How Pinterest Story Pins Can Improve Your Marketing
Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat tend to dominate the social media marketing discussion. Pinterest, it seems, is tired of being underestimated.
They’ve recently launched a new feature that has the opportunity to change the world of Pinterest marketing. So, what is it, and what do you need to know about the latest Pinterest feature?
Whether you’re a seasoned Pinterest veteran or new to the social media platform, Pinterest Story Pins offer an exciting opportunity to interact with your audience and gain more exposure for your brand.
Story Pins allow you to offer more value to your followers, inspire action, and, more importantly, drive traffic to your website.
This new feature will soon be commonplace on the platform, so here are some tips to help you get the most out of Pinterest Story Pins.
What Are Pinterest Story Pins?
Story Pins are the latest feature from Pinterest that allows brands to create the “inspirational” content your followers want. As opposed to a regular pin, which is just the one image or video with a description and link, Story Pins allow you to incorporate multiple pages of images, videos, text, and links.
Made up of between five and 20 slides, Pinterest Story Pins give you the chance to tell a story and engage your audience in much greater depth. Unlike Instagram and Facebook stories, they don’t expire after a set period of time.
Story Pins also allow users to publish unique content directly in Pinterest, rather than just distribute content published elsewhere.
This provides the perfect platform to showcase content that’s longer and more in-depth than your regular pins and leads people to your website content.
Here’s an example of a Story Pin for a luggage review:
They can also be used for travel guides, like this one from Edinburgh Insider Guide:
For businesses, Story Pins represent an excellent opportunity to showcase expertise and engage people with valuable content.
With the ability to include more multimedia, more text, and more links, you can grab people’s attention, get them engaged, and then get them clicking to your website.
Who Can Use Pinterest Story Pins?
Pinterest Story Pins are still gradually rolling out, so it’s not available in all countries yet.
Many creators in the US were invited to get an early look at the Story Pin feature, but if you don’t have access yet, you can submit a request on the Pinterest website.
The request takes a few seconds to fill out, and you will find out if you can get access to Pinterest Story Pins in five to seven working days.
Early access will allow you to look at this exciting new feature and understand how it can work for your business before everyone else starts seeing the benefits, so it’s well worth the effort.
Once you’ve been granted access to Story Pins on Pinterest, then you’re free to get your creative juices flowing and see just what great content you can fit into 20 pages!
How to Prepare Your Business for the Rollout of Pinterest Story Pins
While you’re waiting to hear back from your request to unlock the Story Pins feature, there are plenty of things you can be doing to get ready. Story Pins might be a new feature to Pinterest, but at the end of the day, it’s still Pinterest, so you have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Before you jump headfirst into Story Pins for Pinterest, make sure you’ve got a clear plan of how you will use them. Here’s how to get started.
Understand Your Audience
Pinterest allows you to reach a vast audience, but this is only valuable if you’re reaching the right people with the right message. If you’re going to engage the right people, you need to understand what your audience looks like, and what kind of content they want.
If you have an established business, you already have access to a massive audience data, so make the most of your analytics. Use your Pinterest analytics, other social analytics, and your website data to better understand your audience and the content they’re looking for.
Before you get started with your Pinterest Story Pins, make sure you can answer these six questions about your audience:
- Who are they?
- What are their greatest difficulties/problems/desires?
- Where do they find the information they need?
- What are the benefits of your product for them?
- What negatively draws their attention?
- Who do they trust?
Get Your Multimedia Ready
With Story Pins, Pinterest actively encourages fresh new content, so give them what they’re looking for by getting all your images and videos ready. Low-quality multimedia doesn’t do well on Pinterest (or any social platform,) so make sure you’re investing in high-quality photos and videos.
Keep your audience in mind when you’re shooting your images and video and giving them something that will inspire them into action.
You’ve got so much freedom now that you can use up to 20 slides, so use your creativity to make your new Story Pins stand out.
Make Use of Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest has ramped up their analytics in recent years, and you can find extremely helpful insights here. Story Pins might be a new feature, but the things that made your old pins successful in the past are still working today.
Use Pinterest Analytics to find out which pins have been successful for you in the past.
To view analytics, sign in to your Pinterest Business account, and click on Analytics.
From there, you’ll be able to see which Pins get the most views and engagement.
Once you see what Pins are most popular, think of ways to successfully transition them into Story Pins. For example, can you turn a DIY post into a Story Pin with detailed instructions?
This is a great way to expand on some of your most popular content and give it a chance to reach a broader audience.
It might be your first time using Pinterest Story Pins, but you can make sure you hit the ground running by leveraging content that is already working well.
Why Should Your Business Use Pinterest Story Pins?
Pinterest Story Pins are still in their infancy, which means there’s not a great deal of data to act upon at the moment.
However, similar features have been a huge hit on other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, with millions of active daily users. Pinterest has put a lot of effort into creating its own version.
This suggests Pinterest will push the story feature (like Instagram did) and ensure Story Pins get a lot of attention.
Aside from the fact that Pinterest is invested in Story Pins — they’ve been trialing them in different markets for over a year now — these new pins seem to have plenty of business benefits.
With regular pins, you don’t have much time to earn someone’s click – your image, video, or a short piece of text have to do all the hard work for you. However, with a story pin, you’ve got so much to keep your audience engaged with.
You can also include multiple links, which gives you a much better chance of driving your audience to your website. From here, you control the customer journey, and you’re in an excellent position to achieve your goals.
Long story short: You want to get clicks to your website, and to do this, you need to engage your followers with valuable content; Story Pins are an excellent opportunity to do this.
When Should You Use Pinterest Story Pins?
Regular Pinterest pins are ideal for traditional Pinterest content like recipes and DIY tips. However, Story Pins are a brilliant resource for “how-to guides,” which you can do in any niche.
For example, a story on “How to Create Perfect Pinterest Story Pins” is ideal, with videos and text showing the steps to create engaging Story Pins.
This is an excellent opportunity to rework some of your blog posts and turn them into easy to consume social posts. If you’ve got how-to guides, recipes, list posts, longer DIY guides, travel tips, or even detailed reviews, then you have the makings of a great Pinterest Story Pin.
You’re still going to want to produce regular pins, with short, snappy, actionable messages, but use Story Pins to go into more detail.
Story Pins are like a bridge between your regular pins and your full-blown content, and it’s a great way to push your audience over to your website to consume more content.
How to Create a Pinterest Story Pin
You’re all ready for Pinterest Story Pins, you’ve narrowed down your audience, got your creatives ready, and you’ve just been granted access, so how do you create your first story pin?
From your Pinterest business account, you can create Story Pins on desktop or mobile.
Create Pinterest Story Pins On Desktop
- Click the Create button in the top left-hand corner and select Create Story Pin.
- Add up to 20 images or videos.
- Design your pages. You can change the layout, add text overlay, adjust/resize your image, and add more pages.
- Add extra text to help inspire your audience.
- Select your story pin title, choose which board you’re going to pin to, and add tags to help people find your pin.
- Click publish.
Create Pinterest Story Pins On Mobile
- Click the + button at the bottom of the screen and select Story Pin.
- Decide what your pin is about; choose from “recipe,” “crafts + DIY,” or “something else.”
- Select your photos and videos from your library.
- Get creative with your design by selecting your cover photo, resizing images, and adding text overlay to bring your Story Pin to life.
- Add the finishing touches by coming up with a title for your Story Pin, choosing which board to pin to, adding extra details, and making your story pin discoverable with tags.
- Click publish.
What Makes a Successful Pinterest Story Pin?
A successful Pinterest Story Pin is all about engagement. Pinterest stories give you the ability to hold people’s attention for longer, giving you more time to inspire them to take the action you want them to take.
Your Pinterest analytics will give you a lot of insights into how your Story Pins are performing, but so can your website. You want your pins to do well on Pinterest and get lots of impressions and link clicks, but we can track this further and see how people interact with our website when they come from Pinterest.
If you’re creating amazing Story Pins that inspire people with your message, it should result in people clicking to your site and spending a good amount of time engaging with the content.
Track this in your Google Analytics by going to Acquisitions, then Social Channels, and Clicking on Pinterest.
Through a combination of your Pinterest analytics and your website data, you can get a good feel for how well your new Story Pins are performing.
Tips on Creating Pinterest Story Pins
The big aim with Story Pins is engagement, but how exactly can you go about achieving this? You have the opportunity to grab people’s attention and hold it, but there are several things your Story Pins need to accomplish this:
- Have high-quality visuals
- Draw people in with catchy titles
- Deliver on people’s expectations
- Go more in-depth than the average pin
- Supplement visuals with helpful text
- Ooze creativity
- Inspire action
You’re telling a story through your Story Pins, and like any good story, there are lots of different aspects that need to come together. By combining great visuals with catchy titles, informative text, and plenty of creativity, your pins are going to stand out and encourage your audience to take the actions you want them to take.
Conclusion
Pinterest Story Pins are a great new feature to help businesses engage better with their target audience. Although the new feature is still rolling out, you can request access and get ahead of the competition.
With Story Pins, you have another way to grab people’s attention and get them engaging with your content. In many ways, they’re even more effective at doing this than regular pins, so make sure you’re taking advantage of it.
Pinterest is the latest social media platform to bring out a story feature, and the chances are this format is very much here to stay. Story pins will become a big part of the Pinterest platform, so you might as well start mastering them now by giving your followers the fantastic, in-depth content they’re looking for.
Have you started to use Pinterest Story Pins yet?
The post How Pinterest Story Pins Can Improve Your Marketing appeared first on Neil Patel.
How Does Latent Semantic Indexing Affect SEO
In SEO, you’ll hear plenty about keywords and how they affect your content rankings. But you don’t hear so much about Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and the influence it may have on SEO.
If you’re not familiar with the term, Webopedia.com defines LSI as an “algorithm used by search engines to determine what a page is about outside of specifically matching a search query text.” More clarification on this is below.
When used effectively, LSI can give your rankings a significant boost—and using it in your content may be easier than it sounds.
Let’s get started by explaining what LSI keywords are and why they’re important.
What are LSI Keywords?
Put simply, LSI keywords are terms semantically related to your subject. Each LSI keyword, groups of words, or phrase you use is relevant to the main keyword you’re targeting. But, they’re not always synonyms—LSI also searches for ideas commonly found in conjunction with your primary keywords.
When you include LSI keywords in your content, it helps Google understand the site’s topic by giving it context. LSI also makes it easier for Google to index your content and may give your site better visibility.
Here’s an example of LSI keywords.
If we use “cake recipe” as our search term, this is what we see:
As you’ll notice, Google’s auto-suggest offers several additional search terms in bold. LSI keywords—these related words and phrases—give you a better idea of what consumers are searching for, allowing you to develop new content ideas.
The result? The possibility of ranking for multiple keywords and attracting a larger audience
Why Are LSI Keywords Important?
You’ve probably all heard of “keyword stuffing.” Not that long ago, that’s all it took to get a website ranked highly by search engines: repeating your keywords over and over and over.
Back then, some marketers scattered their target keywords liberally throughout their text, in headers, meta descriptions—basically everywhere. Although this was effective in getting ranked highly by search engines, there were downsides to this approach:
- The content often wasn’t relevant.
- The text was generally low quality.
- The searcher’s questions weren’t answered.
Through machine learning and AI, search engines have gotten smarter. For Google, this meant the introduction of the Hummingbird algorithm. Hummingbird combined new and old technology to deliver more intelligent results and emphasized quality content over keyword quantity.
In short, Hummingbird doesn’t analyze specific SEO keywords. Instead, it looks at the context of searchers’ questions, looking at relevance and intent.
As Google explains, while keywords are still of the utmost importance, their system also uses
…aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries. We transform that data into signals that help our machine-learned systems better estimate relevance.
Hummingbird also makes greater use of long-tail keywords.
Using LSI search terms in your overall SEO strategy is crucial because they:
- Allow for improved content quality by using related search terms
- Provide relevance to your content without keyword overuse
- Enable greater visibility for your content
- Offer more ranking opportunities as, by using LSI keywords, you can rank for related terms instead of just your keywords
- Limit your chances of Google penalties for frequent keyword use.
How to Find LSI Keywords
There are several ways you find multiple keywords that rank. Here, we’ll discuss several ways you can do so on Google.
1. Bold Words in SERP Results
When you search on Google, you’ll find related terms in SERP results. Google highlights these terms in bold. For example, if we use the term “camping gear,” we get the following suggestions:
As you can see, it found the specific keywords, as well as the similar phrase “camping accessories.” If you kept searching, you’d likely also see words like “supplies,” “campsite,” and “camp.”
As a bonus, The SERP results make it easy to see the LSI keywords your competitors are targeting, too.
2. Using Google Autocomplete
If you use Google, you’ll know that it creates a list of related words every time you enter a search term. For instance, when we use “hiking,” we get the following suggestions:
3. Topic Modeling
Topic modeling is an approach commonly used by content marketers. This allows for:
- More focused content
- Clear direction for your articles, website copy, etc.
- Creation of content more likely to rank
Just like LSI, topic modeling uses related words and phrases. The Content Marketing Institute explains, “Words and phrases are interrelated, and the idea behind topic modeling is to discover those relationships. When crawling your content, search engines aren’t just crawling for specific words, they’re seeking words with related meaning.”
They further explain how to structure your content to use topic modeling effectively:
- You should have your target keywords in your primary header, first paragraph, and as often as naturally possible.
- Your subheaders should be relevant, but they don’t necessarily need to include the keywords.
- Ideas that are related but not “on the nose” should go in the text. They still help with ranking.
4. Look For Related Searches in Google Search
If you scroll to the bottom of the Google search page, you’ll see a list of related searches. If we use the same example as above, we get:
These are alternative terms you could use in your work to help improve your SEO results. You could also create brand new content, like blog posts, specifically about these searches.
5. People Also Ask
Another useful Google tool is the “people also ask” feature. This will show a list of questions people are looking for answers to.
Let’s look at “hiking” again. If you search for that and look at “People also ask,” you may see the following:
To enhance your content, consider shaping at least some of it around popular queries. You can pose these questions, especially has headers, in your content. This will provide readers with the answers they’re looking for.
6. Google Trends
Google Trends is a service Google provides to let you see some of the site’s most popular searches—and their relevant data.
When you go to trends.google.com, you’ll see an option to search. Type your keyword into this box.
For our purposes, let’s look for “apple.” The screenshot below is what you’ll see if you scroll to the bottom of the results page.
As you’ll see above, this will generate a list of related topics and queries suitable for LSI keywords.
Or, if you were hoping for apple the fruit, not the various other options, you may need to alter your keyword so your intent is more obvious.
Tools to Help Find LSI Keywords
There are many other easy-to-use tools for finding LSI keywords. Here are two examples.
Ubersuggest
Enter your search term, click “search” and my Ubersuggest tool will generate:
- Domain Overview
- Top SEO Pages
- Keyword Suggestions
- Content Ideas
- Backlink Data
In the example below, we used “yoga” as our search term. If you scroll down just a bit after searching, you’ll see a list of keyword suggestions.
As you can see, it doesn’t just show you the suggested keywords.
You can also look at related keywords, commonly searched questions relating to the keywords, keywords with prepositions, and comparisons like yoga vs. pilates. For full details, sign up for a free account.
LSI Graph
According to its tag line, LSI Graph allows you to “Generate LSI Keywords That Google LOVES.”
Some key features are:
- Traffic and competition analysis
- Unlimited, high-quality LSI keywords
- Find the best-ranked content in any niche
To get started, go to LSIgraph.com, enter your key phrase, click generate, and the site will create a list of LSI keywords and top-performing content.
Once again, we used “yoga” for our keyword search.
Note: This information shows up as side by side columns when you use the site; we split them into two images to make them easier to see.
This is the left-hand column. It shows you LSI keywords related to “yoga,” with information about their trends, volume, CPC, and more.
This second image, the right-hand column, shows you top-performing content related to “yoga.”
The basic version is free, but you can upgrade to premium starting at $27 per month.
Other Tools to Consider
Though those are great tools, there are others you could take a look at. A few good options are:
If you’re a WordPress user, you can access various other plug-ins to aid your SEO efforts further.
How To Use LSI Keywords
Now that you know the importance of LSI keywords and how to use various relevant tools, here are some basic guidelines for using your LSI keywords in your content:
- Focus on topics, not just keywords.
- Decide on the primary and core keywords you’re targeting.
- The LSI keywords you use should support and be relevant to your primary target keywords.
- Draw up a list of LSI keywords before writing. Many of the related terms will appear organically in your content. When you’ve finished writing, add the remaining target terms.
- When creating text, use LSI keywords in the same way you would regular keywords—naturally within the text.
- Ensure everything you write is high quality and useful to your readers.
When it comes to crafting your content, you can use LSI keywords throughout your site, including in:
- Pages and blog articles
- Headings, page titles, and images
- Anchor and alt text
- H2 and H3 subheadings and other HTML
- URLs and Meta tags
- Meta descriptions
- Conclusions
Update Old Content
Don’t just focus on creating new content— give past content an SEO boost by adding LSI keywords.
Doing this gives you another opportunity to get your older material discovered by Google and in front of an eager audience.
Optimize Images
Revamp old images by optimizing them with LSI keywords to improve their visibility. You can do this by merely renaming the images using your chosen LSI keywords. Don’t forget about the alt text when you do this.
Using LSI Keywords in Meta Data
Get your content noticed by Google by including LSI keywords in your metadata descriptions, image descriptions, and meta tags. Dot Com Infoway suggests using both your target keyword and an LSI keyword in your meta descriptions to enhance search results and increase your ranking.
Using LSI Keywords in HTML
Add LSI keywords to your heading, image, and title tags. Again, you’ll want to use words that appear natural to readers and search engines alike.
Using LSI Keywords in Paragraph Text
Include your target LSI keywords in the opening paragraphs of your pieces and throughout your posts. For natural-sounding content, ensure your keyword use is organic and well-spaced throughout the article.
In addition:
- Use related topics as subheadings and create paragraphs around them.
- Add one LSI keyword to your conclusion.
- Ask questions in your articles that answer searchers’ questions.
Using LSI Keywords in Anchor Text
To allow search engines to better understand your content, add variety to your anchor text with semantic keywords.
Conclusion
Search engines like Google have become increasingly sophisticated over the years, using machine learning and AI to understand entire pages and their topics rather than just target keywords.
The days of keyword stuffing and inferior quality content are long gone. Now, improving your content rankings means developing relevant, helpful, and high-quality material.
For an increased chance of broader visibility, incorporate LSI keywords into your strategy—and don’t forget to revisit old pieces when doing so.
Have you used LSI keywords or LSI tools as part of your SEO strategy?
The post How Does Latent Semantic Indexing Affect SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
How to Use Promoted Videos to Generate More E-commerce Sales
Organic and promoted videos serve multiple purposes for consumers in their increasingly multi-channel B2C journey.
More than half of the participants said they switched between search and video channels (Google and YouTube) to make an informed decision about a purchase in a YouTube study.
But it’s not just YouTube—Instagram’s video content consumption has shot up by 80%, and Facebook users consume one million hours of video content every day.
All these platforms—along with most other social media sites—are ones consumers go to regularly. So as online sellers, these should become your go-to places for running promoted video content. In one study, US online shoppers said they expect to see at least three videos connected to each product when making an online purchase.
But how do you use promoted videos from paid campaigns that translate to tangible results for your e-commerce store?
Create Your Promoted Video E-Commerce Goals
Goals of promoted videos for e-commerce businesses mostly come down to these three:
- Increasing brand awareness: -This essentially means if you make and sell, say, scarves, people looking to buy scarves know about you. Promoted videos are a great tool for building brand awareness as people are increasingly discovering new products through videos. In a YouTube survey, more than 90% of shoppers said they’d found new products and brands on the platform.
- Boosting consideration: You want to know if people looking for scarves and checking you out are actually considering buying from you. When done right, promoted videos can push your “aware” audience base to the consideration stage. More than 50% of shoppers say online videos have “helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy.”
- Generating more sales: YouTube’s “which product to buy” video watch time doubles each year. Promoted videos can give shoppers the push they need to choose your product.
Translate Your Promoted Video Goals Into KPIs
Take your goals for promoted videos and choose KPIs that reflect them.
Bigger e-commerce brands often use KPIs like ad recall, message association, and purchase intent, among others.
However, if you’re just starting out or are in your early stages of growth, these KPIs won’t make so much sense for you. Instead, you should map your goals to the more “real” KPIs, like upper funnel metrics like views and impressions, middle funnel metrics like watch time and view-throughs, and bottom-funnel metrics like click-throughs, signups, and sales. (Here’s a primer on e-commerce attribution modeling that can help you with this.)
Analytics in most video platforms will report on the general performance of your promoted videos, including:
- Views
- Watch time
- Clicks
- CTR
- Engagements
- Unique viewers
- Viewership
Different video platforms have different ways of calculating these metrics. For instance, watch time of three-seconds counts as a view on Instagram (where video content maxes out at 60 seconds), whereas for YouTube, a view happens when someone watches the video content for at least 30 seconds.
Tap Into Your Users’ Moments of Need
Now that you’ve taken care of the “business side” of using promoted videos for your e-commerce business, it’s time to look into the “people side.”
One way to go about this is to tap into the idea of “moments of need” that drive video search and consumption. These are the things consumers want at this exact second.
The four key micro-moments of needs you must factor in when planning video content for paid promotions are:
- I-want-to-watch
- I-want-to-do
- I-want-to-know
- I-want-to-buy
These micro-moments represent opportunities for engagement, and videos fit seamlessly into them.
For example, if you sell skincare products, you could run a sponsored video on YouTube that targets users in your target market who also Googled “skincare products,” capitalizing on an I-want-to-buy moment. Google’s research has found advertisers who use YouTube video ads and Google search ads report 3% higher conversion rates and a 4% lower search cost/acquisition.
Or you could target broader audience segments and educate them about their top relevant concerns (ingredients, benefits, etc.). This is geared toward the I-want-to-know moments.
When you brainstorm ideas for videos using moments of need, don’t only think in terms of pitching your products. Some of these moments aren’t moments of buying but opportunities to connect with your users via meaningful video content.
The idea is to meet your users with relevant video content wherever they are in their buying journey with you—unaware, considering, or ready-to-buy.
Identify What Drives Your Users to Different Video Platforms
Each video platform has a unique video consumption pattern driven by the viewers’ intents.
For example, Pinterest users appear to have an appetite for “inspirational” video content, with searches for this content increasing 31 percent. “Inspirational,” in this context, means things like how-to guides and backstories of companies and products, making this platform great for “I-want-to-know” and “I-want-to-do” moments.
For YouTube, on the other hand, the top four content categories are comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to.” And, 68% of their users take this information and make purchase decisions—so, you can find all sorts of opportunities to use “moments” on this site to make your sales.
It’s also worth exploring how a user engages with the platform you’re using to promote your videos. Pinterest, for instance, serves as a wishlist for many users, as people save images and videos from all over to their personal pages. Meanwhile, a customer who uses YouTube may watch videos to learn how to use a product they want.
Instagrammers’ “moments” can fall into any category, but they want to use the information right now. When you create videos for Instagram, they need to be fast, informative, and provide easy purchasing information.
Before you pick a platform, dig into its demographics and research data. This information can help you set expectations for your promoted videos.
Optimize Your Video Content For Paid Campaigns
When it comes to creating video content you’ll pay to promote, the only rules are the ones mandated by the video platforms. These rules are about the formats supported and the approval policies, plus a few best practices.
Content-wise, there’s no one right way to do video. You need to know your company, your audience, and what works for similar brands.
For one brand, simply using stock photos, text, and music could do the trick.
Another brand might do better if they use video showing a product in action.
While there’s no one single way to create videos that work, some video types more consistently deliver results when promoted:
- Product explainer videos: Sometimes simple product explainer videos—videos showing products in action—work as excellent content for promoting.
- Storytelling/Sneak peeks/Behind-the-scenes videos: For some platforms, like Instagram, video content that tells a story, gives viewers a preview of new products, or shows them how things were created or who the workers are can generate great ROI.
- How-tos: How-to videos directly address the “i-want-to-do” moments and often offer opportunities for showing products in action.
- Unboxing and haul videos: Depending on your product(s), unboxing, or haul videos, too, can work well in paid campaigns. These are videos showing customers opening their new purchases and talking about their initial responses to the items.
- Shop with me: In a two-year period, the watch time for “shop with me” videos increased tenfold on mobile alone, making this yet another video content type that can work well when promoted. These are videos where influencers literally share their shopping experiences with viewers.
- Videos answering the “W” questions: Video consumers often have “W” questions— “what to buy?” “where to buy,” and “when to buy?” This may also include, “who should I buy this for?” Depending on your paid video campaigns’ goals, these questions can make good jumping-off points for promoted videos.
The above ideas for promoted video content may often overlap with the video content you’d produce for typical partnerships—but not always. It’s common for brands to create content specifically for partnerships and use it in addition to their other ads.
Alongside these promoted ads and partnerships, UGC (user-generated content) and testimonials can act as good ideas for promoted video content.
No matter what video type you choose, you need a video creative brief to prepare for your campaign. Below, Nic Burrows from Google shares a simple yet effective creative brief you can use to create compelling videos.
His template forces you to think about and research every aspect involved with creating useful, action-inspiring videos:
You can download your copy here (no opt-in needed).
To learn how to make your video content pop, Ben Jones and his team from Google review 1,000 video ad creatives each month and share how brands can improve. Check it out here:
Experiment With Your Promoted Videos
Like your other marketing assets, experiment with your promoted videos to know which ones drive the most revenue.
You can test pretty much everything, from your video’s length and opening sequence to the background music and interactive elements.
You’ll be surprised to realize significant savings with even simple experiments, so don’t shy away from trying all sorts of different things.
For example, when the coffee and bakery brand Dunkin’ experimented by creating an Instagram video ad with poll stickers and another version without them. By comparing these two concepts, they discovered a 20% lower cost per video view for those with stickers.
Avoid testing too many ideas in a single experiment because you likely won’t be able to tell why the winning version succeeded.
Document your findings to save on the next campaign. Additionally, your discoveries can fuel your follow-up experiments.
Analyze and Improve Your Promoted Videos
As with any other marketing channel, you may improve your ROI with your store’s promoted videos if you analyze their performance.
Just remember to look a little deeper than the top-of-the-funnel metrics like views and shares to uncover the “real” performance. No matter how impressive those numbers may be, they don’t necessarily translate to sales and profits.
So keep an eye on your sales volumes and value.
Also, when you use promoted videos on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, you can get instant feedback from your users via their comments, likes, dislikes, and shares.
Listen to the feedback they give and use any insights to optimize your videos.
Conclusion
When trying promoted videos for generating more sales, you should try a variety of platforms one by one.
That way, you’ll be able to identify which platforms produce the best ROI for your promoted video campaigns without needing to invest in complex attribution modeling.
Also, don’t think you need the most high-definition production equipment or the best creative agencies to produce the video content for promoting your products. Audiences crave for authentic content the most—so focus on that.
Remember, you’re competing against your own benchmarks, as there are no industry standards here.
Dive in, try different things, listen to your viewers, and—perhaps—have a little fun along the way.
Have you tried promoting videos on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other platforms? Share your experience in the comments!
The post How to Use Promoted Videos to Generate More E-commerce Sales appeared first on Neil Patel.
How to Use Hashtags on YouTube
Hashtags for YouTube have evolved over the past several years. It’s now easier for content creators to classify their videos and make them more discoverable, and it’s simpler for viewers to find the content they want.
We’re going to explore what hashtags for YouTube are, why you should use them, and how to find the best ones to help your videos appeal to the right audience.
What Are Hashtags for YouTube?
As with hashtags for other social media platforms, hashtags for YouTube are words or phrases with a hash mark, also known as a pound sign, in front of them. You’ll see these hashtags in three places:
- above the video title
- within the video title
- within the video description
As with hashtags on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, hashtags on YouTube inform viewers of the video’s topic.
How Do YouTube Hashtags Work?
A hashtag acts as a hyperlink.
Instead of taking you to a specific website, hashtags on YouTube take you to a search results page, showing you all of the videos with that hashtag.
How to Add YouTube Hashtags
When you upload a video, you have the option of adding hashtags to the title or description. You can also add hashtags to the video itself during the editing process.
If you add hashtags to the video description or within the video, YouTube will display them above the video title in its search results.
Remember, adding a hashtag to the title isn’t enough to increase views. You still need to write excellent video titles that will grab users’ attention.
How to Track YouTube Hashtag Performance
Go into YouTube Analytics, click on Traffic Sources, then YouTube Search. This will display which hashtags you’re using, and which have the most views.
How Viewers Use YouTube Hashtags
Viewers can search for videos on a particular topic by using hashtags in two ways:
- enter a hashtag in the search bar
- click on an existing hashtag
With either search method, the viewer sees a list of videos with the same hashtag in the search results.
Let’s say you want to make sourdough bread. Before you try out a recipe, you want to see how sourdough is made. You go to YouTube and type #sourdough into the search bar. Dozens of results pop up. These videos are using that hashtag or phrase in their video information (the title, description, etc). The YouTube algorithm shows videos in search results based on a user’s past views, video performance, engagement, etc.
Why Do YouTube Hashtags Matter?
Three reasons: the importance of YouTube and the popularity and effectiveness of hashtags.
YouTube is one of the most visited sites on the internet, with over a billion users. Millions of people use it to upload and consume content every day. It’s also a powerful search engine in its own right. When people are looking for a video, they go to YouTube first.
Hashtags also allow you to classify content, thanks to their prevalence on other social media platforms. They’re also practical. When you add a hashtag to your video, you give viewers a fast and easy way to categorize your video.
Using relevant hashtags also makes it easier for viewers to find your video, increase brand awareness, drive visitors to your website, and encourage conversions.
Hashtags Can Increase Video Views
I’ve already mentioned that hashtags make videos easier to find, but they can also increase your video views in two ways:
- Your video comes up when people search for that hashtag.
- People click on the hashtag when they watch a related video.
Say you put up a video about a topic such as “digital marketing.” During the upload process, you tag the video with #digitalmarketing, like this video:
A day or two later, a viewer watches someone else’s video about increasing conversions on their website. The video they watch is also tagged #digitalmarketing. They click the link, and a list of videos with that hashtag comes up, including yours.
How to Find the Best Hashtags for YouTube
Relevant hashtags are the key to being found on YouTube. How do you know which ones are the most relevant to users’ searches? How do you choose from the hundreds of possibilities?
Search on YouTube
Start by doing some research. Think about the topics you cover. Do hashtags exist for those topics? Once you’ve identified the possibilities, search for them on YouTube. This search will produce old and recent results.
Find the latest videos with your chosen hashtag by filtering your search. Set the upload filter to “this month,” or “this week.” Once you’ve narrowed your search, note the videos with the most views. What hashtags are they using in addition to the one you just searched for?
You can also find relevant hashtags for YouTube by looking at your competitor’s most popular videos. Using the same hashtags as those videos may give you a boost in viewership.
Use a Hashtag Generator
If you’re unsure which tags are most relevant to your video, use a hashtag generator for ideas.
A hashtag generator is an internet-based tool that helps creators find the right hashtags for YouTube. Type in your video topic and the generator provides a list of possibilities.
You’ll find dozens of free hashtag generators online, including:
Create a Branded Hashtag
As the term suggests, a branded hashtag features your brand’s name within the hashtag—for example, #NeilPatel.
The most significant benefit of a branded hashtag is that when people click on it, they see only videos you’ve uploaded. Videos from your competitors won’t come up—provided none of your competitors have used your branded hashtag on their videos.
Be aware that any other YouTuber may use your branded hashtag in a video that criticizes your brand, or in a video that isn’t consistent with your brand’s image or values. There’s no copyright protection for hashtags, as I discuss below.
Use Location-Based Hashtags
Is your audience location-specific? You can use hashtags to target them.
With location hashtags, it’s essential to be specific. While you may think of London as England’s capital, 28 other cities worldwide share the name. If you’re in London, Ontario, and post a video about the eight best restaurants in the city, use #LondonOntario to help local viewers find your video.
What You Need to Know About Hashtags for YouTube
Keep these five points in mind when using hashtags on your videos.
Hashtags Aren’t a Guarantee of YouTube Success
YouTube makes it very clear that hashtags “… are not promises or guarantees for success.”
It’s not enough just to add some hashtags to your video’s description or title. You must also be aware of YouTube’s hashtag rules and community guidelines.
YouTube Imposes Rules for Hashtags
The primary rule of YouTube video hashtags is only to use hashtags related to your video’s topic.
To increase views, you might think it’s a good idea to add a hashtag related to a trending topic, even if it’s unrelated to your video. It’s not. You’ll just turn off viewers, who may report you to YouTube. Their reports could lead to the removal of your video.
Another thing to remember is that a little goes a long way. Stuffing the description section of your video isn’t going to win more views. On the contrary, YouTube will ignore any post with more than 15 hashtags.
Instead of using as many hashtags as possible, stick to three or four hashtags relevant to your topic. Consider trying the ones your competitors are using in similar, high-performing videos if it’s a related phrase to your video.
Also, type your hashtags correctly, with no spaces between the words. It might sound like something small, but if you’re typing quickly, you can make mistakes. If the hashtag is incorrect, you won’t get in search results for the correct version.
Follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines
Like other social media sites, YouTube has community guidelines to protect its users. These guidelines apply to all of the content on its platform, including video hashtags.
There are four main groups of policies:
- spam and deceptive practices
- sensitive content
- violent or dangerous content
- regulated goods
Following these guidelines for hashtags will prevent your video from being removed and you from being kicked off the platform.
Hashtags May Affect Audience Retention
Earlier in the article, I talked about how a hashtag may drive viewers to your video. If someone watches a video from another content creator with the same hashtag, the viewer may click the hashtag and be directed away from that video.
You may experience the same problem. A curious viewer might look for related content by clicking the hashtag attached to your video. This action lowers your audience retention.
To combat this issue, use branded hashtags to ensure viewers find your content, and try to use related applicable hashtags across multiple videos, so yours continue to come up in results.
You Can’t Own a Hashtag
Creating a hashtag doesn’t give you ownership. Yes, you can apply to trademark hashtags, but approval isn’t a given. Rules about trademarking hashtags vary from country to country, so check your jurisdiction.
Even if you do trademark a hashtag, you can’t expect to have exclusive use of it. There’s nothing to stop other YouTube creators from using hashtags you’ve created—even if they’re trademarked. McDonald’s found this out in 2012 when a hashtag they created for Twitter backfired.
Conclusion
Hashtags for YouTube can be a free, low-effort way to drive more viewers to your videos. You’ll increase your chances of success by researching the right keywords, following YouTube optimization, and tracking hashtag performance to ensure you’re using the right ones.
Experiment with the type and quantity of hashtags to determine if they affect your youtube video analytics.
Which hashtags will you use to increase viewers?
The post How to Use Hashtags on YouTube appeared first on Neil Patel.
The Ultimate Guide to B2B Local SEO
Is your company tapping into its local customers through B2B local SEO?
Although business-to-consumer (B2C) brands often leverage local marketing, business-to-business (B2B) ones tend to take a broader approach.
B2B brands without storefronts are even more likely to have their local marketing strategies slip through the cracks.
That said, there are enormous opportunities for B2B companies to tap into the local market’s power.
46% of all Google searches are local, so if you’re not targeting people in your area, you may be missing nearly half of your potential consumers.
Consumers regularly search online reviews and research businesses in which they’re interested. This trend continues to grow—a BrightLocal study showed 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year, with 33% looking every day.
Are you wondering how to attract local customers? The answer is deceptively simple: optimize your local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Let’s dive into critical areas and explore the best ways to enhance your B2B local SEO strategy.
What is B2B Local SEO?
B2B local SEO is about improving your online search visibility for nearby customers in your physical service area.
There are several ways in which local SEO varies from traditional SEO. Several ranking factors can move the needle in different ways.
Some of these include a searcher’s location, your Google My Business listing, online reviews, your website’s mobile optimization, and more.
Begin the process with a B2B local SEO audit. This will help you define which areas need enhancement.
When done right, local search engine optimization will help your website rank higher for specific, relevant searches.
When you rank higher, you become more visible to searchers. Higher visibility in local searches often leads to more sales, leads, conversions, and revenue.
Create and Optimize Business Listings
Once your audit is complete, you can focus on tactics to take your B2B local SEO presence to the next level.
Start the process of optimizing your business for B2B local SEO by getting everything squared away with Google.
First, audit your Google My Business listing. There are several guidelines for representing your business on Google.
Most importantly, to get a Google My Business profile, your company must engage with customers—in person. This means you need a physical address, not a P.O. box or virtual office address. Businesses that travel to customers may also qualify.
This may make it seem like only B2C companies qualify. But, this isn’t necessarily true. Google has an array of categories, and many apply to B2B brands.
Major categories include food establishments, attractions, professional services, personal services, entertainment, retailers, transportation, and more. If you provide any services to companies, your B2C is likely eligible for Google My Business.
The way you represent your business on Google should be consistent with how you showcase your business to the world.
Ensuring all the information on your Google My Business page is accurate is also critical to local SEO for B2B marketing.
When someone searches for your business, if your Google My Business is set up correctly, your listing appears in a box on the right side of Google’s search results.
It contains all the basics about your business, along with reviews. If you don’t fill out your address, phone number, website, and hours, local customers won’t find you as easily.
Then, there are the results that appear at the top of a Google search when someone searches for something more general, like “printing services in Las Vegas.”
Ahrefs refers to these as “snack pack” results.
The “snack pack” box displays the top local business listings most relevant to the search, along with a map showing where each is located.
Google’s customer reviews are also vital. They help increase transparency and establish trust in your brand. You can also gain a lot of insights into your customers’ perceptions through them.
Both positive and negative feedback can tell you a great deal about how your business is faring in the “real world.” Use these reviews to improve your business.
Content Marketing and B2B Local SEO
Creating content is a great way to optimize for B2B local SEO. You want people to find you quickly, and there are many ways to get your business on page one of Google fast.
Perhaps most importantly, you need to use specific keywords related to your industry, products, and area of expertise.
When people search for those terms, your website is more likely to show up if you included them.
Your homepage should clearly illustrate your business. Your “About” and “Contact Us” pages should also feature details your customers may want to know.
This goes for both front- and back-end content. Your title tags, header tags, and meta descriptions should also contain vital information about the business.
Conduct keyword research and determine which ones make the most sense for your business.
The keywords should be contextually relevant and make sense for the audience you’re targeting. In other words, quality matters over quantity.
Ensuring your keywords fit from a regional perspective is also important for b2b local SEO.
While using broad keywords may drive traffic, those visiting may not be the most suitable leads based on location.
This is where strategizing for local customers comes into play.
By integrating region-specific keywords—like city or landmark names—into your content, you’ll be better able to connect with the relevant audience in your area.
Think about how you can give value to this audience in particular. What might they, specifically, be searching for? Create content answering the questions they commonly ask.
Create such content in either written or video form—or a mix of both. Video content is becoming more expected by audiences.
Research by Valasys Media suggests visual storytelling may benefit B2B marketers because:
- It simplifies content for the users.
- It conveys lots of information quickly.
- It strikes a more emotional chord with prospects.
- It improves personalization and invokes a perceived “personal value.”
- It’s often timeless.
Take your region into consideration when creating your stories. How wide should you cast your net? Are you targeting a city or a whole state?
Additionally, research the most effective local base to target for the best ROI.
Link Building and B2B Local SEO
Link building is another pillar of local content marketing strategy. We touched upon link categories before, and they come into play with link building.
If possible, garner links back to your website and digital assets from a variety of local sources.
These may include local directories, industry-related sites, partner sites, chambers of commerce and other organizations, and newspapers’ sites.
A great way to have other sites link to you is to create and promote a useful resource. For example, say you’re a local medical clinic that provides flu shots to businesses, and flu season is approaching. You could create a guide about the best ways to avoid the flu at the office.
This type of guide is something from which anyone can learn, and it’d be beneficial for other sites to feature it.
Many chambers of commerce websites also have areas where local businesses can promote offers.
For example, the Newport Chamber of Commerce has a specials page where various B2B brands like office space and printing services offer deals.
Mobile Marketing and B2B Local SEO
Mobile marketing is a critical aspect of B2B local SEO, as 50% of B2B search queries are from mobile devices.
Since people have their phones with them all the time, they’re able to search more proactively than in the past.
Search Engine Journal compiled some fascinating stats on mobile search trends related to local SEO. Did you know 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one day? Or that 78% of local-based searches on a mobile device end in purchases made offline?
Keep these mobile trends in mind when boosting your local online presence. Make sure your website and landing pages are optimized for mobile devices.
Your digital strategy for B2B local SEO should also include social media, which is primarily accessed through mobile devices. Facebook and Instagram have local components that let you include instructions and allow customers to geo-tag your business when they post about it.
There are many ways people search for businesses on their smartphones. This is why having your Google My Business listing up to date is imperative.
Whether your customer is planning in advance or already on the way, you want to make sure to reach them wherever they are.
The Benefits of B2B Local SEO
Why is b2b local SEO important? Because you have a greater potential of driving in-person traffic to your business when you target your local audience.
For a relatively low-cost, you can draw in people who are searching for your type of business.
Diversifying your online presence across various channels has further benefits as well. Many third-party websites and platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other similar directory-like sites are becoming more advanced.
They also have their own audiences, who wouldn’t find you as easily if those directories are their go-to search options.
In addition to maximizing your presence on Google and other websites, optimize your website for local search.
For example, if you’re a dog groomer in San Diego, integrate keywords like “dog groomer in San Diego” so you have specifically mentioned your location.
When people in your region are conducting local searches for “dog groomers near me,” you’ll rank for those, too—but only if Google knows where you’re located.
The key to ranking for “[your term] near me” is to start by Googling that specific phrase or your local-specific phrase that you want to rank for.
When you do that, you’ll be able to see all the localized sites from which Google is pulling. Make sure you’re listed there—if you’re not, you need to figure out why. Have you made your location clear?
If you live in Boston, for instance, there are many suburbs, landmarks, etc. On your website, list different nearby features like these. It could also be beneficial to include directions to your business from those specific places.
Ensure you also have a localized number and not just an 800 number, so people know you’re really there.
Furthermore, when people look for a specific service, they’ll often visit various touchpoints.
For instance, they may land on your website and then go to Yelp to read reviews. This is why having a listing there is essential.
After providing services, ask customers to leave reviews.
Conclusion
Local businesses can hugely benefit from strategic SEO plans.
Think about how many people use their mobile devices to search for local businesses.
There are many ways to get your business found online, from keyword optimization to link building tactics and local listings.
Which b2b local SEO tactics have been most fruitful for your B2B business?
The post The Ultimate Guide to B2B Local SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
The Entrepreneur’s Guide of Outsourcing Work Without Losing Quality
No matter what industry you’re in, there’s always more work than time to do it.
This means that there is always something lacking, always more work to be done, and new companies often fall behind their expectations and deadlines.
One of the most insidious parts is that it leads to massive stress. According to business coach Michael Hyatt, 45% of entrepreneurs are stressed.
So, what’s an overworked entrepreneur to do?
There are plenty of answers, and not everyone works for every type of entrepreneur. But the answer more and more business owners are turning to is a simple one: outsourcing.
Outsourcing is giving your work to someone else outside of your main business.
That could be through freelancing, or by hiring another firm (like a call center) to handle segments of your business.
You could even outsource by shipping a business process like manufacturing overseas.
For most small business owners, however, this simply means having someone outside the business do work.
But the inevitable question arises: how do you make sure the quality stays the same?
Other people outside your company don’t have the same understanding of your cultural values and the same drive to produce high-quality work, right?
Well, not so fast.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about outsourcing while avoiding mistakes that could cost you in quality.
But before we can cover specific strategies, you need to know why you want to outsource.
Understand Why You Want to Outsource
At the end of the day, the only reason you should outsource should be because you can make more money by outsourcing than by not outsourcing.
While it may sound exciting to outsource, it doesn’t make sense unless it makes financial sense.
In the same way, outsourcing isn’t a method to do more nonessential tasks. Use outsourcing as a tool to drive sales and revenue.
That said, it helps to look at where you could improve your efficiency and revenue generation through outsourcing.
According to Wasp Barcode Technologies, the five biggest challenges facing small businesses center around employee management and profit.
They are hiring new employees, increasing profit, employee healthcare, growing revenue, and cash flow.
Any outsourcing you do should help you reach three of those goals (increasing profit, growing revenue, or increasing cash flow) while bypassing new employee hassles.
Here’s how to find out exactly what you can outsource and what you can’t.
Make a List of Common Tasks
I recommend taking a hard look at how you’re spending your time currently, and adjust based on what the data tells you.
To get started, I recommend you track your time with RescueTime. It’s a simple app that lives hidden on your computer and tracks your productivity.
After you’ve run it for a few months, find what tasks to outsource. To review where you’re spending your time, click on the RescueTime icon in the menu bar.
Select “Go to Dashboard…” from the menu.
On the dashboard, you’ll be presented with an overview of how you’ve spent your time.
Click on the upper right-hand corner option for Reports. Select Applications & Websites.
Choose the timeframe you’d like to view.
From this, you can see what areas required most of your time earlier.
Typically, the biggest areas are your core competencies. Unless you’re massively mismanaging your time, these are areas where you excel.
As you look toward other programs that take up your time, however, you’ll probably notice activities with a lower overall quality.
These are activities with diminishing returns. Typically, these are your best candidates for outsourcing.
Find Tasks You’re Not Very Good At
The second method to understanding opportunities for outsourcing is by looking at areas where you (or your current employees) don’t excel.
This provides you with huge benefits.
First, you’ll be able to have these tasks done by someone who is more adept at them.
This means you won’t have to worry about your employees messing up on a task they truly don’t understand very well.
Second, you’ll be able to achieve these tasks with an economy of scale.
If you need help with paid ads, for example, you can hire an agency to handle the design, implementation, and testing.
This is more cost-efficient than hiring all of these employees on a part-time basis, or expecting one full-time employee at your company to understand each of these skills.
Third, you’ll be able to focus on what’s most important.
At its heart, focusing on the core competencies of your business and delegating the rest is really what makes for a successful company.
Most of the time, this will be the biggest benefit of your outsourcing. By letting someone else handle your payroll or other tasks, you can dedicate more time to shipping a better product.
Focusing on core issues was the top reason for outsourcing, tied with reducing operation costs, according to Link Vista Digital.
So now that you know what to outsource, there are a few pitfalls you need to be wary of.
These are areas where you should actively seek to avoid outsourcing and hold them close to your main business.
What Not to Outsource
There is such a thing as too much outsourcing. If you start letting others handle the tasks where your company excels, you can lose ground.
If you can outsource everything, then your competitors are only a few freelancers away from beating you at your own game.
First, you should make sure something isn’t your core competency. While you may think this is your core business, a core competency isn’t necessarily in the products you produce.
There are plenty of authors who have ghostwriters write their books. But since they maintain the basic ideas and framework that makes the books successful, the model works for them.
The secret is really in your competitive advantage.
What sets you apart? What makes your product different than everything else out there? What passion, focus, or choices define your business?
The perfect example of this is Apple. While Apple outsources most of its manufacturing, the design is still done in-house.
Anybody can make a smartphone, but only Apple can make it look like an iPhone.
If you know something is not a core competency or part of your competitive advantage, there are two questions you need to ask.
First, is this just something I’m doing to save money?
Oftentimes, there are good reasons to outsource that involve money. But there are also times when the money is well spent.
If you’re considering outsourcing your customer service to save money, for example, you’ll likely grow in frustration.
Not every task is purely based on the money at stake, and you may actually lose money in the long-term by only focusing on money in the short-term.
Finally, you need to ask if this is just because you don’t like doing a task.
While it can be nice to think of outsourcing a project that you don’t want to do, this is often a mistake.
Critical parts of your company, like sales or hiring, are often the least fun parts of an entrepreneur’s job.
But if you outsource these, you’ll start to notice a difference in the company.
These are skills you’ll need to learn (or hire someone who can learn them), and outsourcing simply isn’t a long-term solution.
Now that you know what to outsource, let’s start with the first level of outsourcing.
How To Outsource Your Work With Software
Technically, this isn’t hiring another person to handle your tasks for you, but it’s a great way to reduce the workload.
There are tons of advantages to outsourcing with software. It’s usually much more affordable than an employee, and technology won’t take breaks or stop working (usually).
You should always look for a software solution before a human solution. Here are three areas to look for when you’re considering outsourcing to computers.
Automate
A surprising number of rote processes can be automated, including marketing and notification tasks.
If you noticed that you’re spending any period of time doing something over and over again on the computer, there’s a good chance you can switch these over to software.
The time saving to be gained is no small feat. 94% of marketers who automate say it has improved their company’s performance, according to MDG Advertising.
There are a handful of tools that can make your life simpler. For basic tasks, I recommend the free tool IFTTT.
IFTTT stands for If This, Then That. It handles basic integrations with your email program, Google Docs, and hundreds of other pieces of software.
It’s a great way to record your invoices, share posts across social media, or get a text notification if an important client emails you.
While most of the tasks it handles seem small, they can add up quickly and save you countless hours each week.
More advanced tasks call for a more advanced tool, and that’s where Zapier comes in.
Zapier is, at its heart, a more complex version of IFTTT. Unlike IFTTT, it’s not free, but the software functionality more than accounts for its price.
With Zapier, you can send bonuses to customers who email you, categorize and log customer feature request emails, and import new Stripe customers into your CRM.
If you spend a few weeks building frequent systems into Zapier, you can easily save an extra few hours or even a part-time position with automation.
But what is something truly require a human touch? Well, you might not be able to automate it, but you can probably shorten the time it takes to complete.
Shorten, Not Eliminate
Not every task has to be eliminated entirely for it to work at peak performance.
If you can use technology to shorten a task, it might transform it into something that doesn’t require outsourcing or another form of extra labor.
One of my favorite tools for this is TextExpander. This is a simple tool that will auto-expand snippets of text.
If you use a common header for your articles, for example, you can type a few keys and have it auto-populate the phrase.
It’s a lifesaver that can shave off weeks, one minute at a time.
For example, if you write a common response to your most popular emails, you can reduce your email time from an unwieldy two hours to a manageable thirty minutes.
This takes a task that would otherwise need to be outsourced to an expensive employee and allows you to handle it with just a fraction of your workday.
There are other ways to do this as well.
Becoming familiar with common keyboard shortcuts and time-saving apps can save plenty of time and make some outsourcing tasks not necessary at all.
But there’s one more reason you might want to use technology to help: managing the asynchronicity problem.
Solve The Asynchronicity Problem
At its simplest, the asynchronicity problem is that you can’t work all the time. There’s a simple issue with being in real-time and not being able to work in real-time (at least not all the time!)
To fix this, you can use technology that mimics real-time interaction without you needing to be on the other end of a keyboard.
The most common example of this is social media. Social media needs constant interaction, but it is impossible to be online all the time.
I recommend using marketing automation to save hours of work, while getting the same amount done.
There are a variety of tools that make this easier. One I recommend is Hootsuite, which will allow you to prepare social media updates in advance.
A more unique option is Edgar, which lets you schedule posts that continue even after your list of updates to send is empty by cycling through a library of content.
And finally, Buffer allows you to set up a queue of posts that you want to share on a variety of social media channels.
These tools allow you to work asynchronously with the time constraints you have. In other words, you can put in a set block of time and reap the results at other times later.
By batching these tasks, you may be able to reap the benefits without hiring a new employee.
Finally, you can work asynchronously on email as well. Using a tool like ContactMonkey, you can easily schedule emails to delay and send later.
This allows you to send new leads emails throughout the week without needing to schedule them each day.
But software has its limitations, and you may find that you need to outsource your tasks to humans to do more advanced work.
Here’s where to start:
Outsourcing Business Systems
Sometimes there are processes and systems your business needs that you simply shouldn’t handle on your own.
For example, every business needs to file taxes every year. But most small businesses choose to outsource this to an accounting firm or CPA.
Why?
Because this kind of specialized tax know-how is something a small business only needs a few times a year!
It’s much cheaper to hire out that part of the business rather than hiring a new employee who doesn’t have enough to do most of the year.
How to Decide Who to Use for Outsourcing Your Business Systems
For each of these, I recommend looking into an established firm.
The level of expertise for each of these areas is important and may even have legal requirements, so it’s important to choose a company you trust.
For these areas, you should not browse freelancers online. Instead, look carefully for a firm that meets your needs.
Depending on your situation, consider the following criterion.
- Local: If you’re a local business in need of constant communication, you should look for a company in the area. This is also applicable if you will need the firm to be physically present, whether it’s for setting up a new IT system or scanning last year’s tax documents.
- Expertise: Sometimes, your industry is so specialized, you need a firm that serves your specific needs. Companies that work with a niche, like HR management for tech startups, will be able to understand your unique needs best.
- Experience: This is a must for any company that deals with important information, like taxes or legal paperwork. Whatever firm you decide to use, look for a company that knows what they’re doing and has references and data to support their claims.
Finance & Accounting
The most common example of business outsourcing is finance and accounting, or F&A.
The problem isn’t just in the amount of time an in-house team has to dedicate to the work.
Larger accounting firms can afford software and resources that in-house employees will never have access to.
This lack of resources is a major struggle for teams with in-house F&A staff, according to Consero.
As a result, numerous small businesses outsource this kind of work.
While many pursue local options, like an accounting firm down the street or a CPA recommended by a friend, more and more businesses are using online services.
Timber Tax, for example, specializes in taxes for freelancers and consultants.
This specialization makes them a perfect fit for freelance entrepreneurs who may not have a specialized CPA in the area.
Human Resources
While it might seem crazy to outsource the management of the employees that make up your venture, human resources is quickly growing into a prominent outsourcing industry.
Outsourcing through HR service providers grew by 27% in 2016, and most HR service providers expect that growth to continue, according to Prism HR.
If you’re a small company without a large staff, this not seem like the right place to start.
As any large company can attest to, however, HR can be a massive expense in terms of both time and money. Consider outsourcing this to focus on the core of your business.
Information Technology
While businesses of the past usually relied on in-house IT personnel, today’s companies see the value in outsourcing this part of the puzzle.
Though it’s nice to have a full-time employee handling issues when they arise, it can be an extra unnecessary expense.
Currently, outsourced IT work like project-based and statement of work (SOW) tasks are now equal to staff increases for IT work, according to TekSystems.
If you haven’t already started outsourcing some of your IT needs, go ahead and begin now.
Legal
Few small businesses have the legal expertise in-house to handle the increasing number of requirements local and national laws demand.
For the more challenging parts of your business, consider hiring an outside attorney for legal advice and consulting.
Legal process outsourcing is on the rise in almost every subsector, according to Cogneesol.
This is one of the areas where experience and locality are critical.
Be sure to find a firm that is well-versed in the specifics of your local laws and has a track record of giving successful advice to businesses similar to yours.
Auxiliary Business Tasks
The best place to start with outsourcing is by letting someone else hand auxiliary business tasks.
These are tasks that are an integral part of your core business, but aren’t part of your competitive advantage.
While these don’t always have to be outsourced, it can be a wise idea to do so.
Repeatable Tasks
If you do something the same way every day, there’s a good chance you can find someone else who can do it for less, give it more focus, and improve your efficiency.
To calculate these tasks, I recommend calculating your wage per hour.
Estimate how much time you’re spending on your most important tasks, and whether or not you could hire someone for less than you’re effectively getting paid for those tasks.
Once you know what your least critical tasks are, and delegate as you see fit.
Simple projects like data entry, calculations, and formatting can be handled by others. To get this started, find a task you do often.
Then, create a screencast of the project. If you’re on a Mac, I recommend Tapes.
You can quickly create a screencast demonstrating the exact procedure.
Once you have the procedure recorded, have another person write it up. This is a document you can use as a resource moving forward.
With this process, the person you outsource the work to can complete tasks quickly and painlessly — and get them off your plate!
Consider this: 82% of companies that outsource data say it enhanced their overall management, according to Cogneesol.
Website Design and Maintenance
Unless you’re a website development firm, there’s really no reason to maintain your own website.
As mentioned earlier, this is something that another company can do for a better, more cost-effective measure and you can pay for with the economies of scale.
If you’ve already designed your own website, look to outsource this work next time you need to update.
Content Generation
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for outsourcing is through content generation. This is a great way to start with outsourcing, especially if this is a new area for you.
The most common outsourced content marketing activity is writing, with 44% of marketers using it.
As I’ve mentioned before, it takes tons of work to write and promote content that goes viral. Having an experienced writer or promoter do the heavy lifting can save you tons of time.
However, there’s still room to grow, with two-thirds of marketers outsourcing less than one-third of their content, according to Fronetics.
If you currently have someone creating content for you — or if you do it yourself — you can almost always find a ghostwriter to produce content for a fraction of the price.
Again, keep in mind your hourly wage and the value of your activities. Chances are, writing isn’t the most valuable thing you could be doing with your time.
For starters, you should consider outsourcing an editor to make you a more productive writer.
The secret to success with outsourcing your content is to have a few examples of premade content to explain what you’re looking for.
You also need a clear content plan that you’d like to produce.
But how do you make sure you don’t get stuck with a freelancer who is a total flop?
How to Land a Killer Freelancer Every Time
If you want to get a great freelancer for a specific job, there are a few steps you can take to make sure the person you hire does an excellent job.
Use this three-part framework to ensure that you get someone who is not only well-qualified for your work, but will do it at a fair price.
1. Research Your Price
Before you look to hire a freelancer, you need to have a budget in mind. Understand that while outsourcing is cheaper, you shouldn’t be looking for the cheapest option.
Software outsourcing, for example, costs a minimum of $70/hour in North America, according to Accelerance.
And while you can go as low as $20-40 and hour in Asia, you will sacrifice important benefits such as English language fluency and workday overlap.
Before you get started, do your research. Understand exactly what you should pay for the project you want done, and know what a fair price range is.
It’s also a good idea to make a list of what features are most important to you.
Do you need someone proficient in English? Is clean code important, or do you only care if the final software project works?
These are important questions to decide before you start receiving bids from freelancers.
2. Explain Your Project Fully
What a lot of entrepreneurs don’t realize is that the success of freelancers often depends on the project specifications they write.
A pitch for a job with a vague description may end up with a variety of quotes.
Choosing the lowest price may ultimately mean choosing the freelancer with the least amount of understanding of what the project entails.
Rather than undergo this kind of chaos, explain the precise deliverables for the project you’d like the freelancer to complete for you.
The primary site for hiring freelancers is Upwork, and I’ll show you how to write a detailed description on there.
If you’re using another platform, you can easily adapt these same principles.
To get started, sign up or log in to your Upwork account. Click on Post a New Job.
You’ll be presented with the Post a Job page. If you’ve posted before, you can reuse an old job. Otherwise, move to the next section.
Choose a category and subcategory. Make sure you get this right, as you might not attract the right kind of freelancers if you post in the wrong category!
Now it’s time to describe the job. This is where you need to be as specific and detailed as possible.
Give your project a simple and clear heading. In the description section, provide as many details as you can.
If possible, I recommend attaching files to demonstrate inspirations for the project, current designs you want to emulate, or other resources for the freelancer.
For Upwork to accurately select the right kinds of freelancers for the job you have, you need to select a few different parameters about the project.
If you’re just starting, I would recommend doing a small piece-meal project.
If something goes wrong, it’s better to have it happen on a $100 presentation design task than a $30,000 website development project.
Select one-time project and one freelancer. Enter any skills they might need to complete your project successfully.
Finally, list when the project starts.
Next, you need to decide your Rate and Availability. This is where your earlier price research will come in handy.
Choose how you’d like to pay and the experience level you’re looking for.
You’ll also select the time frame for the job. Again, for the short job type I recommend you start with, choose a short time range (one month to one week).
Decide who can find and apply to your job. I recommend the default option, though you may have higher quality results with just Upwork users.
Don’t select only freelancers you invite unless you already have done a few projects. It’s best to see who’s interested first.
The other questions are optional. If you feel they are important, you can specify preferred qualifications, screening questions, and a cover letter.
I haven’t found these necessary for small jobs, though.
Finally, click Post Job.
Once your post is live for a few hours, you’ll start to get freelancers bidding for your job.
This is where the fun begins!
3. Learn About the Freelancers Who Bid
Once you post a job, freelancers on Upwork will post bids based on your specifications. Before you choose a freelancer, you need to do your research on him or her.
Here’s a candidate who bid on one of my projects. I’ve clicked on his profile to see all of his details.
The three most important figures for me are his Job Success Score, work history, and languages.
Job Success Score is an indicator of the feedback a freelancer receives from previous clients. At 93%, Goran J. has a solid rating.
His work history tells me that he’s spent over 500 hours on Upwork with 76 jobs, which is a good amount to have a process and track record for solid work.
And finally, he’s fluent in English. This makes the communication process much easier, and he’ll understand any revisions I need to make.
If you want to dive deeper into customer feedback, you can review the Work History and Feedback section of the freelancer.
I prefer to sort by lowest rated, to see what issues (if any) are common complaints.
Since most freelancers offer revisions, you shouldn’t see many negative reviews. A slew of negative feedback usually means the freelancer wasn’t very accommodating to clients.
Thankfully, Goran J. has excellent feedback. The lowest rating he’s received was “no feedback given,” and the lowest recorded score was 4.30.
He’s a solid candidate based on previous experience.
Now that we know he’s qualified for the job, let’s make sure his work quality matches what clients have said.
Most freelancers on Upwork include a portfolio where you can review previous work.
Unlike a low Job Success Score or poor customer feedback, there’s no right or wrong answer with a portfolio.
You’re just making sure you like their style.
If you follow these steps to vetting the freelancers who apply for your job postings, you’re sure to get a killer job done each time.
How to Make Ongoing Outsourcing Projects Successful
When you first venture into the world of outsourcing, you might hear horror stories of ongoing freelancers who rack up massive bills, deliver work long past deadlines, or give up on a project halfway through.
This is easy to prevent for a quick foray into freelancing with a small task.
But what if you have a larger, ongoing project? How can you ensure quality work while still maintaining a fair price?
The answer is just as simple as landing a quality freelancer for a small project: there are a few key steps to ensure a perfect fit.
Invest More in the Outsourcing Selection Process
Since you’ll be working with someone for a longer period of time, it’s important that they are a good fit for your projects.
To do this, you’ll want to set up a more rigorous process for finding the right freelancers.
I recommend adding a random test question to your application to weed out anyone who won’t follow directions.
Requiring a unique subject line or another kind of “password” is a simple way to see who is willing to pay attention to small requests.
To get the right person, you also need to expand your entries. Have at least three people in your sights, then choose the one that works best for your project.
I recommend requiring a paid test project from at least three people. Yes, it can be expensive to pay multiple people for the same work, but think of it as an investment.
It’s better to find out early on that they aren’t able to handle a project before entrusting them with mission-critical work.
Finally, conduct a video chat interview with your shortlisted candidates. This ensures they can show up to an appointment and make sure you get along.
Communicate Regularly
Regular communication is vital to keeping your team aligned with the goals of your venture.
After having a video chat interview in the beginning, work to maintain this level of communication.
Make sure they jive with your process and can show up and be available. I use Skype for communication with my remote team.
Everyone seems to already know how to use it, and it’s simple to use.
Another tool helpful for work discussions with remote teams is Slack. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, it’s a messaging and chat app for working teams.
This is a great way to stay updated with the newest developments on the project and make sure each freelancer is on the same page as the rest of the company.
Share Documents and Monitor Progress
Last but not least, you need the ability to share documents easily.
This is especially important in content marketing, where edits can quickly become tiresome if you need to send documents back and forth.
I recommend Google Docs for this, as it makes it easy to communicate with my editor and collaborate.
Google Drive is helpful for maintaining large file collections. This is helpful if you have a queue for content marketing and need to prepare content in advance.
Google Drive allows you to create shared folders that everyone in your editorial team (writers, editors, publishers, etc.) can all review.
Finally, Dropbox is a powerful tool that allows you to share a variety of files, from templates to logos, with other members of your team.
It’s a great way to keep the branding on point and prevent a freelancer from accidentally use an old version of your logo.
Before you begin a large project, make sure you onboard everyone with the tools you’ll be using. Provide them with accounts and teach them how to use the tools if necessary.
With those basic precautions in place, you can go about with an ongoing project that’s guaranteed massive success.
Conclusion
If you’re an entrepreneur looking to get more done in less time, outsourcing is a solution you should consider.
While it doesn’t work for every situation, outsourcing the least vital parts of your work is a surefire way to increase your efficiency.
If you use the right techniques and do your research, you can ensure that your outsourced work has the same impact of the projects you finish yourself.
What techniques will you use to outsource without losing quality?
The post The Entrepreneur’s Guide of Outsourcing Work Without Losing Quality appeared first on Neil Patel.
The 6 Step Guide to Writing Listicle Content
Regardless of how you feel about listicles, you’ve probably read a number of them. Listicles help present a large amount of information in small, easy-to-scan, numbered sections.
List posts can cover all kinds of topics, from the more educational posts on HubSpot like “How to Create a Cinemagraph in 7 Easy Steps” to the clickbaity Buzzfeed lists like “23 People You Seriously Won’t Believe Actually Exist.”
In this article, I’ll guide you through six steps to create an effective list post.
I’ll also explain why these posts are so popular and why they are critical to a successful content marketing strategy.
What is a Listicle?
Simply put, it’s an article made up of a list of items or ideas.
Despite what you might think, Buzzfeed didn’t invent listicle content. It’s been around for centuries.
Sei Shonagon, an 11th-century Japanese poet and lady-in-waiting, is believed to have penned the first listicle, which included gems like her list of “Rare things” such as “Two people living together who continue to be overawed by each other’s excellence.”
That being said, Buzzfeed has indeed popularized listicles as online content.
For content creators and marketers, listicles are a convenient way of presenting information in bite-size portions. Producing the content becomes a bit easier, and consuming it more enjoyable.
Why are Listicles So Popular?
Imagine coming across the following two topics during a Google search:
- 11 Effective Email Marketing Tips
- How to Do Email Marketing
Which of the two are you more likely to click? The first one, right? By specifying a fixed number of tips, the first topic promises easy-to-skim content.
With the average human attention span down to about eight seconds, it’s harder to pay attention to one thing for very long. An article that allows readers to skim is far more appealing.
From the first title above, readers also know what to expect within the article. They know there are just 11 tips, while the other one might be five tips or 50 pages of how to write, launch, and optimize their email marketing.
Listicle content structure, on the other hand, is quite simple. Typically there’s an introduction, a list of ideas, and a conclusion. This makes listicle production relatively easy compared to other types of posts.
Listicles are also popular because they feed into our brain’s drive to categorize information and give us a sense of satisfaction when we correctly predict patterns.
Marketers love listicles because they get clicks. According to a recent study, 36% of readers prefer titles with numbers over any other title type.
How to Use Listicles in Your Content Marketing
Because listicles have had a poor reputation, you might be hesitant to use them in your content marketing strategy. The truth is, listicles can be as helpful and informative as prose, provided the content is high quality.
For example, I created this listicle about how to use TikTok in marketing. It is in a listicle format, but still offers valuable information marketers can use to drive traffic and increase brand awareness.
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain readers. Listicles can help you achieve this goal and build an effective content marketing strategy.
Here are a few ways to leverage listicles’ power to drive clicks, traffic, and build brand awareness.
- Make a complex topic easy to understand by breaking it down into manageable parts, such as “Six Things Everyone Should Know About Quantum Physics.”
- Create a step-by-step guide about a topic. (Like I am doing here.)
- Share a unique angle about a popular topic, like “27 Awesome Ways of Repurposing Content,” which goes beyond the standard advice of turning a blog post into a podcast or create an ebook out of several listicles.
- Compare tools or suggestions, such as “10 Online Marketing Tools You Need When Starting a Business.”
Listicles can also be used as lead magnets to grow your email list, to share expert advice, or as a way to expand your brand’s social media presence.
How to Write a Listicle in 6 Steps
Now that you understand the power of listicles, let’s cover how to write an effective one that will drive traffic.
1. Pick the Right Listicle Topic
This is crucial. If the topic you pick doesn’t fit a list format, it won’t earn as many clicks.
Some topics naturally fit into a list. For example, how-to guides can be broken down into distinct steps:
Blog posts consisting of a list of examples make great listicles:
What if your content is a narrative? Can you produce a listicle from that?
You’d have to be pretty creative to write a narrative as a listicle since it doesn’t lend itself to that style of writing. That said, it’s not impossible.
Take this article “Long read: The World’s Most Successful Alliance — 70 years of freedom.” It tells the story of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by listing “… the 9 biggest moments in NATO’s history.”
Another way to determine whether your topic can be a listicle is by doing a simple Google search of your target keyword.
Suppose a number of the high-ranking articles for your keyword are listicles. In that case, it’s a good indication that searchers expect or prefer a list format to tackle the topic:
Another good place to look is your own Google Analytics data. If you see that a specific topic gets a ton of traffic, then it might do well as a listicle if you can easily simplify the content.
For example, I know that the listicle topic gets 6,600 searches a month, according to Ubersuggest. Since it’s already a popular topic, it might be a great choice to create a listicle around.
2. Do Your Keyword Research
If the reason you’re so keen on creating a listicle is to boost your content marketing, keyword research has to be on your to-do list.
Keywords are the terms searchers type into a search engine to get information on a particular topic. They’re also the words Google and other search engines use to identify your blog post’s or web page’s focus.
When you optimize your content for particular keywords, your page is more likely to rank and appear as an option when people search for those terms.
You can use free tools to do keyword research such as Google Keyword Planner or my own Ubersuggest.
While you’re at it, look out for long-tail keywords, because listicles are perfect for targeting these valuable terms.
3. Outline Your Listicle Content Points
So far, you’ve chosen your topic and target keyword. Now let’s get into the listicle content.
Start by checking out your competition. You’ll most likely notice a few common topics. Look for any weaknesses or gaps in your competitors’ content.
For example, while creating this listicle, I took a look at what’s already been written about listicles:
There are tons of articles about how to write a listicle, but only one in the search results above is a listicle itself, and we already know that listicles get more clicks. That means there’s an opportunity for me to create better content than what everyone else has already published.
Next, brainstorm and jot down any points you think would be relevant to your listicle. Then go through all the points you’ve written down. If they would be presented best in a particular order, organize them accordingly, and merge any redundant points. Split up any items that may be too weighty for just one point and try to make them multiple points.
Look at “People also ask” questions in Google. These are questions that people commonly search about the same topic. They’re an easy way to make sure you’re covering the topic thoroughly.
Flesh out each post by adding examples that show why each item in your numbered list was included or how to do it if you are creating a step-by-step guide. For example, this listicle on HelloBar about lead magnets provides an example of different lead magnets and talks about why they work.
As you write your content, link to more in-depth information when necessary, but make sure you don’t link to posts trying to rank for the same keywords. This creates more informative content without making your article too long.
4. Number the List Items
You don’t have to use lists to create a listicle, but it creates a better user experience. As readers go through the article, moving down the numbered list creates a sense of progress. There’s also a feeling of accomplishment, which motivates readers to keep reading. It also makes sense to number the items if you use a number in the post title.
For lengthy list posts, numbers can make it easier for readers to keep track of their progress. They can even stop reading and easily pick up later where they left off.
Numbering is also helpful when someone wants to share or reference specific points. It’s easier to refer to a particular number rather than describing a section in the article.
How many points should you use though? A round number like 10 is easy to remember, but odd numbers are more eye-catching and tend to pique the reader’s interest.
The reality is, there’s no right or wrong number to include in your listicle; it depends on the topic and your competition.
If all the other posts are 10 points long, it might be good to have even more, like 25 or even 30. On the other hand, if most other listicles in your niche are really long, a short, snappy post might do well.
Whatever route you go, aim to grab readers’ attention by standing out.
5. Add Interesting Images
It’s challenging to sustain readers’ attention with just a wall of text, numbered or not. Images make your content more visually stimulating, making them an essential ingredient in successful listicles. They improve the posts’ readability and help to increase traffic.
Images or gifs capture readers’ attention in a way plain text can’t. For example, people follow instructions that include images 323% better than written words alone. Articles with relevant images get 94% more views than those without images.
Buzzfeed makes excellent use of this tactic. Most of their posts include numerous images. You just can’t help but scroll on to view one after the other.
Ensure the images you select are relevant to the post. Filling your posts with unnecessary images adds no value and may result in a higher bounce rate.
When choosing images to add to your listicle, custom photos are ideal. For example, if your article involves reviewing products, you can include pictures of those products. This Digital Trends article about the best desktop computers includes custom images of the computers, which establishes trust in the content because it shows they’ve actually tried the computers.
If custom photos aren’t possible, you can find free images online on Pixabay, Unsplash, and Flickr, among others.
6. Avoid Listicle Content Clickbait Titles That Don’t Deliver
I know this may seem contradictory since I wrote another post about creating clickbait headlines. Before you pounce on my controversial statement, let’s make this clear: clickbait isn’t inherently bad.
Crappy titles that promise but don’t deliver will drive users away. Intriguing titles that pique curiosity and drive clicks are powerful.
Does your listicle’s title promise something you don’t deliver in the body of the article? Are the claims in the headline unrealistic or untrue?
If the honest answer to either of these questions is “yes,” your title is most likely the decried clickbait headline, and you may want to avoid it. Listicles have a bad reputation for being clickbait.
Sensational titles may mislead readers, spoil your blog’s reputation, and hurt your content marketing in the long run. Great headlines that deliver what they promise can effectively attract readers.
On average, eight out of ten people will read your title, but only two will read the rest of your copy. This statistic proves the importance of headlines in converting page browsers to readers.
Conclusion
New content marketing strategies crop up every day. The only constant is high-quality content. Smart digital marketers understand the importance of high-quality content that’s optimized for search engines and valuable to readers.
No matter the format, great content can help generate search traffic and leads. List posts can offer the best of both worlds: easy-to-write structure and quality content that turns browsers into readers.
Have you written any listicles recently? Do you take any other steps to produce list posts?
The post The 6 Step Guide to Writing Listicle Content appeared first on Neil Patel.
The Top 10 Marketing Certifications That are Worth the Money
When it comes to digital marketing, knowledge is power.
Marketers with industry experience know how to develop a paid social media strategy, which keywords to choose, and how to write magnetic content that converts.
To everyone else, these people must seem superhuman! But…I know their secret.
The truth is these marketers aren’t lucky or gifted. Most successful marketers have been through years of trial and error.
But maybe you don’t have years. Perhaps you want to start seeing results now.
Or maybe you’re having a hard time proving your marketing know-how to clients and employers. After all, it can be challenging to stand out in a field as competitive as digital marketing.
That’s where marketing certifications come in.
Years ago, I said certifications didn’t matter. Back then, it was true. But as time went on, marketing certifications have evolved and may be an excellent opportunity for many.
They became more specialized and solution-oriented—basically, they’re just more valuable. These days, I’d say there’s a place for marketing certifications on your resume, especially if you’re just getting started.
But it’s not just that the certification lessons offer insight and value. Marketing certifications can also validate your existing knowledge.
Unfortunately, there are still lots of useless marketing certifications available. How are you supposed to know which to get?
I did the hard work for you, going through dozens of marketing certification programs and dug into data to find the ten certifications worth getting.
Sound good? Great, let’s dive in.
Digital Marketing Institute’s Digital Marketing Pro
This certification is a two-for-one. When you complete your Digital Marketing Pro course, you’ll walk away certified by both the Digital Marketing Institute and the American Marketing Association.
But the real question is: What lessons are you learning, and how can you apply them to your work?
Well, let’s go through the syllabus! The certification requires ten courses, starting with an intro to digital marketing and wrapping up with an advanced digital marketing strategy class.
Once you’ve learned the basics of digital marketing (principles, research methods, consumer psychology, etc.), you can start to explore the more challenging subjects:
- What are the building blocks of a successful content marketing strategy?
- How frequently should you be publishing content?
- Should you focus on creating content or curating content?
This program covers everything from social media marketing to website optimization. It might not fit everyone’s budget, but it’s a certification that’s worth considering.
- DMI Expert (Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing): $3,787
- Digital Marketing Pro (DMI x AMA Dual Certification): $1,368*
- DMI Master (Certified Digital Marketing Master): $11,515
*This is the one we focused on for the information above.
Microsoft Advertising Certification
When it comes to marketing certifications, many tend to go with what’s well-known. But in reality, the best marketing advances often happen when you think outside the box.
That’s why I recommend you look into becoming a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional. For starters, it’s completely free. The program helps you make the most of your advertising dollars and optimize your ad campaigns.
Plus, once you’ve completed certification, you’ll be placed in the member directory, so potential employers can quickly confirm your certification status. You may even catch a marketing director’s eye as they scan the directory!
This certification is a great stepping stone for anyone getting started in the marketing world.
Cost: Free!
Google Analytics Individual Qualification
The Google Analytics Individual Qualification is highly specialized.
Google Analytics should be in every marketer’s tool belt. A well-trained digital marketing expert can use Google Analytics to identify any given ad strategy’s strengths and weaknesses quickly.
Armed with a strong understanding of Google Analytics, you’ll be one step closer to building effective digital marketing campaigns.
What’s it going to take to get certified?
The exam is 90-minutes long and takes place in a single session. Like most certifications on this list, you need a minimum score of 80% to pass. If you fail, you need to wait a week before trying again.
Lucky for you, you’ll have access to plenty of study materials, courtesy of Google.
Their Google Analytics for Beginners and Advanced Google Analytics courses might seem simple at first glance, but they contain vital information that you’ll need daily as a marketer.
An absolute must, and all it’ll cost you is your time and attention.
Cost: Free!
OMCP Digital Marketing Certification
If you’ve never heard of the Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP) Certification, that’s not surprising. It’s a pretty advanced certification and not for anyone brand new to the digital marketing world.
If you want to earn an OMCP Digital Marketing certification, you need to fully demonstrate your digital marketing know-how.
While there are no official prerequisites to the OMCP exams, there are a few criteria you need to meet if you want to be certified. Right off the bat, you’re going to need lots of experience.
Not only do you need passing scores on your OMCP exams, but you’ll also need to meet at least one of these three requirements:
- 5000 hours of experience
- A post-secondary degree with 2000 hours of experience
- Completion of an approved digital marketing course with 1000 hours of experience
Once you pass your exam, you can request your certification and confirm your certification status.
So, what will you learn? You’ll start by learning the ins and outs of content marketing, how to optimize your conversion rate, and all about email marketing strategies. Then, the courses cover mobile marketing and paid search.
The course wraps up with an in-depth look at SEO, social media marketing, and general digital analysis.
The course might be demanding, but with an increased earnings potential of up to 26%, it’s no wonder that this course is in high demand.
Cost:
- OCMA: $225
- OCMP: $395*
*This is the exam we focused on in this section.
Hootsuite Academy Marketing Certification
The best part about this is you can use Hootsuite Academy as a tool to identify your digital marketing weaknesses—and strengthen them.
If you already know what you’re doing in the marketing world but you’re looking for more guidance on using Hootsuite’s program, there’s a course for that.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more in-depth program that tackles major social media marketing problems, they have a course for that too.
They even have highly specialized marketing courses for those who work in fields like healthcare or social advocacy.
My advice? Go through your resume and see what skills you need to develop. Take advantage of Hootsuite’s courses by spending some time and money to make yourself a stronger online marketer.
Cost: They have nine certifications available, ranging from $99 to $999.
Google Ads Marketing Certification
Google Analytics and Google Ads are two sides of the same coin. The more familiar you are with Google tools, the less likely you are to make marketing mistakes.
Google Ads can make or break your marketing strategy, which is why studying it is an absolute must if you’re just getting started.
Even if you’ve already run a few campaigns, it’s worth taking five or so hours to earn this certification.
The course helps shine some light on the more complicated Google Ads topics. If you’re not clear on the value proposition of digital advertising, building a campaign from scratch, or measuring metrics, this is the course you need.
Cost: Free!
YouTube Certified
It’s surprising how rarely this certification comes up—YouTube is a big deal in the marketing world.
Whenever marketers talk about certifications, they tend to focus on courses that cover the basics of navigating the digital marketing ecosystem.
But sometimes, that’s not really what you need.
Sometimes, you need a course that helps you understand what’s under the hood of a particular tool.
I can’t think of a course that’s more undervalued than the YouTube certification.
What makes video marketing so powerful is how compelling it can be. And learning the tips and tricks to creating engaging visual content is definitely worth the time.
YouTube Certification is all about taking the building blocks of digital marketing and applying them to the YouTube platform.
With courses like channel growth, content ownership, and asset monetization, they’re focused on teaching you how to make compelling content that converts visitors into buyers.
Cost: Free!
HubSpot Content Marketing Certification
If you’re serious about developing your content marketing skills, completing this program should be high on your to-do list.
The HubSpot Content Marketing Certification includes 12 courses, helping you build a strong content marketing foundation before teaching you how to create an exceptional content catalog.
What makes HubSpot unique is it helps you understand the value of storytelling and how to build a content creation framework properly.
They cover everything from how to build a guest blogging strategy to how to promote your content.
I’d highly recommend this to someone who just started a new blog or wants to grow an existing one.
Cost: Free!
Facebook BluePrint Marketing Certification
Facebook’s massive reach makes it irresistible to digital marketers. But the truth is, most don’t understand what makes a Facebook ads campaign work.
Usually, digital marketers use the same tactics they apply to Google Ads and call it a day.
But Facebook is its own world, and it’s essential to understand the lay of the land if you want to generate traffic and conversions.
Facebook offers two unique certifications: the Facebook Certified Planning Professional and the Facebook Certified Buying Professional.
Before you can become a Facebook Certified Planning Professional, you need to demonstrate you understand how to plan successful campaigns, target the right audiences for maximum impact, and maximize your reach.
If you want to be a Facebook Certified Buying Professional, you need to learn to manage Pages, understand Facebook Pixel, and generate compelling Facebook Ads.
Cost: $150 per certification
SEMrush SEO Toolkit Course
If search engines can’t see your business, it might as well not exist. If SEO keeps search engines like Google happy, why wouldn’t you want to make time for SEO?
My guess is there are plenty of marketers who are intimidated by SEO. It’s often a lot harder to wrap your head around SEO than content marketing or social media marketing.
Fortunately, SEMrush is here to help you out.
Their SEO Toolkit Course is a deep dive into the world of SEO and only takes about three hours to complete.
Once you pass their exam, you’ll be ready to handle keyword research, metric measurement, and campaign building.
Cost: Free!
Conclusion
Digital marketing changes every day. The platforms and tactics that worked just a few years ago don’t work as well today.
As a digital marketer, your job is to stay on the cutting edge. In an industry that moves this quickly, that can be pretty daunting.
That’s why courses like these can be so useful. They’re short and inexpensive enough that you don’t need to quit your day job and take out a loan. But they’re also thorough enough that you should walk away with valuable insights.
Have you found success with any of these certifications? Are there others you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments!
The post The Top 10 Marketing Certifications That are Worth the Money appeared first on Neil Patel.
A Complete Guide to AI Digital Assistants for Marketers
If you aren’t willing to embrace AI digital assistants as a marketer, you’re going to have a tough time competing with everyone else.
While you’re drowning in the tsunami of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, your competition will swim laps around you.
What if you could:
- Spend more time in your zone of genius.
- Stop feeling overwhelmed by your workload.
- Boost your productivity by 80%.
- Create a personalized experience for your audience.
- Increase your ROI with only a few clicks of your mouse.
Just like Alexa brings you the best jams on-demand and Siri helps you find the nearest Starbucks, AI digital assistants can help you become a better marketer.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of AI digital assistants and the tools you can use to put your marketing tasks on autopilot.
But, to do that, we need to first look at what AI personal assistants really are.
What Are AI Digital Assistants?
You’ve probably already come into contact with Siri and Alexa, two of the world’s most famous AI personal assistants.
Maybe you’ve dabbled with a few more on your laptop, smartphone, or wearables without even realizing it.
AI digital assistants are software programs that help you complete and automate tasks with a tap, click, or voice command.
How do these programs understand and complete such complex tasks?
By using artificial intelligence like voice recognition and natural language processing (NLP) to understand requests and machine learning to collect data, identify patterns, and “learn” user preferences.
With the right digital assistant in your back pocket, you’ll have a secret marketing weapon tailored to your brand’s needs. You’re going to make better marketing decisions for your audience in seconds.
How AI Digital Assistants Are Shaping The Future of Work
Remember when millennials disrupted the way we work with remote work and telecommuting?
Well, artificial intelligence is doing the same thing.
The Salesforce State of Marketing Report noted that AI adoption with marketers is up by a whopping 186% from 2018, with 84% using AI technology.
And late adopters? You’re getting left behind.
“But what about our jobs?!” you cry.
“Won’t AI make us obsolete?” you ponder.
I’m here to tell you the truth — no.
A report published by ManpowerGroup found that 87% of employers anticipate increasing or maintaining their human workforce due to AI automation.
So what does it all mean?
Robots are creating MORE jobs, and AI digital assistants are not here to replace you.
If you no longer have to spend time finding relevant content to share with your audience or scrolling through countless Instagram profiles to find the “perfect” influencer for your next campaign, you get to focus on what you do best:
Creating, implementing, and fine-tuning your marketing strategy.
Plus, you’re going to have mountains of data to back up your decisions, which will get you better results, a higher ROI, and more sales.
The Benefits of Using AI Digital Assistants in Marketing
With 75% of marketers planning to implement AI in their businesses within the next three years, the big question is:
What’s all the fuss about?
Why should you care about using AI in your job as a marketer?
Here are just some of the benefits you can reap with an AI digital assistant:
Boost Your Productivity
What do you hate most about your job?
Is it those dull, repetitive tasks?
Or the hours spent hunched over data trying to make sense of it?
Delegate your most soul-draining, eye-roll-inducing tasks to your AI personal assistant and take back your time.
The best part? No complaining, recruiting, or training required.
With your repetitive tasks no longer on your calendar, you’ll have more time to focus on the bigger picture and tap into your creativity.
Automate Your Workflow and Growth with a Digital Assistant
The secret sauce to growing and running a successful business is automation.
Nearly 80% of executives agree that automation can save you 360 hours a year.
The more you can automate your business, the more you can focus on moving the needle forward.
The same goes for marketers.
When you can automate much of your workflow, you can refocus your attention on tweaking your marketing strategy and getting the results you want.
AI digital assistants help you stay in your zone of genius and put growth on autopilot.
Personalize Your AI Marketing Strategy
How vague is the targeting for your marketing campaigns?
Does it look like this?
- Women
- Age 25-35
- Who like exercise
You’re not alone.
60% of content marketers struggle with personalization.
The good news? An AI digital assistant can get you off the struggle bus.
Artificial intelligence gets rid of the fluff and helps you target individuals rather than generic groups.
Don’t stop at “exercise” for your yoga mat brand. Drill down to women between the ages of 25-35 who prefer pilates over CrossFit.
Personalizing your marketing strategy allows you to take advantage of the 79% of consumers who are more likely to engage with brand promotions if tailored to their past interactions.
Create Better Content, Faster
Content creation is incredible for attracting new leads and building trust with your audience.
But it’s also time and resource-intensive.
The right AI digital assistant can help you speed up, scale, and optimize your content marketing workflow — something 47% of marketers say is their biggest challenge.
Using AI for content creation isn’t a new idea. Some of the world’s biggest brands are already using it as part of their content marketing strategy:
- The Washington Post uses Heliograf (an in-house reporting AI) to write social media posts and basic news stories.
- Forbes is using AI to create content alongside humans.
Boost Your SEO with Less Time
Are you spending hours creating content and getting zero traffic in search?
AI digital assistants can identify where you’re going wrong and streamline your SEO strategy.
With a few clicks, you can see what content you should create for your niche and what keywords the top-ranking sites are using to get to Google’s front page.
AI can also optimize your existing blog posts and improve your rankings in search. You’ll get suggestions on how to improve your content and what keywords to add to rank for queries.
The Best AI Digital Assistant Tools for Marketers
Want 59% better close rates? What about a 58% increased revenue? Or 54% more traffic and engagement?
Start using these AI digital assistants to automate your marketing workflow.
Email Marketing:
- Automizy: Emails not getting opened? Automizy can help you test and optimize your email subject lines and improve your open rate by 34%.
- Cortex by Retention Science: Cortex uses machine learning to continually optimize its automation for better results. Over time, the tool will refine your subject lines, discover the best time to send emails, and use engagement data to create better email campaigns.
- customer.io: Send targeted emails, push notifications, and SMSs to your audience based on how they interact with your business. The tool can lower your churn rate, create stronger relationships, and drive more sales.
- Drift: Drift is an email marketing tool that automates your inbox and delivers targeted messages to specific users. It’s the ultimate personal assistant for managing your marketing and sales inbox.
Ad Campaigns:
- Pathmatics: Curious about why your competitor’s ad campaigns are outperforming yours? Pathmatics is a marketing intelligence platform that dissects how brands advertise online.
- Pattern89: Pattern89 is an AI marketing tool that can improve almost every aspect of your ads. You’ll get personalized recommendations for adjusting your ad spend and actionable insights on the type of ads to use, including placement, format, and image attributes like orientation or the number of faces.
- Phrasee: Stop writing dull copy for Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns. Phrasee specializes in language generation for marketing copy by pulling data from your online posts. Add in your draft copy, and Phrasee will test its effectiveness before you spend a single cent.
Personalization:
- Emarsys: Emarsys is an AI omnichannel platform helping you personalize your B2C marketing across the board. Using artificial intelligence, it learns customer behavior to predict their next move, segment users, and select using artificial intelligence content automatically.
- Uberflip: Uberflip is an advanced content personalization platform. The AI figures out what content your audience craves, optimizes your campaigns, and improves your conversion rate. Shellman used Uberflip to increase their win rate by 40% by delivering one-to-one content experiences.
Social Media:
- HubSpot: Inside HubSpot’s robust CRM, you’ll find social media software powered by AI, which automatically creates posts based on the metadata of the link.
- Meet Cortex: Meet Cortex creates social media content your audience wants. Analyzing your data and competitors provides insights on taste preferences, the best time to post, and shows you how to stay ahead of the competition.
- NetBase: NetBase uses machine learning to take social listening to the next level. The tool gives real-time insights about reactions and sentiments towards your brand. You’ll also get access to insights on audience behavior, drivers, influencers, and location-specific analysis.
- Lately: Turns your blog URL into dozens of social media posts of varying character lengths.
- Zoomph: Zoomph measures audience behavior and ROI on social media platforms. Use it to automatically track the latest trends to boost engagement and increase brand awareness.
Creating Content:
- Acrolinx: Acrolinx is a software platform that can “read” your content. It captures how you communicate, aligns your content with your guidelines, and analyzes performance to improve your content.
- AI-Writer: AI-Writer can create an entire SEO friendly blog post using only a headline. While the text output isn’t perfect, it can save quite a bit of time.
- Atomic Reach: At a loss for the right words for an ad? Atomic Reach is your new best friend. It analyzes your content and takes out the guesswork by rewriting it in the style your audience prefers.
Content Ideas:
- Curata: Any successful marketer knows providing value to your audience is critical. One of the easiest ways to do this is with content curation. Curate uses AI to save you time by finding the most useful and relevant content in any niche.
- Stackla: User-generated content (UGC) is powerful social proof. Stackla helps you discover, manage, and show off UGC content your audience is creating (and engaging with), so you can build trust.
- Unmetric: Unmetric analyzes your content and competitors to discover new ideas and opportunities. Find out what’s working and what’s not, then craft a content strategy backed by data.
SEO:
- Text Optimizer: Text Optimizer is a content marketer’s holy grail. It uses AI to analyze web pages and texts to see how well optimized it is for a specific keyword. The result? You can quickly identify the keywords used on pages ranking in search or analyze your published blog posts to find additional keywords.
- MarketMuse: MarketMuse streamlines content creation for any niche. The AI lets you know about search terms you haven’t used (but should), so you can fill in your content gaps. It’s so effective that some users see a 30% growth in leads from organic search.
- WordLift: WordLift is an AI-powered SEO tool for WordPress. It automates internal linking, helps search engines understand your pages, and keeps visitors on your site longer with relevant content recommendations.
Landing Pages:
- Personyze: Are you still using standard landing pages for your campaigns? If so, you’re leaving money on the table. Personyze uses AI to collect data about visitors’ demographics and past behavior to create a unique landing page that boosts conversion rates.
Conclusion
AI digital assistants are not here to replace you.
Instead, these tools are the perfect sidekick to help you get rid of a heavy task load, so you can focus on strategy, tap into your creativity, and innovate.
Automating your workflow instantly makes you more productive, and AI helps you predict the buyer’s journey far more accurately.
You can analyze mass sets of data in seconds. Dig deep into insights, personalize marketing campaigns, and take user experiences to a whole new level.
In short, AI digital assistants are a game-changer for marketers who want to use tech to outwit, outlast, and outplay their competition.
Are you using AI digital assistants to streamline your marketing workflow?
The post A Complete Guide to AI Digital Assistants for Marketers appeared first on Neil Patel.
The Best Help Desk Software (In-Depth Review)
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
Unorganized support teams are a nightmare for everyone involved.
From two agents wasting time on the same request to customers or employees sitting around for hours waiting on an answer, things can get really hectic without the right tools and software. And it could even damage your reputation forever.
You don’t want that and I don’t want that for you, either.
However, choosing the best help desk software for your team isn’t an easy task. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of options to choose from.
So to help make your life a bit easier, I looked at dozens of the top options on the market and narrowed it down to my top six recommendations.
From small customer support teams to IT services and mobile field support, this guide covers it all. By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly which help desk software is right for you, regardless of your situation.
The Top 6 Options For Help Desk Software
- Freshdesk – best for small to midsize businesses
- Hubspot – best all-in-one customer service CRM
- Zoho Desk – best for fast-growth businesses
- Freshservice – best for IT service management
- Happyfox – best for mobile and field support teams
- Cayzu – most affordable help desk software
How to Choose The Best Help Desk Software For You
Before we dive into my top recommendations, let’s talk about what makes these tools great and what to look for when deciding which help desk software is right for you and your team.
There are tons of options to choose from, so don’t forget to keep these considerations in mind as you go through the process.
Your use cases
Help desk software exists for a number of reasons, like internal employee support and external customer support. Furthermore, different tools include varying features depending on your use cases.
So, it’s essential to consider how you plan to use the software before making a decision.
Number of agents
How many support agents do you have? Most help desk software charge by the agent, so you need to have a good idea of the number of seats you need.
Some providers also impose agent limits on specific plans, so you’ll have to upgrade to a higher tier if you need to add more agents to your account. This upgrade can be extremely pricey, especially if you’re not expecting it.
So, make sure to choose a plan that offers a bit of breathing room as you grow.
Ticket management
Tickets help you organize, route, and store help desk inquiries. So, you should make sure your software includes basic ticket management systems to help make the process faster and easier.
Furthermore, some software includes ticketing features for a wide variety of support channels, including email, live chat, social media, instant messaging, SMS, and more.
An efficient ticketing system is crucial, from automatic ticket creation and organization to smart routing and everything in between.
However, some of the options on this list limit the number of tickets you can create daily or monthly, which may be too limiting for large teams. And you may be better off choosing an unlimited plan instead.
So, keep this in mind as you make your final decision.
Support channels
What channels do you use to provide support?
Internal support teams may use instant messaging, live chat, or email while customer service teams may utilize social media, SMS, and phone calls.
Regardless of the channels you use, it’s crucial to implement software that handles everything you need.
If you already have systems in place, make sure the help desk software you choose plays well. And if you don’t, consider where your customers/employees hang out and the communication methods they’re most comfortable with.
Furthermore, you should also think about internal communication tools. One agent may need to pass an inquiry on to someone else, or they may need help answering someone’s questions.
So, it’s important to think about how your agents communicate with each other and how you plan to share information from one department to another, as well.
Other features
The best help desk software includes a variety of helpful features beyond ticketing and communication. And it’s essential to consider which features you need to streamline and optimize your support systems.
Some typical features and extras include:
- Knowledgebase and self-service support
- Escalation levels to the right people
- Automated workflow creation
- Open API integrations
- Internal chat software
- Cross-department collaboration
- Client and contact management
- Analytic dashboards
- Role-based access
- Ticket sorting
- Time tracking
It’s also crucial to consider the specific features you need for your use cases.
Internal teams need different things than customer support teams, so keep this in mind as you go through the decision-making process.
Analytics and reporting
Data helps managers and owners understand how your service agents perform and what your customers are asking. Advanced ticket tagging and categorization can also help with the latter.
From there, you can optimize your support process and work on building a self-service knowledge base or in-depth how-to guides to quickly and efficiently answer common questions.
This frees up agents and gives them more time to handle less-common requests.
Furthermore, reports and data visualization help display information in a way that’s easy to understand. This can give you a birds-eye view of your support system and may even help you know how to better serve your team and customers.
The Different Types of Help Desk Software
There are several different types of help desk software. The best type for you depends on various factors, including the size of your business, your budget, customization, and security requirements.
Cloud or web-based — this is the most common type, and it’s often referred to as a SaaS tool because the user pays a monthly subscription to continue using the software.
Furthermore, everything is stored on the cloud or the provider’s server, so the user doesn’t need additional infrastructure or dedicated IT. Plus, the vendor is in charge of managing and maintaining the software, making it an easy and affordable option for businesses of all sizes.
All of the recommendations on this list offer a cloud or web-based solution.
On-premise — unlike cloud or web-based software, on-premise systems are installed on the user’s servers. Typically, the end-user purchases a license for the software and they’re in charge of management and maintenance.
While they’re harder to install and manage regularly, they tend to be more secure and customizable. So, it’s an excellent option for high-security industries and anyone interested in a hyper-customized solution.
However, this means a dedicated team is required to update and maintain the infrastructure.
Enterprise-grade — these are built specifically for extremely large businesses. They come with a ton of hyper-customizable features and solutions to suit the needs of enterprise businesses with massive budgets.
Enterprise help desk software comes in all shapes and sizes, from single-location businesses to international conglomerates operating worldwide.
For most users, this type of software is 100% overkill.
Open-source — this type of software is best for developers or companies with knowledgeable IT departments because you get access to its source code. This means you can modify how the software works to meet your unique requirements.
Essentially, it’s a more affordable way to get a highly customizable solution, as long as you have the skills and know-how to make it work for you.
#1 – Freshdesk Review — The best help desk software for small to midsize businesses
If manual email and social media customer service are becoming too much for your team to manage, Freshdesk is a great way to ease the burden.
Its ticketing system is straightforward to use, and it comes with numerous helpful features.
Plus, it’s incredibly affordable, and there’s a limited free forever plan with unlimited agents to try it out before you invest a single penny.
With Freshdesk, you can streamline conversations across channels in one place, create contextual conversations with anyone, automate repetitive processes to save time, automatically share solution articles, and easily monitor your team’s performance.
Furthermore, you also get access to countless support features, including:
- Multi-channel team inbox
- Agent collision detection
- Custom ticket statuses
- Scenario automations
- Canned responses
- Shared ownership and huddles
- Linked tickets
- Time tracking
- Scheduling dashboard
- Event and time-based automations
- AI-powered chatbots
- Knowledge base capabilities
On top of that, they also offer several educational courses and a fully-staffed customer support team to help you and your team get the most out of your new software.
Freshdesk has five different help desk plans to choose from, including:
- Sprout — Free with limited features
- Blossom — $15/agent per month
- Garden — $35/agent per month
- Estate — $49/agent per month
- Forest — $99/agent per month
You can start with the free plan to try it out, but I highly recommend upgrading to a paid plan when you can justify it to gain access to more of their advanced features.
Each plan comes with a free 21-day trial to test the waters before making your final decision.
#2 – Hubspot Review — The best all-in-one customer service CRM
If you need a full-blown customer relationship management (CRM) tool to go along with your help desk software, Hubspot is a smart choice.
And the best part? You can get everything you need to get started for free.
With their free Service Hub, you get ticketing, meeting scheduling, reporting, a team inbox, live chat + chatbots, email templates, and team email connections.
So, it includes everything you need to start optimizing your customer support process.
But you also get several other features like tasks and activities, email tracking, contact website activity, contact management, custom fields, and more.
While Hubspot’s free plan is excellent, their paid plans offer a fantastic suite of amazing features you can use to improve your entire support system further.
Each pricing tier adds more advanced features, but their most affordable plan ($40 per month for two users) includes:
- Eight hours of VoIP calling and recording
- Conversational bots to create and route tickets
- Simple open and close automations plus internal notifications
- 1,000 canned responses for frequently asked questions
- Up to 1,000 email templates
- Ten reporting dashboards
- 1,000 documents
- Conversation routing
- Two ticket pipelines
- Up to five currencies
So, it’s quite a step up from Hubspot’s free plan. However, if you meet those limits, you have to upgrade to a higher-tiered plan. The next tier starts at $320/month, so it’s quite pricey.
Alternatively, you can opt for their Starter Growth Suite, which includes the starter plan for Hubspot CRM, the Marketing Hub, the Sales Hub, and all the service features above.
It starts at $50 per month, so it’s a super affordable way to get access to a ton of different marketing, sales, and CRM features if you need access to all of them.
Note: this is special COVID-19 pricing with regular rates starting at $112.50 per month.
#3 – Zoho Desk Review — The best help desk software for fast-growth businesses
Zoho provides countless business tools to businesses of all sizes in every industry you can imagine.
All of their software is fantastic, and their help desk software is no exception.
From affordable plans at every level and a robust free plan to incredible support features, you can rest assured that Zoho Desk has the ability to scale alongside you as your business grows.
At its core, Zoho Desk is a multi-channel ticketing system. So, you get top-of-the-line ticketing features that let you organize and streamline support inquiries, whether they’re coming from email, social media, live chat, phone, or an online form.
And as your business grows, the need for a self-service knowledge base increases. With Zoho Desk, you can quickly turn support requests into knowledgebase articles in just a few clicks to continuously grow your database.
On top of that, you also get access to a wide variety of features designed to help improve and consolidate your support processes. Some of the most popular features include:
- Zia, an AI-powered digital assistant
- Help center tools to design and create your knowledge base
- Several ticket views and automatic ticket organization/prioritization
- Advanced response editor with canned snippets
- Visual process automation builder
- Customization via APIs and built-in integrations
- Dashboard headquarters for analytics and reporting
- Custom field options for web forms
With that said, it’s important to note that lower-tiered plans don’t include every feature. So, be sure to look through each plan’s features before choosing one.
And keep in mind that you may have to upgrade to a higher plan to get what you need.
Zoho Desk plans include:
- Free — For up to three agents with email ticketing and limited features
- Standard — $12/agent per month with social channels, workflows, and dashboards
- Professional — $20/agent per month with BPM, time tracking, and ticket sharing
- Enterprise — $35/agent per month with Zia, live chat, and advanced customization
Sign up for a free trial to see which plan is right for you and your team today.
#4 – Freshservice Review — The best for IT service management
If you’re looking for a better way to handle IT support, Freshservice is one of the top options on the market. Like Freshdesk, it’s a Freshworks product, so you have a massive brand behind the software.
However, it’s built specifically for IT teams, rather than customer service.
With more people working from home, strong IT support is more critical than ever before. And you may even see an influx of inquiries coming through as people adjust.
Which… is where Freshservice comes in and saves the day. They offer everything you need, including multi-channel support, hardware and software records, contract management, and a top-rated mobile app for iOS and Android.
Furthermore, you can automate agent assignments and approval workflows to help streamline the process. Plus, you also get access to powerful features like:
- Incident, knowledge, and SLA management
- A user-friendly service catalog
- Self-service portal and knowledgebase
- Internal contextual collaboration
- Problem, change, and release management
- Project dashboards and analytical reports
- Asset and inventory management
- Lifecycle management
- Asset auto-discovery
- Interactive visualizations
And you can easily integrate any Freshworks software with Freshservice, along with tons of other third-party software integrations as well.
So, it’s an excellent choice if you already use or plan on using any of their other business tools.
Freshservice offers four different plans to choose from, including:
- Blossom — $19/agent per month with essential features
- Garden — $49/agent per month for growing teams
- Estate — $79/agent per month for large teams
- Forest — $99/agent per month for enterprises
These prices indicate annual pans paid in advance. They also offer monthly plans for a higher fee, except for the Forest plan.
Try Freshservice free for 21 days to see if it’s right for you!
#5 – Happyfox Review — The best for mobile and field support teams
Field agents have a unique set of challenges vs. support teams in the office or one set location. As such, you need a specialized tool that adapts to meet your needs.
Happyfox is a field service software designed to help you track agents, schedule work, and leverage real-time communications with a fully-featured mobile interface for seamless use on the move.
When agents are continuously traveling from one job to the next, they must have an easy way to share and track status information from one agent to the next.
And the good news is that Happyfox does just that, with a wide range of features like:
- Ticket ques, statuses, and categories
- Multi-channel ticketing capabilities
- Ticket threads and attachments
- Canned actions and responses
- Searchable and customizable knowledgebase
- Agent collision detection
- Built-in asset management
- Auto-assignments and smart rules
- Simultaneous routing rules
- SMS support
And dozens of other helpful features specifically for mobile teams.
Unlike the other options on this list, Happyfox doesn’t display their pricing online. But they offer standard per agent pricing and special packages for unlimited agents, making it suitable for field service teams of all sizes.
For agent-based pricing, they offer four plans with varying feature sets.
And each plan automatically includes SSL security, unlimited tickets, smart rules, knowledgebase capabilities, multilingual support, rich text formatting, and mobile applications.
However, their unlimited agent plans cap the number of tickets you can have in a year. So, you have to decide which option makes the most sense for your situation.
Schedule a live demo to see if Happyfox is right for you and your team today!
#6 – Cayzu Review — The most affordable help desk software
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly cloud-based help desk software, Cayzu is exceptionally affordable with paid plans starting at $4 per agent per month.
It’s also straightforward to use. With that said, it’s not the most feature-rich option, but you sacrifice some of the advanced features for an incredibly affordable price.
At just $4 per month, you get access to all the essential features you need, including:
- Secure data protection
- Automatic backups
- A mobile application
- Unlimited customer support
- Ticketing system
- Canned responses
- Knowledgebase capabilities
- Email ticket creation
- Multi-language support
- Open APIs and rest APIs
- Support widget
Or you can upgrade to one of the higher plans for just a few dollars ($9 per agent per month) and get time tracking, assignment rules, basic automations, due dates, custom SSL certificates, and more.
And they also offer a freedom plan (up to 70 agents) if you’re interested in an easy way to get all of their features. It starts at $469 per month, but it’s probably overkill for most users.
Plus, over 20,000+ companies (including Verizon, Yahoo, and PBS) trust Cayzu with their help desk needs. So, you’re not alone and you’re in good company when you sign up.
Sign up for a free trial to see if Cayzu’s right for you today!
Wrapping things up
Freshdesk, Hubspot, and Zoho Desk are my top recommendations for most users. They all offer numerous powerful features at affordable prices for businesses of all sizes.
However, they’re not perfect for everyone. Different situations call for different solutions.
So, don’t forget to use the criteria we talked about as you sort through choosing the best help desk software for you, your team, and your customers.
What’s your go-to help desk software?
The post The Best Help Desk Software (In-Depth Review) appeared first on Neil Patel.
