Social media is one of the most important tools of all when it comes to building and maintaining customer relationships. As a business owner, having a strategy in place for utilizing and managing these platforms is key. A social media management platform tool helps centralize and coordinate content across social media profiles, especially if your business has multiple accounts, or if more than one employee has permission to manage an account.

Platform Capabilities to Consider
Social Media Today, an online publication devoted to social media news, breaks down basic social media management platform functionalities to consider when picking a tool. These pieces include analytics and reporting, ease of engaging with customers, how well the tool integrates with the channel itself, if the tool offers social post scheduling, and if the tool alerts you to any activity on your page.
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Some Popular Platforms
If your business is new to social media management platforms, below is an introduction to some options in this realm. The best platform for your business will depend on your specific usage needs and budget.

• Hootsuite: A simple, all-encompassing management platform boasts 18 million users worldwide.
• Sprout Social: An intuitive social media management platform that helps handle customer service, marketing and other activities on accounts.
• Buffer: A tool targeted at businesses building brands, the company offers services to 75,000+ customers.
• Zoho Social: A platform that covers popular social media platforms, markets 6000+ ratings across software review sites.

 
Social media can be a daunting world for business owners, but one that can help launch your business into a new realm. If your business is ready to take the next step for building and maintaining a digital brand, a social media management platform is a good tool to have. 

It’s tempting for business owners and professionals to think of a website solely as a sales tool. Yet a website can do much more. At its best, your website is a digital storefront that invites visitors to interact with your organization.
 
Your visitors can be prospective or existing customers seeking to get in touch for service or for information about you or your products/services. To serve as many visitors as possible for your business or professional organization’s website, consider these must-have features:
 
1. Quality Content
Give the visitors to your site information they need and answers they want. An example would be a blog or other website content can provide in the online world the things that many business owners and professionals do in person:

• Address the needs of current and prospective customers
• Answer queries relevant to the industry or topic
• Highlight the expertise of the organization’s people

 Think about the questions that prospects and customers often ask you and your colleagues or employees. Those indicate what information is valuable – and unknown – to them. Use those queries as the basis of the information you provide on your website, whether it’s for a retail store, wholesaler, trucking company, medical office, or another industry.
 
2. Call to Action
Many businesses and brands want their website visitors to buy into their service or to have their customers contact them. Getting a message that a customer wants your products or services is about as rewarding a response as you can get to your website. But your site visitors might not be there yet. That’s especially true if you’re selling services (legal services, for instance) or a complex product.
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So give your website visitors preliminary calls to action, such as:

• View related content on the site
• Read what other customers have to say about the product/service
• Get a product description or details
• Ask about product delivery, service customization or other feature
• Chat now

 
3. Mobile-Friendly Site
Most consumers want and expect to have a multi-channel experience. That means visitors want to be able to access the same information on a smart phone as on a desktop computer. And many more consumers are dubbed “mobile first” – that is, they tend to visit websites first from a mobile device. Website providers can provide the capability to make your site mobile ready. A mobile-friendly site is also called “responsive” because it will “respond” and resize to fit the screen of computer, tablet or phone on which the user is viewing it.

4. FAQ Page
Prospective and current customers of your business or brand have a lot of questions. As you hear these commonly asked questions from phone or via email, start typing them up into a list. Once you have those questions, then offer clear answers.

Some example of topics that would be featured on the FAQ page are address, phone number, hours of operation, social media links, and much more. Having a FAQ page will reduce the number of calls and emails that you may experience. It will also save time for the customer.
 
Businesses and professionals can add other useful website features. But this list of four important website features is a good starting point. To learn more about SEO and other digital marketing needs, visit our digital toolbox. 

Considering ramping up your email marketing? A/B testing is a great way to determine how your strategies stack up, pitting an existing concept against a new variation. Instead of jumping into something brand new, a simple A/B test allows you to be objective about performance in order to choose the most effective approach for your desired outcome.
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What Is A/B Testing?
A/B testing, also called split testing, is essentially a way to compare two versions of a single marketing concept using verifiable metrics. Email marketing is a big part of a successful campaign so for most small businesses, it's a good place to start.

It's easy to think something is a great idea, but another to actually see it in writing. A/B testing uses statistical analysis to reach a conclusion, providing you with concrete results. In general, A/B testing doesn't compare everything, but instead focuses on one single element. For example, if you're seeking higher conversion rates, you may consider testing a new call to action (CTA) or subject line to start.

How to Start A/B Testing
Running an A/B test can be a great way to make actionable improvements. But getting started requires a plan. In order to achieve the best possible results, here are five steps to follow:

1. Determine what elements would be most likely to boost numbers. This may not be easy, but now is the time to take a step back and explore what may be falling flat. Is your CTA vague? Are your headlines dry or bland? Do you personalize your emails?
2. Decide what you want to track. Do you want to see an increase in click-through rates? Do you want customers to make purchases based on your emails? Do you want more people to request pricing? Whatever factor you choose will be the driver for your testing.
3. Set goals. What kind of increase do you want to see? A 10% boost in conversions? 20%? More? After you determine your goal, work towards achieving it in your new variation.
4. Choose a test group. Will you be sampling your whole email list? Or will you be limiting your sampling to a smaller set? There are pros and cons to each strategy. For example, if your changes will be routine and you don't pay per email, using your whole list may be fine. If you're trying something unusual or using an example that doesn't apply to everyone, you may want to be more selective. Split your sample group randomly to ensure the best, most unbiased outcome.
5. Select a platform. In order to create a campaign that generates measurable results, assistance from an email service provider that does A/B testing can be a benefit. There are many of these, such as MailChimp, iContact, or Campaigner. Do some research, compare price points and determine what features you want to see.

​Drawing Conclusions
With an A/B test, you clearly set the parameters you have in mind and wait for the results to pour in. How you analyze the results will vary based on the goals you set.

If your results are tied or within a margin of error, your new email likely isn't any better than your old one. If you're seeing a decline, you may want to keep your original template or even test something else to seek improvements elsewhere. Ultimately, how you draw conclusions and update your marketing will truly depend on the goals you have in mind and what you're hoping to achieve.

Email marketing is a big part of a successful digital strategy. With help from A/B testing, you can make the improvements necessary to see the growth and developments critical to meeting your objectives. 

Social media enables businesses to engage with their customer base in a wide range of ways which can seem overwhelming.  If you’re not sure where to get started, here are the step-by step basics for setting up social media profiles for your business.

Start by creating one company email address that you will use for all social media accounts. A company e-mail addresses protects personal passwords and ensures you won’t have to change it if the person managing it leaves the company.
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​FACEBOOK
Facebook business pages have to be built off of a personal profile. If you are creating a business page with your personal account, you will be an administrator of the page and can invite others to become administrators as well. Your personal profile is not connected to your business page and has separate posts, likes, notifications, etc. Those who like or interact with your business cannot see your personal page, administrator list or any other personal information.

To Create Your Business Facebook Page:

1. To create your Facebook page, select “Business or Brand” as the page you want to create.
2. Input your company name and field and create your page. As you fill out your profile, make sure you are cohesive with the company brand.
3. Upload a profile picture using a company branded image to distinguish yourself. To make sure your images are displayed clearly, look at Facebook’s tips for proper sizing.
4. Within the page you will want to add a cover photo, which will stand as a larger image across the top of your page next to the profile picture you previously added.
5. Begin publishing content you would like to share with your audience using the “Write a Post…” box under your cover photo. Your posts will be able to feature images or links you think customers or prospects will enjoy. Content can also be shared directly from social.selective.com, by clicking the Facebook icon to the left of an article.

As you begin to promote your newly launched Facebook page among clients, expect to see “likes” from customers on your page and any posts. You have the ability to invite clients to like your page or suggest the page to them by hovering over the “…More” tab below your cover photo.

LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is another platform that requires personal pages to create a business profile. If you don’t already have a personal profile on LinkedIn, you can follow the LinkedIn Best Practices Guide for creating one. Once your personal profile is created, you can begin creating your business profile.


To Create Your LinkedIn Business Page:

1. Click the grid icon labeled "Work" in the top right corner of the LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select "Create a Company Page."
3. Select the page type you would like to create. The options include: Small Business, Medium to large Business, Showcase Page, and Educational Institution.
4. Fill out the "Page Identity" (your company name, the name you would like displayed in the URL of your LinkedIn page, and your website) "Company or Institution Details" (including your business’s industry and size), and "Profile Details" information (your company logo). *Tip: your logo should be sized in a 300 x 300 pixel square.
5. Click "Create Page" to complete your business profile.

You can access your business page from the LinkedIn homepage, either on the left-hand side under your information, or by clicking “Me” on the top right-hand corner and finding the page listed on that drop down under “Manage.” Like Facebook, your personal LinkedIn account and business account have separate notifications and only you will see that you are managing the business page.  

​TWITTER
Twitter is much like Facebook, where you can post updates and share images and links. However, unlike Facebook, Twitter limits you to using 280 characters per tweet.


​To Create Your Twitter:

1. Create your Twitter account; include your business name as the full name, a company email and a password.
2. Create a user name as similar to the company name as possible to make it easy for customers to search and engage. Once you’ve created your user name you won’t be able to change it, so keep it within brand and professional.
3. Upload a profile picture and cover photo. Consider adding links to your website or other social media profiles in your bio so your customers can find you on other channels.

Once your Twitter page is built, begin using the search box to find other local businesses or similar companies to follow and tweet important messages about your company or any tips and info you want to share. To tweet, enter text into the box at the top of the page that asks “What’s happening?” or tweet out one of the articles from social.selective.com by clicking the Twitter icon to the left of an article.

Twitter settings and privacy can be adjusted under the “More” option. Businesses should be on a public setting, making it easy for customers to search for you, and retweet your content.

Once you have created your social media platforms for your business, remember to post as consistently as possible in order to build up and engage your audience. You will be able to track how your audience is engaging with each social media platform by utilizing built-in analytics tools, which can typically be found on your business’s profile page.

Developing brand awareness is crucial to the success of any company. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is a great way to place your business in the same search fields as other businesses related to it.

To first understand how to implement SEO basics within your brand website, you need to have an understanding about what exactly SEO means. Search engine optimization is a way you allow your company or brand to be searched for on the internet. With the use of keywords, you give yourself the ability to optimize your audience's search-engine results for your industry and your specific company so you can earn higher click rates on your website. 

SEO is important for driving new and existing customers to your website. According to Moz, most web traffic comes from search engines such as Google and Bing.

To get started utilizing SEO basics, follow these simple suggestions:

​1. Search Engine Friendly Website
​Keywords that relate to your business will boost your search engine results on Google. Think about the words that are most important in describing your company such as, the location, the field that you are in, and the benefits you offer audience. Organically work these factors into the text and titles of your website by creating blog posts that relate to your business.

2. Start Link Building 
Link building is pretty simple to understand. It means you can create links on your site linking back to each other on your own site. You should create as many links as possible that can go back to other pages on your site. The more clicks your site gets, the easier it is for you to link out to relevant searches within the internet.

​3. Focus on Meta Descriptions and Alt Tags
Two elements that often go unattended are meta descriptions and alt tags within your pages and posts on your website. On the back-end page of your website, include a sentence that describes the information being given. Fill in the box that asks you for the SEO title and article description. This box is asking you how you want your article to be found in the search engine. Take advantage of this access as these page descriptions are the meta descriptions. Use keywords that describe your business or brand.

When you’re uploading a picture to a post, be sure to create an alt tag for the image, which is just simply the image description. This helps to tag the image and boosts your SEO. Each of these points is another great way to use keywords. The more you use the same words or phrases, the better your search engine optimization becomes.

4. Have Short Titles and Page Names
These should follow the same standard for adding a subject line to an email. You want to make them short and informative. If a line is too long, it won’t read in the search engine. If someone can’t read the whole title in the search engine they will be less inclined to click on your site because they don’t know what the page is for. Stick to titling your pages with keywords to tie in all of your pages and information.
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Whether you outsource or use an in-house website team, ensure these SEO tips are implemented. They can bring you higher in the search engine results and make your company more relevant. To learn more about SEO and other digital marketing needs, visit our digital toolbox. 

Email marketing is a great way to communicate with existing and prospective customers alike, providing a fast, efficient opportunity to drive leads and build connections. With 3.9 billion users, email marketing can give you a leg up on your other digital methods, seeing an 82% average open rate for a welcome email.

The idea of effectively using email marketing is great in theory. But actually implementing best practices is something else entirely. To take the right approach in creating and using email lists, here's what you need to succeed.

Creating Email Lists
An email list is exactly what it sounds like: a list of contacts to whom you can distribute rich, high-quality content. However, acquiring one isn't as straightforward as it sounds.

While an email list contains names and contact information; a valuable and true list represents customers who are authentic and interested. You need to work to acquire customers that will benefit from the information or offers you have to provide.

Overall, your email list needs to encapsulate three distinct areas: quality, relevance and size. All contacts should be high quality, meaning that they are real humans who check their email regularly. They must also have interests relevant to your business. Purchased email lists often fail this test; the individuals available often have no connection to your company or industry. And, lastly, you need a large number of email recipients. If you don't have enough people to warrant the effort, your email newsletters will take time out of your schedule without significantly impacting your business.

Collecting Customer Emails
So, you need a strong collection of customer and prospect email addresses. But how do you get them?

A website sign-up is among the best possible ways to collect contact information. In general, this opportunity only appeals to invested individuals, ensuring quality, relevant consumers. Be sure to include a call to action that clearly explains how enrollees will benefit.

Giveaways and promotions can also be a good way to attract attention. By giving those who sign up the chance at a reward, like an exclusive prize, or access to a promotion, like a discount code, you can solicit contact details easily from those who care about your operations.

In-person solicitations can be effective as well. Urge employees to ask customers if they want to receive emails and promotional material and keep an information sheet on hand to solicit names, phone numbers and email addresses.

Organizing Customer Contacts
Having lists isn't enough, you need to know how to use them. While some promotions will be appropriate for everyone on your list, other messages will function best when shared with specific subsets of your market. For example, an individual customer likely won't want your promo rates for business insurance. But they may respond to a newsletter on how to make the most of a homeowners' policy.

By organizing your list into sub-categories, you can ensure all of your emails will go to those most likely to act on the information provided. In general, targeted emails, or those aimed at specific interests and curated data, are the most successful, boasting a 10% increase in response or action.

If you have purchase history or biographical details from customers, an optimized profile can help you best understand consumer needs. If you don't have these details, it's important to implement a solution to capture them. This can be a survey that comes after an initial subscription or a customer profile for online checkout.

In order to best target customers, organize your lists by topical data, including:

• Purchase habits
• Purchase frequency
• Birthday and demographic details
• New customers

Then, when creating email campaigns, take this data into account in order to decide who to target with your communications. For example, you can cross-reference your email list by new customers and specific demographics to welcome newcomers to your brand with a personalized promotion.

Mastering Email Marketing
By collecting and organizing contact information from as many relevant, quality individuals as possible, you can expand your reach and broaden your customer base. With the power of email, it's possible to move your brand forward, building connections and deepening relationships with those who matter most. To learn more about email marketing, visit our digital toolbox.

Everyone blogs these days, but why should you?

Depending upon whether you are a business owner working on branding initiatives or a consumer simply looking to express yourself to the masses, blogging is a worthwhile activity. This is as long as you truly have something to say and understand the best practices involved. 

Let's break it down between commercial companies and ordinary citizens. 

Your Business Needs to Blog
There are many companies that blog and take advantage of content marketing today. However, if boosting your brand's image, fueling revenue increases and improving your stature in your industry is on your to-do list, you need to know how to execute. 

Here are a few essential matters to consider:

• Have a set strategy: Hinge Marketing, a branding service provider, urged companies to have a strategy in place in order to guide the blog over time. Without a strong plan in place, the content will tend to be disjointed and incoherent - especially when looking at postings across a given month or quarter.
• Target the right goals: Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers suggests that the top benefits of blogging include higher traffic from search engines, leadership stature in the industry, higher conversions and more bountiful leads. Set firm objectives before beginning your blog and understand what you wish to achieve.
• Follow best practices: Try to keep in mind that every blog post you create adds value to the reader, is written clearly and concisely, and is shared on social media at the right times. Depending on whether you promote the blog on LinkedIn, Facebook or another platform, ideal times for those websites and your specific audience will vary.
• Measure: Pay close attention to how each blog post performs in terms of page views, time on page, bounce rates and click-through rates (CTRs). Analyze what works and what needs improvement to not only increase viewership, but also get conversions through those CTRs. 

​For businesses, blogging is essential and they must do it right to see value. For personal bloggers, it is a bit different.

Blogging is a platform that certainly comes with a host of benefits. It is a rewarding endeavor no matter if you are a business leader, marketer or individual. ​​

In the second quarter of 2018, Facebook logged 2.23 billion monthly users. As the most popular social network worldwide, Facebook can be a key resource for marketing to various types of audiences.

In essence, no matter what type of business you are running, it is advisable to consider using Facebook as a marketing tool. Facebook allows businesses to identify specific audiences based on numerous demographic data points. Relevant ads are placed directly into the feeds of users based on their individual information. This means you can target your message to an audience with a greater likelihood of them being receptive to your products and services. When it comes to marketing effectiveness and value, relevance is everything. 

Facebook Ads have become increasingly popular. The website provides the following guidance on how to succeed with Facebook Ads:

• Incorporate high-definition media, such as video, into Facebook Ads. Remember to put your most compelling content at the top of the ad, as viewers need to be drawn in with only a glance. 
• When trying to promote deals, discounts and events, leverage the Facebook Offers feature - a service that places your ads into a targeted, word-of-mouth marketing program on the site.  
• Make sure your posted Facebook Ad contains a clear call to action.

 
These best practices can help your business get the most out of the greater Facebook platform:

• Inbound marketing software provider Hubspot notes publishing ads between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern Time generates 88 percent more interactions than the average across all times of the day. 
• Video is particularly effective in Facebook advertising, garnering on average 89.5 shares per video.
• Ad Espresso, a Facebook advertising management provider, found the most effective Facebook ad headlines were five words long. Keep your ad headlines short to keep engagement high. 
• Facebook has an Audience Insights tool that provides data to help promote your campaigns to the right audiences.

 
In order to maximize visibility and recognition, businesses of all sizes - especially those that target their local communities – could benefit greatly by implementing a Facebook marketing strategy. 

Growing Followers the Right Way
If you're thrilled with Twitter or flipping for Facebook in your business, there are several things you can do to build followers organically in a way that will keep them around.

1. Keep Quality High
   Flat, boring or non-impactful content won't get you anywhere. If you want to keep your fans and followers interested, you need to add value with high-quality content. Before pressing submit on any post, make sure your content is interesting, engaging and able to start a conversation.
2. Follow Potential Followers
   Have some prospective clients you'd like to see among your fans? Invite them to like your page! Many social media users find it flattering when companies are reaching out. When you invite someone who may be interested in your brand, they're more likely to follow you back in return.
3. Embed Social Content in Blog Posts
   If you want to make sure prospective clients know about your social media presence, use your blog posts and promotional content to increase visibility. This allows you to showcase some of your most popular posts, providing an easy way for readers to check out your page and the kinds of things you like to share.
4. Use Hashtags
   Hashtags are a great way to boost engagement and interaction in your tweets and Facebook posts. Every hashtag you use can be clicked on and searched, providing a connection to a wide audience of users with similar interests. 
5. Ask Questions
   Tired of radio silence in response to your posts? Ask questions! People love sharing their thoughts and ideas. So when you broadcast questions, you're likely to get more engagement, which will put your name out there among your followers' followers.
6. Target Advertising
   Both Facebook and Twitter provide ways to target ads by criteria such as age, location, gender and likes. When you choose to run a social media ad campaign, be sure to tailor ads to those most likely to respond. And consideradding a perk, such as a discount code, for those who like your page.
7. Run Contests and Promotions
   Social media users love the chance to win something for free, so promotions and giveaways can give you a great way to get more people interested in your services. There are many options for effective campaigns, so get creative and think about offers your key demographic will love.

Growing Followers the Wrong Way
There are plenty of opportunities to build your following. But there are many negative options, too. Here's what not to do while attempting to grow fans and followers:

1. Post too often. Too many posts will annoy users and make them more likely to unfollow you.
2. Drown posts in dozens of hashtags.
3. Take defensive or controversial stances on current events.
4. Post boring, uninteresting or irrelevant content that adds no value to the user experience.
5. Buy likes or followers. This may give you an inflated sense of importance. But these purchased accounts likely will do little for your business.
6. Post the same thing over and over.
   
   

When you want to make a true impact with your social media marketing, a solid fanbase is absolutely essential. With these tips, you can grow your following quickly, easily and effectively, providing an engaged audience with whom you can share your benefits.

LinkedIn is one of the largest social media platforms for professionals, and is becoming a more powerful marketing, sales and branding outlet as the platform expands its product and service lines. According to VentureBeat, an online publication, LinkedIn had 450 million members as of August 2016. Some 25% of those members used the site at least once a month. While that figure does not come close to Facebook and other social networking websites, LinkedIn can still be a useful tool for lead generation. 

Let's take a look at some of the practices and tools involved. 

An introduction
Forbes, a business publication, published a blog post by contributor John Hall that explains that LinkedIn fuels the lion's share of business-to-business (B2B) leads generated by social media platforms. According to the author, 80% of all B2B social leads are generated through LinkedIn, showing that it is indeed a giant in this regard. If you are focusing more on marketing to consumers, other social media platforms such as Facebook could be more suitable. However, B2B companies must consider leveraging LinkedIn to generate the maximum volume of valuable leads. 

How to use LinkedIn for lead generation
Small Business Trends, an online magazine, suggests first introducing your business briefly, then regularly engaging in relevant conversations on the site and always looking to identify the right connections. According to the news provider, LinkedIn offers advanced filters to assist in search (for those with a premium LinkedIn account).

LinkedIn ProFinder, a recently added feature, allows users to connect with freelance workers in a variety of fields. For instance, try using ProFinder as an easy-to-use tool to make direct contact with someone who can offer help with writing and design to help boost your online brand. Once you do that, you can tailor your content to fit your customer markets -- and then leverage your online presence to generate leads for your businesses.

LinkedIn Ads, the core branding service the social network offers, has a feature to help generate and acquire leads through marketing collateral published on the website, as noted by Small Business Trends. The website also strongly suggests regularly publishing articles on the site, as this can help turn leads into valuable customers through more preferable interactions. 

Advanced tips
Hall, who also contributed to LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions Blog, recommends all companies incorporate their LinkedIn accounts into editorial schedules to maintain a strong link between content creation and sharing. Then, companies can leverage tracking URLs ─ which are shortened links that allow you to measure traffic to that website page ─ to gain a stronger understanding of user behaviors and audience reception. No matter what, Hall asserts, there must be a clear call to action in every piece of published content to truly generate valuable leads and turn them into customers.