INSTALLMENT #1: THE CO-OPERATORS

To add to the list of information we share with you that’s designed to help inspire you as you plan your next promotion, we’re happy to announce Votigo’s latest blog series: Learn From the Pros. The 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.

Today we’re chatting with Paulina Dudzinska and Katie Dance from Canadian insurance and investment company The Co-operators. We’ve been working with Paulina and Katie for over 2 years now and are excited to share their thoughts on how contests & sweepstakes have helped them achieve their brand objectives. We hope you enjoy!

Votigo: How long have you been with The Co-operators?

Paulina: 9 years this year! 8 years with MarCom and 4 years in Social Media.
Katie – I just hit my 6 years this past December. 4.5 years with Public Affairs and 1.5 years with Social Media.

Votigo: What are your roles there? How did you get started? What were you doing before that?

Paulina: Currently, I am the Manager of the Social Media department. My previous role was a Social Media Consultant for 2 years and prior to that was a subject matter expert in advertising with a focus on digital which catapulted my interest and passion for social media.
Katie –I am currently the Social Media Specialist on our small, but mighty, team.

Votigo: What are your biggest goals & initiatives for The Co-operators in 2017?

Paulina & Katie: Our team’s priorities are:

– Operationalize Social Customer Care and align it to our Omni-Channel approach and distribution model. Connect this service offering with our agencies, contact centres and web presence.

– Focus on long-term story arcs that discuss topics of mutual interest with our Canadian audiences like; climate change, community resiliency, Canada’s 150^th anniversary etc.

– Integration, integration and more integration! Social is not a stand-alone channel and cannot be successful without strategic alignment and integration into all facets of the business.

– Crisis communication planning. We all know that emergencies or high-risk stories happen online more than on traditional channels. We need to be prepared with a well thought out plan.

– Robust tracking and analytics – our focus will be to truly understand the brand equity and ROI impact of our social media efforts.

– Equip our 500+ producers with adequate support on social media through content, lead signaling and ease of use.

And more…!

Votigo: How often do you run contests or sweepstakes currently? And what platforms do you run them on?

Paulina & Katie: When appropriate to the project or initiative. We don’t like to overdo it with this tactic by trying to entice our social communities only to engage with us because there’s a golden carrot dangling in from of them (a prize). Contests and sweepstakes are decided based on strategic alignment to the overarching goals and objectives and designed to be meaningful and valuable to our audiences. For example, last year we ran a voting contest to announce the launch of our new brand campaign. We gave Canadian audiences the opportunity to vote on character names, have a voice in our brand and help us continue developing ongoing story arcs to support the awareness of our new TV and digital commercials. This proved to be quite successful; we received over 1,000 votes and increased our YouTube video views to 600,000+!

Integration is key here as well but we often rely on tried and true platforms like Facebook (to embed apps) or microsites. Other channels act as supporting mechanisms for content distribution and driving traffic to the final destination for increased reach and participation. Social advertising is another key ingredient in the success of each campaign – it’s no longer a free lunch out there.

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?

Paulina & Katie: For the Financial Services industry, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram (new) seem to be the most successful for engagement. Our core audiences and key prospects (millennials) are most active on these platforms and respond well to a blend of content and campaigns provided the mix is authentic and valuable. We could try our hand at Snapchat or other hot-right-now channels but we apply a strategic mindset to where we believe we should be present based on research and brand alignment. We could be everywhere but that would only dilute our efforts and stretch us too thin to be successful in engaging with the right audiences.

We’ve seen the most success around topics on Distracted Driving, lifestyle content, Mental Health and our support for Kids Help Phone (BroTalk) and other hot button topics that are of mutual interest to our communities. It’s not always about Product. Test and optimize every chance you get to better understand your audience. The Co-operators uses Personas (client segmentations) to ensure we reach the right audience at the right time with the right message – it’s not a ‘spray and pray’ approach that leaves you hoping for the best!

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

Paulina & Katie: Good question! We’ve tried many tactics like voting, Myth vs. Fact, sweepstakes and traditional contests to drive engagement and increase brand equity.

Right now, we’re planning to launch a campaign with Votigo to promote Canadian family pride and celebrate Canada’s 150^th anniversary with a photo modifying app. Think snapchat filters and user generated content! We’re pretty excited about this new initiative and the outcomes through 2017!

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

Paulina & Katie: A blend of both! Find a vendor that gives you and your brand the autonomy through self-serve options for cost efficiencies but also partners with you on high profile strategic initiatives through a full-service offering model. We love working with Votigo because of their flexibility, expertise and high degree of service and account management- we consider them a strategic partner and look forward to collaborating on many more initiatives in the future!

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

Paulina & Katie: No matter where your social promotion will be hosted, ask yourself these questions to ensure that you’re setting your team and brand up for success:

• Do you have the time and resources to devote to the planning, management, and engagement that will be required?
• Do you have the budget to give a prize to incentivize participation?
• Is the contest part of a larger integrated marketing campaign?
• Do you have clear goals for this contest?

Here’s a high-level framework that we follow at The Co-operators:

• Set clear goals/objectives
• Select the social network you will launch on and learn the rules of that site!
• Define details (tactics)
• Integrate between online and offline channels
• Get legal and compliant not only with your internal processes but understand that each social network has its own nuances. Understand them before you start your campaign to avoid unpleasant setbacks.
• Prepare to promote and converse
• Launch!
• Manage the campaign
• Analyze the result
• Continue to engage with your community afterwards

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

Paulina: My go-to blogs & websites are: Mashable eMarketer Daily, Strategy Daily, CEB Global (Marketing edition), Social Media Examiner, LinkedIn Newsfeed (anything and everything is valuable), Marketing Profs, Forbes, Economist, Globe & Mail (anything business-related)
Katie – Marketing Blogs and Newsletters: Marketing Dive, CEB Global (Marketing edition), Harvard Business Review, SmartBrief, Mashable, Canadian Marketing Association Blog, LinkedIn Newsfeed and Pulse, UnMarketing. Marketing Books: Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Guy Kawasaki, Joe Pulizzi, Jay Baer. Non-marketing related my favourite blog is Kottke – a true delve into the beauty and amazingness of the internet and the stories and interesting things that can be found!

Votigo:  Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Votigo blog audience?

Paulina & Katie: Social is fast-moving, ever-changing and so much in real-time that it can be exhausting to keep up. Prioritize what your brand wants to achieve, align it to strategic objectives and set your plan. Be flexible and agile because you’ll be modifying as you go along, just don’t stray away from your vision too much.

Don’t forget that social is just like a conversation, except it’s happening online. Successful businesses listen first and sell second. Going out there guns a blazin’ with hard sales-focused content and campaigns won’t bode well. Use social to humanize your brand and your business. Oh, and grow some thick skin! Not every conversation is sugar and spice, everything nice. Have fun!

Thanks for participating in the first installment of our “Learn From the Pros” blog series, Paulina & Katie!

-The Votigo Team

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is bigger now than it has ever been. It’s also a completely different beast than it was ten years ago. It evolves and changes with every shift in Google’s algorithm, and working in the industry requires a keen eye and the ability to keep track of everything happening in the world of search.

Today, we’re going to look at 11 ways SEO is changing as we kick off 2017. As always, these are just predictions, but they are based heavily in fact. Let’s take a look!

Search engines are constantly growing and changing, but at the heart of these changes are some basic trends that we can use to inform the future of our craft as SEO experts. Below, you’ll find 11 changes that are most certainly coming in 2017. These changes will affect SEO long into the future as well..

FOCUS ON MOBILE & SPEED

Mobile devices are now used to access the Internet more than desktops or laptops. They are the preferred method for using search engines and finding answers to questions. As a result, Google has taken notice.

Today, mobile responsive web design is a must if you want to rank well, but it also comes with another requirement: speed. Website performance is also extremely important, as Google notes a 7% reduction in conversions for every second delay.

So, what does this mean for you? It means your websites need to be fast and look great on mobile devices. Thankfully, today’s options are plentiful for both. This trend won’t be going anywhere, however, so it’s important to keep both of these things in check.

RANKBRAIN AND MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that is able to learn and grow on its own as an algorithm. Google’s RankBrain is a type of machine learning that, according to Google, is able to “see a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with and make a guess as to what words or phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the results accordingly, making it more effective at handling never-before-seen search queries.”

For SEO, this means that Google’s algorithm is becoming more and more human. Case in point: keywords won’t be enough going forward. That doesn’t mean keywords are dead, but it does mean that we should look beyond them.

Our keywords should inform the topics we choose and the approach we take. We need to identify search intent and understand why a person is searching for those particular keywords instead of just placing them in the text and calling it a day.

PERSONAL BRANDING

When it comes to trust, people would much rather deal with another human being that buy from a faceless corporation. A study done by DKNewMedia found that 32% of online consumers trust a stranger’s opinion on forums or blogs more than branded advertisements and marketing campaigns.

Trust is everything in business. Without it, not even the greatest SEO can convince someone to buy. Instead of focusing on your business as a whole, consider creating a network of personal brands. For example, when I’m marketing my new blog, I don’t start by shouting out the name from the rooftops. Instead, I market myself. I tell people who I am, a little about me, and why I’m in the business of blogging.

From an SEO standpoint, this type of personal branding is great for when you’re building links and raising your TrustRank.

USER EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING

Google’s in love with the user experience. As a service, they want to showcase websites that provide quality content and a pleasant experience overall. Like anything else involving SEO, if Google loves it, we love it.

Using metrics like bounce rates, CTR, and the average time on a page, we can see how satisfied users are with their time on a site. Tiny tweaks like improving your website’s speed and design functionality will go a long way towards SEO moving forward.

Techniques like this fall into UEO or user experience optimization. It’s important that you’re constantly monitoring the functionality and performance of your site, as these key metrics will have a huge effect on your user satisfaction.

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY

To stand out from the crowd, many experienced SEO specialists recommend long form content with tons of words, and therefore, tons of information. While this is nice, things are changing to the point where quality now matters more than how many words you have.

The rise of long-form content has left us with guides that take forever to read and even longer to write. Today’s users want their answers fast. To accommodate this need, your content strategy should seek to focus on “dense content.” This is writing that has a lot of value per word.

Cut out all the filler and focus on the hard facts. If you can say it in 500 words instead of 5,000, then do that.

RICH SNIPPETS IN SEARCH ENGING RESULTS PAGES

You may not use it now because you don’t think you need it, but rich snippets and schema.org markup are going to be extremely important going forward. Not only do these tags help Google better understand information on your site, but they also put you in the running for Google’s Quick Answers or Rich Card results.

Currently, rich snippets are used a lot for recipes, videos, local businesses, and reviews, but they’re going to expand to everything in 2017. Doing this now will also help Google’s RankBrain better interpret your site as well.

ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are versions of mobile websites that have been stripped down to their pure HTML. Since launching, these types of pages have seen speed improvements of up to 85%.

While these types of pages started out with a small focus, they are much more widespread. Even if you’re not using them, users will start to focus on speed even more after experiencing what this technology can do.

Since speed is indeed a ranking factor, using options like this can drastically improve otherwise slow-loading pages.

VOICE SEARCH ALGORITHMS

As of right now, voice search isn’t taking over the world, but it has the potential to do so in 2017. With the rise of virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana, more people are becoming accustomed to using their voice for search.

To prepare for this, you should start thinking about your keywords and your targeting methods in terms of “natural language.” These are defined as normal terms you would use while speaking. They are also something Google’s RankBrain is learning to interpret and falls into the aforementioned “vague queries” we discussed.

String your otherwise separate keywords together to create a phrase you would use while normally speaking. Say you’re targeting things like action movies. Instead of focusing on a keyword like “action movies” you could use phrases like “What are the best action movies of 2016?”

A great way to test your natural language choices are to say something out loud and see if it sounds right. If it comes across as forced, then you know you need to tweak it.

LOCAL SEO

Most SEO specialists focus on ranking in organic search results, but many are neglecting the power that local SEO wields. If we recall the rise of mobile searches, then it makes sense that people are doing their searching on-the-go.

Google’s own research into the subject found that 50% of consumers who made local searches visited a store that same day. Another 34% did the same thing on a computer or tablet. As mobile searches grow, so too will the need for local SEO.

So long as your business has a physical location of any kind, you can start ranking in these results. Simply follow these quick steps to get started:

• Complete your Google My Business page
• Include your name, address, and phone number on every page of your site
• Use local schema markups in your HTML
• Focus on local keywords and search phrases
  

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LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS

Long-tail keywords are the evolution of standard keywords and offer a lot more for your content than single terms. Any keyword phrase that’s at least three words can be considered a long-tail variation.

These types of keywords are usually detailed and defined. This means that you’ll be targeting a much more focused audience with them, and you’ll have less competition. These keywords also help you understand search intent much better than a single word.

For example, if someone is searching for “star wars”, you don’t know what aspect of the series they are searching for. It could be the video games, the movies, or collectibles. By expanding your target, you can better understand the search intent.

THE RISE OF VIDEO

Video is predicted to account for 80 percent of all traffic on the Internet by 2019. If you look at the popularity of YouTube and things like Facebook Live, you can see it happening already. For SEO, it’s also a great way to spice up your site with some unique content.

When doing this, integrate videos into your written content and be sure to include a transcript as well for people who want to read. You can also tag your videos with keywords and create a video sitemap to help search engines find these easier.

This is really easy to do. Just host the video on YouTube and embed it in your site to avoid having to store your hefty video files on your own server. As video continues to grow and become more popular, starting now will ensure you can reap the SEO benefits later.

FINAL THOUGHTS

SEO is moving in a brave new direction, and we must go with it to ensure success in the future. Consider these trends and prepare for them now, so you’re ready when the future arrives. How do you prepare for the changes that are coming to SEO? Let us know in the comments!

This post was originally written by Trey Donaldson for the Heyo blog. 

Enter-to-Win Sweepstakes are a great way to grow your marketing lists and drive awareness of a new product or brand offering. This is because typically, the barrier to entry in a sweeps is low – which means the likelihood of getting of lot of entries is high. Add in a compelling prize or a sense of urgency with a fast-approaching entry deadline, and you’ve got the formula for campaign success!

But don’t take our word for it! Here are some new live examples from Nutrisystem and Lifetime  to inspire you as you plan YOUR next campaign!

Nutrisystem’s Lucky and Lean 13 $13,000 Giveaway

In order to promote their latest weight loss program and package (The Lucky and Lean 13), Nutrisystem has kicked off 2017 with an Enter-to-Win Sweepstakes to generate leads and drive awareness of this exciting new offering. Since people only have to fill out a simple registration form in order to enter, the barrier to entry is low, which means registration numbers are likely to be high. Additionally, they are dangling a very compelling, high-value prize as an incentive, which is sure to bring in a lot of entries as well. And because they are doing a terrific job of promoting the campaign on their Facebook page, we can expect that engagement will be great for this campaign. The sweepstakes was built on Votigo’s Enterprise platform and features mobile responsive design and email database opt-in functionality.

Lifetime’s Beaches BFF Screening Sweepstakes

Lifetime launched their sweepstakes in order to generate buzz and drive awareness of the upcoming premier of their new movie, a remake of the classic movie, Beaches. Participants have 3 days to enter for a chance to win a trip to New York or Los Angeles for themselves and their BFF to see a preview screening of the movie. This creates a strong sense of urgency for the brand, which results in incredibly high levels of buzz and engagement. This sweepstakes was built by Votigo’s talented full-service development team and features mobile responsive design and homepage video embed.

Ready to start planning your next campaign and kick off the New Year right? Click here to schedule a live demo with an Account Representative.

Creating a content strategy for various channels can be extremely complicated, with dozens of moving pieces. From finding content to curate on social media, to managing guest bloggers, to coordinating freelance or in-house writers to working with designers and video editors to create visual assets – it’s a lot to coordinate and manage!

Creating cohesive strategies that allow you to maximize your content creation efforts is essential. And of course, your editorial calendar is the cornerstone of these efforts. It serves as the centerpiece for content ideas, theme explorations, buyer personas, buyer funnels, and a way to keep writers and editors on the same page.

Your editorial calendar will sync your PR, social media campaigns, blogs, and paid outreach, among many other aspects of your weekly, monthly, and yearly content schedule.

“One of the best tools that traditional journalism lends content marketing and brand journalism is the editorial calendar,” says Jayson DeMers, Founder and CEO of AudienceBloom and Forbes contributor.

Syncing your editorial calendar for multiple marketing initiatives is essential. Here are five stellar strategies to sync your editorial calendar for the upcoming year.

1. STREAMLINE YOUR MARKETING AND DEVELOP A YEARLY EDITORIAL CALENDAR

Exploring themes for the upcoming year will streamline your marketing efforts. And developing a yearly editorial calendar will put these efforts into motion.

The idea of a yearly editorial calendar may seem daunting, but approaching it from a yearly, monthly, and even weekly perspective has value for you and your team. The idea of a yearly editorial calendar is like climbing a mountain, since the way down is much easier.

“Reporting on the spot news via social media is one way to get the word out,” suggests Search Engine Watch. “But having an organized 12-month editorial calendar that slices up the year into monthly, weekly, and daily snapshots can take your content to new levels of success.”

National and domestic holidays, important industry events, advertising campaigns, product launches, blogs, email campaigns, videos, offers, promotions, and months dedicated to entire themes can all quickly fill up your yearly editorial calendar.

In fact, yearly editorial calendars are so important to organization and productivity, Forbes posts theirs online for all to see.

Look at overreaching content when developing your yearly editorial calendar, and themes that will serve as pieces to the puzzle at specific times.

2. EDITORIAL CALENDARS WITH BUYER PERSONAS INCREASE YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS.

Once you begin developing your editorial calendar, considering buyer personas is an excellent next step. Because buyer personas simply result in strong, cost effective marketing.

A Forbes post by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) compares the power of developing buyer personas with fishing. This may seem odd, but it truly emphasizes the need for buyer personas in your editorial calendar.

YEC points out that if you want to catch a fish, you wouldn’t just throw your line into any random waterhole and hope for the best.

You want to keep luck out of the equation. You want to determine what type of fish you want to catch and match that with a strategy that maximizes results. The same goes for buyer personas when it comes to your marketing strategy.

Buyer personas in your editorial calendar will allow you to know exactly who your target customer is. This keeps wasteful marketing efforts to a minimum, and also brings about helpful objections.

Gathering demographic details such as interests, gender, education, location, income, occupation, buying concerns, and buying motivation is a perfect place to start, according to Shopify. Finding out what your client wants and what they want to avoid is also buyer persona best practice.

3. MATCH BUYER PERSONAS TO BUYING FUNNELS 

After you have developed buyer personas for your editorial calendar, you can utilize buying funnels to mold potential customers into customers. You will map your content to each buyer persona, and at each stage of the buying cycle.

Matching buyer personas to buying funnels is one of the most compelling reasons to develop an editorial calendar.

Diversifying your marketing efforts to fit each client’s buyer persona is indeed important. However, the order in which you deliver your content is a key aspect, according to web design platform Lean Labs.

Buying funnels normally have at least three stages with a top to bottom approach. Awareness is at the top. Evaluation is your middle of the funnel (MOFU). And conversion is at the bottom, where you want to get potential customers to convert.

“The trick to designing a site that’s built to capture and convert visitors at all stages is a strategy that combines keyword-driven content with a technically-sound website,” according to Kissmetrics.

Match your buyer personas with premium content at the top of your buying funnel. This will peak interest at the awareness stage, thus leading them to evaluation, and then conversion.

A great example of this is Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime customers convert at 74 percent, compared to a 13 percent conversion rate for non-prime members, according to Internet Retailer, an e-commerce intelligence platform.

4. EXPLORE THEMES AND ASSIGN CONTENT TYPES 

Exploring themes and assigning content types within your editorial calendar will get you closer to specifics. Develop in-depth content that will serve as your content strategy foundation.

This allows you to begin assigning content types, building supporting data for the future content in your marketing strategy.

These foundational pieces will be used for email campaigns, ebooks, blog posts, infographics, videos, and spread throughout all social media channels, according to Social Media Examiner.

Building these in-depth pieces involves a bit of research. However, you already have your buyer personas developed, and these will be invaluable for this stage in your editorial calendar.

Use your target audience information and begin keyword searches that would reflect your buyer personas. These will begin to add up fast, so have keyword buckets in place for your buyer personas and buying funnel stages.

Exploring themes and mapping them out in your editorial calendar will keep everything organized for maximum marketing efficiency. It will also serve as a source for your foundational content, a place to develop sub-themes and assigning content types, among other benefits.

5. UTILIZE YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR TO REPURPOSE CONTENT ASSETS 

Your editorial calendar will come in handy when it comes time to repurpose your content assets. Since a single piece can blanket multiple initiatives, you want to have an effective way of keeping your marketing vision on track.

Those foundational pieces you developed and targeted to buyer personas can be expanded to a variety of content assets.

An ebook is a prime example. An ebook is a theme, and each chapter is simply a sub-theme. These subt-hemes can be repurposed content assets like blogs, videos, and social media campaigns.

John Rampton, online marketing guru and Forbes contributor suggests that, “Content can play a major role here, as publishers have amassed significant amounts of data to help understand what is more effective in terms of driving engagement, what is less successful in terms of messaging and ads.”

An infographic is another stellar example. Infographics contain a lot of data and information from several supporting sources. You can repurpose infographics into a breadth of content assets across multiple client campaigns in the same industry.

Once you have repurposed content assets effectively in your editorial calendar, you can then switch gears to an amplification strategy. The goal is to simply get potential customers to visit and engage in your buying funnel.

An amplification strategy can help you achieve this. Influencer outreach, email marketing, retargeting, and using partner channels are all essential to your amplification efforts.

6. SYNCING YOUR EFFORTS 

Once you’ve gotten to this stage, now you are ready to put it all together. Use your research into themes, seasonal events, newsjacking, etc to match your content and amplification initiatives. For example, can your Public Relations team pitch an infographic created for a specific campaign?   Can you use an article targeted at solving a pain point as a landing page for a Facebook ads sales funnel? What social media posts can be created to amplify a theme that you are exploring in your blog?

By adding all of these elements into your editorial calendar, you can guarantee that all of the different initiatives are best served from your content creation strategy. Accountability, commitment, accomplishment, planning, creativity, trends, and measurement, are all editorial calendar benefits. Once you adapt the content to each channel, you’ll have a wealth of content that can be used to guide visitors into every stage of your buying funnel

Buyer personas, buying funnels, and repurposing content assets are only a few ways to sync your PR, social media campaigns, blogs, and paid outreach. To increase your marketing efforts and ROI, employ an editorial calendar for powerful results in this upcoming year.

This article was originally written by Nick Rojas for the Heyo Blog. 

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!

And speaking of inspiration, we thought you’d enjoy these two campaigns from Country Financial and Conair in particular because they represent the variety of ways you can leverage Votigo’s different application types to engage and activate your audience.

Country Financial’s Fantasy Football Personality Quiz

The insurance company is leveraging Votigo’s Personality Quiz application in order to provide an additional engagement opportunity for their customers. Participants are invited to answer a series of questions about how they interact with Fantasy Football in order to learn what kind of fan they are. At the end of they quiz. they are rewarded with a fun icon that they can share across their social networks, which creates a great viral word-of-mouth marketing effect for the brand. This campaign was built using Votigo’s self-serve platform and features mobile responsive design and social share functionality.

Conair’s #DoItYourSelfie Holiday Photo SweepstakesIn this promo, Conair fans are invited to share a photo of how they used a Conair product to achieve their holiday look by using the branded hashtag #ConairDoItYourSelfie. Hashtag campaigns let your fans enter a promotion through their Instagram and Twitter accounts as well as directly from a Facebook page or Website. This way, people can participate from the platform they are most comfortable with, which is a great way to ensure high levels of campaign engagement for your brand. Also built using Votigo’s self-serve platform, this campaign features mobile responsive design, content moderation and social sharing.

Ready to start planning your next campaign and kick off the New Year right? Click here to schedule a live demo with an Account Representative.

In December, if you snooze you lose. While some might be filling up on cookies and chugging down the eggnog, others are preparing for the year ahead. Smart marketers and entrepreneurs use this time for business planning. They lay out their entire year; or at the very least, the first quarter. They settle on initiatives and brainstorm content. If this is sounding familiar, you’re probably looking for ways to make the most out of the rest of the year.

Let me help you maximize your 2017 with these 8 easy to use tools.

QUICKLY CREATE THUMBNAILS, COVER PHOTOS, BLOG FEATURED IMAGES AND MORE WITH SNAPPA.IO

In my opinion, Canva doesn’t even hold a candle to this tool. First of all, Snappa is much more user friendly. It’s easy to navigate and understand. Second, Snappa can help you create everything from ebook covers to YouTube thumbnails.

Beginner’s Tip:  Keep your social media covers cohesive. Open up several different tabs in your browser, and make your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn covers all at once.

Works best for social media marketers and bloggers.

GET 700+ TITLE AND TOPIC IDEAS WITH TITLE-GENERATOR.COM

Honestly, I’m usually not looking for a genius headline generator. More often than not, I just need to bounce around some ideas. I love this website. It’s a bare bones title generator. You plug in a word, and get 700+ titles and topics to work with. Keep in mind, these are not all relevant or grammatically correct. Use your best judgement, and at the very least, this tool will assist in the content brainstorming process. Out of every tool, this is probably my favorite.

Beginner’s Tip: Pages two and three usually have the more obscure titles. Page one will showcase a lot of headlines you could’ve come up with on your own.

Works best for copywriters and bloggers.

DECREASE PAGE LOAD TIME WITH COMPRESSJPEG.COM

To go back and compress all your blog images might take a bit of time; maybe more than you want to spend. That’s totally acceptable. Instead, use this tool for images in the future. It will help you greatly decrease page load time, as your images are now compressed down to the lowest possible size. This is an easy to use tool that will greatly reward your site performance in the long run.

Beginner’s Tip: To save time, upload a handful of images at once, then download all after compression.

Works best for bloggers.

USE BITEABLE.COM TO CREATE VIRAL VIDEO CAMPAIGNS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA 

Before finding this tool, I didn’t even touch video. Seriously, the idea of pairing homegrown footage, audio, music, and text together was completely overwhelming. I figured I’d leave it to the professionals, which more often than not, turned into me avoiding video all together. This tool has changed the way I view video marketing.

Beginner’s Tip: Develop a storyline before jumping right in to video creation. If you have a storyboard, your video will smoothly come together. 

Works best for social media marketers and content managers.

WEBINARNINJA.COM IS A VIDEO CONFERENCING SERVICE THAT DOESN’T OVERWHELM

Current webinar software has its limits. In fact, even the most experienced webinar hosts struggle with current webinar platforms. I stumbled across Webinar Ninja a month ago. It took me less than five minutes to figure out how to navigate my account. I had my first webinar set up and running in less than 30. Save time with the new webinar platform to beat.

Beginner’s Tip: Run a test webinar before going live. Remember, make sure each webinar has a clear purpose. This isn’t like Facebook Live, where it’s ok to rant and talk without an outlined topic.

Works best for online personalities, content managers, and industry influencers.

SLICKTEXT.COM HELPS YOU EMBRACE THE NEW MAILING LIST.

You can probably agree; email is becoming a bit archaic. Will we ever terminate email lists all together? Probably not. But, the time has come to embrace a new communication tool: text marketing. Slick Text has dozens of easy to use features, such as text to win contests, drip campaigns, and picture messaging. On top of that, they offer message scheduling and drip marketing campaigns

Works best for marketers currently relying heavily on email and small business owners.

2017 IS ALL ABOUT CLICKFUNNELS.COM

If you would’ve asked me six months ago, the word “funnel” made me gag. It just seemed so cheesy and unprofessional. The only company doing a decent job was Infusionsoft, and their software was out of my price range and equally difficult to navigate. Enter Click Funnels. The back end takes some time to get used to, but once you understand the navigation, it’s a piece of cake.

Beginner’s Tip: Don’t create a funnel on the fly. Write down each step before even setting “foot” inside Infusionsoft.

Works best for anyone selling anything online.

GET THE HELP YOU NEED WITH UPWORK.COM

I resisted hiring for a long time. I tried to design my own websites, set up my own Facebook ads, manage my own schedule, etc. Let me tell you what; that gets old real quick. You get burnt out, and the quality of your work suffers. It’s not worth it. Especially when there are affordable experts out there, ready and willing to help. Get all the things that overwhelm you and hinder your business growth off your plate.

Beginner’s Tip: Look for the rising star freelancers. They are usually the most affordable, but still offer premium quality. Also, when looking to hire, get as granular as possible about what it is you actually need. For example, if you want to build a new website, map out some ideas and share examples of what you like. The clearer you are, the better. 

Works best for product managers, team leaders, and department heads.

Don’t just cruise through the rest of the year with these work enhancing tools. Instead, kickstart 2017 with a better sense of how to rule the digital world. I will be taking every single one of these tools with me into the new year. They’ve helped me exponentially grow my online presence.

As an early Christmas present to you, we’re excited to announce that Votigo promotions now integrate with your email marketing platforms! You can now synchronise your contest or sweepstakes data with your Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Mad Mimi, Aweber or Infusionsoft accounts! This means that all the of email addresses that you collect during your promotions will automatically import to your chosen email marketing lists, so that all of your marketing communications efforts are synchronized!

This feature is available to all of our Platform customers, and will work across most of Votigo’s campaign application types.

And as an added bonus, we’ve made sure that it’s super easy for you to set up! Check out this helpful step-by-step guide to get started!

Want to learn more about this exciting new feature or brainstorm with a member of our team on your next promotion? Click here to connect with a member of our Account Management team!

Whether you’re starting a new business or you want to expand the one you’re already running, there’s no better way to do that than having a good representation on social media channels.

Image by Esther Vargas via Flickr

However, having a good and noticeable presence isn’t as easy as it was some years ago, and there’s a lot to know if you want to be good at social media advertising. Today we’ll talk about basics and what you need to know to launch a perspective marketing campaign on social media.

Choose Your Channels Based on What Makes the Most Sense for Your Brand and Your Audience

The policy “the more, the merrier” doesn’t always work on social media. Instead, it’s wise to begin with one account on a network that is one-size-fits-all, like Facebook. It is the largest social network on the planet with 1.5 billion users, so you’re sure to find your audience there.

Twitter and Instagram are more demanding because you have to post more regularly. Twitter is an excellent channel for keeping in touch with your customers and connecting quickly with them via hashtags and tagging. Instagram is used for posting pictures and telling a story through them, but you have to be very active to be noticed. The same goes for Pinterest, another highly visual media that won’t really help you unless you’ve got some amazing photos or pins to share. And, if you want to share your business successes and opportunities with other big company names, then LinkedIn is a good network to focus on.

Each of these networks should be handled differently, so you’ll have to do some research in order to decide which social media channels make the most sense for your brand.

Paying for Ads is Becoming a Necessity

Image by MKHmarketing via Flickr

Advertising on social media is becoming more complex with each year, and not paying for ads won’t get you far. The biggest social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made sure that in order for your updates and posts to appear in the newsfeed of your followers, you need to pay to boost them. In fact, when posting on Facebook without paying, about 10% of your followers will actually see it, and when it comes to Twitter, you have some fifteen minutes before you’re forever lost in the newsfeed.

When it comes to paying for ads, even though it’s not very expensive, you should know where every penny goes. Think about who you want to target with your ads – you can narrow down your targeted audience and then work your way toward the wider public. Also, it is quintessential for your ads to be eye-catching and compelling, so choose both your pictures and your words wisely.

Track Your Links to Know Your Course of Action

You need to know what posts and links generate the most traffic. Link tracking is the best way to accomplish this. Once you understand what your audience likes and clicks on the most, you’ll be able to adapt your content accordingly. There are some useful tools that you can use to track links like Google Analytics, Octopost and Clickmeter that provide each of the links you share with a tracking code, so that you’ll know exactly how well a certain link performs with your audience.

Don’t Shy Away From Influencers

Influencers are people across different social media channels that have a strong follower base thanks to their strategic use of social media and quality content. Once you make an agreement with influencers, they will promote your product/service to their followers, often for a fee. Determine the standards that partner influencers have to fulfill (don’t just pick them based on the number of followers they have) and make sure you have clear goals of what you want of them before you contact them. Their view of your product will make it more appealing to their followers that can quickly become your followers as well.

As you can see, everything starts with your goals when it comes to social media advertising and how imaginative you are in obtaining them. There are different strategies you can employ, but in the end, it all comes down to the quality of your content and knowledge of how to use it wisely.

This article was originally written by Adam Ferraresi for the Heyo blog.

You might remember that a few weeks ago, we shared some tips and tricks for your brand to stand out in the crowd during the busy Holiday season. One of the easiest and most reliable ways to engage your audience during this timeframe is to run an online promotion like a contest or sweepstakes.

And while it might seem like Christmas is right around the corner, it’s not too late to launch a promotion that really engages your audience and gives your brand some great exposure! To help inspire you, here are two current examples from Biscoff and Melissa & Doug, who are both running Holiday campaigns to drive engagement leading up to Christmas.

25 Days of Biscoff Scratch and Win Sweepstakes 

Advent calendars are a great way to create a ton of buzz and excitement in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. For their Holiday promotion, Biscoff has taken a fun twist on the traditional advent calendar and introduced a digital Scratch-And-Instant Win sweepstakes for their audience to engage with. Participants are invited to return to the promo each day for a chance to win a prize, which is great for repeat engagement on behalf of the brand! Built by Votigo’s talented full-service development team, this sweepstakes features custom Scratch-And-Win Instant Win logic, daily content & creative updates and mobile responsive design.

Melissa & Doug’s Gifts of Wonder Giveaway

Children’s toy company Melissa & Doug is celebrating the Holiday season by running a Giveaway Sweepstakes in which a prize is awarded every day for 20 days. This strategy is a great way to keep their audience engaged throughout the length of the campaign. And because the barrier to entry is so low (all people have to do in order to enter is complete a simple registration form), it’s a great opportunity for Melissa & Doug to grow their marketing list! This campaign was built using Votigo’s Self-Serve Platform and features mobile responsive design and email newsletter opt-in.

Even though the Holidays are right around the corner, we promise it’s not too late to add a Holiday contest or sweepstakes to your Marketing plan! Votigo has all the tools you need to plan, create, launch and manage a successful promotion in no time. If you’re ready to get started, click here to schedule a live demo with an Account Representative.

If you want to get your brand noticed and increase your profitability, then you might be wondering what steps will help you reach your goal. When your potential customers have many distractions, it can be difficult to keep their attention. More and more these days, we are seeing business owners start to use video campaigns to engage their audience in unique ways to help keep their attention, with the primary goal of reaching their organization sales goals.

That means you must do the same if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Using videos in your marketing is a great way to educate your audience, entertain them and establish yourself as an expert in your market. But you must learn to create and post videos correctly if you want to enjoy the best possible results. You will need to test different methods if you want to find which one works best for you, but the following tips will help.

Offer Value

When you start a video marketing campaign, your No.1 goal should be to provide value to your audience. The value can come in the form of entertainment, knowledge or useful tips and tricks that will make people’s lives easier. If you start a video with the goal of trying to force people to buy from you, then you are going to turn a lot of potential customers away. But offering value first will help inspire trust and respect.

Natural Background

Many marketers fail to consider the effect that their background has on their audience. To get the most from your effort, try to use natural backgrounds as often as possible. Also, avoid using a background that has a lot of movement or action, which will distract your viewers from your message.

Use Captions

Not all of your viewers will watch your videos with their sound turned on, so it’s important you add captions to your video. Also, use captions in several languages so that you can reach an international audience. Getting started might be difficult, but subtitling services can help.

Captions can also be used to highlight key points of your videos to make it easier for your audience to take notes. Each caption, however, must be timed well with the content of the video if you don’t want to confuse anyone.

Video SEO

Although standard search engine optimization can take weeks or months to produce results, video SEO is much faster. You must first do some research and determine which keywords are relevant to your product get the best search volume. Next, focus your content around those terms and place them in the title. Once you have completed your videos, upload them to various social sites.

You might have to promote your content manually at first, but you will start getting more views once you start getting a higher level of engagement.

Call to Action

Each video you produce must have a goal in mind, inspiring your audience to take action. If you have a sales video, always encourage your audience to buy your product or service. Not every video that you create will be used directly for sales, but educational videos must compel your views to subscribe to your social sites or your email list.

You can repeatedly contact your leads and build relationships with them when you get them to sign up, which will increase their likelihood of making a purchase.

Final Thoughts

A powerful video marketing campaign will help you take your business to the next level, and you can keep the attention of your audience like never before. Although offering value plays a major role in your success, never be afraid to encourage your readers to buy from you or to join your mailing list.

When you upload videos to social sites, always keep keyword optimization in mind, and you will enjoy the benefits of SEO. You might not reach your desired outcome overnight, but remaining persistent will provide you with impressive results.

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