Category: Business

6 Tips For Better Audio Recordings

AUDIO RECORDINGS

If you’ve ever recorded yourself with your phone, or on your computer, then you know just how hard that is to hear. When you craft something like a radio ad or an audio message for your website, headset microphones just don’t cut it. So how do you improve the quality of your audio recordings? Here are some tips for better audio recordings.

1. Get the right kind of equipment.

This might sound like a no brainer, but it is incredibly important. Headset microphones might work on a phone call, but anything beyond that, your audio quality is going to take a hit. Buying a USB microphone to plug into your computer can seriously improve the quality of your recordings instantly. Also, getting a good pair of headphones is a must. Quality headphones allow you to hear the sounds and quality as you record. This will prevent you from realizing later while you’re editing that your recording is useless. Another key piece of equipment is a pop filter. A pop filter is a fabric screen in front of your microphone. The purpose of a pop filter is to cut down on the plosive sounds the speaker makes when they’re close to the microphone. The noise made from the p,t,k, and the b,d,g sounds can cause a pop in the recording. A pop filter works to cut down on that.

2. Get the right software

Getting the right software, like the right equipment, can really take your recording to the next level. Audio recording and editing software is an important part of getting a finished product out there. Audition, part of the Adobe package, is some of the best out there, with others such as Cubase and SADiE being good options as well. Be sure when you record, you record each audio source into separate channels. Record someone talking into one track, music into another, a second person into a third and so on. This will really help you when it comes to editing and releasing the track. For example, if you record all of it on a single channel, then if someone blunders in a speech, you’ll struggle to fix that blunder without fully removing all audio from that section. It is also important to know the difference between mono and stereo for recording. In monaural sound, one single channel (signal) is used. It can be reproduced through separate speakers, but all speakers are copies of the original signal. Stereophonic sound uses more than one channel. You can use two different channels and make one channel feed one speaker and the second channel feed a second speaker. This is used to create directionality, perspective, and space. Usually, you want to record speech in mono and music into stereo.

3. Make sure your audio recordings sound natural

This is probably the hardest part of audio recordings to get right. You want to make sure your recording sounds natural like it’s someone talking to you in their kitchen. But you don’t want background noises like dog barks, cars driving by, or refrigerators running. This can be a challenge to get right. Recording speech with the microphone close to the speaker will minimize any disruptive background noises. Whenever your recording is done, then spend a few minutes recording the ambient background noises of your location. With these sounds you can lay them in post under the talking, bring the volume down to non-disruptive levels, giving your recording a sense of warmth and welcoming. Making sure speech flows naturally is also a key part of post-production. Cutting out any hesitation words like “err” or “ahh” will help make the speech clear for the listener. Knowing when to change the flow of speech is also important, and breaths can be added to pause and edit the flow.

4. Find the right space to record

Finding the right space to record can really improve any audio recording. Walls, tables, and tile can bounce audio waves back into the microphone, severely hurting its quality. Carpet, furniture such as couches, and non-parallel walls do a good job of either absorbing sound or reflecting it away from the microphone. Small rooms are also better for recording, as there is not as much of an echo, Soundproofing is also easier in smaller rooms. Making sure your equipment, like the microphone and pop filter, are attached to objects that are not constantly being bumped or touched will cut down on audio blunders. Renting out a recording studio is also an option and it will have all the amenities and soundproofing you need.

5. Always be prepared

Make sure your equipment works before using it. If you ever do offsite recording, make sure your equipment works before leaving. Do a test recording. Getting to a site and realizing something doesn’t work is a pain and can cost you time and money. When you’re at your studio, make sure you have backups of everything, as you never know what might break or go wrong. Stay in control of whatever you’re doing. If you’re interviewing someone, make sure you keep hold of the microphone, as it allows you to dictate the pace of the conversation. Make sure you’re prepared before you begin recording. Don’t waste your time or your money by fumbling through the first takes of a recording.

6. Have fun with your audio recordings

Have fun with your work. Your audience can tell when you’re genuinely having a good time and when you’re forcing it. Having fun will let your audience have fun as well. Know the demographic you’re playing to and be sure to know what you’re going to say. But have fun with it

CONCLUSION:

Hearing is one of the most important senses humans have. Making something that is pleasurable on the ears can go a long way in helping your product, service, etc. Investing in the production quality of your recordings can also go a long way in making your audio better. Whether you’re making a radio ad, a podcast, a news interview, or a voiceover for a video, using these tips, or going to a studio, can really help you make quality products. For more info about audio recordings, contact us here.

The Importance of Advertising on Radio

Photo by Gavin Whitner

Is Advertising on Radio Still Profitable?

Radio is one of the cornerstones of the American entertainment market. According to Nielsen Ratings, radio reached 93% of American adults on a weekly basis in 2018. That’s millions of people who listen to the radio. They listen on their commutes to and from work, while they work, or while they’re around the house. So how do you tap into that kind of market potential? How does advertising on radio work? Well, this blog will attempt to tackle the lasting importance of advertising on radio.

The first question we must ask, is advertising on radio still an effective way of increasing sales? This is a hard thing to quantify and varies from city to city, but the short answer is yes, it is. A longer answer would be that in 2017 a New York radio station called Westwood One partnered with Nielsen Catalina Solutions to try and quantify the profits of a personal care brand’s radio campaign. The study showed, that a radio campaign ran from March 2017 to September 2017 brought an 8% sales to boost among male AM/FM listening households. The study showed for every $1 spent on AM/FM radio advertising for the male care brand, there was a return of $1.23 and parent brand saw a return of $11.96. Based on this study, it’s safe to say that radio advertising is still alive and thriving in the world.

So, what do you need to know before you start your advertising campaign? Let’s take a look at ad space.

Buying Ad Space

In advertising on radio, “when” you advertise is almost as, if not more, important than “how” you do it. Choosing consistent times to broadcast is a crucial part of building a consistent listener base to sell your product. Repetition is one of the most important parts of radio advertising. How often your ad plays, and when and where you play it is also something that can affect how successful your campaign is.

Ad spots are broken down into 15, 30, and 45-second-long commercials, and radio stations have an inventory of 18 minutes every hour for advertisements.

Radio ad times are broken down into day-parts, not into hours. The parts are:

AM Drive Time (6 AM to 10 AM)

AM drive time is one of the two most heavily trafficked times on radio times. That makes it one of the two most desirable times to play your ad. This is the morning rush hours, when people are driving into work, and gives you the largest number of listeners. People tend to be the most receptive during the morning drive. All this makes this time one of the most expensive times to buy radio spots, along with its afternoon counterpart.

Midday (10 AM to 3 PM)

Many radio stations tend to lose listeners at this time, as everyone is getting out of their cars and heading into work. This is also the time when people listening has the most predictable habits. Listeners here tend to more loyal to certain radio stations or shows, making a conscious choice of turning on the radio while not in their car. Popular talk radio shows like Rush Limbaugh also happen during this time. While this time may not have the most listeners compared to other points in the day, listeners here tend to be more engaged and a good ad can effective here.

PM Drive Time (3 PM to 7 PM)

Like its morning counterpart, evening rush hour corresponds with some of the highest numbers of listeners as people drive home from work. This day-part is very desirable, especially for restaurants and entertainment advertisements as people look for ways to spend their night and suffer from choice fatigue. This slot also tends to be expensive for ad rates.

Evening (7 PM to Midnight) and Late Night (Midnight to 6 AM)

These two slots have the lowest number of average listeners as most people are not in their cars, and television is a more popular form of entertainment during these time slots. While listener numbers might be low during these slots, those listeners tend to be the most loyal, as they’ve made an effort to listen to the radio as their nightly entertainment instead of watching TV or other forms of entertainment. Rates for advertisement can be low during this time, and if the market is right for your product, it could be a very important impact on your sales.

Writing the Ad

Writing an Ad for radio can be a daunting task, and further producing it can be even more so. Here are some tips:

Make sure your ad gets people’s attention. Make sure your ad is well written and attention-getting.
Hiring a professional voice actor is one way to get a voice that really gets your attention
Get your point across in one or two simple, powerful and easily conveyed messages. You have less than a minute to sell your product.
Have a Call to action. Give the listener a reason to go out and get your product right now. Have a special limited offer that runs out in x number of days to incentivize the listener to make a purchase soon.
Clearly, state the next step the listener takes. If you have a brick and mortar store, give them a location. If you have a website, then give them the URL. While you have their attention, use it to tell them where to go. Most radio listeners are already driving, so tell them where to go next for whatever solution you’re selling them
Have plenty of repetition. As stated above, repetition is an essential part of any successful radio advertisement. Repetition of the product within the ad really solidifies said product in the listeners head. Repetition, and consistency, of when, what station, and what ad you run is vital to selling your product. Research suggests that at least 15 ads be played in a week. If you do a short run of 60 ads or so, having that ad appear at the same time will give you the best results
Hiring an ad agency with professional writers could be extremely helpful here. An agency is there to make every piece of information as easily digestible as possible for the consumer. Agencies know how to write an ad with all the features crucial to making a successful broadcast. You can also make the add whatever you want when going through an agency.

Demographics

Choosing what radio stations you broadcast your ad on is important, as not all radio stations are created equal. Each station has a certain demographic that it mostly caters too. Businesses should be cognizant of those demographics and their own target audiences, choosing stations that best fit. If you’re advertising for a nursing home, then pop hits might not be the best choice of stations. Follow the statistics for the best results:

Country music is the most popular kind of radio station and receives the largest number of average listeners in the US
Talk radio, including news, sports, etc. is the #2 type of radio station. It attracts a larger number of high-income and highly educated individuals.
70% of males in the 45-54 age demographic listen to Classic Rock Radio stations but only reaches the #4 spot overall for male listeners
Over 72 million people listen to Contemporary Pop at least once per week.

Remember, you’re not buying a commercial to sell your product, you’re buying an audience to sell your product to.

Conclusion

Advertising on radio allows you to organically spread your message to many people without much effort on your part. Anyone listening to your ad, whether it be while driving in a car to or from work, or while working in their yard using radio as background music, will hear and subconsciously store your product in their mind. You don’t need to encourage engagement either since engagement is an inherent part of the radio. Your product will spread just by the fact that it’s on the radio.

Advertising on radio is far from dead. In fact, it reaches millions of people on a weekly basis. Radio gives you an audience to sell to, all you have to do is make the pitch. Be sure to follow the tips above, do your own research. You can contact us here if you want to start your radio campaign now.

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How To Improve Your Content Marketing

Content Marketing

Content is everywhere. From viewing street signs to reading articles on the internet, content is a major part of our day-to-day lives. Anyone can start a blog and create content, but great content marketing is about creating stellar content with a purpose and strategy.

One of the most important ways to lure in potential clients or customers is to make sure your content is catchy, consistent, and entertaining. Here’s how:

Catch Their Eye

8 out of 10 people won’t read an article/blog if the title isn’t appealing to them. So, focus on creating a catchy, relatable title. Some ideas include: stating an unknown fact that will entice the reader or create a list-style subject line. List-style articles make it easier for people to skim.

Less Content is More

When writing, make sure to keep sentences and paragraphs short. Most people skim over what they read in order to save time. It’s important to be consistent, so keep paragraphs to a 3-4 sentence maximum. Another option is to use bullet points. This way, readers can jump right to what they want to read.

Don’t be boring!

If you want your readers to stay interested, you need to write conversationally. Nothing is worse than reading something boring and awkwardly formal. If you write as though you’re addressing a good friend, people are more likely to be absorbed in your writing.

Educate your prospects.

A blog is essentially a publishing platform for your business. It allows you to speak directly to your prospective customers and educate them about what your business does. Educating is far more powerful, more trustworthy and more relevant to website visitors than pure selling or even traditional marketing content. Education means that you have thought about their situation and can anticipate the questions they may have. It also means that you understand who they are.

Why blogging?

By publishing blog articles, you create relevant content for your site. For some businesses, it’s very difficult to actually update website content and a blog platform provides you with a solution to that problem.

Publishing content on your blog enables you to attract organic traffic to your site. These are new visitors who are finding you because of your content and not because they are searching directly for your business and your company name. In so doing, you are expanding the circle of awareness and opportunity for your business.

Remember that generating blog momentum takes time and commitment. The sooner you start, the sooner you see results. Plan on a minimum of 24 to 50 articles before you can expect to see the traffic build-up.

Why are Videos Important?

In the marketing and advertising world, content is key. Video has recently become one of the most prevalent ways to pique an audience’s interest. Therefore, it’s only fitting to create a type of video that immediately appeals to consumers.

Since the average attention span is decreasing rapidly, it’s crucial to keep all forms of content short, sweet, and to the point. The shorter the content, the easier it is for people to remember it.

Short-form videos have the power to get right down to the point, which first catches viewers’ attention, and ultimately leaves them wanting more.

Another perk of the short-form video is that smaller file sizes are easier to upload. In the end, that saves you time!

How to Create Them

Reevio, a web-based video-making platform, allows you to create and edit professional-quality videos or animations. It has the largest library of templates of any online video software. Additionally, Promo by Slidely lets you create customized marketing videos that include music and logos.

All in all, short videos are the best way to grab attention online. The best part? Shorter equal less work for you!

Have any questions about improving your marketing ventures? Contact us here.

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What Instagram In-App Payments Could Mean for Business

An Instagram in-app payments feature was just added early this month.

This new feature allows social media users to make purchases on Instagram. How? Users can add a credit/debit card to their account, with a pin for security. After they set-up and verify the accounts, users can make purchases through their Instagram account.

Instagram hasn’t stated when it plans to roll out this service.

Weaving commerce more deeply into social media apps offers potentially huge rewards for companies behind the apps, as well as those with products to sell.

Instagram says that more than 80 percent of its 800 million-plus users follow a business on the social network. With numbers like that, the Facebook-owned company will be keen to build out its shopping services to draw in more advertisers and boost revenue even further.

What does this mean for businesses?

You’re able to show your product and store where your customers already are.

One of the biggest challenges businesses face is getting your customer to your store and check out.

While Instagram already offers shopping opportunities via tagged items shown in an image, making a purchase currently involves navigating a pop-out page and completing various steps, including entering payment details for each new merchant.

Instagram in-app payments are now erasing that hurdle for businesses. Your customers won’t even need to leave Instagram to purchase the product you’re showing on your feed. The more steps involved in the buying process, the more likely a customer is going to fall out of the funnel.

It might not seem like Instagram is the place for businesses to communicate with their audience, but Instagram reports that over 200 million Instagrammers actively visit a business profile every day.

How will Instagram in-app payments work?

One of the first equipped is a dinner reservation app Resy. Some of its clients’ Instagram Pages now offer this native payment for the booking. And in the future, Instagram says you can expect direct payments for things like movie tickets through the app.

A tap through to the terms of service reveals that Instagram Payments are backed by Facebook’s Payments rules.

With its polished pictures and a plethora of brands, shopping through Instagram could prove popular and give businesses a big new reason to advertise on the app. If they can get higher conversion rates because people don’t quit in the middle of checkout as they fill in their payment info, brands might prefer to push people to buy via Instagram.

The whole point of Instagram not allowing links in captions is to keep you in a smooth, uninterrupted browsing flow. Getting booted out to the web to buy something broke that. Instagram Payments could make impulse buys much quicker, enticing more businesses to get on board. Even if Instagram takes no cut of the revenue, brands are likely to boost ad spend to get their shoppable posts seen by more people if the native payments mean more of them actually complete a purchase.

How can businesses utilize Instagram in-app payments?

Whenever a new trend or update comes to social accounts, your first thought should always be “How can this benefit my account?”?

Once Instagram opens up the payment option to the general public, you’ll be able to enable your audience with the ability to purchase your products and services directly on Instagram.

Until then, there are things you can do to prepare for the upcoming update.

Make sure you have an Instagram Business account

Business accounts provide businesses a lot more flexibility when it comes to managing your account and presence on Instagram.

They allow you to have an office location and hours in a separate section from a regular Instagram bio. Business accounts also have access to helpful analytics and promotional tools.

You’re also able to boost specific posts that will help you reach a wider audience.

Make sure your site is mobile-optimized.

Since you’re wanting to drive your audience to purchase from you online, the first step is to drive them to your site and store. Instagram is a mobile app, so visitors will be accessing your site from their phone or another mobile device.

Giving them a poor first impression will seriously hurt your chances of ever nurturing them into a customer.

Looking to the Future

Overall, the Instagram in-app payments update is very exciting for businesses and customers alike. Instagram is helping streamline the buyer’s journey through their app, and we’re excited to see how this will pan out.

Do you have any questions about marketing on Instagram or other social sites? Contact us here!

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5 Ways to Make Your Email Marketing Strategy a Success

Not only does email marketing build credibility and strengthen customer relationships, but it is unique from other marketing strategies. Here’s why: it’s either very inexpensive or free, meaning you have nothing to lose if it fails. On top of that, studies have shown that a successful email marketing campaign can produce up to 4,300 percent return on investment.

Sadly, not all email marketing approaches are effective. People find them to be annoying, due to excessive floods of emails, cheesy wording, and the possibility of spam. However, there are ways to change attitudes regarding an email marketing strategy. Here’s a list of tactics that will pique your consumers’ interest as well as keep them engaged in the content.

1. Directly address the consumer’s name at the start of the email

Even using an automated system that includes each person’s name at the beginning of the message makes it more likely for people to open an email. When a message is personalized, people feel special. This also helps strengthen customer relationships, because they feel valued as a client.

2. Don’t flood your consumers’ inboxes

When targeting a specific audience, take into consideration how large or small it is. The larger the audience, the more emails you might have to send to get your message across. If it’s a smaller population you want to reach, send fewer emails. Better yet, give your customers the option of how often they want to receive emails.

3. Make the “unsubscribe” button clearly visible

How many times have you not been able to figure out how to unsubscribe to an unwanted email? Many times, companies trap their email recipients into receiving excessive messages. Making sure you implement a large, clear “unsubscribe” button in your message builds trust with your customers.

4. Keep your email marketing strategy content simple

The more words and visuals your message contains, the more distracting it is. Simply including just two or three sentences makes it more likely for consumers to be interested in the message. Another tip is to avoid stock photos. Instead, use original images that people have never seen before.

5. Scrap the “click here” option

To put it simply, people associate sketchy links with spam. A “click here” option will turn people off if they think it will lead to a virus. Rather, what you should do is use a different phrase. Make them an offer they can’t resist by using persuasive language. Like “sign up now” or “learn more here” and direct them to your website.

Since email marketing is a great way to build rapport with your clients for free, make sure you do it the right way. If you have questions regarding email marketing tips or software, contact us!

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Benefits of Using Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool that helps businesses and organizations manage their online presence on Google. It helps customers find your company’s information, such as hours, recent updates, photos, etc. Also, it allows you to respond to reviews, update information, and add posts.

Why use it?

Having a Google My Business sidebar appear after someone searches for your business makes it appear more professional. It can also improve its local rankings. Additionally, it provides viewers with quick and short information so that they don’t have to dig too deep to find what they are looking for.

Advantages

With the new Posts feature, users can create and update more information on the business sidebar. For example, posting about sales, promotions, or upcoming events is a good way to attract customers.

Recently, Google added a Q&A feature, which displays frequently asked questions to viewers right away. This makes it easier for them to decide if they are interested or not. In addition to Posts and Q&A’s, Google has created a real-time chat mode with customers and businesses. This allows for more client engagement and increases brand loyalty.

In short, Google My Business is a great way to keep your small business or organization at the forefront of peoples’ minds.

Want to find out more about best practices on Google? Ask us!

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3 Communication Apps for Your Business

Effective communication within an organization is essential for it to function correctly.

A quick but efficient way to communicate with other employees within your business is to use digital applications. Here are a few examples of useful apps that your business can use:

Skype

Let’s start with the simplest software. Skype is an application that provides video calling between devices. Additionally, it serves as an instant messenger, so you can quickly send information to other employees in (or out of) the office without having to get out of your chair.

Trello

One way to keep employees organized is to use Trello. It’s a web-based project management application that allows members to collaborate by adding projects to “boards”. In short, it tells you who is working on certain tasks within your organization, and when they are completed.

Infusionsoft

Finally, Infusionsoft is an email marketing platform and a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software all-in-one. Therefore, this means that you can manage your clients’ contact information, interaction history, and other individual records. Infusionsoft saves you hours of time by making your customer details simple and well-organized.

Without a doubt, these three applications are helpful tools that aid in managing your business’ internal communications. For more information about these platforms, contact us here.

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6 Instagram Marketing Tips for Businesses

Over the past couple of years, Instagram has become a power house in the realm of social media. With over 700 million monthly active users, the platform has become a great place to share content with your audience.

Whether your strategy needs an update or you’re a newcomer to this social media network, you can use these 6 tips to help your improve your Instagram marketing.

1. Your profile is key

As a company, don’t get too caught up in fitting all of what you do in 150 characters. Focus on your most important description or your next big thing – be it an event, promotion or product launch. Since the only clickable link is in your Bio section, make a habit of updating it frequently. Think about promoting more than your website. You can include the link to event registrations, app downloads or even purchases links.

2. Get Creative

Focus on the solution you provide to your audience, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s necessary to show value to your customers and look great while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that the most important asset on this social media network is visual content.

3. Stop, collaborate and listen

Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and sharing customer success stories. Take into account that not everyone is monitoring hashtags on social media, so tagging an account is usually a better choice if you want to get noticed.

4. Analyze your Instagram ventures

Without taking a step back and analyzing what worked and didn’t, marketing becomes a guessing game. Make sure to regularly measure your follower count, engagement, and clicks, all to refine and improve your strategy.

5. Show them the business behind the curtain

Customers have a natural curiosity about where their products/services come from, and you can use Instagram to show them the whole lifecycle.

If nothing comes to mind, you can share something that everyone has – sketches, notes, and filled whiteboards or blackboards. You may find that it’s best to try out different post types until you strike gold with the one that will engage the audience.

6. Use hashtags wisely

Use hashtags to expand your reach. These can be campaign specific or general – all that’s important is that they are relevant. This makes it easier for people to find content related to you as well as your main account. It’s best practice to use between three to five hashtags and consider how you add hashtags. Whether they’re added at the end of the post, in a comment or in the actual post.

Have any more questions about Instagram marketing or about any other social media? Contact us here!

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Essential Ways To Improve Your Website Design

Everyone understands the need for a great website design. Your website is a reflection of your company. Therefore, your credibility and authority rely on having a top-notch design. Moreover, a design must capture the attention of your audience not only to motivate sales but because user engagement is a major factor in search result placement. Therefore, a design must build trust, keep your visitor’s attention, and encourage clicks and social sharing.

There are hundreds of details and ingredients that go into successful website designing. However, not everything works for every type of business, Nonetheless, there are ways to improve your website design no matter what industry.

1. Diminish Clutter –

An overly cluttered design can confuse visitors, create distractions, and make finding information difficult. Remove everything that diverts attention from your message.

2. Include White Space –

This is the area left empty on your web pages. The great benefit of white space if making your content easier to read and make guiding a reader’s attention to a call to action more manageable.

3. Use the Power of Color –

Marketing firms have long understood the psychology of color and use this power in everything from advertising to logo design. Whether your image is youthful, wealth, or trust, use colors that strongly conveys that message.

4. Stop Using Stock Photos –

Your visitors know that those stock photos do not represent you or your company. Additionally, these images make your website look very generic. A better choice is using a professional photographer.

5. Improve Navigation –

A visitor to your website should find the information they are looking for within a few seconds. Visitors will leave if they become frustrated. Moreover, primary menus should focus only on main pages.

6. Increase Speed –

It is a simple fact that the longer it takes your site to completely load, the more likely a visitor will become aggravated and leave. Optimize your site to load quickly.

What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk more about ways to improve your website design, or need more information, please contact us.

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Design for the Non-Graphic Designer

Social Media is all about the images. No one has time to stop and read about your day or what’s hot and exciting in the world. They just want to see it. So how can you keep up if you aren’t a graphic designer and can’t afford to hire one? Here’s our list of 5 simple and easy-to-learn online programs that you can use to create stunning graphics without the need for an art degree. Don’t worry, Adobe won’t be involved in this relationship so you can put away your wallet.

#1. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is photo-editing made easy. But they’ve also added features for design and touch-up as well. Their site is primarily free to use with a minimal upgrade fee for certain “Royale” features. With PicMonkey you can crop, add effects, touch up, add text, make collages or even add fun shapes, stickers and themed details to your photos. If you don’t have a photo you want to start from, no worries. Just click the “Design” button on the homepage and create something totally from scratch.

Everything is very easy to find and set up to be completely user-friendly. But you will want to play around with it a bit at first, just to get used to all the features. This site is great for editing your photos before posting them to social media. Or adding a quick block of text to a flyer. Creating a great graphic for your next blog post.

#2 Pixabay

Perhaps you’re thinking…. but I don’t have any photos that I need to edit. I just need to access free, non-copyright photos to use for my business. Pixabay is perfect for just that. They have a staggering collection of over 420,000 quality images that won’t come back to bite you in the legal ass.

They of course also have the option of upgrading to some paid royalty-free photos. But almost always you can find what you’re looking for without needing to do that. They rely heavily on donations so after downloading multiple quality images; you might feel inclined to “buy them coffee”—but it’s never required.

#3 Canva

Canva is a newer platform that was beautifully designed to create stunning graphics with minimal effort. They have hundreds of “templates” organized into various categories such as, “Social Media, Documents, Marketing Materials, Email Headers, Blogging and Books” and more. Each template is sized properly for the platform is was created so no worrying about sizing issues. There are usually about 3 free templates per category that you can use or pay an upgrade fee to use all the features.

Canva is similar to PicMonkey in that they have many of the same editing features but Canva’s templates are a time-saver for sure and also highly beneficial if you aren’t “layout-inclined”. You can also save your pieces publicly or privately if you choose. Publicly allows you to share your work with others in the community and also see what else is being created. It’s a great place for inspiration, or just to ask questions if you aren’t sure how to improve your work.

#4 Dropbox

While Dropbox might not seem like a graphically-inclined site to choose, it’s actually invaluable if you take a great deal of photos using your phone or want to quickly exchange graphics between desktop and mobile. The app and desktop icon interact with each other. So if you set your photos taken on mobile to auto-upload to Dropbox, the next time you open your desktop, they’ll all be there—ready to use.

The same applies for editing. If you use one of the great platforms listed above to say, create a stunning graphic for your next Instagram post, the only way to upload it to Instagram is on your mobile device. No problem! Just save that graphic to Dropbox, and it will also be on your phone. Then you can easily open it, save it to your phone, and share to your heart’s content. Plus Dropbox gives you 2GB for free. If you find you need more than that, upgrading to 1TB of space will cost you just $9.99/mo. Incredibly simple, not to mention a great back up system in case you deleted something from your phone or desktop you weren’t quite finished with. And you can access all your photos/files anywhere you are.

#5 Afterlight

What if you just want an amazing app for mobile use for those on-the-fly times when you can’t sit down at your desktop and create the perfect image and take lots of time doing it? Afterlight is the app for just that! It has 74 of the most beautiful filters. 78 natural textures and 128 frames for you to create just the right look.

It’s awesome if you hate the “perfect square” shape of Instagram photos and want to add more character to those images. Afterlight is very easy to use and once you’ve created the perfect look— sharing is simple with the “save & share ” feature. Here are some shots edited with Afterlight.

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any design needs you may have. http://killerspots.com/

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Seven Sales Strategies the Best Reps Use Daily (and 9 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid)

Who are the superstar salespeople you admire?

Is it David Ogilvy, who literally wrote the manual on sales strategies, or Dale Carnegie, who convinced you it was possible to win friends and influence people?

Whoever your sales icons are, they weren’t born overnight. It took years of fine-tuning their skills to become the amazing salespeople they are. While there’s no shortcut for hard work, we do want to help you streamline the process to achieving sales success. That’s why we gathered the most secret secrets from the best salespeople to share with you as you start on your path to becoming a master salesperson. But, as any good seller knows, what you should do is as important as what you shouldn’t do, which is why we’ve also compiled some of the most common, yet easiest mistakes to avoid. If you’re ready to start to become like your sales heroes (or even surpass them), nailing down these sales strategies skills is the first step. Ready, set, go!

7 Expert Sales Strategies the Best Reps Use

1) Sell benefits, not features.

Research by Impact Communications found 70% of people make purchasing decisions to solve problems, while only 30% make decisions to gain something.

Although your product may have a lot of features that will add to a business, they are more likely to buy something that solves an existing problem. That’s why you want to present them with benefits that reduce the problems the company faces.

2) Set and stick to your ideal buyer personas.

Efforts spread too thin are inefficient and ineffective. Use ideal buyer personas to help you understand the “why” of your ideal customer.

Your buyer personas, which are detailed descriptions of different types of ideal customers for your product, should outline more than basic demographic information, and get to the heart of why a customer needs your product.

By setting clear ideal buyer personas and sticking to them, you’ll stop wasting time with supremely unqualified prospects that suck your energy away from people who could really benefit from your product.

3) Spend time wisely.

Time is money in the sales world, and beyond knowing your ideal buyer personas, you need to have a plan of action each day to maximize your productivity. In fact, the 2014 Sales Execution Trends by Qvidian found that 59% of a salesperson’s time is not spent selling, but is wasted with hunting for sales resources.

Start each day by understanding your goals, and have a clear plan for how you’ll accomplish them. Find a sales or project management platform that can help you keep a strict schedule to maximize productivity.

Another way to increase sales strategies productivity is to limit multitasking. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it takes you twice as long to get a single task done when your brain is pulled in a million different directions. Give yourself a time limit to finish one task at a time; you’ll be more efficient and have a better understanding of what actions are time sucks and when you can get the most accomplished.

4) Personalize your message.

The best salespeople know that developing a personal connection with your clients is the key to success. Start relationships off on the right foot by sending personalized messages to prospects and avoiding “one size fits all” scripts.

Identify the prospect’s unique pain points and tailor your message to address how you can solve those needs. When a prospect feels like you care, you’ve already made the greatest first impression possible, without even stepping inside the room.

5) Make your process measurable.

In order to learn and grow, your process should be measurable, which means you should have a process for collecting quantitative (useable numerical data) and qualitative (details that help you gain an understanding of underlying motivations) information about your process.

To gather both types of information, practice being obsessive about your process. Keep track of each move you make from initial contact to closing the deal and use that information to pinpoint weak spots. You should also keep track of how many cold calls, follow ups, and meetings you do each day. The goal is to document everything so you can optimize your process.

When you do find weaknesses, make improvement actionable, instead of just telling yourself to “do better.” This will give you specific direction on how to improve, and also help you monitor your success.

6) Take notes.

As smart as you are, you don’t have perfect memory (and if you do, we want to hire you). It’s important that you record the promises you make to clients so you can deliver. You also want to take down feedback and important information about their business; clients should never have to repeat themselves, so pay attention.

Additionally, taking notes does more than give you a hard copy of the conversation—it shows clients you care. Take notes using a pen and paper. This gives clients the impression that you’re more attentive and involved in them than if you simply used a laptop or your phone.

7) Tap into the buyer’s emotions.

Use emotion-centric language to address a buyer’s concerns, since our brains rank feelings above logic when making a decision.

Answer objections with the words “feel,” “felt,” and “found,” and work phrases like “I know how you feel…” and “When this customer used the product they felt…” into your presentation.

9 Rookie Sales Strategies Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make

Feel like you’ve got a lot to practice tomorrow? Well we aren’t done yet! Instantly jump from sounding like a beginner to a seasoned pro by avoiding these mistakes most new salespeople make.

1) Don’t forget to define a goal for meetings.

Every interaction with a prospect or client should have an end goal. Make sure you outline the purpose of every meeting and have a metric to measure your success at the end.

2) Don’t be your only advocate.

There’s a limit to how many bold claims you can make about you and your company to a client. Collect endorsements from objective advocates to back you up.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from other clients. According to the Dale Carnegie Group, 91% of customers say they’d give referrals, but only 11% of salespeople ask.

3) Don’t make too many follow-up calls to unqualified buyers.

If a buyer is unqualified or clearly not engaging with you, drop it. Don’t waste time on impossible sells.

Master salespeople take the guesswork out of this step. Use 20 Miles to help you track when emails are opened, which attachments are viewed, and how long the prospect spent going through your files. You can use this information to follow up with the prospect with a targeted pitch, now that you know what about your product is interesting to them.

4) Don’t forget to listen.

If you listen to the prospect’s needs instead of overselling them you can directly answer how your product can soothe their pain points. Master salespeople believe you need to see, hear, and process that information before speaking.

5) Don’t leave a meeting open-ended.

Remember to set clear next steps that outline expectations and prompt action from both parties. If you leave a meeting unsure of what the next step should be, send a simple and straight-forward follow up email asking for clarification.

6) Don’t distract clients with irritating crutch words.

Practice pitches beforehand so you can cut out “umms,” “hmms,” “ers,” and “ahs.” These distracting non-words weaken your argument and lose the client’s attention.

7) Don’t bail on commitments.

Don’t develop a reputation as a salesperson who lacks follow-through. Build trust by keeping your word, or stop making promises you can’t keep.

8) Don’t ignore the budget question.

You can easily waste time pitching a service that’s way beyond your prospect’s budget. Ask questions about their budget upfront so you can determine how high they prioritize your service and you can better tailor your offer to fit their needs.

9) Don’t use statements instead of questions.

You want your close to be firm, but not ambiguous. After a prospect agrees to work with you, clarify the sale with a pointed question. Don’t assume you know the final deal without confirmation from the decision maker.

In truth, the secret to becoming the ultimate seller is practice, practice, practice. Understand your own sales strategies process as much as possible and educate yourself constantly.

For more details, visit Hubspot partner Killerspots.com, Inc.

CREDITS: Written by Nicholas Little

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Facebook Canvas Is Changing How We Do Advertising

Facebook Canvas advertising is no joke. I sincerely and somewhat aggressively recommend to all of my clients. That they use some form of their service as part of their marketing strategy because it’s game is THAT strong. And how could it not be? With approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users that spend 20+ minutes a day using the platform (DMR); it’s definitely an open audience that cannot be ignored.

But how best to reach that audience if everyone else is using the same ad service? Well first of all, it’s ALWAYS important to utilize Facebook’s very comprehensive audience targeting options. Pinpoint your exact customer, as specifically as possible. And then not only are sales more likely, but you’ll be presenting yourself right to them. Without competition from other less specific ads.

It’s obviously still also very important to make sure that your ad graphic (whether it be a static image or a short video) is engaging and interesting. This just means whatever form of image plus copy you use; should be well branded but also something you yourself would want to know more about.

Once you are running consistent engaging Facebook ads, you’re already going to see awesome results in your page engagement and also your product sales. But what’s next?

Facebook Canvas

Canvas 2 — Image Credit: https://canvas.facebook.com/

Enter Canvas.

Facebook’s all new mobile ad unit that now takes your ad from a sponsored post pushing to an external site to a totally Facebook-hosted full page experience where you can scroll and explore all original content. Facebook Canvas is designed to be a way to break through all other ads, telling a fuller story of your brand, through an interactive fresh environment.

When using Canvas, customers will click on the ad, and then see a “fast-loading, full-screen experience where they can browse through a variety of products, before going to the retailer’s website to purchase”. The pro to this type of ad is that the customer doesn’t have to worry about waiting for a website to load. Having a mobile experience that isn’t optimized and having everything they want in a shopping experience using only one app on their phone.

So how do you start using Facebook Canvas NOW?

Well, you join the waitlist. That’s right. Anything worth wanting always involves a waitlist right? But something tells this Marketing Director, this one is worth waiting for.

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com

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Fascinating an Overstimulated Media Market [part I]

[AS FEATURED in ULTIMATE MAGAZINE]

Have you had this experience? Search for an answer on Google, click on a webpage and before you can even complete reading a sentence of information; you are bombarded with an ad or a window to “sign up now”. You haven’t even decided how you feel about this information, page, media or site and already are being told what to do. It’s threatening almost.

The same used to be true for television. Sit down to relax after a long day and within the first three minutes of your selected entertainment, you now find yourself being told exactly how to spend all your hard-earned cash. Except now we have the option to fast-forward through those advertisements. Or bypass them entirely with paid services such as Netflix.

Introduce: mobile device. According to the digital analytics firm Flurry, people spend two hours and fifty-seven minutes per day on average on their mobile devices. Which is ahead of time spent watching television. Obviously, businesses, marketers and advertising agencies cannot ignore that statistic. They must find a way to reach those customers. Enter in, Social Media.

Social Media

Social Media began as something teens were doing in AOL chat rooms. With friends, in their basements as yet another venue to box their parents out of “what was cool”. It was the texting of this generation. But then in February of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg took online networking to a whole new approach. What if people could connect together to build a networked community? Share their thoughts, feelings, updates, photos and even opinions beyond just one-on-one. But within an entire network of friends/family. The possibilities were endless. And now in 2015, as the social networking platforms have expanded, that online community is something a business cannot be without in order to succeed.

The question becomes, how do we gain the attention of that audience? In the near three hour window of time they are spending in Social Media communities. How do we sell to them? These five tips will change the way your business interacts socially. While also giving you that rare moment of attentiveness from your customer.

[TIP ONE]

You do not need to use every social platform available. You might feel being on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest is best in order to reach every possible audience. In actuality what ends up happening is that you spread yourself thin trying to keep up. on each of these vastly different platforms that you aren’t posting quality content to. The audiences that do engage and therefore missing opportunities for your business.

It’s best practice to figure out your customer base. (who they are, where they shop, what they do and what are their needs). And then pick 2-3 social platforms that best suit that customer. You do not want to start a Pinterest page as a law firm because posting the best recipes for crockpot cooking isn’t going to bring you closer to your target customer. You are going to want a Twitter account so you can talk about the latest updates to the law and interesting articles regarding the type of cases you take on.

[TIP TWO]

Along with that idea, the next tip is to focus on which platforms people are using regularly. Posting your very best content on those platforms. In 2014, there were a reported 1.28 billion users on Facebook with those users on average spending 21 minutes per day on the site (Digital Marketing Statistics). That number is five times higher than the number of active users on Twitter; which is still remarkably high at 232 million.

What this means is that businesses are no longer in a place to ignore the use of Social Media if they want to gain any kind of attention from their customers. However, you also cannot just create a Facebook page, fill it with ads and posts about your business and expect users to follow excitedly. You must build a community online. Engage with your fan base. Give them content they are excited to read and comment on and then occasionally remind them about your latest and greatest products and/or services.

—Continued in the next post!

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com/

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Facebook has done it again. What the heck is a Beacon?

Recently I was looking over notifications for one of the Facebook pages I manage when I stumbled into this message alert atop the page about a beacon:

special invitation — Figure 1 Screenshot of beacon invitation

Facebook is certainly one for new innovations that usually aren’t introduced. But rather implemented. Therefore, I was less than shocked to see yet another “Facebook update” that I hadn’t heard of. Even working day-to-day in the Marketing and Social Media world doesn’t necessarily grant you awareness of current trends. But being that I like to have know-how of such events. I thought I’d investigate these new Facebook “beacons” and find out if indeed this was a special invitation.

Basically what I’ve found is such:

facebook beacon — Figure 2 Photo c/o Facebook Help Pages

A Beacon is a Bluetooth device.

Facebook plans to send these devices to businesses with great activity on Facebook within their local area for early access trial runs.

The beacon will interact with your customers’ Facebook apps while visiting your business. To let them know inside “tips” about your business. These tips are based off of comments your friends have made on Facebook, reviews of the business, photos that have been posted and more of that liking.

According to an article posted in Facebook’s Help Center: “Your location is determined using cellular networks, Wi-Fi, GPS and Facebook Bluetooth® beacons. Viewing place tips doesn’t post on Facebook or show people where you are.”

When I clicked “Get Free Beacon” I was taken to a form to fill out name, address and business name. There’s also an option to send the device to a different address. Than that of the business page you were on. If you are like me and managing a page for another company.

Is this the future?

So far as I see it, this new addition to Facebook technology could either be a fantastic advantage for businesses and their customers. Or it could be taken as yet another creepy invasion of technology that we now need to block in our privacy settings. As a Social Media Maven and voice for many businesses soon to receive these beacons. I’m obviously pushing for the former to be true.

At this time we have not yet received the device or put it into action so only time will tell how people react. We will update once we have more information for you and try these little Bluetooth gems for ourselves.

Have you heard about Beacons? Were you invited to use one? What are your thoughts on this technology and Facebook introducing it to their platform?

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