9 Inspirational Ideas for Your Next Instagram Photo Contest

Beyond Sales: The Different Types of Conversions, Why They Matter, and How to Get More Of Them

When you think of “a conversion”, what goal comes to mind? For most of us, a sale is the ultimate goal, so it’s no surprise that sales and conversions are inextricably linked to each other. But even though a sale might be the end goal, it’s almost never the first thing a new potential customer does when they visit your site.

Yet they’re still converting, even when a sale doesn’t take place. Paying more attention to these types of conversions can not only help you win over more customers in the long run, but also deliver valuable insights that you can glean from your existing data — insights you may never have considered when focusing solely on sales. Let’s take a closer look.

Introducing the Prospect to Your Solution

The first step in any good funnel is to introduce prospects to your solution. Oftentimes brand awareness campaigns like these are done via pay-per-click solutions like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads. In the case of Adwords, you have tight integration with Google Analytics, so you can easily see which ads worked, which ads didn’t, and what kind of actions the user took on your page.

But these platforms really only scratch the surface of the conversion potential that’s happening behind the scenes. To really dig deep and get the gold nuggets of impactful data that makes a real difference in your campaigns, you need a robust analytics solution. Kissmetrics is one such tool that allows you to not only see things that you can also find in Google Analytics (like “How many people clicked this ad” and “how long did they stay on site afterwards?”) but also answer more meaningful, conversion-propelling questions, like “How many new users did we gain as a result of this campaign?” “When did users go from our onboarding email funnel to becoming full-fledged customers?” “Which email encouraged them to do so?”

If you’re truly data driven, you can even have the system crunch the numbers and figure out the average cost to acquire people who downloaded your white paper, for example. Either those leads will pay off, or you’ll find that you need to revisit your free offer to create something of greater value.

These are the kinds of insights you simply don’t get by looking at pure sales-focused conversion data.

Moving the Conversation from Web to Email

Getting the prospect’s email takes the conversation from web to email, and even though it’s a small win, it’s still a type of conversion nonetheless. The visitor is saying, in essence, “I’m interested in what you have to offer, and would like to know more.”

All too often, marketers seize upon this opportunity to blast users with all kinds of information — which can be overwhelming and disconcerting, and lead to them regretting their choice and unsubscribing. This is the time where it pays to look closer at the data in your email automation program. Most platforms will give you simple data such as clickthroughs and open rates – but again, we want to go deeper.

Did you know? Kissmetrics Campaigns is a behavior-based email marketing tool. Using our analytics, customers identify segments of their user base that need a little nudge – to push them to conversion, using a feature, or to proceeding to checkout. They use Campaigns to compose and send these targeted emails, and track the results in Kissmetrics. Learn more about Kissmetrics Campaigns.

For example, are you tagging users so that you can follow where they go (and how long they stay) after they click an email link? What criteria do you have in place to identify and separate the eager, ready-to-act prospects from the freebie “tire kickers”? And what are you doing to warm up the tire-kickers into becoming ready-to-act prospects?

Fortunately, you can use a tool like Kissmetrics Campaigns to not only automate your email, but provide behavior-based segmentation so that you can know, with far greater precision, who’s taking the actions you want them to take, and who needs a bit more hand-holding?

Behavior-based marketing is more than just a buzzword, and it goes well beyond the traditional $Firstname “personalization” that many email marketing platforms offer. Want to segment emails based on whether or not a user opened or clicked through a previous email campaign? With Campaigns, you can, leading to a whole new level of one-on-one engagement with your prospects.

Getting Your CRM Software to Do the Heavy Lifting

When customer data goes into the CRM (customer relationship management) program, oftentimes the ball gets dropped. No matter which platform you use, your CRM system and marketing automation system need to work together harmoniously in order to output actionable data that delivers a return on investment — and the real sales numbers you crave.

While Kissmetrics isn’t a CRM platform specifically, it does mesh nicely with existing services that specialize in lead generation and customer tracking, including:

• Salesforce
• Marketo
• CallRail
• Call Tracking Metrics
• Tapstream
• And many more (see the full list here)

Details on how to integrate Kissmetrics with your existing shopping cart, SaaS or CRM can be found at the list link above, and once you follow this simple process a wealth of data will open up to you, effortlessly blending marketing and sales information so that you get detailed snapshots of user behavior from the start of the funnel to the end.

Here, you’ll be able to see which customers took which actions, and who needs a bit more nurturing to take that all-important next step.

Seeing the Big Picture (And the Little Details) – What Makes a Conversion a Conversion?

Focusing solely on sales as conversions can be disheartening at best, since very few people will ultimately make it through your funnel even on the best of days. It can be discouraging to focus on such a small percentage when instead, you should be looking for lots of little wins.

Bounce rate on your lead magnet page is lower as a result of more targeted ads? That’s a win.

FAQ pages have an unusually high time on page? People are getting their questions answered. That’s a win.

Downloads of a new white paper resulting in more high end, enterprise-level customers? That’s a win.

To be sure, right now a lot of the information out there can seem scattered and uncoordinated. Marketers still have a great deal of data sifting and filtering to do. But new advances in both tools and technology are helping not only comb through the data, but deliver meaningful, relevant information which in turn helps entire companies work together as a cohesive unit – and focus on conversions beyond the sale.

Are you focusing solely on sales when tracking conversions? Or are you looking at other types of “little wins” as well? How is this approach working for you? Share your success stories and triumphs with us in the comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog http://ift.tt/2uUarg5
via IFTTT

The Emoji Movie inserts itself into Handmaid's Tale because why, god, why

None of us needed further convincing that The Emoji Movie was irrelevant Hollywood #WhatsHotWithTheKids bullshit.

But, like the smartphone smiley face movie nobody wanted, the esteemed folks running its social media channels gave us more reasons anyway. Over the weekend, amidst ICYMI photos of the film's premiere, its official Twitter account published a photoshopped emoji x Handmaid's Tale mashup.

Despite the fact that the tweet was taken down at around 4:30 p.m. PST Monday (after, y'know, being up for three goddamn days), none of us can unsee this tone deaf post, with copy that read: Blessed Be The Emoji. Read more...

More about Twitter, Hulu, Social Media, Patrick Stewart, and The Emoji Movie

from Social Media http://ift.tt/2tGHuEC
via IFTTT

Philippine president admits he used an army of social media trolls while campaigning

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has admitted he paid an army of social media trolls to defend him while he was on the campaign trail last year.

The outspoken and at times controversial politician was defending himself after a University of Oxford study was published, finding that Duterte uses both automated and human trolls on social media.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Duterte said: "I spent 10 million [pesos] ($198,000)? Me? Maybe in the election...They were all during the campaign."

He was refuting accusations that he continued to deploy a social media army, inadvertently admitting that he relied on the strategy in his 2016 presidential campaign. Read more...

More about Politics, Social Media, Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, and Social Media Campaign

from Social Media http://ift.tt/2tVGI1T
via IFTTT

A Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits

How to Track Conversions in Google Analytics

Visits and pageviews are nice.

But conversions are all that matter at the end of the day.

The trouble, of course, is that these don’t come ‘preloaded’ with each new analytics account. And you can’t get access to historical, legacy data, either.

That means when you let days (or weeks) go by without setting up conversion goals properly, you’re going to lose all of that information forever. Key data points that could have helped you to quickly spot new revenue-boosting opportunities or money-saving costs to cut.

Fortunately, setting up goal tracking only takes a few minutes if you know what you’re doing.

Here’s a complete guide to start tracking conversions inside Google Analytics.

How Google Analytics Conversion Tracking Works

After logging into your Google Analytics account, look at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar menu for “Admin.”

Clicking that will bring you to a three-column page where different options are sorted by “Account”, “Property”, and “View.” Look on the far right (under “View”) for the Goals option.

Here’s where you’ll select a new Goal to create.

You can get started with one of their pre-configured ‘templates’ that are split up into four different categories: Three ‘hard’ ones (Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry) and a single ‘soft’ one (Engagement).

Let’s say you run an ecommerce site selling meal delivery services. Amanda visits your website, watches a video, and then signs up for a free trial. In that order.

We tend to fixate on ‘macro’, hard conversions like that new free trial goal completion. However, in this scenario, an assist should go on the scoreboard for that ‘micro’ conversion, or soft video view, too.

So let’s create different goals for each.

First up, let’s track that video view by selecting the Engagement Goal. Here’s what step two will look like:

Engagement-based goals like video views will be tracked as a new Event. Click “Continue” and your new Event options will pop up:

Here, you’ll need to add labels to describe what this Event is tracking. There are three categories that start big and get smaller as you go.

Or, if you’re a grammar nerd, these can broken down into noun, verb, adjective:

• Category is the most general term for what you’re tracking. The noun: Outbound link. Video. File.
• Action is the verb. What are visitors doing? Download. Click. Submit. Play. Share.
• Label is the adjective – the small details of what you want to capture. Perhaps it’s specific poll answers. Or if it’s video playbacks you’re tracking, this is where you note the video title.

Before finishing, you’ll also typically want to select “Yes” so that Event Values are passed onto Goal values, too. That way you can track this information back later to see where these video views originated (i.e. the channel, source/medium, marketing campaign, etc.).

(Note: Keep in mind that adding Event tracking will require a new line of code on your site. If you use WordPress, there are a couple plugins that make this really easy. Or you can use Google Tag Manager.)

Now that we’ve got the video view setup, we can move on to creating a Goal for our ‘macro’ conversion. Head back to the beginning and this time, select “Acquisition.”

Your Goal type for this one will be a Destination goal, where you’ll simply drop in the URL for the Thank You or confirmation page someone lands on after submitting their information.

Here’s how to customize that option in the last step.

First, drop in the URL path for the Thank You page (minus your root domain). So: “http://ift.tt/2uQf8re” should be simply: “/thanks”:

Then you have two optional values underneath:

• Value: A simple dollar amount based on the value of this new sign up. If it’s technically free still, you can at also use a placeholder like a dollar per subscriber or cost per lead (if appropriate).
• Funnel: If you want to specify that a conversion Goal is ONLY tracked when someone hits every single page you specify in sequence.

Last but not least, click that little Verify link on the bottom prior to saving in order to test and see if you’ve set up the Goal correctly. (For example, if this conversion has already existed, you should see some kind of percentage conversion rate value.)

Once you’ve got these two different Goal types setup, you can go back to the main Reporting area of Google Analytics to view your results.

(Note: Unfortunately, Google Analytics won’t provide you with historical data that may have already happened in the past. You’ll only be able to view these new conversions going forward.)

In the left-hand sidebar menu, click on Conversions > Goals > Overview to start.

BAM! In a few days, you should, you’ll hopefully see a nice little graph that looks something like this:

(There are other places in Google Analytics to view goal conversions, but this is the most straightforward.)

And that’s pretty much it! Easy, right?!

Except for one thing:

Your work is just beginning. Because the only reason to track anything in the first place is so that you can DO something with the information.

Here are a few examples you can start pulling from now that you have conversion tracking setup.

How to #MakeMarketingGreatAgain with Google Analytics Conversion Tracking

Looking at total conversions is fine. Tracking those over time is a tiny bit better. The conversion rate itself is somewhat helpful.

But these are all just barely scratching the surface.

✅ Pinpoint ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ Opportunities.

The ‘mobile friendly’ moniker is somewhat misleading.

True, you could have a website that’s mobile friendly (technically speaking). It passes the smell test (or at least some online test).

But is it really, truly mobile friendly?

Because jamming an already-clunky user experience onto a smaller screen with limited processing power can be a recipe for disaster.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than by comparing your conversion rate across devices. Head on over to “Audience”, then “Mobile”, then “Overview”, and look for a huge drop off like the following:

There it is. The smoking gun. The golden, lost opportunity cost staring you in the face.

The good news is that you can at least see it now. And do something about it, like redesign these pages (or experiences) for mobile specifically, and then A/B test the result.

✅ Reverse-Engineer Conversion Paths.

Users flow through your site in different patterns.

For example, organic search traffic coming into a blog post will often view other blog posts. While PPC traffic will typically head straight to a landing page.

Image Source

At the end of the day, they all might convert. But the ‘path’ they take will usually follow a few well-worn patterns.

The first step is to simply identify these ‘conversion paths’ taking place on your site. Because then the second step is to optimize them by removing friction along each step, increasing the value prop on the landing page, etc.

Head over to the Conversions section, and look for “Reverse Goal Path.”

The first page on the far left will be your “Completion Location” page (which is typically just the Thank You page for a Destination goal we set up earlier). The next step to the right is the landing page that these people converted on. And the one before that (“Step – 2” on the far right) could be the initial entrance page that someone first visited your site (from a paid ad, etc.).

This report will highlight all of these pre-existing patterns. So you can see which ‘paths’ are already the most popular (and therefore, which ones you should focus on improving first).

✅ Analyze Converters vs. Non-Converters.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of website visitors will NOT convert.

That’s just the cold, hard reality we face.

The other ~97-99% of visitors are just browsing, looking, viewing, learning, and consuming.

BUT, comparing their actions against those who DID convert can be illuminating. For example, it can show you which specific ‘micro’ conversions (remember those?) contribute most to eventually persuading someone to give you a shot.

Let’s return to our original example. Amanda converted for a free trial. Bob did not.

Of course there could be many, many reasons. But by comparing the differences between converters vs. non-converters can help us see how Events eventually lead to new conversions.

Simply go to “Segments” in your Audience Overview, select “Converters” and “Non-Converters.”

Amanda may have watched a video. She may have downloaded an eBook. While Bob did none of the above. Even though they both came from the same source originally (organic search).

Now you can drill down in almost every category to see how the site experience of Converters on your site differs from Non-Converters. You can hypothesize why those experiences might be different (based on different paths, micro conversions, etc.). And you can come up with new things to test to improve.

Conclusion

Google Analytics allows you to track conversions based on both ‘hard’ Goals and ‘soft’ engagement conversions.

At the end of the day, you need both. One eventually leads to the other. They’re like a literal Catch-22.

The trouble is that you have no idea how to improve either one until you start tracking them properly. That means manually going into Google Analytics to setup Destination Goals (like a new free trial) and Engagements Events (like video views).

It takes a few extra lines of code. A few minutes worth of work.

But the insights you’re able to glean after analyzing the data can help you transform a failing campaign into a successful one. And a Loss into a Profit on your P&L.

About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog http://ift.tt/2gWWE2w
via IFTTT

The Journey From Sprout Intern to Software Engineer

As I close out my first year as a full-time Software Engineer here at Sprout, I am reminded of one moment during my internship  last summer that will always stick with me. In my final week, I was called into a meeting where several senior engineers guided my fellow interns and me on how to interview elsewhere. Initially, I was certain they were ostensibly showing us the door. However, they had already spent an exorbitant amount of time and effort training us, making us feel the “Sprout Love”, and to top it off, presented each of us with a return offer. Needless to say, I was confused why they were encouraging and even instructing us to go off and explore our options.

One year in and I have realized that this gesture embodies what I’ve come to appreciate about the culture at Sprout–always be curious and always be growing. The way Sprout embraces learning and development for all employees is impressive, and by the end of my internship it made it difficult, dare I say impossible, for me to decline that return offer. And while I have explored other career options, knowing my team supports and encourages me in that journey, no matter what, actually makes it more enticing for me to stay at Sprout.

Fast-forward to the present and it’s been a pretty wild ride. Just two days into my full-time position and Sprout continued to deliver on its commitment to my growth as an engineer and leader, placing me in tech design meetings for our asset library feature, and within my first month, we released that feature to customers. Since then, I’ve helped build Instagram scheduling and Twitter video publishing, both of which were led in tandem by myself and another engineer who graduated with me last summer. It is hard to believe how much changes in a year. Nearly twelve months ago I was walking across the stage at Northwestern’s commencement ceremony and now I come to work everyday with the support and freedom to make lasting impacts on the team.

Looking back on my graduating class, I am struck by how many of my fellow engineers headed to the fabled Silicon Valley to start their careers. While I have no doubt that they are all finding similar fulfillment in their work and tackling exciting challenges every day, I think it’s worth mentioning that there are exciting companies everywhere you look. I could have easily justified the need to go somewhere else and find experiences at different companies. In fact, many of my teammates encouraged exploring those options. That said, I really couldn’t imagine starting anywhere else. The tech community in Chicago is thriving and I’m sincerely proud to be a part of it.

To those that are graduating soon. I’d say that wherever you go, there will likely be some brilliant engineers for you to work with and exciting challenges to solve if you seek them out. Just be sure that you’re investing your time into an organization that is similarly invested in you.

Interested in joining the Sprout team? Browse through our careers page to see our current openings.

This post The Journey From Sprout Intern to Software Engineer originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social http://ift.tt/2eE7Z6R
via IFTTT