CoSchedule Blog

How To Organize Your Email Marketing Calendar The Best Way (Template) – [ Inline Styled Snippets]

adminlin — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 10:47:48 GMT

Successful email marketing is all about consistency and delivering the right message, to the right audience, at the right time. How do you keep all your email content scheduled and organized effectively in order to meet these expectations?

Elevator Pitch

A brief and concise speech that tells about who you are, what you do, and what you want to achieve.

Most audience members care about one thing– the benefits they’ll get.

– name

Content Repurposing

Put out fresh content without increasing your workload
Get better mileage out of your best content
Re-use content that didn’t perform well but had great promise

Content Repurposing

Put out fresh content without increasing your workload
Get better mileage out of your best content
Re-use content that didn’t perform well but had great promise

Huge List Of Words

Absorb
Advance
Advise
Alter
Amend
Amplify
Attack
Download

The answer? An email marketing calendar. Your calendar is an essential tool for planning, scheduling, and organizing your content and delivery dates to keep your strategy on track.

Here are some things your email marketing calendar will help you achieve:

Plan the content you’ll share via email ahead of time.
Provide team-wide visibility into your email strategy and execution.
Track your sends and hit deadlines.

Plus, getting organized is highly correlated with marketing success. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

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Download Your Email Marketing Bundle

Make it easy on yourself and download your email marketing bundle. This easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet will give you and your email marketing team the bird’s eye view you need to keep every sent email campaign organized.

Plus, you get a bonus newsletter calendar template so you can keep sharing great content with your subscribers all year long. In addition, there are several other email marketing templates in this kit you’ll find useful.

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Create Your Email Marketing Calendar With Simple Software

With CoSchedule’s forever-free Marketing Calendar software, you can:

Seamlessly integrate with your favorite email marketing platform. You already have a kick-a$$ email platform you know and love, so why give it up? Easily connect your preferred email platform to CoSchedule Marketing Calendar with just a couple of clicks.
Write click-worthy email subject lines every time. Use CoSchedule Marketing Calendar’s exclusive Email Subject Line Tester to optimize and perfect every subject line to drive more opens, clicks, and conversions.
Get full visibility into your ENTIRE marketing strategy. Say “buh-bye” to disjointed marketing content and constantly jumping from screen to screen. With email marketing, it’s easy to see how your email campaigns relate to the rest of your marketing strategy and quickly make adjustments if necessary.

Create your Marketing Calendar today and benefit from several helpful marketing tools.

What Is An Email Marketing Calendar?

Before we go through the steps involved with creating the best email marketing calendar, let’s address the elephant in the room: What exactly IS an email marketing calendar?

Email Marketing Calendar Definition:

An email marketing calendar is a framework that helps marketers plan, organize, schedule, and execute email projects. It provides a single source of truth for one-off emails (e.g., email blasts), recurring email programs (e.g., monthly newsletters), email campaigns (e.g., product launches), event email marketing (e.g., webinar emails), email marketing automations (e.g., new email subscriber welcome flows), and all other email marketing projects.

When it comes to email marketing, the key takeaway should always be to plan ahead and do the work in advance for your campaigns. Email marketing calendars are a way for your whole team to see upcoming projects, who’s doing what, and what projects are ready for launch.

If you don’t plan ahead on your email marketing campaigns, sooner or later, you’ll be overwhelmed with approaching deadlines and small project windows.

To help you get a grasp of how your email marketing calendar should perform, we have provided a great template in the download to get you started. When you feel comfortable with a simple spreadsheet template like this one, try using CoSchedule Marketing Calendar software as your email marketing calendar and do more with your campaigns.

How To Create An Email Marketing Calendar

While there are more action items you’ll learn about in the following steps, here’s the TL;DR on how to create an email marketing calendar:

Determine your email marketing campaigns and who will be responsible for leading each. Starting with a simple list will work well.
Decide when each email campaign is going to be sent (think start and end dates for the entirety of each campaign). Figure out how many emails you will include in each of the campaigns. Add each email for each campaign to your calendar. Tip: We recommend creating a Marketing Campaign in CoSchedule Marketing Suite for every email campaign. Then simply add each email Project on the respective send date.
Decide how you want to segment your email list. Choose your segments based on where your subscribers are at in their buying process. Identify which of your email lists should be excluded from each campaign.
Use your email send dates to determine when your team needs to start working on each of your campaigns.

Step 1: Determine Who Owns Each Email Send

The first thing you need to identify in your email marketing calendar is who owns each campaign. This person is the point-person for every aspect of a campaign and ensures it goes off without a hitch.

The primary duties of this role will be:

Writing email subject lines and body content.
Collaborating with designers to create email graphics, if necessary.
Determining which list segments will receive the email.

Record the owners of each project in your email marketing calendar.

Action Item: Select your email project owner for each campaign. This person may change depending on the campaign that needs to be created by your email marketing team.

Step 2: Determine Email Topics, Themes, & Seasonality

Before you begin planning your campaign, decide what topics your emails will cover. Are you launching a new product or promoting an upcoming webinar, or are you hoping to provide new subscribers with helpful introduction content?

Work with your team to decide the topic each email of your campaign will cover. Some common themes are:

New product launch
Upcoming webinar
Weekly newsletter (topics will change week to week)
New content you’ve written
New functionality for your existing product
Upcoming sale or event

It’s also important to identify which season this campaign topic/theme is associated with.

Why would you want to determine your seasons in advance?

That’s the beauty of using an email marketing calendar; you can plan everything. By planning ahead, you can show your team when they can expect to be working on a larger number of emails and adjust their workload to accommodate them.

For example, for a business-to-consumer retail store, it may make sense for your organization to send a lot more emails during the holiday season in November and December than in March.

You could have your team working on those November emails earlier in the year — or during their downtime in March — to ensure they won’t be so stressed by the time your holiday campaigns roll out.

Action Items:

Work with your email marketing team to determine the topics for each of your campaigns.
Record each topic in your email marketing calendar template that complements this article.
Decide what season in which each email campaign is going to be sent.

Step 3: Establish An Email Sending Cadence

In this step, you’ll identify the number of emails to be created for each campaign.

That number can be hard to figure out.

How many emails are too many? What’s the borderline between spamming your audience and sending them just the right amount of content? Start with these basic email delivery schedules for different types of content you might need to promote.

What if you’re doing more than just a single piece of content? What if you’re promoting a product launch? Here’s your email publishing schedule for that, too.

What about a webinar email promo template?

If you decide to send out a newsletter, try sending one at least once a month or weekly if you can manage to create enough content. If you’re going for one a week or once a month, send your newsletters on Wednesdays, as that is considered the best day to send emails.

Record each email you want to send on your calendar.

Action Items:

Pull the number of projected emails for each campaign.
List each email for the campaign in your calendar.

Step 4: Identify The Campaign Email Segment & Consider Your Suppression List

Your email marketing calendar should also contain information about which list you plan to send this campaign.

For example, you could have a campaign that goes to everyone on your list, or you could say this campaign should only go to people who attended your last webinar.

You don’t want to blast your emails to every person on your list because not all of your subscribers are in the same phase of your marketing funnel.

For example, if you have a customer who is just learning about your product, they don’t need to see an email that encourages them to buy right this second.

How can you do all of this? First, you need to build your list. Try a few of the following tactics and see which ones your audience responds to:

Add CTAs to your website.
Provide them with something of value that they can download in exchange for their email address.
Publish content on other sites and encourage readers to learn more by joining your email list.

Once you’ve built your email list, you can segment it out based on actions subscribers have taken on your site.

For example, when a subscriber visits a specific product page, add that person into a specific segment for subscribers who are interested in that product. This type of action is possible with many email automation providers like Salesforce Marketing Cloud and others.

This segmenting process allows you to get specific and send targeted messages at the right time to the right subscribers. The right message at the right time can help increase your conversions if it’s done correctly.

There are many different ways you can segment your list. In fact, Hubspot has 30 of them listed to help you get started.

Once you identify who you are sending your emails to, you may need to determine who you are not sending your emails to.

Maybe there is a group in your email list that needs to see a different message than the one you’ve planned for this campaign.

Remember when you took all that time to segment your email marketing list? Now you can decide who doesn’t need to see specific emails you want to send.

Add excluded segments to your calendar template.

Action Items:

Build your email list.
Decide how you want to segment your email list.
Choose your segments based on where your subscribers are at in their buying process.
Identify which of your email lists should be excluded from each campaign.

Step 5: Clarify The Goal Of Your Email Campaign

What goal do you want your email campaign to accomplish? Are you trying to sell more of a particular product, or are you trying to build awareness for your brand?

Setting goals touches every single part of your marketing, including your emails. These goals help define the purpose of your sending your email in the first place.

Each goal you create for your email campaigns should be S.M.A.R.T or:

Creating goals doesn’t have to be complicated. Since you know the topics of each of your campaigns, your goals should come naturally.

For example, if you’re launching a new product, your goal could be to reach X amount of sales within one week. If you’re promoting a webinar, your goal will revolve around increasing your signups.

Action Item: Set email marketing goals.

Step 6: Write Your Email Subject Lines

Subject lines can be a bit of a pain to write.

What makes a good subject line? Should you include emojis in your subject lines? What language should you add in your subject lines to help increase open rates?

CoSchedule has a free tool to make it easy to write great subject lines with Email Subject Line Tester.

Hit Score My Subject Line, and the tester will show you ways to improve your subject line:

Include at least two subject lines for your A/B test and record them on your calendar.

Action Items:

Write potential subject lines.
Run them through the Email Subject Line Tester.
Choose your top two subject lines for your A/B test.

Step 7: Plan Your Email Content (Don’t Forget To Include Links To Graphics & Videos)

Next, determine which content you’ll share in each email.

For the sake of this template, we will call each content block in your newsletter a “lead story”. Each lead story should be a link, article, product, or another piece of content you’ll place in the email. This doesn’t need to be the exact email copy you’ll write, just the items the email will promote.

One of the last elements to record in your email marketing calendar are links to graphics and videos that have been created for each email in your campaign.

This is important for your entire email marketing team because they need to be able to access which images and videos are associated with which email. If everything is in one folder, you run the risk of the wrong image being sent to the wrong email.

Each image and video should be linked to your calendar so it is easily accessible by the campaign owner.

Action Items:

Work with designers to create graphics or videos for your emails.
Upload them to a file storing system like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Link back to the folder in your calendar.

Step 8: Determine The Dates & Times Each Email Will Send

What date and time is each email being sent out? This is an essential element to establish in your email marketing calendar because it allows your marketing team to determine when they need to start working on an email to make sure that it gets done on time.

First, let’s cover the best time to send your emails. According to ten studies, the best times to send your emails are:

While the best days to send emails are:

Now that’s not to say that these are the times and days to send your emails on. You’ll need to experiment and see which days and times your audience prefers or is the most active. Try the following times and dates to start.

Once you have the days and times determined for each of your email sends, you can work backward to determine when your team needs to start working on the campaign to get it done on time.

For example, let’s say your email publishing workflow looks something like this:

Email campaign owner chooses campaign topics and number of sends: One Day
Copywriters write emails: Two Days
Copywriters edit emails: One Day
Campaign owner approves emails: One Day
Designers create images and videos: Three Days
Designers edit images and videos: One Day
Images and videos are approved by campaign owner: One Day
Copy and graphics are added to email platform: One Day
Email lists are chosen: One Day
Email is ready for publish: One Day

In this case, your email marketing team would need to work on a campaign at least 13 days before it begins. You may even add extra buffer days in case the work gets off course.

Equipped with that information, you can select publish dates and times that maximize each email you send. Record your publish date times on your calendar.

Action Items:

Using the best times to send an email and your audience’s preferences, determine what time you’re going to send your emails.
Repeat the process to decide which days you’re going to send your emails on.
Use those dates to determine when your team needs to start working on each of your campaigns.

Step 9: Keep Up With The Status Of Each Campaign

Your email marketing calendar should show the status of each of your email marketing campaigns. That way, you, as a manager, can see what’s coming up, what’s staged and ready to send, and what your team is working on next.

Break down the status of your campaign into three sections:

New: This is a new campaign that has recently been added to your calendar. No one on your email marketing team has touched this campaign.
In-progress: Your email team is working on content, graphics, and more for this email. Once they are complete, they will move on to the project owner for final review.
Complete: At this point, the email has been designed, the subject lines are written, and the project owner is confident that this email is ready to be sent to the identified list.

Update the status of each of your campaigns regularly (at least weekly) in your template.

Action Items:

Set up weekly syncs with your email marketing team.
Review any new campaigns that have been added to the calendar. Update their status.
Review the in-progress campaigns. Update their status as needed.
Review completed campaigns. Update their status in your email marketing calendar template when done.

Step 10: Record The A/B Test Results Of Your Subject Lines

After you have sent your campaign, identify which of the two subject lines you created won the A/B test.

Most email service providers allow you to A/B test your subject lines within the platform. Based on how each subject line performs, your email platform will take the winning subject line and send it out to the rest of your list.

Action Items:

Pull the results of your A/B test.
Record the winning subject line.

What To Include On Your Email Marketing Calendar

Different types of email sends can go into an email marketing calendar. Get inspiration from the below list and fill out the gaps with your company’s unique email needs.

1. Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to keep your contacts informed about important updates or new products/services in your industry. They can also be used as a way to share company news or drum up excitement about your next event. According to email statistics, customers generally want to hear from you more than once a month.

With that in mind, aim for 2-4 newsletters a month.

2. Promotions

Did you know that in 2022, 76% of customers plan to shop on Black Friday? Popular retail promotions should always have a spot on your email marketing calendar. Planning will help you execute successful campaigns while leaving you enough time to evaluate the strategy and make any necessary adjustments.

Also, plan on testing email length, colors, featured products, and subject lines to maximize performance.

3. Events

Do you regularly host online or in-person events, webinars, or podcasts? Depending on the event’s size, provide 1-12 weeks advance notice to your contacts about these events. This planning will help increase attendance and engagement.

In the emails, include registration information such as ticket fees, location, registration link, speakers, and more. Also, add testimonials from past attendees for credibility.

4. Launches

Having an email audience at hand for a launch can set the tone for demand and excitement around your new product or service. Use email to announce the launch, but then also schedule 3-5 updates on its development process and offer early adopters a chance to be recognized for their involvement.

5. Themes

A theme-based email campaign allows you to send targeted messages that are relevant and interesting to your subscribers. Plan out your yearly themes to include upcoming holidays and seasons or address important pain points your readers face.

For example, if your business is in the wellness niche, you can schedule a health-focused email series starting in November on how to stay healthy during cold and flu season.

6. Seasons

Take advantage of the different seasons and events throughout the year to engage your subscribers. For example, if you’re a clothing store, you might send an email to wish your contacts a Happy Winter Season and promote your coziest socks and mitts at the same time.

7. Holidays

Holidays are a golden opportunity to send themed emails that engage your subscribers. It’s a must to add them to your calendar. Depending on your audience, consider adding emails about Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Kwanzaa, or Memorial Day.

8. Automated Email Marketing

Finally, automated email marketing campaigns can be your lead gen secret weapon. Did you know that automated welcome emails contribute the highest percentage of sales? They allow you to collect subscribers, reach out to them, and engage or convert them at the right time.

Creating an automated plan can get daunting, so it’s important to consult your email marketing calendar and figure out segmentation and timing.

How To Organize All Of Your Email Sends With One Email Marketing Calendar

Organizing all email marketing in one place is easiest with a tool designed to organize all of your email marketing in one place.

The spreadsheet email marketing calendar templates we provide in this piece are a good start. But if you’d like to up your game, consider the following process we suggest as a best practice.

With CoSchedule Marketing Suite, you will have a content calendar like this:

Let’s turn this blank slate into an email marketing calendar by first adding email newsletters.

Newsletters typically have regular sending cadences, such as weekly or monthly. With CoSchedule Marketing Suite, you can create a recurring project for newsletters like this:

You’ll notice you can set clear expectations to ensure newsletters always go out as desired:

The task workflow automatically assigns ownership to a team member you choose with a specific due date so you may hold them accountable for completing their work.
The newsletter can also be scheduled to send at a specific time, such as noon in this case.
This newsletter will also repeat on Mondays forever and will automatically add itself to your email calendar four weeks in advance of the send date, so you’ll always be about a month ahead of schedule. This is helpful in case of unexpected sicknesses, severe weather, and other unforeseen circumstances.

Now your calendar contains email newsletters (no more blank slate)!

Of course, you can easily add one-off email blasts to your calendar on any date you choose.

This makes it simple to organize all email sends in one place so you can always show stakeholders what is going out and when it’s going out.

How To Organize Email Marketing Campaigns With Your Calendar

Let’s add promotions, launches, and events that may require email campaigns containing multiple email sends onto your calendar.

With CoSchedule Marketing Suite, you will create Marketing Campaigns that begin and end on the dates the campaign runs:

Now you may add emails into the campaign on the calendar dates on which you will send them:

CoSchedule Marketing Suite empowers you to see only emails related to that campaign and also provides you with a complete view of all emails from campaigns and your newsletters, too:

Next, let’s add an email marketing campaign containing emails to market a webinar.

Again, you may organize these emails in a timeline for the webinar and filter into your email calendar to see only this specific campaign with only emails for this webinar:

Again, you may see all emails on your calendar after adding recurring emails like newsletters, and any number of email marketing campaigns for promotions, launches, and events:

How To Use Your Marketing Calendar To Avoid Emailing Your Audience Too Often

Marketers may send multiple emails every day by targeting the right message to the right person at the right time. This is a best practice that prevents overwhelming audiences that may spike unsubscribe rates.

With CoSchedule Marketing Suite, you may customize segments with any internal language that is helpful for segmentation, such as personas and funnel stages:

When you do this for all emails, you may use your calendar to see at a glance when a specific audience segment may be getting too many emails.

In the example below, you can easily see you have two emails that are scheduled to send on Monday, January 1, that are intended for the same audience segment (Persona: John Contractor and Funnel Stage: Top).

Because you may determine you don’t want to email an audience segment twice in one day, you can shift send dates easily because you can see everything in one place—it’s as easy as a drag and drop.

In the example below, you can see we moved the Promotion Email #1 to Tuesday, January 2, to allow the regular recurring newsletter to take sending priority on Mondays as the audience expects.

CoSchedule Marketing Suite integrates with a variety of email marketing platforms, too.

When you buy CoSchedule Marketing Suite, you will gain a dedicated marketing success manager whose goal is to help you organize your marketing—including emails. They’ll help you set up your email marketing calendar, in addition to helping you organize all of your other marketing, so you can focus on kicking ass.

Learn more about CoSchedule Marketing Suite.

Start Using Your Email Marketing Calendar To Get Organized

Now that you have the tools and knowledge to improve your email calendar for everyday marketing, try out your newfound skills on your marketing newsletter. Master newsletter organization with the tips you’ve learned today, and continue learning how to get the rest of your marketing bearings in order.

Soon, you’ll be the master of marketing calendars.

Ready. Set. Organize!

This post was originally published on April 18, 2018. It was updated on December 30, 2021, and again on December 1, 2022. Ben Sailer, Peyton Muldoon, and Nathan Ellering contributed writing to this post.

How To Sell On TikTok: 7 Small Business Marketing Strategies [FAKE]

adminlin — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:53:45 GMT

With more than one billion monthly active users and over 200 million downloads in the U.S. alone, it’s clear that TikTok is here to stay. TikTok trends continue to shape culture and captivate the attention of younger generations. Recent studies estimate that users spend an average of 52 minutes per day scrolling TikTok videos.

While the opportunity is clear, small business owners often wonder how to find their place in the TikTok community. As influencers and viral videos dominate the platform, figuring out how to sell on TikTok can pose a challenge.

Fortunately, this guide reviews 7 of the best marketing strategies that small businesses can employ to win on TikTok.

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Getting Started On TikTok

TikTok is an incredible platform for businesses to generate awareness, drive sales, and engage with their customers. But before creating your first marketing campaign, set your brand up for success by leveraging TikTok’s business tools.

Setting Up TikTok For Business

Create a TikTok business account to activate all of TikTok’s analytics and marketing features. To start using TikTok for Business, follow these 5 simple steps:

Download and install the TikTok app
Sign up for an account
Click Profile at the bottom, and then the menu icon at the top
Select Settings and Privacy, Manage Account, and Switch to Business Account
Tap Next, and choose a category for your business

Once you have completed this process, the menu button on your Profile page will now give you access to the Business Suite. The Business Suite enables brands to:

Promote content
Track video performance
Create automated replies to direct messages
Explore trending content from other business accounts

Advertising On TikTok

After registering for a business account, create a TikTok ads account to further promote your best-performing content. Sign up for the TikTok Ads Manager in 4 easy steps:

Navigate to ads.tiktok.com
Log in via your TikTok account
Approve access to TikTok for Business
Register your business and enter billing details

Voila – you’re now ready to run paid ads! However, if you plan to sell products on TikTok from an external website, there is one last step to complete.

To use the Conversion campaign objective and track ad performance, you must install the TikTok pixel. TikTok makes this process simple with the choice of two pixel types and two installation methods. You can either manually install pixel code or use a partner integration for most ecommerce platforms.

As you prepare to create and promote content, take a moment to familiarize yourself with TikTok’s advertising solutions. The Dashboard tab provides an overview of your paid advertising efforts, and the Campaign tab is for [helps launch] launching new promotions. Store your short videos in the Assets tab, and access detailed analytics in the Reporting tab.

TikTok Best Practices

TikTok’s mantra “Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks” is incredibly important advice for TikTok creators and businesses alike.

Traditional advertisements that work on other social media platforms often don’t perform on TikTok. TikTok’s recommendation system has honed in on a very particular style of fast-paced, personal, and engaging content that users respond to. For this reason, it’s crucial for your TikTok account to blend in with the broader TikTok feed.

As you begin creating ads, follow these best practices:

Spend time exploring branded content and curating your For You page
Follow peers, competitors, and TikTok influencers for inspiration
Use hashtags to aid discovery, but sparingly because they take up screen space
Add closed captions to every TikTok video
Engage with TikTok users in the comment section
Track analytics to monitor which actions drive growth

7 TikTok Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Understanding how to sell on TikTok comes from a deep understanding of the platform itself. As you develop your TikTok profile and create content specifically for the TikTok channel, you will begin to see what videos resonate with users.

To shorten this learning curve and think like a TikTok creator, leverage these 7 marketing strategies to grow your small business:

1. Connect TikTok Shopping

TikTok Shopping allows brands to tag products in their videos and create a custom ecommerce storefront on their profile’s Shopping Tab. To sell on TikTok in this way, create a TikTok for Business account and then choose from one of two integration paths.

The TikTok Shopping Direct Integration powers the entire customer journey from product discovery to checkout, payment, and even returns. This complete solution requires a Seller Central account but enables affiliate programs and native checkout. With Direct Integration, creators can be paid based on commission, and buyers can check out without ever leaving the platform.

The TikTok Shopping Partner Integration enables sellers to sync products from an existing ecommerce platform directly to their TikTok account. In this case, users can explore products on TikTok before being redirected to a partner platform like Shopify, Square, or BigCommerce to check out.

2. Identify And Participate In Trends

Search your TikTok feed, the Discover page, and #trendalert to catch the fastest growing trends before they take off. As you explore trending hashtags, sounds, and more, think about how your business can take part.

When done well, trend-jacking is one of the easiest ways to go viral on TikTok. Think creatively about how you can use humor, involve your employees, and strengthen your brand positioning with every trend.

While on the lookout for trends, keep an eye on the following features of successful TikToks:

Sounds

Sound is a key differentiator when comparing TikTok to other sales channels. 88% of TikTok users report that sound is an essential part of the TikTok experience, with creators often using audio clips as the foundation of their content. Sounds can spark curiosity, slow users’ scrolls, and even build brand awareness.

Start with TikTok’s free Commercial Music Library, which has hundreds of thousands of available audio clips. From the TikTok app, click Post and then Add Sound to see which sounds are available to businesses. Under Discover, tap View All and then TikTok Viral to see what’s currently trending.

Hashtags

Hashtags are an effective way to increase exposure and develop community. Include a trending hashtag on your next video to increase the likelihood of landing on the right Discovery pages and to help your target audience find your content via Search.

Savvy brands have also found success in promoting branded hashtags. Consider encouraging customers to review your products on TikTok using a given hashtag to create community as well as compelling social proof.

Effects

Effects and filters are built into the TikTok app and make it easy to produce creative content. Green screens, animal faces, and accessories are all popular categories of effects that can help you tell a story or connect with users.

To see which effects are available, tap Post and then Effects. Scroll left and right to explore categories and experiment with a few as you begin to create videos.

Challenges

Much of TikTok’s initial growth and popularity stemmed from viral challenges. From dance crazes to pranks and everything in between, challenges can be a light-hearted way to showcase the human side of your brand.

Look for challenges that relate to your business or that your team is uniquely qualified for. Brainstorm creative ways to stand out, and then embrace the fun. Taking part in challenges likely won’t contribute to your bottom line, but it can help build brand awareness and establish your business as a TikTok powerhouse.

3. Showcase Products With Duets

The Duet feature allows you to collaborate with other TikTok users. These side-by-side videos are great for interacting with user-generated content.

Try searching your discovery page for content about a problem that your product solves. Blind react to the videos and share your suggested solution, or offer advice and additional context to build up your credibility as an expert.

Duets also enable side-by-side product demonstrations. Envision a TikTok that highlights the drawbacks of a competing product. Duet with this video while showcasing your own product in order to create an “us versus them” ad. This type of visual comparison is a powerful way to sell products on TikTok.

To create a Duet, locate the video you’d like to use and tap the Share button. Click the Duet icon at the bottom of the screen and film your portion of the video. Edit and add captions as usual, then hit the Post button to share your masterpiece.

4. Engage Your Audience With Stitch

Like the Duet feature, Stitch offers a clever way to connect with other users. Instead of two videos playing simultaneously, Stitch plays the target video first and then your response.

This dynamic allows you to respond to customer feedback, create engaging prompts, or remix popular videos.

A response Stitch can amplify the reach and impact of a positive review. By thanking or rewarding a TikTok user for reviewing your product, you can encourage others to share their experience with your online store.

On the other hand, a prompt Stitch is a popular way to cue your target audience to engage with your content. Ask a question that relates to your mission statement or purpose, and tell users to respond with a Stitch. Before posting your prompt, make sure your account is public, and the video has Stitch enabled.

Humor is also an effective way to create engaging content on TikTok. Take trending videos and Stitch them to create alternate endings or remixes. Including some meme-like video content in your TikTok feed can help your brand stand out and establish personality.

To create a Stitch, follow the same process as a Duet. Find the video you’d like to Stitch, tap the Share button, and then tap the Stitch icon. If the Stitch icon is unavailable or greyed out, the original user has disabled stitching.

@tiktokNow Introducing: STITCH! Make the ultimate collab with your fav creators ????♬ original sound – TikTok

5. Create A Branded Hashtag Challenge

Branded hashtag challenges are intended to lean into the collaborative culture of TikTok and encourage users to participate in a trend. While this can be done organically, hashtag challenges can also layer in paid ad campaigns to increase the likelihood of virality.

In either approach, begin by sharing a video to your TikTok account with a challenge and an associated hashtag. Ask users to share their own attempts at an athletic feat, a prank, or a random skill.

Increase the reach of your hashtag challenge by using a trending sound and further incentive engagement by hosting a giveaway for the top participants. Ask employees, friends, and family members to take part and help kickstart the trend.

If you have a large social media presence, these efforts may be sufficient to start producing user-generated content. Otherwise, you can supercharge your hashtag challenge by promoting the video with an ad campaign or sponsoring placement on the Discover page.

Remember to connect the challenge and hashtag to your product or your brand’s mission. The ultimate goal of this effort is not only video views but also brand awareness and leads for your online store.

6. Partner With Influencers

Search your feed and the TikTok Creator Marketplace to connect with influencers in your niche who understand how to sell on TikTok.

Through product reviews and live demonstrations, creators can help brands establish social proof and introduce products to new audiences. But TikTok users aren’t on the app to shop, so don’t ask an influencer to sell products directly. Instead, think of influencers as a way to generate awareness and move potential customers through your sales funnel.

Although the reach of top TikTok influencers like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae may look appealing, small businesses generally find that micro-influencers are more affordable and provide a better return on investment. These more relatable creators are often viewed as trusted sources of information, and they can share your products in an organic and unforced way.

Explore using influencers in conjunction with other strategies as well. The right TikTok creator can spark momentum for your brand by stitching your video, participating in your hashtag challenge, or hosting a brand takeover where they post content directly from your feed.

7. Cross-Promote Your Most Popular TikToks

Direct response advertisements that work on platforms like Facebook and Instagram don’t often perform well on TikTok. Users are quick to scroll past obvious ads that don’t blend in with other content; hence the advice “Don’t Make Ads, Make TikToks.”

However, the challenge of creating platform-specific content often holds small businesses back from investing in the TikTok channel.

The good news is that marketers are increasingly finding that the same dynamic and personal content that succeeds on TikTok also delivers results on Instagram Reels and Facebook Watch.

Make the most of your best-performing TikToks by sharing them across other platforms and even using them as paid ads. This approach empowers you to focus on building a successful TikTok account without dividing resources or sacrificing other platforms.

Take your cross-promotional efforts one step further by linking across your social media accounts. The TikTok bio, for example, allows users to link to both Instagram and YouTube accounts. Consider using a link-in-bio tool on other social media platforms to grow your overall digital presence. This simple trick allows potential customers to follow you wherever they prefer to spend time.

Final Thoughts

Small businesses first need to understand TikTok’s culture in order to learn how to sell on TikTok.

Rather than actively pushing products, business owners are better served by jumping in front of the camera and being vulnerable. Relatable and authentic TikTok content performs best and helps users establish a personal connection to the brand.

By sharing behind-the-scenes content, engaging with users and creators, and participating in trends, small businesses can establish trust and personality. Over time, this investment in the community will transform scrollers into supporters and shoppers.

Marketing Basics: The 101 Guide to Everything You Need to Know [FAKE] – AMI

adminlin — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 09:06:10 GMT

Marketing is complex.

[Question “Which type are you, and why? Where will the next iteration of personal branding take us?”]

It encompasses tons of different disciplines, strategies, and tactics.

[Quote “Influence is often best exerted horizontally rather than vertically. – Robert B. Cialdini”]

As a result, developing a basic understanding of how it works can be difficult. Learning the trade can take years of dedication and honing your craft, oftentimes in a handful of specific areas (such as strategy, copywriting, or analytics).

Like a lot of things, though, future success starts with solid fundamentals.

And if you’re looking to learn, you’ve come to the right place.

This post will cover everything you need to get started on your marketing journey. Think of it like the ultimate 101 guide, packed full of actionable advice you won’t learn in the classroom.

It’s also laid out to be easy to understand, turning complicated concepts into easily digestible chunks of information.

Bookmark this page, then get down to learning.

[Tweet “Marketing Basics: The 101 Guide to Everything You Need to Know by @Ben_CoSchedule via @CoSchedule”]

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Marketing Strategy Guide (PDF): Get an in-depth education on strategy.
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Get all three for free (it only takes a few moments), then continue with the rest of this post.

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View the entire course list of courses to learn more.

What is Marketing?

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In simplest terms, marketing is the act of driving profitable customer action. It spans the full scope of strategies and tactics organizations use to position products and services in the marketplace, and motivate target audiences to make a purchase.

Recommended Reading: How to Document the Marketing Process in Six Steps

Understanding the Marketing Mix and the 4 P’s of Marketing

For all its complexity, at its core, marketing revolves around four things: product, price, promotion, and place. Tactics and channels change, but these are the concepts everything else revolves around, and they’re principles that never change.

Some models expand these basic principles to 7 P’s, or another variation. But, for your purposes, these four should be sufficient for developing an understanding of how marketing works.

Product

This is what a company sells, whether that means a physical good, or a service (such as consulting, a subscription, or something else). From a marketing perspective, the following would need to be determined:

How many different product variations or lines should be sold? For example, a car manufacturer might strategize on which vehicle categories to build (such as family cars, SUVs, crossovers, or pickup trucks).
How should they be packaged or presented? To make another example, if a company made replacement car floor mats, should they come in a box? A bag? Something else?
How will it be serviced? This could include warranties, handling returns, and so forth.

Marketers might even have some involvement in determining how products are designed and which features they might include (here at CoSchedule, for instance, marketers and product developers communicate closely).

[Tweet “Marketing works best when marketing teams communicate with product teams.”]

Price

This is just “how much stuff costs,” right?

Well, sure. But there’s more to it than that.

[Tweet “Price means more than just what stuff costs.”]

If marketing is all about driving profitable action, then prices need to be set at a level the market will support.

Here are some marketing considerations with prices:

What is the market rate per unit of a product? This requires some market analysis and competitive research to determine what’s a fair price for a product, given its cost to produce, and what people are willing to pay.
How should discounts be timed and applied? Should the product be put on sale at certain times of year?
Does it make sense to give customers options for payments? A car dealership might offer financing options, rather than expecting people to pay the full price up front.

Promotion

If a product launches but no one cares, does it even exist?

Well, yeah, technically it does, but it’s just taking up space if no one’s buying it. Once a product is out there, it needs to be promoted so people know it exists.

Which channels will be used to promote the product? This includes online and offline channels.
Where will it be promoted? Online? Offline? In stores? At events?
What message needs to be communicated? What copy and verbiage will tell audiences what the product is all about, and encourage them to buy it?

Place

The right product needs to be in the right place for people to find it and buy it.

Where is the product distributed? Online? Offline?
Will specific locations get the product? For example, if you sell cold weather clothing, you might not distribute as much to Florida and you might in Minnesota.

10 Key Areas of Modern Marketing to Understand

Spend a little bit of time researching marketing online and you’ll find references to all different areas of marketing. Here are some that are most likely to be relevant to your work.

Content Marketing

The hype around content has been building steadily for years, and with good reason: people want to be helped and informed more than they want to be sold to and interrupted.

The main idea behind content marketing is creating content that helps inform your audience and solve their problems. This achieves a few important goals:

Building an audience.
Establishing authority.
Driving sales.

The “content” part of content marketing spans a lot of different things. Primarily, this means blogging and website content, but it can also include email, social media, video, ebooks, or any other type of digital content used for marketing.

It can also include print collateral, like brochures or magazines.

Recommended Reading:

Email Marketing

When it comes to driving conversions, it’s tough to beat the return on investment of email marketing. Different studies cite different figures, but it’s generally accepted that it drives around 3,800% to 4,200% ROI (meaning that for every dollar spent, it produces $38 to $42 in revenue).

Recommended Reading:

Social Media Marketing

Organic reach on popular social networks is declining on popular platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but social media marketing is far from dead. It’s effective for building brand awareness, developing community, and getting your content and products in front of new people.

Recommended Reading:

Online Video Marketing

Did you know that over 400 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube every minute? That’s incredible. So is the fact that it’s the world’s second largest search engine (second only to Google, which owns YouTube, and even bigger than Bing and Yahoo combined).

It’s not the only video platform out there for marketers to know about, either. Wistia is practically the industry-standard for hosting embeddable web video, and Vimeo is a fantastic place for creatives.

Plus, social video on Facebook (and to some extent, Twitter as well) is also becoming increasingly important.

Recommended Reading:

Advertising and Pay-Per-Click

Have you ever seen those ads at the top of search results? Those are pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

PPC advertising offers marketers excellent opportunity to sell products directly to searchers. It’s also great because it makes it possible to see exactly how much you’re spending vs. how much revenue your advertising efforts are generating.

Recommended Reading:

Search Engine Optimization

Few, if any, tactics or channels drive more traffic on average than search engine optimization.

[Tweet “Few digital marketing tactics drive more traffic than search engine optimization.”]

It’s the process of structuring content and executing other tasks that help improve your site’s search engine rankings, pulling in an audience that’s interested in the topics your site covers, and the products your company sells.

Recommended Reading:

Public Relations

Even in an era packed with new and flashy channels and tactics, good old-fashioned relationship-building remains essential for effective marketing. PR is all about managing perceptions and relationships, ensuring people think positively about your brand.

Recommended Reading:

Influencer Marketing

Why talk up your products yourself when you can have trusted folks promote them for you?

[Tweet “Why talk up your products yourself when you can have trusted folks promote them for you?”]

That’s the crux of influencer marketing, which involves working with popular people within a given niche or industry to put your products in front of their audiences.

Recommended Reading:

Developing a Marketing Strategy

Marketing can be boiled down to the following:

Who are you trying to reach?
What do you want them to do?
How will you encourage them to take that action?
How will you measure marketing’s impact on influencing that action?

This framework is simple to understand and yet difficult to master in actual execution.

Success starts with sound strategy, though, and getting it right is essential. Take a look at some important stats that illustrate its importance:

So, why is strategy important?

Think of marketing like taking a trip. Sure, you could just hop in the car, and take off with no sense of direction. But, you’ll probably just waste time, burn gas, and never end up anywhere meaningful.

If you had a map and an itinerary though, you would have been prepared to make the most of your time, and actually accomplish something.

That’s what strategy gets you. A sense of direction, so you can use your time effectively, understand why you’re doing your work, and increase the odds of achieving your goals.

Getting to Know Your Audience

First things first, companies exist to serve customers.

Simple enough, right?

Well, figuring out exactly who those customers are, and what problems they need solved, is easier said than done.

Figuring Out What You Want Them to Do

Once you’ve determined who you need to reach, the next step is figuring out what’s required to move them toward a sale.

For some companies, this is simple: convincing customers to grab a product and buy it at the store. But, there may be actions you drive them toward before reaching that step (such as getting onto a mailing list or becoming a social media follower).

For others (for example, service-based companies), you might want to get leads (potential customers) to place a phone call for a demo or a consultation before they commit to purchasing.

Recommended Reading: How to Write a Call to Action in Six Steps With a Template

Understanding the Marketing Funnel

When determining actions you want your audience to take, it’s useful to understand how the marketing funnel works.

Funnels help illustrate where customers are at in the buying process, from being unaware of a product (or having a problem), to researching different options, down to making an actual purchase.

Here’s a simple illustration:

While there are different ways to illustrate funnels, they typically map out customer buying stages to the following phases:

Top of Funnel (TOFU): The customer is unaware of a product or company.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): The customer is actively researching products.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): The customer is ready to buy.

Determining Your Tactics

Part of an effective strategy is narrowing which tactics you’ll implement to achieve your goals. When you’re just starting out, this can seem daunting. There are always more thing you can do, than what you actually have time to do well.

So, where do you start?

According to a CoSchedule survey of 1,500+ marketers, here were their most popular content types:

Notice that blogging, social media, and email marketing round up the top three. For most companies doing content marketing, those are the three most obvious places to start.

But, determining which tactics may work best for you may be another story. Maybe you’re doing marketing, but not content marketing specifically. Maybe you’re in an industry or role where marketing means doing things like securing partnerships, hosting events, or doing “traditional” marketing (like producing print collateral).

Consider following this process:

Know your audience. Who are you trying to reach?
Figure out where those people hang out. Where can you reach those people?
Think on which tactics and channels could reach those people, in those places. Which marketing activities could be used to reach the right people, in the right places, at the right time?

That’s an open-ended question, but whatever the answer may be, that’s where you should start.

Recommended Reading: How to Determine Your Marketing Tactics

Nailing the Execution

Once the strategy is in place, it’s time to put it into action.

[Tweet “Once marketing strategy is in place, it’s time to put it into action.”]

This requires:

Having the right skills. Once you know what to do, you need to know how to do it.
Having the right staff. Putting the right people in the right place is key to success.
Having the right tools. A professional always uses the best available solution to tackle a given task or problem.

What Are Some Common Marketing Skills?

The skills a marketer needs depend on their role.

Some basics that apply to lots of different types of roles include:

Verbal communication. Marketing is all about communication. Being able to express your ideas clearly is key.
Writing. You’ll be doing a lot of writing, whether creating content, or emails to stakeholders.
Research. The more granular, often the better.
Analytics. Understanding how to spot trends in data is essential.

How Are Marketing Departments Usually Structured?

The way teams are built depends on the company’s size, industry, budget, and a lot of other factors. Some companies have teams of one, while others might span multiple marketing teams across multiple departments or business units.

Recommended Reading: How to Structure Modern Marketing Departments for Success

How Are Marketing Tool Stacks Typically Built?

The tools those teams use to execute their work might vary depending on tactics and personnel.

Some common tools practitioners use include:

Project management tools: Needed to keep teams organized and projects on track.
Social media scheduling tools: Because manually scheduling posts at scale is nearly impossible.
Editorial and marketing calendars: Used to set deadlines and map publish dates.
Email marketing platforms: Important for managing email lists and delivering newsletters.
Marketing management platforms: Tools like CoSchedule, which consolidate several of the tool categories listed above, while integrating with other popular tools.
Analytics tools: Used to measure performance.
SEO tools: To monitor keyword rankings, do competitive research, track incoming backlinks, conduct keyword research, and more.
Marketing automation tools: Used to automate processes, such as email flows.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software: Powerful platforms used to store customer data and maintain relationships with consumers.

Understanding Measurement and Analytics

If you can’t measure the impact of your marketing activities, then you may as well not be doing anything at all.

Every action should always be connected to specific metrics, in service of achieving a specific goal.

Recommended Reading:

Additional Learning Resources

One of the best things about marketing is you’re never done learning. And in effort to support your learning, CoSchedule (and a lot of other great companies) are committed to helping you develop your knowledge and skills.

Actionable Marketing Institute: Find exclusive educational content and level up your skills.
CoSchedule Blog: Enjoy this post? You’ll find tons more here (plus fresh content each week).
Actionable Marketing Podcast: Features new interviews each week with leading marketing experts.
The 10X Marketing Formula: Comprehensive book from CoSchedule co-founder and CEO Garrett Moon.

[Tweet “Make learning marketing easy with this guide + tons of extra resources”]

That’s a Wrap

There’s a lot of information to process in this post. But, now that you’ve covered most of what you’ll need to know as a marketing practitioner (both on the surface level, and with links to deeper reads on tons of sub-topics), you’re now better prepared than ever to continue your marketing education and level up your career.

Is there anything we missed? Let us know below.

[Tweet “Getting started learning about #marketing? Here’s the ultimate all-in-one resource you need.”]

189 Creative Blog Post Ideas That Will Delight Your Audience [FAKE] – HS

adminlin — Sun, 09 May 2021 18:29:19 GMT

Have you ever sat down to write your up-and-coming blog post just to find yourself staring blankly at your computer screen?

I know I have. It’s a daunting task to get words out when you have no idea what you want to write. What makes it even worse is when the publish deadline is fast approaching and the cursor just continues to torment you with its blinky-ness. It might also feel like writer’s block, but I don’t really believe in writer’s block. It’s really a lack of good writing and blog planning.

[Question “Which type are you, and why? Where will the next iteration of personal branding take us?”]

So, I thought I’d help you plan and pull together a massive list of great blog ideas to pull you out of the doldrums.

[Tweet “189 #BlogIdeas to Kill the Nightmare of the Blinking Cursor”]

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Want More Than Ideas? Get A Proven Process To Grow Your Blog Traffic & Leads

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Not sure if this course is for you? Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll learn from your course instructor, Nathan Ellering, Head of Marketing at CoSchedule.

[Learn more and enroll for $29] – Enter code GROW at checkout to claim this offer.

Blog Ideas to Scare Away That Tormenting Blinking Cursor…

This list will be sure to fill your content calendar.

Remember, these are just blog ideas, and if inspiration pulls you in another direction, follow it. There are different categories with tons of ideas, so you can choose your own adventure.

Table Of Contents:

Content Marketing Ideas
Creative
Wishes And Goals
Seeing The World Through Different Eyes
Advice
Favorites
Inspiration
Blogging Ideas
Writing
Repurpose And Republish

Are you ready? Let’s jump in!

Content Marketing Ideas For Brand Blogs

1. How’d you get started in your career? How’d you get to where you are today?

Answering this question is a great way for your followers to catch up on your journey. Share everything with them. You might just touch someone’s life and nudge them in a direction toward achieving their goals.

2. List and embed videos that deal with your niche.

For example, if you were a blogger, you could put together a list of 20 actionable videos on how to be a more amazing blogger. Think of useful and helpful videos that will make your readers better at what they do.

3. Compile a good list of posts and links that are focused on one topic.

Say you’d want to write up a post on how to do social media management. You’d find the most actionable links and tag them in a list formatted blog post.

4. What marketing tips didn’t work for you?

It’s always good to know what worked, but there are many things that don’t work. Why don’t you share them so no one else makes the same mistakes?

Callout: The Best Sales Campaign Ideas & Templates to Increase Your Revenue

5. Write out a list of FAQs.

Are you asked tons of questions? If so, write them down and answer them. If you haven’t been asked any questions, think up the things that people would probably ask about your product or service. What things could be an issue that people might need more clarity on?

6. Take an unrelated topic and tie it to your field.

Take something that has nothing to do with your career and turn it into something that has something to do with your career. I once wrote a guest post where I wrote about being in a complicated relationship with my characters (I write fiction in addition to blogging).

I basically compared writing characters to complicated relationships/friendships. It was super fun to write. Think about how you can apply this to your own writing.

7. Pitch an influencer to guest post on their blog.

Guest posting is such a great way to get more followers and build authority. Just make sure that when you pitch influencers, you put your best foot forward.

8. What sets your blog/business apart from your competitors?

Sometimes, it can be scary when your competitors’ websites look way more amazing than your own. Maybe they are better at social media than you. Maybe they have a bigger team than you, which makes it easier to create more or do more.

Steps to take:

Take a good look at your competitors’ blogs.
Write down their strengths and weaknesses.
Take a look at your blog.
What are your strengths and weaknesses? If you feel like you can’t answer these questions without being biased, ask a friend in your niche or even a blog reader.
How can you be better at your strengths while also covering your competitors’ weaknesses?

9. What is the most creative way someone has used your product?

Working at CoSchedule, I’ve actually met some people online who have told me they’ve used our Headline Analyzer Studio to write titles and chapter names for their books. I’d say that’s a pretty creative way to use the tool, so it’s a blog idea that could help others.

Do you have a product? If so, what is a creative way people have used it?

10. Profile a few readers and/or customers.

Interview them. You might just learn something new about your blog or business.

11. How do you use social media for growing traffic and sales?

Share how you’ve used social media to grow traffic and sales. This is a topic that many people are interested in as a way to grow their own blogs and businesses, so if you have great tips, share them all.

12. Create an ultimate guide.

Write up an ultimate guide to something in your industry. Teach people the tricks of the trade, and they’ll be super thankful.

13. What is the best part of what you do?

Tell your readers everything. Why do you love what you do?

14. Do a Q&A interview with your team.

Write a list of questions and send it to the people on your team. This will help your readers and customers feel like they know who is behind the product.

15. Recently hire new employees? How’d you come to the decision to hire them?

Share characteristics and qualities that business owners or entrepreneurs should look for when hiring their team.

[Tweet “Share characteristics and qualities that business owners or entrepreneurs should look for when hiring their team.”]

16. Write a manifesto.

Jeff Goins said:

A manifesto is a great way to condense your message into a short, all-encompassing format. If you’ve written it well, they will get a fuller understanding of your core message, which you may have been trying to communicate for years.

Pull your manifesto together:

What is my message?
What do I want people to know?
Why is my message important?

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Creative Blog Post Ideas

17. Do a (number) by a (certain age) post.

Have you ever heard of “My 30 by 30” posts? These are really cool and help readers see into your life and business by showing your personality and uniqueness. Think of this blog idea as a bucket list before you or your business reaches a certain age.

18. Put together a gif-filled post.

Everyone loves gifs. Put together a post and use gifs for the images. Gifs have a way of adding humor and energy to posts in a way that images and graphics can’t. You could also make your own with Boomerang.

19. What would you love to learn how to do?

Share pictures and what you’d like to learn, then go out and try that thing. Share an update of your experience with your followers.

20. Write a parody post of some sort.

Bringing humor into a post can be good. It’s always fun to make people laugh. I once did a parody post with Taylor Swift’s song, “Shake It!” and I tied writing into it. It was a lot of fun!

21. Set up a contest on your blog.

After doing the giveaway or competition on your blog, share the results. Did it turn out, or was it a dud?

Set up your own contest.

What is your goal? Have a clear goal in mind. Do you want more email subscribers or buying customers? More social media followers?
What kind of content do you want to have? Think about whether it will be a skills or challenge contest.

22. Use questions on forums as blog ideas.

Have you ever spent time on websites, like Quora? There are so many people asking questions that you can use for new blog ideas.

Once you’ve written your answer in blog post format, go back to the question on Quora and leave a comment that answers the question. It’s helpful, and it could also bring some traffic back to your blog.

23. Find the best jokes in your niche and share them in a blog post.

Like I said earlier, people love humor. We like to laugh and smile. A great place to look is on Google. There are plenty of good places full of jokes.

Do this as a special post and share it on a Friday or a day off.

24. What adventures does a person experience in career like yours?

Are there any fun adventures that you’ve gotten to go on or to be a part of while being a _____ (your title)? If so, share your adventures.

25. Seen any good movies? Pick one and tie it into something to do with a topic in your niche.

Write a post about how a certain character or situation in a movie has something to do with your niche. These can be a lot of fun to write. Play around with some ideas.

26. What are your top five distractions. How do you deal with them?

Distractions aren’t fun, but sadly, we have them a lot in our lives — especially with the internet. There’s always a distraction waiting around the corner.

Do you have a way of holding the distractions at bay? If so, share your tips.

27. Pick out three, creative people who inspire you. If they collaborated to make a product, what would the product be?

If those three people created something awesome with all their skills, what would it be? Create that and then share your process and inspiration.

28. What scares you the most? Why?

It’s interesting to dig into why something scares or doesn’t scare you. Share ways you’ve gotten over your fear, since there are people out there who probably have the same fears.

[Tweet “Share ways you’ve gotten over your fear, since there are people out there who probably have the same fears.”]

29. What is your first memory?

Do you remember your first memory? Think about it for a while and then write it up.

30. List of hacks.

Write down the hacks to doing a certain task or job you have knowledge in.

Think about these things:

What steps will it take to finish your task or project?
Write those down.
Flesh out your blog outline with more detail. What are the actionable tips to doing that task or project?

31. Use five words to describe yourself, your blog, or your business.

How would you describe yourself in only five words? Use those words as an outline for your idea.

32. Host a blog hop.

Pick a topic or theme. A good way to think of this is like a party — at parties, there’s usually a theme.

Write up a few rules and a schedule of events. Set up a blog hop for a certain amount of time. For each of the days, provide a daily prompt. It will pull other bloggers into the fun of writing posts on that topic. Encourage bloggers to visit other bloggers’ posts who are also a part of the blog hop.

Blog hops are a cool way to create a sense of community and get more comments. Have fun with it!

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Wishes and Goals

33. How do you plan to achieve your current goals?

Think about your monthly goals. They can be personal or business-related.

What are your monthly goals? Can you break them down for your audience?
When you write your goals, you are more likely to achieve them.

Sharing your goals will help you gain a sense of clarity and accountability.

[Tweet “Sharing your goals will help you gain a sense of clarity and accountability.”]

34. What are you not going to do this month/year?

Share things that you aren’t going to do in the upcoming months. For instance, do you have any bad habits or things that get in the way of you being successful? Since you probably do, your audience also probably deals with similar issues or the same ones you do.

Share a list of what you aren’t going to do this month. After the month is over, you could do an update email on how it went and tips to conquer that bad habit.

35. What is the road to success?

Have you ever thought about writing an inspirational post that will encourage people in your niche to stand strong and hold on while they are on the road to success?

What are things that you struggled with when you were starting out?
List those out, and then give your readers an answer.
Think of yourself as a mentor of what it takes to reach success. Write it as though you were writing it to yourself when you first started working in your field.

36. What are your goals for the next five years? Ten years?

It’s always good to remember your goals. When you have them set out, it’s easier to see where you’re headed. It helps you sort out your vision a little more.

Here are some questions to help you brainstorm:

What would you like to do this coming year? Personal and business related?
What needs to be finished and reached?
Does a certain amount of income need to be made?
What are some new ventures that you’d like to try?

37. Share your gifts with the world.

Make something and give it away for free. It will build trust. Everyone wants to be trusted.

38. Try-something-new post.

Never sky-dived or designed your own graphics? Write up a post where you share something new that you’ve tried. People will love experiencing the “new” factor with you. Share your step-by-step process to make it actionable — even throw some humor in there about the mistakes you made along the way.

39. Do you have a reading list for the year?

Do you have a list of books that you’d like to have read by the end of the year? If so, write it down.

40. Do you give to a charity?

This blog idea will help people get a good feel for what kind of person you are. Share links to the charity, too.

41. What is your dream job?

Are you working your dream job? Not yet? Whether you are or aren’t, type out what your dream job is and share it.

42. What inspires you?

This is an easy question that opens up for some awesome creative post ideas. Why do those things inspire you?

43. Give up something, focus that time on doing something useful, and help yourself to reach your goals.

This can be difficult, especially when it comes to giving up something that you enjoy, like watching TV at night or scrolling through social media during the day. Share with your readers how you handled it.

This can be so rewarding. Pick out one thing to give up and then share it with your readers on how you handled it. What worked and what didn’t?

44. What is your bucket list?

What kinds of things do you want to do before you kick the bucket? Dream big. Life is full of exciting things.

45. What’s your life motto?

What words of wisdom do you live by? Use those as inspiration for sections and flesh out a post that shares your philosophy.

[Tweet “What words of wisdom do you live by?”]

46. Who is your life mascot?

Yes, your mascot.

A mascot, just like the big, furry animal that boosts fan morale at sports games. If you could choose a mascot to describe your outlook on life or on your business, who would you choose? Why?

47. How do you schedule your work week?

Walk your audience through how to productively schedule their work week. As humans, we always want to know how to get more done in a week. If you have anything that has helped you schedule your time throughout the week, put that into the post.

48. Celebrate your blog’s birthday.

Since your blog is your baby, you don’t want to just talk about the blog the whole time. Find a way to turn it into an actionable post that people can still learn from.

Extra fun tip: Make a downloadable gift and give it away in exchange for emails. This will make them feel special, while also helping you grow your blog.

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Ideas to Change Your Perspective

49. How do you work while traveling?

Many people work remote and travel with their work now. It really helps to see how others work and reach their goals while they’re traveling. Share your tips.

50. Give a rant about something.

Does something bother you right now? Write up a rant about it.

51. What life events shaped you into who you are?

If you could think about all the events that unfolded in your life, which ones shaped you into who you are now?

52. Love traveling? If so, share your experiences.

Do you travel a lot? If so, use this for inspiration. Share where the best places are to eat. How about that great bed and breakfast you went to in Ireland?

53. What’s a current frustration of yours? Share it with your followers.

Controversial blog posts do really well. They can be difficult to write, and they aren’t for everyone. However, if you feel motivated, don’t fear. Go out and do it because controversy gets traffic.

54. What are your traditions?

Write up your traditions. These could be family or business traditions.

55. What advice has stuck with you for a long time? Who gave you that advice?

Did someone give you some great advice at a certain time in your life? Think back to that time and write down the advice as you remember it.

56. What is the next vacation you’d love to take?

Dream away. Share the fun. If your blog or business is made up of a team, you could always share where each member wants to go on their next vacation. This is another one of those blog ideas that can really help an audience get to know you better.

57. If you could go anywhere in the world with anyone, where would you go and why? Why did you choose that person?

Use your creativity and imagination with this one. You can tie this into your business or your personal life.

58. If you could invite three people to dinner, who would you invite? Why? What would you talk about?

This is a different approach to the, “If you were stranded with three people on an island, who would you choose?” question.

59. If you could have witnessed an event in history, which would you choose? Why?

What event in history amazes you every time you think about it? Now, start writing about it. Why do you feel so strongly about that event? What do you think that says about you as a person?

60. Glimpse into your life.

Share daily photos for a week to show a sneak peek into your life, your blog, or your business.

61. What do you want to improve upon?

We are only humans.

What are some things that you think you need to improve upon? Write about them.

62. How do you stay healthy in your niche?

This could go many different ways for different bloggers. A writer and editor, like me, might write a post about the importance of getting up to move throughout the day. Since I often sit at a desk, getting up throughout the day to move around is really important. What helps you stay healthy?

Some people have told me that taking reading breaks throughout their day helps refresh their minds.

63. If you were told you were going to die on Friday, and today is Monday, what would you do?

It’s always interesting to hear how people would spend their last days; you learn a lot about people and what they hold important.

If you come up with certain dreams you’d like to accomplish (if this was your last week), why don’t you think about accomplishing them? Go after your dreams and ship it.

[Tweet “Go after your dreams and ship it.”]

64. Who is the one person you couldn’t live without? Why?

When you share this with your audience, you’ll be letting them into your life. Let them see that you are a human behind your blog.

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Ideas on Creating Content That Provides Valuable Advice

65. Spoken anywhere recently (e.g. conference, speech, or lesson)?

If you have, write a blog post from your speech and share it. It’s a cool way to repurpose content.

Instead of letting your speech get lost in your hard-drive files, use it and embellish on it by making it deeper. Share more content. You could even type it all up and schedule it to publish right after your speech is finished. Tell your audience to get the notes and other awesome tips on your website. This is also a great way to build an email subscriber list.

66. Interview an influencer for your blog.

Want to get more followers? Having influencers on your blog and guest writing for other blogs can really boost your followers. It helps if the blogs you choose are actually ones that have influencer status.

67. Answer your readers’ questions in blog format.

Has anyone asked you any questions lately? Turn their questions into blog post ideas. Write it up and help your readers solve their problems. If your readers haven’t asked any questions recently, go to Quora and look for the type of questions people would ask in your niche. Use those as blog ideas.

68. What’s it like in a day in the life of a _________ (insert your career)?

Walk your readers through the hour-by-hour day in the life of (your title). Don’t forget to share pictures — it’s always a lot of fun for people to peak into others’ lives.

69. What are the best books in your niche that you’d recommend?

Think about books you’ve read that have been the most helpful to you in your niche.

On a side note: If you’re looking for similar books that you’d like to read more of, just go to Amazon and type in the book title. When you find the book, you’ll be able to scroll to the bottom of the book’s Amazon page. At the bottom, you’ll see what other people looked at/purchased that was like this book.

70. Which skills should someone have if they want to go into your career?

This post idea is kind of like what we did here: 11 Skills To Be Successful In A Content Marketing Career.

71. What are the ten commandments of your career?

Think about the must-dos of your career.

What are your commandments?
Are there things that your followers would gain from knowing your blog or businesses commandments?

Doing this helps people see what is important to you.

72. What are the five deadly sins in your career?

What things would you warn people against doing in your career? Think of these as five things that are deadly to doing your job correctly.

73. Come up with a truth vs lie post.

It’s like that game where you give so many facts, sneak in a few lies, then have your friends guess what was true and what was false. Think about this post in somewhat the same way, but instead of making your readers guess, tell them which are truths and which are lies.

74. How’d you start your business, blog, or freelance career?

People always want to know how to start out in their niche — the nitty-gritty details on how to do it all. Teach them how to start one of their own.

Ask yourself these questions to get an idea on what to cover:

What are the steps that I took from A to Z?
What things helped me start out?
How’d I get more followers on social media?
How about email subscriptions?

Cover all the basics of starting your own business, blog, or career. If your answers are actionable and helpful, people will keep coming back for more.

75. What kind of lessons could anyone learn from what you do in your career?

Are there life lessons that people who aren’t in your career could learn from? You might be amazed.

76. What is the toughest part of being a ______ (your job title)?

It’s time to be truthful. What is the toughest part about your job?

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Blog Post Ideas to Share Your Favorite Things

77. What are your favorite blogs?

Collect the links of your favorite bloggers and websites and share them in a list post. People love finding new, awesome blogs. When you are the one to help them find all these great bloggers, they’ll remember that and that will cause them to trust you more — which will make them come back for more.

78. Who is your favorite fictional character? How do you think you are alike?

Ever read a book and thought, “Man, this character is basically me!”? Use that as inspiration for a post like this. You can also incorporate this into your blog/business and personify your company/product with one of the characters by saying something like: Why My Product is the _____ of All Products.

79. If your favorite book hasn’t been made into a movie, who would you cast for the characters?

This is a fun and creative blog idea.

80. What are your go-to apps?

We are in such a digital world. You can’t go anywhere without seeing people looking at their phones or tablets. List out your favorite apps.

81. What are your favorite blog plugins?

Write out all the awesome plugins that you are using on your blog. Make a list of how you use them and why others should also be using them.

82. What is your favorite memory?

This one is always fun to think about. Write it down and share it with your followers.

83. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?

This one probably doesn’t need any explanation. You know what it is.

84. Your favorite blog posts from the month.

Create a list of your favorite blog posts that helped you this month. You can put some of yours in this post and/or posts from other people’s blogs.

85. Best ________ (fill in the blank) tutorials.

Have you watched any awesome video tutorials lately? Make a list-post of the best ones you’ve seen.

86. What are the best events that you’ve been to last year?

Are there any conferences, speakers, and/or classes that you’ve been to in the last year that you’ve really enjoyed? Share the events and make sure to link them. Add tips for people who might want to go to those events this year, so their experience will be even more amazing.

87. What’s on your current playlist? What does your playlist say about you?

You can learn a lot about a person when you spend any time looking into what they read, watch, or even what they listen to. What do you think your playlist says about you?

[Tweet “What do you think your playlist says about you?”]

88. Create a roundup of the best ______ (topic) posts from the last week.

Pick a topic and make a roundup list of actionable posts that show how to do certain things that will help your audience become better at what they do.

89. What is your favorite way to spend a day off?

Describe your favorite way to spend a day off.

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Ideas to Inspire Your Audience

90. What is your mission statement?

Mission statements are always great to have. They are a great way to keep your site focused on moving forward to your goals. Write up your mission statement and share it with your followers.

91. Nobody knows that I…

Finish the sentence.

92. What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?

Yup. What was so bad about it? Why’d you do it? Share how you got over it.

93. Send out a poll, survey, or quiz filled with questions.

We do this every year here at CoSchedule, so we’ll know what kinds of things you want to know more about. It really helps us get to know a little more about you and your goals as marketers, writers, and bloggers.

Do the same kind of thing for your own niche. Once you’ve gotten the responses, make that into a blog post.

Some example questions:

What do you want to learn about?
What are your goals this year?
Which topics interest you more, ______ or ______?
What is your job title? What do you do?
How long have you been using _____ (product name)?

94. Are you hosting any upcoming events?

If you are planning to host any events, make sure you let your audience know.

95. Profile your role model.

I love learning about people’s role models.

Here are some steps to profile your role model:

First off, interview them if you can.
Share what they do for a living.
What is their outlook on life?
Why are they your role model?

96. How do you show yourself love?

Life can get hectic. How do you slow down and show yourself love? What are some tips that might help your readers love themselves more?

97. What are you passionate about?

Why do you love what you do? Here at CoSchedule, we have a motto: “Do what you love. Love what you do!” and it’s so true. Life and work are so much easier when you love what you do. Write down what you are passionate about.

98. What are the top things you’ve learned over the past year?

This could go in a few different directions. Either you could make a massive list of the different things you’ve learned this year, or you could write a blog post for each idea off the list. Maybe share how to do what you’ve learned or the life lessons that a person could learn from.

99. What keeps you creative?

When working in a creative niche, there are times where the words flow or the ideas bubble up out of you like a fountain. There are also those days where you lack creativity and really don’t know what direction you want to go with certain projects. This can be hard. Many people give up on their creative endeavors when this happens.

Don’t let that happen to you and your art.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou

I’ve been told by countless creatives that creativity is a lot like having a child. If major complications happen during child birth, there is a chance that the mother and the baby could both die. The same story could be said for the artist bearing an untold story. If you have a story to tell but don’t tell it, you’re hurting yourself and harming the story. You don’t want the story to die, right?

Stay creative and finish your work. Ship.

Real artists ship. – Steve Jobs

Share all the things that keep you creative as a writer, blogger, content marketer, artist, or graphic designer.

100. Take a word and write a post inspired by it.

Think creatively. You could even choose a couple words to use. Check out the Sunday Scribblings blog that set up a new word prompt every Sunday for some inspiration.

101. How do you stay productive?

Productivity is another area in our lives that we are always trying to improve.

Something to think about:

What kind of a lifestyle has helped you be more productive? (e.g. Do you work out regularly? Do you wake up at 5 a.m. and work on your own projects before going to work in the morning?)
What things have been stopping me from being productive? Show how to avoid experiencing those unproductive habits.

102. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

It’s good to think about the things that you want to change about your life. It helps you see how to become better at what you do while also helping your audience see that you still want to improve upon things in your life.

103. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Sharing some of your life outside of work, business, and/or your blog will help people get to know you better. Sometimes, it helps people to see that you are just a normal person.

104. Creative and inspiring quotes related to your industry.

I love inspiring quotes — especially if they are related to a personal niche. Other people love them for the same reason.

Basically, quotes are morsels of knowledge from another person that help with inspiration and encouragement. Encourage your audience with niche-related quotes. It also helps just knowing that others have felt the same way.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. – Ernest Hemingway

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

General Blogging Ideas

105. What top things do you wish you’d known when you first started blogging?

Start by writing a list of the top things you wish you’d known. Just brain dump all your thoughts into that list. Then use that as the backbone for your blog post.

106. Where do you want your blog or business to be next year? How about in five and ten Years?

It can be tough to try and visualize where you’ll be in more than a week, meaning five to ten years into the future can be hard to picture. This can be a great time to imagine and dream. Try to be realistic, though. Setting SMART goals really helps. You don’t want to feel overwhelmed when you realize how much is on your plate.

107. Write a review.

Writing reviews is a great way to tell companies that you like their products, but more than that, it’s a great way to share awesome products with other people.

Do you use CoSchedule? If so, you could write a review and save 50%.

[Tweet “Do you use CoSchedule? If so, you could write a review and save 50%.”]

108. Write an open letter.

A few years ago, there was an open letter that many bloggers partook in. You’ve probably heard of it.

It was called, “A Letter To My 16-Year-Old Self”. With this, think about all the things you’d tell your younger self to help them through the things you went through.

Here’s an example you can check out from Huffington Post.

109. Reach out to experts and combine the quotes into a single blog post.

Write up a post using quotes you’ve gotten from experts in your field. People love posts like these, especially if what the experts are saying is new and can’t be found anywhere else online.

110. Write a best posts of the season (summer, fall, winter, or spring) blog post.

Go to your Google Analytics and look at your most popular posts from the past few months, for each season, and share them with your followers again in a recap post.

111. How do you get blog readers?

What has been the most successful way for you to build blog readers? Write down your steps and share them.

Some people think it will harm them if they give away their secrets, but that isn’t true. If you give away your secrets, people are going to trust you and keep coming back to you for more.

112. Try a photo prompt.

Find some awesome free images on Unsplash or in this blog post. Look at some pictures and use them to inspire your post idea. This is a creativity-building blog idea.

113. Your writing place.

I absolutely love seeing writers’ writing places. Your followers can take away so much inspiration these places.

Share your workplace. Artists love sharing and seeing other artists’ studios, while writers love seeing other writers’ offices. Share pictures of your office, too!

If you have a turquoise writing desk, I might be jealous. 🙂

114. Why did you start blogging?

Share what made you start blogging.

115. What are 15 things no one knows about you?

Think of 15 awesome and funny things. You could also use this idea to write 15 things that no one knows about your business or product.

116. Reach out to friend bloggers to see if they’d do a swap-a-roo blog post.

Contact them to see if they’d write a guest post for you if you write one for them.

Something to remember: other bloggers are looking for content as much as you are.

117. How do you develop your blogging ideas?

Write a blog post on your process for coming up with blog ideas.

118. What makes you unique as a blogger?

Make a list and then focus on ways that you can show those unique characteristics and strengths more often.

119. Who are five bloggers who inspire you?

Write a post about it.

120. How has your blogging career changed in the past year?

Share the changes, journeys, and stats. You could also share the top posts from the past year and the top comments. It’s a great way to pull your readers into your blog and thank them!

121. Set up a series of posts.

Have a few posts that talk about a similar topic or continue a longer idea.

122. Do you have a team? If so, how did you find them?

Share how you found your team. Was there a hiring process? Did you find them on an outsourcing website?

123. Respond to a tweet in longer form.

It can be hard to fit all your thoughts into 140 characters. Take the idea you got from a tweet and share that in post format on your blog.

124. Give a book review.

Have you read any great books in your niche? If so, why don’t you write a book review of sorts on the book?

Grab some of the biggest lessons from the book that stuck out to you that may help your audience.

Also, think about reaching out to the author of the book to share your review with them. Authors love it when people contact them to talk about their books. Who wouldn’t want to know that their writing impacted your life?

Choose Other Blog Ideas.

Blog Ideas About the Writing Process

125. What keywords bring the most traffic to your site? Use that data to write more on those topics.

Creating more content like your most popular blog posts just makes sense. Use a tool, like Moz, to understand the keywords that are helping you crush it and get new blog ideas from your best content.

126. Write a post where you share your top blog posts.

Create a fun way to get your readers excited about your top posts. What else can you do to make them special?

127. Participate in a blog hop, blog roundup, or carnival online.

When you participate in a blog hop, blog roundup, or a carnival, you’ll have to write a blog post that has to do with a topic. Usually, the blogger who is hosting the blog hop or setting up the carnival will have an overarching theme. You’ll have to write something about that with a topic that relates.

128. Write your writer’s guidelines.

Having guest writers is an awesome way to fill up your blog with content. You just want to make sure you go about it the right way. Treat your blog like a magazine and ask for pitches.

[Tweet “Treat your blog like a magazine and ask for pitches.”]

How to craft your writer’s guidelines:

Pitch guidelines: What do you want writers to put into their pitches? What things do you need to see from them in order to say “yes” to their pitch? Additionally, I would usually recommend asking for 250–500 words of the article that they’re pitching to you. This will help you see if their writing is any good before you accept a pitch.
Other things they should send with the pitch include their blog URL, social links, and a few writing samples.
Lay out how the guest writing process goes, so the writer will know how to approach you and what to expect about the whole process.
Keep in mind what minimum-maximum length you want for your posts.

129. Create a master list of helpful Amazon Kindle books that are in your niche.

When it comes to free e-books out there, there are a ton of them.

Self-publishing has opened many doors for writers, but it has also opened the publishing doors for a whole lot of not-so-good stuff. That makes it difficult for a person to find good, actionable e-books that are actually free.

Put together a list post of good, free e-books that you’ve found.

130. Write something that you’ve never written before.

Do you only write blog posts?

Ever thought of writing something different? Think about writing lyrics, a short story, poetry, or a short script and then share it on your blog.

Playing around in different formats of writing will make you a stronger writer.

131. Make a comprehensive guide post.

Make a comprehensive guide on a certain topic. Teach your readers the in-and-out to writing “how-to posts” or whatever topic you decide to choose. Remember to make it actionable.

132. Write a memorial post.

Did someone influential in your life or business pass away? Write up a blog post in memory of them. Share what you learned from them and how they affected your life, blog, and/or business.

133. Create a list of ____.

Write a list post. List posts are some of the more popular blog posts out there.

134. Create a list of online tools.

Do you use any online tools? If so, write up a list of the most helpful tools you’ve found and used.

135. Write a checklist on how to ________ (fill in the blank).

We recently published a post here on the CoSchedule blog that was a checklist. These are fun posts to write. Just walk your readers through the process of doing something in a checklist format.

136. A–Z post.

Have you ever seen those posts where bloggers do the A–Z posts on certain topics? There are a few ways that you could go about using this for blog ideas.

First, you could write one post with a list from A–Z, and then list words that start with that letter. You could also write a blog post for each letter. That would be a ton of blog ideas, once you got through the whole alphabet.

137. 100 things…

100 things you love, 100 things you enjoy, or 100 tools you swear by.

Ideas for Repurposing Blog Content

138. Thank your audience and give them something special for being awesome.

Thank your readers. They’re reading your blog posts, so thank them. Give away something special to them for being awesome.

They will definitely be thinking, “What’s in it for me?” every time they read a post on your blog. That’s just something to keep on your mind whenever you come up with new blog ideas.

139. Put your best blog posts into a free ebook.

Do you have a lot of blog posts covering a certain topic? If so, compile them into one document. Ask a designer to make a cool cover through Behance or Dribbble, or just make your own with Canva.

When you’re done with the book, write up another post covering some awesome tips from all the posts that you compiled into the ebook. Put a call to action in there where people can sign up for the book and grow that email list.

140. Write a handwritten letter or sketch something to share.

Write a blog post and then write a few quotes from your blog post by hand. Scan it and then upload those into your posts. This will add a new creative twist to your blog post.

141. Let people hear your voice.

Turn your posts into downloadable audio mp3 files. This is a fun way to be unique since people sometimes get sick of reading a ton of information. Think about having an audio area where they can listen to your post instead.

Big blogs, like Social Media Examiner, do this for their most successful posts using a tool called Blubrry Powerpress.

142. Live blog a conference.

Attend a session and write down everything the speaker says. Post it on your blog.

Share your post on social media using the event hashtag, so attendees will find it.

143. Host your own webinar.

Take an old blog post and make a webinar out of it. Then write a new post and market your webinar in it.

Create and host your own webinar

Create a landing page with something like Leadpages or Instapages.
What is the benefit for people to sign up?
Give something away for free to people who sign up — of course, in exchange for an email. Then you can send them the recording and also their free gift.
Use a program, like Zoom or Google Hangouts, to host and record your webinar.
Share your landing page on social media, with your friends, and email newsletter subscribers. Be sure to use a great call to action.

144. Are there templates or downloads that your readers would enjoy having?

Now, write those up and share them freely or use them to collect email subscribers.

Think about turning the content you already have on your blog posts into a download of some sort. Could that be a guide, worksheet, or video course?

Take a look at our Resource Library for some great ideas on things you can create.

Recommended Reading: The Best Way to Manage Your Blog in CoSchedule

145. Try vlogging for a month.

Vlogging is a great way to play around with creating new content or reshaping old content into something new. If you want to turn an old post into a vlog, go through your post and pick out the main topics that will help your audience solve whatever problem they want to solve.

Then write it out as a script. Practice a ton. Record yourself and then edit it. Once you are done with that, share it with your audience.

Tips for vlogging:

Write your script more like an outline than an actual post. Keep sentences shorter rather than longer, so it’s easier to read.
Put googly craft eyes on either side of your computer video recorder (if you are using your computer), so you keep eye contact with your audience. As a viewer, it can be distracting to watch a speaker who is always looking away or looking in the wrong direction.

146. Host a live workshop.

Write an actionable post about the topic that you are going to cover. Don’t cover everything you want to cover in the workshop, but you can share something awesome that will make them want to sign up for that course.

Having a downloadable piece of content also really helps them sign up. We all love free stuff!

What to keep in mind:

What kind of a workshop do you want to host? In person? Online? A Meetup?
Brainstorm the different topics that you’d like to cover. You can even take a post that you’ve already written — take the key points and cover actionable tips about them.
Write your notes like an outline. Keep your sentences short, so it’s easier to focus when you look down at your notes.
Talk slowly enough for people to understand you.

147. Create infographics for some of your top-performing posts and share them.

Infographics are a lot of fun for making your blog posts a little more colorful and scannable. You can learn more about making them here. Share them on social media. Pinterest loves infographics.

[Tweet “Infographics are a lot of fun for making your blog posts a little more colorful and scannable.”]

148. Create a quick reference guide.

You could also call it a cheat sheet. Fill it with tips and tricks of the trade that’ll help your audience ace the test.

149. Have you made past blogging mistakes?

Have you made any blogging mistakes? Make a list of all the mistakes. It would make a great what-not-to-do post.

Great Ideas for Food Bloggers

150. Make a recipe relatable to your niche.

If this idea prompts you to make food and talk about your niche… wonderful! There are many ways that you could write a post and bring in a recipe.

A few ideas to try:

Make a recipe for success in your niche.
Share a recipe, pictures of the food, and relate it to something in your career or niche.

151. Share a regional recipe.

Are there any types of food that are popular in your area? Share a recipe so everyone can enjoy it!

152. Show off your kitchen.

People like to see how others work. Show off where you make the magic happen.

153. Talk about the history of a dish.

Put on your historian cap and dig into the history of a popular food or recipe.

154. Interview a popular chef.

Are there chefs that readers in your food niche admire? See if they’ll do an interview for your blog.

155. Explain a cooking technique step-by-step.

It could even be something simple, like the best way to dice vegetables.

156. Share how you got started cooking.

Inspire others with your own story about what motivated you to launch a food blog.

157. Write about healthy replacements for unhealthy foods.

We all love junk food. However, what if people could have those things without the negative side effects?

158. Try something new and write your thoughts about it.

Food is all about exploring new flavors. Try something you’ve never had before and share your thoughts.

159. Review a cook book.

Are there any new cook books coming out that you’re interested in? Write a review and maybe even host a giveaway and send a free copy to a reader.

160. Explain how to copy popular restaurant recipes.

People love going out to eat. They’d love even more to know how to copy their favorite restaurant recipes more affordably at home.

161. Compare cooking products or utensil brands.

Which cooking tools are the best? Share which ones you think your readership should use.

162. Share a story about a cooking experience that failed.

We all fail from time to time. Sometimes, reading about other people’s missteps can help us feel better about our own mistakes. Sometimes, sharing your mistakes can help you see what you learned from those experiences.

Beauty Blog Post Ideas

163. Search for headline ideas in beauty magazines.

Honestly!

Example: “Killer Cocktail: How a Popular Drink Could Kill You in Your Sleep”

Change it to “Killer Content Marketing Cocktail: How ______ Could Kill Your Blog in Your Sleep,” or something like that. Be sure to check it in the Headline Analyzer Studio.

164. Share your skincare routine.

What does your morning routine look like?

[Tweet “What does your morning routine look like?”]

165. Talk about your favorite beauty product.

Be sure to include links where people can buy them, too. If the manufacturer’s have videos on them, you can easily embed those.

166. Which products do you travel with?

Empty out your travel bag and explain why each piece is included. Then, show your readers where they can find those items.

167. How can readers beautify on a budget?

Helping your readers save money is a great way to deliver value. Consider:

Sharing links to a site offering deals and discounts.
Posting reader tips on making beauty supplies last longer.

168. Write about a trend.

What’s hot on social media right now? Write a blog post telling your readers the latest trends and how to copy those styles.

169. Compare two different brands

Which product is best? Compare two popular products and give your own conclusion.

Photography Blog Ideas

170. Go somewhere new.

People love to see photos from interesting places, and travel can help spark creativity.

171. Snap your vacation.

You’ve probably already brought your camera, so why not share your snaps?

172. Show off your gear.

Photographers love to see how others are shooting. Share a gear breakdown of everything you keep in your camera bag.

173. Explain how to get new clients in your niche.

If you’ve had some success getting clients, share the process you used to attract new business.

174. Share photos from an event.

Make your audience feel like they were there with a compelling photo series.

175. Explain a photography technique.

Simple how-to content often does well. From setting an appropriate f-stop to properly framing shots, there are tons of techniques you can share.

176. Write a how-to post with editing tips.

Show your readers how to do something specific with Photoshop, Lightroom, or other photography software.

177. Share your best lighting tip.

Photography is all about getting good lighting. How do you do it?

178. The business side of photography.

Photographers don’t always love dealing with spreadsheets and paperwork. Show how you make it easy.

179. Create a beginner’s guide.

New folks pick up cameras for the first time every day. Many of them go looking for tips and advice. Help them out by sharing how you got started.

180. Try photojournalism.

They say a photo is worth a thousand words. Imagine how powerful of a story you could tell with a photo series on your blog.

181. Talk to a fellow photographer.

Not only will you learn more about how they approach the craft, but the interview might make a great blog post.

182. Share your services.

Don’t be afraid to sell and tell your audience exactly what you can do for them as a photographer.

Blog Ideas for Authors

183. Give away a free chapter.

If your sample is good, they’ll want to read the rest. This is also a great way to build your email list.

184. Share a writing tip.

Write a blog post and promote it with a social campaign that shares your best writing tips.

185. Explain how to promote a book.

Authors aren’t always the best marketers. If you’ve ever promoted a book of your own, help others learn how to do the same.

186. How did you get an agent?

Landing an agent isn’t necessarily easy. If you’ve done it and learned some dos and don’ts along the way, offer your best tips.

187. Describe your writing process.

Writers love to know how other writers work. When you start to write a book or short story, how do you get started and which steps do you follow to complete it?

188. Share your routine.

Many authors are famous for their unusual writing routines. What are yours?

189. Host a writer’s group and mention it on your blog.

Use Meetup to plan and host a regular writer’s group in your area. Write about it on your blog.

Now You Have a Ton of Blog Ideas

Phew… that was a lot of information.

Now, you’re bound to have plenty of blog ideas that will birth many blog posts. When you use these unique blog ideas, no one can stop you from writing awesome content — not even the blinking cursor!

Now, go write!

[Tweet “189 #blog ideas to fill up your editorial calendar. #blogging”]

Ready to take your new blog post ideas to the next level?

Enroll in CoSchedule Academy’s Blog Growth course to get a proven process to drive more traffic & leads from your blog.

Claim your seat today for only $29 (a $99 value) – enter code GROW at checkout. Offer available only to blog readers.

This post was originally published on August 8, 2018. It was updated and republished on July 2, 2020.

30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions [FAKE] – CoS

adminlin — Fri, 07 May 2021 15:11:29 GMT

An engaged following = audience who know, like, and trust you.

And that, at its core, is how successful content marketers help fuel sales.

Engaging your audience on social media is a great way to build that community of fans for your brand.

But… what are some of the time-tested, proven social media engagement tactics that have worked for others? And how can you prove your success when you test them?

Read on to find out. 😉

[content_upgrade_shortcode]

[Tweet “30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions”]

Introducing Social Analytics: The Easiest Way To Understand Your Social Media Engagement

Data proves the ROI of the work you do.

But the tedious process of gathering, analyzing, and reporting is so time-consuming that sometimes you just can’t do it all.

With Social Analytics, now available in your CoSchedule marketing calendar, you’ll:

Measure the success of your social messages so you can easily re-share your most engaging content (and improve future messages).
PROVE the ROI of the work you do! The proof is in the numbers, and now you can easily prove your value to your boss/clients (and yourself). Never question the results of your hard work!
Understand your engagement on social media. Spot trends with your content and social networks without the time-suck—and stress. Understand what your audience likes now to act quickly!
Know what’s working (and what’s not). Easily see and compare your performance across all of your social networks in one convenient place.

See Social Analytics in action:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/mdmif55fyv?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

[Tweet “Social Analytics in CoSchedule helps you easily PROVE your ROI!”]

But, there’s more!

What if you want to measure one channel at a time? No problem!

With Social Profile Reports, you can…

Access top social profile reports from one dashboard. Stop downloading reports from individual platforms (or multiple third-party tools). Quickly view important social KPIs for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest right inside CoSchedule.
Refine your social strategy with actionable insight. Track your social performance so you know what’s working (and what isn’t). Use real-time data to make updates to your social strategy, so you can continue to drive results.
Connect with your audience + create posts that stand out. Track engagement stats and stop guessing at what will (or will not) resonate with your followers. Utilize your social profile reports to identify top content AND start creating posts you know your audience will love.
Get social profile reports delivered right to your inbox with scheduled reports. Create and schedule easy-to-understand reports to your team + stakeholders on a weekly or monthly basis. Giving everyone a pulse on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest performance.

Alright, now let’s learn about the tactics you can use to increase your social media engagement. Just remember… you can use CoSchedule’s Social Analytics to easily know which of these tactics works best in your social media strategy!

Plus… you’ll soon see how many of these tactics become realistically doable with complementary features right in your favorite marketing calendar. 🙂

Ready to try it yourself? Start your free trial or schedule a demo to get started.

15 Essential Social Media Engagement Tactics You Can Plan In Advance

While social media engagement is all the rage—and for a really good reason—it’s tough to always be in the moment, sharing spontaneously amazing content.

Planning actually saves time. Not to mention stress.

[Tweet “Planning saves time and lowers stress.”]

You can schedule many kinds of engaging social media content. This practice will help you engage your audience while making your life as a social media manager so much more manageable. (See what I did there?)

Let’s learn the 15 proven ways you can plan, create, and schedule your social media messages to increase your engagement.

1. Share Videos To Take Your Part Of The 100+ Million Hours Watched On Social Media Every Day

Facebook users alone watch 100 million hours of video every single day. And 82% of Twitter users watch video on that network.

It’s safe to say that sharing videos will help you engage your fans and followers.

So how can you create and share social videos that will boost your engagement?

If you’re looking for social video ideas, consider how-to, entertainment, behind-the-scenes, culture, recruiting, response, shout-out, event, promotional, demonstration, interview, and even customer testimonials.
The best video length for Facebook engagement is about 1 minute and 30 seconds, and Twitter’s direct upload maximum length is 2 minutes and 20 seconds. So you could smartly record one video and share it across multiple networks, then also upload it to YouTube for additional exposure.
Facebook recommends that storytelling via video keeps your audience interested.
You can start as simple as a smartphone or go all-in on a camera, microphone, stand, and lights. Or if you don’t have in-house expertise, this is something you can work with a video-specific agency to help you professionally record and produce exceptional video content.
Edit your video with Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or our favorite at CoSchedule: ScreenFlow. Add captions to make your message accessible for everyone, even if sound is off.
Use your social media message copy to get your followers excited to watch your video. Explain what’s in it for them to watch your video. Emotion drives action.

[Tweet “Boost engagement by creating and sharing social videos.”]

Schedule It With CoSchedule

Yep, you can schedule your videos to post on your social accounts in the #1 best-selling marketing calendar in the world. 😉

Here’s how you can do it:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/wubehhd99y?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

Recommended Reading:

2. Tag Your Guest Bloggers Or People You’ve Quoted In Your Social Messages

It’s human nature to want to be recognized for doing something amazing.

So tag the peeps you want to recognize in the social messages you write. Here are a few ways to engage fans, friends, and influencers with your social accounts:

Create a quote graphic with a tool like Canva or design your own with Photoshop. Tag the person you quoted—or the business they work for—in your social message. You can easily find their Twitter handle by searching their name, or search for their business page on Facebook.
You likely reference other folks’ amazing content when you publish your own blog posts, podcast episodes, and videos. Thank those people by tagging them in a social message with a link back to the content you’ve published so they can see how you’ve recognized their hard work.
You may accept guest authors to write for your blog. Tag your guest bloggers in the social messages you schedule to promote their blog posts. They’ll get to experience the likes, shares, and comments on those social messages, which will make them feel awesome and reiterate that they made the right decision to write for you.
If you’re like us at CoSchedule, you consistently ask your audience for feedback on what to create next. For example, it’s easy to ask your audience for their advice on the next content you should create. When you do create that content, share it with the folks who gave you the great ideas by tagging them in social messages.

The point is, social media involves people. Tag your fans, friends, followers, and those who inspire you to build an engaged community.

Schedule It With CoSchedule

You can now tag easily as you write and schedule your social messages in CoSchedule. Specifically, you can search Facebook pages and Twitter handles to tag without ever leaving CoSchedule.

Just type @ and the first few letters of the profile, and boom! CoSchedule will find the tag you’re looking for.

And that makes it simple to tag as you schedule your social campaigns. No excuses!

3. Curate And Share Others’ Valuable Content With Your Following

Social media content curation is an awesome way for you to share the most valuable content in your industry with your following.

Even if it’s not content you’ve created.

As Julie Neidlinger elegantly puts it:

[Your followers] trust you’ll point out the most important stuff. They trust you won’t waste their time. They trust that you’ll know them well enough that you’ll do a better job finding information that an algorithm or computer can’t quite master. Social media content curation is a lifesaver for an audience drowning in information.

There are many different ways to curate, in what some have called your social media mix. Check out this infographic for formulas to help you share a variety of content that will engage your followers:

Social media content curation presents an awesome opportunity to tag the authors behind the pieces you’re sharing. This recognizes the talent you thought worthy enough to share with your followers while giving your audience the chance to discover even more engaging content.

An easy way to start is to set up Feedly with the RSS feeds from your favorite blogs. Then you can easily make it a habit to check Feedly to curate awesome content.

[Tweet “Curating content? Tag the author.”]

Schedule It With CoSchedule

You guessed it! You can easily curate content from anywhere on the interwebs right into your CoSchedule marketing calendar.

Start by downloading the CoSchedule Chrome extension social media content curation tool. Then find content you know your audience would love, open the CoSchedule Chrome extension, and you’re a curating wizard!

You can even tag the author if you want.

Yep. That makes managing all of your social media scheduling on one calendar extremely easy.

[Tweet “Content curation tip: use the CoSchedule Chrome extension.”]

Recommended Reading:

4. Schedule Your Social Messages To Send At The Best Times To Increase Your Reach

For every network, there are certain times of the day when the users are most active. By scheduling your social media messages to post at the best times, you’re that much more likely to engage your followers.

“When is the best time to schedule social media posts?” Is a question we get a lot, so we decided to create the most-researched blog post on the internet to answer the question.

Here’s an infographic with the high-level overview of the absolute best times to post on social media to help you increase your engagement:

Schedule It In CoSchedule

Now, you could memorize the best times to share to every social network. Or, you could just use Best Time Scheduling, a feature built right into CoSchedule to send your social messages at the best times without all the nuisance of remembering when to share.

Here’s how it works:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/uszpz02w5v?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

Recommended Reading:

5. Write Emotional Headlines To Increase Shares And Clickthroughs

If you’re following one of the social media mix formulas from tip #3, you’re sharing a lot of your own content on social media. You can increase your social shares and traffic (not to mention SEO value) by writing emotional headlines—and subsequently using those headlines in your social shares.

There are three solid headline formulas that tend to perform well:

How To {Do Something} That Will {Help You Experience Desired Result}
{#} Ways To {Do Something} To {Produce Desired Result}
What Is The Best {Topic} That Will {Do Something Desirable}?

Now, those formulas vary a lot, but the point is that how to, list, and question headlines tend to get the most engagement.

Here are 30 emotional headline formulas that will spark your creativity:

And we’ve also researched the formulas behind the 1,000 most-shared headlines of 4,302,684 pieces of content shared through CoSchedule. Then we combined that data with the best advice we could find to give you the 100+ best headline templates in the world:

More social shares = more engagement. Try sharing these headline formulas for your content to measure what happens.

Schedule It In CoSchedule

You may know of the Headline Analyzer Studio from CoSchedule that helps you improve the headlines you write. Write your headline once, then iterate it up to 25 times to improve your headline grade and score to increase its shares, traffic, and SEO value.

That analyzer is built right into your CoSchedule marketing calendar—and uses the data you just learned about—to help you develop the most engaging headlines possible… and right in the tool you use to create your content and share it on social media.

Get more engagement for your content:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/ihust7348p?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

Recommended Reading:

6. Increase Your Posting Frequency To Boost Your Organic Growth

When Post Planner increased their posting frequency by 29%, they grew their Facebook organic reach by 65%.

Sharing more often helps you reach and engage more of the following you’ve worked so hard to build.

So… how often should you share to social media? It’s a question we’ve been researching with a lot of data to come in a blog post we’re launching very soon! But in the meantime, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the results we’ve analyzed so far:

[Tweet “Is your social posting schedule optimized for growth?”]

Schedule It In CoSchedule

There’s a brand-new feature coming to your favorite marketing calendar really soon. We’re calling it ReQueue! It fills in the gaps of your daily schedule (with smarts, and no manual guesses)! CoSchedule takes into account your entire social schedule, uses Best Time Scheduling to intelligently post your messages at the best times for engagement AND finds the gaps in your posting schedule (so it stays full).

That feature is coming… well… very soon! (…and the cat is out of the bag!)

7. Share Your Content More Than Once On Social Media

You can get 31.5 times more click-throughs when you share your content on social media more than once.

Let me rephrase that—you can get 3,150% more traffic to your content by scheduling a few more social messages to share your content with your followers.

If your reaction is anything like mine was when I discovered that stat, this is you right now:

You can share the same piece of content on social media more than once to help you fill up your social media posting schedule (especially since you just learned you can post way more frequently than you have been). A good way to do this is to mix up the variety of the kinds of messages you write to share a single piece of content.

Here’s how to do it:

Use the three kinds of headlines that work best for engaging content: how to, list, and question.
Ask questions to pique your followers’ curiosity. Close-ended questions actually work best for click-throughs, so try questions that make your followers answer “yes” or “no” in response to your question. (e.g. Are you using hashtags as you should be?)
Post something controversial that makes your readers question their behavior, beliefs, or sense of belonging. They’ll want to confirm or disprove what you share, so they’ll have to click through to learn more. (e.g. Nothing is original.)
Combine a humorous message with a funny meme or GIF. Something that works well is to try a message like “How you’ll feel when you learn how to {experience desired benefit you teach in your content.}” Then pair it with a GIF of someone super excited.

Then can you share your content more than once:

On publish – Social message sent when blog post goes live
Same day – Initial social messages trickle out to your accounts over the next 2-3 hours.
Next day – Messages are shared again on the appropriate social channels.
Next week – Another series of messages are pre-scheduled and sent the following week.
Next month – Even more social messages are pre-scheduled for the following month.
Next _____ – Additional messages can optionally be scheduled for the three-month mark or beyond.

You could plan a social media posting schedule that looks something like this:

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

You can create a Social Template right in CoSchedule to help you schedule dozens of messages in a few easy minutes. That will help you easily create a social media posting schedule to share a single piece of content days, weeks, and even months after its original publish date without the hassle.

Schedule more social messages in a fraction of the time:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/pqfe01kzzg?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

Recommended Reading:

8. Use Hashtags To Double Your Engagement Rate

Yep, using hashtags on Twitter can double your engagement rate. On other networks like Pinterest, they work well for categorizing your content. And on Instagram… well… you can use a lot of them to help your followers find your content.

Find trending hashtags with:

Then follow the best practices from this infographic to increase your engagement on each social network:

[Tweet “Find the right hashtags (+29 more social media engagement tips).”]

Schedule It In CoSchedule

You can easily type in your hashtags as you write your social media messages in CoSchedule. From here, you’ll see a message preview that will show you how your hashtag will appear on the networks you’re sharing to.

Recommended Reading: How To Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying

9. Use Images, Memes, And Animated GIFs To Increase Shares And Clickthroughs

Tweets with images get 18% more click-throughs than those without. And tweets with animated GIFs get 167% more click-throughs than tweets with images. Memes bring humor to busy news feeds (and let’s just remember that half of all people share entertaining content).

Let’s just say it’s widely known that social media messages with visuals get more engagement.

Find inspiration for visual content:

Look to GIPHY, PopKey, and reddit’s top GIFs sub-reddit for animated GIFs. GIPHY also has a GIF maker to help you make your own GIFs.
You can also check reddit’s home page for memes and more, or try a site like memes.com to make your own.
There are also dozens of tools to help you make your own engaging images and graphics for your social media messages.

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

You can include images, animated GIFs, memes, and even videos in the social messages you schedule with CoSchedule.

Let’s say you want to share an image, GIF, or meme embedded in your blog post. Simply use the image chooser to find the visual from your content to include in your message without uploading anything into CoSchedule (that saves lots of clicks and time, speaking from personal experience!). Otherwise, you can always upload the visuals you find for an individual message or even create them with a Social Helper.

There are lots of ways to add visuals into a social campaign in CoSchedule to add tons of variety into your social media posting schedule.

10. Post Standalone Social Media Messages To Increase Shares

It’s easy to want to share content that contains links back to your content (after all, clickthroughs are an element of social media engagement, right?)

However, a growing trend is emerging for brands to share standalone social media messages. By that, I mean posting a message with a graphic—something with a funny, inspirational, or encouraging message.

It’s something big brands out there have been trying, like Anytime Fitness, Post Planner, Copy Hackers, and even our team at CoSchedule.

Anytime Fitness has found this tactic (as one element in their very robust strategy) has helped grow their Facebook reach by 275%, going from 1 million to 40 million monthly reach.

Here’s an example:

No matter what your end goal is, weight lifting is for all!

Posted by Anytime Fitness on Tuesday, October 11, 2016

You can easily create your own graphics using a tool like Canva or one of these other 20 graphics tools.

Grab this free Photoshop CC action so you can create one graphic then export it to the correct sizes for every social network.

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

Create a bank of standalone social media graphics, then create a Social Campaign in CoSchedule to easily share your content.

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/qz4ageyw6b?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

Oh, and when ReQueue launches (which will be very soon!), you’ll be able to easily recycle your social messages from the Social Campaigns you create to remove the busywork from social media scheduling. Which leads me to your next social media engagement tip…

Recommended Reading: How To Make The Best Blog Graphics (For Non-Designers)

11. Recycle Your Evergreen Content To Share Timelessly Amazing Content

Creating, sharing, and repurposing evergreen content helped CoSchedule increase our content’s results by 283%.

Evergreen content is perfect for engaging your social media following because you’ll have relevant content to mix into your posting schedule that’s always relevant. When Post Planner doubled their Facebook organic reach, they said:

[Sharing evergreen content] is one of the cornerstones of our 193% page growth.

Get started by creating engaging evergreen content with a little help from these examples:

Then create a handful of social media posting schedules to help you share multiple pieces of evergreen content:

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

As you probably guessed, you can easily create multiple social media posting schedules to easily re-share your evergreen content with Social Templates in CoSchedule. Another option will be to add your evergreen content’s social messages into a Group in ReQueue. Again, ReQueue is coming to a CoSchedule near you very soon!

12. Share The Content You Already Know Your Audience Loves (Again)

You likely have timeless content that continues to perform well week after week, month after month. That top content is the kind of evergreen content to share again.

Neil Patel is a marketing mastermind who found that when he shared all of his old content, his traffic actually dropped. However, when Neil shared only his best content, he grew his traffic.

Use Google Analytics to understand your content that is getting the most traffic. That’s a natural indicator of something your followers dig, so share that content again.

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

Or…. you could actually see what your audience engages with the most in your Top Content Report in your all-new Analytics feature in CoSchedule. There’s a handy share button right next to your most popular content to help you re-share your best-of-the-best right to turn data into action immediately.

13. Create A Facebook Group To Build A Community

Creating your own Facebook Group gives you the opportunity to engage with your community. You can ask questions, get feedback on your upcoming content and other projects, and even share content.

Get started by going to Facebook. In the Groups area to the left of your newsfeed, click on “Create Group”.

From here, you can make your Group public, closed, or secret—it all depends on the kind of community engagement you’re hoping to foster. Write an intro and guidelines to help your following participate accordingly. You can also select additional admins to help you manage your Group.

[Tweet “Facebook Groups are a great tool for building community.”]

Schedule It With CoSchedule:

You can easily post messages to your Facebook Group (that you’re an admin of) right from CoSchedule. 😉

14. Host A Twitter Chat To Build Your Following

Have you thought about hosting a Twitter chat to engage your followers in meaningful conversation?

You can keep the process as simple as possible to make this a realistic engagement tactic in your social media strategy:

Choose a hashtag. All participants in your conversations will use this hashtag in the answers to your questions that you, as the host, will ask.
Define the chat time. One recurring weekly chat is the norm, and hosting them consistently at the same time and same day helps your followers easily remember your chat schedule.
Define how long the conversation will be. Usually it’s an hour. As the host, you’ll ask questions your audience will answer throughout that hour. And that means, you could plan on about nine questions each spaced six minutes apart, leaving three minutes for a welcome message and three minutes for a thank you/conclusion message. If you want less lull time between questions, simply increase your number of questions in the body of your 54 minutes.
Determine several topics to span the next several weeks. It’s helpful to provide this information on a calendar you can easily share with your followers so they know what to expect in your future convos.
Break those topics into questions.
Design graphics for your questions to help them stand out in the busy chats.
Schedule Tweets to build anticipation before each chat.
Be a rock star host and like your followers’ answers and reply with helpful advice.

Schedule It With CoSchedule:

One of my favorite use cases for Social Templates in CoSchedule is to create a specific posting schedule you can reuse again and again to host your very own Twitter chat. Then you can simply apply that template in a Social Campaign and forget about watching the clock to post your questions at the right times—CoSchedule will automatically tweet at the precise times you built into your Social Template.

That makes hosting a Twitter chat super easy, so you can spend your time engaging with your followers instead of worrying when to Tweet the next question.

Recommended Reading:

15. Capitalize On The Most-Shared Content By Sharing Infographics On Pinterest

When Neil Patel researched the best types of social media content for his post published on the CoSchedule blog, he found infographics are the most shared form of content. Ever.

And it turns out, visuals with a 2:3 aspect ratio—and specifically 735 pixels wide x 1,102 pixels tall—receive the most traffic on Pinterest. Narrow and tall = best engagement.

That makes infographics the perfect type of content to share on Pinterest.

Read this post to create awesome infographics for yourself.

[Tweet “Infographics are the perfect type of content to share on Pinterest.”]

Schedule It In CoSchedule:

CoSchedule makes it easy for you to schedule Pins to your boards. Even when those Pins are infographics.

Recommended Reading:

^^ Measure The Engagement For All Of Those Messages With Social Analytics, Your Newest Feature In CoSchedule

You probably guessed it… you can measure your social media engagement for all of the previous 15 tactics in Social Analytics, the newest feature in CoSchedule!

With Social Analytics, you’ll:

Measure the engagement of individual social messages to understand what your audience likes and act quickly.
Prove the ROI behind your social media strategy! You’ll easily prove your value to your boss, clients, and team.
Identify trends without wasting your time deciphering confusing data.
Know exactly what’s working and what’s not with all of your data in one convenient place.

[Tweet “15 #SocialMedia engagement tactics to plan in advance (and measure easily)!”]

15 Bonus Social Media Engagement Tactics That Work Well In The Moment

As you know by now, there’s a lot to be gained by using social media. Social media is one of the most effective ways to increase exposure of your brand.

However, simply telling your readers to use social media isn’t really that helpful. There’s a lot that can be done using social media platforms, to the point where it can be overwhelming when trying to figure out where to start and what to do.

The following are 15 social media engagement tactics to improve and increase engagement with your followers, thereby strengthening your brand’s identity as well as growing the number of subscribers to your various social media profiles.

These tips come courtesy of a guest blogger of CoSchedule’s, Zhi Yuan, a Digital Marketer who works at SEOPressor and RankReveal. He is on a never-ending quest to understand the mysteries of the search engine world, and sometimes, on his way to the ice-cream parlor.

[Tweet “15 #SocialMedia Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Your Conversions via @zhiyuan21”]

1. Create And Join Groups/Forums

As of May 2013, there were more than 1.5 million LinkedIn groups according to Social Media Examiner.

You can create groups or join groups that are relevant to your industry on several social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. This allows you provide helpful and informative advice or to start relevant discussions that can help generate interest in your brand.

Your primary reason to be on a forum is to participate in other people’s discussions, not to start them. So answer, chime in and let the community guide the discussion.
When participating, don’t just shamelessly promote your content. Don’t just share, but participate!
Keep groups small and intimate to keep them active.

2. Hold Q&A Sessions

An “Ask Me Anything” on Inbound.org, gets anywhere from 50 to 350+ upvotes. People love the honest, down-to-earth conversation, that’s why AMAs are so popular.

Q&A sessions are a great way to answer any questions that your followers may have as well as provide information to consumers that may have some interest in your brand but are not familiar with it.

It’s also a fantastic way to strengthen the connection between your company and your customers since you are opening up a direct line of communication. Many companies will hold Q&A sessions on social media with higher-ups—including CEOs—to help make their company more relatable. Q&A sessions are also a great way to inform the public about new products, services, and promotions.

Providing answers on Q&A forms can help you connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.
Have your audience send in questions beforehand so you can be prepared for what they want to know.
Be prepared for any tough questions by chatting with your PR team and knowing how you’ll respond quickly.

3. Host Social Media Contests

A t-shirt company called Qwertee launched a campaign that gave away 1,000 shirts a week with the goal to get over 100,000 likes on their Facebook page (which they succeeded.) All you had to do was like the page and submit your e-mail to be entered. They ended up strengthening their brand identity, exposure, and trust.

Social media contests help boost engagement in a number of ways. Encouraging people to participate in a contest that is related to your brand will boost engagement with those who are already followers and can help you increase subscribers by requiring those that don’t follow or like your page yet to do so in order to participate.

You can even let the outcome of the contest depend on the votes of your followers. There are different types of contests you can host as well, from simple sweepstakes to trivia questions to creativity-based competitions. Facebook and Instagram are two social channels that are great platforms for contests.

People are motivated by free giveaways. One of the best ways to sure more likes, follows, or emails is to host a social media contest.
Be clear about your objectives and exactly how you want your audience to participate for the best outcome. Define easy, simple rules before you launch your contest.
For voting, let your audience be the judge. This could be as easy as favorites or likes. By letting you audience, vote you are encouraging social media engagement and more participation past just a like.
35% of Facebook fans like a page so they can participate in contests.

[Tweet “Drive engagement with social media contests.”]

4. Conduct Polls And Surveys

People are often willing to provide you their opinion—and this is especially true on social media networks. This means that conducting polls and surveys about your services, products, and brand in general are great ways to engage your followers and obtain valuable information about your customer base.

It also shows them that you care about their opinions, which in turn helps to build trust and loyalty, further strengthening your brand identity and reputation.

Use survey creation sites like Surveymonkey to easily create polls to post on your social media sites.
Be quick. Keep your surveys short and sweet. Your audience is more likely to respond when you keep your poll simple.
A poll is generally easier to do since you can just ask one question and have a list of answers to choose from. Because they take little to no effort to complete, followers are more likely to do them.
Surveys can take a little longer, which means you may want to offer an incentive for doing them, such as a coupon that provides a discount off a product or service.

5. Join Twitter Chats

Twitter chats help you reach a new audience with using a branded hashtag.

Instead of posting Tweets or sending direct messages, you can have conversations using Twitter chats. This is beneficial because Twitter chats allows you to have real-time conversations with hundreds of different users at the same time.

You can join other Twitter chats relevant to your brand and provide valuable input in order to garner interest in your brand from Twitter users who aren’t part of your follower base yet.

67% of Twitter users are far more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter.
Pick a topic that is relevant and many people can participate in.
Look to leading niches in your industry and reach out to them to co-host with you to expand your network.

6. Offer Incentives For Shares And Conversions

Free content from CoSchedule, such as providing how-to downloads in their posts, generates more than 5,500 new subscribers every month.

Ask followers to share certain posts by offering freebies. You can also speak with other companies within your industry and offer to trade shares in order to help further each other’s engagement while increasing exposure of one another’s brands.

What kind of content could you give away?

Something that is fun and comes regularly.
Something the promotes education.
Something that gives you a reputation.
Something that you can continue to build on.

7. Ask Followers To Engage

The average time a users spends on a website is, at best, only 20 seconds. You have to make it count.

Simply asking your followers to engage will often work. When posting content on social media, ask your followers to share, like, or to share their opinion on it.

Explain to your readers why they should share your piece of content. Give them a reason to do it. According to research by Ellen Langer, reasoning may pump your acceptance rate to as high as 94%.
Focus on a single call to action, don’t confuse your audience by asking too much.
Only 16% of your visitors will actually read your article from start to finish. You should not miss your chance to ask them for a share.
Your tweets have a 12x higher chance of being retweeted if you ask for it, and 23x higher if you actually spell out the word “retweet.”

8. Make It Easy For People To Engage

Social proof is a major hazard. If your blog gets few shares, you might be doing more harm than good with your social media buttons. Consider a sharing widget that takes social proof into account like this one.

Encourage your customers and website visitors to find you on social media and to follow or like you by using social media plugins on your blog. This way, your readers can easily share content on your blog by just clicking a button. You can also create a pop-up for your website that asks them to follow you on certain social media pages.

[Tweet “Make it easy for readers to engage right in the context of your posts. #smm”]

Obviously, you don’t want this pop-up to appear on every page of your site since this will harm the overall user experience. A good place to put it is after a customer has checked out on your e-commerce page or opted-in on a landing page.

If you are going to use social sharing buttons, the top/left side of the page seems to do best.
Definitely limit the networks you include when using social media buttons. (See data point #3)
Facebook and Twitter will usually provide the most shares, but make this decision based on your individual audience. For example, Google+ has good traction for many blogs.

9. Respond Quickly And Thoroughly

“Research shows that customer emotions become permanent with time. It’s best for an effective intervention to take place as close to the experience as possible,” says Baba Shiv, Stanford Professor of Marketing at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

When people post comments on your social media, respond quickly. If you don’t, then it’s going to seem like you’re not very active on your own social media pages—or you simply don’t care.

Both of these will drastically hurt your engagement since hardly anyone will bother posting comments or questions if you’re going to appear to ignore them. And when you do respond, do so thoroughly. You want your answers to be informative and helpful.

Not only is a “yes” or “no” answer not informative or helpful, it comes off as somewhat arrogant and off-putting.
Your followers will be much more likely to post comments if they know that you are reading them and that you will respond to them in a helpful manner.
If you respond right away, there’s a chance that the conversation will continue since they may still be on your page.

10. Engage Through Social Issues

69% share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world, and 84% share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about

Major social issues shouldn’t be shied away from. Consumers relate more with companies that take a stance on important social issues. It can really help to strengthen your reputation, and posting about social issues will certainly foster engagement.

A recent example can be seen in the actions companies took after the inflammatory remarks made by Donald Trump about the Mexican population. Companies such as Macy’s, NBC, and Univision all severed their business ties with Trump because he had a point of view that these companies strongly opposed.

Another recent example is the recent Supreme Court ruling to allow same sex marriage throughout the country. Many businesses showed their support on social media. They risked losing customers that opposed the ruling (and some businesses did lose customers due to their support), but they strengthened their reputation with people who did support the ruling and were commended for taking a stance.

The value you provide and the entertainment you offer can instantly make your content more shareable and engaging.
Take some inspiration from Oreo, who is releasing whimsical images of its cookies redesigned to commemorate something that happened on a specific date.

11. Find New Followers

There are a lot of tools out there for Twitter that make it easy for you to find more followers based on similar interests.

Nearby Tweets is a tool that helps you find followers based on a combination of keywords and location.
Then there’s InboxQ, which is a Web app that allows you to find Twitter conversations in real time based on certain keywords. You can join these conversations and contribute in meaningful ways to engage new followers.
Twitdom and Tweepi are also helpful for finding new followers.
Publish lots of awesome content in your niche to be a credible source in your field to increase shares and follows.

12. Keep The Conversation Going

This is another reason to respond to comments in an in-depth manner: A simple “yes” or “no” response pretty much ends the conversation.

Try to end your comments with open-ended questions.
Even if there’s no way to keep the conversation going, end with something like, “Let us know if there’s anything else we can help you with,” or “If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.”
Share related content, and ask for their feedback.

13. Respond In A Personal And Conversational Manner

Social media is… social. Show your brand is run by humans. Look at brands such as Oreo or Taco Bell as examples.

Use first names when you are responding. Addressing your followers in this way makes them feel more appreciated—not to mention that people love to be acknowledged. Small gestures like these help to build loyalty.

In order to engage consumers in an effective manner, they need to be able to relate to your brand. This means making sure that you write your posts in a way that sounds human. For example, write in the way that you talk and use first-person voice like I and me (writing in the third-person makes you sound distant and boring or, in the case of athletes that speak in the third-person like Mike Tyson, terrifying and intimidating).

Use your first name and your picture to put a real person behind your comments and brand in general.
Monitor social media to see what is being said about you and interact with your audience.
Use proper grammar and spelling and don’t shamelessly post links to maintain professionalism and reduce chances of being flagged as spam.

14. Use Emoticons

Using emoticons increases comments by 33%.

Emoticons show a certain element of playfulness that provides your brand with a bit of personality. In fact, statistics show that the use of emoticons will boost the engagement of your posts. Using emoticons will boost the share and comment rate of your posts, and can help increase likes by as much as 57%.

Smiling faces boost conversions because people feel like the really are talking to a real person.
Emoticons add human emotions, and it comes across positively with your audience.
When responding to a negative comment or critique, emoticons soften the blow.

15. Use Social Media Tools

Almost every social media platform provides its users with a number of different tools that you can use in order to improve your social media strategy.

Tools such as Twitter Analytics, Google Analytics, TweetDeck, and CoSchedule can provide you with valuable information such as social activity numbers and follower demographics in addition to making it easier to track and monitor social conversations.

By using these analytics tools, you’ll make it easy to see how effective your social media engagement tactics are, thereby letting you adjust your techniques accordingly.

Use the Headline Analyzer Studio to ensure that your content is appealing and emotional.
Customize your posts to each tool, don’t use the same tagline for Facebook and Twitter—they all have different lengths, use cases, and purposes that draw attention.
Try getting in contact with content creation communities.

BONUS: Test Every Post With the Social Message Optimizer First

We’ve covered a lot of tips to help you drive more social media engagement. Before we wrap this up, though, we’ve got a fun new tool to share with you. It’s called the Social Message Optimizer, and it can help you fine-tune every post for maximum engagement before you hit publish.

This completely free tool makes it possible to:

Optimize every post to attract the most eyeballs based on real data.
Write the most engaging post copy for every major social media network.
Increase engagement, drive more traffic, and boost your social media marketing success.

The best part of this tool is it’s all based on actual data, analyzed from over six million social media posts, to determine what really drives the most engagement. Give it a spin!

What Social Media Engagement Tactics Work For You?

Now you can know which social media tactics give you the most engagement by using Social Analytics, the newest feature in CoSchedule.

Start now with 14 free days of the #1 best-selling marketing editorial calendar in the world!

[Tweet “30 #SocialMedia Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions”]

This post was originally written by Zhi Yuan and published on Aug. 5, 2015. It was most recently updated on Dec. 6, 2017.

34 Marketing Plan Samples and 7 Templates to Build Your Strategy [FAKE]

adminlin — Fri, 07 May 2021 15:02:03 GMT

Maybe you have no idea where to start when it comes to creating your marketing plan. Of course, you don’t want to leave out something important. Maybe you’re refining one you’ve already created.

If you’ve done a simple Google search for marketing plan samples for inspiration, you’ve probably found it difficult. We thought you’d appreciate these 34 examples you can follow.

This post is split into two sections: one with a list of marketing plan samples, and another with 12 exercises to help you write an awesome marketing plan, step-by-step.

Let’s get started now.

[Tweet “34 marketing plan samples to build your strategy”]

Download Your Free Marketing Plan Template Bundle

With your marketing plan template bundle, you’ll find everything you need to build a great marketing plan. It includes:

Social Media Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Manage every channel and achieve success with a clear social media roadmap.
Audience Persona Template (Word): Figure out who you’re marketing to in the first place.
Marketing Budget Template (Excel): Make sure you stay on budget.
Marketing Plan Outline Template (Word): Document your entire marketing plan using this free outline.
Marketing Strategy Template (Excel): Map out every part of your strategy in one place (complements this guide).
Content Marketing Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Plan tactics and channels to make your content marketing a success.
Email Marketing Strategy Template (PowerPoint): Strategize every piece of your email plan before sending your next campaign.

[Cookie “Get Your Free Marketing Plan Template Bundle! || https://media.coschedule.com/uploads/2020/06/Blog_Marketing-Plan-Samples-07.png || Download Kit || https://media.coschedule.com/uploads/2020/06/Marketing-Plan-Template-Bundle.zip”]

Take The Guesswork & Stress Out Of Marketing. Create A Plan & Get Certified

Get step-by-step tutorials and premium resources you need to actually create and execute a marketing strategy that drives real results.

Become Marketing Strategy Certified for $199 $49 (75% off for blog readers only). Simply enter code CERTIFIED at checkout to claim your spot.

Enroll in CoSchedule Academy’s Marketing Strategy Certification Course to learn how to create a strategy that supports your goals, execute industry-tested best practices, and so much more!

34 Marketing Plan Samples and Ideas to Make Yours Stand Out

You’ll learn tons of exercises, ideas, and tips to create your own marketing plan. Some of these marketing samples are hypothetical, some are from real companies, and others are just marketing samples. In any case, you’ll get a good feeling for what your own marketing plan should look like and how to lay it out.

Sample Marketing Plan – Houghton Mifflin Company
Marketing Plan Template – Kansas State University
Sample Plan – Palo Alto Software
The Marketing Plan – Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network
Small Business Marketing Plan Template – ProfitWorks
Marketing Strategy Template – David Meerman Scott
One-Page Content Marketing Plan – UncommonlySocial
Marketing Plan Template – Marketer Gizmo
Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template – Nancy And Kivi
Developing A Marketing Plan Example – Agricultural Extension Service at the University of Tennessee
Marketing Plan Template – The Business Victoria
Marketing Plan Outline – QuickMBA
How to Create a Marketing Strategy That Will Skyrocket Your Results By 9,360% – CoSchedule
Marketing Plan Template – Vital Design
Great Marketing Plan Template – Marketing Donut
Marketing Plan Outline – University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Small Business Development Center
Content Marketing Strategy Template – Buffer
Your Marketing Plan Template – Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund
One-Page Marketing Plan – BisAmmo
A Marketing Plan – Network Jungle
Marketing Plan Template – Forbes
Plan Your Marketing Like a Pro – Business.com
Digital Marketing Plan Example – Smart Insights
Examples of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses – ThriveHive
Multi-channel Marketing on a $2,000 Budget: A Sample Plan – BusinessTown
Marketing Plan – Royal Bank
How to Build a Go-To Market Plan – Chief Outsiders
A Sample Internet Marketing Plan – NerdyMind
Simplify Your Content Marketing Strategy With a One-Page Plan – Content Marketing Institute
New Market Marketing Plan – Lush Cosmetics
How to Build a Marketing Plan – Credo
Nike’s Marketing Strategy: A Guide to Selling Benefits and Not Products – CoSchedule
Red Bull Marketing Strategy: What You Need to Know (And How to Copy It) – CoSchedule
Starbucks Marketing Strategy: How to Create a Remarkable Brand – CoSchedule

What Does a Marketing Plan Look Like?

At their most basic, they’re straight-forward planning docs that are usually formatted in Word. Here’s an example for a quick look:

[slideshare id=1126953&doc=mktgplannoname-090310111111-phpapp02&type=d]

How to Write an Awesome Marketing Plan in 12 Steps

The following 12 exercises will show you how to build each piece of your marketing plan. They are based on just some of the examples linked above.

Table of Contents

Map Out a Table of Contents
Write an Executive Summary (Includes Template)
Write a Mission Statement
Figure Out Your Goals
Establish Content Standards of Performance
Determine Core Competencies
Do a SWOT Analysis
Connect Your Message to Your Target Market
Create an Audience Persona
The 4 Ps and Your Go-to-Market Strategy
Understand Your Budget

Table of Contents With Numbered Pages to Easily Navigate Through the Plan

Documented marketing plans can end up being lengthy, so having a table of contents will help you and others find their way around your plan.

[Tweet “Add a table of contents to your #marketing plan to help others find their way around it.”]

Write a Basic Marketing Plan Outline

At a glance, these are the things that are typically included:

Map Out a Table of Contents
Write an Executive Summary (Includes Template)
Write a Mission Statement
Figure Out Your Goals
Establish Content Standards of Performance
Determine Core Competencies
Conduct a Situation Analysis
Do a SWOT Analysis
Connect Your Message to Your Target Market
Create an Audience Persona
The 4 Ps and Your Go-to-Market Strategy
Pricing Strategy
Marketing Tactics
Create a Values Matrix
Create a Budget

A few cool things that you might want to include in your marketing plan to spruce it up:

Include graphics and graphs (tables, diagrams, and even pictures).
A one-page marketing plan.
An appendix of complementary research that proves your points.

You can go into as much detail as you’d like with your table of contents. Here is a great example, of a detailed table of contents by the Palo Alto Software:

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Executive Summary to Sell Upper Management On Your Plan

The executive summary provides a high-level overview of your marketing objectives.

Write the executive summary last.

Leave a spot at the beginning of your marketing plan for your executive summary. Make things easier by downloading the complementary marketing plan template in this post.

Ask yourself these questions as you work on your executive summary:

What types of customers are you targeting?
What patents or products will you market specifically?
What unique partnerships will you leverage to succeed?
How is your marketing plan special?
How will your company stand out?
What problem are you solving?
What is the solution?
Why now?

Here’s an executive summary template to get you started:

[OUR COMPANY] offers [PRODUCT] to [TARGET CUSTOMER BASE] to help them [ACHIEVE GOAL]. Some of our leading product lines include [PRODUCT], [PRODUCT], and [PRODUCT]. Thanks to our unique position in the marketplace, we’re able to easily leverage relationships with [PARTNER] and [PARTNER] to reach our customers.

This marketing plan differentiates our strategy in the marketplace by focusing on [ACTIONABLE TACTICS].

By following this plan, [OUR COMPANY] will stand out amongst our competition by better addressing our customer’s core concerns with more creativity and more targeted messaging. By clearly communicating how [PRODUCT] solves [PROBLEM] for [CUSTOMER], [OUR COMPANY] aims to achieve greater success for our organization and [CORE AUDIENCE] alike.

With the release of [NEW PRODUCT/FEATURE] and [DISRUPTIVE TREND FOR YOUR AUDIENCE], now is the time to pivot our strategy toward our best customers’ most pressing problems.

[Tweet “Make your project timely by asking yourself “Why now?” #marketing”]

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Write a Mission Statement to Show What Is Most Important to Your Business

Having a mission statement will remind you and your team of what is important. In order to do any of these marketing plan exercises, you’ll have to ask yourself a ton of questions. You might have already noticed that.

What do we do?
How do we do it?
Who are we doing it for?
What value does your blog or company bring to the table?

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Figure Out What Your Goals Are

It’s also super important that you state your company’s goals (financial and non-financial), so you know where you are headed and how much you can afford for certain things. Blue Sky also provided a great example of their goals.

Figure Out Your Financial Goals

What are your business goals?
How much do you have to generate from your marketing efforts?
What is your budget?
What are some of the things you’d like to do?
How many sales do you need to reach those goals?

[Tweet “State your company’s goals (financial and non-financial), so you know where you are headed.”]

Figure Out Your Non-Financial Goals

Writing your goals is one of the first steps to reaching them. First off, you’ve probably seen blog posts on S.M.A.R.T. goals many times before, but they are really good to mention again.

How to make your S.M.A.R.T. goals:

Specific: Is your goal clearly defined?
Measurable: Can you track your goal?
Aspirational: Reach for the stars. Push yourself.
Realistic: Are your goals realistic?
Timely: When do you want to reach your goals? What do you have to do to reach your goals and deadlines?

Now, write your goals and add them to your marketing plan.
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Standards of Performance to Direct Content Development

When writing your marketing plan, it’s important to know what your standards of performance are, so you can continue bringing in bigger results or change up your current process to improve your content.

To figure out your standards of performance, make a list of your latest content.

Once you’ve entered your data into each field, ask yourself:

What are the characteristics of my top-performing content according to my company’s goals?

For example, there are four pillars that we make sure to implement in all CoSchedule content:

Is the keyword well-chosen (for search volume and difficulty) and optimized throughout the post to help me get long-term traffic?
Was this topic something my readers would want to learn more about?
Was this post deeply researched to share unique and better information than any other source on the internet?
Did the post turn the research into comprehensive, how-to advice?

Grade each piece of content against your standards of performance with a scale from one to three. A score of three means it’s awesome, and one is not so good.

For more information on figuring out your standards of performance, check out our post on rocking your data-driven content calendar template.
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Core Competencies to Help You Choose the Right Projects

Remind your company about what they do well and show them how you plan to stand up against rivals.

If you don’t know what your company does well, find out by meeting with your team and discussing it.

Ask yourself unique questions to get yourself thinking about your core competencies in a different light, rather than just wondering what you and your company do well. David Meerman Scott has a great example of this.

Get out an Excel spreadsheet and type out the answers to these questions:

What makes you and your company remarkable?
What value do you bring?
What proof do we have that you are the best?

Instead of Planning Another Meeting, You Could Also Send Your Team a Google Form

First off, go to Google Forms.

Pick out the kind of Google Form you’d like to send.

Once you click there, it will open to something like this — depending on which one you chose:

You will be asked to give the Google Form a title and a description. Add your first question and press on the gray bar — right of the question — to change up the questions you want to ask.

Pick Paragraph to let your team write as much as they’d like.

Ask these questions:

What are our strengths as a team?
What are our strengths as a company?
What are the strengths of our product?
How can we (are we) be the best in our industry/niche?

Click on the plus sign to add another question. You can also add pictures or videos here.

Once you are done, you can send an email to your team members with the Google Form link. Before sending the email, make sure you read and include the questions from Exercise #7.

[Tweet “Find out what your company’s strengths are, so you can stand against your rivals.”]
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Create a Situational Analysis to Understand the Business Environment

In order to thrive in your environment, you first need to understand it. This is what your situational analysis will accomplish.

Company Outline:

Statistics about company size, locations, employees, etc.
Tagline
Unique Selling Proposition
Sector
Brand awareness

Customer Outline:

Age
Income level
Geographic location
Socio-economic status
Purchase tendencies
Education level

Competitor Outline:

Provide a list of each competitor, their products, and how they directly compete with your company (i.e. where they are strong and weak in comparison to your company).

Environmental Factors:

Determine the environmental factors (both internal and external), which can include economic or sociological factors that impact your business’s performance.

SWOT Analysis to Understand How You’ll Differentiate Yourself

It’s important to have your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats at a glance. Then you can see what you need to improve.

When you meet, discuss these questions as a team:

Strength (internal): What are your company and/or product’s strengths?
Weaknesses (internal): How about your company and/or product’s weaknesses?
Opportunities (external): What opportunities do you/we have?
Threats (external): What are your/our threats? Who are you/we competing against?

[Tweet “These are the things you should include in your S.W.O.T. analysis:”]

On a few of the different marketing plans I’ve seen, they put their S.W.O.T. quadrant into their appendix section. To see an example, scroll to extra tip #1.

Pro Tip: When you write your S.W.O.T. analysis in your marketing plan, go in-depth in each of the categories.

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Connect Your Message With Your Target Market

You’ll need to take a look at your Google Analytics to figure out your target market.

You’ll want to find the answers to these questions:

What is the majority of your audience’s gender?
How about their age range?
Where are most of them located?

First off, it’s super important to know who is currently following you. Read on to find out who your current audience is.

Want to Find Out Who Your Current Audience Is?

Click into Google Analytics. On the left side, you’ll see Audience. Click on it and scroll down to click Demographics and Overview.

For more in-depth information on each of the demographics, you can click Age and Gender.

If you click on the Age tab underneath demographics, you’ll see a more in-depth graph.

Hover over one of the blue dots to see how many sessions you had and how old each of those people were.

If you click on the Interests tab on the left side, you’ll be brought to this page, which will show you their interests.

In that same audience section of Google Analytics, you can click on Overview, and then you’ll see a button underneath demographics that gives you a choice to look at which countries people are tuning in from. Then you’ll know their location.

After you know your current audience, it’s important to take a look at who you’d like your target audience to be.

How to Find Your Target Audience

Ask yourself these questions to figure out who your target audience is:

What are their pain points? Keep in mind the audience that you want to attract.
What problem does your company/blog/product solve for them?
Who is your competition?
What will your customers gain from your company/blog/product?

There’s so much more on finding your target audience that we haven’t covered yet. It would take a whole post to discuss that.

Fortunately, you’re in luck. We have a post on that here.
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Create an Audience Persona to Help You Know Who You’re Writing Content For

Take the information you found in the target audience exercise and ask yourself these questions to figure out your audience persona.

[Tweet “Create an audience persona, so you can target your content and products more.”]

An awesome persona answers these questions:

Who are they?
What is their personality?
How about their family life?
What are their values?
What do they do?
What is their job title?
Where do they work?
Where do they live?
What’s their income level?
What are their challenges?
How about their pain points?
What are their needs?

Recommended Reading: Using Google Analytics to Write Smarter Content

It’s easy to forget to ask questions that will really open up the psyche of your persona, so you can really pull the emotion into your content and business. Emotion sells.

What scares them?
What are their life beliefs?
What stresses them out?
Favorite books, movies, and music?
What keeps them up at night?

Go in deep when you are figuring out who your user persona is. Then go online to find a picture of them.

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Find the Four Marketing Ps to Help You Understand Your Go-to-Market Strategy

In order to do marketing efficiently, you need to keep the four P’s of marketing in mind: product, place, price, and promotion.

What Product Are You Marketing? (Product)

Set your user persona and target audience next to you when you fill out these questions:

What is it that our audience wants?
Why do they need it?
What makes it special and different? Why should your audience care?

Where Should You Sell Your Product? (Place)

How will you sell your product?
Are you selling it in a physical store or on E-commerce?

How Much Should You Sell It For? (Price)

Is it a good value for what your audience would be getting?
How does the price compare with your competitors and others in the market?

How Are You Going to Promote It? (Promotion)

Where are you going to promote your content/product?
How are you getting it in front of people?
Will you do ads? If so, where will you do them?

Here’s a helpful video that is thorough and simple.

To illustrate the whole idea a little better for you let’s imagine you’re selling some rad shoes with wings that you’ve created.

Product:

What is it that your audience wants? Awesome shoes that will fly you all over. You know, like the shoes that had wings on them in Greek Mythology? Yes, just like Hermes and his flying shoes.
Why do they need it? It’ll cut down on gas prices and also encourage people to get out more.
What makes it special and different? Well, they sorta have wings. I’d say that definitely makes them different.

Place:

How would you sell your product? I’d sell them online (on my website) and in stores.

Price:

Is it a good value for what your audience would be getting? I’d probably charge a lot of money for these shoes because they are definitely a great value for flying shoes. I mean, where else can you find such awesome shoes with wings?
How does the price compare with your competitors and others in the market? Well, I don’t have any competitors, so I’d say the price sets the mark for this product.

Promotion:

Where are you going to promote your content/product? On my website, in shoe stores, and introduce them to the athletes who perform in the Olympics. Who knows, maybe a new sport will be created because of these shoes.
How are you getting it in front of people? I’d send a pair to influencers, artists, and sport stars. I’d also do an awesome job with my branding. The shoe box would be super cool. Shoelaces would be different colors and even some sparkly tissue paper instead of the newspaper colored tissue paper you usually see stuck in the shoes at department stores. My aim would be to make everyone feel like flying superstars.
Will you do ads? If so, where will you do them? I don’t think I’d need to do much advertising once it got out there because I think shoes that allowed you to fly would pretty much sell themselves.

Even though I used a mythological product idea in this example, you get the point. But, man, I’d love to have a pair of those shoes.

Create your 4 Ps for your product and make it jump off the page at your audience.
Back to the Top

Create a Pricing Strategy

Before you define your price, it’s best to nail down your positioning, branding, and distribution channels. This ensures that your pricing doesn’t negatively affect brand strategy or the company’s values.

The pricing strategy you choose will greatly influence how the market perceives your brand, so it’s important to get it right.

Match Your Pricing Strategy to Your Value Proposition

Your price needs to be consistent with the perceived value of your product. If your product is too expensive to it’s perceived value, it won’t sell. Whereas, if your product is too affordable in relation to it’s perceived value you risk losing out on revenue and potentially damaging your brand. After all, a luxury usually comes with a price.

Analyze Competitor Prices

Look at a wide variety of competitors to see how you are priced in comparison. This ensures that you are still pricing your products according to your brand strategy.

Determine Price Sensitivity

Higher price tags usually mean that your company with sell at a lower volume.

Volume isn’t the only to consider, though. You may generate more total revenue and/or profit with fewer units at a higher price. This depends largely on if your customers are extremely price-sensitive.

Burberry’s customers are less price-sensitive, so the company can move less volume at a higher price tag, yet generate more total profit.

The Gap version, on the other hand, moves greater volume at a much lower price due to tighter margins.

Marketing Tactics + Checklist

What will be your ongoing marketing plan? What do you want to do? Where do you want to do it? In order to plan your future marketing, you have to know these things.

Set up an ongoing marketing plan for the year. What things will need to be done. I found this great sample example from the Agricultural Development Center at the University of Tennessee. It’s so easy to see it all at a glance. You’ll know exactly what goals you’ll need to hit monthly.

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Create a Values Matrix

A values matrix helps you prioritize all the tactics that you have come up with. Essentially, it helps you choose the tactics that have the highest business value and take the least amount of resources to implement.

Business “value” depends on strategic objectives. This could include a campaign’s usefulness in increasing sales, increasing website visitors, generating leads, or increasing brand awareness. The most valuable marketing campaigns, initiatives, or activities are the ones that are tied closest to the business’s overall objective.

Implementation “complexity” encompasses the time it takes to implement, internal resources needed, and design costs.

High-value, low-complexity: “Easy wins” that should be considered for your plan.
High-value, high-complexity: Larger strategic initiatives that require effort and time but pay enormous dividends.
Low-value, low-complexity: Might or might not be worth your time. Revisit these features later or brainstorm ways to make them of higher value.
Low-value, high-complexity: Items that should be deprioritized.

Budget to Understand Where You’ll Spend Cash and Find Gaps

You need to estimate how much your marketing projects are going to be. You’ll be able to put together a budget to keep everyone on track over the course of the year.

Marketing costs and needs vary quite a bit. There is no easy way to figure out what your marketing budget should be, but starting with your needs and wants is a great place to start.

What’s important is that you know what your needs and wants are. Answer these questions:

What does your content or business need when it comes to spending on marketing? This will help you narrow down the most important things that you currently need.
What does your content or business want when it comes to spending?
How much can you spend monthly?

Next for the needs and wants, write down how much it’s going to cost. After doing that for all of your needs, you can start to see how much you can budget for your wants.

Scroll down for a great example of what you could include in your appendix that has to do with budgeting and your financial goals.

Recommended Reading: How To Do Outstanding Marketing On A Limited Budget

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Bonus Challenge: Can You Fit Your Plan on One Page?

What if a full documented marketing plan feels excessive for your needs? If that’s the case for you, try paring it down to the bare essentials. You might even be able to squeeze it down to just one page with the most important information you need to guide your strategy.

In this example, we have a one-page sheet you can glance at to see the most important information from your marketing plan. You might consider following a similar template:

Now You Know What It Takes to Write an Awesome Marketing Plan

Since you have a ton of marketing plan samples — and the awesome marketing plan download — you’re set to be a rock star in the marketing realm.

Just make sure you wear your shoes with the wings.

[Tweet “34 Marketing Plan Samples and Everything You Need to Include In Your Strategy”]

Earn A Certification That’s Not Just For Show

CoSchedule Academy’s Marketing Strategy Certification course gives you a proven roadmap to follow, so you can focus on the metrics that matter most – like leads & sales.

Start your certification course for only $49 (75% off) before it’s too late. Enter code CERTIFICATION at checkout.

Offer available for blog readers for a limited-time.

This post was originally published on August 15, 2016. It was updated with new images and information on June 22, 2020.

3 Ways To Level Up Your Marketing With CoSchedule Academy [FAKE]

adminlin — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 14:59:45 GMT

If you love all the actionable marketing advice on the CoSchedule blog, you’ll LOVE the CoSchedule Academy.

The Academy takes actionable content to the next level with 25+ premium, on-demand marketing courses with templates, tutorials, and resources you won’t find anywhere else. Each Academy course is led by a CoSchedule expert you trust, so it’ll help you solve real challenges experienced by real marketers.

Why else does the CoSchedule Academy rock? It’ll empower you to accomplish 3 major marketing feats at your company:

#1 – You’ll drive marketing results + ROI with actionable content

CoSchedule Academy content is made to amp up your marketing results using proven frameworks and actionable techniques.

In other words, we’ve done more than just come up with cool ideas. We’ve put them to work and proved that they’ll help drive ROI for your company–and drive marketing results for your team.

How?

Through tactics that have helped shape and drive our own marketing efforts. We created the Academy to help solve REAL challenges experienced by REAL marketers like you. So you’ll get all the best insider tips on topics like digital marketing, Facebook advertising, SEO, social media strategy, marketing project management, and content strategy.

#2 – You’ll boost your team’s productivity (at your own pace)

You’re busy. We get it.

With CoSchedule Academy, you and your team can learn on your own time instead of on somebody else’s schedule.

The Academy is broken out into focused, self-paced courses that you can tap into whether you have a spare hour or a spare minute. So you’ll learn how to increase your team’s productivity with anti-fluff, data-driven resources. All at a pace that makes sense for your team.

Each course is designed to help you learn quickly. They’re broken down into lessons you can tackle in 10-15 minutes paired with the video tutorials, templates, and resources you need to put what you learn into action right away.

And you won’t lose momentum with new team members. CoSchedule’s marketing courses will get them up to speed fast, giving them a solid foundation to build good marketing habits from the start.

#3 – You’ll get certified + stay competitive in an ever-evolving industry

The CoSchedule Academy is made to help you get ahead of other marketers in a highly competitive industry. You’ll level up your marketing powers with world-renowned content and marketing certifications unlike anything else marketers usually have access to.

It’s easy to get lost in the quickly evolving world of marketing. There are new fads & trends that pop up every day.

But the Academy makes it easy for you to stay focused on tactics & strategies that are time-tested and proven to help you generate results. Each course is designed to help you identify your business goals and how marketing can support you to reaching those goals – like more leads, more sales, and beyond.

Ready to reach the next level of marketing success?

Improve your team’s productivity, drive your company’s ROI, and keep your top talent engaged with the CoSchedule Academy. Get it now and get happy!

52 Effective Social Media Post Ideas and Examples to Fill Your Calendar [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 13:49:59 GMT

For a marketer, there’s nothing worse than struggling with a creative block. When you’re pressed to create on a deadline, but you just can’t think of something original for a post or campaign, it’s easy to fall into despair.

In fact, that’s probably why you’re here. It’s okay, though. We all need some inspiration now and then to help us shake off the rust and get back to creating awesome stuff.

If that sounds like something you need, scope out this enormous list of social media post ideas. There’s inspiration here to cover every social network, too. No matter where your audience is most active, you’re sure to find something you haven’t shown them before.

[Tweet “52 Effective Social Media Post Ideas and Examples to Fill Your Calendar via @CoSchedule”]

First, Here Are Some Super Useful Social Media Resources

If you’re going to succeed on social media, you need the right tools. These downloadable templates and resources will help you do something with the inspiration you’ll get from this post.

Social Media Calendar Template: Plan all your posts ahead of time.
How Often to Post On Social Media Infographic: Learn exactly how to map out your posting schedule.
Social Media Strategy Checklist: Build out a comprehensive strategy for your social media content.

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Or Access Exclusive Templates & Video Tutorials To Create Messages Your Audience & Algorithms Will Love

Enroll in CoSchedule Academy’s Social Media Engagement course to unlock exclusive video tutorials, templates, and proven post ideas that will help you stop the scrollers & get more engagement on social media.

Get access to all 11 video lessons & 8 premium resources for only $19 (an $80 savings). At 80% off, this is the lowest price EVER & it’s available only to readers of this blog post for a limited-time. Claim your course for only $19 by using code SOCIAL at checkout.

Table of Contents

Not Sure Which Social Media Network to Choose?
How Do You Actually Put These Ideas Into Practice?
52 Content Ideas For Businesses to Post on Social Media
What Will You Post on Social Media?

Not Sure Which Social Media Network to Choose?

Before posting to any social network, it’s worth considering how each one is used. Here’s a quick reference sheet:

Back to the Top

How Do You Actually Put These Ideas Into Practice?

If you’re searching for social media ideas, you might be experiencing a few different problems:

Lack of creative inspiration. Sometimes, you just don’t feel like you have anything kicking around in your head.
Constant fire drills to find content to share. You might also be scrambling day-to-day to find enough content to share.
Content that isn’t getting results. In this case, it might be time to try something you haven’t thought of before.

Sound relatable? Keep these solutions in mind:

Plan Ahead With a Social Media Calendar

The best way to keep social media posts organized is with a calendar. In fact, that’s why we’ve included a free calendar template in this post.

Here are some of the benefits of using a calendar:

They give your team full visibility into your social media schedule.
They make it easier to plan posts ahead of time, and make sure you’re posting at the best times.
They make it possible to plan content and social promotion in one place. No more switching between tabs and tools to map out your publishing schedule.

Plan Cohesive Campaigns

The best way to drive a message home is to build a complete campaign.

Oftentimes, brands struggle to keep up with their social posting schedule because they’re too reliant on one-off posts. This makes staying organized difficult. Plus, it’s tough to always be writing posts on the fly without much thought ahead of time.

Plan campaigns. These can be around:

Campaigns to promote events.
A series of posts promoting a single piece of content.
A string of branded posts carrying a consistent message or hashtag.

Schedule Ad Hoc Posts

In addition to your planned campaigns, mix in some ad hoc posts. These are spontaneous one-off posts that aren’t necessarily connected to a broader campaign, but they still reinforce your overall brand message. This leaves some flexibility in your schedule — making it easier to react to trending topics and hashtags, which you can capitalize on for added brand exposure.

With these three tips and all of the following ideas, you should have no trouble staying inspired and keeping your posting schedule full.

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52 Content Ideas For Businesses to Post on Social Media

There’s an endless possibility of content to share on social media, but these are the types of content your audience will appreciate.

1. Your Company’s Blog Posts

Does your business have a blog? The best way to get your blog seen is to share it on your own social media platforms. You know it’s relevant to your business because it came from your business.

Be sure the content you’re writing for your business blog is valuable and will connect with your audience.

Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Blog Writing Process to Create Killer Posts

2. Posts Showing Your Company’s Culture

What better way to showcase your business than by sharing a culture post?

A culture post is an image or article that highlights what your business is all about. It could be a behind-the-scenes image of your employees doing something quirky, or an article about how your business does something a certain way.

3. Industry News

In raw numbers, news articles get more social shares than any other type of article.

Most businesses that produce content are focusing on deep, long-form content rather than as-it-happens breaking news.

Create a list of news sources in your industry. This could include trade publications or websites. Then, find those sources on Twitter and follow them. When they share something interesting, retweet it to your followers or share it on another social network, like Facebook or Google+.

4. Curated Content

Content curation is simply sharing the content of others in your niche. Sometimes, the things you want to share with your audience have already been written. Rather than spending the time crafting an in-depth post, you can quickly share one that’s already been written (by giving them credit, of course).

At CoSchedule, we use our handy-dandy Chrome Extension tool to help with our content curation. Here’s an example of a post we shared from Kissmetrics:

5. Question Posts

Not everything you share on social media has to be a blog post or article. Get your audience talking and engaging with one another by asking a burning question. For example, you could ask, “What sort of content should I blog about next?”

It’s the best way to know what your audience really wants to read.

Asking a fun question or creating a Twitter poll is a good way to get your audience’s insights.

6. Product/Company Videos

Visuals are eye-catching when your audience is scrolling through their news feed. It’s been proven time and time again that visuals help improve engagement, but what about videos?

Research shows that videos have a 135% greater organic reach compared to photos. That’s a crazy high number.

Take advantage of this organic reach opportunity by sharing videos about your company or a new product you have.

7. Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Does your company have dedicated fans? Let their voices be heard and share their thoughts on your social media.

You can do this by retweeting their kind words or creating a graphic with their testimonial directly on it. Don’t forget to include their name/handle!

8. Quick Tips and Advice

Aside from sharing an entire “How to” post giving in-depth tips and advice, you can share a few tips that you think are the MOST important.

Sharing a simple tidbit is an easy way to share valuable information with your audience.

Here at CoSchedule, we call them “Pro Tips”.

9. Memes or GIFs

Aside from sharing images to your social media, you can use memes and GIFs when publishing your content. This adds a fun spin to your plain post and will be too irresistible for your audience to scroll past.

GIFs are a great way to showcase your brand’s personality, stay trendy, and have fun. – HeyOrca

Memes and GIFs are extremely popular on social media, even among top companies. At CoSchedule, we’ve recently started using memes and GIFs on Twitter and have found that they receive far more likes and retweets than regular images.

Just remember to keep the meme or GIF relevant to your company and audience!

10. Contest Posts

Encouraging people to participate in a social media contest related to your brand will boost engagement with those who are already followers. They can help you increase subscribers by requiring those who don’t follow or like your page to do so in order to participate.

Be clear about your objectives and exactly how you want your audience to participate for the best outcome. Define easy, simple rules before you launch your contest.

11. Holiday Posts

No matter where you live, holidays are a big deal. Show your holiday spirit by sharing a holiday-related post on your business page.

Whether it be an image, video, or article, your audience will appreciate that your business has real people that also get excited about holidays!

Starbucks is known for getting exceptionally excited during Christmas season.

12. Photos From Company Events

We discussed sharing culture posts that showcase your company’s personality, but you can take that a step further by sharing photos from a company event.

If your business hosts a charity event or fundraiser, a great way to spread awareness is by sharing it on social media.

13. Post an Answer to a Commonly Asked Question

Are you receiving the same question over and over again from your audience?

Instead of constantly responding to this question one by one, solve it once and for all by sharing a post with the answer.

Make sure to “pin” the answer to the top of your social media page, so your audience can easily see it. Here’s how to pin posts on Facebook and Twitter.

14. Share Infographics

Infographics are a fantastic way to show a step-by-step guide, especially on Pinterest (hello, DIY). Infographics allow you to share a ton of information with the use of visuals. They make boring statistics look appealing!

Whether it be your own or a curated infographic, your audience will be drawn to the visual aspect and be sure to keep reading.

15. Start a Conversation With a Leader In Your Industry

Cross-promote yourself by getting your name out there. The best way to do this is to start a conversation with somebody in your niche.

Twitter is a great way to start up a conversation your audience will see. Find an industry leader’s Twitter handle and make the first move!

This presentation from Jay Baer explains the importance of connecting with influencers and how to find them.

[slideshare id=37832657&doc=8thingsonlineinfluencerscandoforyou-140809150058-phpapp01]

16. Links to Free Resources

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Whether it be ebooks, white papers, or other downloadable content, your audience will appreciate the free resources.

Put together a content bundle or a downloadable infographic, so your audience can use it for reference.

You can get all of our bundles for FREE here!

17. Podcast Episodes

Sometimes reading content can be time-consuming, so give your audience’s eyes a break and share a podcast episode. Even better; start your own!

We recently started our own podcast and have had great success with it! We cover topics and challenges our audience faces.

If you decide to start your own podcast, check out this post to help get you started.

18. New Job Listings

Is your team expanding? Let your audience know! Who better to work for your company than a dedicated fan who’s watched your company grow? Maybe they have a friend who would be interested in working for you.

Be sure to list what positions are open, like Built Visible does in this example:

19. Hiring Announcements and New Team Members

After posting your job listing, you’re likely going to find the right candidate. Once you’ve found the right candidate(s), take it a step further and show them off to your audience. Let everyone know that you’re excited to have them be part of your team.

20. “On This Day In History” Posts

The Huffington Post shares “on this day in history” articles every day. Take this approach and use it in your own social media strategy. Find something interesting that happened in your town or city, and let your audience know!

You can also share “National Day” posts. Check out NationalCalendarDay.com to find things like National Coffee Day — and tons of other days you probably never knew existed — and create some posts for ones relevant to that day.

21. Event Promotion

If an event happens and nobody hears about it, did it really happen?

You can create an Event Page on Facebook to make your event feel more personable to your audience. Then promote the heck out of it on your social media channels!

22. Live Videos

Live videos have become huuuuge on social media recently. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, AND Snapchat have options for going live. Find the right platform that works best for you and where you will get the most views from your audience.

Try to make it a weekly video. For instance, “Tip Tuesday” or “Fun Fact Friday”. This way your audience will be sure to tune in on those days.

23. Promote Email Sign-Ups

If you want your audience to attend a webinar or demo, you’ll need to let them know by promoting the sign-up link on social media. Promote signup forms for webinars, demos, email newsletters, and so forth.

24. Image Scrambles

You’ll have your audience scratching their heads in no time when you post image scrambles. Image scrambles can be posts where an image is scrambled up or zoomed in, so your audience has to guess what it is.

This is a great way to get engagement from your audience.

What is this a picture of?

Answer: It’s an orange crayon!

25. Inspirational Quotes

Okay, I know. Inspirational quotes can be cheesy, but if done correctly, they can be effective. At CoSchedule, we use quotes from industry leaders that we know our audience will find relatable.

Find quotes from leaders in your industry or testimonials from your audience that will resonate with your target audience.

26. Company Accomplishments

Believe it or not, your audience cares about you, and they want to see you succeed. Share your successes with them on social media and celebrate together!

Whether it be awards you’ve won or reaching a certain number of customers, let your audience know!

27. Host a Twitter Chat

What is a Twitter chat? It’s a conversation around one unique hashtag. This hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and participate in it. Twitter chats are usually recurring and on specific topics to regularly connect people with these interests.

When hosting your own:

Decide on a clear and brief hashtag that represents your brand.
Choose a day and time that you can consistently hold Twitter chats.
Come up with an appropriate topic and questions.

Plan and promote your chat via Twitter.

28. Ask For Customer Feedback

Not sure how your audience will respond to a new feature, event, or your next post? Find out how they will respond before it happens by getting customer feedback.

“Would you be interested in a social media event?”
“Would you like if we created a custom label feature?”
“Would you like if we wrote a blog post about email marketing?”

You can even do this via Twitter poll to get your answer.

29. How-to Videos

Aside from going live, you can create simple and short how-to videos explaining how a feature or tool works. These videos will give your audience an inside look, and make them more likely to try out your tool after seeing how it works.

https://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/jflp6zjp18

Recommended Reading:

30. Product Reviews

User reviews are proven sales drivers, and something the majority of customers will want to see before deciding to make a purchase. Many people read online reviews before deciding to buy something. I’m guilty of this, too!

This is a great tactic if you’re working in e-commerce. Try sharing reviews of products you carry.

You could also review a tool that your company uses or integrates with to help drive sales.

31. Images or Videos of Your Product

The best way to show how something works is through visual representations. You would never buy a car without test-driving it first, just like you wouldn’t buy an online tool or product without seeing how it works first.

Give your audience a firsthand look at how your product works, and maybe even throw in a cool tip they might not know if they didn’t see the image or video.

32. Twitter Q&A Sessions

Sure, you could do a Twitter chat, but your topic has to be relevant, PLUS there’s a great deal of planning involved.

By simply hosting a Twitter Q&A session, this allows your audience to ask a variety of questions. Your audience can finally get their burning questions answered, and you can interact with your audience in a new way.

Check out this post from Passion Digital on how to host a Q&A session.

33. Spotify Playlists

If you want to share music or whole playlists with friends, posting a Spotify playlist is the way to go. Sharing music with friends is a time-honored way to discover new bands, talk over your music tastes, and learn a bit more about the bands that you love.

Spotify has fun and useful playlist sharing features. You or a friend can build a playlist packed with your own music or music you’ve discovered through Spotify’s massive music library, and you have the option of sharing that playlist directly with others by passing around the playlist URL or Spotify link.

Let your audience know what you’re listening to and get them inspired!

[Tweet “Get your audience pumped! Share a @Spotify playlist and let the world know what your office is jamming:”]

34. User-Generated Content

We know you have super fans out there. Don’t be afraid to show them off by posting fan-worthy content.

Here at CoSchedule we send out ‘swag’ to those that grab our attention on social media or leave killer product reviews. Those people often share pictures of themselves decked out in our swag, and it’s so awesome to see!

I LOVE my new Coschedule swag. Thanks, @CoSchedule! #happybirthdaytome pic.twitter.com/JNkXCvhs41

— Amanda Huggett (@AmandaHuggett) October 10, 2016

If a fan shares anything noteworthy about your company, give it a share!

35. Posts Showing Off Your Company History

Has your company been around longer than microwave popcorn? Then you have some history to share! It’s always fun to see how far a business has come and where they started. Sharing a quick tidbit or piece of history is sure to intrigue your viewers.

At CoSchedule, we are a start-up company, which means we’re constantly changing, evolving, and even getting new space!

New office decor arrived at @CoSchedule today!
Thanks @jnhartford 😊 pic.twitter.com/UpvrgfznpH

— Ashton Hauff (@ashtonhauff) March 23, 2017

36. Company News Announcements

Speaking of sharing your history and getting a new space, let your audience be in the loop. Getting a new space? Launching a new product? Just have big news in general? What better way to get the word out than by sharing the news with the people who care.

Make it fun, and make it big. Get your audience as hyped about the news as you are.

37. Create a Regular Series

Here’s a great way to use live video on social media: create a weekly series or show. There are a few ways you can do this.

Use a traditional talk show format.
Have a guest each week.

Paste does this well, hosting musicians in their studio to perform on

Rainbow Kitten Surprise live at Paste Studio NYC

38. Repurpose Blog Graphics

Creating new visual content for every social media post can be resource-intensive. Why not create blog graphics with social sharing in mind?

To do this, create versions of your blog graphics correctly proportioned for your chosen social network:

Then, create social media posts or even entire campaigns around those posts, reusing their inline graphics.

39. Share How-to Videos

Social media is great for sharing quick videos showing people how to get something done. Here’s a fun example from the DIY Network:

40. Share Your Company’s Financial Earnings

For large, publicly traded companies, your followers might be interested in knowing how you’re performing financially. Consider creating an engaging GIF or video to accompany your earnings page on your website, or a blog post announcing your quarterly earnings.

Here’s an example from Home Depot:

41. Share a Case Study On One of Your Customers

Do you have a customer that you know has had success thanks to your company or product? Get them involved in a case study! Then, share it on social media:

42. Share a Survey

Check out this example from Case Study Buddy:

43. Promote a New Product or Event

Here’s another example from Case Study Buddy:

44. Share a Fill-in-the-Blank Post

Asking your audience to finish a sentence can be fun, and it definitely encourages engagement.

Think something like this:

“What’s your favorite ___________________?”
“Fill in the blank: my favorite thing about [YOUR BRAND] is [ANSWER].”
“When I need to [SOLVE PROBLEM], I use [PRODUCT/TACTIC].”

Get creative with it, and see what you can come up with.

45. Share a Statistic

This tweet from the CoSchedule Twitter accounts shares a snippet about Starbuck’s marketing strategy that people might not have known:

46. Reshare Your Top Performing Posts

You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. If a post did well once, what’s to say it won’t do well again?

In fact, according to research from CoSchedule, there’s data backing up the idea that it might even do better the second time around.

The easiest way to identify top performing posts and automatically reshare it is with CoSchedule.

Use social analytics to discover your best-performing posts.

Then, use ReQueue to create an intelligent queue of social posts to reshare automatically.

47. Promote Your Partners

Add some positivity to your audience’s feed and shout out a company you work with that’s killing it out there.

Wow, what a lovely post to read. Thank you @Sally_Newm for nominating me and for everything you said. I honestly appreciate it so so much.

Thanks @rustybrick for pulling all these together, it is a lovely idea and really shows how much our industry value each other. https://t.co/ir9nazs4kD

– Samantha Noble (@SamJaneNoble) April 30, 2018

48. Share Some Interesting Industry Research

In a lot of industries, having the latest knowledge and research is key to maintaining a competitive advantage. Tap into that by sharing stats and snippets of industry research reports, either ones you’ve created yourself or ones you’ve curated around the web.

49. Use Paper.li to Share News Roundups

Ever since Storify closed its doors, marketers have been searching for a replacement. Paper.li is a great stand-in, making it possible to create custom social media-driven online newspapers. By creating an account, you can curate content from different social media networks and present it all in one place.

Here’s a look at how it works.

50. Preview a New Product or Event

Everyone loves being first to see new stuff. By consistently sharing previews of new products or features, your audience will know to go to your social channels to find your latest developments.

This example from NAMM, a major musical instrument expo, uses a GIF to promote an exclusive events.

51. Get Creative With Emojis

Love them or hate them, emojis can add fun and flash to your social media posts. Make sure you’re using them appropriately, and in conjunction with other guidelines, by following this infographic.

52. Give Away Something Free

Who doesn’t like free stuff? By offering your audience an incentive to take action to get a freebie, you can drive some strong engagement and help promote your products.

Here’s an example from PlayStation. In exchange for pre-ordering a game, fans can get a free customized theme for their console, which the video demonstrates.

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What Will You Post on Social Media?

Phew! That was quite the list we ran through. Hopefully, you can implement these tactics into your own social media strategy, but those aren’t all the things you can share with your audience.

Do you have something you like to share on social media? Let us know down in the comments!

Unlock Exclusive Tutorials & Templates To Increase Your Social Reach For Only $19!

Wait! There’s still time to enroll in CoSchedule Academy’s Social Media Engagement course to learn how to implement 10 proven social media tactics that will help you build trust with your audience & create community.

Claim your seat for only $19 (an $80 savings). Use code SOCIAL at checkout. This offer is valid only for a limited-time for CoSchedule blog readers.

[Tweet “52 Creative Ideas To Post On Social Media For Business”]

This post was originally published on May 16, 2018. It was updated and republished on June 29, 2020.

Old Cookie Example Vertical Image [FAKE]

adminlin — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 09:27:58 GMT

How beneficial is the content you’re creating? Not only for your business, but for your reader?

If you’re not creating actionable content, you’re likely using your time and effort to create blogs and articles that simply aren’t going to produce results. Not for your business, and also not for your reader.

Actionable content provides real people with real value and solutions, which is what leads a reader to take action. This, in turn, leads to increased engagement and more positive brand experiences.

Keep reading to learn how to begin creating actionable content that is more beneficial to your audience and your bottom line.

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What is Actionable Content?

Actionable content is content that can be easily implemented and acted upon by readers. Whether it’s blog posts, articles, or other content marketing materials, this type of content is typically informative, relevant, entertaining, and unique.

So, what makes content “actionable”? Here are six common elements of actionable content:

It shows readers how to complete a process step-by-step.
It targets your specific reader/intended audience.
It provides value.
It establishes trust.
It addresses the reader’s needs or problems.
Rather than simply telling a reader what to do, it shows the reader how to achieve something.

The Best Content Calendar Template to Organize Your Entire Year in 2021 [FAKE] – CoS

adminlin — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:43:17 GMT

“Oh no! We don’t have any content ready to go out next week. What should we do?”

That’s a phrase every marketer dreads to hear. Without proper tools for organizing planning and workflows, content marketing becomes difficult to manage in a way that isn’t ad hoc.

Here at CoSchedule, we follow the philosophy of planning your work, then working your plan. For content creators, there’s no better organizational hub than a well-planned content calendar.

When your entire content marketing strategy is planned out on one calendar, it’s easier to keep organized, focus on deadlines, and be more productive. Not only that, but it keeps your entire team up to date with the latest and upcoming projects.

Just picture this:

You have a versatile content calendar that can help you organize all of your campaigns, track your projects, and easily collaborate with your team.
You’re provided with an easy-to-follow process for managing said calendar.
You have several examples of what a great content calendar looks like.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

It’s not. In this post, we’ll show you how to build the perfect content calendar, keep it full with ideas, and make it easier for your marketing team to do their job.

[Tweet “The Best Content Calendar Template to Organize Your Entire Year via @CoSchedule”]

Table of Contents

What is a Content Calendar?
The Case for Using a Content Calendar
Types of Content Calendars
How to Set Up a Content Calendar
How to Use a Content Calendar
Advanced Content Calendar Tips
Content Calendar Example
A Content Calendar Case Study

Bonus: Grab Your Annual Content Calendar [Free Templates]

Before we show you how to organize content calendars, you’ll need the right tools in your arsenal. Get started with this trio of templates:

Annual Content Calendar Template for effectively planning out your content all year long and keeping your team organized.
Comprehensive Content Calendar Template that offers an alternative structure and layout.
Basic Blog Calendar Template for managing a simple blogging schedule.

Snag your templates now, and then read on to learn how to use ’em.

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What is a Content Calendar?

A content calendar can be anything used to plan, schedule, and organize content and other marketing projects.

Marketing teams rely on their content calendars to plan campaigns across different platforms—like the company’s blog and email marketing tool. It’s their right-hand for planning and creating a steady flow of high-quality content.

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The Case for Using a Content Calendar

A content calendar is just another unnecessary marketing fad, right?

Not necessarily. “Winging it” doesn’t work with content marketing. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll end up wasting time you could be spending being productive.

That much is nearly guaranteed: if you don’t keep organized, you’ll be less likely to succeed.

A lack of planning leads to inefficiencies; things take much longer than they need to. In turn, you don’t have the results your leadership team is looking for. That increase in marketing budget you want will be 10x harder if you don’t know how it’ll be spent.

Using a content calendar makes it easier to plan out what you’ll be doing in the future. This could mean a week, a month, or however far ahead you’d like to plan ahead. You could even plan your content marketing efforts for an entire year, like we’ll show you in this post.

Just think about this: when you plan ahead for your future content, the likelihood of your content being significantly better is astronomical. This is because you have more time to research, draft, and add finishing touches to your final product.

Once you get your calendar built out, you’ll be able to:

Hit deadlines more easily and hold yourself accountable for getting stuff done. Being able to visualize these deadlines on your content calendar makes this a walk in the park.
See everything you’re working on in one place. Blog posts, social messages, events, email newsletters, podcasts, videos — whatever you’re busy creating.
Think strategically about the content you’ll create. For example, instead of scrambling at the last minute to create content around a major holiday, you can plan for it ahead of time.

Your team will also be able to quickly see what everyone else is working on and when — making collaboration simple.

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Types of Content Calendars

Now we know what a marketing calendar is (and why you should be using one for your content), let’s take a look at three different ways to plan upcoming content.

Spreadsheets

The simplest way to create a content calendar is to use a spreadsheet.

Tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets make spreadsheets a free and easy way to plan upcoming content. It’ll take a bit of design work, but once it’s set up, you see your calendar at a glance and monitor the progress of each piece of content.

Bear in mind that if you’re using spreadsheets to manage your content calendar, your automation options are limited. It’s almost impossible to trigger events—like new content being shared with your email list—based on a change to your spreadsheet calendar.

Kanban Boards

Kanban boards, which look like virtual whiteboards with mini post-its, can also be used to manage a content calendar.

They’re great for visually managing workflows, and are especially suited for agile teams. You can use tools like Trello or CoSchedule’s Idea Board to create columns for the status of a piece, the platform it’s on, or the week it’s being published to get an overview of your upcoming content. Just drag-and-drop the card to the right column.

Calendar Software

The best way to manage your content calendar is through marketing calendar software. (No, Google Calendar doesn’t count.)

We may be biased, but it’s for good reason. CoSchedule’s Marketing Calendar is the most powerful calendar on the market. The marketing team at CoSchedule uses our own software to organize every piece of our strategy.

You’ll be able to see important dates on your content calendar (such as product launches), and how that slots within your upcoming content.

Plus, CoSchedule integrates with other marketing tools you’re already using, including:

Your CMS
Social media platforms (including LinkedIn and Twitter)
Your email marketing platform (MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, and Constant Contact)

…to easily automate the distribution of each new piece. Talk about saving time.

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How to Set Up a Content Calendar

Ready to make your own? Whether you’re choosing a simple spreadsheet or a marketing calendar, here’s how to set it up for success.

1. Determine Content Types

Before we get too much further, figure out which content channels and types you’re currently creating—and plan on creating—this year.

This could include:

A blog or regularly updated website content. This is likely the bread and butter behind your content strategy. It’s also the type of content most often associated with content calendars and planning.
Email. According to Campaign Monitor, it’s 40 times more effective than social media for customer acquisition.
Podcasts. Speak to your audience through a recorded conversation in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Don’t know how to start one? We’ll show you.
Webinars. Jump on a live video call with your audience and walk them through a solution to something they’re struggling with. (Bonus points if that ties in with your product/service offering.)
Infographics. Nope, they’re not dead.
Video. Video marketing is growing in importance, and you can use your calendar to plan every shoot.
Print magazines, brochures, or newsletters. The print world is changing, but it’s not going away anytime soon.
Anything else you’re working on. If it’s a marketing project, you can organize it on a calendar.

2. Choose Color-Coding

Next, decide on a color-coding scheme to quickly identify content on your calendar.

You can color-code your calendar any way you’d like. However, a successful scheme should incorporate the following elements:

It should be agreed upon by everyone who will be using the calendar. Everyone should know which colors refer to which types of content.
It should be consistent. If you decide Twitter messages are always highlighted in green and your graphic designer’s tasks are always in blue, it’s important to keep that straight. Otherwise, you can run into confusion and missed deadlines.
It should be simple. Try to use only as many different colors as you need.

Here are a few different ideas for laying out color-coding schemes:

By campaign. If you’re creating campaigns that span multiple channels, color-coding each piece of that campaign can make it easier to see when each piece will be published.
By theme. Similar to color-coding by campaign, it can be helpful to see when different pieces of content are being published that belong to a theme or category.
By team member. If certain team members have content or tasks they’re responsible for, color-coding by team members will help them see everything they need to get done, and when.
By channel. If you’d prefer, you can also color-code content based on channel (for example: all Facebook posts in blue, all YouTube videos in red, all blog posts in orange, etc.).

If none of these ideas work, you can always come up with one of your own, too. Here’s what your calendar might look like once you’ve added some content to your color scheme:

Do This With CoSchedule: CoSchedule has built-in color coding functionality, called Custom Color Labels, to keep your scheme consistent.

How To Create A Communications Plan in 12 Steps [FAKE] – AMI

adminlin — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:42:23 GMT

Good marketing looks effortless, but it has an underlying structure — a communications plan. Every message in well-executed marketing is one moving part of a greater whole.

So, what goes into a communications plan, and how can you make one for your team? We’ll explain what this nifty resource is and the 12 steps it takes to create one.

Plus, we’ll give you a free template to help you follow along with the process.

[Tweet “How To Create A Communications Plan in 12 Steps (+Template)”]

Before you start reading… check this out!

If you are interested in Public Relations, Actionable Marketing Institute has the course for you. The Public Relations Strategy Certification is stacked with lessons, video tutorials, and templates to help you create a strong PR strategy to produce results. Build relationships, reach new audiences and boost credibility using strategy. Get all the details here.

Table of Contents

What Is a Communications Plan?
Step 1: Audit Your Current Marketing Communications
Step 2: Establish Your Marketing Communications Objectives
Step 3: Define Your USPs and Brand/Mission Statement
Step 4: Create a Description of Your Ideal Audience(s)
Step 5: Craft Your Key Brand Messages for Each Audience
Step 6: Choose Your Communication Channels
Step 7: Create a Messaging Matrix
Step 8: Outline Your Communications Tactics and Campaigns
Step 9: Define Your Communications Goal Metrics
Step 10: Identify Key Dates, Seasons and Buying Cycles
Step 11: Manage Your Marcomm Plan With an Editorial Calendar
Step 12: Execute Your Communications Plan

What Is a Communications Plan?

For the purpose of this blog post, a communications plan is a full-scope plan for delivering key messages to your audience to drive positive business outcomes.

The phrase “communications plan” can refer to any plan for an organization’s communications, but in this article, we’re thinking on a top-down level. When you complete the steps outlined here, you’ll have the foundation for your communications operations.

It’ll frame your communications with clear goals and methods to keep them consistent and results-oriented.

Your Marketing Communications Plan Template

Before you learn the 12 steps to creating a communications plan, grab this template bundle. It includes our communications plan template in presentation and document formats.

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Step 1: Audit Your Current Marketing Communications

Before you start crafting your communications plan, evaluate your current communications with an audit. The auditing process involves reviewing all of the communications material and strategies you have now to see what works and what doesn’t.

The G2 Learning Hub suggests these four steps for performing a communications audit:

Measure the scope of your communications: Make an inventory of the places where you communicate with your contacts, including text and design elements. Everything counts — even email subject lines.
Evaluate your past and current communications: Now that you have your communications materials in one place, look for trends, successes and losses. Did your communications style change over time? Which messages delivered the best and worst results?
Consult everyone involved in your communications: Everyone who interacts with your brand has a role to play in your communications, including your team members, customers and stakeholders. Ask these groups how effective they think your communications are and what they believe you can do better. You can get this feedback through a survey, interview or quick email.
Perform a SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in your communications. Where do you succeed, and where do you fail? What factors could help your communications, and what factors could hurt them?

Our marketing content audit and social media audit templates will help you accomplish these tasks. Once you have a good grasp on the current state of your communications, it’s time to start filling out your strategic communications plan template.

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Step 2: Establish Your Marketing Communications Objectives

The very first slide or section after the template title will be home to your communications plan’s objectives. Just as your communications plan will frame your communications operations, your objectives will frame your plan. They’ll guide you to the results you want from your marketing.

If you haven’t set communications or marketing objectives before, how do you choose them? Try these tactics:

The marketing objectives in this step will define your more granular goals, so we don’t have to get too specific yet. Here are some examples of marketing objectives for this part of the template:

Increase social media followers
Increase web traffic
Enhance brand reputation

Now that you have marketing objectives, put them in your template.

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Step 3: Define Your USPs and Brand/Mission Statement

If you want to communicate your organization’s value through your messaging, you’ll need to establish your brand’s identity. Your unique selling proposition (USP) and brand or mission statement make up that identity.

Let’s start with your USP. Every brand has something that makes it unique, including yours. Your USP should show customers what special trait gives you a leg up on the competition.

Take a look at Ikea, for example. Its USP is its furniture’s combination of affordability and style, which influences the copy on its USA English home page.

How do you find your USP? Ask yourself these questions:

What problems do you solve or needs do you address with your products/services?
What do you offer that your competitors don’t?
Do your products or services have any features that are hard to copy?

As you define your USP, make sure to frame it in a way that explains why your audience should care. Consider how your USP could benefit your customers. Then, plug it into your template.

With your USP established, you can move onto your brand or mission statement. This message will communicate your full brand identity. It can touch on your USP, but it doesn’t have to.

In Ikea’s case, its brand statement (business idea) does connect to its USP. It focuses on Ikea’s mission to provide affordable and useful furniture at an accessible price.

Homebuyers racking your brain for brand or mission statement ideas? Try filling out this template:

“Our organization exists to provide [benefit], [benefit], and [benefit] to [audience] through [product or service].”

You can leave your brand statement like that for now or develop a statement one step up from your template statement.

Once you’re satisfied with your brand or mission statement, add it to your template.

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Step 4: Create a Description of Your Ideal Audience(s)

To truly connect to someone, you need to understand their background and preferences. This principle also applies to marketing and communications. One of the most important aspects of a communications plan is a clear definition of your intended audience for that reason.

While you want as many people as possible to take interest in your brand, you’ll actually reach more people by tailoring your messaging. When you design your messaging around the people with the highest chance of using your product or service, you’ll get higher-quality leads.

How to Identify Your Target Audience

Good, old-fashioned data will help you figure out the best audience for your product or service.

Regardless of your organization’s age and resources, you have high-quality audience data available at your fingertips. Try one of these strategies:

Survey your customers: Use a tool like Google Forms to ask your current customers about their demographics and preferences, such as age, gender and their favorite products.
Check out your Google Analytics: Hook up Google Analytics to your site to learn more about your visitors. It delivers data on demographics like location, gender and interests.
Examine your social media followers: If you have an active social media presence, look over your current followers and look for trends. You can also view your competitors’ followers to see who they attract.

After you collect this information, make a one or two-sentence description about your audience. You can have multiple audiences, so feel free to break up your audience groups if needed. Here’s an example of an audience description:

“Young city-dwellers in their late twenties to thirties looking to buy their first home.”

Put your audience descriptions in your template. Feel free to give each audience a unique name (such as “Younger Home Buyers”) for easier organization.

Understand Other Key Publics, Too

If your organization interacts with people and entities other than customers, consider noting them as well. Examples of these audiences include media organizations, government agencies and partner organizations.

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Step 5: Craft Your Key Brand Messages for Each Audience

Now that you know which audiences you want to communicate with, you can craft brand messages for each of them. Think of your main brand statement as the base for your audience-specific brand messages. Then, ask yourself these questions to tailor it to each of your audiences:

What are the most important things for this audience to know about my organization?
What are some common misconceptions this audience has that I can clear up?
What language can I use to make this audience feel understood?
What values does this audience have that relate to my brand?

Once you have a few key messages for each of your audiences, plug them into your template. You can make separate slides or sections for every audience if you’d like.

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Step 6: Choose Your Communication Channels

You have your brand’s key messages — now, it’s time to figure out how to spread them. Here are some of the most popular communications channels for business marketing:

Your organization’s blog: Blog posts offer the chance to share helpful information, announce company news and establish topical authority.
Email marketing: Try using email to send newsletters, sales offers and marketing outreach to relevant lists.
SMS marketing: Text messages work well for event reminders, exclusive discounts and sales announcements.
Media relations: Media relations are the bread and butter of communication strategies. Read our blog post about public relations to learn how to make the most of them for your organization.
Print collateral: Printed marketing assets like flyers, brochures, signage and direct mail should tie into your overall communications strategy.
Podcast advertising: Consider making your own podcast, becoming a guest on podcasts in your industry or running podcast ads.
Traditional advertising: Traditional advertising on television and in print can also have its place in a communications plan, depending on your resources and audience.
Digital marketing: Pay-per-click (PPC) ads deliver targeted links and messaging to people browsing the internet.
Social media: Social media is an effective tool for reaching the people most interested in your product — if you pick the right channels.

Choosing the Right Social Media Channels for Your Audience

You’ll get the most leverage out of social media marketing if you market on the channels your audience uses. Take a look at how different subsets of American adults use social media:

Source

How to Align Your Channels and Audiences in Your Template

After picking your channels, list them on the left side of the table in your template. Then, note which of your audiences will use that channel in the rest of the row.

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Step 7: Create a Messaging Matrix

With your target audience, key messages and communication channels under your belt, you can bring them all together in a messaging matrix. A typical messaging matrix coordinates these marketing concepts by audience:

Why Make a Messaging Matrix?

Let’s see how a messaging matrix works in action to learn why you’ll benefit from one.

Think of a bank with the following three main audiences:

High school and college students opening new checking accounts
Homebuyers looking for mortgages
Adults approaching retirement who need help with financial planning

Each of these groups has different goals and age groups, meaning they’ll need unique messaging to get to them. Audience-tailored messaging in this situation might look like this:

High school and college students: High-interest checking accounts with free $100 for new account holders
Homebuyers: The area’s top rated mortgage team
Adults thinking of retirement: Expert financial planning advice

The bank could then create campaigns based on each message to express how they can meet each audience’s needs. To truly optimize its campaigns, the bank picks the channels that would resonate most with each group:

Teens and young adults: Organic and paid social media (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), in-store signage and print materials and SMS marketing
Homebuyers: TV and print ads, direct mail and Google PPC ads
Retirees: Brochures, TV ads, direct mail, in-store signage and Google PPC ads

Now, the bank has unique messaging for different audiences on carefully chosen channels designed to communicate its value as effectively as it can.

Line Up Your Messaging With Your Audiences and Channels

It’s your turn. The messaging matrix in your template gives you space for a high-level overview of how your messages adapt to each audience and channel:

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Step 8: Outline Your Communications Tactics and Campaigns

What will your communications plan look like in action? You’ll start answering this question by defining your tactics and campaigns.

Your Communications Tactics

Communications tactics define the actions you’ll take to spread your key messages. On a base level, they explain three things:

What you’ll do to spread your message
How you’ll take that action
When/how often you’ll do that action

Your tactics will come from the objectives you established in Step Two. Check out the example objectives we shared and possible tactics to achieve them:

Increase social media followers: Schedule daily posts on Twitter using CoSchedule
Increase web traffic: Publish bi-monthly blog posts on thought leadership topics using the CoSchedule CMS
Enhance brand reputation: Conduct customer surveys every month on product quality and customer experience through Qualtrics

Most objectives will need more than one tactic for you to reach them. Organize your tactics by their matching objective in your template:

Your Communications Campaigns

Marketers organize and measure their communications tactics through marketing campaigns. Marketing campaign projects have these three elements:

More than one event, action or piece of content
A unified theme that connects them
Clear beginning and end dates

For example, if you’re trying to drive website traffic with blog posts as we mentioned in the previous section’s examples, you could start a content marketing campaign. The campaign would consist of your bi-monthly blog posts connected with a thought leadership theme. Your start and end date would give you enough time to make a sufficient number of blog posts to analyze to inform future campaigns.

When you decide on your marketing campaigns, write them down on your template.

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73 Easy Ways To Write A Headline That Will Reach Your Readers [FAKE] – HS

adminlin — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:41:24 GMT

It’s common to overlook the importance of a headline. Whether you like it or not, a headline is what will determine how many people actually read your content. Even if your content is truly unique and innovative, a weak headline will ruin its chances of being super successful.

This comes as a shock to far too many people.

Fortunately, data and analytics combined with these 73 tips can help you write great headlines that will instantly capture the attention of your readers. We don’t want your content to go to waste because your headline didn’t perform well enough, so we’re here to make sure you can craft the most compelling headlines possible.

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[Tweet “73 Easy Ways To Write A #Headline That Will Get The Best Results”]

Download Your Own Headline Writing Template Kit

It’s important that you get off on the right foot with your content, starting with your headline.

Headlines are the first part of your content that audiences will see, so make sure it really captures their attention by downloading this bundle to light the way.

This kit includes:

How to Write Headlines: A list of words that drive traffic, shares, and search results.
Infographics from this post: These infographics include important information about why headlines are key.
Marketing Calendar: Stay on top of your game by referring to your very own marketing calendar.

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1. Understand the Importance of Writing Great Headlines

Your headline makes your first impression with readers. A strong headline can drive more clicks. A weak one can send traffic away.

That’s why it’s important to spend time getting them right.

25 headlines might sound like a lot. However, if anything, you could consider this the bare minimum. Some will be better than others. Some, in fact, will be downright terrible.

That’s okay though. You have to burn through bad ideas before you can find what works.

Your brain was made for this. Headline generation is just another form of idea generation that forces you to use your brain’s reticular activating system (RAS) to inspire creativity. RAS is an important part of our brain that is used for things like breathing, sleeping, waking, and the beating of our hearts. It is basically the part of the brain that works when we aren’t.

By forcing ourselves to generate more than a few headlines, we put our brain to work using our RAS. We may think of 10 headlines right now, and then suddenly generate a few more when we aren’t even trying (or while writing the post itself).

This is your RAS at work. It is subconsciously providing you with creative ideas while you are busy doing other things. As much as we try to systematize it, creativity is often very spontaneous, and can actually get “better” with time.

From Psychology Today:

The creative process moves through five stages. It begins with preparation–an analytical time when the basic information or skills are assembled. It continues on to incubation–a more intuitive and subconscious time in which you connect the dots in a default state. If you stick with it through perspiration, this process will eventually lead to revelation–the eureka experience when you literally feel the tumblers of your mind click into place and you say: ‘A-ha, I have found the solution!’ The creative process ends with production, a time when the insights are put into a useful form and shared with others.

Headline generation lives right there between incubation and perspiration. But, what’s even more interesting is how our ideas develop over time. This is something that Tim Hurson calls the third third.

2. Follow the Rule of the Third Third

In his book, Think Better, Tim Hurson defines an interesting phenomenon that clearly proves why more headlines are better than just a few. One of his key points is the miracle of the third third. It works something like this: if you are looking to generate 100 different ideas, studies have shown that the ideas will generally fall into three different groups.

The first third (up to idea 33): This group will consist of the most obvious picks. They’ll be “typical” and won’t usually represent anything new or interesting. In other words, they will be the least creative. If you are like most bloggers, this is where most of your headlines come from. Oops!
The second third (idea 34 to 67): During the second third, your ideas will start to gain some momentum. You will begin to think more creatively and start to generate some actual “new ideas.” But, don’t stop there. Many of them will still be based on prior knowledge and experience.
In the third third (ideas 68 – 100): The final third will represent your best chance at coming up with a unique and innovative idea. During the first two thirds, you were able to exhaust the obvious ideas, forcing the new and unique to float to the top.

[Tweet “”You have to get the first third ideas out of your head to make room for the second third and third third ideas to come.” – Tim Hurson”]

As you develop ideas, each new one will be more and more difficult to come by, but this is a good thing!

Once the obvious ideas have been exhausted, you make room for the not-so-obvious. This is why repetition, time, and perseverance are so important to the idea generation process.

My brainstorm clearly followed the rule of the third third.

In the previous example, there is a clear example of the third third phenomenon at work. When you break down my headlines you can see that I clearly got more “desperate” and more creative toward the end. The winning headline actually came from my final third. It’s pretty telling, and makes you wonder — what would have happened if I’d written 100?

Malcom Gladwell is famous for telling us that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. The question here is how many headlines does it take to make a good one? If nothing else, we know that experience pays. By putting headlines into an idea generation process, we activate our RAS, push our creative comfort zone, and slowly get better at it over the long haul. You know what they say: practice does make perfect.

3. Start By Writing 10 Headlines

The first step is to start. Begin by writing out at least 10 headline ideas for your post. For this method to really work, it is important that you make these steps a habit. Even if you feel like the one you have is pretty good, force yourself to write at least ten more.

4. Next, Write 15 More Headlines

Now do it again. Write another 15 headlines.

5. Cross Out the Worst 15

Often, deciding what headline to not use will be easier than deciding which one to use. This is why it works so well to remove your least favorite right from the start.

6. Bold Your Top 5

Chances are, what’s left are a few pretty good headlines, several boring ones, and maybe one or two great headlines. Choose your top five and make them bold.

7. Conduct a Poll

If you work in a writing team, or have an editor assigned to you, now might be the time to take advantage of them. Let them take a look at your list and decide which headline they think fits best. Match it to your list? How did it shake out?

8. Do an A/B Test

A/B testing is a great way to test our assumptions and our work. Rather than simply picking the headline that we like best, choose two and test them against one another. One way that we do this regularly is through our email software. We send our email with two different headlines and then see which performs the best. Of course, you’ll have to have a headline selected at that point, but don’t let that stop you from testing your work.

How To Power A Successful Blog Through Storytelling With Jeff Bullas – Making this headline really long wow even longer cool [AMP 084] [FAKE]

adminlin — Wed, 09 May 2018 16:34:59 GMT

How do you deliver traffic to your blog? How do you move from chasing an audience to attracting and keeping one?

Today, we’re talking to Jeff Bullas, an internationally renowned speaker on digital marketing, including social media, blogging, and brand building. His mission is to help people win at business and life in the digital world through the art of storytelling.

[podcast_motor_player]

Some of the highlights of the show include:

Storytelling: If people forget what you told them, they won’t forget how you made them feel
Marketers in different countries face the same problems; they all want more traffic and conversions
How Jeff took a $10 investment to generate more than 25 million visitors
Books and blogs that inspired Jeff
Build credibility and create content
Description of Jeff’s virtual team; how he avoids the office because it feels like work instead of fun
Make your brand memorable
Connection between storytelling, social media, and driving traffic to your blog
Make your audience the hero of a journey; convince people that they are capable
With traffic, you have to earn and own it to convert it to leads and sales
Passion and purpose is not a destination, it’s a calling and journey
Develop a daily routine that becomes a habit
Where to start: Ask yourself, Why am I here? What’s my passionate purpose?

Links:

Jeff Bullas Website
Jeff Bullas’ Blog
Jeff Bullas on Twitter
Jeff Bullas on YouTube
The New Rules of Marketing and PR book
Jeremy Epstein’s blog
Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek book
HubSpot Blog
Deep Work book
Building a StoryBrand book
Contently – The Storytelling Edge
Todd Brown and Marketing Funnel Automation
Gary Vaynerchuk
AMP on iTunes – leave a review and send screenshot to podcast@coschedule.com

If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play.

Quotes from Jeff Bullas:

“The reality is that it’s your story and that’s where it starts to become powerful…”
“This is still very driven by what I’m passionate about, which is making a difference, creating content, learning to write better, learning to tell better stories…”
“If you love what you’re doing,… that will make it so much easily to actually sit down and create content, inspire, entertain, and educate, that’s what’s really important.”

[Tweet “How To Power A Successful Blog Through Storytelling With @jeffbullas”]

Transcript:

Jordan: What’s the linchpin of driving traffic to your blog and how do you move from chasing an audience to attracting and then keeping one? Well, today’s guest has some great answers to these questions and he’s a real world case study of doing exactly this because today, we’ve got Jeff Bullas on the show. Jeff is an internationally-renowned speaker on digital marketing including social media, blogging, and so many more topics. He’s been featured on Forbes as a top 20 influencer of chief marketing officers for 2018. He’s included on entrepreneur.com as one of the 50 online marketing influencers to watch in 2018. Listed on Forbes as one of the top 20 influencers of CMOs in 2017 and so many more recognitions that are well-deserved because of a serious marketing expertise but best of all about Jeff is his mission is to help people win at business, in life, in a digital world. Today’s conversation certainly helps him fulfill that. I’m Jordan with CoSchedule. Now here is Jeff Bullas.

Jeff, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Jeff: It’s an absolute pleasure and great to meet you and we’ve already had a few stories behind the scenes which we won’t tell anyone about but that’s fine.

Jordan: We’ve had some very secret conversations and we’ll see what kind of forays we make in the rest of this interview.

Jeff: Men secret business, I call it.

Jordan: That would be your next book coming out but I don’t want to ruin it with any spoilers.

Can you kick us off by telling us more about what you’re up to these days? What countries you’ve been jetting off to, and all the exciting adventures of Jeff Bullas?

Jeff: Over last years or so we’ve been to Norway. We’ve been to San Francisco a few times. We’ve been to other parts of Americas–Spokane and Seattle. We’ve been to Portugal. We’re about to head off to Jordan. We’re back to head off to Bucharest, Romania. Then, we’re thinking going to Stockholm.

It’s been great to actually just meet some fabulous people around the world that have a passion similar to me, had great companies in a digital world, and had business life in the digital world as well, because I’m really serious they believe that. Life and business should not be separate, it shouldn’t be go to work, hate what you do, come back at 5:00 and find your life again. I really believe that in this digital world it’s possible to have it all as they say.

We’re doubling down on a publishing, so we got some projects based on that. We’re writing a lot more long-form content. We’re working with some big brands on influence on marketing like sales force and ensured, so a lot of interesting stuff happening. I suppose a lot of my passion submerged more over the last couple of years is the storytelling in getting your message across to the world and have brands that can do that, whether you’re a personal brand or bigger brand, because I love the quote. “People forget what you told them, but they don’t forget how you made them feel and that’s very much what a story does.”

Jordan: Fantastic. I love talking to people like you too who are all over and you sort of have a bird’s eye view of the digital marketing world, and the content marketing world. Something I wonder is do you find that marketers face the same problems even when they’re in the different countries? When you go see the marketers in Jordan, and you go to Bucharest, and all of these other places, are they the same core problems we’re all having?

Jeff: Yes, they want more traffic. They want more conversions. The reality is still the same, it’s just quite often that might not have the same platforms locally. In other words Facebook might be big in one country and not quite as big in another or Twitter is really great in one part of the world, and not so great in another. It varies. But, essentially, the foundation and your strategy shouldn’t be much different.

Jordan: This is a great topic today for our interview with that question, because I really wanted to dig into traffic with you. That’s something that you are an expert in and not just before you talk a lot about it, but because you’ve done it. That’s what makes me excited to talk about this with you today, because if I’ve got your stories straight, you took a $10 investment, you started it 10 bucks, and now you had over 25,000,000 visitors. You have a powerhouse of a brand and you found success as an entrepreneur. Can you just take us back and give as the cliff notes like how did you go from $10 to where you at today?

Jeff: It started as a little passion project. I was going out with a lady at that time and she introduced me to Facebook in 2008 and I went, “Wow.” This intersection of humanity and technology which is what social media is about, enabling people to publish. I noticed people’s obsession with it and then I got into to Twitter, I went with the same type of attitude, and I went an approach and I went, “Wow,” this opens up the world to me and to anyone that actually has something to say or very little to say, because we often start with not knowing much about our topic or what have I got to say that hasn’t been said before.

This obsession with social media became my obsession as well. Part of it was driven by a book by David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. David talked about how content could attract an audience and I went, “Wow, that sounds good,” because I’ve been so used to chasing at audience. There’s a quote used by Jeremy Epstein in his which I just came across the other day, which is really fabulous. He sums it up beautifully. He said, “Sales is where you call them, marketing is where they call you.”

Jordan: That’s good.

Jeff: I went, “Wow,” because David’s book was very much about creating content and attracting an audience, inbound marketing and we call that today generally around the world as content marketing. Then, I read Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek book around the same time but I went, “Wow, this digital world is offering this opportunity to be free of geographical constraints.” Free of working 9:00 to 5:00, that really attracted me as well with that sort of mindset. Then, I read a blog post by HubSpot which said, “Do you have an inkling of what you want to start a business or you want to write about start a blog?” I don’t even know what a blog was. Actually, I think I had Google what a blog was back then.

Jordan: Yes, it’s awesome.

Jeff: Blogs were just for geeky people and I wasn’t a geeky person. I work in tech for a couple of decades and I’d have to adapt and evolve for decades as well. In 2009, March, I actually started the blog and I just brought the domain name which is the $10 investment. I’m doing Twitter by then and I realized, “I need to do two things. I need to create the content and then I also need an audience.” I got really obsessed with building that audience.

Twitter became my go-to platform, Facebook was sort of there, there was no advertising at that time. Because I had no money, I had to be creative and even inventive. I discovered that Twitter was pretty a cool way to actually get some attentions. Then, we got put on list of Social Media Examiners as one of the top 10 finalist or something of social media blogs in the planet, and started building a little bit of credibility, and just kept creating content.

It was just a passion project and I was actually between jobs, that’s the code for unemployed, and what was really interesting was I actually got a job on April 1, which is Fool’s Day. I don’t if that’s the same in America. April 1 is Fool’s Day pretty right around the world. I got the job but I’ve already started the blog and what was interesting was I had to create content, so I did time blocking. I write late at night and I discovered that couldn’t work because you go out for dinner and you meet new friends, you have a couple of glass of wine, you come back, “Oh, I got to write.” That wasn’t going to work.

Jordan: Things get pretty interesting.

Jeff: Exactly, so I started writing but what was fantastic about writing at night is I could see the world wake up, because I was a bit of night owl. At 11:00 PM, America is actually is waking up and my audience was primarily and still today is mainly USA and North America, about 40% of my traffic is from there. It was interesting, because I would end up having conversations on Twitter with people as they got online. That was really fascinating.

Essentially, this passion project escaped the lab. I was working for this digital agency and I started speaking around the world as the bog grew. I went to Italy. I went to Kuwait. I went to Beirut. I went to Istanbul. I was taking leave without pay and they get, “Well, you’re not just interested in growing our business because you’re so distracted by your own blog.” I’m like, “I can’t, but I really need a job.” They actually cut me down to three days a week, cut me down to two days a week, and about four years after I started, I got myself slowly fired from my day job.

In the meantime, I was creating content. I changed my habit of doing deep work, it’s a great book by Cal Newport. I’m recommending anyone to read that. He actually gave a name to what I was doing, it’s deep work, which I got up at 4:30 AM for four years, and actually wrote from 4:30 AM to 9:00 AM before I started my day job, and wrote, and created, and published, and shared.

Eventually, I got myself fired from my job. Actually, they contracted me back for a day/week and that was about four years ago. Today, that business actually has folded and we’re booming here. Passion project escaped the lab essentially to make long story short.

Jordan: That’s the best way to describe, a passion project escaped the lab. I’m going to steal that from you, that’s good. What does your team look like today now? I understand it’s not just you in the lab anymore, so who are the scientists with you?

Jeff: I’ve got SEO guru in Europe. I’ve got my marketing funnels expert, she works in Colorado in USA. I’ve got my editor, he works actually in Sydney, but in different location. That’s about it really. I’m just thinking if anyone is hiding behind the scenes. I also have web designer/developer, he’s in Melbourne. Then we got different contractors in the […] copywriting and so on. Essentially, I just got a core team, it’s a virtual team. I do have an office, but I don’t go there very often because when I go to the office, it feels like I’m working whereas if I have my home office where we’re in today, it feels like I’m just playing which is really what I’m doing.

This is still very driven by what I’m passionate about, which is making a difference, creating content, learning to write better, learning to tell better stories, and hopefully people will actually want to hear and maybe pay business for doing some of that, which I do. It’s a lot of fun. I really don’t feel like I’m working. This is not a job. This is still a passion project.

Jordan: Well, when you have fun, we have fun. That’s the thing. We catch that from you, that passion is infused in your content, and we pick it up in the audience.

Jeff: That’s great to hear. I suppose it stems a little bit from when I started as well is that social media was fun, it was authentic, it was real, it was raw, it was human, it was wild west. We’ve lost a little bit today, because it has become corporatized, but I suppose part of is to keep it real and still keep it fun. That’s interesting. When I started blogging, I was doing some branding what I’m like. I didn’t do any deep workshops on this logos or anything. I said, “What am I going to be called in blog world?” I have a strange name, so likely that domain name was there 10 years ago, jeffbullas.com.

When I was in a schoolyard, Jeff Bullas maybe wasn’t that great of name. You could go on to the iterations of where that’s going to go. I’m not going to say them because people might be offended who has some sensitivities about four little words.

The reality was that I had an artist friend across the road and my partner said, she said, “Why don’t you use a caricature of you?” John, my artist friend across the road sat down in an afternoon, it was couple of hours just to drew this character. That’s what you’ll see today on the blog and it’s fun. I think he capture the essence of me and the brand. I think we carry that through today. We use that on the book covers. Maybe it’s quite a little bit strange, but it’s memorable. See, that’s the other thing too, is that a nice glamour shot of me is maybe not going to be that memorable. But not to take myself too seriously, a caricature is actually much more memorable and that’s proved to be the case. It was a branding mistake success, really.

Jordan: Everybody was zigging with the clean polished stuff and then, boom, here’s Jeff and every one is like, “I like the zag.”

Jeff: I get accused of having a big head sometime so I say, “Yes, I do. There’s my caricature.”

Jordan: This is interesting to me because there is some talk around storytelling and it can become buzzword but I think that’s something that you’re actually very good at and you actually see business value and business result from, so could you talk a little bit about the connection you’ve seen between storytelling, social media, and then driving traffic to your blog sort of this that you’re really owning?

Jeff: If you just leave the facts, everyone’s got facts, everyone’s got content. It was a friend of mine who actually saw the video that Mark Schaefer did for me with content marketing world. I’m the only one they held, which was in Sydney, Australia about four or five years ago and I had a quick chat to Mark and he just had his phone. He took a video. It’s about six to seven-minute video taken with a smartphone.

She saw the video and it’s actually one of the first time that I actually shared my story and she said, “You got to tell that story more.” I said, “Who cares about my story?” That’s what makes it different. No one can take your story. You’re the only that has your story. It’s the same with the brand, why you started, no one else has your story, but you can borrow facts until the cows come home.

The reality is that it’s your story and that’s where it starts to become powerful is when you get better at telling that story, and then make a point from that story. That essentially become embedded in my keynotes, it become embedded in my rising. Now, I’m fascinated by how to tell hero’s journey. It’s great book by Donald Miller which I’m sure you’ve heard about the story of brand and his brand.

I just finished reading that the other day, I just published a five-book review on Monday about a few other books I’ve read as well. I just love his approach to that. Also, the guys behind contently, they just release the book recently, and that’s very much about the big automation as well as AI, which are the two big futures for content, which excite me and worry me.

They also weave the importance of storytelling as well. Story is yours and I think that’s where you’re going to start from and then you’re actually going to give people a plan how they can actually reach the world, you need to be the guide. That was Star Wars story all over again.

Jordan: One of the things I really like about the talk around the archetype like the hero’s journey framework is you really have to make your target audience the hero. It’s not necessarily about your journey as the hero, it’s about them as the hero, and you sort of being of Obi Wan or Gandalf or whatever. Is that how you think about it? Go ahead, talk about that.

Jeff: Exactly. Nothing wrong with you saying, “Well, it’s about humble beginning,” just how it started, I had a crisis, I had a call, existential threat to the business all of my life, that’s what did happened to me. I was unemployed in the middle of a divorce, hundreds of thousands in debt when I started and I’m 60. The reality is I’m an old guy. I had to reinvent myself, so if I can do it, you can do it. Let me be your guide, let me give you a plan, so you can be the hero and that’s how it goes.

Jordan: There’s this element of you having to almost convince people though that they can do something, like they are capable of taking the steps that you’ve taken.

Jeff: Yes, and that then comes down to distilling the complexity and the simplicity, which is where content creation becomes. You got to get your cloudy content and information that swirls around in between your two ears and you got to actually distill that into the simplest plan you possibly can and then take people on that journey. That’s what you got to do and that is quite overwhelming, because you’re going, “I want do that. I want to do this. How do I actually distil that down?”

That’s the challenge and that’s what I love about writing, the actual art of creations. Because when you actually create, you got to do that. You got to say, “How people going to understand this topic?” You’ve got to actually break it down. You’ve got to give it a structure. You’ve got to give it a form and it’s going to make sense. You got to get away from using big industry acronyms that actually confuse people.

I have a saying, “If you see any acronym, shoot it.” Because it’s industry peak and you got to rush people through the journey. You want to keep them with you and you’ve got to write for a nine-year-old.

Jordan: Which is incidentally my reading level, I appreciate that. I like to watch videos of you on YouTube, Jeff, and I think a lot of people do, not just because I like your accent, but because I like what you’re saying. One thing that you’ve said that has stuck with me, you talked about when it comes to traffic, you have to earn traffic which you said like that’s becoming attractive, but you also need to own traffic and then keep the relationship going like you can’t just keep them there, you have to invite them back. Take us deeper in storytelling, and owning that traffic, and keeping that relationship flourishing.

Jeff: I had an aha moment in Chicago about three years ago. I become quite good at earning traffic. In other words I have search engines delivering traffic to me. I built distribution on social. I was good at creating the content, I was good at getting the traffic, but I was missing that last piece, and that was converting that into leads and sales. At the simplest level, that’s building your email list.

About three years ago, I’ve decided after this, because I met a guy called Tod Brown. He was at this Mastermind event with Danny and a few others. He just went through what he works in conversion. In other words, building funnels. That’s what I’m not doing very, very well. I’ve got all this traffic, I’ve got all this great content, and I’m not doing much with it.

I double down on that about three years ago and was really been working much harder at owning that traffic. An email list is the closest you’ll get to actually owning traffic. I call search engines, building searching engine authorities earning traffic, building a social media list is earning a tribe that works. But you just got to keep delivering, that’s the hard part. You got to play a long game here. This is not about, “Wow, I got a valuable piece of content this month,” wait another year to get that. I never want quick wins.

The reality is you just got to strap yourself in and keep doing the work and that’s why the passion is very important part of that purpose, because you’re not going to do that every day unless you actually are passionate about it, because tough times will come. If you love what you’re doing, your topic, the people that you surround yourself with, that will make it so much easier to actually sit down and create content, inspire, entertain, and educate, that’s what’s really important.

You got to have the right foundation. It took me 15 years to discover what that foundation and purpose was. But the thing about purpose and passion is that it’s not, “I’ve arrived.” I think that’s what people don’t really understand is that, “Hi, I’ve arrived. I’m here. I’m home.” The reality is it continues to be a journey. You got to keep reinventing yourself. You’re going to keep learning. You got to keep growing. Passion and purpose is not a destination, it’s a calling and it’s a journey.

Jordan: That’s beautiful. I resonate with that too, because I’m a content marketing strategist here on our team so I’m like, “Content, content, content.” This is my life. This is what I do. Like so many others, I hit the walls sometimes and one thing I started doing is I just have my orange sticky note and I go back to like, “Why am I doing this?” “Why am I creating this automation funnel?”

That can be the driest, the most technical thing, but then I realize like, “Man, I’m trying to deliver really helpful content that solves problems for people that I care about who are like me at just the right time. It sorts of just like sparks you. You get infuse with this like, “Oh, man, I want to do this,” even though it’s 3:00 and I feel like I need another tank of coffee.

Jeff: Yes, it’s true. Sometimes you’re just going to strap yourself and go, “I’m going to sit in my chair, I’m going type one word, and I’m going type another word.” Then, two hours later, you realize you’ve actually written a blog post or written an article or written an idea or written a strategy. It doesn’t mean every day it’s going to be great or perfect. I think this is where routines become important, the daily routine.

We got knocked off our daily routines regularly, it’s to have that routine to go through so I think that’s really, really important. Also, you’re going to be doing what feeds your soul is that what you’re doing is meaning to you, and not get distracted by the moment.

Jordan: I just imagine 4:30 AM for four years, that take some passion to get up in the wee hours, where it’s not even morning yet, that’s still night to me.

Jeff: I don’t do that today. I get up at about 5:30 now, but 4:30 because I had this deadline of 9:00 AM which I don’t have anymore, because that was the day job deadline to start. That 4:30 AM, I don’t know if I can do that my whole life, because it was just that time that was right for me. I seized it. I time blocked and I created a habit.

I remember driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge at 5:00 AM after having a shower and getting up. I actually go to the office where I was working and I would actually work there because no one else was in the office, I turned up, and this building is like a ghost site. It’s just me. It’s just my lemon and ginger tea and double shot of black coffee, and I’m sitting down here. I’m just checking what’s going on the first for the day. It said that a crisis happened on social media and then I would go in and just write.

It was that routine that became a habit. It’s very, very powerful and that’s what Cal Newport actually outlined briefly in way in his book, Deep Work, which describes different ways of doing it, whether you’re an academic that goes and does a sabbatical or whether you do it in the morning or whether you’re like a journalist that dives in and dives out during the day to write something. As journalist you can approach the monastic approach. There’s the habit approach, so there are all of those different ways. You’re just going to have to try and find a way that works for you.

Jordan: One of my favorite questions whenever we’re bringing interviews in for landing is sort of coming to you and saying, “Okay, Obi Wan,” or, “Okay, Gandalf,” it’s like the sage wisdom time. What if someone is here in this place and they want to play the long game with content marketing, and they haven’t had this mindset while they approach it, and they said, “Jeff, where do I start? What’s the most important question I need to ask myself?” What would you tell them?

Jeff: I think you got to start with the right foundation, which is you really got to ask yourself the question. I think this is the question that we should all should be asking our life is, “Why am I here? What’s my passionate purpose?” That’ll be an intersection, your experience, your expertise, your innate ability. Then if you have inkling of what that is I think the best thing to do then is actually start creating content around that to actually write, if you don’t like writing, do a podcast, if you don’t like podcast, do a video. Just choose a medium of choice. Gary Vaynerchuk chose video, I chose writing, but I think the real reality is that if you’re going to distil this cloud of confusion in the clarity and distil, you really got to create.

I would recommend anyone to take their IP, their intellectual knowledge that might be buried in the corporation of what they’re doing. In other words, they shop to the day job, they add value to the business, but don’t do anything for them. What you’re going to do is build something for you because the reality is a about having that day job is that if you get fired, your authority, and your credibility is just positional.

The reality is you should be investing in you and that means create, not only create, you need then to publish, share it to the world, that means then you grow, you exist. Do not wait for that lucky win, someone to discover you. It’s actually create the best content you can, not only do that, share it with the world. Because what will happen is the world will talk to you and the you will talk to the world. The world will change you and you will change the world. That’s the power of actually creating in a social media world.

How to Make an Email Newsletter Your Customers Love [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 07 May 2018 21:07:46 GMT

Did you know email marketing drives a reported 4,400% ROI?

Believe it. Email is low-cost and direct. If people are on your email list, it’s because they want to hear from you.

So, give them what they want with an irresistible email newsletter.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

With strategic planning, a consistent schedule, and sharp curatorial and copywriting skills, any marketer can create one that drives results.

Follow along with this step-by-step process to get started.

[Cookie “Get Your Free Email Newsletter Template Bundle || https://media-staging.coschedule.com/uploads/newsletter-MU-01.png || Download Bundle || https://media-staging.coschedule.com/uploads/Email-Newsletter-Template-Bundle.zip”]

[Tweet “How to Make an Email Newsletter Your Customers Love by @Ben_CoSchedule via @CoSchedule”]

What Are Email Marketing Newsletters?

For our purposes, they’re informative emails sharing your latest news and announcements. That could include blog articles, curated content, events, sales, or anything else you have to share. We’ll further define these as emails delivered on a set schedule that your audience can expect.

How Are Email Newsletters Typically Built?

Generally, in one of three ways:

Using an Email Service Provider: Platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, and others typically have WYSIWYG email template editors.
Using Email Building Tools: There are also tools that allow you to build emails and then send them with the ESP of your choice. Taxi for Email is an example.
Custom-Coded HTML: Some companies prefer to code email newsletters by hand. This allows more flexibility.

Where Can I Find Free Email Newsletter Templates?

No matter how you prefer to build your emails, there’s no shortage of them on the Web. Here’s a roundup of places where you can find free templates:

Downloadable HTML Email Templates

The Litmus community offers tons of free email templates, which they are built by some of the best designers around.
Zurb has several downloadable responsive email designs (that even work in Outlook). They’re created using their Ink framework.
Themezy provides 16 free templates here.
You can get tons of Retina-ready email templates from CakeMail here.

Email Templates for Popular ESPs

Here’s info on free templates for some popular ESPs:

If your business uses any of the above ESPs, too, there’s some great news. You can plan and schedule all your marketing newsletters in CoSchedule.

With Email Marketing from CoSchedule, you can:

Seamlessly integrate with your *favorite* email marketing platform. You already have a kick-a$$ email platform you know and love, so why give it up? With Email Marketing, you can easily connect your preferred email platform to CoSchedule with just a couple clicks.
Write click-worthy email subject lines…every time. With Email Marketing, you can use CoSchedule’s *exclusive* Email Subject Line Tester to optimize and perfect every subject line to drive more opens, more clicks, and more conversions.
Get full visibility into your ENTIRE marketing strategy. Say “buh-bye” to disjointed marketing content (and constantly jumping from screen to screen). With Email Marketing, it’s easy to see how your email campaigns relate to the rest of your marketing strategy and quickly make adjustments if necessary.

Can You Show Me Some Examples of Email Newsletters?

We certainly can. Let’s take a look at a few.

Lifehacker

Lifehacker regularly sends an excellent newsletter rounding up their latest how-to guides and advice:

Each newsletter leads off with a primary story that’s typically tied in directly to the email’s subject line. Then, they include smaller content blocks broken up with an ad on the right side:

Next, there’s a sponsored story (which makes sense given Lifehacker’s propensity to feature products):

Planning this email would require:

One lead story.
Three supporting stories.
One sponsored story.

This email newsletter is also sent one per day. That makes sense too given their high daily publishing frequency.

Emerging Prairie

Emerging Prairie is a local tech and entrepreneurship organization located in Fargo, ND (one of two cities CoSchedule calls home).

Their email newsletter is straightforward, once again leading with an article that’s teased by the subject line:

Notice they also have three sharing links in the upper right, plus an upcoming events list in a right-hand navigation bar.

Then, the layout of this email continues with a simple format, listing more articles discussing events and news from the area:

Planning this newsletter would require:

Rounding up seven recent blog articles.
Maintaining an updated list of events.

You’ll now be able to see your scheduled email alongside all your other content and campaigns on your CoSchedule marketing calendar.

As a reminder, you can also plan out and schedule email newsletters with the free email calendar we’ve included in this post:

Now You’re Ready to Plan Better Newsletters

We’ve covered a lot of ground, but by now, you should have all the information you need to rock your email newsletter planning.

How to Plan a Marketing Calendar That Actually Works (Free Template) [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:36:27 GMT

I’m going to be blunt.

A lot of marketing calendars are really tough to use simply because they aren’t designed to be marketing calendar tools. And that makes it really tough to plan a marketing calendar that actually works:

PDFs: Printing a free editorial calendar template like this one from CoSchedule is a great way to start your planning—to get the brainstorming going. From here, you’ll likely want a digital version that’s a bit easier to update with your constant changes.
Excel: Here’s a free marketing calendar template from Content Marketing Institute to get you started on a digital version. But it’s a bit difficult to get your team to use it when you have it locked all day as you plan. :/
Google Docs: A spreadsheet in Google Docs/Sheets like this marketing calendar template from Crackerjack Marketing will help you solve the locking problem you’d experience with Excel. This still doesn’t feel like a marketing calendar, though, without a visual way to see your upcoming projects.
Google Calendar: You could also build a marketing calendar in Google Calendar.

The thing is…

If you’ve followed our advice on social media calendars, you may schedule 30 or more social messages throughout the following weeks and months to share a single blog post with your audience.

I’m sure you can’t imagine copying and pasting all of those from Google Calendar into your different social networks—what a time suck! Not to mention copying and pasting all of your other content, too…

So What Will Help You Plan An Awesome Marketing Calendar?

So where am I going with all of this?

I’ve read dozens of other posts on marketing calendars, editorial calendars, content marketing calendars, social media calendars—you get the picture. And I checked out a monster list of marketing calendar templates in a post on Crazy Egg’s blog.

There are tons of folks who have really good ideas of what to include in your calendar, and starting with a template to get your brainstorming underway is a solid way to begin.

So here’s how to plan a marketing calendar that really works—with a few tips from us at CoSchedule, and a lot more from the other rock stars out there.

[Tweet “How To Plan A #MarketingCalendar That Actually Works”]

Start With This Guide + Marketing Calendar Template, And Then…

You might just need a guide and a little something to write on while you read this post. I’ve got your back.

Download the free guide that will help you implement all of this advice with actionable, step-by-step information. You’ll also get a free marketing calendar template (plus bonus social + email marketing calendars) to help you plan all your content in advance.

[Cookie “Get Your Free Marketing Calendar Bundle! || x || Get Your Free Copy Now || https://media-staging.coschedule.com/uploads/Marketing-Calendar-Template-Bundle.zip”]

And when you’re ready to use a tool designed to be your marketing calendar, get started with 14 free days of CoSchedule.

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

Step #1: Turn Your Marketing Strategy Into Real Content You’ll Create

Maybe writing a 30-page marketing strategy isn’t as important as planning real content. It sounds harsh, but hear me out:

For startups, business plans are no longer normal.

In fact, they’re now considered a faux pas and seen as a mere “business guess.” But that wasn’t always the case. Before the lean startup, the business plan was a document that assumed we knew everything there was to know about our business, a plan set in stone. It was done, or so we thought.

In reality, it was just a big huge guess.

Marketing plans and gigantic old strategy documents aren’t much different. They may sound novel and responsible, but the reality is that they are just guesses, too. What could content marketing strategy builders learn from the lean startup model?

[Tweet “For a startup, business plans are no longer normal. @garrett_moon”]

The more time you spend strategizing, the less time you spend creating real content that will influence sales (which, let’s face it, is the entire reason to plan your marketing calendar).

Whether you have a marketing strategy already or not, there are just a few things you need in your strategy to help you validate what content to create:

The now-infamous: Know your audience. This could start as simple as a customer survey, then possibly just bullet points you add into an Evernote note that help you stay in touch with your customers’ changing needs. The main point here is this: Keep it simple, especially at first.
Create content. Content is data, and you get to know your customers by creating content and measuring its impact. There’s no way you will know everything about your audience until you put something out there, start communicating with them, and get their feedback.
Start small. If you’re thinking about doing an hourlong video or an e-book first, think again. Could you release a chapter of an e-book first to gauge its performance before you spend more time developing content on that topic? Could the same go for your monster video? If content is data, plan minimum viable content on your marketing calendar first to feel out what will truly “move the needle.” (I had to sneak in a quip like that since we’re talking strategy!)

That really looks like this:

From here, turn your strategy into content. And use the data from what you create to plan more:

Create your content.
Share it with your audience.
Measure what’s working.
Learn what to create and where to share.
Plan more content like your best-performing projects.

So now that you have a minimum viable marketing strategy to get started, the next step is looping in who’ll help you create that content. This will help you define expectations for everyone—even if it’s really only you as an all-in-one marketing team.

To Do:

Brainstorm every question your audience has about your niche from knowing nothing to being an expert.
From there, strategize the best forms of content you’ll use to answer their questions. This will serve as the foundation for your marketing calendar.

I’d rather have a first-rate execution and second-rate strategy any time than a brilliant idea and mediocre management. —Jamie Dimon

Step #2: Understand Who’ll Do What

Ann Handley has an awesome idea when it comes to who should be involved in your editorial flow, and thus, have access to your marketing calendar to understand when pieces will publish:

http://www.slideshare.net/AnnHandley/content-marketing-org-chart

She says:

These are roles not staff positions. Each role might be filled by one person or perhaps by a dozen, depending on the size and complexity of your own organization.

Let’s take a look at those roles quick:

Team lead, or your strategist
Editorial director
Designers
Content creators
Curator
Syndicator
Analytics expert
Site manager

That’s a pretty good list. And while that list works for Ann, it might not for you. For a small team, you can narrow that list of roles down even further:

Team lead who helps with planning, editing, publishing, and distributing
Writer who turns a content idea into something your audience will love
Designer (or videographer, podcaster, etc.) who takes the writer’s creation to the next level

Essentially, these folks are the ones who’ll help you plan, create, and share the content according to your marketing strategy. Get everyone on the same page now to make actually producing content a lot easier down the road.

To Do:

Narrow down the roles you need to create the different content types you explored in step #1.
Brainstorm who’ll help you complete those projects (you’re looking for names here).
Get everyone on the same page to understand about how much content you can publish in a normal week.
Find a marketing calendar tool that helps with project management, communication, and workflow that everyone will use.

Now it’s time work that marketing calendar: Plan what topics you’ll cover.

Step #3: Define Your Topic Themes

John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing plans out his marketing calendar based on themes. The themes help him look at a calendar that connects with topics he wants to cover for his audience.

Note that this isn’t actual content yet—it’s just a note of the topics he’d like to address in his content:

The first step is to start making a list of your most important themes. I generally try to find three core themes and about nine supplemental themes. (Nice tidy 12 monthly themes.) Your core themes are the kinds of things that might be found on your homepage or even in the title attribute of your home page. Or, perhaps the main navigational elements of your site.

While it scares me to plan 12 months ahead because the data from your current content should help you plan new content, this is an awesome way to plan strategically (and super efficiently) and keep your content on point.

John shares exactly how he chooses themes:

Start with brainstorming. Lock yourself away and start thinking about the kinds of things people ask about the most, where you make your most money, or where you see the greatest opportunities in your industry. This is often enough to create a good start to your list. Obviously, if you have a team, get them involved – they may actually know better than you. (Industry jargon that means nothing to the prospect must be left out here.)

John mentions this is a nice way to get past staring at a blank marketing calendar without any clue of what content to add to it. I also love that about themes.

To Do:

Find the main themes from your list of customer questions in step #1. Define their biggest challenges, the areas of opportunity in your industry, and how you make the most money.
Choose themes to flesh out your marketing calendar. You may want to plan a month ahead, a quarter, or the entire year. It’s whatever works for you. Personally, I’d choose weekly themes to repeat over the course of months to have tangible data as evidence to plan more content around a theme or less. This way, you’d avoid planning lots of content around a theme for an entire month without knowing if that theme is a dud.
Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for your entire team to see. Remember, themes aren’t content; themes direct the content your team will create.

Step #4: Prioritize Your Marketing Projects

Marcus Sheridan from The Sales Lion has a simple solution to help you plan your marketing calendar based on projects that will have the biggest impact on your business. He addresses prioritizing your marketing calendar very simply:

Remember, content marketing is about generating more sales. When all is said and done, that’s what matters.

He suggests prioritizing more “Buyer’s Content” instead of so much top of the funnel, inbound content.

By understanding this, the aim is to plan content on your marketing calendar that will help prospects make purchase decisions instead of purely focusing on content that’s great for the top of the funnel but just generating traffic.

The team at The Sales Lion even have a simple algorithm they use to prioritize their projects that you can use, too:

Essentially, we have every client rate their planned content (be it blog titles, videos, etc.) on a scale of 1-3. A “3” score means it’s “Buyer’s Content” and therefore marked as most urgent—moving it to the top of the calendar. If it’s a “1” grade, then we’ll wait to produce this content because it’s either a top of funnel question that a buyer may be asking or even an “outside of the funnel” question/subject—meaning that although it may be relevant to the business and buyer, it doesn’t necessarily represent someone who is seriously considering making a purchase right now.

From here, you can plan a balance of content focused on selling and content focused on inspiring interest in your business on your marketing calendar.

To-Do:

For each theme, brainstorm content you could create for that topic. Don’t limit yourself at first: When you think of an idea, write it down quickly and move to the next.
For those content ideas, use Marcus’ algorithm to rank them with good, better, best: 1 means inbound, 3 means looking to buy. Use your best judgement to rank these just to get started.
Sift through the content ideas for every theme. Sort them according to 3, 2, 1 to prepare a prioritized list that you’ll add to your marketing calendar.

And when you start planning actual pieces of content on your calendar, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Step #5: Plan Your Content On Your Marketing Calendar

This is the fun part! And there are many ways to do this:

While editorial calendars work particularly well for managing blogs, you can use them to organize all of your marketing.

So I wanted to know how the other pros out there plan more than just blog and social media content, but a true all-in-one marketing calendar that you can also do with CoSchedule. Here’s what they had to say:

Plan Actual Pieces Of Content To Target Specific Keywords Your Audience Uses

You used Marcus’ algorithm to prioritize your projects, so let’s make those into actual pieces of content on your calendar. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had some more solid advice on planning projects as content:

Now take that list to the Google Keyword Planner and see if you can find themes that have significant volume. You must balance key terms with being too generic though. A term like “marketing” wouldn’t make sense as a theme, even for a marketing consultant, but a term like “referral marketing tactics” might.

To summarize: While all of your content may be connected to a theme, choose a keyword for every single piece of content you’ll publish. These may be keywords all related to the same topic, but unique enough to help you connect your different content to the terms your audience is searching for.

To Do:

Read this: SEO Content Strategy: How to Skyrocket Your Traffic By 594%.
Select a core keyword for every single piece of content (and related keywords) that will publish on the magical interwebs.

Then add the keywords into your projects on your marketing calendar according to the priority you defined through Marcus’ scoring exercise.

Plan Content For A Week, Month, Or Year Out

Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing Institute has a lot of insight on the content marketing process, and marketing calendars are a huge element of successful strategies turning into real content:

One thing is certain: if you don’t keep an editorial/content calendar, the content doesn’t get done. —Joe Pulizzi

Joe breaks it down into such a simple idea:

An editorial calendar simply tracks what content you are going to cover, what tactic it’s for (blog, newsletter, etc.) and who’s responsible.

[…]

Best practice is to set up a master calendar for all your content initiatives, and then a separate content calendar for each initiative. Traditionally, we’ve set up editorial calendars 12 months out and then constantly change them as we tweak the marketing plan.

The good news is that your themes are the year calendar, and now you’re ready to plan real projects for each “initiative”, as Joe calls them.

So let’s recap everything you just learned, and use Joe’s advice to get your projects on your marketing calendar.

To Do:

At this point, you have a marketing calendar with themes outlining the topics you’ll cover every single month. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for the entire year (and take seasonality into account, too, for big holidays or events in your industry).
You got the entire team on board to understand their roles. Now it’s time to understand how much content you can actually produce in a given week or month. Sit down with the team to plan your publishing frequency, taking into consideration all of the marketing projects you’ll complete.
You have a list of prioritized projects to complete. Now that you know how much you can complete, and the entire team is on board, plan an achievable amount of projects. It’s not worth stressing yourself out with an unrealistic amount of projects to complete.

Actually Create The Content

I couldn’t say this better than Rebecca Lieb from (who’s brilliant, by the way, and worth following) on combining your marketing calendar with a content production process:

Many editorial calendars also incorporate the production process into the mix, which is a great way to ensure content creation is on track. This can include who’s responsible for individual content elements, the due date of a first draft, who conducts the copyedit, and a date (often, with a specific time) for receiving and proofing the final draft, entering it into the CMS system (or newsletter template, or blog platform), and when it will be pushed live, or published.

Where Rebecca started, Jodi Harris from Content Marketing Institute provides a few more details to help you set up your marketing calendar:

The date the piece of content will be published

The topic or headline of the content piece

The author of the content

The owner of the content – i.e., who is in charge of making sure the content makes it from ideation to publication and promotion

The current status of the content (updated as it moves through your publishing cycle)

Jodi continues with a few more items to include:

The channels where your content will be published: This can include only your owned channels (such as your blog, Facebook Page, website, YouTube page, email newsletters, etc.), or you can expand your tracking to include paid and earned channels, as well.

Content formats: Is it a blog post? A video? A podcast? An infographic? An original image? To get more mileage from the content you create, you might want to consider repurposing it into other formats at some point. So it’s handy to keep tabs on the types of assets you have on hand right from the start.

Visuals: Speaking of assets, it’s important that you don’t overlook the appeal that visuals can lend to your content, both in terms of social sharing potential and overall brand recognition. Tracking the visual elements you include in your content efforts – such as cover images, logos, illustrations, charts – will make it easier to ensure that your work has a signature look and cohesive brand identity.

Topic categories: This helps make your calendars more searchable when you are looking to see about which target topics you already created a lot of content – or which you haven’t covered often enough.

Keywords and other meta-data, such as meta-descriptions and SEO titles (if they differ from your headlines), which will help you keep your SEO efforts aligned with your content creation.

URLs: This info can be archived as an easy way to keep your online content audits updated, or to link to older pieces of content in the new content you create.

Calls to action: This helps you ensure that every piece of content you create is aligning with your company’s marketing goals.

So it makes sense to simply include all of this advice right in your marketing calendar as you create it. Here’s how:

http://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/nral14xf7n?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

All the actionable advice in this post will work with any format your marketing calendar takes.

It’s just that CoSchedule is actually designed to be your all-in-one marketing calendar, and helps you do all of this way more efficiently. What would your marketing look like if you could manage all of this in one tool?

Are you ready to get started?

[Tweet “5 Steps To Plan A Marketing Calendar That Actually Works”]

This post was originally published on June 17, 2015. It was most recently updated on April 4, 2018.

The 48 Most Essential Marketing Skills You Need to Be Successful in 2018 [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:31:28 GMT

As a marketer, you know the industry is continually changing.

From fresh tactics to emerging trends, there’s always something new to learn.

So you jump on to Google and read the first page of results. And you see list after list of skills that marketers *should* have.

It can be a bit overwhelming. So, we’ve done our best to narrow down the essentials.

What we’ve come up with is a list of 48 foundational marketing skills we think are most important to build and develop.

We’ve also included links to guides and resources to help you learn and implement each skill.

Keep reading and see where you can fill in the gaps in your skillset.

[Tweet “These Are The 48 Essential Marketing Skills You Need To Be Successful 2018”]

Download The 11 Step Guide To Learning A New Skill

Knowing how to learn is a skill in itself.

But, it’s a skill anyone can master.

By following the steps in this guide, you’ll learn how to:

Get past the fear of failure.
Develop an efficient and repeatable system for skill-building.
Understand how to take on new tasks and succeed, even if you’ve never done something before.

Get it free now, and use it to build any of the following 48 skills we’ll cover in this post.

[Tweet “Get your free guide on building #marketing skills from @CoSchedule:”]

Introducing the CoSchedule Academy: Looking for insider marketing knowledge to improve your skills even further? Join the CoSchedule Academy now.

Why Do You Need To Continually Develop Your Marketing Skills?

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times.

The marketing world is evolving.

If you can’t stay on top of the latest skills in the market, how can you expect to be successful?

Your audience is constantly being bombarded with ads, messages, distractions and a whole lot more.

You need the skills that will allow you to create marketing strategies that let your content stand out in a crowd.

Here is the list of top skills marketers should consider keeping in their toolbox in 2018.

[Tweet “Which marketing skills are most essential to posess? Start with these 48 from @CoSchedule.”]

12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be On Every Marketer’s Resume

Why focus on the basics? Shouldn’t you have those down by now?

You might, but a brush up never hurt anyone. There’s also the fact that the what’s now considered a basic marketing skill may have changed from what it was ten years ago.

Plus the basics are what build your foundation as a successful marketer. If they start to crumble the rest of your skill set will go right along with it.

Here are the 12 basic skills that should be on every marketer’s resume.

[Tweet “12 Basic Marketing Skills That Should Be In Your Wheelhouse”]

The Ability to Write Well

Writing is the foundation of everything else that a marketer does. Without strong writing skills, everything else you do will falter.

Writing comes into play whenever you’re creating ad copy, social media posts, press releases and so much more. You need to be able to comprehensively communicate your message at all times.

Recommend Reading: 40 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now

Internal Communication Skills

As a marketer, you’re not just communicating with your target audience. You’re communicating internally with your co-workers and boss as well.

Keeping clear and consistent messaging within your marketing team means you can get more done and you don’t have to worry about another team member running a project off the rails.

In addition to communicating with your co-workers, you also need to be able to talk to your boss and upper management. Can you explain your projects and anticipate the questions or concerns they’ll have in advance?

Interpersonal Communication Skills

Interpersonal communication skills go hand in hand with internal communication skills. This particular skill set, however, is focused on how things are said not just what has been said.

The reality of the situation is that we are all human and therefore we’re always communicating with each other whether we intend to or not. As a marketer, you need to be aware of the people around you and what you are intentionally or unintentionally saying at all times.

Recommended Reading: Interpersonal Skills List and Examples

Be A Confident Public Speaker

Whether you’re standing up in front of your boss or client in the middle of a pitch meeting or you’re giving a live press conference, public speaking is inevitable.

While that may have made you cringe in your high school speech class the fact of the matter is that as a marketer you need to be able to pitch your project or your product with ease. If you appear to have confidence in what you’re saying your audience will too.

Recommended Reading: 5 Easy Ways to Become a Better Public Speaker — Fast

Maintain an Attitude of Lifelong Learning

Another basic skill that should be on the resume of every marketer is maintaining the attitude of lifelong learning. As marketers, we’re always taking in new information whether that be a new advertising tactic or a research report that’s been published about our target audience.

In other words, our job of learning new things is never done.

The minute you close yourself off and think you know everything there is to know you’ll end up falling behind.

So read every book you can get your hands on and listen to a podcast or two on your way to work.

Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Ways To Engage In Lifelong Learning

Be Type A Organized

You wear many hats and balance many, many projects, which means that you need to be organized.

Why? Because one misstep and $50,000 could fly out the window like that.

Staying organized helps you avoid that because you and your marketing team members will be able to see what’s coming, plan in advance and side step massive mishaps.

Know How To Set Goals

73% of CEOs believe that marketers “lack business credibility and the ability to generate significant growth.”

Ouch.

That’s because it’s easy to dismiss marketers as people in the corner drawing pretty pictures who don’t do anything.

Yeah, I know. It makes my blood boil, too.

So how do you solve all of that? You set goals that directly impact business objectives (that your company’s CEO actually cares about).

By creating goals that have a direct and positive impact on your business you can show your efforts are paying off.

Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals

Understand the Difference Between Goals, Strategies, and Tactics

Let’s face it; goals, strategies, and tactics go hand in hand when it comes to marketing, so it’s easy to confuse them with each other.

However, being able to tell the distinction between the three is going to ensure you don’t get tripped up on one of them during your marketing process.

Goals are the objectives that have been set by your marketing team that you need to meet by the end of a specified time period.

Strategies are the organized plans that are composed of different tactics that outline how to reach your goals.

Your tactics, on the other hand, are the steps that you take to help you achieve your goals.

Be An Active Listener

We all know that one person in our lives who is just waiting for their chance to speak in a conversation. What you’re saying is mostly going in one ear and out the other.

As a marketer, you cannot afford to passively ignore your customers or your co-workers. Which is why being an active listener is an essential skill any marketer worth their salt knows how to do.

Actively listening to the people around you means that you can find out the messages they need to hear. Doing this can help you perfect your campaigns and hopefully convert more people into paying customers.

Recommended Reading: Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying

Know How to Collaborate Across Multiple Teams

Your marketing team doesn’t exist in a vacuum where it’s you vs. everyone else in your company. You need to be able to collaborate across multiple teams to complete your projects.

This could mean working with developers, your video team, your product team, and more.

All of that cross team collaboration means you need to know how to manage and communicate, so everyone who is involved in one project is always on the same page.

Recommended Reading: 5 Ways to Improve Cross Team Collaboration

Research Everything

Marketing is part strategic intuition; part research to see what everyone else is doing. Successful marketers can research current trends and strategies and figure out which ones would work best for their company.

There’s always new information out there for marketers to research and gather. Whether that be case studies, academic research reports or white papers, there are thousands of sources out there just waiting to inspire your next great idea.

Recommended Reading:

Openness To Trying New Things

The last basic skill that should be in a marketer’s tool belt is an openness to try new things. Part of marketing involves simply testing these new things to see if they’re going to work. You’ll never know if something is going to work or not unless you try.

Who knows, maybe your next great marketing tactic is the one you haven’t tried yet.

Recommended Reading: When, Where, and How to Test Market

6 Introductory Design Skills Every Marketer Should Have

Graphic design or any design really is vital for marketers to understand. Why? Because design helps us communicate the message that we want to send to our audience.

You may not be at the same level as the graphic designer on your team but having a basic grasp of necessary design skills can help you communicate what you need and pinpoint what worked and why.

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Understand How Responsive Design Works

With the addition of tablets, mobile phones, and more, the way we access information is changing. The standard one size fits all website no longer applies because there are tons of different screen sizes out there.

That’s where responsive design comes in. As a marketer, you need to understand how your message will look across a variety of different formats and ensure that it communicates the same idea.

Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design

Grasp the Basics of Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe is well known for their design products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are just three of the tools that can help bring the images inside your head to life in an online format.

Having a basic understanding of how those two programs work can help you and your designer save time. How? If you need a social media graphic that has to go out in 20 minutes, you can now do it yourself.

It’s also nice to have an idea of the limitations this type of software might have so you can know what to expect when requesting something from your designers.

Recommended Reading: Creative Cloud Tutorials

Knowing How UX and UI Plays a Role In Your Customer Interaction

The way you’ve designed your website and the experience your customer has interacting with it can affect the way they see your marketing messages.

Knowing how your customers move and interact through with your content will allow you to strategically place your messages in the right place and the right time to maximize conversion potential.

Recommended Reading: 5 Big Differences Between UX And UI Design

Keep Common Design Specs and Sizes On Hand

You’re probably going to request a lot of designed content over the course of your career. This could be anything from social media ads to long infographics. Make it easier for your designer by having common design sizes and specs on hand at all times.

Not only will this save them time in guessing the size of the images you need, you’ll also know how much space you have to work with.

Some standard sizes to add to your list could be:

Social media photo sizes
Social media profile picture sizes
Social ad sizes and specs
Preferred infographics sizes

Know How To Communicate Visualization Needs to Your Designer

No one can read your mind. Thank goodness, right?

Here’s the problem, since no one can read your mind, how are they supposed to be able to see the impressive idea you have for your next infographic?

The truth is they can’t, and an excellent skill for marketers to have is to be able to communicate with their designers about the vision they see inside their head.

Can you explain expectations and details to your designer in a way that helps guide them to create the piece you’ve pictured?

Recommended Reading: How to Communicate Effectively with Designers

Understanding The Basic Principles of Graphic Design

The final skill that any marketer should have on their resume is the ability to understand the basic principles of design. Knowing what makes a successful image can help you identify what’s connecting with your audience.

Concepts like:

And more can help you identify what makes a design tremendous and what caught the attention of your audience.

Recommended Reading: 8 Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics

6 Social Media Skills To Add To Your Resume

Social media is the latest and greatest addition to the marketing world. Which means that marketers need a specific set of skills to stand out in this new landscape.

If you don’t stay on top of your skills and techniques, there’s a good chance your content will be buried in an avalanche of other stuff. End of story.

The following are six simple skills you should have a grasp on.

[Tweet “6 Social Media Skills For Marketers”]

Know How to Write For Each Social Channel

Not all social media messages are created equal. What works for one channel may not go over as well on another.

For example, hashtags are great when they’re used on Twitter and Instagram, but they don’t do much for Facebook posts.

Knowing the differences between the message types that need to go on each channel can help your content stand out in a sea of other stuff.

Have a Decent Amount of Social Media Algorithm Knowledge

Social media algorithms are intelligent systems that sort through content and showcase what it believes the user would most likely want to see based on interactions from previous content.

These algorithms can’t be tricked or fooled. You can’t post your content and then try and trick the algorithm into showing it to more of you fans.

Well, you could, but that’s going to backfire on you sooner rather than later.

Algorithms are the social networks way of telling you what content they want to see posted to their newsfeeds. After all you are advertising and posting content on someone else’s turf.

For example, live video is going over well on Facebook. Therefore it would make sense to assume that the Facebook algorithm rewards live video content. If you want to boost your presence on Facebook, you could consider creating more live videos.

Recommended Reading: How Do Social Media Algorithms Affect You

Be Able to Keep Up With Social Trends and Ideas

The social media landscape changes at an incredibly fast pace. The minute you’ve got something down, something new surfaces and you’re off to the races again.

A proficient social media marketer (and marketer in general) can keep up with those changes by continually thinking ahead and keeping their social strategy head on a metaphorical swivel.

Maximize those trends before they hit their peak and get ready to move on to the next one.

Being Disciplined to Not Chase After Every New Network

Social media networks appear and disappear. A new one may surface, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the next Facebook or Twitter.

As a marketer it’s up to you to decide whether or not joining a new network is best for your business. Just because Pinterest works for one company doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to follow your audience and let them lead you to where they are.

Understand Marketing Strategy (And How to Apply It to Social Media)

A skill that marketers must have is being able to see and understand the marketing strategy that goes into creating a social media presence.

Don’t just chuck your social media profiles to an unsuspecting college grad and assume that because they’re young, they’ll know how to get your company noticed on social.

No. Wrong. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Social media, like every other one of its marketing counterparts, requires strategic thinking, planning, and execution. This means you can’t just throw up a bunch of posts consistently and hope it works.

You need to apply the same marketing methodologies you’d use for any other channel, and apply it to your social strategy.

That includes understanding your audience, writing great copy, understanding analytics, and more.

Know How to Generate Creative Campaign Concepts

The last skill social media skill that should be in your portfolio is knowing how to generate creative campaign concepts.

Campaigns are a considerable part of the social media presence your business creates. Because there is such a massive amount of content out there, you need to be as creative as possible to stand out.

Take Arby’s for example. Their entire Facebook presence is dedicated to nerdy references reenacted by everything from curly fries to ketchup packets.

Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!

Posted by Arby’s on Thursday, December 21, 2017

Think outside the box consistently and hopefully watch your social presence grow because of your creative efforts.

Recommended Reading:

9 Killer Content Marketing Skills You Need To Develop

The content you create as a marketer can have a significant effect on your company.

Which means that solid content marketing skills are highly sought after in today’s marketing climate.

Here are nine skills that need to be a part of your portfolio.

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Being Able to Write Clear Content That Informs

The age of the internet means that there is a ton of information at everyone’s fingertips. Which means that your content needs to be able to stand out by doing one thing:

Subtly sell your product while still providing your reader with value that they can’t get anywhere else.

A good marketer knows the balance between writing to sell and writing to inform.

Master the Art Of Copywriting To Sell

Unlike content writing, copywriting is all about selling. Mastering this form of writing means that you can craft copy that sells your product in a snap.

It also doesn’t have to be written from scratch. Using the right formula can help you craft the perfect copy every time.

It’s up to you to find the line that takes it from a standard boilerplate to selling machine.

Be A Storyteller

People don’t buy logic; they buy emotions. As a content writer, you need to create copy that appeals to the emotional side of your readers.

Your product may kill 99.5% of bacteria, but what sells it is the fact that they’ll be able to keep their family healthy and safe from germs or serious illnesses.

As you write any content, find the way to connect your customer’s lives to your product. Play up the frustrations they are experiencing and tell them the story of how your product is going to make it all better.

Recommended Reading:

Know How to Use Your Content To Teach

A skill we don’t usually associate with marketing should also be on your portfolio list; teaching. Can you teach with the content you create?

This could be anything from teaching about how to use your product or a new concept (that just so happens to tie into your product).

Take CoSchedule’s blog for example. One of our core pillars is centered around actionability or going beyond giving advice and showing people how to execute it.

Whether it’s a simple step by step video on how to use your product, or an in-depth explanation blog post, use your space to teach your audience want they need to know.

Recommended Reading: 7 Ways to Make Your Content More Actionable

Be Persuasive

Part of being a good marketer involves being able to be persuasive. After all, there are hundreds of products that could help your customer with their problems. Your message needs to be able to persuade them that yours is the best option out there.

Your messages should craft a clear and concise story that explains the benefits of your product and why you triumph over the rest.

Have Strong Research Skills

One of the keys to writing great content is the ability to research. We’ve mentioned this a bit earlier in the post, and when it comes to content writing, research couldn’t be more critical.

Writing content that is backed by well-researched opinions increases your own authority. It’s one thing if you write a post and haphazardly throw advice out there. It’s another thing entirely if you can back it up with another source that your readers trust.

By researching your opinions, and backing them up with reputable sources you can show your readers that they can trust you. Once they trust you, they can trust your product.

Recommended Reading: 10 Research-Based Tips for Writing Better Content

Know How to Measure Your ROI

“How much money did the post you just spent writing for 8 hours at 15 dollars an hour make me?”

“I don’t know”, probably isn’t the answer they want to hear.

Proving the return on investment that your content marketing has made isn’t easy. In fact, 78% of marketers struggle with it.

There are, however, ways to find the data you’re looking for. It all comes down to writing content that encourages your readers to take a conversion step and finding a way to monetize those actions.

Recommended Reading:

Be Well-Read

Part of developing your content writing and marketing skills is reading what others around you have done.

I’m not saying you need to consume every Game of Thrones novel in a week, but being well read across a variety of subjects not only helps increase your general knowledge, but you’ll also be able to see what works and doesn’t work when you write your content.

Start small at first, maybe subscribe to a blog or two as you begin to integrate reading into your routine add in a variety of books, magazines and more.

To stay on top of news or to find sources try tools like Feedly or Flipboard.

Or for those of you who don’t like to read as much, podcasts and videos are also great options.

Recommended Reading: 10x Marketing Formula

Have a Deep Understanding Of How The Marketing Funnel Works

When content marketing is done well, it can help lead your potential customers through your marketing funnel and help them convert into paying customers.

How does this work? You need to create content for every stage in your marketing funnel. The top part of your funnel will contain the most content and probably cover the broadest topics. You want to catch the attention of as many people as you can.

As you work your way down the funnel, your content will become more specific, helping guide your readers to the logical conclusion that your product is the best one for them.

Recommended Reading: Content and the Marketing Funnel

4 Analytics Skills That Are Essential For Any Marketer

Data helps drive the entire marketing process. It helps you see if your efforts are working, track what your customers are interacting with and so much more.

Analytics skills are essential for marketers because you need to be able to pull data and interpret it to give your marketing strategists the most accurate information as possible.

Without data to guide you, it’s like driving blindfolded; you’re just guessing.

Here are the four skills that should be a part of any marketer’s arsenal.

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Be Able to Interpret Customer Data to Influence The Decision Making Process

In case you haven’t already guessed your customers are what makes your world go round. What they do and interact with can prove the success (or failure) of your marketing strategies.

It’s up to you to pull that data from those interactions and interpret what your customers are trying to tell you.

Do they like seeing videos of your product in action or do they prefer screenshots in a blog post?

Let your data guide you in the right direction.

Know and Understand Data Science

According to NYU data science is:

“Data science involves using automated methods to analyze massive amounts of data and to extract knowledge from them.”

A skilled marketer needs to be able to find and sort through massive amounts of data to find the insights you’re looking for.

If you collected data every time one of your potential customers does anything, you’d have thousands of data points to sort through. As a marketer you should know what you’re looking for, where to find it and how to interpret it for your boss and co-workers.

Know How to Use Data to Tell a Story

Numbers and data don’t lie. They tell you if you’ve met your goals or sorely missed them. However, you can’t just point to your data and say “see it worked.”

I mean you could, but you don’t want to be subpar at your job, do you?

Marketers need to know how to take the data that you’ve gathered and turn it into a story that explains what happened and why it happened in plain English.

Your marketing campaigns could be massive, and data is great but when your boss turns to you and asks so why did this campaign work your answer should be more thorough than just “well we planned a really creative social campaign.”

Recommended Reading: 3 Ways to Tell a Story With Your Data

Understand Data Visualization

The last need to have skill in your analytics tool belt is the ability to understand data visualization.

Numbers and data points by themselves are boring. Not to mention they don’t jump out at you and say “hey I’m the most important one here.”

Data visualization is a way for you to help your co-workers and boss, as well as your customers, understand the most significant bits and pieces of data in an easy to read format.

These could be anything from infographics to charts. You just need to find a way to work with your designers (or you could do it yourself) to find a way to bring your data to life.

Recommended Reading: The 38 Best Tools for Data Visualization

11 Technical Skills and Tools Every Marketer Needs

Technical skills and tools make the final piece of our marketing skills blog post. Marketing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined mainly because a lot of the projects that you take on as a marketer can’t be completed without them.

Between strategy planning, design and numerous things you need to execute, trying to attempt it all without a tool would be insane. There’s just too much to do.

So here are eleven tools and technical skills every marketer should have.

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Have a Basic Knowledge of Coding

With everything moving to the online world, knowing about or more importantly how to code is becoming an essential basic skill for marketers.

While it can seem a bit intimidating, having some background coding knowledge can help you communicate to your development team what you need without them wanting to throttle you. Plus you could do some of the little fixes yourself.

To start, focus on getting hands-on experience in HTML and CSS. By being able to understand the basic concepts you can outline and communicate with your development team to explain exactly what you want. Plus you’ll understand the limitations of what can and can’t be done.

Recommended Reading:

Free Coding Guide for Beginners
This Is The HTML Cheat Sheet & Tutorial Every Content Marketer Needs
You can also look for a local Girl Develop It chapter.

Gather the Inside Data You Need From Your Website and More With Google Analytics

For some marketers, Google Analytics represents the heart and soul of their marketing data. It’s where they pull their information from and how they track their customers.

A basic understanding of Google Analytics is essential to any marketer as this tool is now a commonplace among a company’s marketing stack.

Google even has a full course on how to use and extract insights from it. Once you’ve completed the test, you’re even Google Analytics Certified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=kKPTZNjaKcY

Know How to Build Custom Dashboards and Reports in Google Data Studio

The data that you gathered in Google Analytics can now easily be turned into customizable dashboards and reports that you can share with your co-workers and your boss.

Instead of manually gathering the same data over and over, Google Data Studio takes care of it all for you.

Competency Using Social Media Publishing Tools

Social media publishing tools make any marketers life 17x easier then it was before.

With the right social media publishing tool, your social media marketers should be able to plan, organize, create, publish and analyze every part of your social media posts and campaigns from one tool.

Here are a few to check out:

Experience Using Editorial and Marketing Calendar Tools

Your marketing efforts need to have a home somewhere, and that’s where your marketing and editorial calendars come in.

These calendars should give your team a full overview of what projects their working on, what parts they play in those projects and what’s going to be coming down the pipeline.

Recommended Reading:

Know How to Use a Content Management System

A CMS, or Content Management System, are tools that make it possible to manage and update website content. Sometimes, writers get scared over the idea of inputting web content themselves. But, these tools are often simple enough that anyone can figure out how to use them (without causing a disaster).

A few common options you may be familiar with include:

Know How to Use SEO Tools

If done correctly, SEO can help give your website and your digital content a boost in organic searches. But it’s not just waving a magic wand and hoping that the Google crawlers bless your magic webpage.

It requires strategic planning and SEO tools can help give you the knowledge you need to get your pages to the number one spot.

Check out tools like:

Customer Respnonse Management Tools

Managing your customer relationships can be time-consuming. However, it’s necessary to help promote the success of your business. CRM tools help by allowing business to track where their customers are at and help maintain contact with them.

The following tools can help you get started:

Marketing Analytics Tools

As you know, analytics and data are a huge part of identifying your marketing success. Painstakingly trying to collect said data is not. Analytics tools can help you shorten that process by automatically collect data for you.

Try tools like:

Basic Photoshop Skills

Another technical skill marketers should have listed on their resume is some basic Photoshop skills. There is a lot of flexibility in Photoshop and even being able to tackle the basics can save you and your designers time.

Here are some courses that walk you through some basic skills you would need:

Heat Mapping Tools

Heat mapping tools are great as they help marketers see what is drawing the eyes of their audience around the website. By identifying where the eyes go, you can strategically place your messages where they’d be the most receptive.

A popular tool to use is Crazy Egg. Their easy to use website gives you the results you’re looking for and suggestions to help improve your site.

Now Go Conquer The Marketing World

You have the skill set, now you’re ready to go conquer the marketing world. Skills take time to grow, so don’t get too frustrated if it takes time to get a new one under your belt.

Once you’re ready to move on to executing your projects with those new skills see how CoSchedule can help.

Start a free trial or sign up for a demo today.

This post was originally published on Sept. 19, 2016. It was republished on March 28, 2018.

Starbucks Marketing Strategy: How to Create a Remarkable Brand [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:26:25 GMT

Starbucks is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Their brand recognition has reached epic heights thanks to the strength of their marketing and their commitment to keeping their brand consistent.

Not all of us have multi-million dollar marketing budgets, so replicating Starbucks’ marketing tactics at the same level is nearly impossible.

However, there are some basic core principles behind the Starbucks marketing strategy that nearly any brand can borrow and implement.

In this post, we’ll cover how their commitment to consistent branding made Starbucks the successful brand it is today. We’ll also go over the tactics they are currently using that are continuing their tradition. Plus, we’ll cover actionable takeaways you can use to implement those marketing strategies and basic branding principles yourself.

What’s CoSchedule? CoSchedule is the industry’s leading marketing calendar platform, helping over 8000+ marketers get organized. See how you can plan content + social media marketing better.

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Download Your Marketing Strategy Template Bundle

Once you’ve read how Starbucks has mastered the art of branding and marketing strategy, use these templates to get organized, document your strategy, and build brand consistency into everything you do.

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In this bundle, you’ll receive:

A marketing strategy template to format all your ideas into a workable outline for you and your team to follow.
A marketing calendar template to organize all your projects.
A brand style guide template to help your marketing team maintain branding consistency.

Each of these templates will help you get your marketing team organized and outline the expectations that need to be met to keep everything consistent.

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The History Of Starbucks

Starbucks was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker. At first, the coffee company only sold coffee beans and didn’t offer the premium coffee drinks it’s known for now.

The famous logo, inspired by Norse woodcutting that contained a siren, the mermaid-like figure has been with the company since its inception (although it has undergone a few redesigns).

In 1986, the original owners sold Starbucks to former manager Howard Schultz, who took the brand and helped build it into the coffee behemoth it is today.

Here is a brief overview of the growth the company has experienced in the last 47 years:

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The Mission Of Starbucks

Starbucks has changed from the bean roaster of the 1970’s to the coffee inspired drink shop of today.

The original vision of Starbucks is reflected in their initial mission statement which was:

“Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.”

After Howard Schultz bought the company from its founding members in 1987 the company has focused on creating Starbucks to be the “Third Place.” The idea of the third place is one that exists between work and home.

It was the idea of the third place that created the new mission statement for Starbucks which is:

“To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

Starbucks focuses on creating that personal connection between their customers, their baristas and their organization.

Key Takeaway: Your mission statement is the driving force behind everything that you do for your customers, it’s the promise you want to fulfill for them. Use your mission statement to inspire the message you want to send your customers. Tell them exactly what you’re going to give them.

How Starbucks Caters To Its Target Audience

As you can see from their mission statement, Starbucks is all about connecting with their customers.

But who are their customers?

According to a research report done in April 2017, the target audience for Starbucks is men and women in the middle to upper classes who can afford Starbucks higher priced beverages regularly.

So how do they convince people to fork over that kind of cash, when they could just have coffee at home?

They offer their target audience an experience when they come into their stores.

By focusing on the third place and giving their customers a place to be and interact, they make the price of the drink worth it in the eyes of their customers.

There is something comforting about ordering a good cup of coffee and being encouraged to sit in the shop with your laptop and work. That’s the experience Starbucks provides.

Key Takeaway: Target a specific audience. Even if your business-to-consumer company could sell to anyone, you dilute your message and experience when you don’t target specifically and hold fast. Define your target audience and deliver an experience they want, every time.

The Consistency Of Starbucks’ Branding And Experience

As an internationally recognized brand, Starbucks needs to be consistent with their branding at all times. This spans every message they send, every piece of branded collateral they create, and every aspect of their in-store design and experience.

The Classic Siren Logo

Let’s start with their logo and branding design.

Over the course of 47 years, the Starbucks logo alone has gone through four different redesigns to create the iconic symbol that graces your coffee cup today.

According to Work Design Group, when Starbucks decided to revamp their branding in 2011, they faced a specific challenge.

By operating in 55 different countries, they needed a brand design that would appeal to a broad audience base. Thus the latest logo was born.

Photo Credit: Work Design Group

Later on, the words Starbucks and Coffee were cut from the cup so the brand could potentially expand beyond coffee products.

Unbeatable Branding Consistency

That clean, modern design philosophy extends to everything they create.

From the atmosphere in their stores, to their digital content, to their advertising, everything looks, sounds, and feels like Starbucks.

Even the cups and tumblers you can buy in the store have a clean, modern design to them.

The result? The experience you have with Starbucks always feels consistent, whether you’re reading a social post, waiting in line, watching a TV ad, or interacting with their brand in any way, anywhere.

I can walk into my local Starbucks and another one an hour away and have the same experience. I know that their sizing will still be referred in the same Italian name sizes (Tall, Grande, Venti etc.), and the coffee I order in one store will taste the same as the other.

Key Takeaway: Keeping a consistent brand experience for your customers is key to bringing them back to your organization and creating brand advocates out of your customers.

What Does Starbucks’ Marketing Mix Look Like?

Starbucks does well incorporating the four P’s throughout their marketing mix. Let’s dive in a bit to see how they’re doing it.

Product

Starbucks’ product has to be high quality to get their target audience to justify buying it. You’re paying for premium coffee which means it needs to taste better than the same iced macchiato that you could get at a McDonald’s drive-through for less.

It’s being able to craft a high-quality product every time that keeps people coming back. Not to mention their barista promise, that if you don’t like your drink, they’ll fix it.

Credit: Taylor Jones Photography

Price

Starbucks sells their coffee at a premium price, or at least 25% higher than value brands. In 1990, only three percent of the coffee sold in the United States was sold at premium prices. By 2000, that number rose to 40% in what the Harvard Business Review calls, “The Starbucks Effect.”

By offering customers exceptional drinks and food, Starbucks can charge more for them. Why? Because people are willing to pay for it.

Promotion

Starbucks uses a large variety of channels to market their product from social media to TV spots and ads. It’s their mix of marketing media that makes their brand recognizable, and it’s the consistent message that comes across every time that makes them stand out.

All of that promotion isn’t cheap. However, compared to other major global brands like Apple and Nike, Starbucks spends significantly less on their marketing and can still make an impact.

Place

Read anything about Starbucks, and they’ll probably mention the idea of “the third place.” Their efforts to create a space where people want to come and hang out and relax. They do this by creating a similar environment in every Starbucks location.

Key Takeaway: By creating a premium experience, your brand can charge a higher price while delivering better product than your competition.

The Content Starbucks Creates Highlights Their Dedication To Consistency

So we may have mentioned this once or twice already, but consistency to their branding and their content is what puts Starbucks’ marketing strategy over the top.

Every piece of content they publish follows the same visual and language guidelines that customers have come to expect from the coffee giant. Take a look at the cohesiveness between the following examples.

Social Media

Take this Instagram post for example:

Not too bold. Subtly sweet. Starbucks #BlondeEspresso is just right.

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Feb 15, 2018 at 7:57am PST

The photo is bright, modern, clean, and reflective of the Starbucks brand. The language in the post describes their new espresso shot in the same way that they would if they were chatting with a customer in the store, short, sweet, and to the point.

Web Page

Now let’s say that the Instagram post caught your attention. It intrigued you to the point where you wanted to learn more. So you grab your laptop and find the landing page for Starbucks’ brand new blonde espresso:

On that page you’ll see consistent copy, except this time you’ll find a little bit more about why Starbucks has brought out the blonde espresso. They also help cater to their audience and show different recipes that their customers can order to try the new shot.

Video

Finally, as you keep scrolling down the web page, you see a video:

In the video, you see a blended version of the 16-second spots that Starbucks created to launch the new blonde espresso. Once again, imagery, colors, and even language match the same style and tone as the Instagram post that we started with.

When you enter the store, you’ll also see it branded to promote their new coffee:

So what does all of this show to a fellow marketer?

Consistent messaging, imagery, and branding is key to delivering a lasting message to your customers.

Every piece of content that was part of this campaign was flawlessly designed and matched perfectly. From first touch to final purchase, the experience is consistent.

That level of consistency should be part of every piece your brand creates.

Key Takeaway: Create consistent content that shares a single message across every piece of every campaign.

7 Ways Starbucks Executes Its Remarkable Marketing Strategy (That You Can Copy)

So now you know a bit more about what makes Starbucks’ marketing strategy successful. So how can you as a manager incorporate some of those strategies into your work?

Create A Loyalty Program

Starbucks has a great way of rewarding their customers who purchase their products. The Starbucks Rewards program offers incentives for buying products with free in-store refills, free products (after a certain amount of money is spent), and extra offers and discounts in the store.

Not to mention, the mobile app makes it easy for customers to pay ahead and find a store location.

Whether it’s a mobile app program or something as simple as a punch card, try using a loyalty program to incentivize your customers to come back to your organization.

Repurpose Content Across Each Of Your Social Media Channels

Social media can be a powerhouse for any marketing team if used correctly, and Starbucks is doing just that through:

Repurposing content
Interacting with their customers

Starbucks creates a lot of content. However, they make it easier by repurposing content across their social media channels.

By repurposing, I mean breaking down a larger piece of content into smaller sections to reuse across multiple channels.

Now, Starbucks doesn’t copy posts word for word and paste them across every network. Each social media channel is different and requires its message.

Take a look at the following photo that was used across three of their social media channels.

Facebook:

Twitter:

Starbucks #BlondeEspresso is roasted lighter so the natural subtle sweet flavor shines through. pic.twitter.com/BP5IUMRfWZ

— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) February 15, 2018

Instagram:

Not too bold. Subtly sweet. Starbucks #BlondeEspresso is just right.

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee (@starbucks) on Feb 15, 2018 at 7:57am PST

Each one of the posts is slightly different but still contains similar language that delivers the same message across to their audience.

So how can you do this for yourself?

Step One: Choose the language you want to use in each of your messages.

This could be as simple as product descriptors or a key phrase that needs to be in every part of your post.

Take the Starbucks posts for example. Each one contains the same “sublty sweet” reference.

Step Two: Tailor your message for each social media channel.

Each social media channel has its own set of message parameters and best practices that writers should follow.

For example, you have a 280 character limit on Twitter or hashtags aren’t encouraged for Facebook posts.

Step Three: Post at the best time.

Your social media message is only as effective as the number of people who see it. So posting at the best time for each channel can help you maximize the views your content gets.

Do This With CoSchedule: You can also send you messages at the best time automatically using CoSchedule’s Best Time Scheduling feature.

Offer Friendly Customer Service On Social Media

They also use their social media channels (primarily Twitter) to create conversations with their fans and customers, much like the ones their baristas would have in store. These are usually short and sweet conversations that touch on the customer’s experience with the brand.

#Goals. https://t.co/fCEdJt1CT3

— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) February 23, 2018

By making the most of the content they create and making their social media channels a place of conversation between their customers and the brand, Starbucks can solidify that relationship.

You can do this too.

Step 1: Choose a channel to focus on for customer support.

Choose a channel or channels that you’ll spend a majority of your time interacting with fans on. This could be the channel they are most active on or one that is more conducive to conversation.

Go through your social media analytics and look at engagement rates for each channel. Your engagement rate is calculated with this equation:

Engagement rate= total interactions of posts in a time period / number of followers on that page x100.

Step 2: Create messaging guidelines for your social team.

The next step is to create a series of guidelines or templates that help the person respond in the same voice and tone as your brand.

Those guidelines could look something like this.

Don’t use emojis when responding on Facebook.
Refer to our locations as lounges or stores.
Always be friendly and polite.
Use abbreviations only when necessary.

Step 3: Automate social media to maintain a consistent stream of content.

The last step in your process will be to automate your social media to keep a steady stream of content on each channel for your followers and fans to interact with.

If you’re a CoSchedule customer, ReQueue makes it easy to automate and republish your best social media content. This feature that’s built directly into your CoSchedule calendar will intelligently fill gaps in your schedule with your best evergreen content.

This video walks you through just how easy it is to start republishing your best content:

https://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/2r7bfxtlh2?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

Use FOMO to Your Advantage With Limited-Time Products

There’s another part of the Starbucks marketing strategy that is so important for brands to understand and that you can recreate with your products. It’s creating a fear of missing out (FOMO) with your products.

Take their red holiday cups, for example. This has been a staple of their seasonal marketing since 1997. The kicker? No holiday cup is ever the same, and it’s only available for a limited time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvmps1VfFE

There’s one more example you’re probably familiar with, too.

Three words: Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Yup, Starbucks started that craze, too. When you pioneer a craze fans crave during a specific season, you know you’ve created something significant. The fact that it’s only available during the fall only increases the sales of the drink.

So how can you create that same kind of FOMO with your products?

Step One: Choose a product that your organization could offer for a limited time.

This could revolve around a season, a limited time ingredient, you name it. Once you have your product chosen, limit the time that you’re going to make the product available.

Give your customers enough time to enjoy the product, but make it short enough that their time to purchase is limited. The way Starbucks uses the seasons is a perfect example of this.

Step Two: Spread the news about the product and get your audience talking about it.

Whether that’s through social media, a press release, an email or an in-app message, get the word out to your customers as soon as possible.

Ensure that every message you send has consistent language and tone so it sends the proper message.

Maintain Consistent Branding Across Everything You Create

As a marketer, how can you bring this into your strategy? By creating brand guidelines and making sure that every aspect of your marketing sticks to them.

Stick To Your Mission Statement

Your mission statement is the promise that your company wants to fulfill for your customers. For Starbucks this is delivering individual experiences in their shops, creating great coffee, and having a positive impact on the neighborhoods they are in.

Your mission statement might be a little different.

Step One: Answer The Question “why do we exist?”

Your mission statement should answer the question: Why do we exist?

Step Two: Use this template to help get your mission statement started and work with your marketing team and upper management to figure out what your organization’s purpose is:

At [Insert organization name] our goal is to bring [objective one], [objective two], and [objective three] to our customers through [action], [action], and [action].

Keep Everything Organized

The last thing that you should take away from the Starbucks marketing strategy is that you need to keep everything you do organized. The scale at which Starbucks executes their strategy cannot be done by a disorganized team.

Your marketing team needs a place where one version of truth exists.

So how do you do that?

With your CoSchedule marketing calendar. It’s the one version of truth for your team.

You’ll be so organized, you’ll wonder why you didn’t switch earlier. Every piece of your marketing strategy can be planned, published, and promoted, all in one place.

Incorporate What You’ve Learned Into Your Marketing Strategy

Now you know how Starbucks stays on top of the coffee industry and why so many admire their marketing strategy.

Starbucks’ attention to detail and dedication to consistency are the reasons behind why the brand is so successful in its marketing efforts (among other reasons).

So are you inspired to jumpstart your own marketing strategy?

Start your free trial with CoSchedule or schedule a demo and see how CoSchedule can help your team get and stay organized.

How to Manage a Social Media Crisis Without Losing Your Mind [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:23:34 GMT

Even the best brands can get caught in a social media crisis.

Maybe an intern will accidentally post on the company account (instead of a personal profile).

Or, a major mistake (understandable or not) might spark online outrage amongst your audience.

And we’ve all seen companies get roasted for inadvertently promoting themselves in the middle of a major news catastrophe. This is never a good look.

Whatever the case, marketers and social media managers need to be prepared.

Of course, the best way to manage disasters is to avoid them completely.

But, just in case, every company should have a social media crisis management plan in place. Equipped with your crisis survival guide, you’ll be prepared for even the worst situations. You’ll be able to mitigate the damage, repair relationships with your audience, and maybe even come out stronger in the end.

[Tweet “How to Manage a Social Media Crisis Without Losing Your Mind via @CoSchedule”]

Document Your Plan!

Before we dig into the nuts and bolts of crisis planning, snag your free template to put together a complete crisis communication strategy. Use this post as a guide to complete it. Then, keep it somewhere easily accessible for your team, and you’ll be ready for the worst.

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[Tweet “Get your free social media crisis management plan template from @CoSchedule”]

What Qualifies As a Social Media Crisis?

First, we need to be clear about what is (and isn’t) a crisis.

Running out of cereal isn’t a crisis (even though it might feel like it).

Flames shooting out of the oven, though? Better hope you have a fire extinguisher handy.

The first scenario happens from time to time. You go to the store, and maybe vow to never let your supply of [insert preferred sugary goodness] run low again. Problem solved.

The second situation, however, is obviously urgent. Unless you didn’t really want to keep your home, anway.

Assessing issues on social media isn’t much different.

An occasional customer complaining about a routine issue isn’t exactly a crisis. A product shipping with a major defect, though, is going to be a problem.

Something more severe, like accidentally poisoning the city’s water supply (or … something else very bad) is going to an all-hands-on-deck situation.

So, you get the idea. But, how do you actually separate day-to-day hiccups from genuine catastrophes?

[Tweet “When it comes to social media problems, how do you actually separate day-to-day hiccups from genuine catastrophes?”]

Create a Social Media Crisis Scale

Convince and Convert devised a great solution to this problem.

They built a customer response flowchart that matches the severity of an issue, to the right course of action. Here’s what theirs looks like:

You can create something similar by establishing five levels of issue severity:

Customer service question: Routine inquiries that your customer support team can answer.
An angry customer: More than just a question, this person is actively upset. Allow customer service or PR to respond, with a manager’s guidance.
Several angry customers: If you have several (let’s say ten or more) customers complaining about the same issue in the space of an hour, get a customer service manager or PR specialist directly on the appropriate social channel.
Something bad just happened: In the event of a major news catastrophe, shut down all scheduled social media posts. If there’s a serious defect with a product, your service is down, or something similar, consider creating content answering common questions. Get senior-level customer support, PR, or marketing personnel involved.
Your brand is serious jeopardy: If there’s a real catastrophe (something with potential to do serious long-term harm to your brand), consider getting a statement from your CEO, make all your senior-level social, customer service, PR, and marketing staff aware (depending on your teams are structured), and monitor the situation closely.

Here are some examples of situations that would fit each level:

Crisis Level 1: Isolated customer complaints and questions.
Crisis Level 2: Angry customers, broken links, posts directing to the wrong page, factual inaccuracies, major misspellings on social posts.
Crisis Level 3: High volume of angry customers, service outages, lack of product availability.
Crisis Level 4: Product recalls, defective services or products, widespread negative press coverage, layoffs.
Crisis Level 5: Lawsuits, serious accidents resulting in injury, illegal employee conduct.

This isn’t a scientific scale, but it should give you some idea how to prioritize. Unless it’s above Level 2, it’s really not a crisis at all. If it’s less than a Level 3, it most likely does not need to be escalated past your customer service team, or routine PR messaging.

[Tweet “Here’s how to identify a social media crisis using a five-point scale”]

Identifying a Crisis Using Social Listening

Now you know what a crisis looks like. Next, let’s walk through how to spot them as they happen.

One of the worst things you can say in a crisis is nothing. So, making sure you’re monitoring what’s being said about your brand is essential for responding promptly.

The best way to do this is with social listening. Mention is our listening tool of choice at CoSchedule.

However, there are other options out there, too. Here are some to consider:

Brandwatch: Offers robust analytics and listening capabilities.
Keyhole: A hashtag monitoring tool (useful for making sure people using your hashtag aren’t slamming your brand).
Google Alerts: This isn’t exactly a social listening tool, but it’s free, and extremely useful for monitoring mentions of your brand across the web.

Using a combination of these tools should give you everything you need to monitor your brand.

[Tweet “Why should brands use social media listening to spot a crisis before it spreads?”]

Terms You Should Monitor

What should you track with these tools? Consider the following:

Mentions of your brand name.
Mentions of your CEO or important executives.
Competitive brand mentions.
Relevant industry terms.
Key influencers.

If you’re using Mention, follow this video tutorial to set up keywords to track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrbcZtrcAAY

How Can I Tell My Brand Has a Problem?

Follow these two steps:

Keep an eye on your brand mentions. Check in periodically and use email alerts to stay on top of discussions as they happen.
Use your crisis scale to assess problems. Then, respond accordingly.

To determine how many negative messages constitutes a crisis, Hootsuite recommends setting crisis thresholds. Here’s an example they outline for a hypothetical sports clothing company:

Less than five negative mentions per hour: Continue monitoring closely. Compile a report for senior management to review at the end of the day.
More than five negative mentions per hour: Begin assigning messages to the public relations manager in Hootsuite.
More than 10 negative mentions per hour, for more than three consecutive hours: Contact the CMO on her cell phone, and begin officially rolling out the social media crisis management plan.

You can establish your own thresholds similarly, based on what you might think is reasonable.

Develop a Plan Before a Crisis Happens

Prevention is the best medicine.

Short of that, having a plan in place before things go haywire is the next best option.

Here are four things to prepare and keep on hand in case of emergency.

Establish a Crisis Chain of Command

Using your crisis scale, establish who is responsible for managing the response at each level. It might look something like this:

Develop an Internal Response Protocol

Your employees likely all have their own social media accounts. When disaster strikes, they may not know what they can (and can’t) say about the issue publically.

So, it’s important to make sure they don’t go rogue or leak information you don’t want to be released. This could make a bad situation worse.

Get in front of this with a documented response plan.

If a crisis reaches a level 4 or higher, do the following:

Send an internal email alerting everyone about the situation. When a problem reaches this stage, people need to know. They should hear about it from their own company before family, friends, or strangers start asking.
Provide messaging they can share. They might get asked questions. Either create copy-and-paste messaging they can share, or a link to a page they can direct people toward. This will help keep your message consistent and take pressure off team members to respond (who might not know what to say otherwise).
Keep your company up to date. Continue to keep the flow of information open.
Let everyone internally know when the issue is resolved. And then breathe.

Secure Social Media Login Credentials

This is important for two reasons:

If your crisis is the result of a hack, you’ll want to change your passwords. You may want to consider changing login email addresses and usernames, too.
If you need to remove something or stop automated posts, it’s important that all authorized staff know where to find the login info. The last thing you need is to have your PR and social teams scrambling to find the Twitter password because the manager is on vacation.

The best way to do this is with a shared and secure password repository. Some options include:

You can learn more about each of these services via Lifehacker. They all achieve more or less the same goal (and can be used for securing a lot more than just social media credentials).

Plus, they make it possible for each member of your team (or at least those who need social account access) to store and secure passwords in one place.

[Tweet “Social media crisis management tip: Keep passwords secured and stored somewhere team members can access them.”]

Craft Emergency Response Messaging Templates

When a mistake happens, you may not have time to issue a detailed response right away. However, you’ll need to say something to acknowledge you’re aware of the issue before things get out of hand.

Plus, for routine inquiries, it can save time to have messaging ready to help you respond promptly.

You don’t need to be beholden to your templates, either. Keep them flexible enough that they can be edited to fit the given situation (and make sure they actually make sense before posting).

Here are some copy-and-paste examples you can use.

Example 1:

Hi [USERNAME],

We’re sorry to hear you’ve been experiencing [INSERT PROBLEM]. Our customers expect and deserve better from us. Could you send us a DM with more details?

Example 2:

This sounds frustrating! Please accept our apologies, we should have resolved [INSERT PROBLEM] before it disrupted your day. Please call us at [INSERT NUMBER] and we’ll take care of this right away.

Example 3:

We’re extremely sorry to learn [INSERT PROBLEM] has been happening. Fortunately, we do have a solution that should help. Check out [INSERT URL] to find the next steps you should take.

If there’s anything else we can do, let us know!

Templates like this can help resolve routine inquiries fast. However, be cautious of overusing the same messaging too frequently. It can come across impersonal (though, really, most people will be okay with that as long as their problem gets fixed).

If your problem is more than just a customer complaint, though, you’ll need to go into full-on crisis mode.

[Tweet “Caught in full-on social media crisis mode? Here’s what to do.”]

Executing Your Social Media Crisis Plan

This is where the rubber meets the road.

Where heroes are made.

Where … well, enough cliches. When something bad goes down, it’s time to spring into action. Instead of wildly scrambling and just doing … stuff, that seems like it might be helpful, follow these steps (and keep your thinking straight).

Stay Calm

Overreacting or moving too fast will make more mistakes, more likely. Keep your head on your shoulders and do your best not to lose control of the situation.

Evaluate Severity

Refer back to your crisis scale. Is the situation really as pressing as it feels?

If Necessary, Pause All Social Media Automation

If there’s a major news story breaking about a national catastrophe, you may want to put your promo posts on hold. It’ll help you avoid appearing to be in bad taste.

Use Pause Social Messages in CoSchedule to put every post on every network temporarily on hold.

Step 1: Go into Calendar Settings and find Pause Social Messages:

Step 2: Think carefully to make sure this is what you want to do. Then, click the button shown below:

Step 3: Type PAUSE into the confirmation box (we want to make absolutely sure this is what you want to do).

Now, all your automated social posts in CoSchedule are paused:

Identify Who Will Handle Responses

Don’t try to be a hero if it really isn’t your job to handle responses directly. Communicate amongst your team to make sure everyone is on the same page, and knows who is handling what. Then, stay in your lane.

Respond Promptly

A fast way to make a problem worse is to not respond.

Ever have a problem at a store and wait 20 minutes for someone working to come help? Or get put on hold on the phone for an hour, just to get told no one can solve your problem?

Yeah. Same.

Social media isn’t any different. If you get a flurry of legitimate complaints at 7 pm on a Friday and don’t respond until 10:30 am on Monday, no one is going to be happy. Even if you successfully resolve the issue, people will remember wasting their weekend feeling upset more than anything else.

In fact, according to Forbes, 30 minutes or less is the average response time to a complaint. Here’s what Ray Kemper from the agency Televerde said on the topic:

Respond ASAP, but in 30 minutes or less is average. Your social marketing manager should have a problem-resolution team across multiple departments that is on point for quick resolution. Even if you don’t have the answer, a quick reply that drives the conversation to a phone call can quickly change the conversation to a positive one. – Ray Kemper, Televerde

Now, if you’re a small organization, you may not be able to monitor social media 24/7. In these cases, people may be more likely understand. Do the best you can (but, like, legitimately do the best you can).

For larger companies though, consider the following:

Have someone paying attention over the weekend and after normal business hours. Problems don’t just happen between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday. Staff customer support on social media at night and on weekends, and treat those people well.
Create dedicated customer service social channels. Having a Twitter account that’s clearly labeled “customer support” can make it easier for people to know where to direct complaints. You could even add the hours you’re active on the channel in the bio. This way, you can set expectations for how soon people can expect a response (so they know you’re not ignoring them).

Here are some examples:

Respond to EVERY Message

Don’t let anyone feel left out, and make sure you respond to each message on the network where it appears.

Give People Space to Air Their Grievances

There’s no sense in arguing with people, especially not when your brand is honestly at fault. Even if you’re not to blame, your company will almost assuredly look worse as a result. It sends the message that if other people have a problem or complaint, you’d rather fight than help.

And that’s just asking for trouble.

Instead, do this:

Give people space to air their frustrations. They’ll cool off eventually (unless the issue is extremely severe, in which case, your organization has bigger problems to solve).
Don’t delete any responses. Let the complaints (and your responses) stand.
Limit responses to two on social media. After that, offer to take the conversation off social media, or move to a private channel (like Twitter DMs or somewhere better suited to having an ongoing conversation, if necessary).

Consider Creating an FAQ Page or Blog Post With More Details

If you’re getting a high volume of questions or complaints around a handful of the same points, make a webpage or a post that addresses them. That way, you have one place to direct questions, and can keep your response consistent.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be too in-depth, so long as it’s useful. Make sure it covers the following points:

What happened. Offer a clear description of the issue.
What you’re doing about it. Whether you’re currently investigating a solution, or have next steps people can take, make sure that is made clear.
Provide additional contact information. Things like public phone numbers, online support channels, and more are good to include.
Apologize. Sincerely. Profusely. People can smell a fake, so be sorry, and mean it.

Recommended Reading: 10 Simple Blog Post Templates to Create the Best Content

Evaluate What Happened After the Dust Settles

Once the crisis passes, it’s time to take stock of what happened. As an organization, ask yourselves:

What happened: Even if you’d sooner rather forget.
Why did this happen: Be honest and keep emotions out of it.
How can we prevent this from happening again: If the crisis stung enough, you’ll do whatever’s necessary to stop it from happening again.

Get a Damage Report

Hopefully, you’ve managed to rectify the situation without causing major damage to your brand. But, even if the best of circumstances, two things are likely:

Engagement probably went up. Unfortunately, because a lot of people complained.
Other metrics probably went down. Followers may have decreased (and if they increased, it was probably just to watch the trainwreck).

At this point, you’ll need to measure the damage. Here are some things to look for (keeping the two points above in mind):

Traffic. Does a drop in traffic correlate with a drop in followers? Does an increase in traffic correlate with people going to your site to learn more about what happened? Avoid the idea that more = better.
Follower Counts: In the case of a severe crisis, large drops are possible.
Engagement: If some time has passed since the crisis happened, and engagement is still down, there could be some lingering negative brand sentiment going around.

If you’re a CoSchedule customer, use your social analytics reports to measure post-crisis performance. The following demo video also shows how they work:

https://coschedule.wistia.com/medias/bwtfi5dnd7?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=770

How to Prevent Problems Before They Happen

You can’t always control a crisis. But, you can do yourself some favors, and put preventative measures in place.

Put a Social Media Policy in Place

Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes, those mistakes would have been preventable had they used a little common sense. Other times, they may not have known what is or isn’t acceptable social media use as it pertains to your brand.

Developing a clear social media policy can help make your company’s expectations clear. Employees can’t say they didn’t know something was unacceptable if the guidelines were given to them in writing.

Follow these steps:

Read this post on creating a documented social media policy. Then, follow the steps to create one (there’s a template included to make the process quick and easy).
Have everyone review it. You don’t need to make a big deal out of it. But, it’s advisable to provide it to all new hires, and make sure all current team members take a look.
Store it somewhere your team can access it. Google Drive and Dropbox are good options, using a shared folder.

Be Aware of Current Events

Too often, companies get in trouble because they used a hashtag inappropriately, without knowing what it actually meant. Or, they’ll post something about their latest deals, at the same time as a national tragedy getting tons of news coverage.

As a marketer, you should be staying reasonably aware of current events, culture, and trends.

Even if you’re already reading blogs, staying on top of news, and tracking hashtags, you might feel like there’s more you can be doing. Here are a few ideas:

Use Feedly to monitor the news. Read a wide number of diverse sources, and don’t limit yourself to things in your industry.
Be active on social media. Not just as a marketer, but as an individual. This will give you first-hand knowledge of what’s trending on social in the broad sense, and not just what people are saying in your industry.
Avoid hot button issues. Unless your brand is inherently political or socially active, it might be best to avoid controversial political and social issues entirely.

Feel Like a Crisis Management Expert?

You now have all the info you need to handle a social media disaster. Although we hope you never have to put your plan into practice, it’s always best to be prepared.

Let’s recap what you’ve read:

First, we walked through how to identify a crisis (versus routine questions and complaints).
Then, we outlined the steps you’ll need to take before, during, and after a social media crisis.
Finally, we touched on how to prevent problems from starting in the first place (or, at the very least, how to avoid disasters of your own making).

Is there anything we missed? Post a comment and let other readers know.

Here’s to a (hopefully) crisis-free future.

7 Simple Social Media Checklists to Boost Your Efficiency [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:21:03 GMT

As a marketing manager, you have a ton of work to do.

Between projects, reports and more, trying to manage social media (which is a lot of work in and of itself) can put on a lot of stress.

You have to check in on your campaigns, approve graphics, pull analytics, and the list goes on.

Having a checklist in place can help you ensure that you’re getting all your work done promptly and you’re not missing any critical steps.

Since we’re such believers in checklists, we created seven social media checklist templates for you.

There are printable and editable versions for each one, too, making it easy to manage everything you need to get done.

So what are you waiting for? Start reading and using your free checklists now.

[Tweet “7 Simple Social Media Checklists to Boost Your Efficiency”]

Download Your Social Media Checklist Bundle

Your Social Media Checklist Bundle includes seven unique checklists:

Daily Social Media Checklist
General Management Social Media Checklist
Social Media Campaign Checklist
Social Media Audit Checklist
Quarterly Social Media Analysis Checklist
Social Media Crisis Communications Checklist
Social Media Strategy Checklist

Each checklist comes as a PDF and Word Document so you can edit and adjust each one to fit the specific tasks you need to complete.

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Why Are Checklists Important?

Checklists are essential for any manager.

Actually, that’s true for almost any position, which is why they are so critical to today’s work environment.

In fact, Atul Gawande, author of “The Checklist Manifesto” talks about how to the world is so busy and complicated that we need a checklist to keep up with everything.

He’s literally a surgeon, too. If he needs checklists, marketers probably do as well.

Checklists help by:

Keeping you on track and organized.
Ensuring that you don’t forget something in the process.
Help you maintain consistency.
Help delegate tasks to the rest of your social media team and ensure that they are also getting their work done.

Still don’t believe me? Take a look at a day in the life of social media manager Mario Moreno (a global social media manager for a massive retailer):

And that’s just one day! Not to mention, that’s just social media. You’re probably balancing other things on top of your social media management.

In summary, get yourself a checklist, there’s too much going on with your day-to-day work not to.

Create Checklists In CoSchedule With Task Templates

You can move all of your checklists into one place with Task Templates from CoSchedule. Getting them set up in your calendar is easy.

Select the task template icon:

Add in the tasks from your checklist and assign them to a person in your calendar with a due date:

Title and save your template once it’s ready:

Ready to try managing all your content + social media marketing on one calendar and build your own checklists with Task Templates? Start a free trial or schedule a demo now.

7 Social Media Marketing Checklists For Managers

Okay, we’ll stop being a dead horse here. You can see that checklists are essential for social media managers. So, let’s dive into each one we’ve included in this post.

Table of Contents:

Daily Social Media Checklist
Social Media Management Checklist
Social Media Campaign Checklist
Social Media Audit Checklist
Social Media Analysis Checklist
Social Media Crisis Communication Checklist
Social Media Strategy Checklist

A Daily Social Media Checklist

First on our list is a daily social media checklist. It looks something like this:

[Tweet “Get your free daily social media checklist from @CoSchedule here:”]

Finish Any Outstanding Tasks

The first part of any social media marketers day should be to finish any outstanding tasks from the day before.

Check That Posts That Are Publishing Today Are Ready To Go

This step in your daily checklist involves three parts:

Ensure that any accounts tagged in your posts are correct. The last thing you want to do is send out a post that links to the wrong account.
Make sure any links in your posts are working. Broken links are no good.
Double-check for spelling errors. Simple mistakes can leave a lasting (and unfortunately, negative) impression.

Review Any Meetings On Your Agenda For Today

Meeting to discuss an upcoming campaign? Do yourself a favor and review your notes and research before you head in.

Check The Status Of Upcoming Graphics and Videos

If upcoming posts still don’t have the images, graphics, or videos they need, check in with the teams responsible for creating them.

This is especially important because if you and need to make edits, you don’t want to be adding visual content at the last minute.

Review Any VIsual Media That Needs To Be Approved For Your Social Channels

If graphics or videos are waiting for approval, make your edit notes and get them back to their respective teams in a timely manner.

Edit Upcoming Content For Each Social Media Channel

If you have a writer crafting social copy, review every post before it’s published.

Approve Any Content That Is Ready For Publish

Once the graphics are uploaded, and the content is edited, you can approve your posts to publish to your channels.

Ensure that your social media publishing tool has approval features to make sure everything that publishes is actually ready to go.

Engage With Thought Leaders

There are thought leaders in every industry. Set aside time each day to engage with them, and find new people to follow.

Share advice, tactics, and more to help develop that relationship. You never know when they might call for a favor.

Plus, engaging with thought leaders can help keep you on top of the latest trends in your industry and increase your authority.

Reshare Content From Partners and Influencers

If you are working with a partner or influencer, show their content a little love by sharing it to your channels.

This can also help fill gaps in your social media schedule if you’re running out of content ideas.

Update Your Social Media Calendar

Your social media strategy lives and dies by your calendar. Which means that it should always be up to date.

Check in every day to ensure projects, messages, reports, and meetings haven’t moved dates.

Did You Know?: CoSchedule is the industry’s leading marketing calendar, making it easy to plan and publish all your content and social media posts in one place.

Engage With Potential New Customers

Social media is all about engagement. With companies all over the social media sphere, it’s easier for customers to have their voice heard by the organizations they love (or hate).

This is a task that would be easy to pass down to another team member if you don’t have time to respond to every request.

Read Industry News

Interacting with thought leaders in your industry is not going to be enough to keep you on top. Reading articles and the latest industry news can help you fill that gap though.

Subscribe to blogs and follow social accounts that share relevant news about your industry.

Use tools like Feedly or Flipboard to help find the latest news.

Curate Content For Your Social Media Channels

It can be tough to create enough content to keep your social channels full.

Fortunately, content curation can help fill those gaps. Look for stories that your customers and fans would enjoy reading and add them to your publishing tool.

Did You Know?: CoSchedule’s Chrome extension makes it easy to curate social media content on your marketing calendar.

Back to Table of Contents

Social Media Management Checklist

Another checklist in your bundle is a general management checklist. These tasks are ones that usually fall to management alone and should always be a part of your list.

It could look something like this:

[Tweet “Get your free social media management checklist from @CoSchedule here:”]

Check The Workload Of Your Team

Check in with your co-workers periodically to make sure that they aren’t overwhelmed with their workload. (Or worse they don’t have enough to do).

If they are overwhelmed, try shifting tasks so they can regain their balance and get caught up.

Do This With CoSchedule: CoSchedule’s Team Performance Reports allow you to measure your team’s productivity and adjust workloads accordingly.

Monitor Upcoming Campaigns

If you’ve got a big campaign on the horizon, you may want to make sure that everything is on track to be completed by the intended launch date.

Make it easier on yourself and your co-workers and commit to having all the graphics, content and videos done before launch, so you have time to review and get edits completed before things start to publish.

Do This With CoSchedule: You can schedule entire campaigns using Social Campaigns in CoSchedule. Create posts, schedule posting times, and measure their performance, all in one place.

Check Incoming Messages

There are three reasons that as a manager you would want to check in on the incoming messages from your social media channels.

Checking incoming messages may help you spot a crisis before one starts. If you can step in and help calm down an angry customer before calamity ensues, your whole organization will thank you.
You can help manage customer engagement.
You might even uncover some positive reviews of your product that you can reshare.

Prepare For Upcoming Strategy Meetings

As a manager it’s up to you to steer the social media ship, so preparing for those upcoming strategy meetings is going to fall on to your plate.

One way to stay on top is continuous research to help you see what’s going on in the social media realm.

Prepare Reports For Upper Management Or Clients

Your reports are what show the success (or failure) of your work. Your reports should be easy to read by anyone in your company.

They should include any metrics that show that you reached or missed your goals and a brief analysis on why something did or didn’t work.

Do This With CoSchedule: CoSchedule offers robust social analytics and reporting features to measure every post and campaign.

Monitor Competitor Channels

The saying keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer comes to mind here, but having your competitors in the back of your mind can give you that extra drive to be better and do more.
Back to Table of Contents

Social Media Campaign Checklist

Campaigns come up frequently in social media, so it’s vital that as a manager you have a process to follow that makes it easier to crank them out and get them published.

The following checklist can help you do just that.

[Tweet “Get your free social media campaign checklist from @CoSchedule here:”]

Brainstorm A Theme With Your Team

You have to create a lot of campaigns in a year, and as they say, two heads are better than one. Round up your social media team to help you brainstorm the theme for your next campaign.

Outline The Dates For Your Campaign

Three major dates need to be outlined for any campaign:

When you need to start working on creating content.
When your campaign goes live.
When your campaign ends.

Determine Your Audience

Depending on the theme of your campaign and the message you want to send, the audience you are targeting may shift a little bit.

You also need to determine what message you need to share with them that would resonate and grab their attention.

Set An Ad Budget (If Necessary)

If you decide that you are going to add any paid ad promotion to your campaign you need to set a budget.

Outline how much you are going to spend:

In one day.
On one post.
On the total campaign.

Outline Necessary Image And Video Needs

The next step is to outline any necessary image or video needs that you might want to add to your campaign. Include things like:

Videos for each channel.
Infographics.
Photos for each channel.
Cover photos.
Profile photos.
Anything else your team might need.

Once you have those initial requests, send them to each team to determine how much time they would need to complete them.

Assign Deadlines To Team Members For Projects

Each member of your social media team, as well as your graphic designers and video production crew, needs a deadline that they need to have their work done.

Set them early, so you have time for edits and changes before your campaign launches.

Do This With CoSchedule: Task Templates make it easy to build reusable checklists right inside your CoSchedule marketing calendar.

Choose Your Hashtags

Decide as a team if you are going to use any unique hashtags to identify your campaign on channels like Twitter and Instagram.

If you decide to add your hashtag decide on spelling and spacing in advance.

Write Post Copy

Either you or your social media writers now need to write copy for your campaign. Use our Social Message Optimizer to create the best content for every channel.

Shoot/Design Visual Content

Once your message copy has been created direct your designers and video producers to create the necessary visual content for your campaign.

Edit Content

After your writers have created that initial message copy, go through each post and check for:

Spelling errors.
Grammar errors.
Accounts are tagged correctly.
Hashtags are spelled correctly and used on the right channels.

Approve Graphics/Videos

Once your designers and producers are done with any necessary images or videos, review each one to make sure that it is ready for publishing.

Check Links

Another thing to check off your list is to ensure the links in your posts are leading to the right places.

You may need to check that each one of your posts has been run through a link shortener (if you use one).

Upload Messages To Your Publishing Tool

Once everything is approved, upload your messages into your social media publishing tool. Ensure that each message is paired with its appropriate visual counterpart.

Do This With CoSchedule: Use Social Templates in CoSchedule to easily recreate posting cadences and frequencies.

Schedule Your Campaign

Your next step is to schedule your campaigns. Once you have your posts uploaded, turn your campaign live.

Do This With CoSchedule: You can schedule your social media messages to go out at the best times with our Best Time Scheduling Feature.

Measure Your Results

The last step in your process is to measure the results of your campaign.

Remember, you can make it easy by using CoSchedule’s Social Campaign Report, where we’ll do all the work for you.
Back to Table of Contents

Social Media Audit Checklist

Once a year you’re going to run a social media audit.

It’s tedious but necessary. A checklist will help you ensure that you don’t miss a step in your auditing process.

[Tweet “[Tweet “Get your free social media audit checklist from @CoSchedule here:”]

Review And Secure All Your Social Media Profiles

Make sure that your profiles are up to date and all of your passwords are stored in a secure location like LastPass or 1Password.

Analyze The Performance Of Each Of Your Social Media Profiles

Check your data to see if your social media profiles and their messages are connecting with your audience and producing engagement. If not, it may be time to ax them.

Review Your Publishing Schedule

Check your schedule and see if the amount of content you posted to each channel was enough to generate engagement. If not, consider adding or back off the number of times you post on a channel.

Run An Audience Analysis

Using the same resources you did to develop your first audience, review your demographic data to see if you are still attracting the same audience.

Complete A Content Analysis

Review what content types did and didn’t connect with your audience on each social media channel.

Run A SWOT Analysis

Determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that your organization currently faces on social media.

Review Goals From Previous Year

Determine if you and your social media team met the previous year’s goals.

Back to Table of Contents

Quarterly Social Media Analysis Checklist

Each quarter you’re going to need to check in to see if your efforts are producing the results you want. In other words, you’re going to need to run a quarterly social media analysis.

Here is the checklist you’ll need to make sure you get everything done.

[Tweet “Get your free quarterly social media analysis checklist from @CoSchedule here:”]

Decide Your Time Period For Analysis

What dates are you going to gather your data from? If going quarter by quarter, you’d be looking at a three-month period for each one.

Create Your Report Template

Create a template with sections for every piece of data you need to gather. This can help ensure that you don’t forget to collect data for a specific section from one quarter to another.

Recommended Reading: The Best Social Media Report Template to Show Your Results

Gather Data

Using your reporting tools, gather the data you need.

Analyze Your Data

Look for trends, patterns and other consistencies that can help you interpret what your audience wants to see from you. You should also be looking for data that shows that your team is (or isn’t) on track to meet their goals.

Prepare Your Report

Place data into your report and provide a summary of overall trends and patterns for upper management or your client.

Recommended Reading: The Best Social Media Report Template to Show Your Results

Send To Client Or Upper Management

Send the report to whoever needs to see it. Prepare and respond to any questions that may come from your client or management based on your report.

Decide If Your Strategy Needs Adjustment Based On Analysis

Based on your report and the data you gathered, adjust your strategy to ensure your team meets the goals that were set for them.
Back to Table of Contents

Social Media Crisis Communication Checklist

As a manager, you need to be prepared at all times for a communication crisis. This could stem from your work or something that happens within your organization. Either way, you need to be ready.

Here is the checklist you’ll need.

[Tweet “Get your free social media crisis communication checklist from @CoSchedule here.”]

Pause All Social Media Campaigns Immediately

The minute a crisis happens, pause all of your social media campaigns immediately. No post should go out until you’ve spoken with upper management.

Check In With Upper Management To Determine Next Steps

Meet with the other managers to decide what steps the company needs to take.

Determine What Kind Of Messaging Should Be Used

Work with your public relation team to decide what type of language and messaging should be used to respond to the crisis.

Respond Individually To People On Social Media

If a flood of mentions and comments come in during a crisis, take the time to respond to them individually, but only after messaging and language has been determined by management.

Issue An Apology From The Company

The first social media message you send after the crisis has occurred should be an apology from the company.

Edit Campaigns For Content That May Inflate Crisis Again

Edit your campaigns to ensure they have no mention of anything related to the crisis, or why it occurred.

Resume Campaigns

Once the crisis has passed, resume your campaigns again.

Back to Table of Contents

A Social Media Strategy Checklist

The last checklist on this massive list of checklists revolves around your social media strategy. Like your audit checklist, this list is used maybe once a year or once per quarter to review how things are going.

Here is the list of things you’ll need to do.

[Tweet “Get your free social media strategy checklist from @CoSchedule here.”]

Review Last Year’s Strategy

Determine what did and didn’t work from your strategy and why. Throw out what didn’t work and revamp or keep what did.

Research New Trends And Ideas

Keep your strategy fresh by researching the latest emerging trends and ideas that might work for your organization.

Review Your Target Audience

Decide if this is still the audience you want to be attracting to your organization. If it is, make sure that your audience profile is up to date. If it isn’t, decide who your new audience will be and create a new profile.

Review Your Business Objectives

Talk with your CMO to determine the new business objectives that have been set, so your team can create goals based on them.

Set Goals

Set your goals based on your business objectives.

Recommended Reading: How To Set SMART Marketing Goals

Establish Your Metrics And KPIs

Determine the data points you need to track in order to prove that you are meeting your goals.

Determine Tactics

Decide which tactics your team is going to use on each social media channel to meet your goals.

Map Out Seasonal Campaigns On Social Media Calendar

Use recurring sales or seasonal campaigns and plan them out in your social media calendar in advance.

Establish Your Reporting Schedule

Determine how often and when you are going to report on the progress of your social media strategy and goals to upper management or a client.
Back to Table of Contents

See How Easy Checklists and CoSchedule Can Help Improve Your Efficiency

You now have the tools you need to help get your work done even faster than you were before. Each one of these checklists can be edited to fit your schedule.

Once you’re ready to increase your efficiency even more, try CoSchedule. Our state of the art marketing calendar will let you control every aspect of your social media all from one place.

Plus, don’t forget Task Templates make it easy to build reusable checklists for all your social media tasks. Start a trial or sign up for a demo today.

[Tweet “These seven free #social #media #checklists + @CoSchedule = your success.”]

How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel and Boost Conversions By 69.77% [FAKE]

adminlin — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 15:17:34 GMT

Here’s the problem: You’ve created an excellent website, but no one is buying. Or maybe you’ve written an awesome blog post, and it hasn’t done anything to drive conversions.

You review your marketing funnel and realize the content you’ve created focuses on one section of your funnel and leaves out the others. This creates a gap that your prospects can “leak” out from and cause you to miss potential revenue.

What’s the solution?

Mapping out content ideas on your editorial calendar, and aligning them with each stage of the funnel.

This way, you can present potential customers with the right message, at the right time, to encourage more purchases.

At CoSchedule, we saw this in action when we used the following framework to help us create an email drip campaign that increased our conversions by 69.77%.

In this post, we’ll walk you through exactly what a marketing funnel is and how to map your content to your funnel. We’ll also walk you how to develop messaging and show you how to choose best types of content to deliver those messages at each stage in the funnel.

[Tweet “How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel and Boost Conversions By 69.77% via @CoSchedule”]

Download Your Marketing Funnel Content Mapping Template

This easy-to-use spreadsheet will help you sort the content you’ve already created and assign it to stages in your funnel.

Plus, you’ll also easily be able to see where the gaps in your content are so you can map new content to prevent those leaks. This content, in turn, will guide your audience all the way through the funnel.

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Marketing Funnel Definitions To Keep In Mind

Before we launch into how to map out your marketing funnel, there are a few terms you should keep in mind.

Marketing Funnel: The journey that customers take from being completely unaware of a brand to purchasing their products.
Content Mapping: A process where you decide what content is most appropriate for a person at a given time.
TOFU/MOFU/BOFU: Each of these acronyms refers to the parts of the funnel. The top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU).
Discovery: Your customers are just beginning to understand what your brand is about. They are experiencing some pain point in their life, and they aren’t sure how to fix it.
Consideration: They are now aware that there are solutions to the problem they are facing and that your brand offers one. What they don’t know is that your brand provides the best solution to their problems.
Purchase: They know about your solution and think you are the best option, but they need one last little shove over the line to buy your product.

[Tweet “What exactly does the marketing funnel look like, anyway?”]

Why Is Understanding The Marketing Funnel Important?

Understanding how your customers flow through your marketing funnel is essential to make sure that it does its job. Here’s an infographic that gives you a little more information.

[Tweet “Why is it important to understand how the marketing funnel works?”]

The fact of the matter is that people don’t move through the funnel in a linear process. So, you’ll need to have content that reaches your audience at whatever stage they’re at.

5 Marketing Funnel Examples

Marketing funnels can come in all shapes and sizes. They will change a bit based on the company that created them, so here are six examples to look at.

The CoSchedule Marketing Funnel

The CoSchedule funnel is built in five stages and looks like this:

Moz Marketing Funnel

Moz’s marketing funnel looks like this.

Single Grain Marketing Funnel

The Single Grain marketing funnel looks a little like the Moz funnel, but it breaks down into three parts instead of four.

Crazy Egg Sales Funnel

The Crazy Egg sales funnel looks a little different than all the other marketing funnels. In this example, theirs is mapped out based on the pages they’ve created to address customer needs at each stage of the funnel. Where the other examples are more theoretical, this one shows how a website might be structured to move customers down the funnel.

Neil Patel’s Conversion Funnel

Neil Patel’s conversion funnel resembles more of a bow-tie and looks like this.

If you want to learn more about different sales funnels and how they work check out this video from a CMWorld talk by Andrew Davis.

Determine Who Your Target Audience Is

Before you dive into your funnel, you need to define your audience persona.

Why is knowing your target audience so important?

Because if you don’t know who you’re talking to, you can’t craft the right messages that will help them move through your funnel.

So what is an audience persona, and how can you create one?

An audience persona is:

A document that details your target audience’s who, what, when, where, and why. It also includes general demographic information such as gender, job title, job function, business size, team size, needs, pain points, and challenges.

To build your marketing persona, you need to be able to answer the following questions:

What pain points are your potential customers experiencing?
Where do they live and work?
What gender are they?
What hobbies do they enjoy?

You can gather that information by sending a survey through social media or email. You can create a survey using services like Survey Monkey or Poll Daddy. Once you have your data collected format your information into an audience persona statement.

“[INSERT YOUR BRAND] creates content to help and inform [INSERT DEMOGRAPHIC] so they can [INSERT ACTION] better.”

Recommended Reading: How To Find Your Target Audience With A Marketing Persona

How To Map Content To Your Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel goes by many names, but the core of each one is still the same. At CoSchedule, our marketing funnel looks like this:

[Tweet “How much content should marketers create at each stage of the funnel?”]

Now, you usually would want a customer to flow through the marketing funnel from top to bottom. However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes your customers can enter in at a different point of the funnel besides the top.

If you don’t have content throughout the funnel that helps guide your customers to the bottom, they will most likely get frustrated and leave.

So how can you ensure that there is content in each phase of your funnel? You can do this by mapping out each phase and assigning content to it.

As we’ve mentioned, there are three phases to the marketing funnel. At CoSchedule, we’ve broken each of down into different subcategories, too. Here’s what our stages look like.

Discovery

In the Discovery phase of your marketing funnel, your customers know absolutely nothing about your brand. The end goal of this phase is to have people learn more about your company.

Your content should slowly guide your customers to the conclusion that while they can solve their problem themselves, your product will make it easier.

Some recommended content types for this phase of the marketing funnel are:

Before you decide what types of content that you’re going to create for this phase of the funnel, you need to determine the messages you’ll send.

Unaware Phase

The unaware phase is the very top part of your marketing funnel. At CoSchedule, we define this phase as:

These prospects haven’t identified a pain or a solution. They may have stumbled across a link to our blog or website within a piece they were reading, met us at an event, or saw an industry ad. Another possibility is that something we published piqued their curiosity.

You can use this definition or you can come up with your own. After you have your definition set, record it in your template:

The message that needs to be delivered to your audience in this phase of the funnel should be about solving a problem or answering a question they might research. They’re reading your content for a reason. That problem may or may not be directly solvable by your product, but it should be something that your target audience cares about.

In this phase, you’re trying to get their attention and show them they can trust you.

Define the message you want your content to send in the unaware section and record it in your template:

If you’ve already written marketing content, how do you know if it falls into the unaware category? Ask yourself these two questions:

Does this content relate broadly to your audience’s interests (not just your product)?
Does this address a potential pain point?

If the answer to both is yes, you can categorize it as top of the funnel/ unaware content.

The last section of your template that needs to be filled in is the example section and the expectations that your unaware content needs to meet:

RExamples of Unaware Content From The CoSchedule Blog:

Pain Aware Phase

The next phase of this process is the pain aware phase. This is where your customer realizes there is a problem that needs to be fixed. We define this stage as:

These prospects feel pain of some kind, but don’t know of a solution. They have identified an issue/challenge with their existing process, and are actively looking for information to help them fix it.

Add your definition to your template.

The message you need to deliver in this phase is: You can identify the problem and you will teach them how to fix it.

The difference between the pain aware stage and the unaware stage is that the problem you are looking to solve for your reader directly ties into your product.

To identify if your previously written content fits the pain aware stage, ask yourself the following:

Are you addressing a specific problem that your product solves?
Are you teaching them how to solve this problem?

If the answer is yes, you can file that content under pain aware.

Add in the expectations your pain aware content needs to meet as well as any examples that you may have.

Examples of Pain Aware Content From The CoSchedule Blog:

Solution Aware Phase

The solution aware phase of your marketing funnel is when your potential customer realizes that there are products out there that may help solve their problem.

The definition we use at CoSchedule is:

These prospects feel a specific pain and just discovered there are solutions for it. They have hit the point of frustration where they actively seek solutions to help. They know tools are designed to help them solve the problem.

Use CoSchedule’s definition or create your own and add it to your template.

The message that needs to be delivered for this phase should be targeted toward showing your customer that there are solutions that solve their problem (including your product). They could take care of the problem by themselves by implementing your advice. However, your product will make it even easier.

Decide what message you want to send during the solution aware phase of your content and record it in your template.

Now, if you’re trying to categorize solution aware content for your funnel, here are the questions to ask:

Are you addressing your product category directly?
Are you showing customers what to look for in the solution they’re searching for?
Are you positioning your product against others?

If you answered yes to those questions, you can fill that piece of content under the solution aware category.

Identify the expectations that your solution aware content needs to meet as well as examples of solution aware content that you’ve already created.

Examples of Solution Aware Content From The CoSchedule Blog:

Consideration

Once your potential customers are out of the discovery phase of your funnel, they move on to the consideration phase. At this point, they are aware of your organization and are actively thinking about purchasing your product.

Now you need to convince them that your product is the best one out there. Some recommended content types for this phase of your funnel are:

Product Aware Phase

In the product aware phase of your marketing funnel, your customer is finally aware that your product is the solution that they’ve been looking for. At CoSchedule we define this phase as:

These prospects are learning our product is a solution to the pain. They may be trialing and comparing different tools to ultimately choose the best one that will solve their pain.

Decide on your definition and record it in your template.

The message that needs to be delivered to your potential customers at this point in the funnel is that while other products could solve their problem, yours is the best option.

Based on that information, decide what kind of message you need to deliver with your product aware content and record it in your template.

If you are trying to decide if your existing content fits into this format, ask yourself the following:

Are you directly positioning your product as the best solution to their problem?
Are you showing them how your product works?
Are you emphasizing what makes your product stand out?

The last step for your product aware phase is deciding what expectations your product aware content needs to meet and examples of product aware content you’ve created.

Examples of Product Aware Content From The CoSchedule Blog:

Purchase

The last phase of your marketing funnel is the purchase phase. At this point, your customer should be ready to convert to buying your product. They may just need that extra push to get there.

Some recommended content types to create at this stage of the funnel are:

Most Aware Phase

This is the final subcategory of your marketing funnel. At this point, your customers are the most aware of your product and are ready to purchase. We define this phase as:

These prospects are learning that our product is the best solution to the pain. They love our product in comparison to the other tools available to solve the pain and are looking for options to purchase. They are deciding which plan fits them best and how it works in their budget.

Define what most aware phase means for your marketing team and record it in your template.

The message that your audience needs to hear at this point is reaffirming their decision to trust your product and possibly see how others in their position have loved their choice.

Using that information, highlight what message your most aware content needs to send to your audience.

If you’re trying to decide if the content you’ve already written fits this phase, answer the following questions:

Are you providing them with in-depth info about how your product works?
Are you explaining your different pricing options or product lines?
Do you include testimonials from other customers about your product?

Finally, identify the expectations your most aware content needs to meet and include examples of most aware content you’ve already created.

Examples of Most Aware Content From The CoSchedule Blog:

Using Your Marketing Funnel Template To Map Content

Now that you know what makes up your marketing funnel, you can move on to the very last piece: filling in the content gaps in your funnel.

Using your template, fill in the content name, the URL (if applicable), the publish date, and the stage in the funnel your content is in.

Use the questions listed earlier in this post to determine which phase of the funnel your content belongs in. Once you have everything sorted, you may have your funnel stages listed out of order like this:

You can sort your content by stages in the funnel by selecting column A on your spreadsheet.

Click Data and then sort:

Select “Continue with the current selection”:

Make sure that you sort by column A:

Click OK and you should be good to go:

Now you can track your content this way, or you can make it even easier and track, organize, and publish your content with CoSchedule. Our marketing calendar has several organization features that will help you map your content to the funnel.

Using Tags and Color Labels to Label Content and Funnel Stages in CoSchedule

Tags in CoSchedule can help you sort and label your content quickly and easily. To use them, select the piece of content on your CoSchedule calendar and click Tag in the upper left-hand corner:

Type in the tag name and you’re good to go.

You can also use the filter in your calendar to sort by tags. Choose the funnel in the upper left-hand corner, scroll down to Tags and select the tag you want to sort by:

You can also sort and organize content using Color Labels. Color labels allow you to assign specific color codes to your content and sort your content types according to what color they are.

To use them, go to the settings portion of your calendar and scroll down to Color Labels. Each color code will need its own label. The best part is that with Custom Color Labels, you can always create more:

Once you have your labels built, go back to your primary calendar and select or create a piece of content. In your content, you’ll see a little white circle.

Your color labels will appear, and you can select which one fits the content best:

You can sort your calendar by Color Labels as well by going back up to your funnel and scrolling down to Labels.

Go Create Awesome Content For Any Phase In The Funnel

Now you know how your marketing funnel should work and how to solve the gaps in your funnel with content that helps increase conversions.

Work with your entire marketing team to brainstorm what’s next and constantly adjust your material based on what’s working for your customers and what isn’t.

Then, when you’re ready to get into the planning and execution phase of your content, start a free trial or schedule a demo with CoSchedule.

See how our marketing calendar can help you get and stay organized as well as sort all your content by marketing funnel stages.

Do you have a different funnel that is creating success for your marketing team? Tell us about it in the comments below.

[Tweet “How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel and Boost Conversions By 69.77%”]