How To Write A Good Tweet (15 Ways to Create Effective Tweets)
Twitter has 320 million current active users so it’s no wonder why it’s getting more and more difficult to be seen on Twitter. But done correctly, Twitter can still be a great source of traffic.
And as you know, if your Tweets aren’t driving traffic, then they’re not doing you or your business much good. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 15 ways to get your Tweets seen and clicked on by your followers.
1: Add Images
Did you know that tweets with images receive 18% more click-throughs, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets?
And you can create multiple images for each blog post, using attractive colors, centered headlines and interesting textures.
Studies show that few things in print or online media captures people’s attention faster than faces, so why not use them?
3: Use Your Own Face
Don’t forget to tweet your own face now and then, especially if you’re using a logo as your profile picture. You’ll increase the stopping power of your tweet as well as build more of a personal connection with your followers.
4: Use Brackets
This is a great subject line trick as well – include something such as an afterthought in brackets, like this:
“Love the shoes [too sexy!]”
5: Quote Someone
Twitter users love quotes. They can be funny, famous, timely and so forth. When you come across something inspiring or thoughtful, by all means share it. And if the quote is over 140 characters, feature the quote in an image.
To get your tweets shared, Jonah Berger, the author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, says to make them viral using any of the following:
Social Currency – how smart a user looks to others when they share your tweet
Triggers – top of mind content people are triggered to think about
Emotion – focus on feelings rather than function
Public – built to show, built to grow. Think of a brand that puts a red bottom on all of their shoes and you get the idea.
Practical Value – news you can use
Stories – tell stories people want to share
8: Add Emojis and Symbols
Non-text characters make your message stand out. If you’re using a smartphone, you’ll find the emojis right on your keyboard.
If you’re on a computer, you can download a Chrome extension or copy and paste Twitter symbols from a Twitter library such as this one. https://www.piliapp.com/twitter-symbols/
9: Ask Questions
Posing questions to your followers is an effective way to engage people. Be sure to follow up with everyone who answers you so they know you’re listening. And you can always highlight answers by retweeting them with your response, keeping them alive and inspiring even more interaction.
10: Use Polls
Twitter Polls are a great tool for attracting attention and engaging followers. Click the “Add poll” icon beneath the tweet box, add up to four questions, and choose how long you want your poll to run.
11: Thank Profusely and Often
When your fellow tweeters have promoted your content or even contributed to it, thank them. This makes you look like a really nice person, plus it’s great for building relationships.
12: Use @ to Get Specific Attention
If you want someone specific to see your tweet, mention them by including their username preceded by the @ symbol.
13: Use an Image to Grab Group Attention
If you want to get the attention of a group of people, include an image in your tweet. Then when Twitter prompts you with “Who’s in this photo?” you can tag the image with up to 10 users without affecting your character count.
14: Use Twitter Cards
Twitter cards let you include additional media types – such as images, videos, audio and download links – in your tweets. They’re not the easiest thing to use the first time, though, so you might want to follow along with Twitter’s CMS Integration Guide.
Tweets go by so fast, many of your tweets will never be seen. That’s why you want to tweet about that new blog post of yours several times over the course of a few days.
This service lets you increase the reach of your content as you share free links. Here’s how it works:
First you add a branded badge with content within any link.
Let’s say you’re sharing content from Mashable – you simply add a branded badge to the link.
Next, you share your third party content to increase engagement. After all, a link from Mashable will often get more clicks than a link from your own website.
And by the way, this strategy doesn’t just work with Twitter – it works with Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and several other social media networks. Lastly, your re-shared links continue to carry your recommendations to new audiences, exposing them to your content. And you can track, measure and get instant insights on the performance of your third party content, too!
Make the very most of your Twitter time by using these little tricks to get your tweets noticed and shared.
Benefits Of Video Marketing Pt2 (5 Secrets Of Highly Lucrative Video Marketing)
As I said in my last post, you simply MUST be using video in your marketing because if you’re not using video yet, you’re losing customers, clients and revenue.
I think we can all agree that consumers love video. They watch video. They ENJOY video. They even enjoy video when the video is selling something, as long as the video still entertains and informs.
So how can you use more video in your business? And how can you make those videos perform as well as possible in getting your viewers to take action?
By the way, if you want to learn ALL about video marketing, you really need to look at Video Marketing Insider. It is the best course I have ever found encompassing all things related to video marketing, and the creator really supports his stuff and has already added more to the training as well as some exclusive software. Check it out here: warr.us/VMI
Here are five more tips to get you started in the right direction:
6: Optimize your videos for search in Google AND YouTube
Here are a few tips for doing just that:
If you can, host your video to your own domain first, before uploading it to sharing sites. This has the potential to get people to link back to your own domain, which will also help your overall SEO efforts.
Enable embedding on your video to increase the likelihood of receiving inbound links.
Add your videos to your sitemap to give Google information about your video. This gives Google useful metadata that can improve Google’s ability to include your video in search results. Here’s a handy page to tell you how https://developers.google.com/webmasters/videosearch/sitemaps
Use tags for the relevant keywords. Write full descriptions and add a unique title.
And remember this: If it has a box, Google needs you to fill it out in order to help you rank.
7: Educate your audience
Some of the best videos you’ll ever make, that your prospects and clients will love, are videos that teach your viewers something useful.
Whether it’s to get a result they want, show them how to best use your product, or provide useful tips, people enjoy short ‘how to’ videos that teach them what they want to know, when they want to know it.
Which of course means you need to be found when they are looking. To do that, go back to #6 and make sure your video shows up in the appropriate SEO searches.
8: Make the most of social proof from existing customers
Social proof is best done by your customers on your behalf. For example, you can ask customers to film themselves talking about how they use and love your product.
Case studies are an excellent way to showcase your product while teaching your audience how to achieve the result they desire.
Your customer might talk about their buying decision, what might have stopped them from buying, and why they went ahead and got the product.
Next they might talk about their results of using the product, what specific features they like, and the biggest benefits of using the product.
A good customer testimonial or case study can be worth an entire sales letter when it comes to converting new prospects into customers.
9: ALWAYS add a call to action!
Whatever kind of video you’re making, don’t forget to add a call to action at the end. It might be to visit your website, go to a landing page to grab a free report, check out a sales page or whatever.
Just remember that your videos should be 90-95% great content and just 5-10% sales.
10: Add a video to your landing pages
Video is incredibly powerful so any page that uses video well should convert better.
Naturally you’ll want to test this out, but odds are you’ll see a nice bump in your conversions on your landing page if you add a short video.
The video should quickly introduce yourself and let them know what they’re getting when they subscribe. Make it friendly and fun for the viewer and try to inject a little humor.
Most of all, give one very clear and immediate benefit of subscribing to your list and grabbing your free offer.
I know a marketer who never sells a thing on his videos. All he does is provide helpful tips, tell silly stories about his industry and act as a helpful friend to his viewers.
And his sales are through the roof. Why? Because people love him and trust him.
Video isn’t hard. What’s difficult sometimes is relaxing enough to simply be ourselves and lend a helping hand or tip to the viewer.
So, there are 5 more “secrets” to make your video marketing more profitable. Now you have 10 of these secrets to boost your video marketing efforts, so go out and get video marketing.
And don’t forget to check out Video Marketing Insider:
When I thought about writing this article, I started to compile a bunch of stats to show you how popular video marketing is becoming. And then I realized – the last thing you need are more stats about how video is taking over the internet.
The fact is, if you’re not using video yet, you’re losing customers, clients and revenue. Consumers love video. They watch video. They ENJOY video. They even enjoy video when the video is selling something, as long as the video still entertains and informs.
So how can you use more video in your business?
And how can you make those videos perform as well as possible in getting your viewers to take action?
By the way, if you want to learn ALL about video marketing, you really need to look at Video Marketing Insider. It is the best course I have ever found encompassing all things related to video marketing, and the creator really supports his stuff and has already added more to the training as well as some exclusive software. Check it out here: warr.us/VMI
And if you want to learn how to use the power of Camtasia to really make your videos pop then take a look at this video here (don’t worry, it is free! 🙂
Here are five tips to get you started in the right direction:
1: Make your video about the story, not just about the sale.
Anyone can slap up a sales video and put it on YouTube. “Buy my product!” But will it get views? Not likely.
Instead, tell stories and deliver value. Let’s say you’re selling a course on how to do marketing for chiropractic offices. It’s tempting to tell the viewer why your course rocks, why it’s exactly what they need, and how it’s only available for a limited time. But what if you make a series of short videos, with each video providing one powerful marketing tip just for chiropractors?
I guarantee those videos will be watched and shared among the chiropractic community. You’ll establish massive credibility. And of course, you can politely refer them to your website at the end of each video.
These videos won’t sell your course for you. But what they will do is make it far easier to get the sale.
Think of it as romancing the client…
First you take them out on a date or two or three…
And THEN you close the sale.
Your success rate will be much higher than if you try to close the sale while the two of you are still strangers.
2: Make the first 10 seconds the BEST 10 seconds ever
One stat says that 20% of viewers will click away from a video within the first 10 seconds. Now you’ve got to ask yourself – why would they do that? They came to watch something, yet they leave almost immediately.
There could be a few reasons:
Your video doesn’t appear to be what they expected. If they are coming from a link that says, “Free iPad!” and your video is about growing organic veggies, you’re going to lose them. Continuity is key here.
You have a long, boring, “Look at me!” intro. You’ve seen those intros where it’s 30 seconds of how great the company, video creator, brand or whatever is. The problem is, no one cares but the person who made the video. Lose the long intro.
You dilly dally around. Taking the first minute of the video to finish setting up your recording equipment is a major no-no.
You don’t start out with a bang. You want to get right to the meat of the subject by quickly introducing what’s happening and then making it happen.
Think about movies back in the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s – they all had long boring intros filled with lots of credits and no action.
Now think about todays’ movies – from the first moment there is action; something that captures your attention and makes you want to stay tuned to find out what’s happening, why it’s happening and what’s going to happen next.
When it comes to writing fiction, teachers often tell their students to lop off the first page or two, because they’re usually full of long, boring intro stuff to set up the first scene. But when you lop that off and start with the action, BOOM – the reader is captivated.
Videos are the same way. Start with the good stuff and let it just get better from there.
3: Lighten up!
Your video might be to inform and instruct, but that doesn’t mean you have to sound like a boring, stuffy college professor.
Find ways to inject fun and humor into your presentations. This doesn’t mean to inject knock-knock jokes that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Instead, find the humor in what you’re teaching or talking about. It’s always there, you just need to look for it.
Now I know that when you get in front of a camera if you’re like most people you get nervous. And when you get nervous, you might not be able to find the humor in anything, except perhaps your own nervousness.
Three things I can tell you – if you practice beforehand in front of a friend, you’ll be surprised at the funny things that come to mind. Go ahead and try your humor on your friend and listen to their feedback. They’ll tell you which one’s parts and which to leave out.
Second, when you’re filming, continue to think of the camera as your friend. You’re just having a friendly conversation, regardless of whether it’s you on camera or you’re using slides.
Third, have fun. If you’re having fun, then the viewer will likely have fun as well.
4: Be yourself; don’t strive for perfection!
No one really likes someone who is perfect, or even someone who comes across as perfect. That’s why it’s okay to make mistakes on camera.
If you are nervous or if you do something wrong, just acknowledge it and move on. For example, you drop something you were showing the viewer. Laugh, pick it up, make a joke about your nerves or your butterfingers or whatever, and move on.
It’s a funny thing when we admit to the audience that we’re human and we can laugh at our own foibles – the audience begins to like us more, and they root for us, too. I even know people who purposely make a mistake or do something clumsy, just so they can get the audience on their side.
It’s a truly effective technique when done right.
5: Tell embarrassing stories about yourself
As an extension of the last point, use yourself as an example of what not to do. Let’s say you’re teaching dating tips. You want to tell the viewers what not to do.
Instead of saying, “You should never, ever do this or that because it just annoys the other person,” say this:
“I was once on a date and I made the dumbest mistake possible. What happened was…”
And then go on to tell a story about yourself doing something stupid or wrong or whatever. Notice that now instead of lecturing the viewer, you are sharing a valuable story about how you goofed up.
This does a couple of things…
It teaches the viewer in a way they will remember, because people remember stories much better than lessons. And it’s yet another opportunity to show just how human you are and make the audience like you even more.
But what if you never made that mistake yourself? It’s up to you, but I see no harm in telling the story from your point of view anyway. Again, it’s a highly effective teaching method, and everyone loves somebody who can laugh at themselves. Just look at comedians – they are continually telling audiences about the stuff they’ve done that wasn’t too bright. And audiences love them for it.
So, there are 5 secrets to make your video marketing more profitable. I will do a follow-up with 5 more “secrets” so until then, go out and get video marketing.
And don’t forget to check out Video Marketing Insider:
Whether or not you created or curated the content for your website – YOUR #1 goal was to attract and retain readers. Getting and keeping readers is the name of the game! It doesn’t matter if you use your website to sell your own products and services, or if you sell affiliate products. It doesn’t even matter if you profit from advertisers like Google Adsense.
THE NAME OF THE TRAFFIC GAME IS… GAIN AND RETAIN!
All of the content you utilize will help you attract new readers – but without a retention strategy (even if your content is awesome) it will be difficult to get your readers to come back again and again. There is simply too many other distractions on the internet to build a following of loyal readers without implementing a proven readership retention strategy.
There are many proven readership retention strategies that you can choose from, which will prompt first time readers to come back to your website again and again.
I’d like to discuss one of those strategies in greater detail today…
The List:
Even before social media, bloggers and marketers learned to harness the relationship building power of “The List” to grow their audience and profits.
A simple “What’s New!” email from you sent out to a vast list of subscribers will boost the exposure of any new article on your website exponentially! You surely follow some of your own favorite topics – thanks to reminders sent via emails that are sent to your inbox.
Everyone does!
For example, I like to follow the progress of the “Solar Impulse” – the record-breaking solar powered airplane. I first learned about “Solar Impulse’s website” via a news article and was intrigued by the team’s solar powered flight endeavors. However, after not hearing anything about them for quite some time after they crossed the continental US I began to wonder what was happening to the team. HAD THEY CRASHED?
Worried, I did a quick Google Search, but I could not remember the name of the plane. Google search sent me in a million different directions – and it was only by chance that I discovered their website again. http://www.solarimpulse.com/
THAT EXACT SAME THING COULD HAPPEN TO A FAN OF YOUR WEBSITE! ONLY THEY MAY NEVER FIND YOUR WEBSITE AGAIN!
Thankfully, now I am signed-up to the Solar Impulse newsletter. Now, I can keep track of these aviation pioneers in my spare time by opening and clicking on their latest link at my leisure – from my inbox! I have revisited their website many times since then – all thanks to their email reminders!
YOU could encourage millions of fans to return to your website again and again, via email, as soon as you discover a strategy that collects the email addresses of first-time readers.
However, you may find that collecting email addresses from first-time readers – is no walk in the park! For example, I rarely give my email address to anyone because I don’t like getting spam any more than you do!
There has to be a very good reason for me to give away my email address. You probably feel the same way – and agree that most people do also.
That is why most successful websites will offer something special to potential subscribers (a bribe) just for signing up to their list. If you create the perfect bribe, you’ll have no problem attracting subscribers – and your list will grow like the weeds in my backyard!
What is the perfect bribe? It’s anything people believe is worth giving you, their personal email address to get! It could be…
An Informational eBook or Report
A Newsletter
A Coupon Code
Instant Access To Private Content
A Secret Link, etc. Many things can make for the perfect bribe!
However, you are not done – once you have created the perfect bribe. You also need a system that…
Showcases The Value Of Your “Bribe”
Collects Emails
Delivers The Bribe
Thanks Your New Subscriber For Signing Up!
Most importantly, this system needs to work INSTANTANEOUSLY and AUTOMATICALLY!
If you make people wait to receive the gift they have been promised, you can bet they will not readily become your #1 fan! That’s why to collect emails you must use an AUTOMATIC landing page system. Once upon a time, I would hire a graphic designer and together we would code an automatic landing page system from scratch. …Or I would buy an off-the-rack landing page software to create the landing page system. However, since the advent of HTML5 and with more and more people using different devices like phones, tablets, etc. to visit my landing pages – I’m finding it increasingly difficult make these pages work properly. That’s why I was delighted to discover the online landing page app:
Landing Page Monkey’s landing pages…
Work on all browsers and devices
Don’t require me to buy or host another website
Doesn’t require me to write html/css code
Looks great, and is fully brandable and customizable!
Why not visit the “Demo” link at the website link I’m giving you below to see some of the example landing pages that this app has created. warr.us/LandingPageMonkey
While you’re at that website looking at demo pages, why not grab some of the giveaways they are offering? If you do, then you can watch how the entire process works and get a bunch of awesome gifts! In addition, while you are collecting all of those gifts it will help you to realize how you could have landing pages just like these awesome working examples! You’ll also see how these landing pages could help you build your list automatically!
Increasing Lifetime Customer Value (sales funnels explained) Pt 3
Tools to Make It Simple
Working out upsells, cross-sells, and downsells might seem like a lot of work. For sure, it takes time to set everything up properly, but once you do it will be truly simple.
Visualize Your Product Funnel – This will help you set up your upsells more easily. If you can see your entire funnel at a glance, it’s going to make it easier to ensure that you have the right products at the right time. Being able to see how it all works together is going to keep everything working better. You can add to it as you create more products where you see potential gaps. FusionCharts is a product that helps you create charts to visualize your product funnel.
Marketing Automation – You’ll need email autoresponder software. There are many choices to choose from, such as AWeber.com, ActiveCampaign.com and GetResponse.com, and others. Check out as many as you can to find out which ones have the features that you most need within your budget. You need to be able to change segments based on your customers’ behavior every step of the buying cycle. Most autoresponder software comes with opt-in lead capture forms.
Developing Marketing Strategies – To make upsells work, you need more traffic. Marketing properly is a good way to ensure that you get the right traffic. A good marketing strategy that considers every step of your buyers’ journeys will have higher conversions. You can use tools such as Google Webmaster Tools to accomplish this.
Setting Up Automated Sales Pages – There are tons of different options when it comes to software to help you set up sales automation. You can use Leadpages.net, ClickFunnels.com, OptimizePress.com and many others to help you set up innovative and beautiful funnels that get results.
Shopping Cart Software – You’ll need a good way for people to pay, and a lot of shopping carts offer landing pages and the ability to upsell already. Some of your choices are 1ShoppingCart.com, aMember.com, Infusionsoft.com, and others. You can even use some affiliate software such as ClickBank.net, JVZoo.com, and others for this purpose, but you’ll still need a payment account like PayPal, Stripe.com, or an Authorize.net account.
Website – Of course, you need a good website. Most of these ideas can be implemented on any type of website that you’ve built. But, right now the best software to use to build your website is self-hosted WordPress. It’s not harder than using a builder if you have the right website host like MomWebs.com.
Analytics and Reporting – You can use Google Analytics for this, as well as the analytics native in each type of software that you purchase. If you don’t know how well your sales pages are converting, and you don’t know how well the upsells convert or how well your email marketing messages convert, then you are just shooting in the dark.
Using the right tools will ensure that you have far more success than if you just wing it. If you’re been winging it up until now, imagine how much more effective you’ll be when you can look at your funnel to find out how much traffic you need based on your conversion rate to give yourself a raise. Like we mentioned before, a lot of this is just math.
How to Upsell Successfully
As you know, upselling will make your business more profitable by encouraging your customers to buy the more expensive item over the less expensive item that you sell. But what are some of the ways this can be accomplished?
They Buy – Your customer has clicked your “buy” button to put the product in their cart. At this point, you can set up your automation, using whichever software you chose, to either send them to an upsell offer or send them to the cart to check out.
You Encourage – If you send them to an upsell offer instead of the shopping cart, you need to ensure that your sales page for the upsell offer is amazing. You don’t want to upset your customer.
Also, you want to give them a chance right from the start to turn down that offer and buy right now. Don’t be mean to them about it. Use straightforward anchor text so they know where to click depending on what they want to do.
If you send them straight to your shopping cart, you still have two ways you can offer the upsell. One way, if your shopping cart has the functionality, is to make the offer for the upsell right inside the shopping cart. This is one of the most popular ways to do it, because if all your customer must do is click that they’d like the upsell, then it’s done.
The other way you can do it is to let them make the entire purchase including paying. Then, you can market the upsell to them either on the download page or via email autoresponder. If you do it on the download page, let them know where their product is, but that they have one chance to upgrade their order for just an “additional” cost. If they upgrade, send them directly to a download page without further delay.
If you choose, you can send the same offer via the autoresponder emails that you send to buyers. But, give them just a short time to upgrade to the larger version of your product or service.
One final point about upsells is that it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t want the upsell price to be out of their range. You’ll need to know your audience to know that information but in general, you don’t want to sell them a product for $27 dollars and then upgrade it to $450 dollars. That’s too big of a difference.
How to Downsell Successfully
A downsell is not something you really want to make a habit of offering, therefore consider how you might need to offer a downsell to keep a customer. There are a couple of reasons to use downselling – cart abandonment and clicking away from the sales page.
Have a Pop-Up
To provide a downsell opportunity you need to have the right technology installed. For example, you might use Leadpages.net to set up a pop-up that is shown to the customer when they click away or abandon the cart.
There are several ideas of what to offer:
Percent off coupon
Free white paper
Free webinar
DIY cheat sheet
Inexpensive eBook
Email course
Your item should be either free or considerably less expensive than the first product. It should also relate very closely to the more expensive product. The reason you need to do this is because you’ll get them into your sales funnel by getting them on your email list. There you can educate, inform, and persuade them toward your other products and/or services.
Remarketing
Another way you can handle downsells is to install a special pixel on your website and run Facebook ads directed toward retargeting/remarketing the people who abandoned carts, visited your site and didn’t sign up for anything or buy anything. Remarket to them via the Facebook ads using a free offer or very low-cost offer to get them into your funnel.
You can offer them the same types of offers as in the pop-up. But, it will feel even more personal due to it showing up when they’re not even on your site. They’ll see it every time they get on Facebook until you stop the ad from running.
This is a great way to keep someone interested after they’ve already visited your site. Most people expect to get pop-ups, so if it’s easy to get away from it won’t feel intrusive. The remarketing is something that while people often describe it as creepy, works from a purely mathematical standpoint, so it’s also worth doing. The only other option would be to lose the customer.
How to Cross-Sell Successfully
Probably the most popular form of making other offers is cross-selling. Some people call it upselling but it’s not. It’s offering purchases in addition to the chosen item, not instead of. The items should be related to the first purchase and either the same price or less expensive, with one exception. This is a good time to offer an “I’ll do it for you” option which will, of course, be more expensive.
Targeted
Make the cross-sell laser targeted, such as software to help them follow your instructions in the info product. Or, a “done-for-you” option for what you’re teaching them how to do, such as a private label report that they can use as their own.
For example, when you click on a product to buy a pressure cooker in Amazon, you’re given recommendations of what to buy with it. Usually, it’ll be more lids, parts, or cookbooks for this item. You can do the same type of thing regardless of whether your product is physical or digital.
This is a good place to repurpose content and other products to bulk up their purchase. But, be careful to avoid offering them products they already bought. This will require that you invest in powerful technology. You can find something that works in the tools section above.
What to Do Now
The best place to start is to go over your product funnel and your customers’ buying cycle. Ensure that you have all the right types of content and products to meet your customers’ needs and desires. Then get the technology set up that you need set up so that you can automate everything that’s possible to automate – other than direct one-on-one contact with your customers.
When you start using upsells, cross-sells, and downsells, you’ll find that you increase your profits by at least twice. Some people report even more improvement. Why? Because you’ll increase your customers’ lifetime value, improve customer relationships, differentiate yourself from other brands, enhance customer engagement, build brand loyalty, and build a bigger and stronger audience ready for any new products you offer.