What is the Goal of Your Newsletter?

You need to have a goal in mind for your newsletter – basically, you need to know what your newsletter is going to accomplish. So, how do you want your newsletter to work for you?

• Drive traffic
• Promote a new product or service
• Increase sales
• Engage your audience on social media
• Get your readers to download an eBook

It can either be one or a combination of the reasons given above, but you will need to jam your newsletter with all the relevant information regarding your goals. One of the benefits of using a professional newsletter writing service is they know exactly what it takes to make a prospective click when it comes to writing newsletters.

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Have a Clear Subject Line

It’s going to take more than just some wordplay on your main keyword to get the recipient to open your email. This is where A/B testing comes in and is going to help you create more effective subject lines for your email newsletter. You will want to address a specific area of concern with the promise of providing the reader with valuable information that they’ll find useful. While creating a sense of urgency and throwing in a few power words is great, they won’t work for every industry.

The Preview Text

Just in case your subject line sucked, the preview text is going to be your do-over. Most people’s inboxes are already inundated with emails that they don’t want to open, but many will open an email that looks like it’s from a real person. The preview text should be fun, creative, and informational. However, more importantly, it should give your readers a reason to keep reading.

Remember, getting prospects to open your email is only half the challenge, but it’s a challenge nonetheless. Addressing your readers by their first name comes across as personal or authentic, which will pique their attention. On the flip side, you don’t want to go with the traditional “Hi, my name is…” routine.

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Make a Connection in the Body

People don’t have free time to dedicate to reading large blocks of text in a newsletter. Hell, you probably don’t have time to read a massive article, which is why this will end shortly. Promise.

So, what can you do to make a connection with your prospects that just don’t have the time to read through the entire newsletter?

Well, what you can do is use stories or hire newsletter writers who can do the storytelling for you. Why tell stories? Because stories are interesting. Use a captivating story to get your prospects to read through your newsletter to find what you’re all about. You can either start with a personal story or a story of your company. But, make sure the story is gripping – you don’t want to bore your readers to tears.

Since most people won’t read the entire newsletter, you need to make your content skimmable. How? Get to the point fast and make all the important information available and easy to find without your readers having to search for it.

As a rule of thumb, stop using large blocks of text as that can be frustrating to read. Also, don’t overload your newsletter with too many images. This can be distracting for the reader.

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Nail the Closing

Every newsletter writing service worth its salt knows the importance of nailing the closing to your email. Like the subject line, the closing line is going to be equally important. Your goal when saying goodbye to your reader should be to wind down and make a slow transition to the CTA, as in, what you would like them to do next. But, whatever that CTA might be, it should be crystal clear and focus what you want from the reader instead of keeping them guessing.

Ending Note

The bottom line is customers love getting information on the brands they love. Period. Customers appreciate it when companies regularly provide them with useful information on sales deals, discounts, new services, and product updates. However, the real challenge here is crafting an email newsletter that’s not only impressive to look at but also keeps the customers happy and informed. Luckily for you, if the aforementioned tips seem too overwhelming, you can always use a professional newsletter writing service to help you craft stellar email newsletters.

The post 5 Steps To Create An Email Newsletter That People Actually Read appeared first on Relevance.

However, updating their LinkedIn profile can seem like quite a chore to some people, especially since filling out the “About” section to listing down all your past job descriptions can take a while. Fortunately, though, reaching the All-Star rating is not as time-consuming as you think. In fact, just a few small changes that don’t take more than 5 minutes can magically transform your LinkedIn profile.

Adding a Great Headshot – and a Cover Photo (Takes 1 minutes)

According to LinkedIn, “your photo is your virtual handshake.” In fact, the platform says that just having a profile photo can increase your profile views 21 times while increasing your connection requests nine times.

This makes sense since profiles which do not have photos can appear fake and give off a very “ain’t nobody got time for that” vibe – and if you don’t have time, nobody will bother to click on your name, since LinkedIn is a networking site and this type of behavior completely defeats the purpose of it.

Some people skip adding their photos because they are afraid they may be discriminated against. Unfortunately, not adding your photo does not reduce the chances of discrimination – rather, they may increase it.

Therefore, you need to have an actual photo. Nobody will take you seriously if you are using a picture of Pepe the Frog. However, it is important to understand that the photo you use on LinkedIn should be different than the ones you use on Instagram or Twitter.

Your photo should show you as a professional, so taking an out-of-proportion, heavily-filtered selfie, pasting an old photo from your high school, or cropping yourself out of a group shot is not going to cut it.  Many seasoned recruiters compare their potential employee’s actual face with their LinkedIn photo when meeting them for the first time. If there are drastic differences, they may wonder how credible, confident, or trustworthy you are.

Therefore, make sure that the picture you are using on LinkedIn most accurately reflects how you look in real life.

If your headshot is important, then your cover photo is almost as crucial. Your cover photo gives you a  bigger chance to express your personal and professional identity. Take a look at Bill Gates LinkedIn cover photo:

Even though his headshot is perfectly respectable and professional, the cover photo does not feature him, at least not in focus. Instead, it features a collage of the various people that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped over the years and zeroes in on the foundation’s philanthropic efforts.

In this regard, your cover photo can speak a thousand words about your identity, interests, and passion.

Using Your Professional Name (Takes 1 Minute)

What’s in a name, they say. However, LinkedIn is not your average social media site, so calling yourself names like Cherubine41 and DeviousDoll isn’t going to cut it. In fact, professional LinkedIn bio writers say it is a surefire way to make yourself a laughing stock in your professional circle.

Your name is, in fact, one of the most important keywords of your LinkedIn profile. Most employers who receive your resume will search for you by your name on LinkedIn, and if they don’t find you, almost half of them state they won’t call you in for the interview. So make sure you use the exact name you use on your job applications and business cards as you do in your LinkedIn profile. That means no nicknames or abbreviated names, either. So, if your name is Elizabeth Wilkins, don’t put Liz Wilkins on your professional bio.

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If your recruiters can’t connect the dots and easily find you on LinkedIn, then that does not bode well for you. So make sure you add your real and accurate name to LinkedIn. This will only take a few seconds.

While you are at it, also change your custom LinkedIn URL to reflect your first and last name.

Writing a Professional and Impactful Headline (Takes 30 Seconds)

Writing a professional headline does not mean it has to be boring. Many of us place our current job title in place of the headline, which is not wrong, per se. However, there are other ways to make yourself shine out and bring attention to less-temporary or less-noticeable aspects of our lives.

Taking the example of Bill Gates again, the tech mogul’s headline shows him to be the co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This may seem slightly surprising to some who would think that Gates should rather have added co-founder of Microsoft in his headline, however, there is solid reasoning behind this headline.

Most people immediately think of Microsoft when they see Bill Gates. Most of us also know he is the co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but it is possible it may not be at the forefront of our mind when we see Gates’ picture. By adding the headline, the tech genius made sure that people pay attention to his philanthropic efforts as well. It also makes him appear more humble.

Having a Focused “About” Section (Takes 5 Minutes)

The “About” section is the first significant piece of text that recruiters will read when they chance upon your profile. If your “About” section is the average run-of-the-mill, you are just one of the thousands of nondescript and vague personas waiting around for an elusive job opportunity on LinkedIn.

To ensure you grab the attention of a recruiter, you need to make your “About” section impactful and powerful. This is what the digital marketing guru Neil Patel did:

Unlike the boring old rote you see on many LinkedIn profiles, Neil Patel’s “About” section brings something fresh and fun. The digital marketing guru is not shy about stating his accomplishments, and neither should you be. A LinkedIn “About” section is your chance to shine and set yourself apart from the rabble, so don’t be modest about it.

But that does not mean you should write anything that isn’t 100 percent true. No recruiter likes to know they have been tricked into hiring someone they are not.

Adding Relevant Keywords (Takes 3 to 5 Minutes)

If you expect your profile to be found by the relevant people, aside from your name, you will have to incorporate certain keywords into your profile that recruiters are on the lookout for. One of the best ways you can do that is to fill out the skill section. Yes, recruiters will be searching for you by looking for certain types of skills.

LinkedIn released a list of the most in-demand hard and soft skills of 2018, and as you can see, if you click on the link, it is dominated by tech skills. However, skills like corporate communication and journalism also make the list, signifying recruiters are on the look for new ways to tell their story.

Additionally, soft skills like creativity, persuasiveness, collaboration, adaptability, and time management are also highly sought after by employers.

So, if you have these skills, make sure you showcase them on your profile.

Having said that, LinkedIn has also released a list of the top ten most overused words that now add no value at all to your profile. Note that words like specialized, experienced, passionate, motivated, and focused are no longer in vogue when it comes to recruitment, so do stop using them, or at least minimize them in your LinkedIn profile.

Accepting New Connections (Takes 1 Minute)

But wait… do you even have connections?

How many times have you received a notification from LinkedIn, stating something like, “Mark, do you know Michael Russel?”

Who?

Your first instinct might probably be to hit that delete button but hold your horses.  If you bother to look down, you will find another useful tidbit of information, “You and Michael have 26 mutual connections in common.”

At first glance, it may seem like the person is a virtual stranger, but with 26 connections, you can see how much you two have in common – and how much you can help each other out.

Nothing looks so bad on LinkedIn as having only a handful of connections. Since LinkedIn is a business networking platform, it offers benefits by widening the professional circle of anyone who would otherwise not have access to so many like-minded contacts. So, it is always worthwhile to check your notification and see if someone has requested an invite to join your connections.

This not just increases your visibility in the LinkedIn search results, it also gives you better connections to potential recruiters. You could just be 2^nd or 3^rd relationship away from someone who can give you a job in a multinational conglomerate.

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Getting Testimonials (Takes 5 Minutes)

Testimonials are perhaps the most persuasive tools when it comes to getting a new job or contacts – which is why LinkedIn recommendations are so valuable for job seekers and freelancers.

All you need to do is to take out 5 minutes and ask your recent contacts to vouch for your skills and make a few positive (but true!) comments about your work.

The recommendation section sometimes carries a lot more weight than your “About” or “Experience” sections, since recruiters are more likely to believe you have skills when you are not tooting your own horn.

Bottom Line

Strengthening your LinkedIn profile does not need to take hours of your time. If updating your profile daunts you, try the above skills one at a time. It just takes a few minutes to paint a true and more powerful picture of yourself, and then you can be visible to a veritable mine of recruiters and influencers in your professional field.

The post LinkedIn Profiles Made Easy: 7 Easy Tweaks You Can Make In 5 Minutes appeared first on Relevance.

The fact that the platform allows targeting an ad to a specific segment of audience makes it even more popular among marketers.

However, like any other digital platform, grabbing attention and persuading clicks on your ad is not easy on Facebook. What works for one may not work for another. You need to experiment and come up with original and creative ideas to make your ads stand out.

Here’s a cheat sheet to help you write a Facebook ad that will improve your engagement and conversion rate.

1. Do Not Skip the Headline

As opposed to other types of advertisements, the headline on a Facebook ad comes below the image making it the last thing people usually see. This makes many people think it is not important to have a headline in a Facebook advertisement, which is wrong.

[bctt tweet=”The headline adds clarity to your message.” username=”relevance”]

It helps the audience better understand your offers. If done right, the headline can also help you gain user attention in case the creative image fails to do so.

Take a look at the following examples to understand the difference a headline can make.

This first ad has a simple headline. It is targeted, addresses the audience, and entices them.

On the other hand, the second ad does not have any headline. The first ad outperformed the second ad by a long shot.

To make your Facebook ads more impactful, make your content writer write a clear, customized, and engaging headline.

Suggested Reading: Facebook Announces Launch of Creative Compass For Detailed Measure of Various Metrics

2. Cut to the Chase – Short and Clear Ad Copy Wins

Remember you are writing an ad, not a novel that people are going to spend hours reading. Cut the fluff. Think about how people generally use social media. No one reads everything that appears on their news feed. People usually scroll through their feed quickly until something catches their attention.

[bctt tweet=”You have to keep this in mind while writing the ad text – it has to be short, crisp, and clearly deliver your most important message.” username=”relevance”]

Provide only the most important information and highlight the greatest benefits. Use language that reflects your brand’s personality as well as resonates with your audience. Your ad should clearly tell the audience what you are offering, how your offer benefits them, and what they should do next.

Take a look at the following examples to understand what good Facebook ad copy looks like.

Long, dull, and boring ad copy can be the reason for low engagement and conversion. Make sure you give it your best shot.

3. Strong and Clear Call to Action

Exceptionally well-written copy is not going to serve you any purpose if it’s not followed by a strong and clear call-to-action.

Direct them towards the next step with a clear CTA.

Whether you want them to visit your website, buy your product or service, or subscribe to your newsletter, ask for it.

Take a look at the following example – it has a simple, but clear CTA. The company wants people to sign up for the free trial, so it only provides the Sign Up button in the ad, decreasing the likelihood of distractions.

Now take a look at another example.

While this ad by Udemy presents a great offer (we all love discounts, don’t we?), it loses impact by not including a CTA.

4. Do Not Give Too Many Choices

Do you know that giving too many choices to your prospects can lead to fewer conversions and sales?

While you may want to tell people that you have something for everyone, giving too many choices can lead to what psychologists call choice overload.

The groundbreaking research study conducted by Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper of Columbia and Stanford University respectively, confirms the phenomenon that people are less likely to reach a buying decision when they’re given multiple choices.

This, followed by more research studies, made business owners and marketers reach the conclusion that an advertisement that promotes only one product, service, or offer and includes only one CTA is likely to perform better than an ad with multiple options.

Also Read: Facebook Offers More Video Advertising Options to Take On YouTube

5. Add Custom Created Visuals

What’s the first thing you see when you come across an advertisement?

In both print and digital ads, the image is the first thing that people see. It can either attract and engage customers or put them off.

One of the most essential qualities of a high-converting Facebook ad is an original and creative image that is customized according to the audience as well as the ad copy.

One of the reasons why many companies choose to get their ads created by a reputable content writing service is because they provide custom created images along with a persuasive ad copy.

[bctt tweet=”Do not use stock photos; they are easy to obtain, but they are one of the major reasons for low engagement.” username=”relevance”]

Check out the following example to understand how a custom created image can enhance the impact of your ad. The following ad by MailChimp helps the audience understand the message in a better way as well as reflects the brand identity.

6. Do Not Forget To Target Your Ad to a Custom Audience

The powerful ad targeting tools on Facebook are one of the greatest advantages of the platform. These tools allow you to create targeted ads by selecting your marketing objective and goals. It also allows you to create a custom audience – you can choose who will see your ad on the basis of demographics, age, gender, education, jobs, interests, online behavior, and even income.

Identify your ideal customer (called buyer persona) for every product or service to be able to target the ad in a better way. If there are multiple ideal customers, create different ads for each of them – do not treat your Facebook advertisements like billboard ads. The more you target your ad, the better results you can expect.

7. Use Testimonials and Recommendations as Social Proof

Trust is one of the key elements in making a purchase decision. The reason why people hesitate to buy from new companies is because they don’t trust them. And when it comes to building trust, word-of-mouth, recommendations, and referrals work better than any type of advertisement.

The best thing that you can do to remove the fear and doubt that many people have is to get an industry expert or a renowned celebrity or company endorse and recommend your product or service.

Consider the following example.

Another way to gain trust and credibility is to include testimonials from your previous or existing customers – they can be your best sales representatives. Check out the following example to learn how you customer testimonials can be used in writing Facebook ads.

Read More: As Teens Flee Facebook, Marketers Should Turn to Snapchat

8. Create a Customized Landing Page

Has it ever happened that you clicked on ad because you like the product it shows, but you are taken to the homepage of seller’s website or to a generic webpage with numerous other products?

We all have had this experience at least once. And needless to say that it made us feel tricked and as a result, agitated.

People click on your ad because they like the offer or the displayed product. To convert these prospects into customers, you need to make sure that they are taken to a customized landing page that reinforces the message or displays the same product as the ad.

If your ad takes the prospects to a generic webpage where they have to search for the advertised offer, you will lose potential customers.

Take a look at the following example…

When you click on this sponsored ad, it takes you to the following landing page…

The landing page is customized and tells the user details about the marketing proposal that increases the chance of conversion.

While this seems to be a pretty obvious thing, it surprisingly is one of the most overlooked elements in Facebook ads.

Don’t Forget to Test Run Your Ads to Find Out What Works for You

There you have it – a list of essential ingredients to improve the performance of your Facebook ads.

Identifying what works for you may take some trial and error. To get the most out of your advertising efforts, make sure you create at least two different versions of every ad and test them before you go all-in with it. You can try testing with different copy, image, or headline.

Facebook is a great advertising platform for all types and sizes of businesses. Make sure to take maximum advantage of the opportunities it presents to cut through the noise and improve your conversion rate when writing Facebook ads.

The post 8 Secrets to Writing a High-Converting Facebook Ad appeared first on Relevance.