Hashtags

Hashtags help by tagging content to help social media users to search and filter it.

For example, if you want to find everything that’s been posted recently on the topic of social media on Twitter, then all you have to do is search for #socialmedia and you will see the results. People use this feature to follow news, sporting events, TV shows, brands, and more. It’s a way of taming the social media firehose so people can find valuable information when they need it.

So how does this help you as an entrepreneur, business, or brand? Here are five benefits:

• Using hashtags correctly makes you appear on-trend and tuned into current events. In other words, hashtags make you look relevant to your social media followers, and relevance is what makes them stick around.

• Hashtags can increase brand prominence and recognition for your campaigns. It’s something Coca-Cola does well, for example with the recent #shareacoke campaign.

• Using hashtags helps your audience to find your content, wherever you happen to post it.

• Using the same hashtags across multiple social media platforms and analyzing engagement gives a holistic picture of your reach.

• Using hashtags in a fun, quirky way can show your brand’s personality.

How to Use Hashtags Effectively

So how can you make hashtags work for you? Here are some tips to help you get the most from hashtag use.

Know what’s trending

If you want to be relevant, you need to use the hashtags that people are searching for. Check out the trending topics on Twitter (in the box on the right of your timeline). Pro tip: If you market your business globally, change the country to see what’s trending in different parts of the world. For cross-platform social media trends, use Social Mention, which will show you the top related hashtags for any search term. Find trending hashtags and use them in your content to improve your reach.

Avoid overuse

It’s worth noting that, except for Instagram (more on that in the next tip), you should limit your hashtag use to three. Too many hashtags can overwhelm your post, especially on Twitter with its 140-character limit.

Go beyond the suggested hashtags 

Google+ automatically suggests hashtags for your posts, but these aren’t always the best ones to use. Instead of automatically accepting the suggestions, use your information on trending topics to add new hashtags. And if you reshare content, consider adding up to three new hashtags to help even more people to find the content.

Use hashtag recycling (Instagram) 

Instagram is a hashtag user’s paradise because you can use pretty much as many hashtags as you want (well, up to 30, anyway). Not only that, but if you DON’T use hashtags, no-one will find your stuff.

Here’s a good Instagram strategy. In addition to the hashtags in your post, add up to five other hashtags in a comment. Later, you can delete those and add five new ones. This hashtag recycling strategy helps increase exposure for your Instagram post over time.

Search and filter

Hashtags are a great content marketing tool. At SEMrush, we look for SEO-related hashtags (such as #SEO, #SERP and others) to find new content in this niche and connect with the people who are sharing it.

Hashtags also work well for internal use, so you can easily filter posts and track their success. Some of those used by our team for this purpose include #semrushblog, #fun, #tipoftheday.

Roll your own hashtag

If you’re starting a campaign, don’t be afraid to use your own hashtag. If you have an idea, the first step is to check that no-one else is using it on Hashtags.org.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is a diverse and very powerful tool in all aspects of business today. When used in conjunction with your marketing program it is one of the strongest tools that a business can possess .Strong video marketing campaigns produce results across almost 70 percent of businesses today. Video marketing helps to generate needs and view conversation online and to bring awareness of your product to the public. The power of a strong video is a lasting impression in the minds of the public better utilizing marketing dollars as opposed to no video at all.70% of video viewers watch more than 3/4 th of the video. More than 80 % of senior executives watch more online video today than they did a year ago.Marketers believe that video marketing is effective for brand awareness and online engagement.Using video in the email subject line boosts open rates . Video plays a vital role in best ROI. Some of the  video marketing strategy should include the following

Publishing Schedule

 Just as you time your tweets and Facebook posts to run consistently, your video marketing plan should have legs, as well. Instead of posting one video about a new product, think of your campaign in terms of a series.

Short-Form Videos

Social media has revolutionized the way online users communicate with each other, with short, concise statements trumping longer forms of content. Micro-video apps shorten videos to less than ten seconds, making them ideal for sharing on sites like Twitter and Instagram.

Tutorials and Tips

 One way to connect with customers is by posting tutorials relevant to your line of work. While it may seem as though you will be giving away your secrets, you’ll actually establish yourself as a subject matter expert, leading viewers to want to learn more about your business.

Customer-Generated Content

An even better way to connect with customers is to put them behind the camera. User-generated content is more likely to generate a response than company-generated content. Instead of spending hours coming up with a script and producing a powerful video, invite your customers to create one of their own. Offer a prize for the best video showcasing customer use of your product and you’ll likely get an overwhelming response.

Importance Of Landing Page

A landing page is any page on your website upon which visitors can arrive, or land. You can create a landing page to encourage visitors to:

•     Buy something
•     Sign up for something
•     Visit a physical location
•     Donate money
•    Take some other action (pretty much any action you’d like)

Two Main Types of Landing Pages

While landing pages can have several purposes, they can be broken out into two broad categories:

• Click-through landing pages
• Lead generation landing pages.

Click-Through Landing Pages

While you can create landing pages to sell things, the actual sale likely won’t take place on the landing page itself. The visitor will click through the landing page to get to the product page, and that’s where the transaction will occur.

Why is this? Well, first, imagine having to create a landing page for every single item you have for sale on your e-commerce site. Now imagine Amazon having to do that. It’s impractical, to say the least.Plus, click-through landing pages can be more effective when they’re tied to specific events or dates, such as holidays, particularly because those pages are often a part of email marketing campaigns.You’re not going to email your list about every single item you have for sale. (If you do, count on your unsubscribe rate skyrocketing.) You likely save the emails for the special occasions, the deals, the really good reasons to show up in your list members’ inboxes.The next step is to make sure your landing pages support those emails, and encourage your readers to click through to get to the good stuff so you can get the conversion.

Lead Generation Landing Pages

That list you use for your email marketing campaigns—how do you build it in the first place? Through lead generation, or “lead gen” for short.A lead gen landing page allows you to collect data about your site’s visitors. Names and email addresses are often enough for most marketers’ purposes because you just want to be able to contact that person at a later date, most likely via digital means such as your newsletter or an email campaign.

But people don’t just give that information away freely. Not anymore. Just as the landing page itself has to be worth the click, you need to make it worth the while for someone to provide you with the means of contacting them directly.

Some of the things you can offer in exchange for personal data are:

•     Newsletter subscriptions
•     Free trials of your service
•     E-books
•     Contest or giveaway entries
•     Webinars
•     Event registrations

 

Before you decide what to offer, you may want to consider what will work best for your audience and why. For example, emails offering e-books have a nearly double click-through rate (CTR) over emails offering webinars.

Mobile Content Marketing Strategy

Understand the Behaviors of Your Mobile Audience

Mobile users are distracted when using their devices. More people are choosing the mobile device as their only form of accessing the Internet. Because of mobile, customers now have greater control over the format and style of content they consume. Businesses must now order their content marketing efforts to be optimized and easily digestible on mobile devices – and even seek to create exclusive content for mobile users.

Mobilize Your Site With Responsive Design

Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches — the amount of devices and resolutions available in today’s market is greatly expanding. How do you deal with different screen sizes? You could do nothing…and lose your mobile customers in the first five seconds.

Or, you could utilize responsive design plugins and tools to adapt with these devices. Responsive design is a fairly new practice which uses media queries to determine screen size, and adjusts the content accordingly.Most common responsive design tools include Responsive WordPress themes – including Themeforest and Studiopress. These themes provide the responsive foundation for the entire site.Alternately, companies can create an entirely separate mobile site (e.g., mobile.walmart.com, m.facebook.com), though development and maintenance costs can increase with separate sites.

Design for touch

Mobile sites should be built with the finger in mind. Use large buttons for call to action events, and make the targets big so they are easy to tap. Ideal mobile CTA buttons should be at least 44×44 pixels, the site should incorporate touch events (swiping, pinching, etc.), and text links should be spaced out. Ensure a smooth and unobtrusive experience for your mobile audience. 

Distribute your content through mobile

Learn to use numbers and short subheads to make content easier and more inviting. Anything longer can be wrapped around a mobile screen – or even worse, cut off completely. Challenge yourself to write succinctly.

The mobile audience wants content on demand, and they don’t wait long before going elsewhere.  74% of consumers will leave a mobile site after just five seconds – and 46% are unlikely to return if the site didn’t work the first time. The initial impressions are even more crucial in mobile, simply because there are so many other sources and distractions to draw away attention.Your audience is already mobile. It’s your turn to choose to be mobile.