Learn From The Pros Blog Series Installment #5: Daybreak Games

Welcome back for week five in our “Learn From the Pros” Blog Series! We launched this series as a way to share insights on Social Marketing across our customer base, with the ultimate goal being to learn from each other as we navigate the various ways contests and sweepstakes can be leveraged for brand success.

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This week we’re chatting with Colette Murphy from Daybreak Games. We’ve been working with Colette and her team for just about five years now, and we’re excited to share her thoughts on how contests & sweepstakes have helped her achieve Daybreak Games’ brand objectives. Colette brings some terrific insights to the table, so we hope you enjoy!15578123_10211152152944249_7441962946273934592_o copy

Votigo: How long have you been with Daybreak Games?

Colette: I’ve been working with the company since 2012 (though we didn’t officially become Daybreak Games until 2015). 


Votigo: What is your role there? How did you get started in Marketing? What were you doing before that?

ColetteMy title is Communications Manager. I oversee our social media channels, our web blog content, and our promotions and giveaways. I’m also the resident grammar fanatic, and help with copyediting whenever the need arises. In 2012, a position opened up on the Community team, and I became a Community Manager. While in that position, I found a great deal of cross-department mentors in Marketing, who helped foster my interest in social media practices. Eventually, I moved in to the position I’m in now. I took a very non-traditional route to get here. After getting my Master’s Degree in Mass Communications and Media Studies at San Diego State University, I spent a number of years teaching at local community colleges. In that time, I also took an interest in social media and community management, doing so on a volunteer basis for wedding and event planning services, local theatre groups, and student organizations on college campuses. I actually never considered doing it as a career until I learned about the position that led me to this company!


Votigo: What are your biggest goals & initiatives for Daybreak Games this year?

Colette: Our company is incredibly community-focused. Our goals are always to provide new, interesting ways for our players to interact with our games and our development teams. We love gathering user-generated content and highlighting the creativity and passion of the people who play our games.


Votigo: How often do you run contests or sweepstakes currently? What is the strategy behind your chosen frequency? And what platforms do you run them on?

Colette: Contests are an additional way we celebrate our players. From screenshot capture contests for virtual items to a chance to win a trip to our H1Z1 invitational, we really like the ability to highlight our players’ talents and excitement for our games. Some months have less, and some have a lot more, but we typically run at least one larger scale contest per month. We primarily run contests and sweepstakes on Twitter and through the Votigo microsites, which we promote on Facebook, our websites, and our game forums.


VotigoCan you share your thoughts on these social platforms in regards to your business? Do you tend to engage with one more than the others? Why?

Colette: We go where the conversations are, which usually depends on the audience demographics for the product. Some of our older games have much larger audiences on Facebook, because the games came out before Twitter even existed! Our newer products have very active Twitter followings, but aren’t as big on website traffic. So, it really varies. The key is seeing where you get the highest engagement, and making sure you stay involved there as much as possible.


Votigo: Is there a type of campaign that you would like to run but haven’t yet? Why not?

Colette: We tend to run a variety of campaigns, so this is a tough question! I don’t think we’ve tried an “Instant Win” one yet, but it’s definitely something we’ll consider this year.


Votigo: What solution do you use for your contests & sweepstakes? Do you prefer a full-service offering or a self-service platform?

Colette: We enjoy the flexibility offered by the Votigo self-serve Enterprise tool. We use our in-house legal team for rules drafting and our in-house creative teams to help build out the headers and visual look and feel of our microsites, but we like having the analytics and management portion handled by the platform itself.


Votigo: What piece of advice would you share with someone who is just starting out with social contests & sweepstakes?

Colette: Try lots of different things, and don’t be discouraged if one doesn’t work out the first time. If you try an essay contest and only get a few replies, switch to photo or video the next time – your audience might be more interested in visual mediums!


Votigo:  What are your favorite blogs or books on Marketing or your other interests?

ColetteHow much time do you have? Haha. Since my focus is on social media, I tend to stick to blogs. Social Media Examiner is a big favorite of mine. There’s often a lot of good information to be found in any blog from an Enterprise Platform service, like Hootsuite or Buffer or Sprout. RazorSocial is also a good resource, with lots of topics covered.


Thanks for participating in “Learn From the Pros”, Colette!

-The Votigo Team

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How to Engage Your Customers Using Social Media

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Ever since its emergence into the marketplace over ten years ago, social media continues to be a force to be reckoned with on a global scale. It has completely changed the way people communicate, share their lives and stay in touch with current events. It’s also created an avenue for many people to work and build businesses within. Another way social media has changed the world is through marketing. It’s another medium that businesses can use to effectively engage with their customers. If you’re a business owner who wants to learn more about how to keep a pulse on your customers through social media, consider implementing the following strategies.


RESPOND TO COMMENTS

Customer engagement isn’t a one-sided dialogue. In many ways, you’ll need to treat social media the same way as face-to-face interactions. If you told someone you like their blouse and they heard you, but remained silent, you wouldn’t want much to do with them anymore. As your company posts pictures, videos and tweets, there will be at least one person who responds. Don’t ignore that person’s comment even if it’s a comment as simple as “I love this!” If you have more comments than you can realistically respond to, just click the like button and pick a few to respond to. However, when you’re just starting out, chances are you’ll only have a few comments. Respond to them all. It’ll make a big difference.


RE-POST GOOD-LOOKING CONTENT THAT’S TAGGED

When someone takes a picture using your product and raves about it, consider this a free form of marketing and repost it to your page. When you repost it to your page, take a screenshot and upload it. Don’t use the repost apps that leave the watermark at the bottom. You’ll want your page to be visually consistent and clean. It’s also great to look up hashtags that are associated with your brand. If you see good-looking pictures highlighting your product, click ‘like’ and let your customers know you see that they purchased your product and you appreciate it. When customers get the notification, this excites them to share and become more engaged eventually.


ENCOURAGE THE USE OF HASHTAGS

Hashtags are the best way for your audience to find you. If you’d like to build a brand, you’ll need to remain intentional about creating language that will keep you connected to your fans. If your company sells lipstick, consider placing the hashtag on the tube or the packaging. Make sure your customers know where to find you.


ASK QUESTIONS

Once you have a good amount of people following your brand online, it’s a good idea to ask questions. It’s helps to get a good understanding of what your users are in need of. When your company remains the solution to your customers’ problems, you’ll stay in business. So, don’t be afraid to ask. For example, if your company built a YouTube channel surrounding your content, ask your viewers to comment below with their answers to a particular question you have. Use captioning services on your videos to leave an email address and other information so they can contact your company. Make sure to reiterate that you’d love to hear from them.


POST CONSISTENTLY

It’s hard to engage with your customers if you’re not there. According to HootSuite.com, the number of users on social media was up to 2.8 Billion by the end of 2016. Because this number is so high, it makes no sense for companies to be missing in action. Always remain engaged and aware of what’s going on. It’s also extremely important to post content on a consistent basis. Create a schedule so that your fans knows when to find you. When it comes to social media, consistency has a tendency to breed credibility.


Overall, the process of using social media is constantly changing. Now, more platforms are including live options to compete with Periscope. As platforms add different features to stay relevant and innovative, your learning curve will continue to change. As long as you remain visible and use these tactics, your users will chime in and stay plugged into what your company is producing.

This article was originally written by Jennifer Livingston for the Heyo blog

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How to Increase Brand Awareness on Instagram

According to statistics, the number of monthly active users on Instagram increased from 500 million in June 2016 up to 600 million in December 2016. Billions of likes appear every hour! Undoubtedly, Instagram has become one of the greatest promotion tools.

But how to use it for the maximum benefit of your business? How to present your brand in the best light? Follow the tips below, and you’ll be able to integrate your advertising campaign into this social platform smoothly and successfully.

#1 SET THE RIGHT ACCOUNT SETTINGS

  • First of all, create a business account named the same as your company. Choose something that’s most associated with the brand to convey its core purpose and values.
  • Fill the profile: add some information about your company, upload a beautiful branded image (ideally, the logo) and put a link to the official website.
  • Integrate your account with Facebook, set up the automatic integration of Instagram photos to Facebook to increase the number of reposts. Companies such as Mercedes-Benz gain much more likes using cross-posting.

#2 ADVERTISE

  • Come up with a unique brand strategy. Share the idea of your organization with people and focus the content around it.
  • Use hashtags. The top-10 most popular hashtags in 2017 are:
    • #followme
    • #fashion
    • #happy
    • #me
    • #cute
    • #beautiful
    • #tbt
    • #photooftheday
    • #instagood
    • #love

Although there’s no restriction on the number of characters (unlike Twitter), hashtags that are too long, as well as an overuse of hashtags looks unnatural and can scare visitors. Apply up to 7 hashtags to each photo, not more, including the name of the brand.

Use unique hashtags for different advertising campaigns. For example, if you have decided to hold a photo contest, a special hashtag for that event may look like #[your_brand_name]photocontest.

Include common hashtags. For example, if you own a coffee shop, add tags like #coffee, #latte, etc. However, popular hashtags are a bit tricky: a lot of people use them so that you can’t move to the top until your photos get at least a few thousand likes a day.

Keep track of new and relevant hashtags. Look for users who use your brand name as a hashtag, and try to set the feedback. Keep track of all mentions on Facebook and Twitter. Respond quickly to ensure a good and long-term relationship with customers.

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#3 TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS AND INTERACT WITH THEM

  • Show your followers how much you appreciate them. Share the best photos of your subscribers. For example, Starbucks, one of the most successful brands on Instagram, every few weeks publishes one of the followers’ works that depicts the company’s products.
  • Use @ for references. People love when you treat them personally. Use @ if the image is related to a famous person. If the pic is really interesting, you may get a repost and, as a consequence, additional followers.
  • Add some excitement using Photoshop, Diptic or Photoshake. Short videos will diversify your content strategy. For example, you may show users how to use one of your products.
  • Create a fascinating brand story. Beautiful photos and videos that convey the basic principles and values of your company will work for you.
  • Give some insights. Share the photos of your employees who stand behind the success of your brand. Something from behind the scenes is always highly appreciated. Stay closer to people! For instance, you can publish funny, entertaining videos from corporate events or share photos which can’t be found in other social networks.
  • Prepare the audience for a great event. If you’re going to release something to the market, announce it exclusively on Instagram. For example, on the day of the premiere, upload a video on how the staff prepares for the official part, not disclosing what’s at the core of it.
  • Do not keep silence. Questions give rise to debates – ask for the readers’ opinion about recent posts or images. For example, if you are the owner of a clothing store, you may ask what kind of shoes would suit the jeans from the new collection of your brand. Create a hashtag by which followers would be able to post pictures on the topic.
  • Ask users to come up with a caption for an image. Publish an unusual photo of one of your products and announce a competition for the best caption (and do not forget to reward the winner!).
  • Use crowdsourcing. Ask users to publish photos that show the role of the brand in their lives. This will help you to understand the target audience and will be useful for further research aimed at the development of your business.
  • Use geotagging to target local users. Place QR codes on Instagram so that users will be able to get discounts.
  • Regularly update your profile, regardless of the number of subscribers. Decide on the frequency and time of publications, taking into account analytics. The most “engaged” time on Instagram shifts from day to day: On Monday, for example, it’s from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.; on Friday – 1 a.m. and 8 p.m. are the sweetest hours.

Instagram is one of the most developing business instruments, so each and every aspiring entrepreneur should take it into account as a brand strategy platform.

Whether you like it or not, Instagram is too large for a business to ignore! I wish you all the best in your aspirations!

This post was originally written by Lucy Adams for the Heyo blog

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New Live Examples of Brands That are Leveraging the Power of the Personality Quiz

We know you love to see live examples of campaigns that are using Votigo’s technology, since they are the easiest way to understand how our platform works. They’re also great for inspiration as you start planning YOUR next campaign!

Today, we’re sharing two different examples of brands that are both using Votigo’s Personality Quiz application to create a rich engagement opportunity with their audience. The quiz application allows you to invite your fans to engage with your brand on a deep, 2-way conversation level. This results in a qualified interaction that is extremely valuable from a customer retention and brand affinity standpoint.

Gordmans’ “What Kind of Traveler Are You?” Quiz

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At the end of the user experience of a Personality Quiz, participants are often invited to share their results with their social networks. This is a great tool to use in order to drive campaign and brand awareness, as all the people reached in the context of that social share are then made aware of the promotion!

Country Financial’s “What Kind of Fantasy Footballer Are You?” Quiz

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Interested in learning more about Personality Quizzes in particular, or any of our other campaign offerings? Click here to chat with one of our Account Representatives.

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Learning Series #3: How to Drive Brand Awareness and Engage Fans with Trivia Sweepstakes

 

e7e8f401b523fea0d480c548721c8a26cde5793b01ac2dc742ea5ad25410aff921ba65fd911e2f5d2217108ed76302a97c05acf45a54c43c31053f282a287e9dIf you haven’t had a chance to check out our new and improved Votigo Resource Center yet, definitely make it a point to pay a visit! We created this library of resources as a way to share information that we believe will help inspire our customers as you plan and execute your Social Marketing programs.

This week, we’re excited to showcase our Trivia Sweepstakes Learning Series. This guide will show you how a game-like quiz setting can create a terrific opportunity for you to convey important brand or product information in a fun and engaging way.

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You’ll learn how adding a quiz component to a sweepstakes setting can create an additional engagement opportunity for your fans that allows them to interact with your brand on an even deeper level. This makes for an even more qualified interaction, which is extremely valuable from a customer retention and brand affinity standpoint.

Interested in learning more about Trivia Sweepstakes in particular, or any of our other campaign offerings? Click here to chat with one of our Account Representatives.

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Learn From The Pros Blog Series Installment #4: Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company

Welcome back for week four in our “Learn From the Pros” Blog Series! This series is designed to promote the sharing of information across our customer base so that we can all learn from each other as we navigate the various ways Social Marketing can be leveraged for brand success.JMLogo

This week we’re chatting with Jessica VandenHouten from Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company. We’ve been working with Jessica and her team for just about a year now, and are excited to share her thoughts on how contests & sweepstakes have helped her achieve Jewelers Mutual’s brand objectives. Jessica brings some terrific insights to the table, so we hope you enjoy!JVH

Votigo: How long have you been with Jewelers Mutual?

Jessica: Over six years. 


Votigo: What is your role there? How did you get started in Marketing? What were you doing before that?

JessicaI’m our Brand Communications Manager. As far as how I got started in Marketing, it’s something I knew I had a passion for even in college and knew that is where I wanted my career focus to be. Before taking on my role at Jewelers Mutual, I was working in marketing communications for a natural health company in consumer packaged goods, as well as in the health insurance industry and in radio.


Votigo: What are your biggest goals & initiatives for Jewelers Mutual in 2017?

Jessica: Especially from a social media perspective, it’s about increasing brand awareness. Most people don’t know jewelry insurance exists or understand the importance of getting the right coverage to protect their jewelry. We continue to look for new ways to reach our audience in places they already are – social media being one. How can we engage consumers with the right content at the right time and move them from awareness to consideration to purchase. Then continue to delight them as a customer to retain them for life. The ultimate goal. We continue to listen to the voice of the customer and garner those insights to deliver the best experience possible.


Votigo: How often do you run contests or sweepstakes currently? What is the strategy behind your chosen frequency? And what platforms do you run them on?

Jessica: We tend to do at least one large-scale promotion a year but sprinkle in a few smaller social-based giveaways that are highly shareable and simple ways to engage with and delight our audience throughout the year – around 1 per quarter. We dabble across a few platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc..) as they provide great ways to test the effectiveness of each channel. However, our most prominent is Facebook, which is where we have the largest audience and most engagement.


Votigo: Can you share your thoughts on these social platforms in regards to your business? Do you tend to engage with one more than the others? Why?

Jessica: We’ve determined our objectives and core content focus for each of the channels we manage. LinkedIn is focused mostly on corporate news and recruitment. Twitter is most-often used for education and time-sensitive info, finding and sharing trending topics and identifying influencers. Instagram and Pinterest are used for content with strong visuals like our blogs, infographics, etc. We tend to focus more effort on Facebook because of what the platform allows us to do. We test ad messages and content to various audiences and we’re able to promote relevant content to key target audiences. Of all our social channels, both Facebook and Twitter drive the most traffic to our website so it’s a great opportunity to use those channels to enhance brand awareness and initiate the buyer’s journey toward purchase.


Votigo: Is there a type of campaign that you would like to run but haven’t yet? Why not?

Jessica: So far, I’m happy with the types of campaigns we’ve run. I’d be interested in running a video-based campaign knowing how increasingly impactful video has become for consumer engagement and in making content so incredibly shareable.


Votigo: What solution do you use for your contests & sweepstakes? Do you prefer a full-service offering or a self-service platform?

Jessica: There’s value in both. It ultimately depends on the scale of our promotions. Some of the smaller initiatives are simple enough to be more hands-on and run in-house. Larger scale campaigns utilizing more channels or additional partner involvement may require more support to administer or more advanced solutions for hosting the campaign. Finding a good balance of the two allows us to have some control over the process without becoming overwhelmed with the full development and management of it.


Votigo: What piece of advice would you share with someone who is just starting out with social contests & sweepstakes?

JessicaStart small and test, test, test. Determine your goals and objectives before diving in. Do you have a social channel where you have more engagement from your audience? You may want to start there knowing they may be more receptive to participating and sharing the promotion. Experiment with different channels, different types of campaigns, different incentives and see what resonates best with your audience. Make sure you have the tools in place to be able to measure your results. Most applications, even self-service solutions offer some level of analytics. Once you have a couple campaigns under your belt you’ll have a sense of what to look for and a benchmark for which to measure future campaigns against so you can determine if it was successful.


Votigo:  What are your favorite blogs or books on Marketing or your other interests?

JessicaIt seems something changes with social daily so it’s so important to stay on top of it as much as possible. Some of my go-tos to help keep me up to speed or just provide great inspiration and motivation include Social Media Examiner, Millennial Marketing, Hubspot, Simon Sinek, Marketing Profs, Seth Godin to name a few.


Thanks for participating in “Learn From the Pros”, Jessica!

-The Votigo Team

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10 Content Secrets Every Marketer Needs to Know

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While following all the tips and tricks in the world can vastly improve your chances of reaching a wide audience, the truth is that nothing can beat regular and original content. While analytics and SEO are all important, the content is what your potential customers and clients actually see. It’s the content that needs to keep your reader engaged, and the content that needs to be so great people like it, share it, and respond to any calls to action. This list includes 10 tips for killer content that will keep your readers interested, and help you effectively market yourself on your business channels.

1.      HIRE EDITORS ONLINE

As the online presence of most businesses is becoming increasingly time consuming, many successful businesses hire external experts in content writing or proofreading in order to keep on top of the work. If you’re in charge of the day-to-day running of a business, then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to devote enough time to produce scintillating content, share it across multiple platforms, and engage with your audience. A lot of businesses prefer old-fashioned means and post a detailed job advertisement on a site like Upwork or Freelancer, where they can interview candidates and, and enjoy an open channel of communication with who they’re working with. Many other businesses, however, prefer the efficacy offered by simply selecting the services they want, as is the case with UK Writings. While these sites are home to writing experts, which is ideal for content or editing, similar services are also offered by Scripted, which are focused on business marketing.

12.      BRUSH UP ON YOUR WRITING SKILLS

Sloppy content is bad content. When marketing yourself online, it’s important to project yourself in the best possible light, and appear professional and reliable at all times. You should be making your audience believe that you’re the person offering the best products or services, and that they can trust you to deliver. It is impossible to make this kind of impression with poorly written content, littered with spelling and grammar errors. Some guides are available to improve your writing though, such as those offered by Australian Help. Full courses in writing are available with Academized. As your content should be at least 2000 words in order to fuel your SEO, you can monitor this with Easy Word Count, and avoid any accusations of plagiarism or unoriginal content by using Cite It In to reference your sources.

3.      VARY YOUR CONTENT

While blog posts are an amazing way to promote your business, they’re not the only way. Many people will not have time to read articles multiple times a day, and so shorter snappier posts can also be effective. Images are always shareable across social media, as are gifs and infographics. Interactive content such as polls can also be a great way to mix up your posts.

4.      POST FREQUENTLY

While there may have been a time when posting once or twice a week was sufficient, it is now essential to post updates throughout the day, every day. Studies currently show that posting between 5 and 10 times a day is optimum for Twitter, and up to four times a day is best for Facebook. To see results, you will need to post as often as you can, or you will see your audience drop.

5.      USE A CONVERSATIONAL TONE

When you’re selling or marketing in person, the last thing you want to do is be standoffish, or boring. The same goes for online marketing – you shouldn’t be writing lengthy essays, instead you should be writing as if you’re talking to a friend. This establishes rapport, and keeps your reader engaged. A great way to implement this in your writing is to use questions throughout the text, as it feels like a two-way conversation.

6.      SPEND TIME ON HEADLINES

A good headline is how you stand out from thousands of other blogs and websites – it’s important to make sure yours will hook your reader in. Try to optimize for search and socials.

7.      MAKE SURE YOU’RE MOBILE FRIENDLY

If your content isn’t available over mobile devices, then it will be completely lost, overlooked, and forgotten about. Your content needs to be as accessible as possible. You can use special tools like Google’s Mobile-friendly Test.

8.      KEEP PROMOTING YOURSELF

You should spend as much time promoting your content around the web as you do writing it. While sharing your posts to social media is a start, there are plenty of other avenues to explore too. This includes sending your content to other bloggers and websites, emailing businesses, and sending direct questions out over twitter.

9.      PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT

Screenshot 2017-02-21 09.56.07Promotional content is a great way to extend your audience, drive more traffic to your site, and engage with your existing clients. Your value is increased as you are offering them something, maybe for free, and they will like you more for it. Votigo is a really easy-to-use platform that will allow you to create custom contests & sweepstakes to add to your content strategy.

10. BE PATIENT!

It can take some time to see the results from blogging and online marketing. This means that you’ll be blogging and posting updates daily, even when you don’t feel like you’re getting anything in return. You will, just not immediately. Giving up in the first weeks or months definitely won’t get you the results you want – so stick to your strategy in order to succeed.

Overall, generating original content takes time, effort, and energy. However, when consistently uploaded and promoted, the returns can be amazing for your business.

This post was originally written by Sharon Conwell for the Heyo blog

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Engage Your Audience With a March Madness Promotion

url-300x177March Madness is right around the corner! But don’t worry – there’s still plenty of time to launch an engaging social promotion to celebrate! And more importantly, a brand doesn’t have to be directly associated with basketball (or sports in general) in order to be able to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the tournament.

Chances are your audience participates in the tournament in one way or another already (either by simply watching the games or completing a bracket as well, for example), so why not engage them by tapping into a behavior they’re already doing, for a chance to win something that IS relevant for your brand? pexels-photo-110180

In order to help inspire you as you think about ways that YOU can run a March Madness promotion, here are a few ideas to get you started.

One idea is to engage fans with a photo contest that invites them to dress up or decorate their space in honor of their favorite basketball team. Or, you could invite fans to upload photos of their completed brackets for a chance to win a cool and incentivizing prize from your brand. Alternatively, you could run a voting competition where fans can vote for their favorite team, mascot, play etc.. Essentially, the idea is to take advantage of all the excitement that surrounds this awesome tournament and use it as a way to engage your audience and bring them into the March Madness conversation!

Ready to learn more about how we can bring a March Madness promotion to life for you? Click here to chat with one of our Account Representatives.

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New Live Promotion Examples from LMN and Air Canada

It’s been a busy week here at Votigo, and we have two more live promotion examples to share with you! Both LMN and Air Canada have launched some cool campaigns that each take a different approach at engaging their audience and creating a unique user experience. We hope they help inspire you as you start to plan your next promotion!

The LMNies Awards Voting Campaign

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To generate buzz and drive awareness for the Network’s LMNies Awards, LMN has launched an interactive voting campaign in which fans are invited to vote for their favorite characters and moments from a series of LMN movies. Winners generated through the voting campaign will be revealed on LMN’s air on February 20th during a premiere movie event. This provides a perfect way for fans to engage with the larger LMN brand conversation, and really feel as though they are a part of the awards experience. Built on Votigo’s Enterprise Platform, this campaign features custom voter categories, social sharing and mobile responsive design.

Air Canada’s “Feel The Love” Contest

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Air Canada just launched a fun and interactive contest that’s specifically designed for their travel agent audience. Agents are incentivized to track and record their itinerary bookings for additional chances to win both daily and grand prizes. In this case, each booking equates to a heart, and every heart increases the agent’s chances of winning! Built by Votigo’s talented full-service development team, this contest features a French/English language toggle, duplicate booking number recognition and mobile responsive design.

Want to learn more about how Votigo’s solutions can go to work for your brand? Click here to chat with one of our Account Representatives.

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7 Content Types That Will Optimize Your Conversion Rate

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If there was a personified version of click bait, it would be a sleazy car salesman who swears that the 170,000 mile, dented up Toyota was only driven once a week on Sundays. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t stand liars and that is exactly what happens when businesses use compelling headlines to promote awful content. No, I don’t want to click through 38 slides to read four sentences. You just lost a sale and earned yourself a blood feud. Thanks, click bait.

 We’ve all seen terrible content, and from a business perspective, it is detrimental – not simply useless. Poor content can have a measurable, negative effect on search engine rankings, followers (I’ve unsubscribed to several websites for posting garbage), and a business’s reputation. Just like a used car salesman, poor content screams ‘scam’ (and probably smells like cigarettes too).

 Quality content provides value to an audience. It doesn’t feel like advertising, and though it might have a marketing purpose, it comes across as genuine. One of the best metrics to determine the opinion of your content is to look into your conversion and click through rates (CTR). It will let you know the percentage of people who land on your site and make it all the way to the end of your online process. The end result is traditionally measured by the number of those who make a purchase, but it can also be measured by those who are moved into the next stage of your marketing funnel, like signing up for your email.

 Below are 7 types of content that will optimize your conversion rates. By effectively integrating these into your website and blog, you will have the framework to provide value, entertain your audience, and in the process, convert some of those leads into customers.

CONTENT FOR READERS

Interactive Quizzes

CTR:                            12%-28% (Boombox)

Conversion Rate:        9.94% (WordStream)

Quizzes are a great way to engage an audience because they require active participation. If you really want to see this type of content excel, it should be linked to some extremely popular fandom within society. An example or this could be, “The Hardest Harry Potter Quiz in Existence,” and would work well with a business that focuses in the entertainment industry. Try to tailor the content to your niche so you receive quality leads.

Quizzes do well at generating likes and followers, but this doesn’t pay the bills. In order to really capitalize on their value, you should incorporate a way for the user to opt-in to one of your email marketing lists. The conversion for this method is not about selling a product, but getting you one step closer in the process.

Surveys

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CTR:                            24.8% (The study was specifically for email surveys)

Primary Benefit:           Provides Information in Regards to your Website’s Weaknesses

While quizzes test an audience’s intelligence, they have a narrow target demographic. I’m not saying that there are only a few smart consumers, only that quizzes are most attractive to people who already have an expert-level interest in the proposed subject. Surveys can tap into these same people, but keep the doors open to wider audience. Since a survey is about opinions, there is no right answer and no barrier to engagement.

Simply running a survey like, “What are the best DIY app makers?,” and publicly tracking the results can help a technology company engage with their potential customers that are interested in learning how to create an app without any programming knowledge. It requires little effort on the part of the consumer, and in our fast-paced society, a small amount of commitment can be the deciding factor of an engagement.

Ultimately, this is more of a way to engage with your audience. If you really want to use surveys to increase your conversion rate, try to get people to answer questions about your process. If it turns out that a large portion of your potential customers are turned off by the design of your website then fixing the problem can greatly increase your conversion rate.

Personality Assessments

CTR:                            82% (Boombox)

Conversion Rate:        20% (DemandGen)

Personality assessments are one of my favorite forms of content because they can give insight about yourself and are incredibly popular among large audiences. One of the more intriguing aspects of assessments is their ability to connect others based off of shared social groups. An example is an assessment that sorts the users into the noble Houses from Game of Thrones. Once you get your results, you want to share it with your friends and this helps promote your product all over again.

Assessments provide an additional benefit to businesses because they will sort your potential customers into groups based off of their personality and interests. If used effectively, this data can be an invaluable tool to target your marketing to the subsets of your target demographic.

Blog Posts

CTR:                            1.5%-2.5% (HubSpot)

Conversion Rate:        2.35%-5.31% (Median to Top 25%)

11.45% (Top 10% of Websites)

Blog posts are the original form of content marketing and serve as the backbone for most websites. One major benefit is that they boost a website’s search engine ranking due to targeted keywords and a basis of dynamic content. The general public consumes blogs almost without realizing that they are doing it. By drawing in an audience, a well-written blog can create trust and turn an advertisement into advice. The key to a successful blog is to engage your audience on a personal level. This requires a strong, consistent voice over an extended period of time. If done well, blog posts can reliably convert impressions into sales since your audience already trusts your opinions.

CONTENT FOR VIEWERS

Infographics

CTR:                            26% (Brafton)

Conversion Rate:        11% (Brafton)

Infographics had lived in print media for years but have only recently begun making an impact in the digital world. The key to infographics is their visual element. A business needs to catch their audience’s attention quickly and this can be accomplished through elegant design.

The design of the infographic is important to its success, but the text should not be ignored. Both need to work together in order synergize the information and to provide the most powerful experience for the intended viewer. A good graphic artist is essential to creating infographics, which mean you will either need to personally have the relevant skill set or hire someone who does.

Videos

videoCTR:                            4% (Quora)

Conversion:                 1%-8% (This seems to vary based off of the company)

Digital video is close to its traditional counterpart, but with a few nuanced differences. First, no one likes to see an advertisement when they are trying to watch something on YouTube. The on-demand nature makes the consumer irritated with interruptions. When a commercial pops up while a video is trying to load, nobody’s happy.

Video as content is much more effective at converting potential customers than a blatant advertisement. The videos should be focused on entertaining or educating your audience. Use demonstration videos to give your audience a taste of your products, and the visual element can quickly result in a sale. Again, the video shouldn’t be focused on making a sale but rather convincing your audience that the video’s content is valuable.

Contests and Giveaways

CTR:                            5% (ConversionXL)

Conversion Rate:        31% (ConversionXL)

This whole content category straddles the line between text, visual and pure idea. In order to catch an audience’s attention, a strong promotional image is needed and it should almost always show the prize. This allows the audience to instantly see what they could win and in turn elicits an emotional response of desire. Because they want the prize, they are willing to provide the information that you ask for. Contests (and sweepstakes) are also a great way to grow your email marketing lists, which can be used as the basis for future marketing efforts.

ONE LAST THOUGHT

Just because you implement some of the above methods does not mean you are automatically going to generate awesome content. Also, these various forms require specific skills that many people don’t have. Don’t worry if you are not using every single one in your business. In some instances, it is more powerful to be an authority in one sphere (let’s say it is YouTube) and use the other forms to push people to your premium content.

 I hope you enjoyed the read, because I had a blast writing it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. You do not have to do this alone. Finally, if anyone in charge of a click bait site reads this, please end the slideshows. Like I said, they probably smell like cigarettes.

This article was originally written by Andrew Gazdecki for the Heyo blog

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