Digital Marketing

By 2022, Statista anticipates that more than 333 billion emails will be sent each data. To give you an idea of how big that number is, if each email were a star, the cluster would be 50% bigger than the Milky Way Galaxy. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks the statistic above is mind-blowing. At this point, email has proven to be a major communication tool for both consumers and marketers. But, as this channel has thrived, mobile technology. such as smartphones and tablets, has also become much more abundant in society.  And while you might think you have a solid email strategy, a huge portion of your audience might be missing out on your lead-generating content if your emails aren’t mobile optimized. Even back in 2016, when slightly less people had smartphones, most of the consumer population would disregard or delete emails that weren’t mobile optimized. Today, mounting research shows that mobile optimization is even more vital to your email marketing strategy.  But with so many resources, oftentimes in the form of extensive reports, it can be hard to find the time to keep track of important industry stats and information, such as that around mobile optimization. To help you recognize why you need to optimize your email strategy for mobile, I’ve put together this list of essential email marketing stats that you should keep in mind. First, I’ll begin with a few general stats that highlight why you need to embrace email marketing in the first place.  General Email Marketing Stats to Know in 2020 Email Marketing Tactics and Spending In the near future, brands are planning to add advanced segmentation (47%), content personalization (37%) and behavioral targeting (39%) to their email marketing practices. (Econsultancy, 2019) Last year, 66% of email marketers highlight automation as an important attribute of email solutions, up six percentage points from 60% in 2018. (Econsultancy, 2019) The top three areas for email marketers were focusing on in 2019 were automated campaigns (37%), personalization (32%) and segmentation (29%). (Econsultancy, 2019) On average, email attracted only 13% of company marketing spend in the last year, despite being attributed to 19% of sales. (Econsultancy, 2019) Email Metrics and Benchmarks Globally, the average email open rate was 22.15% in 2019. (GetResponse 2019) Average email click-through rate is 3.43%. while th average click-to-open rate is 15.49%. (GetResponse, 2019) The average email unsubscribe rate in 2019 was 0.20%, while spam complaints average at 0.02%. (GetResponse, 2019) 73% of companies rank email as an “excellent” marketing channel for ROI. (Econsultancy, 2019) Image Source The top reason email receives so little marketing spend is that email measurement is skewed towards non-commercial metrics, such as open and click-through rates. These metrics don’t always support a business case for email. (Econsultancy, 2019) Mobile Email Optimization Stats 49% of all web traffic was from mobile devices in 2019. (Statista, 2019) 60% of email opens are from mobile devices. (Aedestra, 2019) Mobile email users totaled 2.2 billion by the end of 2018. (Campaign Monitor, 2018) 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device. (Convince & Convert, 2018) Apple iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29 percent of all opens occurring on this platform. Although people primarily check email on IPhone devices, Gmail is still the most-used email service, with more than 1.5 billion users (CNBC, 2019) Launching a mobile-responsive email design can increase unique mobile clicks by 15%. (MailChimp, 2019) When it comes to Gmail and mobile emails, they follow Apple making up 27 percent of the mobile email market. (Campaign Monitor, 2018) In 2016, a report found that 68% to 79% of consumers would delete an email that isn’t mobile optimized. This percentage was highest for those over the age of 56. (Aedestra, 2016) The average percentage of email clicks by PC users was 72% and 18.5%. for mobile users. (MailChimp, 2019) 9.3% of email clicks come from tablets, rather than smartphones or computers. (MailChimp, 2019) Image Source Embracing Mobile Optimized Emails The stats above tell a compelling story. Although general email is still the preferred mode of communication for the majority of consumers, and a major revenue generator, you shouldn’t forget about your huge mobile audiences when sending out your campaigns. To learn more about mobile optimization, as well as how to execute a successful and revenue-generating email strategy, check out our Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing.  Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally publishied in Dec. 2013, but was updated to reflect the current mobile email landscape and research in June 2020. 

Posted by MiriamEllis Moz’s very warmest thanks to the 1,453 respondents who volunteered time to contribute to this second installation of our industry survey. It’s rewarding to have such a large survey group; as this report details in high relief, the work of marketing a single business location can pass through a dozen hands. Owners, staff, in-house SEOs, agencies, creative directors, webmasters, project managers, and consultants may all be contributing to promoting just one local company. By capturing their hands-on experience, we get the big picture of local SEO as an effort not confined to experts, but rather, requiring all hands on deck. In this report, you’ll find insights to share with coworkers and clients on: Company infrastructure Local ranking factors Tool & software usage Gaps in the marketplace High ROI strategies and tactics Get the full report! A window in time on local business marketing The data in our survey depicts the local SEO industry both before and during the public health emergency. As such, it’s an eagle’s eye view of both the status of marketing priorities up to the present and a gauge of preparedness for change. Change has always been the only constant in local SEO — our industry is accustomed to an environment that can turn on a dime, literally overnight. This challenging setting toughens businesses for tough times. No one knows yet how COVID-19 may ultimately alter consumer behavior, but in the short term, one good sign which has emerged from the State of the Local SEO industry report is that local businesses were strongly embracing organic assets prior to the pandemic. Not long ago, you might have encountered narratives about websites being “dead” due to the dominance of local packs, zero click SERPs, and other Google features. Fortunately, our report indicates that many marketers have wisely ignored such schools of thought and have continued to promote the vital role local business websites play in connecting with communities. For now, if connection is curbside or delivery instead of foot traffic, local businesses which have been thoughtfully maintaining their websites own a strong platform for next moves — perhaps implementing local e-commerce, or taking orders via form submissions, or hosting gated video consultations. Access to the State of the Local SEO Industry’s data will enable you to do your own analysis of the sum total of marketing knowledge up to the present with an eye to future strategy. Here’s a preview of 3 emergent narratives that particularly caught my eye. Proximity falls to third as a local ranking factor Our 2019 report cited user-to-business proximity as the dominant influence on Google’s local pack rankings. So has every Local Search Ranking Factors survey since 2017. This is a surprising departure. Download the report for further analysis and view the numbers in the light of how Google might adjust proximity based on new factors like curbside pickup and local delivery. YOY, 19% more respondents are involved with offline marketing 94% (up from 75%) of our survey group are consulting with clients at least some of the time on topics like real-world customer service and consumer policies.This statistic professionally delights me, because of my years of advocacy here on the Moz blog for local search marketers to care deeply about what happens in real time between consumers and brands. Some enterprising agency should consider doing a webinar or eBook on the history of brick-and-mortar marketing so our industry can engage in deeper levels of learning and make informed decisions about future offline marketing strategy. COVID-era customer fulfillment strategies are here to stay  51% of respondents intend to permanently offer amenities like home delivery, curbside pickup, and video conferencing. Now is the time for innovative marketing agencies to put in the work researching the best possible solutions for clients for the long haul. Will it be in-house delivery fleets, or outsourcing to third parties like Instacart and Doordash? Which e-commerce platform is the best, not just for UX but for SEO? Many brands swiftly cobbled together new services to meet the state of emergency, but as time goes by, consumer feedback and marketing analysis will point the way to thoughtfully choosing the best transactional methodologies and platforms. All of these technologies predate the pandemic, but the year ahead is going to see them much more fully tested. Please accept our invitation to download the free State of the Local SEO Industry Report 2020, with 30+ timely questions on topics that impact how you work, what to offer, and how to improve your strategy for the year ahead whether you own a local business or are in the business of marketing local brands! Get the full report! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

I love online shopping. In fact, online shopping is almost the only way I shop. And I’m not alone. In 2019, there were 263 million digital buyers in the U.S. By 2024, this figure is projected to increase to 282.7 million online buyers. As a marketer, these figures prove that businesses should invest in Google shopping ads. Google shopping ads, the ads that appear on the search engine results page when someone is searching for a product, can be confusing to set up. In this post, we’ll review how to structure your Google shopping campaign and the top strategies that’ll drive sales. If you want to set up Google shopping ads, you might be wondering, “Which campaign structure should I use?” and “What’s the difference?” Below, let’s discuss the two different methodologies behind a Google shopping campaign structure. Featured Resource: Google Ads Planning Template Download this Template While setting up Google Shopping Ads campaigns sounds complex, using a planning template can make it easier. HubSpot’s Google Ads PPC kit will help you determine what your bids should be, set up and optimize your budget, find new keywords, and optimize your campaigns. 1. One campaign and one ad group. The simplest way to set up your Google shopping campaign is to use just one campaign and one ad group. When you first set up a Shopping campaign, you’ll have one ad group with one product group called “All products,” which will include your entire inventory. This is a great approach if you want to run a straightforward campaign, without using complex optimization techniques. However, if you want to customize your bid based on which products you’re selling, then this approach isn’t for you. 2. Several campaigns with varying campaign priorities. Instead of running one campaign with one ad group, you can run multiple campaigns and prioritize them based on your bidding strategy. For example, you can set up a campaign targeting unbranded keywords by using a negative keyword list that includes your brand’s name. You might choose to have this campaign be a low or medium priority since the searchers who aren’t using branded keywords are in the beginning stages of their research. On the other hand, you can set up a second campaign targeting branded keywords and setting a high priority because these users are further in their buying journey and more likely to convert. By using several ad groups, optimized with negative keywords, you’ll have more control over the search terms that your product shows up for. However, it’s important to note that you can’t choose which keywords your product shows up for. You can optimize your campaigns with negative keywords and customized bids, but you can’t choose the keywords you want to target. Additionally, you can also set up different campaigns for different product groups. Again, you can decide which campaign is a high priority and which one is a low priority depending on which products you think will convert more. Although this method gives you more control, it requires more strategizing and organization in the planning phase. Plus, what works for one company, might not work for another. This means that you’ll want to test and see what works for you. Once you have a good idea of the campaign structure you’re going to use, it’s time to strategize. Below, let’s dive into the top Google shopping ad strategies that’ll help you develop a campaign that drives sales. 1. Create customized campaigns using negative keywords. When you create multiple campaigns, you can divide them into high, medium, and low priority. One strategy is to use several campaigns with varying priorities to target certain searches. To do this, you’ll need to develop a negative keyword list for each campaign so you can control which searches your product shows up for. This might mean that you develop a campaign for more generic searches versus high intent, branded searches. With this strategy, you’re going to want to think about which searches are more likely to convert versus those that aren’t. 2. Consider your pricing. With Google shopping ads, your ad is going to be competing with several other products. That’s why it’s important to consider your pricing. In the example below, you can see the Google shopping ads that showed up for the search “Fabletics leggings.” While most of the products are Fabletics, there are a few from other brands. You can see Fabletics leggings priced around $45-60, however, you can also see Old Navy leggings for $28 and SHEIN leggings for $10. Price can play a large role in the purchasing decision, so it’s important to keep your prices competitive to increase your sales. 3. A/B test your campaigns. When you’re devising any new strategy for a marketing campaign, it’s important to A/B test. With Google shopping ads, you’ll probably try a few different techniques. You might want to test different ad groups, priority settings, bids, or negative keywords. Additionally, you can also test which product groups and product pages are more likely to convert. With Google shopping ads, it’s important to find the right balance between your campaign structure and bidding strategy. To improve your sales, you should run A/B tests to see what works for your company and what doesn’t. 4. Optimize your product pages. Not to be redundant, but keep in mind that your Google shopping ads won’t target specific keywords. This makes it even more important to optimize your product pages so you can signal to Google which keywords your product should show up for. To do this, you should use keywords in your product title, page title, meta description, image alt text, and product description copy. This will help Google decide when to show your product. 5. Split your ad groups by product. One strategy you can use when you set up your Google shopping campaign is split your ad groups by product. For example, perhaps you want to group certain products together. Let’s say you sell scrunchies and wine, like Kaitlyn Bristowe.

Email marketing is a key component of any successful marketing strategy — in fact, email marketing provides companies with a potential ROI of $44 for every $1 spent. In particular, email newsletters are an essential way for your business to keep your subscribers up-to-date with relevant information, and ultimately drive more leads. Newsletters give marketers the ability to capture email sign-ups through form submissions, and nurture leads. If you have a blog, you’ve probably sent newsletters to notify subscribers about new blog posts. Alternatively, perhaps you’ve used newsletters to send business-related information to your subscribers. Anyway you slice it, newsletters help you keep your contacts engaged with your business. An email newsletter tool is essential, since it allows you to beautifully design a newsletter email, deliver the email to your subscribers with features such as A/B testing and smart content, and monitor and analyze how the newsletter performed. However, not all email newsletter tools are created equal. With differences in features, pricing, and availability, choosing an email newsletter can be hard — especially with the number of options available. Additionally, newsletter tools differ in how much of the customer journey they can cover. Ultimately, when choosing your email newsletter tool, you’ll want to ensure the tool matches your business’s goals — which is why we wanted to take out the guesswork, and highlight the top email newsletters out there for your business. Best Newsletter Software 1. HubSpot’s Email Newsletter Tool Designing, sending, and analyzing email newsletters has never been easier with the HubSpot Email tool. HubSpot offers a drag-and-drop email editor so you can easily create a polished email newsletter that you can personalize to fit your brand’s design without needing a designer or IT professional. Additionally, you can experiment with smart content rules, personalization, A/B testing, and advanced reporting — ensuring your email newsletters are optimized for your business. You can also see who’s engaging with each newsletter email and when, what device they’re using, the most popular links and documents, and more. You can use these insights to design tests that will take conversion rates to new heights for your business. Ultimately, what makes HubSpot’s Email tool so exceptional is its ability to pair with HubSpot’s free forms tool to easily collect email leads, as well as HubSpot’s free CRM to give you insight into how your marketing emails are performing. For example, you can use an email subscriber’s lifecycle stage, list membership, or any information in their contact records to automatically serve up the most relevant subject lines, content, links, attachments, and calls-to-action. HubSpot’s email tool starts free. 2. Benchmark Benchmark offers the ability to easily create email newsletters via drag-and-drop functionality, giving non-technical marketers the power to create beautiful newsletters. There’s also a good selection of newsletter templates that you can choose from in the Benchmark template library. Some of Benchmark’s most valuable features include detailed analytics on how each email campaign performs, A/B split testing to ensure you’re sending the best emails, spam testing tools that ensure your emails get to inboxes, responsive designs and templates, list segmentation tools, and auto-responders. Benchmark is free for up to 2,000 subscribers, and lets you send up to 14,000 emails per month. Image Source 3. GetResponse GetResponse offers features that become available as you need them, from a range of starter features all the way to enterprise features such as webinars and landing pages. Hosting landing pages in GetResponse will further enable you to capture email subscribers for your newsletter. GetResponse also allows you to create well-designed email newsletters with their drag-and-drop email editor, segment contacts tool, campaigns creator, and A/B testing tool. With a ton of templates to choose from, you can create an email to match your brand, and send emails more efficiently. GetResponse does not offer a free tier, but they have a 30-day trial, and pricing starts at $15 per month. Image Source 4. SendInBlue With SendInBlue, you don’t need technical skills to create well-designed email newsletters. The drag-and-drop functionality, HTML editor, and expansive template gallery gives you the tools you need to create stunning emails. You can personalize the design of your newsletters with easy builders, choose the form fields for your subscription form, and design many ways for your visitors to opt-in. SendInBlue has a robust automation pipeline, allowing you to send different emails based on specific actions taken by your contacts. However, SendInBlue does not have a CRM, so it’s not the best option for scaling teams. SendInBlue lets you send 300 emails per day (6,000 emails per month) for free, and pricing starts at $25 per month for 40,000 emails. Image Source 5. Mailjet Mailjet offers email solutions for fast moving teams, especially in Europe, and great scaling opportunities for larger companies. The service is keen on being developer-friendly with a powerful API solution for engineers to build on their email platform. One appealing feature of Mailjet is the ability to create dynamic content that is personalized for each recipient based on data such as name and location. If your team demands email newsletters be built together and reviewed often before sending, Mailjet’s collaborative tools make it easy for teams to work together on emails. For example, you can create a draft of your newsletter in Mailjet, and your teammates can suggest edits before it’s sent — all within the app. Mailjet gives 200 emails per day (6,000 emails per month) for free, and pricing starting at $8.69 per month for 30,000 emails. Image Source 6. MailChimp MailChimp offers a free email marketing service with a large selection of templates to choose from for newsletters. MailChimp is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses looking to get their feet wet in email marketing, but is not suited for scaling teams since it lacks powerful automation and segmenting features. MailChimp is a valuable tool nonetheless, especially since its free plan generously offers up to 12,000 free email sends per month. You’ll also like the variety of newsletter templates that MailChimp offers,

Did you think PageRank was dead? If so, you were wrong. PageRank is very much still alive, yet not discussed in the SEO community as much as it once was when we had the toolbar. In this guide, we explore what PageRank is, how it works and take a look at the factors which influence it, as well as why it still matters in 2020.

Posted by cheryldraper This conference season feels a bit different, doesn’t it? Where we’re usually globetrotting from event to event, this year most conferences have either postponed their dates or switched to online, remote-friendly formats, offering video sessions by top-notch speakers or live streams with open chats. But what about everyone’s favorite bonus during conference season — networking? Thankfully, all is not lost! With a little ingenuity and virtual elbow grease, you can still forge new professional relationships over an internet connection rather than a cocktail. (And hey, nothing’s stopping you from enjoying a nice, frosty Mozcow Mule or tasty mocktail in your home office space, right?) In our current reality of social distancing, marketing conference networking will look different, but it’s not going anywhere. Read on for tips on how to effectively network while remote! Step 1: Look for networking opportunities Depending on which virtual event you attend, the networking opportunities will look different. Keeping a creative eye out for opportunity is key to your success! Live chats Much like during regular conferences, there are bound to be live chats happening. They may happen on the actual event platform, or they may take place on social media. Some events will use a platform like Zoom that allows viewers to chat with each other within the platform, while others may have more of a broadcast format where chats happen on Twitter with a hashtag. Joining Q&As A super valuable aspect of conferences is being able to speak to presenters after they give their talk. Sometimes this happens during a predetermined time slot, such as right after the presentation, or it may happen when you catch them in the lobby or at an event later on. Either way, this time to ask questions about their expertise is a huge value-add to the experience. With conferences going virtual and live chats happening publicly during the presentations, this Q&A time has shifted a bit. Instead of having to wait for the presentation to be over, in some cases, presenters will reply to questions from the live chat as they’re speaking. Some panels are pre-recorded, giving speakers a chance to interact on various platforms during the event itself. Some events will even have specific “presentations” that are more like facilitated Ask Me Anything-style interviews or panels where questions are taken from the audience and posed to the speaker(s). Birds of a Feather discussions Many conferences will offer some sort of industry or concept specific conversation facilitation. For instance, at MozCon, we host Birds of a Feather discussions. These discussions are headed up by an industry professional and have predetermined topics such as EAT, AI, Gutenberg, etc. Other times, these conversations may be organized and headed up by attendees. In a virtual setting, these will likely be smaller breakout groups using some sort of video chat software. Zoom, specifically, has created a way for conferences to organize these “breakout sessions” in advance. Birds of a Feather conversations are one of the best ways to connect as there is a common ground established from the get-go. These. Are. Your. People. Connections here will likely be the most valuable. Step 2: Get active No matter where the chats are happening, be sure you’re a part of them! The more you interact, the more likely people are to recognize your name when you reach out after the event. The only caution here is that you have to be sure your interactions are meaningful — don’t just comment clapping hands. Add something to the conversation. Add insight The best thing about people is that we’re all different and have fresh perspectives to bring to the table. Don’t be afraid to add on to someone’s thoughts. Let’s use a fun example. If someone says that the best mascot hug ever was from Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, you may jump in and ask if they’ve ever met Roger MozBot, famed hugger and robot dancer extraordinaire. Or you could build on the thought by saying something like, “Mickey is a great hugger, I think it’s because he goes over instead of under!” In both of these instances, you’ve joined the conversation and added value. Add clarification Speakers often try to fit a lot of information into a relatively short timeframe. That said, questions will likely arise in the live chats. This could very easily be your time to shine! If you’ve got knowledge to share, feel free to answer the question to the best of your ability and try to add clarification. This is absolutely one of the best ways to position yourself as an expert and form a relationship with someone you’ve never met. It allows you to prove you’re knowledgable and give the person something they value for free. Add sources Whether you are asking a question, answering a question, or just chiming in with added insight, adding resources in conversation is extremely beneficial. This could mean that you recommend a tool, a person, or an article link. These resources for the other viewers can be extremely beneficial and help you establish your credibility. Now, we don’t suggest trying to come up with a source for everything, but if you have one right off of the top of your head, dropping a link in the chat may really help someone. BONUS: Add people on social While this one’s not necessarily about adding value per se, it is about adding. Adding influencers, presenters, or other attendees after interacting with them (even if briefly) may increase your chances of getting a follow-back or accepted request as you’ll still be top of mind. Try to add people no later than 24 hours after your last interaction, and consider sending a friendly “hey!” with a note about what you spoke about to keep the connection fresh. Step 3: Perfect your follow-up After connecting with people during the online conference, you’ll want to follow up with them and stay in touch. The most important part of following up is the first impression. You don’t want to come right out of the gate with a request of any sort.

They say, “The best things in life are free.” Which I never thought was necessarily true. I mean some of the best things are free — love, sunshine, fireflies, and whatnot. But there are a lot of awesome things that cost money — nunchucks, BMX bikes, DVDs of the movie Kung Fu Panda 3. So the line is kind of muddled when it comes to establishing whether free stuff is better than things that come at a cost — and the case of social media marketing is no exception. The debate between organic vs. paid social media isn’t exactly cut and dry. Both options have their strengths and weaknesses. Here, we’ll get more perspective on the difference between both kinds of social media and some pros and cons that come with each. Organic and paid social media each have their own benefits and pitfalls. Here are some pros and cons of each type of social media marketing. The Pros of Organic Social Media It’s more cost-effective. Maintaining an organic social media presence can technically be free. It doesn’t cost anything to post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Any costs you incur would come from the work it takes to engage with your community and create content to populate your social media feeds — whether that be through dedicated team members, outsourcing to freelancers or agencies, or having some employees incorporate those tasks into their day-to-day responsibilities. One way or another, organic social media plays don’t require immediate payment to implement. If your business is running on a tight budget, and you’re confident you can create thoughtful content, organic social media might be the right avenue for you. It allows you to directly engage with and assist your customers. Social media is an excellent forum for ongoing customer service and interaction. A well-maintained, active social media profile gives customers a legitimate, accessible location to post concerns, complaints, and compliments. If you can dedicate the time and resources to consistently respond to most — if not all — of them, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of your organic social media efforts. It can help you establish a brand identity. Your social media profiles allow you to project some personality. They can provide another layer to your marketing efforts with a solid sense of humor, consistently sound advice, or any other qualities you’d like prospects and customers to associate with your brand. For instance, Taco Bell’s Twitter page is notorious for the brand style it has established through its audience interaction and funny content. Image Source: Twitter The Cons of Organic Social Media It can be time-consuming. Consistently creating excellent content and actively interacting with your audience aren’t exactly quick fixes you can expect to churn out over lunch. They’re full-time pursuits that take considerable energy and effort. If you don’t have dedicated team members or outside help, maintaining your organic social media efforts can be a massive time-drain. Algorithms can be volatile and difficult to understand. What content your audience will see on social media is dictated by algorithms designed to sort posts by relevancy and potential enrichment instead of when it was published. The success of your organic social media strategies rests on your ability to get your content in front of current and potential customers, so understanding the algorithms supporting these platforms is crucial. But that’s far easier said than done. Social media platforms’ algorithms aren’t always easy to grasp and master, and if you do figure them out, there’s a good chance they might change. It can take a lot of effort to learn and stay on top of these algorithms to support effective organic social media efforts. It offers less flexibility when it comes to immediate reach. The immediate reach of your organic social media efforts extends as far as your followers take it — meaning you can only expect your organic content to reach your immediate audience and the people they share it with. You can’t zero in on and distribute your content to specific demographics or types of users like you can with paid social media. The Pros of Paid Social Media You can target specific users to expand your reach. Paid advertising on social media allows you to pinpoint and reach the specific demographics that will be the most receptive to what you have to offer. You can sort users by categories like location, age, gender, or interests and place targeted advertisements on their social media feeds. It gives you reach beyond your followers and the ability to touch base with specific audiences that will be receptive to your messaging. Its payment model works for any budget. Paid social campaigns are structured to suit virtually any budget. They generally charge on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, meaning you only have to pay if users interact directly with your paid social media materials via impressions or clicks. Many platforms allow you to establish a spending cap on your paid social efforts, so your budget is never exceeded. And certain target audiences cost less to reach than others, allowing you to strategically place your advertisements to cater to different, potentially lucrative niches. You see more immediate results Organic social media efforts are a long-term play that requires considerable effort and strategy. With them, you have to create content that will abide by social media algorithms, rein in the potential customers that happen upon it, and actively work to retain your followers once you have them hooked. Paid social media foregoes that process by immediately placing your messaging on potential customers’ feeds. The Cons of Paid Social Media You might not see meaningful returns on your investment. Paid social media is just that — paid social media. No matter the size of your investment, you’re still spending money that might go to waste if your efforts are ineffective. If you’re constantly experimenting and failing with your paid social media, you’re essentially burning money. And that’s an easy cycle to fall into. If you’re a small business,

Whether you’re providing social media management, marketing, or consulting services, the crucial step in winning a client is sending out a business proposal. A business proposal can help you prove to clients’ that you’re the most well-suited to meet their needs, and help you stand out from the competition. And, if you’re particularly interested in providing social media-related services, you’ll need to create a social media proposal. Here, we’ll explore best practices for creating a social media proposal that will enable you to exceed client expectations and expand your portfolio. But first, let’s zoom out and take a wider look at the social media sales process. There are quite a few stages you have to successfully complete — and things to do right — before even starting your proposal. Let’s dive into that, now. A Brief Overview of the Social Media Sales Process There isn’t a one-size-fits-all sales workflow that you should follow to win a social media job, but most of the times you’ll go through the following stages before closing a sale: Prospecting Discovery Proposal To ensure that all your prospecting efforts don’t go to waste, it’s super important to get as much information from a discovery stage as possible. One thing to keep in mind – a business proposal is just a presentation of the things you’ve discovered. If you skip this step, you won’t have anything to write about in your proposal. The discovery session could be a video call or an actual meeting at a hotel lobby as long as you get to chat with the prospect and understand what it is that she really needs. This task may sound simple at first, but in fact, you may realize the client doesn’t understand why she needs social media services, or across which platform(s) she needs those services distributed. This is where I suggest becoming a psychologist for an hour, and asking the following ‘Why’ questions: Why did you choose Facebook over Twitter for your social media activities? Why did you stop running Facebook ads? Why did you change your LinkedIn posting schedule two months ago? Clearly, you’ll need to do your homework prior to a discovery session, reviewing and analyzing the client’s social media profiles (as well as their top competitors), and what they’ve done on their social channels so far. If you can’t get to the root of the problem, you may use the 5 Whys analysis which involves even more ‘Why’ questions. Eventually, if you understand your clients and how they think, you’ll be able to write a proposal that speaks your clients’ language, addresses their needs, and presents the exact solution to their problem. That is the proposal that is very likely to win a client. The Anatomy of an Effective Social Media Proposal Next, let’s move onto the actual structure of an effective social media business proposal. You can create a proposal from scratch or simplify your life significantly by using a free social media proposal template that already has the pre-written texts and is broken down into sections. One way or another, it wouldn’t hurt to get familiar with the must-have social media proposal sections: 1. Introduction. Nailing the proposal introduction is winning half the battle. Remember the discovery session where you should find out the true meaning of what they’re after? Introduction is the place where you will repeat the exact words used by your client to describe their problem. No matter how tempting it may be, this is not a place to speak about your company and its history or mission. Introduction isn’t about you — it’s about your clients’ needs described in their language. 2. Scope of work. A well-written detailed scope of work leaves very little room for future misunderstandings. Here’s where you specify the exact list of activities that are meant to solve the client’s problem. Explain how your service is going to help tackle the issue and outline the scope of work required for that. Speak of the social media goals that you’re going to achieve with your service, and list the social media activities you’re going to be working on. Depending on the social media services you provide, you may want to mention: Content creation. Specify what kind of written and visual content you are going to create, how often and how it’s going to be approved by the client. Publishing schedule. Let your client know when, where and what time the pre-approved posts will be going live on different social media platforms. Launching social media special offers. Let the client know the nature of the special offer you are planning to launch whether it’s going to be a contest, special discount, giveaway or else. Specify the timing, frequency, assets and media budget required. Monthly strategy sessions and weekly calls. Plan out the one-to-one calls to review the last month’s activities and plan the month ahead. Let the client know if you are going to sync up every week to make sure you are on track. Monthly KPIs and reporting. Depending on the client’s goals, outline how you are going to measure the social media progress and which metrics you’ll use as indicators. Additionally, don’t forget to speak of the benefits your customer should expect. As Kinga Odziemek, CEO at social media marketing agencyBrainyBees, says: “Your clients need to understand not only what you will deliver, but also what’s in it for them.” Odziemek adds, “What does it mean that you will do A, B or C for them? How will this be reflected in their business? What are the benefits? Showing the benefits will encourage potential clients to take the next step more quickly than you might expect.” For greater clarity, finish up the scope of work with the timeline where you specify the exact steps you are going to take over the first month. This way it’s clear what a client can initially expect from you, and when. 3. Case studies. Prospects want to see what you have accomplished in