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8 Simple Ways to Attract More Attention on Pinterest for Business

www.envizionadvertising.comSee web version

Facebook and Twitter get all of the attention when it comes to social media, and they probably should.

They’re still the most used social platforms, and you want your business in front of the most possible

eyeballs. But the one that seems to get sidelined too often is Pinterest for business, which remains one of the

fastest growing social sites and keeps gaining in strength from a wide range of users, businesses included.

Without getting into the myriad of reasons why your business should be establishing and maintaining a solid

Pinterest presence, and there are plenty, suffice it to say that you should add Pinterest marketing to your

social strategy if you haven’t already. And once you have, here are 8 things that can give you an edge on the

platform.

1. Pay for Promoted Pins

2. Use Rich Pins

3. Collaborate With Popular Pinners

It should be well established at this point that the days of “free” social media marketing are essentially done.

If you’re a business, you’re going to have to pay for the kind of engagement and reach you’re looking for. That

being said, Promoted Pins give you more bang for your buck than many other sites, and are less expensive.

You only pay for click-throughs with Promoted Pins, and on Pinterest the engagement with pins lasts much

longer than, say, a post on Facebook. You may find that you really start seeing the most engagement a few

months down the road.

The number one reason to use rich pins in your Pinterest content management strategy is that they’re free

for businesses. That’s an offer you shouldn’t refuse. Rich pins are simple to set up, and they give your viewers

detailed information on your products, including availability and real-time pricing information.

Group Boards give you the capability of inviting others to post with you on the same board. Inviting users or

other businesses that have sizable followings can bring many new followers into your Pinterest fold. This is

another free and effective strategy that can grow your presence quickly and easily.

4. Make Your Style Recognizable

You need to distinguish your pins from others’, and a recognizable style is the simplest way to do that since

Pinterest is a visual medium. You could include your logo in your pins, use a recognizable angle or color

scheme, or any other technique that will let users identify your brand in your pins with a quick glance.

5. Use the Trends

Create pins that reflect the most popular topics on Pinterest, even if they have nothing to do with your

business. It’s best to try and incorporate these topics visually into your pins if possible, but you can even just

set up separate boards that use these topics to just to engage, even though they don’t directly promote your

brand or products.

7. Optimize Pins for Mobile

6. Always Repin Other Users’ Pins

Don’t go all over the board with this. Keep it relevant as much as possible to your brand, but Pinterest

definitely has 1/2 a community mentality, and repinning is the norm. You may also be able to create some

strategic partnerships this way (see #3).

More and more, social sites (and the web in general) are accessed from mobile devices. It’s becoming a

cardinal sin to post any content online that can’t be read as easily from a smartphone as from a 24” monitor.

Google also punishes content that isn’t mobile-ready.

8. Properly Name Your Boards with Keywords

SEO has changed a lot over the years, but keywords are still vital for search rankings and helping potential

customers find you. Make sure your Pinterest boards include your preferred keywords in their names.

These are by no means the only tactics to consider when posting on Pinterest for business, but they are

easily the most underutilized tactics and can definitely give your presence a boost.

Pinterest is known for its organic marketing, and using the right tactics makes it easier to increase your

visibility. Like any worthwhile effort, Pinterest marketing takes time and energy. You want to find, curate and

share the right content that aligns with your brand.

What methods have you found to be the most successful for your business on Pinterest?

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Your Map to Identify Your Ideal Customers

No matter what kind of marketing strategy you use or others tell you to use, social media or otherwise, it will

always include targeting your ideal customer. The question you should be asking yourself before launching

an effort to increase sales or gain new clients is: do you really know who your ideal customer is? If you think

you do, how did you arrive at that conclusion? None of the strategies really tell you how to make that first, all-

important step. After all, if you’re targeting the wrong people your campaign isn’t going to be very successful,

no matter how great your ad is or what kind of extras you’re giving away. Thankfully, to identify your ideal

customer isn’t that difficult. You just have to know what tools to use and how to use them.

The basic map you want to follow is:

1. Personas

2. Keywords

3. Content Performance

4. Customer Discovery

This won’t always be a straight road, either. You’ll probably find yourself looping back around to different

steps as you learn more about your ideal customer.

First you need to create buyer personas. If you need some help doing this check out this article on using

Google Analytics to create your personas. Target personas are generally created using age, gender, race, and

status characteristics (income and education level, occupation, etc).

Once you’ve decided what your personas look like, you need to make sure that you have great keywords that

will attract your customers.

The 4 Step Process for Identifying Your Ideal Customer

http://justmecompany.com See web version

The First Stop

You should always start with Google’s Keyword Planner. Here you’ll be able to find the basket of keywords

that will work best for optimizing your website per the number of searches for keyword phrases. This will

also give you insight on the burning questions in your industry, as you will be able to see long tail keywords

and their respective search volumes. Long tail keywords in Google Search, generally come in the form of a

query, “How do I start practicing mediation”?

** Note: in order for you to use keyword planner you will have to sing up to Google Adwords.

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How do your keywords stack up?

Once you have your keywords and long tail queries, it’s time to double check them for real performance using

a tool such as Buzzsumo, where you can see how popular already published content with your keywords or

topics has been, including how many shares on a variety of social networks. This tool is free, but also has a

paid option for more robust, more detailed data. This exercise will also help you with your content strategy,

by giving you great ideas for content.

What about Facebook and Instagram?

At this point you’ve already identified personas, collected the keywords that should work for you, and

tested those keywords to see how well they’ve performed in the past and with whom. Now it’s time to

test your hypothesis with your social media fans, group peers and friends in order to verify or nullify your

assumptions. This is how you will optimize your personas, keywords and content to make sure your ideal

customer description is even more fine tuned.

Facebook Graph Search – What’s that?

Facebook Graph Search is an excellent semantic search tool that lets you search for terms like “favorite

interests of people who like [a page name]”, “pages liked by people who like [a competitor business name]”,

or “places in [your city] visited by people who like [your page]”. These can be further subdivided by

demographics to find how many men or women fall into the categories. You can also do this (and should)

for your competitors’ pages as well. What insight does this give you? It tells you where your ideal customer

hangs out – which pages they liked and in which groups they spend their time. You should join these groups

and assess the topics that are being discussed and the types of solutions being provided. Write down all

of the questions that are being asked and try to offer up solutions, which are not ‘salesy’. For example, if

someone asks for advice on how acupuncture can help cure a common cold, do not send them to your sales

page on acupuncture treatments. Simply write down the answer as a comment, framing the answer in a

simple, concise manner. Wait for feedback and see if the feedback you are providing is resonating with the

group where you are engaging. Assess the dynamic of the group in terms of age, sex, pain points and anything

else that might be define their unique persona.

Instagram is not just for images

One great thing about Instagram is that users can add up to 30 hashtags per post, which makes searching

them much easier. Use a variety of broad and narrow hashtags in your searches. For example, if you are a

massage therapist looking for local clients, you might search for “#massage”, “#deeptissue and also “#[name

of local town] “. Look through the posts and see what these companies / people are posting and what kind of

comments they are receiving. Note WHO is commenting and the content of their comments as well.

Following these steps, you should have a better idea of who your customer is. With a better idea of your

customer you should be able to create a more effective marketing strategy, create the right content that

your customers want to read, and ultimately drive more sales.

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Your Map to Identify Your Ideal Customers

There is often some confusion about the difference between the

traditional supply chain and what has come to be known as a “value

chain”. In reality, the two usually overlap and can even be the same

“chain”. The difference lies in the high level view of the process,

but it can be argued in most cases - if not all - that a supply chain

that isn’t also a value chain is a sign of poor business practices.

Today we look at creating a value chain for business, and how effective auditing is just as important as ownership for each link in the chain.

Good Auditing Practice Converts A Supply Chain Into A Value Chain

www.complianceexperts.comSee web version

The traditional supply chain is essentially, although not always completely, about logistics. Materials and

products move through the chain from one location to another, e.g.; from producer or material supplier to

the consumer, with multiple stops along the way. While there may be (and likely are in most cases) product

transformations from the beginning to the end of the supply chain, adding value is not the overall primary

purpose in this case.

The idea of a value chain also involves movement through the various links in the chain, but logistics is more

of a mechanism within the process, rather than the point of the process. In a value chain, the point is to add

value for the customer at every point along the chain until it reaches them. Any stops along the way that

don’t increase the value of the product are considered superfluous and should be targeted for elimination

or change.

The end goal is to transform a supply chain into a value chain, so that the product the customer receives has

as much value as can be reasonably added. There are only two ways to add value to a product: increase the

function and/or quality without a necessarily corresponding price increase, or decrease costs without any

measurable decrease in quality or function. The majority of the time, the second option is more viable.

Developing Your Value Chain

Using the assumption that it’s easier to increase value by lowering costs, how do you lower those costs? The

simplest (not necessarily the easiest) and most effective way is to control your supply chain completely from

end to end. Up-front costs of acquiring or creating the links in your chain will ultimately be outweighed by

the cost savings and greater efficiency that result from doing so.

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Once you own your supply chain, the next step is to create a more unified process among the various siloed

components of the chain. Each step should be checked to ensure that its processes are adding measurable

value, and that any duplication is eliminated throughout the chain. The most efficient and effective way to

do this is by using an auditing system that is uniform from end to end, and enables administrators to see the

formerly siloed pieces as cogs operating the same machine, distinct but part of a bigger whole.

Software like Compliance Checkpoint offers this type of end-to-end auditing with real-time results for the

best analysis possible. When you have control from one end of the chain to another you can improve the

quality and efficiency of the processes through auditing, thus lowering the cost of and increasing the profit

on the product.

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Export LinkedIn Connections

As the old saying goes, LinkedIn is full of valuable data that can help you in crafting your marketing campaigns

and serving your clients. Okay, maybe that’s not an old saying. In fact, you may never have heard that before,

but that doesn’t make it any less true. As with any social media network, LinkedIn stores treasure troves of

data on how their users interact with each other, the platform itself, and ads and content on the site. Unlike

many, however, they allow you to export LinkedIn connections and lots of other data that can be helpful.

Downloading your connections from LinkedIn is really an obvious no-brainer. After all, what good is using

a CRM if you don’t fill it with your contacts? There is one important thing to note about exporting contacts

from any social platform, however – you can’t just add them all to your email marketing list. Well,technically

you can, but it’s really bad practice (as in spammy, and sure to lose you some great connections). Not to

mention that it violates CASL and the CAN-SPAM Act. Bottom line, don’t start marketing to these contacts

unless they’ve given you 100% explicit permission to do so. That’s what opt-in campaigns are for.

That shouldn’t stop you from building your CRM with these connections though. In fact, it might be wise to do

this right away since LinkedIn has already put the connections export on hold once and there are indications

that currently being able to extract them may be a temporary thing. If they decide to pull that ability again

come next year, you could be stuck getting contact information one-by-one and having to copy and paste or

*gasp* actually typing them in manually. And you don’t need that kind of stress in your life.

For now, exporting your contacts is simple. Just hover over the My Network tab on your homepage and then

click on Connections.

How to Use the LinkedIn Data Export Tool in Your Marketing Objectives

www.envizionadvertising.comSee web version

Next, click on the Settings icon (the typical “gear” icon, top right of the page), and then click on Export LinkedIn

Connections under Advanced Settings (again, top right).

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It’s that simple… almost. You’ll have to wait anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for the file to be ready (they’ll send

you a link when it is). Then you’ll download a .CSV file that you can import into whatever CRM system you

choose. There’s also a Chrome extension that makes the process simple.

LinkedIn Data Export Tool

Contact info isn’t the only data you can get from LinkedIn. The LinkedIn data export tool gives you data on ad

click data, skills, endorsements, search queries, and more. You can only export your own data of course, but

you can also request that your clients do the same and share the files with you. To use the tool, go to account

settings (top right of the page, your profile picture icon), click on the Account tab on the left, and then click

the “Request an archive of your data”. Again, it can take up to 72 hours to receive the link for downloading

the files.

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Good marketers can use data like this to determine all sorts of helpful applications of it, but here are some

basics to get you started. First of all, just looking at your own data will give you a good idea of how accurate

LinkedIn is in profiling users for targeting purposes. For non-paying members, it can also give you all the

search queries you’ve performed in the past (paying members already get this info).

If you can get your clients’ Ads Targeting files, it will really help you in narrowing down how you target your

own LinkedIn ads. Even better, if you can peek at their Ad Click Data files you’ll be able to much better

pinpoint their interests to customize your ads and your content for their consumption. Gaining access to

their Search Queries files is even better for insight.

The possibilities are endless based on your own imagination and marketing acumen, but only if you take

advantage of this information and do the exporting. I would suggest now, while you still can.

Original Article FeatureWRITER EXAMPLES

1. Give them a reason

How can small businesses make the most of social media for lead generation? It’s not as much of a mystery

as you might think. It’s still the same old process that businesses have been using forever, just altered for the

digital social world: create good products or services, tell people that need them, and provide good customer

service. It’s the details where many get confused, but there’s really no need to be confused. In fact, if you only

follow the tips provided below you should see a significant increase in lead generation and conversions alike.

Top 9 Tips for Generating Quantifiable Leads from Social Media

www.tainbraedigital.co.ukSee web version

Persuading people requires focus. Trying to explain who you are and everything you offer when you meet

someone is a sure way to make them remember that thing they had to take care of somewhere else. Ease

them into your world with focused, targeted messages that lead to effective landing pages. Then give them

something, a reason to come back. White papers and ebooks are great, but if they don’t provide really good

information then they will immediately associate your brand or name with mediocrity. Make sure your initial

offering to them is outstanding, not mediocre.

2. Talk to the right people

Many businesses spend lots of money to create a massive campaign, then wonder why the results don’t

come. If they personally asked a few hundred people who they knew were in the market for their product or

service, they would have better results than mass advertising to millions of people. Know who your target

customers are and create personas to represent them. Then use that information to discover where you can

best reach them and focus your efforts there.

3. Stand out

Take the time to research what kinds of content work best on each social platform (hint: images and videos

always work well). Then create your posts with a specific style that people can identify you by, whether that’s

a particular color scheme or maybe involves your logo. Viewers should be able to instantly know that it’s

your post by glancing, and they should also know that the information in it is good or entertaining – or they’ll

learn to pass it by when they see your signature look.

4. Post Regularly

Regularly may be three times per day or three times per week. That all depends on your audience and the

platform, so it’s important to understand your target personas well up front. Establish a schedule for each

platform, analyse the results regularly, and adjust accordingly.

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5. Cover all your bases

Unbeknownst to many, there are actually social platforms in existence beyond Facebook and Twitter, and they

do quite well for marketing. Don’t waste time on platforms that don’t perform for your target demographic,

but don’t ignore any that do. For instance, if your target audience includes a lot of 30-something women but

you’re not a presence on Pinterest, you’re doing it wrong.

7. Measure twice, cut once

6. Be enticing

8. Be a nurturer

9. Ask, or you won’t receive

Use special promotions and giveaways to draw new followers in and build your email marketing list. These

are tried and true methods that still work. And everyone loves a good freebie or coupon.

A military sniper strives for “one shot, one kill”. Beyond any other reasons, this is simply the height of

efficiency in their job. Efficiency comes from analysis and precision, and any construction worker knows to

measure twice and cut once. That means studying the situation enough that each cut is made with precision

to prevent unnecessary extra effort in getting the job done. Measuring ROI should be a standard given in any

business. In social media this means having an agency or powerful software to do the heavy lifting, since the

results and return from a campaign can be more difficult to quantify than in traditional business.

Very few leads convert right away. Once you have a new lead, they should be instantly added to a lead-

nurturing campaign through email that will urge them toward the conversion – like when you visit a shopping

site and then receive an email the next day asking if you’re still interested in the products you viewed.

Never assume anything. Always ask for a sale or signup directly, or you won’t get very many. Your CTA should

be clear, direct, and have a sense of urgency about it that isn’t obviously ridiculous (“watch this video before

it gets taken down!”).

Finally, don’t give up. If you are already doing all of these and still aren’t seeing the results you’d like, contact

us to see how we can help you.

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It’s happening right before our eyes. We’re on the verge of a unique situation – a large transfer of business

ownership here in Australia. Those business sales will mean enormous opportunities for a wide variety of

players. The group that is creating this change are the Baby Boomers, the age group between 49 and 68. This

group currently owns about 420,000 small businesses, which is more than half of the small businesses in the

country. They’re preparing for retirement over the next 15-20 years, which will create a massive supply for

anyone looking to buy a business.

The Great Handover http://finnbusinesssales.com.au/See web version

On the flip side of this equation are two factors driving demand: the growing population of Australia and the

new free trade agreement with China (ChAFTA). Between the immigration increases in recent years and

the fact that the birth rate is now doubling the death rate here, our population will see incredible growth in

the coming generation. Also with ChAFTA in effect, there is a sharp uptick in new immigrants and foreign

business people looking to ride Australia’s growth by investing in small-to-medium businesses.

The result is what business broker Steve Finn is calling “The Great Handover”, a perfect storm of supply and

demand where large numbers of Baby Boomers will be selling a business due to retirement and the growing

demand from new citizens and foreign investors. Mr. Finn is the founder and co-owner of the largest business

broker group in Australia (made up of 40+ offices under the Finn Franchise Brokers and Finn Business Sales

brands), putting him in a unique position to monitor these developments as they’re happening. Business

ownership is an almost universal dream among people, and this situation may provide more opportunities to

realise that dream, in a shorter time span, than ever before in the history of Australia.

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This provides a great opportunity to those who are ready to cash out and enjoy their retirement. That’s

because the basic laws of supply and demand dictate that with the overwhelming demand being generated,

the supply will not be given away at reduced rates for the sake of expediency. In other words, the retiring

Baby Boomer business owners should be able to receive a better-than-fair price for their business without

having to wait years and years for the perfect buyer to come along. Mr. Finn reports buyer enquiries are

through the roof. “This is the best I’ve seen it, and it’s been building since about 2010. 18 months ago we

were getting 500 buyer enquiries a month. Now it’s up over 1,000 and we’ve even nudged 1,500 a few times.

In a niche market of selling businesses, that’s a lot of buyers. I’m predicting that in 2017 we’ll have more than

2,000 buyer enquiries coming through every month.”

Supply and demand are both in abundance, and both are growing at a quick pace. As they continue to grow,

not only can the buyers and sellers see positive futures, but it’s great for economic growth in general. This

is the ultimate win-win, except that it’s really more like a win-win-win-win. Buyers are winners, sellers are

winners, the economy is a winner, and those that facilitate the entire process are winners – business brokers.

A business broker is much like a real estate agent – except they are the “middle-man” in selling businesses,

not houses. With success fees ranging from anywhere between $10,000 to north of $100,000 for selling a

multi-million-dollar business, it can be a lucrative profession.

Steve Finn’s track record as Australia’s most prominent business broker with offices nationally from

Townsville, to Ballarat, to Perth – means they have the pulse of this market as it moves. This also puts them

in a unique position to help those who are looking to take advantage of this wave and sell their businesses.

According to Mr. Finn, his offices are inundated with enquiries about buying or investing in Australian

businesses – with more than 1,000 buyers every month knocking on their door he says. “It really is crazy –

we need more businesses to sell. We’ve had to double our team in the past 18 months just to keep up with

the buyers”. Sounds like there might be a lot of new signs going up in businesses all around Australia over the

next few years – “Under New Management”.

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