Social media is ever evolving. Starting out originally as a way for the Internet savvy to stay in touch online, over the years it has grown to infiltrate nearly every aspect of our lives. Now it is a fundamental part of marketing for brands both big and small. A properly maintained social media page can actually make or break your business!
This isn’t a surprising development. Back in the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg was obsessed with his mission to convert his social platform into a viable business advertising tool. Today, using social media for brand engagement and awareness is so natural that we would never question its importance.
Keeping an Eye on the Other Guys
Social media isn’t only about keeping up with your customers–it is about keeping an eye on the competition. Other brands in your industry are launching their own social media campaigns every day, and they are reaping the results. You need to be aware of the progress, their campaigns, and especially their attempts to poach your business and profits.
Social pages make it easier to do this than in the past. Here are eight social analysis tools that let you analyze and learn from competitors’ social media tactics:
Facebook Page Analyzers
BuzzSumo–I can’t say enough about BuzzSumo and its list of both free and paid tools. One such feature is the Facebook Page Analysis. Use it to get a direct comparison between your Facebook page and that of your major competitors. Add a whole list of pages to analyze side by side, making it a quick and simple tool to use.
The graph shown in the “8 Free Tools To Analyze and Track Your Competition On Social Media” graphic near the top of this post is only one of the many views the BuzzSumo Facebook analysis feature provides. Another one of my favorites shows top engagement by time of day.
Use it to search for influencers by keyword, filter them by location, and then save them to lists. Find out which influencers are promoting which competitors. Spot trending stories about to go viral. Use searches by keyword to know what to create to best reach your target audience. This is by far the most popular social analysis tool used by serious content marketers.
Fanpage Karma–Don’t be fooled by the plans listed on the website, Fanpage Karma also offers a free version of its services. The free version is very basic, but it includes a few features that allow you to monitor your social media page and those of other brands.
You can monitor only one fan page at a time on the free plan; you can monitor unlimited pages with a paid subscription. From using the tool, here are some of my favorite insights:
Learn who your most engaged page supporters were over the last 30 days. Find out who spreads your competitors’ messages and brands to their followers.
Posts per day: When does a fan page usually post? What about the weekend?
Engagement per day: Which time slots work best for fans’ posts?
Ad cost: What would the cost have been to reach the same number of people with paid ads in other marketing channels as a fan page reached with its posts.
LikeAlyzer–I love this tool because it offers something a lot of tools don’t: real explanations. If your page is weak in an area, LikeAlyzer lays out exactly what that area is and how you can fix it. To compare your site to other pages, just have a fan page of a competitor’s brand analyzed.
The above graphic gives you an idea of how the tool works–showing which areas of a page are working and what needs to be worked on. The only downside is that you have to search each page separately, save the results, then manually go over them. There is no comparison feature built into the app.
Tools for Analyzing Twitter
Twitonomy–Easy to use, very detailed, and visually stunning, Twitonomy combines all the analytical data you need into one single, multi-widgeted report dashboard.
You can track both your competitors and influencers, so you always have your finger on the pulse of your industry’s social activity. Plus, you get actionable insights on everything from your followers’ interests and needs to your own growth over time.
Tweetdeck–Tweetdeck is free, and is still one of the best Twitter listening dashboards around. You can monitor a number of accounts, keywords, and locations through customized columns.
Power users tend to set up one column per major competitor to listen to fans and customers. If you add “-filter:links” to your search, you’ll listen to tweets that contain no links (these tend to be real people’s conversation).
If you are not a fan of using a desktop app, here is a list of tools you can browse to find an alternative.
Comprehensive Analysis Tools
Cyfe–This is a multipurpose marketing dashboard which is one of the most used social analysis tools. With Cyfe you can set up a separate dashboard to listen to your competitors using the following widgets and so many more:
Twitter search
Google Plus search
Google alerts
With Cyfe’s inexpensive paid version, you can add an unlimited number of widgets for multiple competitors and different search queries. Hopefully by now you’ve heard of Cyfe and set up your business or social dashboard with at least the five free widgets they provide. You can evenaggregate all your SEO data into one dashboard.
Klear–Part competitive analysis tool, part listening software, Klear is one of the more thorough of tools on this list. The app is geared to provide information on influencer marketing which is great for Twitter users in particular. Unlike many other free plans, Klear offers its primary features for you without having to upgrade.
Klear also has a nice list of free tools for you to utilize that are compatible with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Sadly, Klear has not moved on to platforms like Pinterest.
SEMRush–SEMrush recently added a Social Analysis Tools feature that allows you to compare your social media pages with the pages of your major competitors.
The best part: you can set up weekly reports to be emailed to you for you to track your progress versus your competitors’.
More Tools for Discovering Your Competitors
WhoICompete: A free tool that finds competitors that rank for two or more of your target keywords.
SiteGeek: You can easily locate additional sites your competitors own; analyze how they are using extra sites for marketing and beyond.
Followerwonk: Find Twitter users who work for your competitors; limit your search to bios and search for your competitors’ brand name.
SimilarWeb: Expand your list of competitors by finding “similar” sites to yours or your current competitors.
Are You Using Any of These Social Analysis Tools?
Do you have a social analysis tool that helps you track and analyze your competition on social media? We would love to hear about it! Let us know via a tweet to @GrowMap or comments on Facebook (just search for GrowMap) or discuss this post with us on Inbound or GrowthHackers. Send us your case studies, anecdotes, and tips and you may see them in a future post.
Every sales proposal represents an opportunity to grow your business. After spending years in business and sales, I have seen how the ability to put together a well-crafted proposal is crucial to achieving advancement for yourself and your business. Here are key elements to include:
let your audience know what to expect
People generally don’t like surprises, so a brief overview of your key points is a good start. Remember KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. It is your job to make it easy for the person reading the proposal to understand it. Don’t put them to the test of doing the work for you; they won’t.
include persuasive elements
The purpose of a proposal is to persuade your prospect to buy your product or service, to persuade them that your product or service is something they will benefit from and is something they should not live without. Develop materials that support your final objective of getting them to buy your product/service—include statistics, testimonials, references, or quotes.
recognize customer needs
A winning proposal will overwhelmingly serve the customer. Whenever you write a proposal, ask yourself: What audience will be reading my proposal and who is the decision maker? What is important to my customer? What are the best ways to address the issues and present my solutions? Your proposal’s message and benefits should be orientated to the audience, company and industry it addresses.
tailor your proposal
Now that you know your customer, make sure your proposal is tailored directly to that unique customer and their unique business goals. Also, always address your proposal to the correct individual(s). People love hearing/reading their names and it makes the experience that more personal.
create positive perceptions
Proposals that create positive perceptions of the product, service, and brand drive results. You have the unique ability to design your proposal for each customer to make your solution and company look positive. Taking time to examine competitors and demonstrate how your product/service is better can create a positive perception you will want your prospect to think about while making their decision.
include a call to action
Make sure you specifically ask your prospect what you want them to do. Remind them that they can choose to purchase today or ask if you can move forward with invoicing. Asking your customer (in writing or vocally) personally by name can be the single greatest way to quickly move from prospect to customer. You can say, “Mr. Johnson, after reviewing this proposal would you please provide me with your approval to move forward by signing your name on the indicated areas?”
review and edit
Your audience is more likely to respond affirmatively to your proposed solution (call to action) if the points you have made steer them in the right direction. Make sure you review your proposal and make any necessary edits so that your proposal includes sufficient reason(s) to take action. Ask yourself: Will the contents of this proposal create the desired action that I am asking for?By taking into account the above elements before writing your next proposal you have already improved your chances of winning the business!
E-commerce websites are constantly being tweaked and optimized to allow for better user experiences, yet one of the most important features is often overlooked—we’re talking about filter and sorting capabilities. And if your website isn’t accounting for better filtering and sorting, it’s likely that you’re missing out on sales.
e-commerce: don’t overlook filter and sort capabilities
On any given e-commerce website, there are generally two different ways a user can find a product: browse or search. Browsing is the equivalent of going into a store and meandering around until you find something that interests you. This is what you do when you’re out shopping with friends. In terms of e-commerce, browsing looks like scrolling through inventory and clicking on listings that capture your attention.Then there’s searching. Using our in-store example, this involves entering a store, identifying the right aisle, and strategically narrowing your focus until you find the exact product you came to purchase. In e-commerce, searching is supposed to be even easier–that is, if you use filters and sorting tools.“When done right, filters enable users to narrow down a website’s selection of thousands of products to only those few items that match their particular needs and interests,” writes Christian Holst, co-founder of Baymard Institute. Filters are those neat dropdown menus that let you sort based on price, style, size, etc.“Yet, despite it being a central aspect of the user’s e-commerce product browsing, most websites offer a lackluster filtering experience,” Holst continues. In fact, he points to the fact that only 16 percent of major e-commerce websites offer a “reasonably good” filtering experience.Considering that filtering is so important, this is an alarming statistic. And as a small e-commerce business owner, your website’s filtering experience more than likely doesn’t fall under the label “reasonably good.” This is a problem that should not be overlooked.
3 tips for better filter and sort functionality
The good news is that there are ways to improve the filter and sort functionality of your site. Here are some helpful tips:
1. give users viewing/sorting options
Today’s customers like options. But if you’re going to offer a wide selection of products, you must be willing to present them in an organized manner. One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that shoppers can only buy what they can find. As such, you need to offer as many different filtering options as you can.For starters, make sure you’re offering multiple display options. This means both a grid and a list view. If you’re unfamiliar with the difference between the two, check out this page from Home City for an example of how each one looks. As you can see, the grid view presents four thumbnails across, whereas the list view presents the thumbnails in a vertical fashion.Secondly, you need to include basic filters. These may change depending on the industry you’re in and the products you sell. For an example, let’s look at this product’s page from Kohl’s. It gives customers the ability to sort based on size, category, accessories, trends, and featured brands. Then there are subcategories under each of these. That’s what you call offering plenty of options!
2. enhance the search bar
The search bar is very important, yet often neglected. While filters are important, sometimes a customer just wants to use a search bar because it’s the quickest option. There are a lot of good examples of effective search bars, but FootSmart has one of the best. The search bar lets you input any brand name, keyword, or item number and instantly see results. Then, once the results are populated, the user can further filter based on other options.If you offer filtering options without a search bar, you only have half of the equation. Make sure your filtering options and search bar are working in tandem with one another for a lasting user experience.
3. provide category-specific options
As previously mentioned in the Kohl’s example, it’s important to include category-specific options. These are filters that apply to a specific product. For example, TV categories would include things like refresh rate, screen size, and picture, whereas a shoe category would include things like material, sole color, and season.Unfortunately, 42 percent of websites don’t account for category-specific filters. This is unfortunate, since all it takes is a little more work to include these subcategories.
putting it all together
Filtering is very important to your e-commerce website’s overall user experience. If you want customers to enjoy their shopping experience, make more purchases, and return in the future, then you need to invest in improving the filter and sort capabilities on your site. Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be better off than even some of the biggest e-commerce players on the Internet.
The latest in a long line of buzzwords in the world of recruiting new employees is “recruitment marketing.” This is a fusion of career recruitment and marketing elements commonly employed in search engine optimisation.
To some people recruitment and marketing sound like two completely different areas, but the fact is marketing experts are increasingly collaborating with recruitment professionals to develop ads for online job boards that have a new and very different impact.
make keywords count
Research has suggested that the same keywords and phrases that are popular in search engine searches should also be used in job ads. When a job seeker arrives at a job board, chances are they have done a search for the job they are looking for via Google first. To ensure your job ad reaches the right audience you have to employ this thinking into your ads so the search engines index them and they appear at the top, or very near, on the results pages.
So, if you have a fancy job title, it’s potentially going to struggle to work if your target audience is searching for a more common phrase.
leave it to the pros
Online jobs boards are saturated with information that can be both helpful and detrimental. Yes, there are a lot of job seekers out there looking for their dream role, but think of how many companies are churning out job ads that all sound the same.
A marketing expert will analyse the content of the ads and create something that really stands out from the crowd and includes those all-important search terms. This can help enormously when you have to fill a vacancy quickly or one that has been languishing for weeks with very little interest.
make the most of your company brand
It’s human nature that a job seeker will see a position they are interested in and then do a bit of homework on the company offering the job. This becomes even more important if it’s a company they have never heard of before and want to check out its credentials.
You should make full use of social media to make sure your brand is out there, and create a strong online and social media presence. If your company’s online presence currently consists of a couple of lines in an online local business directory, then your chance of attracting applications from the top talent are slim.
how marketing is best used in recruitment
Marketing is essentially a process which is employed to determine which types of message will most successfully motivate specific target audiences to act in certain ways. When you think about it, online recruitment works in much the same way, using terms that will appeal to readers and motivate them to apply.
For example, “Cloud Systems Administrator in Stockport” will attract job applicants, whereas “Head of Information, Systems, Cloud and Infrastructure” won’t because it’s not a term people would use when searching.
Recruitment marketing takes this to the next level by utilising marketing tactics to target specific audiences rather than the general public. Once an audience of specific job seekers is identified, the search terms people are most likely to use can be determined and killer job ads created. The content contained in the ads should rank high on the search engines, and also on searches within the jobs board themselves.
If early figures are anything to go by, combining SEO with your job ads could well be a match made in recruitment heaven.