Holiday Marketing Strategies: How to Maximize Sales During the Festive Season

The holiday season isn’t just a time for festive cheer; it’s also a crucial period for businesses to boost their sales. With the right holiday marketing strategies, you can tap into the spirit of giving and make this time of year incredibly profitable. 

In this article, we’ll explore effective tactics and campaigns specifically designed for the holiday season, ensuring your business survives and thrives during this joyful time. 

Understanding the Holiday Market

Before diving into holiday marketing strategies, it’s essential to understand the market dynamics during this season. 

First and foremost, let’s talk numbers. Holiday sales have consistently been a substantial portion of annual revenues for businesses across industries. 

One of the defining aspects of the holiday season is gift-giving. Consumers are actively seeking gift ideas and meaningful presents. They’re also looking for decorations, festive outfits, and more. As a business owner, this data should serve as a compelling reason to gear up for the holiday rush.

Competition is fierce during this busy shopping season. Everyone is vying for the attention of holiday shoppers, which means your marketing efforts must be compelling and strategic. Standing out in this crowded landscape requires a well-thought-out approach.

Build a Festive Brand Identity

Creating a festive brand identity during the holiday season is akin to dressing up your storefront with twinkling lights and holiday decorations. It’s about making your brand resonate with the spirit of the season and connecting with your audience on a more emotional level. 

Start by infusing holiday elements into your brand’s visual identity. This could involve incorporating festive colors like red, green, and gold into your logo or website design. 

Consider subtle changes, like adding a Santa hat to your logo or creating holiday-themed banners for your website. These minor adjustments signal your customers that you’re embracing the holiday spirit.

Craft Compelling Content

In the world of holiday marketing, content is your secret sauce. It allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper, emotional level. 

During the festive season, people are not just looking for products; they are seeking experiences and connections. Crafting compelling content is the key to delivering just that. 

Visual content, such as images and videos, takes center stage during the holidays. Invest in high-quality visuals that showcase your products or services in a holiday context. Whether it’s a festive-themed photo shoot, a video showcasing gift ideas, or visually stunning social media posts, make sure your visuals are aesthetically pleasing and tell a compelling story.

Leverage Social Media

Social media is your holiday marketing powerhouse. It’s where you can directly engage with your audience, create buzz, and drive traffic to your online and physical stores. 

Plan a content calendar tailored to the holidays, featuring eye-catching visuals, heartwarming stories, and irresistible offers. Remember to use holiday-themed hashtags and encourage user-generated content to boost engagement.

Stay on top of trending holiday hashtags and incorporate them into your posts. This helps your content reach a broader audience interested in holiday-related topics. 

Running Holiday-Specific Promotions

Holiday shoppers love a good deal. Well-crafted promotions attract customers and encourage repeat business and brand loyalty. Consider running promotions such as discounts, buy-one-get-one offers, or gift cards. 

Timing and duration are crucial. Start your promotions early enough to capture early bird shoppers, but also consider extending them to cater to last-minute buyers. Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency and excitement, prompting immediate action.

Maximizing Website and Mobile Experience

Your website and mobile presence are often the first points of contact between your business and potential customers. 

Speed matters, especially during the holiday rush. Slow-loading pages can drive potential customers away. Optimize your website’s loading times by compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging browser caching. 

Streamline the checkout process to reduce cart abandonment. Implement features like guest checkout, one-click purchasing, and progress indicators to guide customers through the steps. Additionally, consider offering multiple payment options to accommodate various preferences. 

Remember, a well-optimized website is your digital storefront, and first impressions matter.

Tracking and Analyzing Performance

Track and analyze your campaign performance to determine whether or not your holiday marketing strategies are working. 

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates, click-through rates, and sales metrics to measure success. Utilize analytics tools to gain valuable insights. 

After the holiday season concludes, conduct a comprehensive post-campaign analysis. Evaluate the overall success of your strategies, what worked exceptionally well, and areas that may need improvement. 

Post-Holiday Engagement and Retention

Don’t let your customer relationships fade once the holidays are over. Engage with your customers post-holiday by sending follow-up emails, surveys, and exclusive offers. Focus on turning holiday shoppers into loyal, year-round customers.

Final thoughts

The holiday season is a prime time for businesses to shine. By implementing these holiday marketing strategies, you can maximize your sales and create a memorable customer experience. 

Remember, planning and preparation are crucial to holiday marketing success. Start early, stay creative, and spread the holiday cheer through effective digital and social media marketing.

Ready to supercharge your holiday marketing? Start planning your strategies now and make this festive season your most successful one yet. If you need expert guidance, feel free to book a free consultation with us. 

Holiday Marketing Strategies: How to Maximize Sales During the Festive Season

Holiday Marketing Strategies: How to Maximize Sales During the Festive SeasonHoliday Marketing Strategies: How to Maximize Sales During the Festive Season

YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Search and Ranking

Let’s start with a simple exercise, shall we? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about search engines?

I bet you immediately thought of Google, am I right? Well, I don’t blame you. After all, Google is the biggest and most popular search engine out there. But here’s the thing… it’s not the only one. In fact, there are lots of search engines on the internet.

They may be less popular and not as powerful as Google, but you’ll be able to boost your search rankings and visibility by tapping into them. But for this article, we’ll be focusing mainly on YouTube. Yes, that’s right. Apart from its social networking site characteristics, YouTube is one of the most visited search engines in the world.

Google owns YouTube, so videos hosted on YouTube rank well on Google. If you’re looking to boost your video rankings, I urge you to read on.

Here are five ways to optimize your videos for search and ranking.

Do keyword research

If you’re looking to improve your YouTube SEO, the most important thing you need to do is to find the right keywords.

By choosing the right keywords, you can ensure that your video appears in the search results when people are looking for something related to your video’s topic. Start by thinking about what keyword people might use when looking for a video like yours.

You can also use a keyword research tool to see how many people are searching for those terms. This will give you insights into what people are actually searching for.

Incorporate keywords in the video title

When it comes to ranking your YouTube videos, optimizing your title is vital.

So if you’re looking to boost your videos, incorporating keywords into your title is a great place to start. By including relevant keywords in your title, you’ll be more likely to appear in YouTube search results for those terms. What’s more, you’ll also be more likely to attract viewers who are interested in your content.

Keep in mind that YouTube users often skim titles, so make sure your keywords are front and center. By optimizing your titles for YouTube SEO, you can ensure that your videos are seen by the people who are most likely to be interested in them.

Optimize your video description

Like with any other form of SEO, using the right keywords in your description can help ensure that your videos come up in search results. But it’s not just about using the right keywords – you also need to use them correctly.

For instance, including a list of keywords near the beginning of your description will help YouTube’s algorithm understand what your video is about and make it more likely to appear in relevant searches. In addition, be sure to use natural-sounding language and avoid keyword stuffing. If you can do this, you’ll be well on your way to getting more video views.

Use a custom thumbnail for your videos.

While it might be tempting to choose from one of the thumbnail options that are auto-generated by YouTube, it is best to upload a custom thumbnail image for your videos.

A custom thumbnail shows up in the search results and can help you stand out from the competition. When choosing a custom thumbnail, select an image that is high quality and represents the content of your video. Remember, your thumbnail is often the first impression people will have of your video, so make sure it accurately represents your video’s content and style.

You can also include keywords in the thumbnail to help people find your video. Be sure to test different thumbnails to see what works best for your videos.

Add subtitles and closed captions. 

YouTube is the second largest search engine and the third most-visited website in the world. That’s a lot of potential viewers! And what do viewers want? Videos that are informative, entertaining, and easy to understand.

Adding subtitles and closed captions to your YouTube videos is one way to ensure your content is accessible to as many people as possible. Not only will it help hearing-impaired viewers follow along, but it will also make your videos more searchable.

YouTube uses automatic captioning algorithms, so be sure to proofread and edit your captions for accuracy. You can also add keywords to your captions to improve your YouTube SEO. By doing so, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and achieve your video marketing goals.

Final thoughts

As you can see, optimizing your YouTube videos for better search engine ranking is crucial if you want to improve your visibility and get more leads. Using the tips outlined above, you can give your videos a better chance of being discovered by potential customers and clients.

But if you need help with your YouTube strategy, our team is here to assist you. Schedule a free consultation call today to discuss how we can help improve your ranking and visibility on this powerful platform.

YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Search and Ranking

YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Search and RankingYouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Search and Ranking

5 Clever Ways to Repurpose Your Video Content

When given a chance to choose a type of content, most people would choose video. After all, they’re more engaging and easy to grasp. This is why more and more businesses are investing in video content.

But let’s face it. Creating videos can be time-consuming. From research to prep to production and distribution, you’ll need to dedicate a lot of time and resources to the process. Worse, some videos don’t get the attention they deserve.

But why let all those videos gather dust when you can get more mileage from them? This is where repurposing comes in.

Repurposing content not only helps you save time but also captures the attention of a wider audience than if you were to present the information in a single format.

Here are five clever ways to repurpose your video content.

Share the video on different social media platforms

From Instagram to Tiktok and Youtube, there are a variety of platforms where you can upload bite-sized video content.

The maximum length for IG Reels is 15 to 30 seconds, while Youtube shorts can be 60 seconds. Now, Tiktok allows users to upload videos that are 3 minutes long. That means you can add more of that valuable content to your video.

This gives you plenty of opportunities to repurpose your videos, use them to fill up your content calendar, and reach a wider audience.

Create short video snippets

Creating short, bite-sized videos can be used as a teaser. Think of them as video trailers for your content. They can capture your audience’s attention and pique their interest before you even publish the whole video.

For best results, focus on the most exciting parts of the video. Don’t forget to include a link to let people know where they can find the rest of the video.

Write a blog post 

Of course, you can always publish an embedded video on your blog. But if you do, you won’t be able to maximize your video’s SEO potential. To do that, we highly recommend that you transcribe the video into text.

Believe it or not, one solid blog article can drive traffic to your site for years. Don’t worry. You don’t need to transcribe it manually. There are lots of software out there that provides you with a transcription of the video.

Turn video into a podcast episode

If you’ve thought of starting a podcast but can’t find the time to start, this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. In fact, you can easily convert your videos into an audio file. Now, all you have to do is to add an intro and outro, and your podcast is ready to go.

Turning your video into a podcast is one of the best ways to get your content in front of a wider audience without much extra work.

Turn it into a lead magnet

Are you looking to generate more leads for your business? Then why not turn your video into a lead magnet?

If you’ve just conducted a webinar, then you shouldn’t let it go to waste. It’s valuable, informative, and something most people can’t say no to. Plus, it can help you capture leads, and who knows… it may even help you convert visitors into paying clients.

Create a pop-up on your website and let visitors know they’ll get access to the webinar in exchange for their email address. Well, if you ask me, that would be a no-brainer. I’d hand in my email address, no questions asked.

5 Clever Ways to Repurpose Your Video Content

5 Clever Ways to Repurpose Your Video Content5 Clever Ways to Repurpose Your Video Content

5 Ways to Use Tiktok to Promote Your Business

If you think of Tiktok as a platform for teens and Gen Zs sharing their dance routines, funny lip-syncing videos or cute animal videos, think again. The truth is, there is a wide variety of content niches and communities within the platform, which allows you to reach a diverse audience.

No matter what type of business you have, there’s a space for your brand to make its mark on the platform. In fact, it is now seen as one of the biggest marketing machines for businesses of all sizes.

Tiktok has over 1 billion monthly active users, and the numbers seem to be rising day by day. It looks like Tiktok is here and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere

Looking to start using Tiktok to promote your brand? Here are 5 tips to help you get started.

Have fun!

Tiktok’s nature is fun, playful, and casual. So if there’s one thing you shouldn’t do on the platform, it’s being boring.

Most people are on the app to discover new and exciting content. So show off your brand personality and have fun with your content. If people see that you’re enjoying creating your content, chances are they’ll enjoy watching your videos too.

Tiktok is a great platform to test out new ideas and a different side of you. Feel free to explore different content formats until you find one that resonates with your audience. Once you do, keep replicating it to build on your success.

Post often

Let’s face it. Growing your brand on Tiktok can be exhausting, especially when you’re just starting out. Sure, it only takes one video to go viral to make a mark on this billion-dollar platform. But most of the time, success doesn’t happen overnight.

There are millions of videos that are being published on a platform everyday, and it can be quite difficult the capture the attention of your audience. If there’s one thing successful Tiktokers have in common, it’s consistency. They post content every single day; sometimes more.

So if you find yourself getting frustrated and you’re still not seeing the results you want, be patient. Post often and consistently.

Watch out for trends

One of the best ways to get more views is to create videos on trending topics. Keep in mind, though, that trends come and go. So if you want to capture the attention of your audience, you’ll have to keep up with the trends and keep your content new and refreshing.

Most users are actually searching and watching content about trending topics, so your videos will be shown to a wider audience.

With Tiktok, you’ll never run out of ideas for your content. Just do a quick search of the most trending hashtags, watch some videos on the platform and you’ll have a long list of ideas for your content.

Social media challenges 

Social media challenges are a big hit on the platform. Some videos even go viral. So if you’re looking to increase brand awareness and grow your following on Tiktok, you might want to consider joining in trending challenges.

But if you’d like to take it a step further, you can also create your own challenges and encourage people to join in on the fun. It has to be fun and easy for your target audience to complete. Otherwise, people may not be interested to participate.

It’s also a good idea to create a branded hashtag for the challenge. Be sure to do some research before creating a hashtag to make sure that it’s hasn’t been taken yet.

Run Tiktok ads

For your ads to work, your target audience must be fully engaged within the platform. And that’s one of the biggest benefits of Tiktok. Users can’t get enough of it.

In fact, the usage of Tiktok is on an upward trend, with the average users spending at least an hour a day watching, sharing, and creating videos on the platform.

The more time users spend on the platform, the higher the chance that they’ll see your ads. The more engaged they are, the better your ads will perform. This makes advertising on Tiktok more worthwhile.

Final thoughts

A lot of businesses have found success on Tiktok. It’s not just because of the fun, entertainment, and creativity it offers. But because the exposure is truly next level. In fact, it opens a whole new connection with your target audience.

If you find Tiktok intimidating or you think it’s already too late to get in, it’s not. Tiktok is new enough for you to get in, yet huge enough to ensure that you’ll be able to reach a wide audience.

5 Ways to Use Tiktok to Promote Your Business

5 Ways to Use Tiktok to Promote Your Business5 Ways to Use Tiktok to Promote Your Business

Wondering if Pinterest is worth your time as a blogger

It’s important to think of Pinterest as a search engine, not just a social media platform. This means that people use Pinterest to find things they’re interested in, like your blog posts. Similar to a search on Google.

Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic back to your website and grow your blog’s brand.

Here are 5 reasons how using Pinterest as a blogger can help improve your blog’s SEO, bring in more traffic, and grow your audience.

  1. Pinterest is a visual search engine –

    People visit with the goal of reading and saving pins in mind. When you pin something from your blog, make sure to add keywords in the title and description so pinners can easily find it. For example, if you write about travel tips, you could use keywords like “travel tips” and “vacation ideas” when you pin. Also, remember to use hashtags, this helps tell Pinterest what that pin is about and allows pinners to find pins. Consistency is key. It’s important to be consistent with your pins. If you only pin a few times a month, people will lose interest and won’t follow you. Try to pin at least once or twice a day to see the best results. You can create templates in Canva where you can easily swap out the text and the images while staying consistent with your brand. This allows you to use those keywords and tips at the text overlay and have eye-grabbing images that make your audience want to click on your image and go to your website.

  2. Utilizing Group Boards –

    You may join groups where you can share comparable material. Group boards are a great way to increase blog traffic because they allow your pins to be seen by more people. When you join a group board, make sure that the topics of the pins on the board fit with your blog content. If you have a travel blog, for example, it wouldn’t make sense to pin recipes on a group board about fashion. Be sure to follow the rules for each group board, most of the time you will find those rules in the notes section.

  3. Pinterest allows you to be creative with your pins –

    You may use your SEO abilities and hashtags to target people who are interested in your pins on Pinterest. When you’re creating pins, make sure they are eye-catching and include text overlays that describe what the image is about. This will help the pinner understand what your pin is about without having to click on it. For example, if you have a blog post about how to pack for a trip, you could create an image with the title. Pinterest also allows different types of pins, you can create animated video pins, video pins of you giving quick tips, or even pin your Instagram square images. Rich Pins make it easier for users to get information from a website by displaying metadata right on the Pin itself. When a user saves content with metadata on your site, it will become a Rich Pin. There are four different types of Rich Pins: app, article, product, and recipe Pins.

  4. Drives traffic to your website –

    When someone pins one of your blog posts to their board, they’re essentially sending people to your website. This is a great way to increase traffic and grow your audience. Make sure the images you pin are high-quality so pinners will want to click on them. Going back to the consistency, this is where a tool like Tailwind comes into play, this allows you to pin up to 200 images per week to your boards and even Tailwind Communities. Each pin you put up should have an SEO-friendly title and description with a link directly back to the blog post. You can then monitor your Pinterest Analytics and your Google Analytics to see where the traffic is coming from. For each blog you post on your website, you should create 10-15 images per blog to pin to Pinterest.

  5. Time Efficient Tools –

    Tailwind is a service that works with Pinterest to help you manage your time and drive more visitors to your website. I was hesitant about this purchase for some time. I expected to just look into the free trial and then cancel, but once I started using it, I couldn’t stop. Tailwind is a social media scheduling software that delivers real results in less time. Boost the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts! Decide when to post on social media and how much engagement you want. A few bonus tips, you can use Tailwind to schedule to Instagram as well, you can also link your Instagram to Tailwind and post your images from Instagram to different boards on Pinterest. Tailwind will also allow you to create loop pins, these are great for your evergreen content that will always serve value to your audience, you put those pins in a certain loop that pins to the boards you want and over time it will automatically pin those out for you at the best times and days! This is a life-saving and time-saving tool! A must-have!

If you are ready to work with a team to do the leg work for you, meaning, create the images, pin them, write the description, and more, we are your team! We just launched a new blogger marketing program to help take items off your plate to give you as a blogger more time to write and less time worrying about creating images and social media strategy. Schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation today and let’s start increasing your website traffic!

Today, we will go through Pinterest, and we are going to do an audit on our account. So we have been working with Pinterest for a long time. We use Pinterest for many of our clients, driving traffic back to their website through a very strategic Pin strategy, posting to different boards, Tailwind communities, and different Pinterest groups, and also through promoted Pins. We were coming in to do this anyway to make sure we’re doing as we say to do. It’s one of those, “Do as we say, not as we do.” [chuckle] We want to make sure that what we’re doing with our clients, that we’re doing for ourselves as well. So as you’ll see, we are in our business Pinterest account. And when you come to your Pinterest account, you want to make sure that it is a business account. And you’ll see your home feed here. The reason why you want a business account is because of the analytics and the ads. So with a business account, there are also a few different Pins you can create. The analytics are very important because they will show you how many views you have each month on your Pinterest account. It will also show you what pins are being saved and have the most engagement, and your ads to promote those ads to drive more traffic back to your website.

Business Pinterest Account

We’re going to go to the business hub. And this is kind of the behind-the-scenes; this will tell you just a sneak peek of our analytics, which we’ll get to first. What our public profile looks like. So over here, on the right-hand side, you’ll see your logo. If this is a personal account you’ve been using, there should be an option that says “Switch to Business Account,” and that’s what you want to do. So a couple of things, you can change this header. You can have a specific header there as you have on your Facebook or your YouTube channel with your business name, what you do, your logo, things like that. We have it just set up to show our most recent Pins. So that’s more of a personal preference. This is a good space for that brand-building, we work with many different types of bloggers, so this may be a great area for your branded images with your mission or topics you cover. If you are a mom blog that works with kids ten and younger or just giving your audience a little insight into who you are, that’s a great place to have it.

Your logo or image here, your company name, and this all depends on your brand. Caitlin and I have branded Social Speak Network, so that’s our logo; that’s obviously what all of our social media is. But as a blogger, you may be branding your name, so this may be your name if you don’t have a business name for your blog. So it depends on what brand you’re using; that’s what would go here. And then your description, making sure it’s apparent what it is that you do. And then you’ll see we have only 635 followers, we’re following 129 people, but we have over 43,000 monthly views. That’s good for us. Pinterest is not a social media platform, It’s important to have followers, but you’re not banking on the number of followers you have on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. It comes down to your Pin strategy. That’s the most important piece.

So you’ll see that these are all the Pins that we have created and that we’ve put up on our account, and you’ll be able to see how many times they have been viewed, and these have just been posted this week, so there’s not a whole whole lot of views on them yet. You’ll see that the ones that we pinned a few months ago have many more views. So what I want to do is look at what the Saved button is, which will change our profile to show the boards that we have. Now, when you think you can click on All Pins, we’ve had 63,000 Pins. And there is a mixture here of what we want to do. We talk a lot about healthcare digital marketing tips. We have social media marketing for small businesses. We have SEO and blogging tips, social media management for bloggers, finding your target market, Instagram marketing tips, Facebook marketing tips.

Setting Up Pinterest Boards

Some of these boards like this one that only has 18 Pins, we have it pinned there for a while, so we can either move those Pins to another board or let that board go if we’re not utilizing it. With our SEO, you can see that we have 663 Pins there and 500 Pins in our healthcare digital marketing. So focus on the boards you’re going to be utilizing the most, and what’s important with those is that you have an SEO-friendly title, so search engine optimization. Remember, Pinterest is that search engine, so what is your audience looking for? Are they looking for how to find your target market? This is great because that is what this board says. And if you click onto the board again, we haven’t used that board a lot because we only had 16 Pins. Then the description. To describe what that board is about and what types of Pins people will be seeing on that board. And again, you want to utilize those keywords here as well.

You can add notes; if you post to a different group of Pinterest boards, they’ll have notes of those rules. That’s a great either way to utilize that Notes section. Doing your Pinterest audit, going through each of your boards, and ensuring that you have a keyword-friendly title, a description, if you click this Edit button, the pencil, this is… So here, I don’t have a description for email marketing, so email, maybe it should be, “Is email marketing dead? No. It is very much alive and works great. In this board, we will show you how to grow your email list and utilize email marketing for your business.” So email marketing tips, you can add a board cover. It’s going to pull up the Pins from that board, and you can pick which one you want, okay? Let’s see; we’ll do this one. Click done. And then if you don’t like that board cover, you can go back, click Edit, and then maybe find this one, and then that looks perfect.

You’ll have the name, the description, and then click Done, okay? So go through each of your boards and make sure that you are utilizing the space correctly. Here in our content marketing strategy, we have over 1700 Pins. But here on How to Build an authentic business brand, we only have 10 Pins. These tips can go into maybe our business tips, and we can get rid of that board. You can also have secret boards. We love using Pinterest to get ideas on what other people are pinning. So you can create a board here at the plus sign and click Board, and then this can just be Pinterest image ideas. Keep this board secret. So what this means is as you’re scrolling through Pinterest, you can save images to this board, but they will not show up on your profile, this is just for you to see as an admin, and then you can pull that board up and look at, “Oh, okay, this is what I liked about that image,” and… As you need. So, “Oh yes. Oh, I love how they did that. That’s perfect, I like that image. Oh, this is cute.”

Pinterest Images

Because you’re going to see, there are different styles to Pinterest images and different lengths, and the longer lengths work better. Here’s an infographic. This image here is slightly longer than this one, but it’s a little hard for me to read and seems a little cluttered. I may be more apt to click on this one because it’s cleaner. So look at what types of Pins you like, what images you like, and then save them to that private board so then you can get ideas when it comes time to create content, okay? So now you have these four Pins here in my super-secret board, and we are all set. So after you do the audit on your boards, you want to come over to your analytics. And I always just click on the overview. And now, with Pinterest, you also want to try different; Types of content. Images are number one. Try the square images. If you use Tailwind, you can link your Instagram to your Tailwind, and you can pin the exact images you’re putting onto Instagram on Pinterest. So that makes it easy to monitor those square images. Are they getting clicks?

If you pin them, you’ll need to change the link because they’re going to link back to your Instagram account automatically. If that’s where you want them to go, great, otherwise change the link back to your blog. As I said, the long images. And if you’re using Canva, Canva has a great tool to create Pinterest images at different sizes. So you can try different sizes, as I said but also get creative with your Pinterest templates of adding video into these templates. So that will help increase those user views because you can add your video to this image, customize the colors, add a different change of the content, and then be able to put that onto Pinterest. You would also just have animated images like this that say, “10 Great Places To Travel With Kids.” It stops the scroll on Pinterest. So as you use different types of content, you’ll want to monitor it in your analytics. Looking at your Pin’s impressions, you can look at engagements. And this is just going to be the last 30 days.

And then, and you can see okay, so on Wednesday, I had 85 engagements on our Pinterest account. That’s awesome. What about Pin clicks? We want to make sure we’re driving that website traffic to the right places. So we had 60 clicks on Monday, the 27th. Obviously, on Christmas, we still had 30 clicks, which it’s Christmas Day, and people are still on Pinterest, so Pinterest never sleeps. It keeps going and going. This is a great platform for you to be able to look at to say, “When is my audience on Pinterest, what days of the weeks?” And so that’s where you’re gonna wanna monitor your engagement, what are my top boards? Business tips and social media management for bloggers, we’ve had 5700 impressions, 56 outbound/inbound clicks, and this is no promotion, this is just organic, 31 saves, 111 pin clicks. So this is interesting to be able to see the difference between the boards, what’s working more, and what’s not. And then also here are…

Repinning Pins on Pinterest

Some of these are our original content, and many of them are curated content, meaning Repins from trusted sources, like pin, from CoSchedule, Social Media Today, Hootsuite, Buffer, etc. We look at Social Media Examiner Neil Patel, the people in our industry that we get our information from, and we’ll repin their boards, or their pins to our boards. And then many of them are, obviously, with our logo on it, this is our own. So it’s cool to see, okay, so this one here had 2500 views or impressions, but I can create an image similar to this with our branding and see if it gets even more views. So Pinterest gives you all of the data you need to be successful on Pinterest. Here we have 740, so 6.2% engagement on this pin, 2.2% engagement on that pin. So it’s good to know what people are clicking on, what images they’re finding attractive, to draw them to that, and so that’s really where we want to then focus on, okay, what about this post drew people to it, where it makes them wanna click, and keep going, because this pin was created August 27th, and this is the stats for December to this month, so it’s really cool to look at where… What’s working, and what’s not working.

Then the other part is, if you go back to your profile, you can promote some of the pins or as many pins as you want that you have put up, and this is where it helps drive that traffic to your website even more. So here’s why Pinterest is good at driving blog traffic, I clicked promote, and it’s going to bring me here: what is the destination URL you want, what is the daily budget, and how many days?

I think 84% of Pinterest is done mobile-y, so it’s important to see what it would look like computer view, but that mobile. So that’s what it would look like a computer, this is what it would look like mobile. Most people use Pinterest on their phones. So take time, go through your Pinterest account. If you need help figuring out what board names you should have, how you should be creating those pins, what that strategy looks like, let us know, we do have Pinterest management packages, and we are helping our clients with that creative process, but also more the time management process. If you’re using the right tools you can pin from anywhere from 25 times per week up to 200 times per week, if you’re utilizing the right tools, so… And that’s a mixture of organic content, pulling from your blog post, from your social media post, and then that’s also that repining, pulling from people that you know, and trust, that are like-hearted, and like-minded to your business, and being able to pin their pins to your boards as well.

If you need help, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com today, schedule a free 30-minute consultation, let’s get you pinning correctly today. Thank you so much, have a great day.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog With Pinterest

Most people use Pinterest to find delicious-looking dishes to try out, look up home decor ideas, or plan their dream vacation. But did you know that you can also use the platform to increase your blog traffic?

Pinterest isn’t a social networking platform, it’s a search engine where people search for images and then save them. That means Pinterest users are looking for new content, fresh ideas, and discovering new websites.

And since most business and content creators are focusing their marketing efforts on Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest can help set yourself apart from the competition.

Here are five easy ways for tapping the power of Pinterest to drive more traffic to your blog.

Optimize your Pinterest Profile 

While it only takes about a minute to create a Pinterest profile, it doesn’t mean your work is done. To get the most out of this visual platform, it is essential to optimize your profile, so it reflects your personal brand.

Upload a photo of you, not your logo. Using your personal photo helps you connect with your audience.

Pinterest is a search engine. So don’t forget to optimize your bio description and incorporate keywords based on your blog niche. If you have a mom blog and write content about organizing, you can use keywords like parenting tips, organizing tips, or decluttering in your bio description.

Choose the best blogs to pin

While you want to drive more people to your website, pinning every blog on Pinterest is not necessary. To get better results, we recommend doing some quick research to find what topics people are searching for and are already pinning.

As you do your research, create a list of the search words and common words found in the title and description. It would be easier for you to drive traffic to your blog if you pin blog posts that already have an audience on Pinterest.

What’s great about Pinterest is that you can create multiple pins for the same blog. It would be a good idea to try out different titles to see which one would capture your audience’s attention and bring the most traffic to your site.

Make your pins standout 

Since Pinterest is a visual platform, you must create pins that are visually appealing. Otherwise, yours will be lost in the sea of other content.

Use high-quality, vertical images on your Pinterest pins to really get people’s attention and stop them from scrolling. Also, make sure that it matches the recommended size for pins (2:3 aspect ratio or 1000 x 1500 pixels). You can create custom images with the size you want on Canva.

Another great way to make your pins stand out is to create curiosity with your pins. The goal is to provide just enough information to pique their interest but leave them wanting more. This way, they’ll have no choice but to click through to your blog to learn more. This strategy will not only help increase engagement but will also drive traffic to your blog.

Publish at the best times 

Just like any other social network, timing is critical on Pinterest. Your pins are likely to get more clicks if you publish at a time when more people are online and ready to interact with you.

According to Oberlo, the best times to post are on Fridays and Saturdays, around 8:00 to 11:00 pm and 2:00 am to 4:00 am.

Tailwind, a scheduling tool for Pinterest, has a SmartSchedule feature that suggests the best time to post based on your industry and the activity on your pins.

Spread the word 

Now that everything is set, it’s time to let your avid readers and loyal followers know that you also have an active presence on Pinterest.

Leverage all the social channels you’re already using and tell your followers about your Pinterest page. And don’t forget to link your website to your Pinterest page.

Final thoughts

Getting started with Pinterest can be quite confusing. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll realize how a social media platform most people ignore can have so much impact on your blog growth.

Establishing a Pinterest presence for your blog doesn’t have to be intimidating. Whether you’re an established blogger or you’re just getting started, we’re here to help.

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us, and we’ll help you bring more traffic to your blog with Pinterest marketing.
<How to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog With Pinterest

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog With Pinterest

 

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog With Pinterest

5 Tips to Level Up Your Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

Did you know that healthcare-related queries account for about 7% of all Google searches? According to David Feinberg, head of Google Health, they get approximately 70,000 healthcare queries every minute. This translates to about 1 billion searches a day.

With these statistics, it’s pretty clear that people need a trusted and reliable source of healthcare information. This is your chance to position your practice in front of potential patients.

Use these tips when creating a content marketing strategy for your healthcare practice.

Begin with the audience in mind

Content marketing is about attracting the right audience. To do that, you need to know your audience on a deeper level.

– Who is your ideal audience?

– What’s important to them?

– What are their most common concerns?

– How can you serve their needs?

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, it will be easier for you to craft messages that resonate with them. Plus, you’ll be able to speak their language. Remember, content marketing is about the reader, not your brand.

Set clear, measurable goals

Creating content for your practice can be overwhelming given the sheer volume of options you have. Blog posts, video content, social media posts, podcasts, and ebooks are just some of them.

But when creating content, it is essential to take the time and decide what you want to achieve from it. Simply writing and publishing blog posts is not enough. Getting views isn’t a clear goal either.

When creating content, ask yourself:

– Do you want to educate your audience and turn them into clients?

– Do you want to increase engagement and connect with potential clients?

– Do you want to build trust with your audience and position yourself as a thought leader?

Identify how your content can serve your audience and then create pieces that tie back to that.

Focus on your area of expertise 

Some organizations focus on a specific niche. Similarly, every doctor has an area of expertise. Before you start working on your content marketing strategy, it is best to define your area of focus and the main problem areas in your niche.

Start by listing down some of the main concerns and pain points that people in your niche struggle with. You can easily list down some topic ideas based on these problems.

For instance, an ophthalmologist can educate their audience about the dangers of working on a computer for extended periods. On the other hand, dentists can talk about the importance of flossing every day or how to brush teeth with braces properly.

You want to become the person your audience relies on when they need information related to your area of expertise.

Go beyond written content

Content marketing isn’t just limited to written formats. Many businesses are fighting for people’s attention, so you need to figure out how to stand out. The key is to diversify your content strategy.

With the rising popularity of videos, it is good to include videos in your content marketing strategy. You can share short and informative videos on social media. Or do a live Q&A. This will not only help educate your audience but also increase engagement. Other content ideas include infographics, podcasts, webinars, and quizzes.

Humanize your healthcare brand 

A patient is more than just a name on a medical chart. They’re someone’s son, daughter, parent, sibling, or spouse. You won’t win their loyalty unless you show them that you care.

People are more likely to engage and connect with you if they know a real person behind your practice. Post regularly on social media. Create some video content. Respond to comments. Make sure, though, that you have a clear policy to let people know that they should contact their physician or 911 in emergency cases.

We can help!

Content marketing has been proven to be highly effective. When done right, it can help you improve your online visibility, boost SEO, and even position yourself as an expert in your industry. Keep in mind, though, that results take time.

To reap all the benefits of content marketing, you need to do post content regularly. It usually takes about six to nine months for your content marketing efforts to bear fruit.

Feel free to reach out to us if you need help with your content marketing strategy. Whether you’re just starting or you’re hoping to double down on your content marketing efforts, we’re to help.

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation call with us. Let us help you create engaging content that attracts the right traffic and converts leads.

 

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Why Video Marketing is Such an Important Piece of Your Online Strategy

Video marketing is such an important piece of your digital marketing strategy. In today’s marketing world people want to be able to connect with their healthcare providers and know who they are.

Videos are such an easy way to be able to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Gone are the days of making extravagant videos, going WAY over budget, having a studio, etc. Let’s get back to the basics, being authentic in the videos, recording on smartphones or newer computers with good quality.

Should I be doing video?

Should I be doing video? Clients ask us this question all the time.  And the answer is yes, it’s very simple, yes.

Video marketing is such an important piece of your online digital marketing strategy. Because digital marketing has grown so much, people really wanna be able to see who you are, to feel like they know you, and get a sense of how the office runs, especially in the healthcare industry. You have to think of that patient journey, what they are struggling with, what they’re going through, why they may be reaching out to you for your services, whether it’s chiropractic, acupuncture, ob/GYN, medical issues, life­threatening diseases, cancer, all these different things, you have to think of what they’re going through.

And even though there’s a ton of content online to read, and they can call the office, if  they can see videos, and they can see the doctors, and they can see the front desk and the staff at the front desk, and they can see the nurses.

Videos help build trust

Videos help build that gap when they are reaching out for a  healthcare provider. And they feel like they know, like, and trust you, which are the three main factors in marketing. Remember, people need to know, like, and trust you in order to do business with you.

Studies suggest that 80% of online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will completely read a piece of written content. So if getting your audience engaged and fully immersed in your healthcare­related information is important to you, then so should video. As stats show, your audience is more likely to consume your content to its full capacity when there’s a  video involved. This is also something, you have to think of the healthcare industry when you are explaining, maybe it’s symptoms, or a process, a procedure.

When they can hear it straight from the doctor’s mouth, that builds that trust. They’re able to really know what the doctor and the staff, that they know what they’re talking about.

Tools for creating videos

And there are so many different tools out there that make video marketing so easy. There’s a reason or a process to everything and having a professional videographer come in for a commercial shoot, maybe a video on the website, that’s really important. I am not discrediting that at all; that is something that’s really important to have. And it’s really easy to do your videos in­house for your daily tips, your blogs, even your YouTube videos. So it’s not a  huge cost item anymore either.

So I wanted to share with you some tools that we use for screen sharing.  So this is really good if a doctor puts together maybe a PowerPoint, or has images they wanna share, diagrams. If you wanna walk through a process, you can have it just on your computer, and you can share your screen, and you can go through that presentation

Zoom

So the tool that we use a lot is called Zoom, Z­O­O­M. And this allows you to do video recording such as this, and it gives us the video file and the audio file, which serves two purposes. Obviously, the video is great for the website, for YouTube, and your social media marketing.

The audio file is great for podcasts, and that’s exactly what we do. There’s no point in recreating that wheel when you can use one piece of information for multiple purposes.

Loom

The other one is Loom, and that works the same way as Zoom does.

I know, Zoom and Loom, it can get a little bit more confusing. But those are two great tools that you can if you wan to share your screen while recording a video.

Animoto and Ripl

And the other two that we like to use are Animoto and Riple. These are more for those cute, fun videos to throw into social media if you have a new staff member coming on. This is where you take pictures of them, maybe it’s them in the office, a couple of pictures of their personal life. And you can make a cute video, I use Animoto and Ripl.

There are free versions and paid versions. I would do the paid version, just so you don’t have their logo on it, and you can actually add your logo, and add text to it. They’re not expensive at all. So those are two videos that have fun little templates, holiday theme if you wanna have a little office video that says Happy Holidays. You can do little snippets of videos and images together and then they put it together into a video format.

So those are what we call more of the fluff posts for social media, but they’re videos that people like to see. You can do fun facts, so you can do facts around a certain topic in an Animoto video and share it, you can ask questions.

Tips for recording videos

So videos don’t need to be complicated. If you have a  Mac, you can just use QuickTime Player and record yourself. Again, if you’re gonna do that, I  would highly recommend using Zoom because you do get that audio file and the video file. And if you use your phone, you can use your iPhone or Android as well.

If I’m recording a video for social media and I also want it to go onto YouTube, I will have my Zoom screen up, and then I also would have my phone vertical recording as well, so I can use that for Instagram Stories and  Facebook. I know it sounds complicated, and a lot of times it’s just getting used to being in front of the camera.

Having those bullet points of what you wanna talk about. I have my bullet points right here with some stats written down that I will go into. I have another screen pulled up so I know what those bullet points are that I wanna cover. And so it’s really figuring out that system for you.  Some people write full-on strips and tape them up. So you have to find that system that works for you, you don’t have a choice anymore in digital marketing, you have to be doing videos. And the more videos you do, the better.

Getting started with video marketing

So if you’re thinking, “where I would start with this video marketing strategy?.” Start by asking yourself the following questions:

  • What are your clients or your patients asking you?
  • What questions are they coming to you with, and how can you address those?
  • What are those hot topics in your industry? Is it around vaping, opioids, vitamins? Is it working out, is it diet?
  • Are they asking you what they can do to improve the quality of their life? And so start paying attention to what are they asking you, and then start doing videos around that.

Start with small things, maybe it’s just one question. Keep it short,  simple, and to the point. So less than three minutes is great.

If you’re doing a presentation, you’re explaining diagrams, or you’re teaching them something, then I will go up to 10 minutes. Keep in mind that if you’re posting it onto Instagram, it can’t be more than 10 minutes for Instagram  TV. And you also have to think of, what are you talking about that you wanna be able to keep their attention. So their attention span is gonna be shorter, too, so you wanna make sure that that video is giving them a lot of details, a lot of valuable information that they wanna keep watching it.

Importance of video marketing

83% of marketers believe that video is growing in importance. Duh. It is so important.  We have to be doing it. 53% of customers engage with a brand or a business after watching a video

Your audience is cyber­stalking you, which sounds horrible, but they are doing their research. They are looking at multiple different healthcare practices, from who they are, where they’re at, what their expertise is, what are they talking about on social media, are being consistent with social media, do they have the videos? Is their website user­friendly? And we talked about that user experience, that digital experience for your patients, for your audience, is that an easy process?

So even if you do an intro video on your website, like welcome to our website, here’s where you need to go to book your appointment, here’s where our expertise is, it’s really important to make sure that you have these videos and you make that experience as simple as possible for your audience. So you just gotta get in there, you gotta get in front of the camera.  You’re gonna have 10 takes before it’s perfect, and that’s okay, and keep going.

Editing your videos

So then my next question I get is, “Well, what about editing? Do you edit your videos? And if so, what software do you use to edit your videos”?

I’m usually the type of person that I wanna get it done in one take. I don’t wanna have to stop and splice it together. I like to have my points, get it done in one take, and that may take me three or four times, but I’m not editing a lot. So in your  first couple of videos, you may have it at the beginning where there’s a pause and then you say, “Hi!”  Or in the end, you pause and then you talk again.

So some simple editing, beginning and ending. If you have a Mac, you can use iMovie, if you have a PC you can use the Movie Maker, which does a  good job. You can use Adobe Premiere Clip. And also YouTube does have some video editing tools in there, and they work great, so you can edit a beginning. So again, if there’s that pause at the beginning or a pause at the end, you can use that.

Sometimes you wanna add an intro. You can do that in Movie Maker or iMovie. There’s a ton of different video editing software out there. And again, we like to keep it as simple as possible, so find the one that works best for you. As I said, YouTube, iMovie, or  Movie Maker for those beginning, pieces is a great idea just to get used to it and then if you wanna add more effects or different things to it, you can start doing some more research and looking at  Adobe Premiere Clip and other video editing software.

Maximizing your video content

So start by, again, listening to your patients, what are they asking, what are those hot topics that people are talking about in your industry? Do some research on your competitors: Are they doing videos? What are they talking about? Looking at other videos, just YouTubing videos on those topics, those keywords that you’re thinking about, seeing how many views they have.

Once you take your video and you upload it to YouTube, think that SEO, think those keywords, what would they be typing in to find this video? In your description, make sure that you have a link back to your website, so if you’re talking about a treatment or a condition that… Or even a blog post, tie it back to a link on your website, so there’s that call to action.

So it’s really important, you’ve gotta think about this as another process in your marketing. So you find your bullet points for your video, you record your video, you upload it to  YouTube, and you share it with social media. Once the video’s on YouTube, you can take that video and insert it into your blog posts as well.

Videos are a great addition to add to your blog posts. And so we usually will write a blog post and then do a video, so we’re touching both parts. People can watch a video and then they can read the blog. And so the blog is great for SEO, the video is great for our audience. So finding that balance, and start doing some videos, and just get it in the habit,  whether you’re doing one per week to start, and then start moving it up to maybe two per week.

What is the point of that video? Again, is it an FAQ, is it a treatment condition,  is it a blog post? And then what’s a call to action for each video? And our call to action for our podcasts is to be sure to go to Podbean or iTunes and subscribe to our podcast so you can listen to all these amazing tips that we’re sharing with you. And also if you are struggling with that video strategy, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com and request a free 30­minute consultation, and we can walk through this video strategy with you.

So I look forward to seeing your videos. Please drop a link below to your YouTube channel, we would love to take a look at them, and get a recording. Have a great day.

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