Category: Blog

LinkedIn: What It Can Do For You

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Marketing, Social Media

Creating a LinkedIn account is an exciting and necessary step in entering the professional world. When you join LinkedIn, you are joining a professional community for social networking that will allow you to interact and connect with colleagues, friends, and even future employers. You will be opened up to a world of new possibilities and opportunities to see how other professionals represent themselves, but at the same time, you will be faced with deciding how you want to present yourself.

Just like with your resume, cover letter, or interview, how you present yourself on LinkedIn is key. Almost all employers research their interview candidates through LinkedIn before hiring them. Here are a few key tips to make sure your LinkedIn profile will impress.

  1. A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure you include a picture of yourself on your profile. Also, make sure it is a good picture that is suited towards your career ambitions and has no distractions in the background.
  2. Do NOT just copy and paste your resume. When future employers look at your LinkedIn account, they will likely have your resume in front of them. If you literally copy and pasted word for word your resume, not only will your potential employer feel as though you did not customize your resume for them, but they will also think you are lazy. This is not to say they cannot have overlap and be similar, as your experience is your experience, but there should be a conscious effort to be distinct.
  3. Clutter is the enemy. This is not your college application. You do not need to fill out everything LinkedIn prompts you to fill out. Instead, you should only fill out what is important and relevant to the industry you are in or the job you are working towards. Utilize your space.
  4. Order matters. You can control the order in which the sections of your profile on LinkedIn appear, so be sure to put the most important material at the top and the least important on the bottom.
  5. Recommendations and endorsements are powerful. Do not be afraid to go out and ask friends, previous or current employers, or professional mentors for recommendations or to endorse your skills. This is what will set you apart from your competitors, and it is what makes LinkedIn even better than your resume. Work samples are also great additions that can be provided through LinkedIn and cannot be provided always with a resume.
  6. Create a custom URL and optimise search engine searches. You can make yourself easier to find on LinkedIn by going to settings and creating a custom URL for your profile. This will make it cleaner and easier to share. You can also input key terms to help personalize your profile to be found when the terms are inputted in a search engine with your name.
  7. Take advantage of the professional network. Join groups related to your industry. Stay posted on the news, and follow potential employers’ companies to show interest.
  8. Finally, keep it updated. You should not just create your profile and walk away. It is important to update it regularly as you grow and gain more experience and more connections. Also, it is helpful to share, post, and comment on articles related to your field regularly to show engagement.

These quick eight tips are just the beginning of ways you can get the most out of you LinkedIn account, but if you follow them, you are surely on the road to success. There are many additional ways you can personalize your profile, and the more personal and distinct your profile is the better. Just be careful – there is such a thing as too much. Contact us today if you need further assistance!

What Is CRM & How Can It Help You

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog

You may have heard the term CRM tossed around in the marketing world, but what exactly is it and how can your business use it? CRM stands for customer relationship management, and it generally refers to software and practices that companies use to manage their customer data.

The goal of CRM is to use customer data in order to improve relationships with customers, retain them, and ultimately drive more leads and sales. CRM software can manage customer interactions across several different channels and give your company insight on how to turn the leads from that customer into conversions. This may seem a bit abstract, so we will give you an example.

Let’s say you own a landscaping business, and your marketing strategies include billboards, Facebook, Google AdWords, and email marketing. Billy sees your billboard and calls your business for further information, but he decides to hold off on your landscaping services for now. However, two weeks later Billy sees your ad on Google AdWords and clicks to your website where he fills out an inquiry form. If you use CRM software, you can see that Billy has previously inquired about your services, making him a ‘hot lead.’ Because this is the second time he has requested information, you may want to take more time with Billy and really put allocate your efforts on getting a conversion out of him.

Without CRM software, you would have no way of knowing that Billy had previously contacted your business using another form of communication. You would treat Billy as any other lead, and may not be able to solidify the conversion. By using CRM software, you can see that you may want to spend more time and energy on Billy rather than a first-time inquirer. CRM allows you to really get to know which potential customers could be most valuable to your business.
But how can CRM work for your business? In order to effectively use CRM, you’ll need to get CRM software such as Salesforce, Zoho, or HubSpot. These tools will help automate your data entry and can automatically track and manage all of your customer interactions. The best CRM software will vary from business to business, depending on how you operate and what you want to achieve. Three factors to consider when choosing a CRM software are cost, ease of use, and efficiency. We know saving money is important to your business, and that’s why cost should be a determining factor in choosing a CRM software.

Now we are not saying that you should choose the cheapest software available, but you should consider the cost vs. the value you are getting from the software. If one brand costs a little more than another, but offers a much better user interface with an extensive list of features, it may be worth the extra money. Another factor you want to consider is ease of use. If you will be training all of your employees how to use this CRM, you want it to be user-friendly and easy to pick up on.

You also want data pulling to be a quick process so your employees can spend their time on more important things. One last factor we are going to cover is efficacy. Does the CRM software you are considering produce your desired result?  Before investing in a new software, you need to make certain that it is what your company needs. Also noteworthy is that this list of considerations is not all inclusive – there are many other factors you should consider before investing in a CRM software!

Now that you know more about CRM, you can start nurturing leads and increasing sales! If you need additional assistance, please feel free to contact us today!

How To Make The Most Out Of Twitter’s Limited Character Space

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

Have you ever wondered why Twitter has a 140-character limit? Have you ever wished it was bigger? We’re going to help clarify the reason for the limit and teach you how to say more on Twitter (without actually saying more).

To understand how to utilize Twitter’s character limit, you must first understand why it exists in the first place. The origin of the 140 character-limit traces back to the company’s roots. Founded in March 2006, Twittr (Twitter’s original name) was born. The app originated as a way to send text messages to all of your friends. To prevent the texts from spilling over into multiple messages, the 140-character limit was set in place. Although text messages have a 160-character limit, the 140 limit was chosen to allow 20 characters for users’ handles.

You may be wondering why Twitter still has the character limit, since it is now not based via text message. Twitter is a platform that distinguishes itself by being used for quick, frequent status updates. The purpose of Twitter is to get the information you are looking for without having to sift through unnecessary ‘fluff’. Twitter, although accessible via computer, is predominately used on mobile phones. The character limit allows users to send a quick message and see what their friends are up to without having to read paragraphs of information.

Although you may find the 140-character limit to be restrictive sometimes, consider posting anything longer to Facebook or a blog. Twitter is meant to be short and sweet, and utilizing the platform as it was intended is vital for your marketing efforts. So how can you get the most out of 140 characters?

Luckily, earlier this year Twitter started excluding replies (@name when replying to a Tweet) and media attachments from contributing towards the 140-character limit. Although this helps, 140 characters is still a relatively small space to send a message. We’re going to help you get the most out of your Tweets without having to sound like a 15-year-old girl (think: how r u 2day?).

The first thing we recommend doing is having a new Tweet for each separate thought. Because Twitter is a ‘real-time’ platform, multiple Tweets in one day are acceptable and you don’t have to put all of your thoughts in one message. Our second tip is to avoid unnecessary explanation or ‘fluff’ words. There’s no need for introductions or explanations – just make your point, and leave it at that. You should also limit your hashtag usage. We recommend a maximum of three hashtags with precise keywords. If you’re sending out a link, be sure to shorten it in a platform such as bit.ly so the URL doesn’t take up unnecessary character space. Another tip is to make your content interesting. 140 characters is not a lot, and it is easy for people to scroll past something when browsing Twitter. Make your Tweets count. Use compelling language and craft a Tweet that people want to read. It shouldn’t take more than 140 characters to get your message across. Keep it simple, but worth reading.

Try these tips out on Twitter, and let us know how they’re working! If you need further assistance, contact us today!

How To Show Up At The Top Of Search Results

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog

Everyone wants their business to show up on the top of Google’s search results, but this is not an easy task. You can have the best product, the cheapest price, and the greatest Facebook ads, but none of these things will get you on the top of the search results page. If you’re seeing your competitors at the top of your Google search results page, you may need to take a look at these tips.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-click solution. Google uses an algorithm that takes over 200 factors into account to determine your site’s search rankings. Although we can’t go through all 200 factors, we can give you a few of the most important that may help bump your search rankings up.

Keywords

The first step in making sure your site is seen is choosing the best keywords. Keywords are the words a user enters in the search box when looking for a specific product or business. You must ensure your keywords match what customers are searching for. You can use Google Analytics to help determine which keywords perform best for your business.

Content

Just as important as the keywords used to get to your site are the words that are on your site. Search engines are smart, and they can distinguish sites that are relevant from those that are not. You need to ensure you have enough information to sufficiently cover your topic, but not so much that it becomes cluttered. Each topic on your site should add value to users and should have its own separate page. If your content is not relevant or valuable, your website may have a high bounce rate. The bounce rate is the number of visitors to your website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. Google will see this and will penalize your website for a high bounce rate. Be sure to keep your content relevant and up to date in order to avoid this.

Navigation

Navigation refers to the way visitors move from page to page on your website and also to the links directing visitors to your website.  Your website should be structured in a manner that is easy for search engines to follow. The search engines must index you site to pull relevant content, and tools such as Java can be hard for them to read. We recommend structuring your website using HTML or CSS.  You also want to ensure you have links from other websites that lead back to your site. This shows Google that your website is relevant because other sites are referencing it.

If you’ve optimized all of the above tips and are still having trouble getting your site to show up on the first page of Google, there could be another factor that you can’t control affecting your search rankings. For example, age of a website will directly impact many other factors that Google considers. If your website is fairly new versus a competitor’s website that has been around for years, your website will be lagging in links, content, and traffic numbers. You cannot necessarily control this, but it is something that will develop with age.

We hope these tips have given you a good idea of how to troubleshoot why your search rankings may not be as high as you’d like. If you need further assistance, please contact us today.

How To Make YouTube A Vital Part Of Your Social Strategy

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

YouTube has become a the go-to destination for video content. With over four billion videos viewed daily, it’s no surprise that marketers are beginning to make YouTube a vital part of their social strategy. YouTube is a valuable asset to your company because videos help SEO and are more likely to go viral compared to a text or image post. But remember, the videos won’t share themselves. Combining YouTube with other social platforms can create a social strategy that cannot be topped, and we’re going to show you how. There are two main aspects to making YouTube a vital part of your social strategy – creating the content and promoting it.

1.      Create content your customers want

Your customers don’t want to see a boring informational video about your latest product, they want unique, innovative videos. When it comes to YouTube, the more creative the better. The video doesn’t even have to relate to your product really. You want an eye-catching video that will make customers click. Showcase your creativity and add a unique twist to your brand. However, we would like to caution you when creating this type of content. Even if the video itself is unrelated to the product, you want to ensure that customers are feeling what you want them to feel and the video comes a full circle to tie into your promotion. The last thing you want to do is leave customers feeling confused by posting a random video with a link to your product at the end. Although the connection between the content and the product doesn’t have to be direct, it does need to correlate in some way or another.

Although stories tend to provoke the best response on YouTube, you have other options as well. Feel free to experiment with the following types of videos:

  • Business intro video: Give your audience a brief introduction to your business. You can put this on your YouTube Channel Trailer to welcome new viewers.
  • Tutorials/Product Demos: Show your viewers how to perform a task using your product
  • Customer Testimonials: Interview a satisfied customer
  • Behind-the-scenes videos: Take your viewers on a tour of your office or workspace, or introduce them to your staff or co-workers
  • Tips and tricks: Share useful insights that will help your prospects
  • Commercials: post your commercials to YouTube for viewers
  • FAQs: Compile a list of frequently asked questions and respond to them via video

2.      Promote that content

Once you’ve created great content, you must get it seen! Some YouTube videos will get enough exposure without outside promotion, but most will need some extra help. If you have a large number of YouTube subscribers or your video becomes highly ranked on YouTube, then you may be able to skip this step. Otherwise, you’ll need to find ways to promote your videos to the desired audience. The easiest way to promote your YouTube videos is to share them on your other social platforms. Be sure to add engaging copy to the video, and a direct link to your YouTube channel. You may want to embed the video directly on your Facebook page, as Facebook videos are rapidly growing in popularity. Another way to promote your YouTube content is to post it on your company website or blog, or to partner with other YouTuber’s to promote each other’s videos. We recommend experimenting with your particular audience and seeing what works best for you.

Don’t get left behind, start creating YouTube content today! If you need assistance in hopping on the YouTube bandwagon, please contact us today.

The Secret To Boosting Your Organic Reach On Facebook

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

Facebook has become a top social media platform. With 1.71 billion monthly active users, Facebook’s potential for advertisers is endless. Because of Facebook’s popularity, it has also become a big advertising platforms. Brands have seen great success using Facebook. For example, when Wendy’s launched a new burger, their Facebook campaign resulted in 1.7 million total engagements and their page attracted more than 50,000 new Facebook fans.

Facebook Ads give businesses a completely customizable platform that allows ads to be promoted to users across the globe. Although this feature is a great advertising tool, your small business doesn’t want to pay to reach an audience every time you post an ad on Facebook. Your marketing budget would be spent on just Facebook alone! We are here today to give you a few tips on how you can reach more people on Facebook without using paid advertising.

To understand how you can reach a wider audience on Facebook, you must first understand how Facebook shows your ad to people. On Facebook, you can promote a paid ad, or you can promote an ad organically. We will be covering organic ads in this blog post. Organic reach refers to how many people you can reach for free just from posting on your business’ page. Organic reach sounds great, right? Reaching an audience without paying a penny! However, the plethora of content on Facebook has resulted in a decline of organic reach. Because an average of 1,500 posts compete for attention in a user’s news Feed, the organic reach has decreased from 16% of followers to just over 2%. Facebook asserts that there are two major reasons for this decline in organic reach. The first is the sheer volume of content competing for a user’s attention. There is more content on the social site than people can absorb. Therefore, only a limited number of posts are actually seen by users. The second reason for organic reach decline is Facebook’s algorithm. Facebook tries to ensure only the most relevant, high quality content makes it into users’ News Feeds. The algorithm assess thousands of factors to determine which posts are News Feed-worthy and displays only around 300 of the 1,500 choices at any given time.

So how does your business perform well with such a wealth of content on Facebook? Our number one tip on making your content valuable is to post quality content. Post content that your audience will find valuable – something that will make them think, provide information, provide entertainment, etc. Another helpful tip is to add business objectives to your Facebook page, such as increasing brand awareness or driving traffic to your website. In addition, you can see when most of your audience members are online and post during those prime times. In addition to the time you post, another important factor is how often you post. There is no magic number of posts that is optimal for Facebook, but rather this number depends on your brand and your users. You will need to determine the correct posting frequency for your specific campaign. Post too often and you may annoy fans; post too scarcely and your fans may forget about it. It is important to find that perfect number of postings that is right for your specific page and audience.

We hope these tips will help you get the most out of your organic reach on Facebook. If you need additional assistance figuring out how to better optimize you Facebook posts, contact us today!

What you need to know about Facebook Reactions

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

Facebook has extended the Like button to include a multitude of reactions people can use to respond to a post on Facebook. Now, users can express six different emotions, including love, sadness, and anger to any Facebook post, including your ads. What does this mean for your business’ Facebook page?

Luckily for marketers, Facebook did not create a Dislike button. However, the new Reactions feature allows users to express feelings of like, love, laugh, wowed, saddened, or angered elicited by your post. Remember, just the same as a Like, as an admin you cannot remove a Reaction either.

How do users use the Reactions?

Many people have been confused on how to use the new Reactions feature. To use them on a desktop computer, users will need to click on the Like button to make the emojis appear. Hovering over each one will allow it’s meaning to show up. If users are on Facebook mobile, they will need to hold down the Like button to make the emojis appear. Moving their finger along the dots under the emojis will allow them to select whichever one they wish. Mobile users need to be sure to update their Facebook app in order to get the latest version of Facebook mobile installed. Another thing to note is that users can only select one emotion for each post. For example, you can’t “Like” and “Love” the same post.

How will you see what Reactions users posted?

You can go to your Page insights to see a breakdown of the Reactions that have been used on your posts. Simply hover over the Reaction for an individual post to see how many people gave the post that type of Reaction.

What will Reactions mean for your business’ Facebook page?

Marketers have always been trying to figure out Facebook’s top-secret algorithm, but how will the new Reactions feature play into that? Facebook has said that any Reaction is treated no differently than a Like in terms of which posts are pushed to the News Feed. Facebook has reported that post reach has less to do with what Reactions are used, but more with how fast the engagements happen. Therefore, a post with more engagements immediately after posting, regardless of what those engagements are, will get more exposure than one with fewer engagements.

Need help determining how to utilize Facebook reactions? Consult Adventure Ad Agency for marketing strategies today!

Facebook Ads Manager 101

by adventureadagency, posted in Advertising, Blog, Social Media

A majority of the population is on Facebook, or is at least familiar with how the Facebook interface works. If you’re reading this blog, you may have even posted an advertisement for your business on Facebook.

Facebook Ads Manager is part of Facebook for Business, and it allows you to easily view, change, and manage your Facebook ads. Ads Manager gives you many valuable tools you can’t access through a regular Facebook account. It allows you to create custom audiences, view audience insights, gather information about your pages, and access more support for your advertising campaigns. Ads Manager gives you faster editing, powerful insights, and customized reporting. It allows you to quickly and efficiently edit every aspect of your ads in one place. You can change the target audience, budget, duration, etc. of each ad in the same place without having to scroll through your feed to find each individual ad. You can also view your page and ad insights with Ad Managers custom graphs and data. This will allow you to measure the success of your ad and gauge predicted performance of future ads. Facebook Ad Manager’s reporting tool will break down the data and give you all the details you need about every ad you’ve created.

So why do you need Facebook Ads Manager? Our advice is that if you rarely plan to post a Facebook ad, you don’t. It would be more time consuming to learn the interface of Ads Manager than it would be to create and manage each ad manually. However, if you plan to post Facebook ads frequently Ads Manager can be life changing. It will ensure you respond to every like, comment, and message on your page by notifying you through your ads manager account so the notifications don’t get lost in your personal account. It will let you quickly change your promoted posts out so you don’t have to worry about promoting outdated content.

Another great reason to utilize Facebook Ads Manager is because it helps you optimize your budget. Ads Manager allows you to set your budget to distribute in the best way for your ad campaign. You could evenly distribute it for the duration of the ad or vary the budget over time to reach more people on strategic days or at strategic times. Ads Manager allows you to customize your budget to get the most bang for your buck.

Other customizable options in Facebook Ads Manager are editing audience, ad placements, schedule, and bids. Ads Manager gives you the most customization for your Facebook ads and allows you to have the most control over various aspects within each ad and over every campaign. Although Ads Manager can be overwhelming at first, we think it is a very useful tool if you are going to be managing multiple ads. If you need help setting up a Facebook Ads campaign or starting your Ads Manager account, please contact us today.

8 Reasons to Exemplify Cohesiveness on Social Media

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

Has your brand jumped on the social media bandwagon yet? If so, you’re probably on multiple social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Google +, and Pinterest. With so many social networks, it can be hard to manage a consistent brand and a cohesive look. Lucky for you, Adventure Ad Agency is here to help! We’ve got some branding tips to help you knock it out of the park on every platform.

Brand cohesiveness is important because you want to establish a clear message to your customers. If your pages on various social platforms do are not consistent, customers may be confused about who you brand is and what it represents. What do we mean when we say cohesive? Brand cohesiveness across all platforms refers to your layout, color scheme, logo, and message. Cohesiveness does not mean all of your social media pages should look exactly the same. They need to be unified, but not identical. Here’s why:

1. It reinforces your brand identity.

Think about a brand everyone knows, such as Apple. Their brand identity is strong because they have consistent advertising techniques. Everything Apple does displays innovation, style, and efficiency, and people remember them for these things. To establish a clear brand identity, all of your marketing efforts must exude that identity.

2. It helps with brand recall.

One of the biggest reasons to have a consistent social media strategy is brand recall. You want your customers to remember your brand, right? That comes from repeated exposure to the same material. Of course, we don’t want every post to be the same, but they should all have the same message across various platforms.

3. It makes your message clear.

Brand consistency ensures customers understand your message. If you send the same message across all platforms, it will be clear to customers what you are trying to convey.

4. It adds to credibility.

Being credible is a very important part of marketing and branding. Having a professional, consistent social network will add to your brand’s credibility.

5. It makes you stand out.

Consistent imagery, colors, fonts, etc. will make your ads stand out from competitors. It is all about making the customer think of your brand when they need a certain product, and cohesiveness across social channels can help do just that.

If you need additional tips to create a cohesive branding strategy for your brand, feel free to contact us today.

How To Design A Killer Business Card

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Marketing

Having a small business means you must learn how to function in many roles. You are the owner, the manager, the accountant, and the marketer all in one. When people meet you for the first time, how will they remember you? Making a great first impression is important, but having a killer business card is key. You might think a business card is meaningless in today’s technology-savvy society. However, business cards are a timeless piece of marketing material that actually work. Your business card is not the end-all be-all, but if done effectively it will create a lasting impression on customers that will make them remember you when they need your services. Take a look at our tips for designing a killer business card.

1. There’s two sides for a reason

Nothing looks more unprofessional than a one-sided business card. Sure a two-sided full-color card may cost a bit extra, but it’s worth it to make customers know you didn’t forget to finish the other side of your design. Plus, when you are only working with a 3.5” x 2” space, wouldn’t you want to double that by using both sides of the card? We think YES!

2. Design

Of course the design is important, but did you know your aesthetic choices have actually been proven to make a difference based on human psychology? Spacing, font choice, white space, and colors are all perceived differently in the mind. For example, red displays power, while blue represents peacefulness. Be cautious what customers will interpret about your business based on the design.

3. Content

Just as important as the design of your card is the information on it. Your business card must contain a tagline that quickly explains who you are and what you do. Regardless of your profession or how complicated your job may be, your tagline needs to be a quick, simple explanation of what you do. Your card needs to explain what you do when you first hand it to someone, remind someone who has had the card awhile what you do, or show people who are passed along what you do. All of these functions require a tagline explaining what you do! In addition, you should add basic information about your business. Feel free to include social media icons or links, but be sure to have a nice balance between imagery and text. If you are unsure of what information to put, just stick with the basics: name, website, email address, physical address, and phone number.

These are the basic elements to a great business card. If you need help designing your customized business card, contact us today!