writing 1 home page for 2 audiences
With that Venn diagram complete – and you know it wouldn’t take you long to do – you can then craft a single home page headline that speaks to both audiences:
Where App Developers & App Sellers Make More Money & Generate More App Installs
Once your headline has brought both groups into the page, you have a few choices for displaying content to each group separately:
  1. Choose one group to target on the rest of your home page, and use a call to action to quickly drive the other group to a targeted landing page
  2. Write for both groups on the same page, but use section headers to help people identify the right message for their needs
  3. Write for both groups on the same page, but keep the page very short, driving each group to its own targeted landing page
Let’s check out what direction Appbackr takes. As you’ll see in the screenshot here, Appbackr first addresses both audiences in the headline… and then, below the PR mentions, employs the UX + messaging strategy from the third point above: they keep the page short and quickly drive each group to its own targeted landing page.
Appbackr 2 audiences 1 page
That’s it. Writing 1 page for 2 audiences is that simple. :) I mean, sure, there are always exceptions…
But if you look deep enough – or even high enough – you’ll see that there IS overlap between what your 2 audiences are looking for when they land on your site. And that overlap can be used to help you craft the right headline to reduce bounce… and increase the likelihood that your 2 audiences will actually read the more targeted messages you’ve got for ‘em elsewhere on your site.

Saturday, 12 July 2014

Content is Only as Good as Its Shareability

Content is Only as Good as Its Shareability
Most of us can remember a day when the pinnacle of communication revolved around our beeper and a pay phone. This best effort at mass communication was unfortunately tied down to a newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, billboard, and word-of-mouth. Content shareability and “viral” content was strictly reserved for the global enterprises that could afford TV ads and national billboard campaigns. And even if a brand had a great national campaign, it might take weeks or months to attract the majority of their target segment, and by that time, they’ve most likely progressed to something else. In the 1970s, if a very good friend that lived in a different city had a baby, it may take days or weeks for you to even see a picture of this new bundle of joy. Fast forward to today, we see pictures instantaneously of people on different continents just seconds after a photo is taken, thanks to advances in social media. Let’s venture even further into the past, shall we? “Gold was discovered in California in January 1848, but the gold rush did not really start until an article appeared in the New York Herald on August 19, 1848.” (History House) You catch the drift. Good content begs to be shared, and its success is only as good as its shareability.
It’s no secret that inbound marketing has become exceedingly popular over the past several years. “78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing.” (Hanley-Wood Business Media) What makes this so interesting is that the increase in demand for superior content relies on one factor exclusively; social media. Without social media, content marketing would still be in the dark ages, wondering where it should go after it gets published. Twitter? No. Facebook? No. A blog? No. It would just sit in one spot, hoping someone might talk about it. Although, even if they did talk about it, that brand would never have any way of ever knowing. Physical conversation is immeasurable (and should stay that way). Content marketing relies directly on social media. Why? Shareability.
Shareability is the driving force for all content creators and inbound marketing strategies. “B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog.” (Social Media B2B) Most, if not all, of the readers visiting these blogs didn’t just happen to stumble upon them (unless they were using StumbleUpon). More than likely, readers found the content posted by a trusted friend or follower on a social site, with a link to the blog, which they then converted to. And this behavior is ubiquitous across B2B and B2C platforms. “82% of consumers like reading content from brands when it’s relevant.” (The CMA) People like good content and more importantly, people like to share good content.
So you probably already knew that people like to share good content, but it’s important to understand why they share it. According to psychologists, Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius, every individual has two psychological selves. The first self is the “now” self and the second self is the “possible” self. Assuming these two ideas are clear by definition, we’ll move on. “The illusion of our ‘possible self’ is the main motivation when it comes to sharing online, and it is this narcissism that marketers should attempt to appeal to in order to gain traction with creative campaigns.” (Business2Community) The beauty in people sharing your content is once they share it, they feel an emotional ownership and loyalty to that content, because it has helped enhance others’ illusion of their “possible” self. Their loyalty to a brand’s content generally mirrors their loyalty to that brand. This is the foundational idea that inspires CMO’s to be forward thinking in their content strategy.
Because people have an innate desire to engage, share, and take ownership of a brand’s content, it is imperative to understand the influence that content is having on the user to, not only, engage in the content and recycle it on social media, but to ultimately convert to your brand, and influence others to convert to your brand. Across the board, in all industries of all shapes and sizes, the goal for C-level executives is to define how marketing efforts drive conversions and a return on investment back to the brand. When it comes to defining the value of content marketing and shareability as it relates to conversions for the brand, sign up for SocialRest, a tool that is able to monitor how users engage with your content on social media, how they influence others to engage in the content on social, then track a user’s behavior as they move from your social sites to your website or blog, and ultimately define how a user converted to your brand because of the shared content. This ties the entire package together, from content creation to exact measurement of success.

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Wednesday, 9 July 2014

How to Retarget Content to Facebook Custom Audiences

Have you considered using Facebook to reach your existing customers or those who visit your website?
Have you tried Facebook’s custom audience options?
Retargeting to the right audience is a must if you want to see more conversions from your Facebook ads.
In this article you’ll discover four Facebook custom audiences you can create to retarget your content to the most relevant Facebook audience.
retarget your content
Retarget content to a your audience with Facebook Custom Audiences.

Why Retargeted Content?

The goal of retargeted content (also known as remarketing) is to place your brand top of mind. Common strategies remarket to people who have already visited your website.
sponsored facebook update from plated
Updates like this can show up in your news feed if you’ve ever visited the Plated website.
People rarely buy from you the first time they visit your site or see an offer. They would rather take their time, compare your pricing with competitors’ and visit your site a few more times before completing that valuable sale.
Here are four custom audiences you can use to retarget Facebook users with your content.

#1: Website Visitors

The most common remarketing tactic is targeting relevant ads at people who have already visited your website (usually a specific landing page).
To create a targeted audience based on website visitors, you must have a Facebook website custom audience in place.
Overall, retargeting website visitors is a simple concept: When someone visits a page with your custom audience code (i.e., an offsite pixel), they’re added to your custom audience list in your Facebook Ads Manager.
You can include those visitors (and the custom audience they’re part of) as a target audience in a Facebook ad retargeting campaign.
choosing an audience for ad targeting
Custom audiences are important to Facebook retargeting campaigns.
There may be a case where you want to retarget only a portion of the traffic that has visited a landing page on your website. No problem. You can do that by creating a personalized custom audience:
1. Go to your Facebook Ads Manager and choose Audience.
2. Click on Create a Custom Audience.
3. Under Website Traffic, select People Visiting Specific Pages.
3. Next to the Visited field, customize the URL elements to match the pages you want to retarget.
4. Click on Create.
website visitor custom audience set up
You don’t have to retarget everyone who visits your website.
After you create your personalized custom audience, it’s ready to use. However, keep in mind that it may take a few hours for the new audience to have the final user count.

#2: Facebook Fans

Retargeting to existing Facebook fans is incredibly easy: When you set up your Facebook ad, choose to target people who are already fans of your page.
facebook fan targeting
Narrow your retargeting audience to include only people who are fans of your page.
Does it seem odd to advertise to existing Facebook fans? Consider that acquiring sales from existing customers is cheaper than acquiring new leads (and many of your fans are probably customers). You can also upsell those existing customers with new or better products and services.
Additionally, your fans may not be seeing all of your Facebook updates. If youretarget your most important content to them via a Facebook ad, they’re more likely to see it.

#3: Email Subscribers

You can actually strengthen the power of your newsletter by serving Facebook ads to existing email subscribers.
To set up this custom audience, you need an Excel file with a column that includes all of your subscriber email addresses. Once you have that, go to Audiences in your Facebook Ads Managerclick Create Audience and choose Custom Audience.
Click on Data File Custom Audience and follow the instructions for the setup. Make sure to indicate that you’re updating email addresses.
facebook fan targeting
Create a custom audience based on your email subscriber list.
Retargeting to email subscribers can increase the chance of conversion exponentially. It’s worth the extra effort to set it all up.

#4: Similar Audiences

Many of your users—whether website visitors, Facebook fans or list subscribers—have overlapping demographics, interests and behaviors. Wouldn’t it be great to find more people like them? Well, you can.
You can create a custom audience targeting people who share similar characteristics to your existing connections—people who are very likely to be interested in your products, services and content.
The custom audiences you create to retarget to by similarity are called lookalike audiences and they expose your ads to a more vast and relevant audience.
To create a custom audience based on similarities to website visitorsgo to the Audience section of your Ads Manager and choose the custom audience installed on your website (see #1). Click Create Lookalike Audience at the bottom of the page and choose the desired audience reach.
To create a custom audience based similarities to your current Facebook fans’ personal data (e.g., behavior, interests, etc.), go to the Audience section of your Ads Manager, click Create Audience and choose Lookalike Audience from the menu.
create audience dropdown menu
Create a lookalike target audience to find potential Facebook fans and customers.
Click Source and type your page name. Select the country you want to target and how similar your audience should to be to your current fans. Click Create Audience.
creating a lookalike audience
Choose the characteristics of your fan page lookalike target audience.
To create a custom audience based on similarity to your current email subscribers, go to your Audience menu, click on the name of the email list you loaded in #3 and click on Create Lookalike Audience at the bottom of the page.
Once you have your custom lookalike audiences in place, you can select each as needed depending on the goal of your Facebook ads.
Wrapping Up
Retargeting via Facebook ads helps you stay top of mind while they’re considering their decision.
The trick is to retarget content to a precise audience rather than a generalized audience that may or may not be interested in learning more about your business, product or service.
Take advantage of Facebook’s extensive custom audience options to capture more conversions and meet your advertising goals.
What do you think? Have you retargeted content using Facebook custom audiences? Did you see more conversions? Leave your comments and questions below.

Have you considered using Facebook to reach your existing customers or those who visit your website?
Have you tried Facebook’s custom audience options?
Retargeting to the right audience is a must if you want to see more conversions from your Facebook ads.
In this article you’ll discover four Facebook custom audiences you can create to retarget your content to the most relevant Facebook audience.
retarget your content
Retarget content to a your audience with Facebook Custom Audiences.

Why Retargeted Content?

The goal of retargeted content (also known as remarketing) is to place your brand top of mind. Common strategies remarket to people who have already visited your website.
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People rarely buy from you the first time they visit your site or see an offer. They would rather take their time, compare your pricing with competitors’ and visit your site a few more times before completing that valuable sale.
Here are four custom audiences you can use to retarget Facebook users with your content.

#1: Website Visitors

The most common remarketing tactic is targeting relevant ads at people who have already visited your website (usually a specific landing page).
To create a targeted audience based on website visitors, you must have a Facebook website custom audience in place.
Overall, retargeting website visitors is a simple concept: When someone visits a page with your custom audience code (i.e., an offsite pixel), they’re added to your custom audience list in your Facebook Ads Manager.
You can include those visitors (and the custom audience they’re part of) as a target audience in a Facebook ad retargeting campaign.
choosing an audience for ad targeting
Custom audiences are important to Facebook retargeting campaigns.
There may be a case where you want to retarget only a portion of the traffic that has visited a landing page on your website. No problem. You can do that by creating a personalized custom audience:
1. Go to your Facebook Ads Manager and choose Audience.
2. Click on Create a Custom Audience.
3. Under Website Traffic, select People Visiting Specific Pages.
3. Next to the Visited field, customize the URL elements to match the pages you want to retarget.
4. Click on Create.
website visitor custom audience set up
You don’t have to retarget everyone who visits your website.
After you create your personalized custom audience, it’s ready to use. However, keep in mind that it may take a few hours for the new audience to have the final user count.

#2: Facebook Fans

Retargeting to existing Facebook fans is incredibly easy: When you set up your Facebook ad, choose to target people who are already fans of your page.
facebook fan targeting
Narrow your retargeting audience to include only people who are fans of your page.
Does it seem odd to advertise to existing Facebook fans? Consider that acquiring sales from existing customers is cheaper than acquiring new leads (and many of your fans are probably customers). You can also upsell those existing customers with new or better products and services.
Additionally, your fans may not be seeing all of your Facebook updates. If youretarget your most important content to them via a Facebook ad, they’re more likely to see it.

#3: Email Subscribers

You can actually strengthen the power of your newsletter by serving Facebook ads to existing email subscribers.
To set up this custom audience, you need an Excel file with a column that includes all of your subscriber email addresses. Once you have that, go to Audiences in your Facebook Ads Managerclick Create Audience and choose Custom Audience.
Click on Data File Custom Audience and follow the instructions for the setup. Make sure to indicate that you’re updating email addresses.
facebook fan targeting
Create a custom audience based on your email subscriber list.
Retargeting to email subscribers can increase the chance of conversion exponentially. It’s worth the extra effort to set it all up.

#4: Similar Audiences

Many of your users—whether website visitors, Facebook fans or list subscribers—have overlapping demographics, interests and behaviors. Wouldn’t it be great to find more people like them? Well, you can.
You can create a custom audience targeting people who share similar characteristics to your existing connections—people who are very likely to be interested in your products, services and content.
The custom audiences you create to retarget to by similarity are called lookalike audiences and they expose your ads to a more vast and relevant audience.
To create a custom audience based on similarities to website visitorsgo to the Audience section of your Ads Manager and choose the custom audience installed on your website (see #1). Click Create Lookalike Audience at the bottom of the page and choose the desired audience reach.
To create a custom audience based similarities to your current Facebook fans’ personal data (e.g., behavior, interests, etc.), go to the Audience section of your Ads Manager, click Create Audience and choose Lookalike Audience from the menu.
create audience dropdown menu
Create a lookalike target audience to find potential Facebook fans and customers.
Click Source and type your page name. Select the country you want to target and how similar your audience should to be to your current fans. Click Create Audience.
creating a lookalike audience
Choose the characteristics of your fan page lookalike target audience.
To create a custom audience based on similarity to your current email subscribers, go to your Audience menu, click on the name of the email list you loaded in #3 and click on Create Lookalike Audience at the bottom of the page.
Once you have your custom lookalike audiences in place, you can select each as needed depending on the goal of your Facebook ads.
Wrapping Up
Retargeting via Facebook ads helps you stay top of mind while they’re considering their decision.
The trick is to retarget content to a precise audience rather than a generalized audience that may or may not be interested in learning more about your business, product or service.
Take advantage of Facebook’s extensive custom audience options to capture more conversions and meet your advertising goals.
What do you think? Have you retargeted content using Facebook custom audiences? Did you see more conversions? Leave your comments and questions below.