Facebook launched a new feature for Facebook Pages to drive traffic to your website. Now you can create a Call-To-Action Button which is located in a fixed position within the cover photo section to the left of the “Like” button.
The new feature has been just introduced and therefore not available to everyone yet. Call-To-Action Button will roll out in the US over the next few weeks and worldwide starting in 2015 according to the official announcement. The Call-To-Action Button includes 7 options:
“Shop Now” “Contact Us” “Book Now” “Use App” “Sign Up” “Play Game” “Watch Video”
After choosing one of the options for the CTA button, Page admins should add the link of the website that the button will redirect visitors to, which is “Designed to bring a business’s most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business’s goals.” according to Facebook’s announcement.
One of the beta testers who has been using the CTA for the past three weeks confirmed its massive effectiveness in boosting its customer acquisition efforts. “Over the course of a three-week test, the Sign Up call-to-action button delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition.” — Brian Kim, Director of Acquisition, Dollar Shave Club
Check out Facebook’s official announcement of the CTA.
The term digital marketing also known as internet marketing or e-Marketing refers to the use of different marketing strategies to promote a certain product or service through different forms of digital media and has the ability to give numeric reports and exact results unlike traditional marketing which helps figuring out what works and what not. The internet is the most used channel when it comes to digital marketing others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc.
The picture below shows the usage of three terms according to Google trends:
The importance of Online Digital Marketing lies in the ability to drive traffic to websites, increasing the number of visitors which in terms will increase revenue, attention, impact, interactivity, and other related goals. When it comes to Digital Marketing the following questions should be answered: What is SEO, Social Media, E Newsletter, Blogging and the impact of it all.
Below is a brief introduction to each section: 101 Intro to Digital Marketing for Beginners.
– SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of getting traffic from the search engines and into the website. The focus is usually on Google, which holds 80% of the market in addition to Yahoo and Bing. You don’t need to be a developer to understand how it works but if you are then it is much easier. When you open Google and type few keywords, Google will show the most relevant website according to certain measures.
SEO is divided to two sections On-Page optimization and Off-Page optimization and there are two types of SEO strategies: Paid (SEM) vs Organic/Free. Organic or Free is competitive and free yet involves coding and is affected by the number of people visiting the website while Paid includes using Google adwords, which is based on the amount of money invested, the higher you pay for certain keyword combination the higher you rank.
– SMO: Social Media Optimization
SMO is the process of increasing awareness of a service, product or brand by using different social media outlets to achieve viral publicity. The most popular Social Media Platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube…. which are web-based and mobile-based technologies used to turn communication to a more interactive form among organizations, communities and individuals. The most popular terms used by those social media platforms are: “Like”, “Follow”, “Connect”. The importance of social media lies in the number of people involved on those networks that surpass one billion users. You can see the picture below showing the number of users on each social network.
– E Newsletter (Email Newsletter)
E-Newsletter is a correspondence sent via email, which is basically a single webpage and is considered one of the most successful mechanisms of communication and eMarketing on the web that really works.
There are two types of E-Newsletters, Emails and Text/Mobile Messaging. E-Newsletter forces you to build a list of emails of people or a community interested in your product or services that is a key to a successful campaign. The power of newsletters lies in maintaining customer relationship and persuading clients to purchase a product or use a service.
– Blogging
A blog is discussion or information site where the user determines the content.It i s an interactive form of publishing content on the web. The most powerful softwares are WordPress and Blogger which belongs to google.
Now what is the impact of all this, in time, the number of visitors will increase and thus helping your business grow.
Facebook advertising works, but why? Everyone has Facebook. It’s the most popular website on the internet with more than 1.32 billion monthly active users according to Facebook Statistics. So no matter what product or service you are advertising for and who are targeting, Facebook can help. We already went over how to use Facebook to promote your Business, and now we will be pointing out the common mistakes done by businesses and advertisers.
Facebook campaigns can have multiple marketing goals, so if your trying to promote your page and grow your fanbase make sure to avoid the following:
-Targeting non Fans
If you are advertising for baby products, you need to adjust your target audience accordingly, when it comes to age or relationship status, a guy in his 20s’s will sure to ignore such ad. It is known that an ad that is relevant to your needs and interests, it is most likely you will be clicking on it, which in terms will increase conversions and lower CPC
The following screenshot is for an ad taken from my news feed is targeted for men and not women so it shouldn’t be showing on my news feed, obviously I won’t be clicking on this ad!
-Targeting your fans twice
If the campaign goal is getting “Likes”, then make sure to exclude people who are already connected to the page. Advertisers tend to target their fans who already liked the page which is a waste of your money, all you need to do is add the page name you are advertising for in the section below as shown in the screenshot so the ad doesn’t show up again on the fans news feed.
-Not Performing Split Test
When creating Facebook Ads, you MUST perform a split test when it comes to the caption and image of your ad.
1) Images are considered to be an important element in an ad, that is why you need to be using high quality pictures and you can preview the final ad before publishing. Facebook gives you the ability to use multiple images while using the same ad details to get the best performance of the ads.
The pictures below are screenshots of ads, one showing on News Feed and the other on Right Column. First image is cut from the right, text is unreadable to the viewer and the second image is distorted. Both images do no capture people’s attention thus will not provide the best results .
2) After creating your ad, duplicate the ad, using same image and all other detail then use a totally different caption. The ideal caption includes a call to action, a description to tell people what the page is about, and a website link, location or a phone number.
The screenshot below is an ad for a fitness center that doesn’t include any information or its location, which is redirected to an Instagram tab without a follow button thus the goal of the ad is invalid.
-Directing Ads to non-active Facebook Page
Before launching any campaign, make sure you start posting ahead of the campaign so when people click on your ad and land on your page they will find something interesting enough to “Like” your page.
Check the screenshot below of a sponsored ad, and the Facebook Page content has been added on (((Feb 2011))) and not updated since then, so why would anyone “Like” your page? Add few posts and share some links then launch a Facebook Campaign.
-Directing Ads to Slow Websites
Page loading time is an important element when it comes to user experience. Visitors don’t like to be kept waiting. So if you are redirecting your ads to a website that is slow then you will be losing conversions. ]that took more than according to pingdom. A website’s average loading time is around 7.25 seconds according to data published by Radarware. So any ad that is redirected to a website taking more than the average time to load will not give successful results since a slow website affects page views, conversions, traffic, click throughs and eventually sales.
-Not proofreading Ad Caption
You can’t ignore spelling mistakes, misused words, and grammar errors. It’s just unacceptable. If you’re spending money on ads, you can spend five more minutes and read.
“WAIST” ?
Investing in Facebook advertising is important to promote any business, yet following certain measures when doing so has great significance for a campaign’s success and to make sure the money spent does yield effective results.
LinkedIn is considered to be one of the growing social networks as well as the most popular social networks used by professionals and businesses with more than 259 million users.
Why would you join this network? LinkedIn is a liaison between Businesses, Professionals and Fresh Graduates. Companies can publish their vacancies with advanced details and individuals can stay up-to-date with the latest job opportunities and can apply through LinkedIn. This Networks provides the ability to connect with professionals and join groups to keep track of the current trends and get to meet people working within the same field who may be able to help individuals advance with their career.
How to Optimize your LinkedIn Presence with few steps:
1- Set up a Customized LinkedIn URL for your Company Page or Public Profile:
– Public Profile: Click on your profile, Click Edit below your Name, Below your photo you will see something like this: lb.LinkedIn.com/in/……. Click Edit on the right side of the URL, will redirect you to a page. then scroll down you will find (Customize your public profile URL) similar to the picture below. Click on it and there you go! 
– Company Page: Just add a hyphen (-) between each word in the URL , for example: ….LinkedIn/Company/word-word and it works!
Note that Customizing LinkedIn URL will help your name/company page rank higher in Google’s search engine.
2- Embed Different LinkedIn Buttons for your Personal Blog or Company website:
Visit this page: https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins and choose the button you need, copy the code and paste it on a post or page.
-Add a Follow Company Button which will make it easy for prospective customers, job seekers, and business partners to engage with your company.
-Add a Share Button which will enable users to share your website with LinkedIn’s professional audience, and drive traffic back to your site.
-Add a LinkedIn Member Profile or a Company Profile to your blog/website to help visitors discover common professional connections.
3- Create a Profile badge for your Personal Blog or Company website:
How to add a Profile Badge in few steps:
Follow the steps mentioned above when creating customized URL and as shown in the picture above you will notice (create a profile badge), click on it, choose the design you like and paste it in your website or blog. A profile badge will help promote your LinkedIn presence and grow your professional network since a Profile Badge will link to your public LinkedIn profile.
4- Edit your Email Signature:
Add a link to your Personal LinkedIn Page to your email signature and encourage your employees to do so. (Employees are 70 percent more likely to engage with your Company Updates)
5- Post Company Updates and Website Posts:
Doing so will give users another reason to follow you or your company. Take advantage of the different targeting options that LinkedIn provides, according to an
If your eager to get your name on Google you need to be take part of this growing social networking site. So once you create your professional LinkedIn account or if you’re already an active user, Google your name and you will notice your LinkedIn Profile will rank first above all other social media platforms.
There are multiple social media platforms so Why should you use Facebook to market your business? Simply because ALL your customers are using it. You are, and there’s a good chance everyone you know is on Facebook. According to Business Insider, today Facebook is the largest social network in the world with 1.15 billion active users per month.
No matter how big or small your business is, you need to have a Facebook Business Fan Page and implement a social media marketing strategy to create exposure and visibility, increase interaction, brand loyalty and help your SEO ranking.
Facebook Business Fan Page
Create a page for your business not a group nor a personal profile.
Page name: Should be up to 3 words not more and should be exactly like your business name.
Page Info: Go to page settings, fill up all the sections (address, map, hours of operation, phone number…), one important section is the Facebook web address this shows up on Google and you can’t change it so think carefully when choosing the address (preferable to be same as page name).
Profile picture: Should always be your company’s logo, make sure the logo is visually attractive and not blurry.
Cover photo: Should sum up what your company sells or provides for example if you own a restaurant your cover photo should include images of tasty platters, deserts… include type of cuisine your restaurant serves, add other social networks icons/names and you can also add a call to action to promote a special offer. Note: use a high quality picture.
Content: Simple your content should include Post industry-related information, infographics and videos, So if people landed on your page they will actually see its active and informative and might actually covert from being random visitors to actual fans. For example, if you own a fashion store you should add well organized albums of your latest products through high quality images and associate full description to each and not random pictures. The content is should be related to your target audience, in the case of a fashion store, young girls are targeted so add fashion tips or designers updates or funny fashion and shopping pictures. Always add a caption above your images, around 15 words not more. The number of posts and the time of posting depends on your page business and the number of fans which varies between a newly launched page or a page that already has developed a close relationship with its fans. Post everyday 3 to 5 posts, starting from 10 am till 8 pm although you will notice Thursday to Sunday most of the posts will receive more engagement especially between 1 and 3pm. Tips: If your new to posting and have no idea what to post check what your local competitors and international pages in the same industry are posting about and the type of posts going viral. Note: Trial and error is always a fundamental method to detect the best strategy.
Promote your Fan Page
Facebook gives you the ability to advertise and promote your page by creating ads. On your home page, you notice on the right side the word sponsored. Under that section your ad will show and within your news feed there is a section for ads while scrolling down through the home page. Facebook ads can be directed towards Facebook Pages, Facebook Posts, Landing pages or websites. Now to create an ad for your page and show up on your potential client’s home page, on the right side of your screen click on build your audience then click promote page. You will see a list of settings, the country you want to target, age group, interests, gender… which gives you the ability to target your audience specifically. You can also choose the budget you want to spend on a daily basis as low as 1$ per day. Note: use really high res pictures and check if the pictures look good and not cut on different platforms. ALWAYS add a caption to your ads. The text should be brief, attractive, describing what your page does and includes a call to action such as, Click “Like” and check out….You can later on change or manage your ads performance to check your campaign’s success on: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage. which shows CPL (cost per like/fan), Total money spent, duration of the ads and much more detailed information. The effect of the campaign is reflected on the page’s insights tab and an increase in the number of likes and interactivity will be noticed.
Tabs
This is a bit advanced but if you actually plan to work on your Facebook page, you need to install a Landing page and direct your ads to it instead of the Facebook page directly. A Landing page forces visitors to click “Like” to proceed to your page unlike usual ads that are directed automatically to your Facebook page, where people might check and leave without becoming a fan. So a Landing page will decrease CPF. You can install a landing page through shortstack. Its not free but once you register you get access to other creative ideas such as voting competitions, photo contests…
Facebook introduces new features everyday that you can take advantage of and some companies already achieved great success through creative marketing strategies and are making lots of money. So what are you still waiting for!