The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Podcast

Almost all of the major social media platforms have added a live streaming feature, and marketers should be considering this an excellent addition to their toolbox. Given the way online users view content, video has skyrocketed to the top, and businesses and brands should be taking advantage of this. What better way to communicate with your audience and gain their trust than by speaking directly to them. Live streaming is a perfect way to conduct interviews, go behind the scenes at an event, or even introduce and demonstrate your products. And you don't have to invest in expensive video equipment, if you have a smartphone with a camera, then you already have the minimum tools needed to get started. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/240

There's nothing quite like a live event--a conference, expo, or business networking gathering--to learn a connect with like minded people. However, too many people don't take full advantage of the opportunity. In today's episode we're going to talk about how you can get more out of any business event with a little bit of preplanning, whether you're a newbie or an old hand. Also, I'm going to be sharing some of what I picked up at Social Media Marketing World 2018 and what changes I'll be making to my own business. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/239

When you're starting out with your business you're doing it all; making phone calls, fulfilling orders, handling social media, accounting, making travel arrangements, and everything else in between. But one of the main reasons we take the leap into entrepreneurship is to have more time, not less. One way to achieve that without bringing on a full-time employee is to utilize the benefits of a virtual assistant. Think of a virtual assistant as an extra set of hands that works remotely to handle whichever tasks you assign them. Achieving success with this plan is going to depend on the work you put in on the front end with finding and training them to be an extension of yourself. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/238

A Facebook Group is a great way to create a community of like-minded individuals to create and keep a conversation going with little to no effort. The key is in setting certain ground rules and policies that will best serve that particular group for the long-term. Specificity and a shared goal amongst the members will go a long way in the success of Facebook Groups. Regardless of whether you choose to make it a closed, public, or secret group, making sure the conversation continues will determine if the group sees continued success and value. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/237

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) are the strategies and tactics that create an experience that allows you to convert visitors into customers on your website. To do this effectively you need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack, and you can do that with things like building brand affinity and creating offers that differ from everyone else. Making your marketing decisions based on analytics and not just what your competition is doing will also take you far in the CRO game. And most importantly, be curious and get creative. This is a good opportunity to do some A/B split testing and make sure your content and visuals are on point. If you follow these tips, you'll turn that donkey into a unicorn in no time. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/236

Facebook is changing their algorithm again. This time you'll be seeing less public content from businesses, brands, and the media, and more content that promotes meaningful interactions between people (get ready to see more pictures of your great aunt's cat showing up in your newsfeed). This means businesses are going to have to work harder than ever to get their customer's attention and be a little more creative when doing it. Businesses and brands are going to have to pay more attention to what they're posting and make sure they're creating content that invites and encourages real, meaningful conversations. Gone are the days of link dropping. It's time to explore other avenues such as Facebook Live, increasing the ad budget, and utilizing Facebook Groups. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/235

A Facebook Group is a great way to communicate and share common interests, information, and opinions around a common cause or goal. Anyone can setup and manage a Group as small or as large as you want. Facebook groups also offer many options to suit a particular Groups needs; you can make it public, private or secret, you can make admission limited or open, you can set guidelines for admission as well as for the Group members themselves. With the impending changes looming with how marketers can utilize Facebook, the Groups aspect offers another way to direct traffic to your other platforms, and even monetizing. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/234 Physical SMMW Tickets: https://www.theagentsofchange.com/smmw2018 Virtual SMMW Tickets: https://www.theagentsofchange.com/smmw2018v

Every dollar counts in today's world of digital marketing. Our businesses are utilizing so many different platforms and technologies that we have to be able to effectively deploy these in a way that is both cost effective to you, and provides an optimal user experience for those visiting your website and apps. The way to do that is with tag management tools. Essentially, these tools allow marketers to impactfully manage and marry together various applications and data in the most efficient way by providing more agility, better performance, cost savings, and better data control. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/233

There's a whole lot more to Facebook ads than just "boosting" a post. Just throwing money at Facebook isn't the answer. Your business should have an end goal, and then a strategy in place for how to reach that goal, including where within that process to use Facebook ads. Otherwise, you're just wasting money. You first need to understand how Facebook ads work, and where in your personal business funnel it makes the most sense to leverage them. You could use them to warm up your audience before sending them to your webpage or landing page, you could engage people on your email list, and you can even use Facebook ads as part of a retargeting campaign, too. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/232 Free 30 Minute Webinar on Facebook Ads: http://www.takeflyte.com/30facebookads Attend Social Media Marketing World: https://www.theagentsofchange.com/smmw2018 Attend Virtually: https://www.theagentsofchange.com/smmw2018v

Currently one of the strongest - and often untapped - digital marketing opportunities is YouTube pre-roll advertising. You know them as those 5-30 second videos that run before the video you want to watch, sometimes giving you the option to "skip it" and go straight to your video. Sure, some people can find them annoying, but if you use them in a way that is found to be interesting or helpful, you could be nurturing a future customer. Pre-roll ads are a great way to build brand awareness and drive website traffic, all for a relatively reasonable price. Plus, these types of adds have shown to provide a more immediate ROI since they focus on getting people who are ready to buy. Of course, a lot of that is in the finesse of how good you were at targeting your ideal audience. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/231