How Often Should You Blog? We Found A Blogging Frequency That Works

Do you find yourself often pondering blog-related questions, such as how many blogs per month for SEO? You’re not alone. There is no golden rule, but there are set practices to find the best fit for you, and we can illustrate how.

Blogging frequency is a common struggle for new bloggers and experienced bloggers alike. With so many factors to consider, including search engine optimization and brand awareness, it’s certainly an important thing to have planned out.

In this post, we’ll uncover the blogging frequency we found that works for one specific industry. We’ll show you how we drew this conclusion and how you can do the same for yours.

Why Is Blogging Frequency Important?

Blogging frequency is how often you publish blog posts on a weekly or monthly basis.

There are a number of benefits to finding your ideal blogging frequency.

First and foremost, blog posts allow you to rank for organic keywords. These are needed for driving organic traffic to your site.

A frequently updated blog also increases brand awareness. The more you post about your industry, the more aware of your web presence, your products, and your services your target audience becomes.

Blogging can help your business build trust in the community. Posting relevant content about your industry and regularly updating it will help convey trust and authority to your audience. They will be more likely to convert on your site versus a competitor that rarely updates their content or posts blogs.

For more practical reasons, a blog post frequency helps you to set a standard for yourself or your content writing team. Without a frequency in mind, you may constantly focus on writing blog posts at the expense of other activities. This extends to adjacent teams too, like social media and design, who would greatly benefit from a known frequency so they can prioritize their tasks.

So a blog post frequency gives you both an upper and lower limit, which means you can spend more time and money focusing on other aspects of your business.

Are You Blogging Too Often?

In addition to asking how often do you need to blog, it’s not uncommon to ask what happens when you blog too frequently? Or, is that even possible?

Perhaps you’re thinking the more, the better. As you’ll see in the analysis below, it’s not quite that simple.

You could post daily on your blog. Hourly, even. Will it be your best content, though? Remember that quality is better than quantity in almost all cases. By posting too frequently, you may be sacrificing the quality of your content which itself will have a negative impact on your brand.

What We Learned From Our Data about Blogging Frequency

For this analysis, we’re evaluating eight companies in the CBD industry. To find out how many blog posts they publish per month, we looked at their post sitemaps and calculated the average number of posts per month since January 2022.

We looked at a few metrics when measuring their success.

First, we looked at the overall keyword universe, meaning we analyzed the total number of keywords the blog ranks for on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). To drill down further, we also looked at the number of those keywords which ranked within the top 10 results, or on the first page. Finally, we compared the number of organic keywords each business ranked for in the top three results. These are the most coveted positions.

The greater your number of organic keywords, the farther your reach. While it’s not the only metric to consider when measuring success, it is a good indicator of such.

RoyalCBD.com: A High Post Frequency Example

With the highest post frequency on our list, RoyalCBD.com boasts an average of 18 blog posts per month. This seems to have paid off, with 24,351 organic keywords driving traffic to the website.

More important than organic traffic, however, is the quality of that traffic. RoyalCBD seems to boast high numbers there, too. The website has 5,603 keywords ranking in the top 10 and 2,920 keywords ranking in the top one through three positions on SERPs.

JoyOrganics.com

The next on our list, JoyOrganics.com, also happens to be the site with the second-highest posting frequency that we analyzed. That is, 17 posts per month on average from January 2022 through June 2022.

This is likely a contributing factor for the rather high number of organic keywords – 17,103 to be exact – driving traffic to the site. Of those keywords, 1,679 rank in the top 10 and 511 rank within positions one through three on SERPs.

CBDfx.com: Is One Post Per Month Enough?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is CBDfx.com, with a blogging frequency of about one post per month.

Before you think CBDfx.com is an anomaly, you should know they have refreshed 155 blog posts on their site in June 2022 alone. This means they optimized existing posts to meet current SEO standards. So while their posting frequency is low, the refreshed content is likely playing a large role in their organic keyword rankings.

CBDfx.com has 18,023 organic keywords with 2,576 ranking in the top 10 and 984 ranking within the top three positions on SERPs.

The takeaway here is that refreshed content can be just as important as new content for rankings.

HempFusion.com

While we initially looked at post frequency from January 2022 through June 2022, there are some websites that have yet to post in 2022. This includes HempFusion.com. In those cases, we looked back at July 2021 through December 2021.

From July through December 2021, there was an average of seven blog posts per month. Despite not posting in 2022, this prior frequency seems to have provided some protection for HempFusion.com on SERPs. It currently has 2,827 organic keywords, with 391 ranking on the first page and 201 ranking in positions one through three.

MedterraCBD.com

Here’s another site with no blog posts in 2022. From July through December 2021, though, MedterraCBD posted an average of five blog posts per month.

You might be thinking that surely MedterraCBD.com will have fewer organic keyword rankings than HempFusion.com. MedterraCBD.com actually has considerably more. To be specific, 7,435 organic keywords with 840 ranking in the top 10 and 486 ranking in the top three.

There are a few reasons for this. Foremost, MedterraCBD.com has ranked since the middle of 2017 while HempFusion.com only started ranking around January 2020. MedterraCBD.com has also seen higher average rankings overall, so it’s likely to see the effects of not posting less drastically.

JustCBDStore.com

With 14 posts per month, surely JustCBDStore.com has a significant number of organic keywords.

Surprisingly, this site has only 8,680 organic keywords. Of those, 1,615 rank in the top 10, and 776 rank within the top three on SERPs. That’s close to the sites like HempFusion.com and MedterraCBD.com that didn’t post at all in 2022!

We know it’s not the posts per month responsible for that low of organic keywords. So the answer is likely in a factor we have not considered, such as the age of the website or social media presence.

Purekana.com: Moderate Number of Posts Per Month

Another on our list with a moderate number of posts per month, Purekana.com has a monthly blogging frequency of approximately 13.

Similar to JustCBDStore.com, Purekana.com has a small organic keyword profile with 7,126 organic keywords. Of these, 983 rank on the first page of SERPs, and 414 rank within the top three.

cbdMD.com

Here’s another anomaly, though occurring in the opposite direction of what we saw above.

cbdMD.com posts an average of 13 blog posts per month. Despite this middle-of-the-road number of blog posts, it has the most organic keywords on our list with 37,784. This includes 5,924 keywords ranking in the top 10 and 2,154 keywords ranking within the top three.

But How Often Should I Blog?

To recap our findings, we analyzed eight CBD websites with the intention of pinpointing the optimal number of blog posts per month for the industry. Here is what we found:

cbdMD.com has the largest number of organic keywords. When you take into account its modest domain authority and medium-sized backlink profile, it becomes clear that the number of blog posts is the driving factor for its success.

Why is this not the case for JustCBDStore.com and Purekana.com, both of which also post approximately 13 blog posts per month? There are a lot of other variables at play, such as target keywords, length of the average blog post, and social media presence.

What does this mean for you?

Our research shows that for this industry, 13 blog posts per month is a good balance between quantity and quality. These should be focused on well-researched topics with at least one or two target keywords. This should further be accompanied by ample support from your cross-functional teams. This means social media promotion of the posts and digital assets from your design team at the very least. 13 a month was a number that allowed the sites we mention above to strike that balance.

In addition, blog post refreshes should also have a place in your content writing strategy. There’s no magic number of refreshes to implement here. It’s more so about updating older posts that may not fit in with the most recent SEO recommendations. This also gives you an opportunity to improve your internal linking.

Finding the Ideal Blog Post Frequency for You

The blogging frequency we found to be ideal for the CBD industry may or may not be ideal for your industry. So how can you find the ideal blog post frequency for your industry and, even more important, your blog?

The best way to do so is with an analysis of a sample of blogs within your industry like we performed above. You can easily do this with access to XML sitemaps and an SEO analysis tool like Ahrefs or, of course, Ubersuggest.

What does this look like?

1. Find ten to 15 competitors with blogs in your industry to evaluate.
2. Locate the sitemap for each of these websites.
3. Take note of how often each site posts within a designated time period. We recommend looking at the last six months if possible.
4. With the average number of posts per month for each site, you can now use an SEO analysis tool for a fuller understanding of that site’s SEO profile. Look specifically at the number of organic keywords and the number of keywords ranking within the top ten.
5. With this information combined, you can determine which post frequency correlates to the highest number of organic keywords in your industry.

While organic keyword profile isn’t the only indicator of a solid posting frequency, it’s one that seems to correlate highly. So do take other factors into consideration if something stands out, but don’t overcomplicate it.

FAQs

Here are the answers to frequently asked questions on the subject of blogging frequency.

How many blogs should you post a week?

The answer is not so cut and dry as we’ve highlighted above. Once you have found your ideal blog post frequency for the month, it’s best to break it down into weekly goals.

How often do most bloggers post?

In our data, we saw post frequencies anywhere from once a month to almost 20. The answer is going to vary based on the client’s industry as well as the capacity of their content team, though it’s important not to compromise quality for cadence.

Does it hurt my content marketing to blog more or less than my competitors?

While competitor research can provide a good idea for the number of blog posts to write each month, it’s not the be-all-end-all. You should also consider how many quality posts you can write and whether you actually have something useful to say.

How can I find creative blog ideas?

There are plenty of ways to find creative blog ideas for your blog. You can research your competitors using Ubersuggest, find keyword ideas in Google Search Console, and or even use a blog idea generator.

What makes a quality blog post?

This could be an article topic all its own, as there is a lot that goes into quality blog writing. A few elements of a quality blog post include a compelling headline, a narrow focus, and a unique brand voice.

Conclusion

When it comes to determining the ideal blogging frequency for your website, there is no magic number. There are many factors that play into that decision.

So how can you determine the best frequency for your blog?

The key is to look at other blogs in your industry and compare their posting frequency to their organic keyword profile. You’re looking for a strong organic keyword profile – the highest number of relevant page one keywords within the industry – for a clue as to how many posts per month are ideal for your blog.
Remember, though, that quality is just as important (if not more so) as quantity. So maintain a frequency that nears the ideal frequency for your industry but that still allows you to maintain a high content quality.

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/nyZ6z2q
via IFTTT

Social media memes: The best of 2022

Is there anything better than when a new social media meme takes over the web?

For a few short hours, people come together to laugh at a silly joke that would not have made sense just a few days ago. Whether it’s topical, related to a profession or interest or sourced from some other weird corner of the internet, they always find a way to unite people with humor.

If you work in social media, staying up to date on trending meme formats is all in a day’s work. Maybe that’s why social media managers make such good memes.

To celebrate your efforts, we’ve gathered the top five social media marketing memes we’ve seen this year. Plus, we’ve also created a framework for identifying the memes that will elevate your social strategy.

What are social media memes?

A social media meme is an image, video or text format that captures the—typically humorous—thoughts, feelings or experiences of a specific audience.

Memes can start anywhere: Twitter, Reddit, the Domino’s website. There’s meme potential in pretty much everything, as long you understand your target audience.

Thanks to ever-evolving platform trends, each year brings more interesting and inventive meme formats. New viral text post formulas…

"I can better explain over the phone. are you free sometime today for a quick call?" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

— DonYe Taylor (@donyetaylor_) October 12, 2021

“I’m not on Twitter” 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

— Twitter (@Twitter) October 12, 2021

When her beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair 🚩🚩🚩

— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) October 13, 2021

…image templates…

Be diligent and check your child's candy this year, just found an invasive silver carp shoved inside a Milky Way. No words. pic.twitter.com/4lxTErtQsX

— Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (@OKWildlifeDept) October 10, 2022

check your kids halloween candy. someone tried to hide the poison. the poison for kuzco. the poison chosen especially to kill kuzco. kuzco's poison pic.twitter.com/rwNVR2UCaY

— sam (@gwsafetynet) October 13, 2022

..and video formats are cropping up every week.

@colleedee

True story one time I did this four times!! It was pretty bad #crj #carlyraejepsen

♬ The Loneliest Time – Carly Rae Jepsen & Rufus Wainwright

@julieullmann

There’s just something about that MATERIAL. #tshirt #favoritetshirt #imcominbackforyou #carlyraejepsen #fyp #trending

♬ The Loneliest Time – Carly Rae Jepsen & Rufus Wainwright

This is great news for social media marketers. The more funny social media memes pop up, the more opportunities there are to make the trend work for your brand.

The 5 best memes about social media we’ve seen in 2022

Social media managers live and breathe social. It’s no wonder their meme game is a cut above the rest. To prove it, here are the top five memes about social media we’ve seen this year:

1. Letterboxd’s take on Mads Mikkelsen Eating a Sandwich

☕️ pic.twitter.com/B5jcH60Q4H

— Lé-terror-boxd (@letterboxd) July 20, 2022

2022 was the year social media managers started breaking the brand account fourth wall. This new personality-driven approach does more than just create memorable content. It also reminds people that there’s a person behind the account with thoughts, feelings and opinions.

Letterboxd, a social networking app for movie lovers, used a meme to convey that point exactly. What makes it even better is that Mads Mikkelsen is a cinephile favorite. This subtle clap back is smart, funny and it shows true audience knowledge.

2. @SociallyKels viral audio mash-up

@sociallykels

my brain is mush at this point 🫠#socialmediamanager #socialmediamanagerlife #socialmediamarketing #trendingtiktoksounds #tiktoktrends #ugccreator

♬ Jiggling Up That Corn Hill – There I Ruined It

Raise your hand if your brain is constantly jumping from one viral TikTok audio to the next.

If your hand shot up, you’re not alone. TikTok user @SociallyKels perfectly captured this SMM-specific phenomenon in her post about explaining social trends to a client. The video features a Frankenstein-like mashup of all of 2022’s greatest TikTok hits: ‘Running Up That Hill’, ‘It’s Corn!’ and ‘My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle’.

3. Dave Jorgenson’s Don’t Worry Darling joke

YOU CAN’T EXPENSE IT’S FOR A
ANOTHER COSTUME TIKTOK pic.twitter.com/3Xp1medsfQ

— Washington Post TikTok Guy 🎃 (@davejorgenson) September 2, 2022

Dave Jorgenson (also known as The Washington Post TikTok Guy) breaks down complex current events in 60 seconds or less. It’s a task that requires wit, writing skills and occasionally a wig or two.

His spin on one of the many viral meme formats that came from the Don’t Worry Darling press tour shed light on an experience unique to the field of social media management: Explaining all the costumes on your monthly expense report.

4. @WorkInSocialTheySaid’s Sisyphean task

pic.twitter.com/C6hoQSw5r7

— WorkInSocialTheySaid (@WorkInSociaI) September 1, 2021

In this meme, @WorkInSocialTheySaid uses a portrait of a classic figure in Greek mythology, Sisyphus. According to legend, Sisyphus is doomed to roll a boulder up a hill for all of eternity after a lifetime of wheeling, dealing and stealing.

Today, a Sisyphean task is a phrase used to describe a never-ending task, like, deleting all the social graphics off your phone once they’ve finally been published is a never-ending job. No matter how much time you spend clearing your camera roll, more always pop up.

5. @arieljrubin’s spin on ‘They Don’t Know’

everyone who works in social media all the time pic.twitter.com/IcHc1XR8rl

— Ariel (@arieljrubin) January 25, 2022

As far as funny social media memes go, ‘They Don’t Know’ has become a new classic. The meme perfectly sums up those moments where your own inner monologue gets a bit too dramatic. If that’s not relatable, I don’t know what is.

We love @arieljrubin’s take on the format because if you haven’t had to explain that you’re not an intern to someone, are you even a social media manager?

How memes can amplify social media marketing

The most successful social media memes rely on some sort of inside joke. It makes sense; if you’re not and don’t know any truckers, then you probably wouldn’t find trucker memes very funny.

That’s why memes are such a fantastic tool for social media marketers. With the right format and punchline, you can generate more brand awareness with niche audiences about your product or service.

On top of that, they stand out on social feeds regardless of network. We asked consumers to rank in-feed content types by what they considered to be most engaging for The 2022 Sprout Social Index™. Short-form videos, images and GIFs/memes claimed three of the top spots.

Memes may not guarantee instant virality, but they can do something even better. They can make your brand stand out to the right audiences in crowded social feeds. That’s pretty serious business for something so funny.

How to incorporate memes into your social media strategy

Behind every killer brand meme, there’s a social media manager who put in serious work to get it created, approved and published. If you’re looking to up your social media meme game, here’s the four-step process you need to follow:

Step 1: Choose a visual editor

Occasionally, trending social media meme formats will require some light graphic design efforts. For example, this meme featuring characters from The Office doesn’t mean much without a few text additions from Sparknotes.

pic.twitter.com/NQM1vetdAw

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 22, 2022

If you want to jump on a timely social media moment, having a preferred graphic design tool at the ready can streamline your creation process. You don’t need anything fancy—a tool that supports on-brand fonts, colors and social media image sizes will do just fine.

If you don’t have a favorite already, here are some options to consider:

• Instagram Stories editor: If a super lo-fi approach is aligned with your brand, then this is a great option for you. All you have to do is add the meme template to the Instagram Stories editor and use the text tools to create your finished product.
• Canva: If you want to create killer on-brand memes like the team at SEMRush, Canva is the way to go. Use their tool to create a collection of templates that work across your preferred social media channels.

• Adobe Photoshop: This is definitely a more advanced option but if you have the design chops, then go for it. However, to keep your memes consistent, you may want to include examples of previous meme-centered social posts in your design board for reference.

Remember: Social media memes don’t have to be perfect and polished. Keep it scrappy and focus on the content of the visual.

Step 2: Iron out your approval process

Who on your team needs to be notified before you post a social media meme?

Depending on your social media governance policy, it might be quite a few.

I am a:

⚪️ man
⚪️ woman
🔘 social media manager

Looking for:

⚪️ some adventure
⚪️ true love
🔘 a quick approval before we miss this trend

— Stein (@steinekin) May 18, 2021

Outline who needs to be looped in on timely posts, what their role is in the approval process and how quickly you expect their feedback. Handling this ahead of time can prevent approval purgatory from making you miss a timely meme opportunity.

Pro tip: If you’re using Sprout, ditch the lengthy email back and forth and use the Message Approval Workflow instead.

All you have to do is submit your outgoing post to the appropriate approvers in Compose. Sprout will automatically send a notification letting message approvers know that a post needs their attention. From there, they can approve or reject the message. They can also request changes using Internal Comments.

Start a Free Trial

Step 3: Ask the big question

You’re scrolling through Instagram and all of a sudden it’s happening. A new meme format is gaining traction on niche accounts. You know it’s going to be everywhere by the end of the day. That’s when it’s time to ask the big question:

To post or not to post?

At first glance, the answer seems simple. As a social media manager, you want engagement. Memes generate engagement. Unfortunately, what seems like a no-brainer can land you in hot water if you don’t do your due diligence.

Without doing the proper research, you run the risk of jumping on an inevitable milkshake duck. A milkshake duck—if you’re unfamiliar—is an internet culture phenomenon that describes when viral meme fodder is revealed to be problematic, as coined by Twitter user @pixelatedboat.

The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist

— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) June 12, 2016

There are some quick and dirty ways to go about doing this research but if you want the best insights quickly, turn to social listening.

Creating a Listening Topic in Sprout focused on a rising social media meme can unveil key insights on just how many people are talking about it and why. Plus, it also breaks down valuable sentiment data to inform your final decision.

Step 4: Review your results

The internet is a big place. A meme that’s viral to one audience might not even be on another audience’s radar. For example, I cannot escape the Lisa Rinna M&M. My roommate, on the other hand, has no idea what that sentence means.

Understanding which memes will resonate most with your audience takes testing and learning. As you experiment with new formats and punchlines, take note of which messages drive the most engagement. This will help you fine-tune your trendspotting skills over time. Eventually, you’ll be able to spot an audience-approved meme format before it has its own Know Your Meme page.

If you want to take the manual effort out of your meme performance analysis, use Sprout Social to create an Outbound Message Tag for posts that mention timely trends and memes. Over time, you’ll be able to grab insights on which formats, channels and themes work best with your audience.

Keep your social media meme game strong

Positioning yourself as a go-to source for industry-specific social media memes does more than make people chuckle. It shows personality—a major win for your brand marketing efforts.

Check out our top five brand marketing examples for more tips on crafting a fan-worthy social presence. Find out what other companies are doing to set themselves apart from the competition and use that to inspire your strategy.

The post Social media memes: The best of 2022 appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/yCeMxHi
via IFTTT

Overwhelmed at work? Here’s how to talk to your boss about burnout

Today, brands’ front doors are their social media profiles—and you, the social media managers, are the gatekeepers. That is not an easy job.

Building an impactful, holistic social presence takes time, research, creativity and constant innovation. On top of that, you’re inundated with unexpected crises, emotionally charged consumer messages and constant change in social media trends. And you can’t just sign off or take a social media detox when the work becomes overwhelming. This constant balancing act can lead to social media managers reaching their breaking point.

According to Sprout Social data, 40% of social pros say they experienced burnout recently.

What I am here to tell you is that battling social media burnout does not mean you are incapable of doing your job. It does mean you need to ask for help and learn how to tell your boss you’re overwhelmed. In this article, we’ll explore ways to have effective conversations about burnout with your boss, and we’ll provide specific prompts to help you get started.

How to discuss burnout with your boss: Don’t suffer in silence

Your boss likely has lots of things competing for their attention, so they may not be aware that you’re struggling unless you speak up. And while it may be intimidating to start the conversation, a lot of good can come from leveling with your supervisor and being honest about the challenges you face in your role.

An executive decision was made today. NOPEvember will also include a full social media detox. I have reached full burnout where everything is 2 seconds away from making me either upset, sad, or annoyed. I need a mental reset from everything. #nopevember #noworknovember

— Amanda | Cybersec Blogger + Tech Content Writer (@theglamtechie) October 22, 2022

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at work, talking to your boss about burnout will help you challenge assumptions about your role and responsibilities and bring any invisible expectations to light.

For instance, are you overscheduling yourself? Why do you feel the need to work to the point of burnout? Does your boss know that you’re working late every night? Do they actually expect you to be able to respond to messages immediately or is that an expectation you put on yourself? Uncover those answers so you can recalibrate if needed.

Most, if not all, managers have been through a period of burnout themselves. In that case, they’ll have empathy for your situation as well as advice to get you back on track.

Only 29% of social media marketers say they are most comfortable talking about burnout with a direct manager.

Having a vulnerable conversation is an opportunity to set new norms with your manager, like being transparent about your state of mind, feeling comfortable expressing blockers or even saying no when you don’t have the bandwidth.

Get the ball rolling

When you address burnout with your manager, you’ll need to get specific and provide context to help them understand what spurred on what you’re feeling. Here are a couple questions that can help you get to the root of the problem:

• What are your top priorities right now?
• What is holding you back from focusing on big picture projects?
• What is the most mentally draining aspect of your job?
• What tools or resources do you need to do your job more effectively?
• How do existing processes or management styles contribute to burnout?
• Is personal stress carrying over to work?

With an understanding of what challenge(s) you’re trying to solve, you can start the conversation with your boss more effectively. And prioritization will help you more easily juggle your tasks in the long run. 

When you’re ready to talk, it’s best to do it in person or via video call whenever possible, but getting it on your boss’s radar can start in writing with an email or Slack. Here are a few ways you can kick it off:

• I’ve been overwhelmed by the volume of messages I’ve been managing lately. Do you have time to chat about it this week?
• A lot of our recent projects have been really urgent. In our next one-on-one meeting, could we talk through top priorities?
• I’ve been putting out a lot of fires on social lately and it’s becoming unsustainable. Do you have time this week to chat about how we can get ahead of crises?

How to tell your boss you’re overwhelmed: Propose solutions and demonstrate your value

Approach your conversation with some solutions in mind. Think about what “better” will look like for you. Maybe that’s more time to focus on big picture projects, minimizing working after hours, new resources to manage your workload or more open communication between you and your manager.

You’re not going to fix burnout in a single conversation, so start with a realistic and specific goal for your meeting. It will vary for each individual but here are a few suggestions:

• Align on priorities and expectations
• Implement a new or different process
• Determine where you need more support and identify teammates or external resources, like a temp or contractor
• Develop or reorganize timelines
• Communicate roadblocks

Remember, the focus of your conversation should be on the impact your burnout has on not only you, but your team and business. You want to have a productive conversation, not a vent session. This is more likely to happen when you can show how burnout directly impacts your productivity, focus at work, the rest of your team and overall marketing goals.

For example, you might say, “I’ve been unable to contribute to the business from a strategy perspective because I’ve been focused on execution and responding to inbound messages. If I had more time to hone in on our social data, I could bring really beneficial insights to the rest of the organization.” Showcasing how much more impact you could have on top line goals will inevitably pique your boss’s interest and make them invested in your recovery from burnout.

While you should have an idea of what might fix the problems at hand, the onus is not solely on you. Your supervisor can and should help solidify the proposed solutions. At the end of your conversation, reiterate your plan of action to your manager and clarify any remaining confusion or concerns.

Follow through and follow up

Once you learn how to discuss burnout with your boss and enact your agreed-upon plan, be patient with yourself. Immediate relief is not guaranteed. When you feel like you’ve had enough time to make an assessment of how things are going, set aside time to reflect. What’s changed since you spoke with your boss? What is working? What is not?

If you’re still struggling after some time has passed and the solutions you came up with aren’t providing relief, don’t get down on yourself, clam up or accept defeat. You’ve already taken that first step—make it a point to follow up with your manager, continue the conversation and build off what was discussed initially. Together, you can decide how to tweak your original plan of action if it hasn’t been effective.

Lastly, follow up even if things are working! Your boss will want to know that you’re feeling more productive, supported and revitalized.

Get the support you deserve

Burnout is very real and pervasive in the social media marketing community. Restoring balance in your work life might feel like a big to-do when you’re burnt out, but you don’t need to go it alone. Communicating your struggles to your boss is brave, bold and the best way to get back on track.

@henrisomad

#ad Don’t suffer in silence. Check out @betterhelp today. #betterhelppartner

♬ original sound – Henri Somadjagbi

If you’re having these conversations and things aren’t getting better, your boss isn’t as receptive as you’d hoped, you don’t feel psychologically safe at work or you’re in need of more mental health support, here are a few resources that may help:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• Crisis Text Line
• Talkspace
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• BetterHelp

If managing multiple social media accounts is contributing to your burnout, we think Sprout can help. Sprout can help alleviate some stress by streamlining your processes and improving efficiency so you can empower your social teams.

The post Overwhelmed at work? Here’s how to talk to your boss about burnout appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/Qr1Z5eO
via IFTTT

2023 is Going to be Bad for Marketing, But There’s Hope

If you just look at the data, it paints a very grim future for marketing… at least in the short run.

For example, we may go into a global recession as the Federal Reserve continually increases interest rates and it has caused businesses to cut back.

Especially on the advertising front.

Just look at the recent earnings calls from advertising giants. Alphabet only slightly increased advertising revenue in total, although YouTube decreased by roughly 2%.

They are also seeing massive pullbacks in some large industries. For example, there has been a pullback in crypto, mortgage, insurance, and even gaming ad spend.

And it’s even worse for Meta. Their average revenue per user has dropped to $9.41 versus $9.83.

They also stated that their Q4 revenue, which mainly comes from advertising, is lower than most predicted with a range of $30 to $32.5 billion.

Snap had a similar story to the other online ad platforms, while Pinterest grew 8% a year which was more than analysts expected.

Nonetheless, no matter what platform you look at, it’s safe to say that the advertising industry is seeing a slowdown.

Now let’s dive into the obvious bad news, and then we will get into the silver lining and how you should adapt. Because there is hope and you can still do well in this market.

Bad news

The marketing industry is going in a downward direction fast. I’m no economist, but most of it is related to external factors none of us can control… such as rising interest rates, supply chain issues, increases in oil and energy prices, issues with real estate across the world, and worst of all, war.

And when you have the S&P 500 down 18.67% it means companies have lost a lot of money… and I mean a lot.

Just think of it this way, the companies in the S&P 500 have a market capitalization of 30.12 trillion dollars.

In December of 2021, the S&P 500 had a market capitalization of 40.36 trillion dollars. That’s roughly a 10 trillion dollar loss.

To put it in perspective, if Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft didn’t exist that would only be 6.8 trillion dollars (based on today’s stock price).

When the market goes down, the value of which companies are worth goes down, which means companies cut back on spending. Marketing happens to be the first thing that gets cut in a bad economy.

And when the value of companies goes down, a lot of people’s net worth goes down. Just in America alone, 43% of the population owns stocks.

So, when people’s net worth goes down, eventually they start spending less. It’s already started to slow too… when you look at data from the first half of this year (inflation-adjusted) spending increased by 1.5% compared to 12% last year.

But what about marketing?

Here’s what’s interesting…

Because our agency, NP Digital, works with companies of all sizes we see data from both small and medium businesses as well as enterprises.

Plus we have offices and employees throughout the world such as in Canada, Brazil, Germany, India, Australia, etc… because we work with companies in multiple regions and help them with their global and local marketing campaigns.

That in combination with working closely with some of the big advertising platforms and having tools like Ubersuggest that tracks millions of domains we really see a lot of data and trends.

Here are the 3 main trends we are seeing (keep in mind the data below is from what we can see and track, as we don’t have data on the whole web or even a large fraction of it):

Trend #1: Ad costs are decreasing

Overall, the global costs for ads have been going down by 4%. Some industries like real estate have gone down much more, but with other industries like B2B SaaS, we haven’t seen much of a change with our clients as they optimize for lifetime value.

A lot of this is because businesses are cutting back on their spending in addition to many sectors such as real estate not having the same demand that they had a year ago.

Trend #2: Buyers aren’t converting at the same rate

We aren’t seeing conversion rates as high as they used to be. We’ve seen a drop of 7.13%.

Keep in mind that different websites have different conversion goals. Such as one website may focus on leads while another may focus on a signup or another may focus on a purchase.

Conversion rates are also affected by many other factors such as companies increasing prices due to inflation costs, shipping costs, and supply chain delays.

Or conversion rates being lower because some people aren’t spending as much because they may have lost their job.

Trend #3: Companies are fearful of the unknown

We are seeing some companies pulling back on their total marketing budget because they are afraid of what lies ahead.

But we are also seeing companies shift their budget to digital marketing because it is easier to track than let’s say traditional TV or radio advertising.

Now we don’t manage traditional budgets for our clients, but we handle the digital side. In a good or a bad economy, companies tend to spend on digital marketing (things like SEO, paid ads, email marketing, social media, etc) as long as it is profitable.

The silver lining in marketing

As I mentioned earlier, we see a lot of data.

There’s a pattern that we have seen with the companies that have been growing this year (the ones we work with at least).

And to be clear, when I say growing, I mean companies that are generating more revenue and profit.

These companies are also taking advantage of the current economic climate to double down on their whole business, not just marketing, to gain more market share.

So, what are these growing companies doing in this economy?

• Conversion optimization – 83% of them have doubled down on conversion rate optimization. If you can get more of your visitors to convert into customers through copy, images, or products you can generate more sales. A great example of this is Legion which will grow around 40% this year mainly due to conversion rate optimization, while a lot of their D2C competitors are flat or declining.
• Influencer marketing – 49% have either doubled down on their influencer marketing budgets or started influencer marketing. Rates for influencer marketing have gone down. They can convert well too if you focus on micro-influencers that have your target audience. They tend to be both cheaper and generate more revenue. You just need thousands of them to really build scale (not hundreds).
• SEO – SEO is a long-term play, but it provides a massive ROI. Only 2% of the companies we work with that have grown this year have slowed down on their SEO efforts. 98% of them continued their current budgets or increased them when it comes to SEO.
• Global expansion – an easy way to generate more revenue is to add new regions to sell your products and services in. 19% of the winning companies we work with have expanded into new regions. This creates more revenue generation opportunities, and you’ll find that marketing is much cheaper in most regions compared to the U.S. or U.K. Sure you won’t generate as much revenue, but the ROI tends to be higher from what we are seeing.
• Email marketing – it’s rare that we work with a company that isn’t collecting emails or already doing email marketing. But what’s funny is companies assume that if you just send out promotional emails every once in a while, or a few educational ones… that’s considered email marketing. Sadly there is much more to it. For example, segmenting your lists and sending different campaigns to different people. Or optimizing your open and click rates. 77% of the companies we work with that grew this year doubled down on email marketing and fine-tuned their campaigns.
• Omnichannel marketing – there is multi-channel marketing and there is omnichannel marketing. 100% of the companies we worked with that grew focused on omnichannel marketing and continually expanded. What I mean by this is when a company uses omnichannel marketing, the channels work together and they are also using learnings from each channel to maximize others. Versus multi-channel marketing where each channel just sits in a silo. TikTok has been massive for ecommerce… and channels like Snap, Pinterest, Reddit, Bing or even Quora that people don’t really talk about have been effective too.

Conclusion

Just because the economy isn’t where you want it to be, it doesn’t mean you can’t grow.

And if you really have headwinds ahead of you such as the mortgage industry, you can still make a lot of changes that will put the company in a much better place when the economy starts to recover.

In other words, start thinking outside the box. Don’t focus all of your energy on the news… sure it’s smart for you to stay up to date with what is happening, but the majority of your time should be spent on solutions and new ways to grow.

If you want my team to help with this, just check out my ad agency NP Digital.

So, what are you seeing in this economy?

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/w0xZ7FW
via IFTTT

Brand Perception: What is it & How Do We Measure it

Wondering why perception is so important in marketing? This quote sums it up nicely: “Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It’s certainty.” – Stephen Colbert.

You see, it doesn’t matter how good your product/service is, the value it offers, or the quality you provide. If consumers don’t perceive your brand the way you want them to, your business will struggle with loyalty and getting new customers.

Today, I’m covering brand perception in detail. What is it, and why does it matter? How do you measure it? Keep reading to find out more.

What Is Brand Perception?

In marketing, brand perception is how consumers see and feel about a company or product. It’s how customers interpret and react to messages, experiences, and interactions with a brand.

Obvious things like marketing, word-of-mouth, and customer service contribute to your brand perception, and less obvious areas like colors can also influence how customers perceive you. (I’ve written an article if you want to know the best colors for online conversions).

Brand Perception vs. Brand Equity

While both concepts are essential to businesses, they serve different purposes. As you know, brand perception helps you understand how customers see your company; in contrast, brand equity allows you to quantify the value of your business. It consists of multiple factors, like:

• Brand loyalty
• Name recognition
• Visibility

Essentially, brand equity is the difference between what a customer would pay for a generic product and what they would pay for the same product from a specific brand.

There are several ways to build equity in a brand. One is by offering high-quality products or services that customers can rely on. Another is positive customer experiences that leave people feeling good about the brand.

Creating an emotional connection with consumers can also help build equity, as people with a positive association with a brand are more likely to be loyal.

Why Do You Need Strong Brand Perception?

A brand isn’t merely a name or logo. It’s also the perception that consumers have of a company or product, and that idea can make or break a business.

Think about it – would you buy a product from a company you don’t trust? Or one whose values don’t align with your own?

Probably not.

That’s why brand perception is so important. It’s the difference between customers choosing your company over your competitors.

In addition, a strong brand perception:

• Helps build trust with your audience. We mentioned earlier how important trust is, and how it makes people more likely to do business with you.
• Lets you stand out from the competition. In a crowded marketplace, it’s important to have a unique and recognizable brand that people can easily identify and remember.
• Can lead to higher profits. Customers pay more for products and services from brands they know and trust; when you have a loyal customer base, they keep coming back, leading to even higher long-term profits.

If consumers perceive your business positively, it can put it on the map, and if you’re already established, a good impression can grow your brand exponentially.

Let’s use Apple as an example.

Although it’s had its ups and downs, customers’ brand perception of Apple is largely positive. Additionally, it has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72. The NPS measures customer experience and potential business growth by using a simple one-ten scale:

Why the love for Apple? Well, it:

• doesn’t just sell tech products. It sells experiences and products that customers love.
• offers amazing products that millions of us want to own.
• provides exceptional customer service by offering full support so you can get the best out of your products.

All these factors give buyers confidence and, you’ve guessed it, give Apple a great brand perception.

On the other hand, what about Meta (formerly Facebook)? According to branding expert Rebecca Biestman, Facebook can’t repair its brand perception simply by changing its name.

Scandals like Cambridge Analytica significantly wounded the company’s reputation, and its user base is set to decline for the first time ever; although there are multiple factors behind Facebook’s falling user numbers, brand perception is among them.

Now that you see how consumers’ brand perception can influence your business’s fortunes, let’s discuss how you measure it.

How Do You Measure Brand Perception?

Fortunately, measuring brand perception is not as complicated as you may think. Below are some of the easiest ways to understand how buyers and prospects view you.

Customer Outreach

Email lists, online review platforms, and social media make reaching out to your customers easier than ever. Want to know what your buyers think of your product or service? Or how to make them better? Send them a survey and ask them what you could do to improve.

Brand Perception Surveys

If you’re a larger company with a decent budget, consider brand perception surveys or focus groups.

For more general answers on what your buyers value, you could ask them things like:

• How important is it for you that a brand aligns with your personal values?
• How much does a brand’s reputation affect your decision to purchase its products or services?
• How much does customer service influence your perception of our brand?

These questions can give you a better idea of what customers look for in a business and provide valuable and actionable feedback. For instance, if you believe you provide great customer service but your customers believe you could be more responsive, you can introduce measures to improve response times.

Then you might ask them questions like this:

• Does our brand make you feel more confident or stylish? Explain why.
• To what extent do you feel like you are a part of the brand’s community or “tribe”?
• Would you recommend our brand to your friends or family?
• Have you ever been disappointed by your experience with our brand? Why?
• What emotions do you associate with our brand?
• Describe our brand in three words.
• What are your favorite products/services and why?

Of course, the type of questions you ask depends on what you want to achieve. Here are some tips for creating a brand perception survey:

1. Decide what you want to measure. Do you want to know how customers feel about your brand overall? Or are you looking for feedback on specific products or services? Determine what you want to learn from the survey to create suitable questions.

2. Keep the questions focused. Too many questions can overwhelm respondents and make it difficult to get useful data. Stick to around 10-15 questions that are relevant to your goals for the survey.

3. Make sure the questions are clear and easy to understand. Use simple language and avoid jargon.

4. Ask open-ended questions to get detailed answers rather than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses.

Use Social Media

Yes, you can spend your time looking through your Twitter feeds and relevant tags, but you may find automating the task with social listening tools more efficient.

Social listening tools can track and measure brand perception across social media channels. By analyzing online conversations, businesses can get insights into how customers perceive your brand, what customers are saying, and what areas need improvement.

Many different social listening tools are available, each with unique features and benefits. Some of the most popular include Hootsuite Insights, Brandwatch, and Talkwalker.

Brand Audits

A brand audit is a detailed analysis of how customers and other stakeholders perceive a company’s brand, allowing businesses to identify areas where the brand is strong and where it needs improvement.

An audit usually involves:

• Conducting surveys and focus groups with customers and other stakeholders.
• Analyzing media coverage, social media activity, and other data sources.

You can then use this information to create a detailed report to help you understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses.

Brand audits can be important for businesses looking to improve their brand perception. By understanding how customers and others perceive the company, businesses can make changes to improve their image.

In addition, brand audits help you understand:

• Consumer ratings of your brand and why your buyers/prospects view you that way.
• How you compare with your top competitors.
• How your customers would describe your brand; this helps you understand if your messaging is right.
• Your brand trajectory or where your customers see your business going.

Finally, check online review sites to see what your buyers are saying about their experience and address any shortcomings you discover.

Best Practices For Improving Brand Perception

There are some best practices every business can introduce to enhance its brand reputation. Here are some of them.

First, start with the basics. Ensure you deliver high-quality products and services and always exceed/manage customer expectations.

Next, use effective marketing to improve brand perception by communicating the right message/image about your company to the right audience. You can do this by using customer avatars or buyer personas to understand your ideal customers and the type of content that most likely resonates with them.

Then, focus on the customer journey. Complete customer journey mapping to see the purchasing process from your customer’s perspective. Doing this helps ensure each interaction along the customer journey leaves a positive impression.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

I’ve already discussed social listening, but responding to what your consumers say is every bit as vital. It doesn’t matter if a buyer’s experience is positive or negative; they’re only too happy to share their views on social media. While you can’t do much about this, you can at least ensure you’re fast to respond and offer your customer a positive outcome.

Giving swift responses and addressing issues is more likely to improve your brand perception and get you noticed by potential buyers.

Don’t Underdeliver

Does your product do what it says on the label? Making bold claims in your advertising that you can’t deliver is guaranteed to underwhelm and frustrate your customers.

However, don’t just focus on your product descriptions, features, and benefits. Check your images, too. For instance, does your imaging suggest your product comes with accessories when it doesn’t?

Take Feedback On Board

You’ll never perceive your product or service the same way as your customers. Your buyers and prospects can often give you insights and suggestions you’ve never even dreamed of.

Whether it comes from social media, surveys, reviews, or niche-related forums, understanding your customer’s pain points helps you develop and refine products/services to meet their needs.

Train Your Staff

Training your staff ensures they feel empowered to answer consumer/leads questions accurately. When your staff are knowledgeable, it inspires confidence among buyers and enhances your brand perception.

Examples of Brand Perception Success

Changing times and consumer demand often mean companies must reposition themselves if they want to influence customers’ views.

Let’s look at two examples of brand perception.

Zoom

At first glance, Zoom might look like an overnight success, but that’s not the case. Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011. It had a public launch in 2013, with a mission of ‘making video communications frictionless and secure’.

However, it wasn’t until 2020 that it became more mainstream. As its popularity soared, the brand perception changed. ‘Zoom fatigue’ became a thing. Some employees spending lengthy periods on the app complained of exhaustion from the extra cognitive demands of video conferencing, irritability, and muscle tension.

Then, later, Zoom’s growth started to flatline.

Zoom’s answer to this problem? It repositioned itself to change users’ brand perception.

It launched a ‘How the World Connects’ campaign and expanded away from video with the Zoom phone. Online, the company stressed its highly successful track record, highlighting how half a million businesses use Zoom, including:

• 70 percent of the Fortune 100
• Over half of the Fortune 500
• 85 percent of the Forbes Cloud 100, the world’s top private cloud companies

That’s before you get to the ton of top finance, healthcare, and educational facilities that use Zoom and how the app helps them. For example, Zoom provides secure communications for hybrid working and allows better collaboration between teams. It sounds like a real success story, doesn’t it? And perhaps one you want to be part of.

Chipotle

Here’s a great example of how marketing can change brand perception.

Think of Chipotle, and the first thing that comes to mind is fast food. However, the company wanted to win new customers for its ‘Lifestyle Bowls Range’ for those following vegetarian, vegan, and keto diets.

To achieve this, Chipotle needed to change its brand perception and reposition itself as a healthier alternative. By working with a marketing agency, Chipotle highlighted the use of its natural, fresh ingredients in its made-to-order takeaway meals.

The agency:

• Divided potential consumers into different tribes like ‘Fitness Fanatics’ and ‘US Health & Nutrition’.
• Used the insights gathered from the different tribes to reach these audiences with targeted traffic and awareness campaigns.
• Applied geo-targeting to attract customers to new restaurants.

The results were impressive by anyone’s standards, leading to 10.7 million impressions and potentially 2.5 million new customers. In addition, click-through rates (CTRs) exceed standard benchmarks, averaging 1.24 percent.

This case study highlights the importance of:

• Tailoring your message to your target audience and mindset segmentation.
• Using bespoke segmentation analysis to create hyper-relevant and audience-centered campaigns instead of relying on generic advertising.
• Analyzing your audience to discover new target markets and ensure your new brand voice stands out.

If you want to change your brand perception or move into new market sectors, taking these measures can supercharge the impact of your advertising campaigns.

FAQs

What is an Example of Brand Perception?

Apple has an excellent brand perception, built on having high-quality products that are easy to use. Its positive brand perception has helped Apple become one of the most successful companies in the world.

How Do You Create a Brand Perception?

Brand perception starts with knowing your audience and understanding what they want and need. From there, you can create messaging and visuals that resonate with them.

How Do You Measure Brand Perception?

You can measure brand perception through audits, surveys, social listening, and reading reviews.

What Factors Influence Brand Perception?

Numerous factors influence brand perception, like your marketing, word of mouth, customer service, and color scheme.

What Is The Importance of Brand Perception?

Brand perception is essential to your business. The better consumers perceive your products/service, the more loyal your customers are likely to be, and you can charge a premium for your products.

Why Is Perception Important in Marketing?

Perception is important in marketing because it helps you understand how customers see your brand. This understanding is valuable when deciding how to position your brand and what messages to communicate to your target audience.

What Is the Difference Between Brand Perception and Brand Equity?

Brand equity is the value of a brand based on customer perceptions and associations. Brand perception is how customers perceive a brand in the present moment.

Conclusion

Let’s return to my original point: perception is everything. It doesn’t matter if the image customers have of your business is accurate or not; it only matters what their perceptions are.

The truth is that companies sometimes perceive themselves differently than their customers or prospects, which can make it difficult to attract new buyers.

Poor brand perception can hamper growth, limit customer loyalty, and ultimately means you don’t reach your core audience.

However, businesses can make better decisions about their marketing efforts by understanding brand perception and how to measure it. Additionally, companies can identify trends and adjust accordingly by tracking brand perception over time.

What brand perception are you trying to craft for your business?

from Neil Patel https://ift.tt/O5hWAyQ
via IFTTT