Establishing an Influencer Marketing Plan That Works

Creating an effective influencer marketing plan is essential to building a successful digital marketing strategy. It allows businesses to leverage the power of social media influencers and their large followings to promote their products and services. With the right plan, businesses can tap into new markets and expand their reach with relative ease.

In this blog post, we’ll explore what it takes to build an effective influencer marketing plan that works for your business. We’ll cover everything from defining your goals and objectives, to choosing the right influencers, and measuring your ROI. Let’s get started!

Step One: Define Your Goals and Objectives

Before getting started with any type of digital marketing campaign, you must first define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve? Are you looking to increase brand awareness or broaden your reach? Do you want to drive more sales or increase customer loyalty? Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish will help guide the rest of the process.

Step Two: Identify Your Target Audience

Once you have established your goals for the campaign, it’s time to identify who you want to target. Who is your desired audience? Knowing who they are and where they hang out will help you find the right influencers for your campaign.

Understanding who makes up your target market means that selecting appropriate influencers becomes much simpler – after all, if you don’t know who looks up to them or engages with them on social media, then how can you be sure that they have any influence at all?

Step Three: Choose The Right Influencers

Choosing the best influencer(s) for your campaign is arguably one of the most important steps in creating a successful influencer marketing plan. You need to make sure that their followers align with those in your target market – after all, there’s no point in targeting someone whose followers may not even be interested in what you have to offer!

When it comes down to finding suitable candidates, paid partnerships tend to work best as they give brands greater control over who represents them online; however, there are other ways too such as talking directly with bloggers or researching potential candidates on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.

Step Four: Create Engaging Content

Creating content that resonates with consumers is key when it comes to establishing a successful influencer marketing plan

Do you want help creating your Influencer Marketing Plan?

Visit EZMetrics.com to book a call with our team and get started today!

3 Key Habits for a Successful Business

Is your goal to run a successful business? Then you need to have the right mindset!

You’ll be most successful when you learn to trust yourself. Trusting yourself starts with holding yourself accountable. When you stick to your routine every day, it’ll be easier to check tasks off your list, even on days when you don’t feel like it. Whatever type of business you have or want to start, you’ll need to keep these three main ideas in mind.

Have A Vision

Sit down and write everything you envision for yourself and your business. Your core values will stand out to you, and identifying your values is a great place to start. Your customers can best relate to you when they see what is important to you. Then, turn your brainstorm into a vision board, or write it into a statement. Next, you’ll be ready to type up your plan and outline the roadmap of where you want to go. 

Your business plan will come together quickly when you’ve made time to get creative with it. The key to sustaining your vision and goal is to make time to get creative and brainstorm new ideas. So make time on your calendar for one hour a week to get your colored markers, and go for it!

Manage Your Time and Your Resources

Once you have your plan, devise a daily schedule to manage your time well. At first, it may seem like you’re spending a lot of time planning. However, all the work you do to set up systems to organize and plan will be helpful for you in the long run. Good planning and organizational skills can be practiced and will take some time to make into a habit. Make lists of daily, weekly, and monthly goals to remind yourself of the steps to get to where you want to be.

You’ll want to update your records promptly, keep a hard copy, and store them electronically. If your computer crashes, you’ll have everything you need to keep running smoothly. If things do not go smoothly and to plan, don’t get worked up about it! You’re going to hit roadblocks along the way. Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you got this. When you are calm, you’ll be able to figure out what isn’t working and what to do about it.

Attract People Like You

You’ll attract more positive people to your company when you stay positive. A positive attitude will look attractive to others, and they’ll want to work with you. Build positive relationships with your customers, and they will spread the word about your company. 

Be flexible and able to pivot quickly to changes. Growth requires constant change, and when you want your company to grow, you’ll have to be willing to learn and seek out knowledge. Do your research and understand your competitors. You may have to make quick decisions to stay ahead of the pack!

Business Success

Sometimes it can be hard to see the growth when you’re working away daily. However, if you want to be successful in your business, you will need to understand the market and your financial situation and jump at opportunities whenever they come to you. 

You can use a few strategies to increase your sales and keep growing your business year after year. One way is to boost your advertising, send out email blasts to your customers, or offer an incentive for referrals from existing customers. Focus on having a great product or service; remember, your personal growth will directly impact your company’s growth.

Take the first step to building, launching, and scaling your business. We make digital marketing easy. Our ultimate goal as your agency is to see your business increase its returns on paid advertising campaigns. Call EZMetrics today!

Top Eight Copywriting Tips for Creating Outstanding Sales Pages

When it comes to creating an outstanding sales page, you want the writing that appears on the page to pull the visitor in and immerse them into whatever the page is selling.

This could be your products, your services, or the mission of your company.

Excellent copywriting will reduce any risk that a potential customer may feel towards you, it will answer any questions up front, it will call us to act, and it will highlight the benefits of what you are selling.

Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked items of sales pages is the copywriting as most website developers or owners will tinker with the color, spend hours on their videos, and put up crisp and clear photographs, all without creating engaging text.

In this article, we will highlight eight tips that you can use to make your sales page go from decent to outstanding.

1. Be Clear and Concise: you want your writing to be clear and concise but you don’t want to “dumb” it down as this can have a negative impact on how you make your visitor feel about themselves. Instead, make sure to keep close to the point and do not over-explain or run off topic. Your goal here is to deliver the core concepts of your piece in such a way that it is understandable, easy to follow, and uses descriptive language that plays on your audience’s senses. Avoid run-on sentences where possible.

2. Research: you cannot just place any type of written content on your sales pages, rather, you have to be able to talk about what you have knowledge of. Writing that is not backed by research, expertise, and authenticity will be very clear to the reader. Make sure that you have a full and masterful understanding of your topic, your competitors, and your offering, first. Displaying your own knowledge of the subject matter is often one of the key factors that will determine whether or not a reader continues reading. If they continue reading, you are more likely to make a sale.

3. Eye-Catching Subject Lines: having a brilliant body paragraph does nothing for you if your subject line is bland, uninspiring, and easy to gloss over. Make sure that your headlines are eye-catching, intriguing, and play off as “hooks”, as this will grab the reader’s attention. There are many ways that you can accomplish this, but a few include starting with a simple question that highlights your audience’s problem, choosing to go with a list-style subject line that is quick to understand or create a comparison line between your product and your competitors’.

4. Find the Problem, Solve the Problem: if a reader decides on buying anything, the reasoning behind it will be to solve some sort of problem. It will be your job to identify what this problem might be and then subsequently solve it with your product or service. More often than not, the problem will have something to do with your reader’s fears, like a pest infestation or out of control debt, and thus offering a solution will require you to gain an in-depth understanding of your audience.

5. Speak Your Audience’s Language: in many cases, it is safer to use general terms to appeal to your audience rather than niche-branded terms unless your sales page is targeting a very specific audience that would have prior knowledge about your sales topic. By doing this, you help your audience relate to you and what you’re talking about which, in turn, encourages them to purchase from you.

6. Talk Like it’s a Conversation: it’s much more enjoyable to have a conversation than it is to listen to a sales pitch, as conversations are more relatable, they make your reader feel special, and they do not isolate the reader with technical jargon. When you act like you are talking to your best friend, you have a higher chance of converting leads.

7. Avoid Sounding Passive:  keeping to the present tense, making solid statements and talking with confidence, are all methods you can use to avoid sounding passive. When your copywriting uses passive voice, it assigns less responsibility to the action, meaning it has less power. You want to sound powerful.

8. Don’t Beat Around the Bush:  asking for the sale might seem too pushy but is, in fact, a necessary measure to take. Readers respond to transparency more than anything, so if what you want is for them to click a link, fill out a form or even just think a particular thought, make that want known. This is where you need to use call-to-action buttons, forms, and pop-ups that are aesthetically pleasing to look at and that enhance what you’ve just said.

Copywriting is not just for sales pages. The same principles can apply to your social media posts and emails, too. After all, copywriting is more than just what you say… it’s what you convey.  

If you want to master how to write effective copy, and 10 other crucial skillsets to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to What’s Working Now, join the EZMetrics Mastermind to gain access our digital marketing library that will help you generate an unlimited supply of your perfect customers.

Grow Your YouTube Metrics

YouTube is the third most visited website in the world. I believe it.

And it’s not just TV. It’s a social network + advertising platform + content platform.

In other words, YouTube is many things to many people. In many ways, it defies categorization.

And that’s frankly a bit scary.

As Mr. Ziglar said, and I remind myself of it as much as I can: “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

YouTube is an enormous opportunity for everyone who wants to produce content.

Let’s talk numbers, because I’m a numbers guy.

  • The total number of people who use YouTube – 1,300,000,000. (Billion! That’s a LOT of zeroes!)
  • YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day.
  • In an average month, 8 out of ten 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube.
  • The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes.
  • More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.

There are plenty more stats, if you want them.

But I think I’ve painted the picture for you: you could make a splash and get some customers on YouTube. There are people there.

So how do you find them, keep them, and convert them to paying customers?

What YouTube metrics matter?

It’s not necessarily views, even though that’s what you hear about in conversation.

A view, by definition, happens when the video is played.

Here’s the tricky part of a view: it’s logged every time a video player loaded, which doesn’t tell you whether or not that person actually watched it.

So what you want, in fact, is watch time.

Watch time

Watch time tells you how engaged your viewers are.

Longer watch time = better.

It’s measured in cumulative minutes watched, and every video and every channel on YouTube is ranked by watch time. If your video or channel has higher watch times, it’s more likely to be higher in the search results and the recommendations.

For example: a 20-second video that gets watched from beginning to end will outrank a 10-minute video that people only watch for a minute or two.

Note: YouTube ads don’t count toward your watch time.

Subscribers

Subscribers, those people who subscribe to your channel (or any channel), are far more engaged than other YouTube viewers.

Subscribing connects viewers to you. They’re as warm an audience as you can get!

Shares, links, and embeds

Shares are an indication of what is resonating with your audience. You’ll also want to look at how often the links and players are embedded on other sites.

How can you impact your YouTube metrics?

Get more subscribers

One obvious way is to convert casual viewers to channel subscribers. Here are some tips to make that happen:

Creation story. Share how you began and what got things started for you. Make your message relatable to your audience.

Creed. What makes you tick? How can you make it resonate for your audience?

Personality. Consistency is important: subscribers like personalities associated with the channels they subscribe to. Be an authority and let your personality shine through.

Rituals. Maybe you have a certain greeting or phrase that you begin or end with.

Language. Here’s a way to make your viewers feel like insiders: come up with your own lingo or phrases that describe things.

Put annotations on videos

Have you ever watched a video and noticed that there are clickable words and boxes that show up?

Those are annotations.

The best place to use them is “10 in and 10 out” — the first 10% and the last 10% of your video. So take the length of your video and make sure you have annotations planned for that first 10% and last 10%.

A cautionary note: only use one annotation at a time.

Know your keywords and phrases

Your Google Analytics and YouTube accounts should be linked. (If they’re not, go do that right now.)

Spend time on YouTube researching the keywords and phrases that bring up content like yours. This is worth an investment of time, and maybe even asking some people who are in the group you want to reach (i.e., if you’re trying to reach women, ask women). What are people searching for?

Then make sure you are using those keywords and phrases within your descriptions and tags and even in the title of your video.

Strong CTA

Does your video have a strong call to action? Because if it doesn’t…why not? You can do that within your annotations, in the description, and also within the video itself.

Produce great content

Saving the best for last: great content!

Some quick tips related to that:

  • Focus on one specific need in each video.
  • Get the right length, about 3 minutes
  • Consistency + congruency = win!

What can you measure and track to know if you’re succeeding on YouTube?

There’s a lot of information available, that’s for sure! These areas should be, at a minimum, things you’re considering and looking at as you build and grow your YouTube presence:

Views over time

This gives you an idea of trends, of how you’re growing (or not) and of changes. It’s a way of stepping back and looking at the big picture.

Source of traffic

Where are people coming from? Are they embedding your player, finding it through an ad, YouTube search, Google search, an outside website…?

Demographics

You might think you’re appealing to a 40-something woman in the Midwest when, in reality, you’re being watched and shared by 30-year-old men on the west coast. (That is a slight and crazy exaggeration, yes.)

Understanding your audience will help you make better content and who you are reaching. There’s a lot to be learned from that information, including where your viewers are from and what kind of impact you have geographically.

Playback locations

How is your audience discovering your content? You can learn whether they are searching and finding it within YouTube or from another website.

Retention

Wonder where you lose people? The Audience Retention page will tell you…and paying attention to when people stop watching can inform your future videos.

Subscribers

Yes, this is a theme: subscribers are important! But when are they joining? And leaving? What does that measurement look like?

Social Shares

This goes almost without saying: tapping into the social nature of YouTube is a must. You can also see where people are sharing things (hint: Facebook wins most of the time).

Commenting

When you get comments, respond to them. This is part of the back-and-forth that makes YouTube a community atmosphere.

You can also cross-reference your commenting statistics with others, you can gain further insight into what’s working with your audience.

Likes, dislikes, and favorites

Very few people will actually leave a comment, but a lot of people will like, dislike, or favorite a video that strikes a chord. Make sure you’re tracking this information and watching it.

Things to make sure you have set up properly

  1. YouTube channel and AdWords account
  2. The connection (link) between YouTube and AdWords
  3. Video remarketing lists in AdWords
  4. Conversion tracking pixels from AdWords placed accordingly

Strategies to use with YouTube

  1. Get back in front of users who don’t register or buy
    • Build video remarketing list off first video ad
    • Target those viewers with a new video ad
    • Exclude those who convert
  2. Stop advertising to those who have registered or purchased
  3. Increase your reach with similar audiences and Google Display Network

10 Ways to Avoid Burnout

We’ve all done it: you jump into a project head first and double your hours. Then you skip sleep, forego the regenerative “me” time that keeps you sane, and start taking out your frustrations on loved ones.

Maybe you find yourself sluggish, dragging yourself to the computer or workplace in the morning with a sense of dread.

Or, just as bad, you’ve been procrastinating and putting off all the tasks.

According to the Asscociation for Psychological Science, burnout comes in three varieties: overload burnout, boredom burnout, and worn-out burnout.

Statista reports that 65% of the people who are at the beginning of a burnout situation frequently felt run down or drained of physical and/or emotional energy.

Yep, I’ve been there. Recently, in fact.

Sometimes, you can nip it in the bud and keep the big “B” of burnout from getting control of your life.

Other times, it would have been better to just avoid the situation altogether.

Here are my top ways to avoid burnout and stay motivated in your work.

Plan your day AND write it down.

Write down everything you need to do. This will keep you focused and on track.

I use a bullet journaling system that I continually modify and adjust. When I went “backwards” from a completely cloud-based back to a paper-based system a few years ago, I expected to encounter some problems.

What I found, though, was that I was able to focus better and even remember things. It was like what I learned in college, taking notes during lectures and then studying by rewriting them, was still relevant.

Turns out research supports what I’ve experienced. So not only will you have a plan of what’s ahead, you may find yourself thinking more clearly and remembering better.

Then again, you might just have a handy place to doodle. 🙂

Sever the tether.

With 77% of Americans owning a smartphone, it’s no surprise that, in addition to crushing candy and obsessively checking Facebook, we’re also working longer hours.

It. Never. Ends.

But it can.

Set working hours and stick to them. And, my TOP advice? Turn off notifications.

Make your time intentional. Not only will it free you to enjoy your off hours, it will also help you focus during your on hours.

Do the tough stuff first.

Confession: I don’t always follow this advice. Sometimes, I need to do the opposite of eating the frog; I need to butter myself up and get ready for the tasks I’m not so fond of.

But when you’ve done the tough or unsavory work first, it’s out of the way. It’s done. It’s not hanging over you all day long.

Have a hobby.

Give yourself something to look forward to outside of work…and then make time to do it!

There are all sorts of reasons to have a hobby (Psychology Today lists six), but mental health tops my list.

When I curl up with a book or grab my husband for a round of golf, the working part of my brain can relax…and I come back refreshed and ready to dive in.

Say no.

You can’t do everything…and you shouldn’t.

But often, once you start saying yes, you get asked to do more. And more. And more.

Saying no doesn’t make you a jerk (though there’s something to be said for tact). And it may not be easy to say no, especially if you’re a people pleaser or talking to someone you don’t want to disappoint.

Do a quick search online for “benefits of saying no” and you’ll find a trail a mile long. This is its very own challenge, but one that is important to embrace and pursue.

A well-placed no can help you in many ways, not least of which is to keep you from the brink of burnout!

Take breaks.

Go outside. Enjoy nature. Meditate and/or pray.

You’re not made to be glued to a computer screen or a task for long amounts of time. A change in scenery, even if it’s just to stand up at your desk, can make a huge difference in your mentality.

Years ago, in my first job after college, I noticed that the only people who seemed to take a sanctioned break during the day were those who smoked.

Rather than start a habit that could lead to your death, why not set a timer on your phone or computer so that you take a break? Neil Patel recommends no longer than 90 minutes of work at a stretch before you take a break.

Whatever it is, make time throughout the day to stop and pause. You’ll be better for it.

Avoid perfection paralysis.

Done is better than perfect.

I know, I KNOW. It’s hard to say and even harder to accept. But the truth is that most of us aren’t doing life-altering jobs.

Usually, we need something done more than we need it to be completely 100% perfect.

I’m NOT advocating a half-way job or doing less than your best. But your best and what’s needed often — usually — isn’t perfect.

And besides, perfect can be a subjective term. Let go of it and let yourself move forward.

Take care of your body.

We aren’t just intellectual beings; we’re physical beings. That means we need to take care of our bodies, too!

Eat right. Sleep well. Exercise. Drink lots of water. Research whether some vitamin supplements would be appropriate.

Get up and move around during the day (while taking one of those breaks I recommended earlier).

Add beauty.

Beauty comes in many forms, and it will change the atmosphere for you.

Listen to music; add some flowers; put on a diffuser with bergamot or peppermint.

Make your work environment a place where you are inspired and that makes you smile. There are many factors you can’t control, true, but you can stack the deck in your favor.

People time is a must!

Even if you’re an introvert, you need loved ones and support. What people in your life give you energy?

66% of people categorized as being at the beginning of burnout stated that “stable family life is one of the best ways to avoid burnout.”

Whether family means your closest friends, the people you live with, or some other group, make time for them and with them.

Humans are social beings.

How do you avoid burnout?

What tips do you have to share? Or, if you’ve battled with burnout in the past, what helped you?

Numbers Matter: How to Measure Your Social Media Campaigns

I’m a numbers guy. I’m such a numbers guy that it drives my wife crazy.

But here’s the thing: you need to be a numbers person, too.

If you’re spending money on advertising — and let’s not forget that time is money! — then you need to know if it’s working or not.

And the way you know that is, usually, by some sort of number.

Social media is a hot way to advertise, and with good reason.

You don’t always have to spend money on social media — we grew the Zig Ziglar Facebook page purely organically — but you can (and often, it makes sense).

If you have a budget, I’m a big fan of Facebook ads. (Which would be why I have a whole course on it…) They allow for targeting in a way that, quite frankly, makes every dollar well-spent.

Know why and what you’re measuring in a social media campaign

To be clear, I’m not a fan of numbers just for the sake of numbers.

You have to know why you’re measuring and what you’re measuring, because that’s how you find out what’s working.

And when you know what’s working, you can keep rocking it, tweaking it, and improving it so that you convert prospects into customers.

Two types of metrics for social media

We’re going to consider that there are two types of metrics for social media:

  • Ongoing metrics
  • Campaign metrics

Ongoing metrics are things you keep your eye on all the time: you want to understand the trends and activity from one point in time to another. You want to look at snapshots, but also at the bigger picture. This is something you check in on regularly and keep track of.

Campaign metrics are focused on a definite beginning and end. These numbers help you know whether your specific campaigns or outreaches are effective. You can look at these within the overall scope of things, and you can look at them individually.

Both types of metrics are critical: you should be looking at both and keeping track of both.

How to measure social media campaigns

Ask — and answer — these 5 questions to measure your social media campaigns. In fact, I’ve found it’s a good practice to revisit these on a regular basis.

1. What are your goals?

What do you want to accomplish and where can you best accomplish it?

Some goals might be:

  • To gain exposure
  • To sell products
  • To spread the word about something
  • To engage with customers or prospects
  • To share news and information

You may find that, due to limited energy or resources, that it’s best to pick one social media channel (i.e., Facebook or Instagram) and build that up before you attempt another channel.

2. What metrics matter for your goals?

What numbers tell you what people are doing and whether things are working?

Here are a few metrics to get you started:

  • What are people talking about? Your “conversation rate” helps you build relationships and helps you nurture leads, answer questions, and support current customers so that you have retention.
  • How many shares/retweets do you have? This “amplification rate” will tell you your reach and determine what kind of content to create and what channels to use.
  • How many likes/favorites do you get? This “applause rate” and it can tell you what your audience likes, which should inform your future decisions.

3. What tools will measure and capture the numbers?

Each social media platform has some built-in analytics, but there are also external tools that can help you. For example, Google Analytics should be installed and running on your website already.

You don’t have to spend anything on tools: if you’re starting in Facebook (and why wouldn’t you?), the analytics and insights are part of the dashboard. For more tools, do a quick search for free social media metrics tools.

4. What gets monitored and reported?

For some people, this is the hardest part. You have to sit back a bit, and at the same time, you have to watch and keep track.

You want to know how your numbers compare to what you expected. Are your conversions better or worse or right on target?

Take a look, too, at how often and what you’re reporting, even if it’s just to yourself.

You can help a good campaign go to great, and you can help a faltering campaign rebound, but only if you’re paying attention.

5. What needs changed?

The real power of the numbers is that they inform your decisions. You can change your tactics and consider if you’re missing something.

Maybe you’re not looking at the right thing. Maybe you see a trend that shows you an opportunity.

The next step

Social media can be a drain on your time and energy. It helps to understand the metrics that matter and adjusting your strategy in light of your numbers.