Tag: content marketing

12 Surefire Ways to Grow Your Email List

Post author By Rallio
Post date October 11, 2021

So you have a special offer, promotion, announcement or video you want to email to your customers. But what do you do if your email list could fit on, uh, a sticky note? Or, more to the point, how do you grow your email list so you actually have people to email?

It’s a common problem among businesses that are just starting out or that haven’t put focused effort into acquiring subscribers. Start implementing the following 12 tips, however, and you’ll be well on your way to bulking up your email list and converting more of those people into paying customers.

Ready to grow your email list? Let’s go!

#1: Create a giveaway.

One of the simplest ways to grow your email list is by launching a giveaway where people need to provide their email address to enter. It’s best if you give other options for entering via social media — by liking a post and tagging a friend, for example — so that your giveaway is accessible to everyone (not just people who give you their email).

For the email entry, create a landing page for the giveaway that’s independent of Facebook and your website. A simple email entry form will let you capture email addresses, and you can provide further details about the giveaway rules and the giveaway itself. You’ll also make use of this landing page in additional steps below.

#2: Add a call-to-action button to your Facebook page.

You can use a Sign Up button on your Facebook profile that links users to your giveaway landing page. This button can also be linked with other content when you’re not hosting a giveaway, such as a gated featured resource that requires email access.

#3: Create an email automation.

Once you have a subscriber, you can send them through different email automations. An email automation is simply a series of emails that you send to a subscriber based on different triggers. These emails not only provide information to subscribers, but also help with retention so people don’t immediately unsubscribe after your giveaway is done.

For example, once someone enters your giveaway, you can send them through an automation that tells them more details about the giveaway. Then send them another email on days 2, 3, 4 or however long you want the automation to be — a seven-day sequence is a good goal. When they reach the end of the automation, have the automation subscribe them to a general email list that you can then use for your email marketing.

In the subsequent emails, add value by sending out blog posts, freebies or other information. You can also pair your emails with social media posts that echo your email content.

#4: Create a challenge.

You could also create a landing page featuring a unique seasonal challenge with a downloadable resource — an ebook, for instance — such as “7-Day Healthy Eating Challenge” that people would opt into. You could then take info from your ebook and create an email sequence to distribute the healthy tips and create other assets to go with it on social media, such as social media posts and even a private Facebook group (more on that in tip #11).

#5: Host an online event.

Have a topic you know something about? Or some type of special event you can host virtually? Create an educational webinar, a “virtual tasting” event with food or drinks, or even a how-to session explaining one of your products.

Create a landing page or use a service like Eventbrite.com where people input their email address to join your event or class. Be sure to promote the event on social media, in your newsletter and on your website.

#6: Add an “Instant Win” to your website.

Ever seen a “spin the wheel” animation on a website? People can enter their email address in exchange for instant savings, such as a percentage off at checkout.

See Viral Sweep for instant win ideas. Note that after a user enters their email address, they can be presented with social media sharing options.

#7: Use your cover photos.

Turn your Facebook and Twitter cover photos into calls to action to sign up for your email list, for a contest, for a special challenge or anything else that gets people to subscribe.

Canva.com is an easy graphic design tool, or you can use a service like Fivrr or Upwork to locate a freelancer who can create the artwork for you.

#8: Post snippets to social media.

Draw out useful tidbits from your monthly newsletter content or blog that you can repurpose on social media. Ask your followers to become email subscribers — send them over to that landing page you created.

#9: Pin a link to your landing page to the top of your profile.

As with your cover photos, you can pin your landing page to the top of your Facebook and Twitter profiles. You can also put this link in your Instagram bio and/or link to it from Stories. If you have more than 10K followers, you can add this link as a swipe-up feature.

Note: If you have multiple links you want to share with your followers, gather them together in a single link using a link-bundling tool like Linktree.

#10: Add an “Email” link on your Instagram profile.

This technique to grow your email list might not get you an influx of subscribers, but it falls under the category of “why not?” You’ll simply go into your Instagram settings to add this button and provide another means for people to message you.

Then, if and when you get an email, you can invite them to join your subscriber list. Try adding a call to action to “subscribe to emails” within your email signature, so that anytime you reply back to someone, you have another opportunity to obtain new subscribers.

#11: Create a Facebook group.

Facebook groups can be a great place to connect with a smaller group of followers who are interested in your topic. If you have a massage business, you could start a Facebook group featuring tips on stress relief and healthy living, for example.

Within your Facebook group, you can try various tactics to gain email subscribers. The massage business could create “7 Days of Stress Relief” where people opt in to receive emails. Each day, they would get a different email with new stress-relief tips.

Be sure to promote your Facebook group via your main Facebook page, too, with social media posts inviting your followers to join the group.

#12: Partner with a business.

There are plenty of complementary businesses out there that would be willing to add your email newsletter link to their own website, newsletter and social media channels in exchange for you doing the same. Reach out to them and let them know you’ll feature the partner in your own newsletter.

This technique can also work well for co-hosting contests and giveaways. Plus, if another business provides the giveaway item, it won’t cost you anything.

Grow Your Email List One Tip at a Time

As you can see, many of these techniques make use of existing resources such as your social media pages. You can get them done in seconds and, in many cases, without spending any extra money.

Start with the tip that’s easiest for you, and then continue through the list until you’ve checked off all 12. Before long, you’ll be able to grow your email list to a sizable number of subscribers who are interested in your brand.

Tags content marketing, social media marketing

Social

6 Powerful Content Ideas for Your Small Business

Post author By Rallio
Post date July 30, 2020

When your brand is social-media-friendly, your content ideas might come easily to you. For instance, if you are in the pet industry, that’s a no-brainer. Nobody ever tires of seeing cute animals on social media doing even the most mundane of tasks, like sitting on the couch or staring out the window at a delivery person.

For some brands, it takes a little more digging to create social-media-worthy posts. Rest assured, though, with the right content ideas, any brand can become fun and exciting on social media!

All it takes is a little creativity — and the content ideas below can help you knock your content out of the park. Above all, remember that social media is supposed to be social, not boring or salesy.

It’s like if you were sitting down with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. It’s going to be a much more pleasant visit if you show them the photos you took on your last vacation — not your encyclopedia of common household pests, don’t you think?

https://www.facebook.com/541879122868760/photos/a.597667927289879/1427933680929962?type=3

Show the People (and Pets) Behind Your Brand

One of the simplest ways to connect with your audience is by showing the living, breathing beings at your company. This method works no matter what kind of business you have.

You can make a seemingly boring topic much more interesting by showing the personality behind your brand. Do you have an employee who loves to rollerskate? A co-owner who grows his own vegetables and runs a YouTube cooking channel? An office dog who brightens up everyone’s day?

These are all perfect content ideas for social media!

Think back to that friend you haven’t seen in a while. What pictures would you show them from your phone? Hopefully, you gravitate to the photo of you standing in front of the Grand Canyon, not the screenshot of a coupon you snapped before grabbing a sandwich for lunch.

Put On Your Teacher Hat

You have something to teach, so share your knowledge! Sometimes just explaining your product or service is enough to capture your audience’s attention. Examples of sharing your expertise might include:

How-to videos showing various ways to use your product
The history behind your product or service
A live video with insider tips
Little-known secrets you’re willing to share
Before-and-after photos showing the benefits of your services

Think about the FAQ you get all the time. Turn those questions into answers with engaging photos, captions and videos that your audience will appreciate!

Partner With Micro-Influencers

If you can locate micro-influencers — people aren’t necessarily celebrities but have an established social media following — you can ask them to share your story in their own words. Because micro-influencers already have followers who trust their recommendations, they’ll be more likely to want to buy the products and services those people are using.

These micro-influencers have the potential to expand your reach because they’ll be posting content to their own group of friends and followers. By simply talking about why they love your brand, they’ll help you spread the word and engage with new customers.

Be Edgy

Give your brand a sassier tone of voice, and you instantly become more interesting. One brand that comes to mind is Merriam-Webster.

While a dictionary might not be the most exciting product for some — and yes, every English major and editor out there is saying, “Huh? I LOVE the dictionary!” — the brand has become noteworthy for its quippy captions and retorts on social media.

If you start studying now, you might have a full command of these words by 2021. https://t.co/FINAScT6L4

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) July 28, 2020

You’ll need a good writer to sassify your content, so don’t be afraid to hire someone or outsource the work if needed. Rallio has a whole division of dedicated social media strategists who would be more than happy to get edgy on your brand’s page. (We live for this stuff.)

Need more inspiration for edgy content ideas? Check out a few accounts mentioned in this list from Time.com. Notably missing: Wendy’s.

Sorry, Nick. No dice. https://t.co/bExfIVSyFH

— Wendy’s (@Wendys) July 16, 2020

Put Culture First

Particularly in this day and age, people care about how you treat your employees. We’ve seen brands crumble before our eyes because their workers took to social media to air their complaints — whether about their pay, working conditions or other matters. To avoid this kind of public shaming, you need to:

Take care of your employees. Make sure they feel supported, heard and recognized for their contributions. A great form of recognition is highlighting them on social media!
Create the kind of culture where people want to come to work. The details of doing so are beyond the scope of this article. (Again, outsource if you need additional support to create change.) But bear in mind that with a positive employee culture, employees will naturally want to post about your company on social media (more on that below).
Implement a formal employee advocacy program. Create both a means and incentives for your employees to post about your brand on their own social media pages. Rallio can help you create this program, whether you have one employee or hundreds.

Be a Storyteller

Working on your storytelling skills is one of the best ways to improve your social media. Whenever you have something to post, think about the story of how it came to be. Share those stories with your followers. You’ll be amazed at how much they love them and how much engagement you get, especially with boosted content! Examples of “storytelling” content ideas might include:

The story behind the 90-year-old grandma who has visited your hair salon every two weeks for 20 years
The story behind the family heirloom you keep on your desk
A series of stories highlighting your employees
The story behind how your company came to be

Content Ideas Don’t Have to Be Boring

As you can see, it just takes a little creativity to take your social media content from ho-hum to exciting. You don’t have to look much farther than your own camera roll to find content ideas worthy of posting on social media.

Of course, we’re here to help if you could use some assistance breathing life into your social media. We’ve performed triage on many different pages before to help them grow their following, engagement and “fun” factor on social media. To learn more, see rallio.com.

Tags content marketing, social media marketing

Content Marketing Social Uncategorized

Social media best practices: What is local content?

Post author By Rallio
Post date March 9, 2018
No Comments on Social media best practices: What is local content?

With Rallio’s recent launch of the Rallio Local division, we’ve created an in-house agency that helps our clients create and execute a local content strategy on Facebook and other social media platforms. One question that comes up frequently is what exactly local content is and why it matters. If you’re asking that question for your own business, today’s post will help you learn what types of content will get you the best results on social media.

The algorithm

Social media is increasingly shifting its focus in favor of local businesses, with Facebook leading the way in terms of how its algorithm serves up content to various audiences. The right type of content, combined with targeted ads, allows businesses to reach customers in their local area, especially those who are using their mobile devices to find businesses in their communities. In addition, the rise of platforms such as Yelp and Google reviews has made it essential that businesses have a local content strategy to reach the people who are likely to do business with them or buy their products or services.

So what is the right type of content? Encourage your visitors and followers to stick around and become a part of your online community by including the following in your social media posts.

Real-life photos from your office and staff

Include not only special events such as birthdays and holiday celebrations, but also simple “day in the life” photos showing what happens in your office. Here’s a post from one of our Rallio Local clients, Pet Supplies Plus Greenfield, with a cute picture of a dog and a great caption:

Spotlights about a star employee or customer

Give props to an employee of the month. Include a photo along with a caption explaining why they rock! You can also highlight customer testimonials and thank customers for their business, feature before and after photos if that makes sense for your business, or simply feature a repeat customer who brightens your day. Here’s a post one of local clients, Pure Barre Anaheim Hills, created to feature a customer testimonial and which we boosted with ad dollars. To date, the post has reached 645 people and has earned 28 likes and loves.

Pointed questions that elicit comments, likes and shares

A question like “Would you rather sleep in on a Saturday or get up and go for a hike?” will get more responses than “Do you like hiking?” You know how they say you have to ask for the sale? The same is true for comments. Quite literally, you can say “Comment below with your response” and it will be more likely to earn engagement.

Videos

Explain a how-to topic, offer helpful information, or feature an interesting aspect of your business or the people behind it. People love to watch short videos and often will watch those as opposed to reading a lengthy post on a topic.

Meat and potatoes

Infographics, blog posts and guides on topics your audience wants to know about are the backbone of your business, the “meat and potatoes” if you will. Prove you’re the guru in your field by creating assets that show off your expertise.

Promotions

Include only occasional posts about current promotions and contests. Stick to the 80/20 formula where just 20 percent of your content promotes your brand and the other 80 percent is dedicated to topics that interest your audience and engage them in conversations. Here’s an example from the same Pure Barre client where they do a nice job of including promotional details within the caption of an inspirational post describing the studio’s “20 in 31 class challenge.”

In general, posts that include more personalized information about your location tend to perform better than general posts. They are more aligned with Facebook’s current algorithm, thus improving your overall reach. If you need a hand creating your local content strategy, click over to Rallio Local.

To learn more about the recent Facebook algorithm change, see this article.

Tags content marketing, franchisee, social media

Branding Content Marketing Uncategorized

What Facebook’s Algorithm Changes Mean for Brands

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 16, 2018
No Comments on What Facebook’s Algorithm Changes Mean for Brands

If you read about the most recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm, then you might be wondering how the changes affect brands. As a social media and reputation management firm, Rallio always strives to help brands optimize their online presence and their advertising budgets. So if you’re in full-on panic mode, we’re here to tell you that these changes are not cause for alarm …

IF YOU ARE PUTTING AD DOLLARS BEHIND YOUR FACEBOOK CONTENT.

Pardon me. I don’t mean to yell. But it’s so important to understand that Facebook is a pay-to-play platform where if you want to have any kind of significant impact among your target audience, you need to pay to get in front of them.

If you find it difficult to wrap your head around this concept, think about it in terms of print advertising. Leaf through a magazine, and you see that the nicest, largest, glossiest ads at the front and back of the book. These are the big-money ads. The tiny little classifieds are small and hard to find because the advertisers didn’t pay as much for them.

And those that didn’t pay … well, do you even see them anywhere? Of course not, because nobody expects something for nothing. Or do they?

There are still brands out there that believe they can put up a Facebook page, post content and get it seen without ever paying a dime for advertising. Of course, there’s still something to be said for organic reach in terms of how your audience interacts with your content, particularly with Facebook’s new (or renewed?) emphasis on putting content in newsfeeds that’s community-oriented and focused on engagement among friends and family.

However, there’s an opportunity here for a powerful combination of paid posts and local engagement, one that we at Rallio are already using to help brands.

Stop freaking out about the #FacebookAlgorithm update. pic.twitter.com/7CUIhNyMMo

— Social B (@SocialBrunner) January 12, 2018

But Facebook stock dropped. What does it mean?

It’s true that Facebook stock dropped 5 percent with the news of its algorithm change, because people are worried that some ad revenue will decrease. And, it probably will. However, it’s not going away, and shareholders will demand it doesn’t decrease too drastically.

What we stress with our clients is that we need to be continually considering ways to convert “business” posts into “personal” posts. That is, once a brand gets engagement on a post, that interaction can be seen by others and the content is now falling under the consumer newsfeed algorithm and isn’t simply viewed by Facebook as a business post. The same is true with check-ins: When a consumer checks in to a business via Facebook, it can create great organic reach.

[bctt tweet=”Brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform! #FacebookAlgorithm” username=”rallioHQ”]

So in actuality, brands have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on Facebook’s algorithm changes. Let the others leave, and you step in to reach more and more of your target audience and boost your visibility on the platform!

The key is creating the kind of quality content that earns your customers’ comments, likes and shares as opposed to blatantly asking for them. Consider the words of Yuyu Chen in this Digiday article: “For starters, brands have treated Facebook like a pay-to-play platform for a long time, and Facebook said the new algorithm won’t affect paid posts on the platform, although CPM rates for Facebook ads may eventually increase, according to agency executives. However, they think the new Facebook algorithm will filter out clickbait-style promotions (‘Like our product if you think this dog is cute’), which will pressure brands to create more meaningful content over the long term.”

At Rallio, we’ve always stressed the importance of creating quality, relevant content that isn’t overly promotional or “me”-centric. Shift your focus to what your audience cares about, and you’ve got a whole world of opportunity as an advertiser. Do you want to be visible, engaging and relevant? Of course you do. Head over to ralliolocal.com, and we’ll help you get started making a major splash with your local customers.

Tags branding, content marketing, franchisee, social media

Uncategorized

11 Top Tips for Boosting Your Instagram Following

Post author By Rallio
Post date September 28, 2017
No Comments on 11 Top Tips for Boosting Your Instagram Following

Instagram has millions of active monthly users, and businesses of all sizes are asking themselves how to tap into that user base and gain more followers. It’s an important question to ask as more and more Instagrammers engage with businesses both on and off the app, whether they’re visiting a brand’s website, commenting on posts or showing up in person at a business to claim a special offer.

The general rule to know is that, as with any social media platform, there are really just two ways to do it effectively for long-term success: 1) through organic growth where you’re interacting authentically and consistently with your audience, and 2) through targeted sponsored ads. There are strategies attached to those two methods, and we’ll get into those below, but first, you might be asking yourself, “Why not just buy followers or use bots to get more of them?”

Sure, that seems like a quick way to get a big boost, but it’s an artificial boost that won’t allow you to connect with real people who care about your brand. What you want is an ongoing relationship with your audience, people who are loyal to your brand and able to assist in growing your followers.

[bctt tweet=”Did you know? You could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

Moreover, you could actually hurt your brand by buying artificial followers. Take a look at this Hootsuite experiment to see what might happen, i.e., zero engagement and a bunch of followers you don’t necessarily want associated with your brand.

At the end of the day, click-throughs and engagement are the best measures of your Instagram profile’s success. So toward that end, this post focuses on the top ways to build the kind of following you’d be proud to call home about.

1. Use hashtags

Hashtags are one of the best ways to make yourself findable. Choose hashtags that are relevant to your post and likely to be discovered in a search. Instagram makes it easy: Just type in your “#” and start typing a few letters of a hashtag, and Instagram will suggest hashtags that are popular and show you how many times it’s been used.

2. Cross-promote

Use your other social platforms, your website and your email campaigns to tell your audience about your Instagram account. Give them a glimpse of what to expect, such as special offers, behind-the-scenes scoop and advance notice of special events.

3. Hold a contest

I wrote about this topic extensively here, but in short, Instagram contests can be either standalone events you run on your own, or collaborative where you involve other brands in a “loop” type of contest. It’s a quick way to boost your followers among an audience that’s interested in your brand. Check out more examples of contests below.

4 Instagram Contest Ideas to Engage Your Followers

4. Engage with other users’ content

Set aside time daily, even 10 minutes, to like and comment on random photos from your target audience. Selectively follow those accounts that are well-aligned with and complement your brand.

5. Post quality content

Make your brand look sharp! Only post images that elevate your message, not random photos that you’re posting just for the sake of posting. Quality beats quantity every time.

[bctt tweet=”Only post images that elevate your message. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. #InstagramTips” username=”rallioHQ”]

6. Invite engagement

Ask a question or use the word “comment” to encourage engagement from your users. People love to voice their opinions! You can also ask users to “tag a friend,” e.g., “Tag a friend who would love these leggings!”

7. Post at the best times

What works for one brand doesn’t necessarily work for all. You might need to experiment to find the best time for you. You can always try out a scheduler such as Later, which will automatically calculate the best time to post for your account, or just go with a trial-and-error approach to see when you get the most engagement. Here’s a more detailed look at choosing the best times to post:

https://later.com/blog/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/

8. Complete your bio

Incorporate keywords and hashtags in your bio, and don’t forget a link back to your site. If you have specific posts where you want to direct users to a certain website or landing page, you can mention it in the post. For example, if you’re promoting a workshop series, you could say “Link in bio” within the caption of your post, and then swap out your bio link to feature a link to sign up for your workshop.

9. Sponsor your content

Look at your Insights on Instagram to see your most popular posts by impressions, and then throw some ad dollars behind your most popular posts. Just scroll down to the bottom and click on Create Promotion to get started.

10. Use the “Live” feature

Posting “live” on Instagram means you’re filming in real time, and your audience gets notified that you’re live. You have the option to keep these “Live” videos active for another 24 hours after airing.

11. Use Instagram Stories

I saved the best (arguably) for last: Instagram Stories. These stories are accessible at the top of a user’s home page when opening the app and feature a 24-hour snapshot of what’s going on with a brand or a person. After 24 hours, the story disappears, giving them a type of urgency that doesn’t exist with photos alone. You can tap within your own story to see who’s viewed it, giving you a clear picture of engagement. They’ve become an integral part of brands’ success on Instagram, and many brands are getting creative with these stories to promote their products and services.

One stellar example is a recent Chipotle campaign promoting their new Queso dip. For the campaign, Chipotle archived all but a few posts so that only Queso photos appeared on the profile page. In the days thereafter, the brand rolled out more posts, a contest offering a year’s worth of free queso to winners, and a 100-part Instagram Story that saw a 70 percent completion rate, meaning 70 percent of users clicked through all 100 parts of the Story to the end (no easy feat!). Read about it in the link:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/chipotles-instagram-story-featuring-100-pictures-of-queso-generated-a-70-completion-rate/

There are many more strategies you can use on Instagram, but these 10 are a great starting point! What other methods have you used to grow your Insta following? Leave your comments below.

Tags branding, content marketing, social media

Uncategorized

How to Build Social Media Content From Scratch

Post author By Rallio
Post date August 11, 2017
No Comments on How to Build Social Media Content From Scratch

Whether you’re a new or established business owner, by now you know the importance of having a social media presence. But if you’re just getting started with the various social media platforms, sometimes it’s tough to know where to begin.

Today’s post is all about helping you do just that. Building something from nothing is totally doable if you have the right tools to get going one step at a time.

First, the Basics

Although it’s important to have some kind of presence on the major platform, you’ll probably only pick one or two where you’ll really focus your efforts. Start by finding out where your audience spends the most time; that’s where you’ll want to be. If your audience is millennials, for instance, you’ll likely be on Instagram and Snapchat.

Once you’ve nailed down your platforms and set up your pages, you’ll need a system for creating and scheduling your posts. The Rallio platform is a great option, especially if you’re trying to manage multiple locations. There are others out there, too, such as Hootsuite and Buffer. I won’t get into comparing these different options in this post, other than to say we’re happy to walk you through a Rallio demo. Click here to request one.

[bctt tweet=”Find out where your audience spends the most time; that’s where you’ll want to be. #socialmediatips” username=”rallioHQ”]

Now, the Ideas

Most business owners would say that the reason they’re not posting on social media is lack of time, lack of ideas or a combination of the two. As far as time goes, try carving out 30 minutes daily to dedicate solely to social media. You might find you actually enjoy interacting with customers and building a following!

And as far as ideas, I’ve got several to get you going.

Easiest: Share relevant content from others

Don’t have time to write a blog post or an article? Someone else has already done it for you. Search for content created by non-competing entities, and simply share their content on your social pages.

Take our client Saddleback Memorial Hospital, for example, for which we actually create social media content. In this post, we shared mountain climbing safety tips from the publication Healthline, adding in a health-related spin (“bring the right gear, stay hydrated …). The post works great because not only did Saddleback Memorial not have to create the content themselves, but they also capitalized on a “holiday” of sorts, National Mountain Climbing Day.

Also easy, once you’ve done the work: Repurpose your own content

This one takes a little more legwork initially, but once you’ve done the work, you have endless opportunities to repurpose your own content. You can either write blog posts or videos yourself or hire someone to do it for you, but in any case, those posts are great shareable content.

Here’s an example. I wrote a post over a year ago, 31 Days of Social Media Ideas, in two parts. We’ve repurposed several elements of those two posts over and over again, pulling out different ideas to share. Here’s a recent tweet that capitalized on one idea from my post:

Day 28: Recommend a colleague from LinkedIn https://t.co/LULBdAxXin pic.twitter.com/WTJIhVFI9c

— Rallio (@rallioHQ) August 10, 2017

All it took was going back to that original post and calling out one of the “days” to share. No extra blog post needed!

Create a Poll

People love voicing their opinion on social media, so why not capitalize on their desire to be heard? Polls can be silly or serious, but make sure you ask something that’s sure to get a response. On Twitter, you can create polls right from your “Compose new Tweet” box. On Facebook, see this link for help creating a poll on the platform.

Some polls should focus on helping you learn more about your audience, while others might simply speak to a current trend. Entrepreneur magazine recently created a poll on the topic of the eclipse:

Are you making plans to witness the eclipse?

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) August 10, 2017

The post has nothing to do with entrepreneurship or small business, but it’s so easy to answer that users can’t resist voting in the poll. The lesson: Keep it simple and relevant.

Ask a Question or Invite “Fill in the Blank” Responses

Along the lines of polls, anytime you pose a question or ask users to fill in the blank in a post, you’re inviting engagement. Try a simple either-or question such as, “Would you rather eat hamburgers or pizza if those were the last two foods on Earth?” You can also post an engaging photo and either ask users to caption it, or create a fill-in-the-blank response, such as, “My favorite thing about summer is ____.”

Post a Quote

Apps like canva.com make it easy to create your own attractive graphics. Find some inspirational quotes, plop them into a Canva template, download and upload the image, and voila! You’ve got a post. Repurpose the quote image across platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Here’s one from our CEO, Chuck Goetschel, created in Canva:

Or Create an Infographic

Share facts and stats about your industry in an infographic, which you can create yourself using Canva or Visual.ly. Head over to Daily Infographic for ideas, such as this gem, The Ultimate Guide to Burritos.

Go Behind the Scenes

Can you share a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world behind your business? Maybe offer a look at how your products are produced, or make it personal, like this Instagram post of our team out to lunch:

Invite User-Generated Content

Ask your audience to post photos of themselves using or benefitting from your product or service. Not only does this invite some creativity into your posts, but it also provides the social validation people are looking for online. Your audience is more likely to believe a testimonial from a real customer versus a piece of sales copy you created!

Tags content marketing, social media

Content Marketing Uncategorized

Lessons in Self-Promotion From Gabrielle Bernstein

Post author By Rallio
Post date June 12, 2017
No Comments on Lessons in Self-Promotion From Gabrielle Bernstein

When you’re building a brand, one of your first orders of business is getting your message in front of the right audience. From social media to word of mouth, you have so many tools at your disposal to accomplish this task, so where do you begin?

To answer this question, I wanted to share some insights from life coach, speaker and author Gabrielle Bernstein, who has built her business around sharing authentic messages. In following Bernstein’s work, I’ve learned that she focuses on serving her audience from a place of sharing, not pushing, a philosophy that every business would do well to adopt while creating a publicity plan. Here are five lessons you can learn from her.

Lesson #1: You Don’t Need to Be a PR Expert

Before creating her coaching business, Bernstein owned a public relations firm. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, of course she’s great at getting publicity then,” consider this: She was completely self-taught. Bernstein didn’t get a degree in public relations; she trained herself. She then leveraged the PR skills she learned to build the business she has today.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of publicizing your business, take a deep breath. Start writing down the reasons you got started and the mission you have in sharing your products or services. Come from a place of helping others rather than serving yourself. What problem does your product or service solve? Start there.

This process will help you to clarify the message you want to share with your audience. Once you connect with the big-picture intention behind your brand, it’ll become easier to be your own publicist. Your message will be authentic, clear and well-received because it’ll come from your heart. You are the best one to share this message because you deeply care about it!

[bctt tweet=”#smm tip: Come from a place of helping others rather than serving yourself. #socialmediatips” username=”rallioHQ”]

Lesson #2: You Have a Message, So Share It

Bernstein frequently talks about being “unapologetic” about your message and putting your work out into the world. Remember, you are coming from a placing of sharing something exciting, not a place of selling or manipulating. The people who need to hear your message will be excited to hear it, so don’t keep it to yourself!

As she imagined her business, Bernstein thought about (actually, she meditated about) what her typical audience member looked like. She determined this person is a young woman living in the city with a salaried job who likely struggles with relationships and self-image. (It gets even more granular than that, but we’ll stop there to keep things simple.)

Once she had that person in mind, Bernstein was able to identify how her work could help this person and start sharing her message freely and unapologetically. Instead of trying to push her message or manipulate her audience into feeling a certain way, she could simply share the intention behind the work she was doing. She believed so powerfully in her message that she was able to share it without feeling salesy.

Lesson #3: Look for Your Audience in Unexpected Places

Having that clear picture of your audience like Bernstein did helps you discover where those people are spending their time. And she didn’t limit herself to thinking her audience only would be looking to health- and wellness-related resources.

In truth, Bernstein conceded, they were probably reading glossy fashion magazines and blogs about cutting their hair. Through the course of her group coaching sessions and social situations, she shared her desire to reach that audience. And within a month of beginning that conversation, she received an email from a client who, to her surprise, worked at Elle magazine. The client had pitched Bernstein to her team, and the magazine wanted to do a six-page feature on her.

Because she was willing to think “without a box,” as she puts it, Bernstein was able to take her message to those places where her audience was actually consuming media, even if glossy fashion magazines weren’t her initial target. As a result, Bernstein achieved some her greatest media placements early on, including regular spots on the Today show and sitting alongside Oprah.

[bctt tweet=”If you have a powerful message, you must become unapologetic about sharing it with the world. – @GabbyBernstein” username=”rallioHQ”]

Lesson #4: You Don’t Have to Master Every Form of Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat … so many social media platforms, so little time, right?

I would say it’s important to have some kind of presence on the major platforms, because you don’t want people to see a ghost town when they happen upon your social pages. However, you’ll want to spend the most time on the couple of platforms that a) you love and b) your audience consumes regularly.

Bernstein, for one, loves providing videos, and her audience loves to watch them. Essentially, she created the space where her audience loves to congregate. For years, Bernstein would put out a video blog every Monday morning. The vlogs were free for her audience, easy to create and something she loved to do. Over time, Bernstein grew her newsletter audience because people watching her videos opted in. (Side note: Don’t be afraid to put out free content. It will help your overall marketing efforts as you build trust and confidence with your audience members.)

Instead of trying to be everywhere all of the time, focus your efforts in those areas that energize you and allow you to feel as though you’re genuinely serving your audience. From there, you’ll find that you’re thrilled to put out your work because it feels authentic, empowering and helpful (again, not salesy).

As Seth Godin puts it, “Ideas that spread win.” What are your ideas? And in what manner would you love to spread them?

[bctt tweet=”As @ThisIsSethsBlog puts it, ideas that spread win. What are your ideas? #smm” username=”rallioHQ”]

Lesson #5: Be Your Own Voice on Social Media

Bernstein has said that every post she creates comes from her, not from a third party posting in her name. You can decide how strict you want to be with this lesson, but the intention behind it is clear: to allow you to speak authentically and put a personality behind your brand. That way, people will trust you, and even your promotional posts won’t feel like sales pitches.

Consider this carefully crafted post from Bernstein where she subtly promotes her course via the hashtag #SpiritJunkieMasterclass while providing a thoughtful image quote to inspire her audience:

Getting so psyched for #SpiritJunkieMasterclass !! ? pic.twitter.com/nrL64evQuc

— Gabby Bernstein (@GabbyBernstein) May 30, 2017

Key takeaway: The message you’re sharing is always going to be the most well-received when it’s genuine, not canned. The second your audience senses you’re not being real with them, they’ll unfollow and move along to someone who is.

And that’s no way to promote yourself and build your brand, now is it?

For all the social media strategy and advice that exists out there, make sure you’re getting back to the basics and speaking from the heart. The more you share content that’s meaningful to your audience, the more your message will resonate and the larger your following will become.

Tags branding, content marketing, social media

Content Marketing Reputation Social

Social Media Cheat Sheet: A Roundup of Our Best Tips

Post author By Rallio
Post date May 4, 2017
No Comments on Social Media Cheat Sheet: A Roundup of Our Best Tips

There’s a lot to learn when you’re first getting started with social media marketing, and even when you’ve been doing it a while, there’s still more to discover. Rather than get overwhelmed with the things you don’t know, try choosing one or two new ideas to explore each week. Over time, you’ll strengthen your skills, build engagement with your customers, and hopefully boost sales and profits, too!

The following roundup includes some of our best tips on social media, online reviews, and local and online marketing. Start at the top, and work your way down the list until you’ve tried everything! And then lather, rinse, repeat, and try some ideas of your own.

Be a Great Storyteller

When it comes to your content marketing strategy, nothing beats a great story that intrigues readers and connects emotionally with them. When content lacks intrigue and fails to spark an emotion, it becomes lifeless, dull and easily forgotten.

You’ll lose followers and certainly won’t gain new ones if your social media conversations are boring, stale, sales-focused and “me”-centric … exactly the type of person you would avoid at a cocktail party. On the flip side, great stories leave readers feeling like they’ve connected with you. At that proverbial cocktail party, they’ll be on the edge of their seats as you draw them in with conversation. They’ll walk away with a positive impression of your brand and will come back again and again.

How can you become a great storyteller? In short, be yourself. Let your personality, your life experiences and your opinions shine through in your content. See this post for a complete breakdown on telling stories through your content and solidifying your brand with customers.

[bctt tweet=”How can you become a great storyteller? In short, be yourself. #contentmarketing” username=”rallioHQ”]

Create Online Offers (and Make Sure They’re Working)

Online offers get your business in front of more customers and, if done right, get them shopping in your establishment. The key here is making sure your coupons are functioning properly so people don’t get frustrated trying to redeem them. Also, you need to be able to track the redemptions and learn whether your offer is producing growth for your business.

If you’ve tried coupons and haven’t experienced good returns, you might need to take a close look at your coupon process. There can be many reasons a coupon isn’t doing its job, including:

You’re overdoing them
You’re using the same, repeatable coupon code
You’re making them difficult to save
You’re making them frustrating to redeem
You’re making it hard to find a location near your customers to use the coupon
You’re not calculating the return on ad spend (ROAS)

See this post to learn more about each of the scenarios above, and then tweak your process as necessary to improve your offer results. If you’re interested in seeing how our coupons work at a brand and local level, send us an email at sales@www.rallio.com.

An example of a coupon with one too many restrictions

Create Shareable Content

It’s the question every franchisee and brand marketer has been asking for the last few years, ever since Facebook diminished the reach of page posts to 1 to 4 percent of all page followers: How do I get more people to see my content?

Bottom line, you need to create more content that people want to share. Firstly, because Facebook now focuses page posts’ organic reach on the number of shares it receives. And secondly, because when a person shares a post, they can write their own comment about the post before they share it. In a way that gives the page post new life from the perspective of the person, personalizing it to their friends.

We outline six ways to get more shares on your Facebook posts in this post. For instance, you can create how-to videos like the one below.

Get to Know Your Analytics

The amount of data available to review related to your social pages can appear overwhelming. And unless it’s your full-time profession to review and analyze trends and changes over time, you only have time for the numbers that will actually make a difference to your business.

For some, all you’re thinking about is your bottom line: Did I make another sale from this social media post? But think a bit larger than that. Not everything will result in a direct sale, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable.

The most important analytics to know include:

Follower growth. Look at the data over time, assess where your audience grows the most and the least, and see how you look next to similar local businesses.
Engagement. Likes, retweets, comments and shares make up some of the most common uses of the word engagement. However, people can connect with your business in less obvious ways, too, such as with geo-tagged photos at your location. Pay attention to the positive and the negative comments and feedback so you can successfully address both and keep your reputation intact.
Reputation. Go deeper than simply customer comments; you need to learn how your business is faring on the top review platforms, such as Yelp. What customers report about you can build your business or greatly hinder its growth. With 67 percent of consumers affected by online reviews, the ratings you have and how you respond to them will impact your brand, trustworthiness and sales.

More advanced analytics cover website analytics, directory listings and conversion rates. We delve into all of the above and more analytics best practices in this post.

[bctt tweet=”The most important #analytics to know include follower growth, engagement and reputation.” username=”rallioHQ”]

Become a Hashtag Expert

A hashtag is a word, a phrase or an acronym after the pound symbol (#). No spaces or other characters (!, ?, -, %, @, ., $, etc.) are allowed in a hashtag (with a few exceptions).

Hashtags are used to connect people to a topic, primarily on Twitter and Instagram. They are public and searchable, and when people look for a specific hashtag, they see the conversation related to that topic. People, brands, businesses, sports teams and nonprofit groups use hashtags to build an easily findable and joinable conversation around a subject matter. And in some cases, hashtags make for great comedy:

It’s critical that you know how to use hashtags correctly so you’re not tagging random words and, more importantly, you’re not jumping into a conversation you didn’t intend to. If you use a popular hashtag out of context, for example, it can become irrelevant or even offensive. Our post about becoming a hashtag expert gives you all the do’s and don’ts for creating appropriate hashtags around your brand.

Improve Your Writing

Because much of my life takes place in the world of social media, I am always on the lookout for well-written social media posts. You know the ones: the posts that cause you to smile, laugh, like and share. These posts not only pass the grammar test, but they also work hard to convey messages that connect with the intended audience. Those are the kinds of posts you want for your brand.

If you want to take your posts from “meh” to great, there are several simple ways to start flexing and strengthening your writing muscle. The most important strategy is to find a friendly, conversational voice that connects with your audience. Save your corporate-ese for white papers, because it has no place on social media. I’ve got a few other simple content strategies in this post, such as using action verbs, being concise and proofreading ad nauseam. You’ll improve your writing in no time!

[bctt tweet=”#socialmediatip: Find a friendly, conversational voice that connects with your audience. ” username=”rallioHQ”]

Brainstorm Ideas

You might already know that it’s important to publish new content regularly on social media. What might not be quite so clear? Knowing what to publish. If you’re running low on ideas for your content calendar, this two-part blog series should help you get the creative juices flowing again. From sharing a “day in the life” to posting your Pinterest boards, it includes 31 days of social media ideas you can use and tweak over and over again, and never run out of ideas!

On some level, if you’re paying attention to your social media pages (which you should be), you already know what types of content work best for you. Let us know in the comments what you’ve seen work and not work for your business.

Tags branding, content marketing, social media

Content Marketing

Content Marketing 101: Engage Your Audience With Great Storytelling

Post author By Rallio
Post date January 25, 2017
No Comments on Content Marketing 101: Engage Your Audience With Great Storytelling

Think about the last time you went to a social event where you engaged with people you didn’t know. Were there any guests you found to be particularly memorable?

If so, I’d venture to guess that you remember these people for one or more of the following reasons:

They were great storytellers.
They made the conversation about you.
They left you craving more.

Now think about your content marketing strategy. To engage with your audience, it really is as simple as making your content fall within the framework above.

Where brands tend to lose followers is the point when the conversations start to feel boring, stale, sales-focused and “me”-centric … exactly the type of person you would avoid at a cocktail party.

So today, we’ll look at some ways to incorporate great storytelling into your strategy in a way that leaves readers feeling like they’ve connected with you. They’ll walk away with a positive impression of your brand and will come back again and again.

Why Storytelling?

Great stories accomplish two main goals: intriguing readers and connecting emotionally with them. When content lacks intrigue and fails to spark an emotion, it becomes lifeless, dull and easily forgotten.

A great example is the fictional “Mayhem” character from Allstate Insurance commercials. Mayhem is the antithesis of good driving, wreaking havoc on the roads wherever he goes. Consider this @Mayhem Twitter post where he advocates for reading emails instead of watching the roads:

https://twitter.com/Mayhem/status/815935814165209088

The tongue-in-cheek, ironic approach makes Mayhem — and, by default, Allstate Insurance — memorable. So even if you didn’t major in fiction writing, it’s important to hone your storytelling skills in order to connect with your audience and compel them to take action.

Create a Conflict … and a Resolution

The beauty of the Mayhem character is that his very existence reminds the audience why insurance matters.

As we watch Mayhem cause one accident after another, we’re reminded of the importance not only of good driving, but also good insurance to pick up the pieces should “Mayhem” cross our paths. Enter Allstate Insurance, whose slogan and logo remind you, “You’re in good hands.”

There you have it: a conflict and a resolution created by the brand. It’s your classic “Solve a problem” advice you’ve probably heard over and over again in business, only now you’re putting it into the context of a story with characters, plot lines, settings, and a beginning, middle and end. Go back to your middle school English textbook and dig up a few more literary devices, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a compelling brand story.

[bctt tweet=”Great stories accomplish two main goals: intriguing readers and connecting emotionally with them.” username=”rallioHQ”]

It’s About Getting a Personality

I don’t mean you personally getting a personality, because presumably you already have one, but rather, your brand. If your brand lacks that personality, it’s easily forgotten. Infuse your stories with personality, however, and readers will remember you and come back for more.

You don’t have to create a character like Mayhem to have a brand personality. You can tell stories from employees or customers’ points of view, for example, and create that emotional connection between your stories’ “characters” and your audience.

Try this exercise to start creating that personality that you can use in your storytelling.

Write down the main problem that your product or service solves.
Identify two or three possible scenarios in which your product or service “saves the day” and resolves a problem. (This is where you’re making the story about the customer and not yourself.)
Imagine a few different characters (i.e., customers) who would benefit from your product or service.
Imagine a completely opposite type of character who can present the problem as a conflict.

Now you’ve got the makings of a story. Outline your beginning, middle and end, using one or a variety of characters along the way.

Before you know it, you’ll have several different plot lines to explore in your content. Each piece can feed off the previous one to keep readers engaged and returning to “turn the next page” in your story. You can then release different pieces of content on various social media platforms, on your website and in customer emails.

Do you have a great brand story you’re telling? Tell us what works well for you in the comments below.

Tags content marketing