Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the world’s leading digital marketing experts, has identified eight critical trends that will shape marketing success in 2026. These insights come from analyzing patterns across hundreds of brands and dozens of industries, revealing shifts that most marketers haven’t even noticed yet.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore each trend in detail and provide actionable strategies you can implement immediately to stay ahead of the competition.

1. Stop Sending Traffic Off-Platform: The New Lead Capture Revolution

The traditional approach of driving social media traffic to landing pages is killing your reach and costing you leads. Here’s why this fundamental shift matters and how to adapt.

The Platform Penalty Problem

Social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook actively throttle content that attempts to send users off-platform. Even innocent phrases like “click the link in my bio” or “visit our website” trigger algorithmic penalties that:

• Dramatically reduce your organic reach
• Increase your advertising costs
• Limit your content’s visibility to your existing audience

This happens because platforms want to keep users within their ecosystem, not send them elsewhere. When you try to move traffic off-platform, you’re working against the algorithm’s core objective.

The Mobile Drop-Off Crisis

Even when users do click through to external pages, mobile conversion rates suffer due to:

• Slow-loading forms and pages
• Poor mobile optimization
• Friction in the conversion process
• Context switching between platforms

The On-Platform Solution

The solution is to capture leads directly within the platform using automation tools like ManyChat. Here’s how it works:

1. Trigger Setup: Users comment with a specific keyword on your post
2. Automated Response: The tool automatically sends them a direct message
3. Lead Capture: Collect their information without them leaving the platform
4. Nurture Sequence: Continue the conversation through automated messaging

This approach delivers multiple benefits:

• Reduces friction and increases conversion rates
• Boosts engagement signals to the algorithm
• Captures higher-quality leads based on behavioral intent
• Maintains platform algorithm favor

2. Search Everywhere Optimization: Beyond Google SEO

Search has fragmented across multiple platforms, and your SEO strategy needs to evolve accordingly. This trend represents one of the most significant shifts in digital marketing.

The New Search Landscape

Search is no longer confined to Google. Consider these staggering statistics:

• Instagram: 6.5 billion searches per day
• YouTube: Over 3 billion searches daily
• TikTok: Emerging as a primary product discovery engine
• ChatGPT: Becoming a trusted research and discovery tool
• Snapchat: Invested $400 million in Perplexity to power their search

Buyers now jump across platforms like stepping stones, and most brands only show up on one of them.

Implementing Search Everywhere Optimization

To succeed in this new landscape, you need to optimize for discovery across all major platforms:

Keyword Integration Strategy

Weave your target keywords naturally into:

• Video scripts and audio content
• Captions and descriptions
• On-screen text and graphics
• Hashtags and metadata

Topic Cluster Development

Create multiple pieces of content around the same core theme to:

• Establish topical authority
• Help platforms understand your expertise
• Increase your chances of being discovered
• Build comprehensive coverage of your niche

Conversational Search Optimization

Optimize for how people actually search by:

• Using natural language and full phrases
• Including audio captions and transcripts
• Adding visual text that algorithms can read
• Matching user intent across different query types

3. The AI Slop Problem: Using AI Intelligently, Not Blindly

While AI promises increased efficiency, many marketing teams are experiencing the opposite due to hallucinations, errors, and poor implementation strategies.

The Hidden Costs of AI Dependence

Research shows that both free and paid AI tools have similar hallucination rates, meaning teams are trusting confident-sounding but completely incorrect information. This leads to:

• Wasted time on rework and corrections
• Campaign failures based on false data
• Decreased team productivity despite AI adoption
• Loss of critical thinking and validation skills

The Real Story Behind AI Layoffs

Many companies blame AI for workforce reductions, but industry experts, including Perplexity’s CEO, suggest the real reasons are:

• Overhiring during growth periods
• Slower-than-expected division growth
• Profitability pressures
• Market correction needs

AI becomes a convenient public explanation that sounds better to shareholders than admitting strategic miscalculations.

How Top Performers Actually Use AI

Successful marketers don’t use AI blindly—they use it strategically:

AI for Ideation, Not Execution

• Generate first drafts, not final content
• Brainstorm ideas and approaches
• Explore different angles and perspectives
• Create content outlines and structures

Verification and Quality Control

• Cross-reference all AI-generated statistics
• Verify sources and publication dates
• Fact-check claims and assertions
• Build internal quality assurance processes

AI as a Discovery Channel

The biggest ROI comes from using AI platforms like ChatGPT as discovery channels to drive traffic and conversions, rather than just content creation tools.

4. Digital PR: The New SEO Foundation

As AI tools become discovery engines, they’re prioritizing trusted sources and external validation over self-promotional content.

Why Digital PR Matters More Than Ever

AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are developing authority systems similar to Google’s, but with key differences:

• They favor external citations over self-promotion
• Structured content gets cited more frequently
• Consistent formatting improves citation chances
• Micro-niche authority builds compound results

The Listicle Strategy

Publishing comprehensive “top 10” lists in specific niches helps train AI to see you as an authority:

• Top 10 SaaS marketing agencies
• Top 10 e-commerce optimization tools
• Top 10 affordable marketing solutions
• Top 10 franchise marketing strategies

The more micro-categories you own, the more AI platforms cite you as a source.

Building External Authority

Focus on getting other trusted sources to cite and recommend you:

• Pitch journalists and industry publications
• Contribute to industry reports and studies
• Participate in expert roundups
• Build relationships with industry influencers

Technical Optimization for AI Citation

Make your content easy for AI to extract and cite:

• Use clear headers and bullet points
• Include tables and structured data
• Add schema markup to your pages
• Keep content updated with last-modified dates
• Integrate case studies and verifiable statistics

5. AI Ads: Facebook Targeting Meets Google Intent

When ChatGPT launches advertising, it will combine the best of both worlds: Facebook’s behavioral targeting with Google’s search intent accuracy.

The New Advertising Paradigm

AI ads will target users based on:

• Complete search history and patterns
• Intent signals over time
• Behavioral interests and goals
• Problem identification and solution seeking

For example, if someone searches for marketing agencies but their last 9 searches were about weight loss, the AI might show them a fitness ad instead because that’s their primary current interest.

Preparing for Identity-Based Targeting

To succeed in this new advertising landscape:

Define Your Category Early

• Establish clear brand associations
• Build topical authority in your niche
• Create content that teaches AI who you help
• Focus on specific problem-solution relationships

Leverage First-Party Data

• Integrate CRM data with ad platforms
• Use purchase history for targeting
• Track customer interaction patterns
• Build detailed customer personas

Create Specific Positioning

Instead of saying “we’re a marketing agency,” say “we help SaaS companies scale from $1M to $10M through performance marketing.” This specificity trains AI to understand exactly who you serve.

6. Browsers as AI Platforms: The Next Discovery Frontier

Browsers are evolving into AI-powered platforms that provide answers, recommendations, and ads before users even visit websites.

The Browser Evolution

Major browsers are integrating AI capabilities:

• Chrome’s Gemini: AI-powered search and recommendations
• ChatGPT’s Atlas: Browser-integrated AI assistance
• Perplexity’s Comet: Search and discovery integration

This means users can get answers, comparisons, and recommendations directly in their browser without visiting individual websites.

Preparing for Browser-Centric Discovery

Early Adoption Strategy

• Start running AI-driven ad campaigns (like Google’s Performance Max)
• Learn how these systems optimize and target
• Build experience with AI advertising platforms
• Test different creative and messaging approaches

Technical Preparation

• Implement comprehensive structured data
• Use schema markup throughout your site
• Create clear, scannable content formatting
• Optimize for easy AI extraction

Content Strategy Shift

Treat your website as a data source that feeds AI systems, not just a destination for human visitors. This means:

• Organizing information for easy extraction
• Creating comprehensive resource pages
• Maintaining accurate, up-to-date information
• Building authority through consistent, quality content

7. Live Content: The Authenticity Advantage

In a world saturated with AI-generated content, live video provides the authenticity and human connection that audiences crave.

The Live Content Opportunity

Despite growing demand, few brands are capitalizing on live content:

• Nearly 30% of YouTube users watch live streams weekly
• Live content receives higher engagement rates
• Platforms prioritize live content in their algorithms
• Live streams build stronger audience relationships

Benefits of Regular Live Content

Audience Connection

• Builds trust through real-time interaction
• Humanizes your brand
• Creates community around your content
• Establishes thought leadership

Content Multiplication

• One live stream creates multiple content pieces
• Platforms auto-generate clips in different formats
• Horizontal and vertical versions created automatically
• Repurpose into shorts, reels, and TikToks

Live Content Strategy

Consistency Over Production Value

• Go live weekly with valuable content
• Focus on teaching and helping your audience
• Answer questions and address current trends
• Share case studies and behind-the-scenes insights

Content Ideas

• Q&A sessions with your audience
• Industry trend analysis and commentary
• Case study breakdowns
• Tool demonstrations and tutorials
• Guest interviews and collaborations

8. Multilingual Content: Global Reach Without Barriers

Language barriers are disappearing thanks to AI-powered translation and voice synthesis technologies.

The Global Content Revolution

Tools like YouTube’s auto-dubbing and HeyGen enable automatic translation and voice synthesis in multiple languages, allowing creators to:

• Reach global audiences instantly
• Expand into new markets without additional costs
• Generate 30-50% of views from non-native languages
• Scale content production globally

Implementation Strategy

Platform Optimization

• Enable multilanguage audio on YouTube videos
• Use automatic translation features
• Optimize video settings for global distribution
• Monitor performance across different languages

Website Globalization

• Implement hreflang tags for international SEO
• Add language selectors to your site
• Localize call-to-action buttons and forms
• Ensure checkout processes support multiple languages
• Create region-specific landing pages

Content Localization

• Adapt content for cultural differences
• Consider local market preferences
• Adjust messaging for different regions
• Test performance across markets

Implementing These Trends: Your 2026 Action Plan

To successfully implement these trends, prioritize based on your current capabilities and market position:

Immediate Actions (Next 30 Days)

1. Set up on-platform lead capture using tools like ManyChat
2. Enable multilanguage audio on your video content
3. Start going live weekly with educational content
4. Audit your content for AI-friendly formatting

Medium-Term Strategy (Next 90 Days)

1. Develop topic clusters for search everywhere optimization
2. Launch a digital PR campaign to build external authority
3. Implement comprehensive structured data on your website
4. Begin testing AI-driven advertising campaigns

Long-Term Vision (Next 6-12 Months)

1. Build a comprehensive content ecosystem across all platforms
2. Establish category leadership in your niche
3. Develop global content distribution strategies
4. Create systems for consistent quality control and verification

Conclusion: Leading the 2026 Marketing Revolution

The digital marketing landscape of 2026 will reward brands that understand and adapt to these fundamental shifts. Success will come to those who:

• Embrace platform-native lead capture strategies
• Optimize for discovery across all search surfaces
• Use AI intelligently while maintaining human oversight
• Build authority through digital PR and external validation
• Prepare for identity-based advertising
• Optimize for browser-integrated AI discovery
• Leverage live content for authentic connection
• Scale globally through multilingual content

The brands that implement these strategies now will have a significant competitive advantage as these trends accelerate throughout 2026. Don’t wait for your competitors to catch up—start implementing these changes today.

For more insights on digital marketing strategy and implementation, visit FML Marketing for expert guidance on navigating the evolving digital landscape.

The post The 8 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Define 2026: A Complete Strategy Guide appeared first on FML Marketing.

This detailed guide shows you proven lead generation methods that work on content marketing, social media platforms, and professional networking. You’ll find practical ways to boost your online presence, build your personal brand, and pick the right lead generation services. The techniques range from content creation to targeted ad campaigns. These approaches help real estate professionals build reliable lead generation systems that propel business growth.

Harness the Power of Content Marketing

Content marketing is the life-blood of successful real estate lead generation that works through many channels. Email marketing stands out with remarkable results and generates an impressive ROI of €38.92 for every €0.93 spent. Real estate professionals can utilize different content formats to attract and nurture potential clients.

Start a real estate blog

A real estate blog you manage to keep active helps build your credibility and brings natural traffic to your website. Your content should target specific local market needs and provide valuable insights for buyers and sellers alike. Successful blogs feature comprehensive neighborhood guides, current market updates, and property highlights that attract potential clients looking for local real estate information.

Create valuable lead magnets

Lead magnets help you collect contact details from potential clients. Real estate professionals can share these helpful resources:

• Property Evaluation Guides
• First-time Homebuyer Checklists
• Investment Property Analysis Templates
• Neighborhood Market Reports
• Home Staging Guidelines

Produce video content

Video dominates today’s internet landscape. Statistics show that over 83% of internet content is video-based. Real estate agents can boost their online presence through these compelling video formats:

1. Property Virtual Tours
2. Market Update Reports
3. Client Testimonials
4. Neighborhood Showcase Videos
5. Expert Tips and Advice

Develop an email newsletter

Email marketing works great in real estate. Industry emails have open rates exceeding 20% and click-through rates of nearly 4%. The National Association of REALTORS® reports that 89% of potential clients prefer email marketing over social media and text messages. Real estate newsletters should include:

Real estate professionals should arrange their newsletter content to match business goals while keeping subscriber priorities in mind. Agents should plan their email frequency carefully – daily for listing alerts and weekly for general market updates. Successful newsletters include local market insights, property features, and community news to keep subscribers interested and bring in steady leads.

Maximize Your Online Presence

Real estate professionals need a strong online presence to generate quality leads in today’s digital world. A properly managed digital footprint affects an agent’s visibility and credibility in their local market by a lot.

Optimize your Google My Business listing

Your Google My Business (GMB) profile becomes a powerful lead generation tool that delivers impressive returns at zero cost. Real estate professionals should take these steps to optimize their profiles:

1. Business Details: Add detailed business information, working hours, and contact details
2. Visual Content Quality: Upload professional photos and videos showcasing properties and office space
3. Service Area Coverage: Define your target zip codes and neighborhoods
4. Regular Updates: Share your listings, events, and market updates
5. Customer Engagement: Answer questions from customers quickly

Encourage and manage online reviews

Online reviews greatly affect how potential clients make decisions. 90% of consumers say positive reviews influence their buying choices. Real estate professionals need a systematic approach to handle reviews effectively:

• Ask satisfied clients for reviews automatically
• Give quick responses to all reviews, regardless of sentiment
• Handle negative feedback with professionalism and move discussions offline
• Display positive testimonials on all marketing channels
• Keep track of review platforms regularly for new feedback

Participate in online forums and Q&A sites

Active participation in online communities helps you establish authority and connect with potential clients. Real estate professionals can share market insights, answer questions, and build relationships with prospects on these platforms. Your contributions should demonstrate expertise in the property sector and create meaningful conversations with community members.

Property forums are excellent networking hubs that connect professionals with potential clients, partners, and mentors. Consistent, high-quality contributions and meaningful discussions help agents become respected voices in their local market. This strong online reputation naturally attracts qualified prospects.

Network Strategically

Networking serves as the life-blood of successful real estate lead generation that combines traditional relationship-building with modern professional connections. Real estate professionals who involve themselves in networking activities see their lead conversion rates increase by a lot and their business relationships grow stronger.

Attend industry events and conferences

Industry events are a great way to get opportunities for real estate professionals to expand their network and stay current with market trends. Major conferences like Inman Connect and Tom Ferry’s Success Summit bring together thousands of agents. They learn about industry developments and build valuable connections. These events offer multiple benefits:

• Connect with intellectual influencers and innovators
• Learn innovative marketing strategies
• Develop referral partnerships
• Meet potential clients and partners directly

Join local real estate investment groups

Real estate investment associations (REIAs) act as networking centers where professionals can grow their business. These groups create an ideal space to share knowledge and build relationships. Property professionals should regularly attend local investment meetings that attract motivated buyers and sellers.

Your participation in these groups becomes more valuable when you:

1. Show up regularly to become a familiar face
2. Contribute your market knowledge during group discussions
3. Take on leadership roles when available
4. Work with others on investment projects
5. Stay in touch with members between meetings

Volunteer in community organizations

Community involvement creates authentic connections and shows dedication to local development. Real estate professionals who take part in community service get more referral business and gain deeper local market knowledge. Their active participation in local organizations builds genuine credibility that no amount of advertising can match.

Real estate agents can serve on museum boards, join neighborhood planning committees, and support local schools. These activities make them trusted advisors who truly understand their community’s needs and values. The time they spend serving the community builds meaningful client relationships and brings professional recognition.

Real estate professionals should choose activities that bring communities together instead of divisive initiatives. This path appeals to more people while keeping professional neutrality. By networking in these three key areas, agents can build a resilient lead generation system that combines professional growth, investment prospects, and community service.

Implement Innovative Lead Generation Techniques

Lead generation techniques have reshaped the real estate industry through state-of-the-art technology and evidence-based approaches to connect with potential clients. Real estate agents can now stand out in a competitive market and provide valuable services to their prospects.

Use virtual reality home tours

Virtual reality (VR) tours have transformed property showcasing and reduced unnecessary physical visits by 70%. Buyers can explore properties completely before they schedule in-person viewings. Modern VR tours come with these powerful features:

1. Interactive 360-degree views of both interior and exterior spaces
2. Smooth navigation between different areas of the property
3. Integration with floor plans and location markers
4. User-friendly interface with call-to-action buttons
5. Mobile device compatibility

VR technology works best when properties are under construction. Agents can show realistic previews to secure early commitments. Property selling or renting time can be cut in half, and agents need only 5 physical visits instead of the usual 10.

Offer free home valuations

Automated home valuation tools are excellent lead magnets for real estate professionals. These tools give immediate value to potential sellers and collect their contact details. The process has these features:

• Quick property valuations that run automatically
• Complete market analysis reports
• Details about neighborhoods and similar properties
• Lead forms you can customize
• Systems that follow up automatically

Property valuation landing pages play a significant role in lead generation. They create a fair exchange where contact information unlocks valuable property insights. Both parties win – sellers get accurate property values and agents grow their database of prospects.

Create neighborhood guides

Detailed neighborhood guides serve as valuable content assets for real estate professionals who focus on hyper-local markets. These guides must address the main concerns of potential buyers through several components:

Essential Components:

• Real estate market trends and statistics
• Demographics and population data
• School district information and rankings
• Local amenities and points of interest
• Transportation options and commute times
• Cost of living indicators

Real estate agents should keep their guides fresh with updated content and verify all data sources to work effectively. Original images, infographics, and maps improve visual appeal and help readers understand better. Real estate professionals report a soaring win in lead generation through well-laid-out neighborhood guides, especially when they have downloadable versions behind lead capture forms.

These innovative techniques work best when applied systematically. Agents who blend these approaches see better engagement rates and higher quality leads. This results in quicker sales cycles and better conversion rates.

Leverage Paid Lead Generation Services

Real estate professionals have a great chance to invest in paid lead generation services that can stimulate their business growth. Research shows that average cost per lead in real estate ranges from €37.07 to €926.66. Real estate agents must review their options and implement strategies that work.

Assess top real estate lead companies

Real estate professionals need to think over several important factors to select a lead generation service provider. The market has specialized solutions that include:

• CINC: Masters the art of hyper-local lead generation
• Market Leader: Delivers predictable exclusive leads
• Zillow Premier Agent: Excels at buyer lead capture
• Real Geeks: Creates affordable and complete solutions
• Catalyze AI: Specializes in exclusive inherited property leads

Real estate agents should look at these critical factors to pick the right provider:

1. Lead quality and exclusivity
2. Geographic targeting capabilities
3. Customer support availability
4. Integration with existing CRM systems
5. Contract terms and flexibility

Understand the costs and benefits

Smart businesses need to think about financial impacts and potential returns when investing in paid leads. Studies show that referred clients have a higher lifetime value by 25%, while new client acquisition costs 6-7 times more than retaining existing ones.

Cost Considerations:

• Average cost per lead from paid search: €61.18
• Monthly service fees: €92.67 to €370.66
• Social media leads starting at: €5.56 per lead

Benefits of Paid Lead Services:

• Pre-qualified prospects that save your time
• Steady lead flow that creates predictable revenue
• Advanced targeting capabilities
• Integrated tracking and analytics
• Automated lead capture systems

Implement lead nurturing strategies

Lead nurturing plays a significant role in maximizing return on investment. Statistics show that nurtured leads spend 47% more than non-nurtured ones. Real estate professionals need a complete nurturing strategy that works through:

Automated Follow-up Systems: Lead management software helps track and follow up with clients systematically. No potential client gets missed. A successful nurturing campaign should include:

• Email sequences tailored to each client
• Regular market updates
• Property alerts based on client priorities
• Educational content sharing
• Automated response systems

Companies that excel at lead nurturing create 50% more sales-ready leads and spend 33% less. Agents should keep communication consistent and share valuable market insights and property details to convert more leads.

Real estate lead management software helps agents organize, track and stay in touch with leads systematically. This approach builds stronger relationships with potential clients who aren’t ready to buy or sell yet. A steady stream of future business opportunities follows naturally.

Real estate professionals should blend paid lead generation services with strong nurturing strategies. This combined approach maximizes investment returns and builds a steady flow of qualified prospects. Success depends on picking the right mix of services and creating follow-up systems that line up with business goals and what the target market needs.

Focus on Personal Branding

Personal branding sets agents apart in today’s competitive real estate market. Agents need a distinct identity to connect with and keep their clients. Studies show that real estate professionals with powerful personal brands gain more credibility and generate more leads enhanced credibility and increased lead generation potential.

Develop a unique personal brand

Real estate professionals can stand out from market competition and attract ideal clients through a distinctive personal brand. Research shows that buyers and sellers prefer agents with 5+ years old reputations who specialize in their specific needs and niche. Everything in brand building includes:

• Building an authentic persona
• Crafting a clear value message
• Maintaining visual identity
• Managing professional reputation
• Standing out in the market

A personal brand emerges from thoughtful self-reflection and careful planning. Real estate professionals should leverage their strengths and craft a brand message that captures their client value effectively.

Consistently showcase your expertise

Your expertise builds trust and credibility in the real estate market. Real estate professionals who keep sharing valuable content become trusted resources in their communities. Here are proven ways to showcase your expertise:

1. Write helpful blog posts that answer common real estate questions
2. Create detailed market analysis reports
3. Team up with industry partners to host educational webinars
4. Use social media platforms to share your professional knowledge
5. Make videos that show your market expertise

Helpful content and advice are the foundations of real estate agent personal branding. Real estate agents who provide valuable tips to buyers and sellers naturally position themselves as experts and boost their community visibility.

Build your personal brand on every platform

Personal branding needs consistent messaging on multiple platforms. Real estate professionals should project a unified brand image through both digital and traditional marketing channels. A detailed brand strategy should include website development, social media presence, and professional networking.

Digital platforms help amplify your brand message. Real estate professionals should use Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to highlight their expertise and build client connections. A well-planned social media strategy strengthens brand identity by connecting with the audience and showing unique value.

Brand consistency goes beyond visual elements to include: Content Quality: Regular updates with valuable, market-relevant information Communication Style: A consistent voice on all platforms Visual Identity: Unified design elements in marketing materials Professional Image: Consistent representation in business interactions Client Experience: Delivering brand promises through exceptional service

Real estate professionals must create branded content that sells while providing outstanding customer service to build loyalty. This strategy helps stand out from competitors and lets excellent reputations generate referrals naturally.

Building a personal brand demands authenticity and transparency. Studies reveal that real estate professionals who let their personality, values, and expertise shine through their branding create stronger client connections. This genuine approach builds credibility with the audience and makes it easier for potential clients to trust them.

Note that personal branding represents your promise to customers. Success comes from consistently providing quality content that raises credibility and helps potential clients remember you when they need real estate services. A well-planned personal brand creates a steady flow of ideal clients while building relationships based on empathy, trust, and transparency.

Conclusion

Success in real estate lead generation comes from balancing proven digital strategies with traditional relationship-building methods. Top agents excel by using multiple channels that include content marketing, social media, community involvement, and personal networking. Their detailed strategies create multiple ways to connect with potential clients and build credibility through market presence and valuable content.

Real estate professionals can grow their business steadily when they consistently apply these lead generation techniques with strong personal branding. Market data reveals that agents who generate leads through multiple channels build stronger relationships with clients and convert more leads into sales. These professionals become trusted advisors in their communities by adopting proven techniques, which leads to steady business growth through both digital and personal connections.OriginalHumanized

The post Real Estate Lead Generation: Proven Techniques for Success appeared first on FML Marketing.

We are regularly asked if we know of any sites where you can download good free stock photos. Since we’ve been in web design for roughly 10 years, we know them all, so it’s just as handy to share this information with you in this article. There’s plenty of choice in this area, but we’ve listed our personal top 6 (in random order) below for you.

Freepik

Our favourite recourse for free stock pics is for sure Freepik. This website is a must for anyone active on social media or with content marketing. And it even goes beyond just photos. You can also download icons, vector/psd.ai files to customise later with photoshop or Illustrator. Best of all…the database is updated every day and we are sure you will find some relevant pictures here.

Unsplash

Unsplash’s database is impressive with more than 200,000 high-resolution photos. The platform grows daily with hundreds of new photos thanks to more than 40,000 photographers who have all made their photos available free of charge for both personal and commercial use. Visit website: https://unsplash.com/

Above we give the creator credits for his/her work, but this is not mandatory. We do it for blogs, but not for other pages on the website.

You can create an account on the website with which you can create your own collections. With an evening of inspiration you can easily create a beautiful collection where you can have a great time in your blogs or social posts. You can easily search for individual photos, but with each search term you immediately get to see the collections that others have already made on that search term.

Pixabay

Another very nice site with a lot of choice is Pixabay. This platform has over a million images to choose from and besides photos, it also has illustrations, vector files, illustrations and videos. As with Unsplash, you can use all materials freely and it is not mandatory to mention the source of the photo.

Pixabay is available in Dutch, so if your English is not too good, then this is probably a better option than Unsplash, for example. On Pixabay you can also create a free account with which you can save your favorite images, follow other users and even send messages.

Pexels

Pexels is a bit smaller than the other free stock photo services, but still a nice site to browse through. With an estimated 50,000 images, there’s always something in between for a blog post or a social post (maybe together with Canva). The database of Pexels grows monthly with about 3000 images, so it’s definitely worth a bookmark!

Magdeleine

One of the nicest free stock photo websites is Magdeleine. Although this platform does not have the offer of all previously mentioned websites, they make up for that with the quality of the photos. Magdeleine prides itself on the fact that all photos on the site have been personally selected on quality and nothing has been lied about. The many original images lend themselves perfectly to blogs or posts for inspiration. Especially if you do something in coaching or management we would definitely look for the tag “People” on the website.

Burst

Burst is a free photo database from Shopify (an e-commerce platform) and offers a nice collection of photos that you can use without mentioning any source. You can use and edit the photos commercially as well as non-commercially.

There is no need to create an account on this website and you can download photos in both low and high resolution. The latter is for example super handy if you need an image for printed matter such as a flyer or brochure. You can search the site in English, but you can also browse through various collections to see if there is something in between for you.

FML Marketing

Client that create a website or webshop with us always wget access to a number of paid stock photo services. For example, you can use up to 20 Freepik Premium photos to build your website or shop at no extra cost.

Thank you for reading our blog! FML Marketing is an online marketing agency, located in Alkmaar, The Netherlands and Estepona, Spain. We specialise in web design, SEO and PPC marketing campaigns.

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Questions? Feel free to contact us for free advice on photos and web design!

The post Free stock photos: 6 of our favourite websites appeared first on FML Marketing.

We manage several large accounts within our company. Accounts that spend over 1000€ per month on social media advertisement. But Facebook ads can also work for you on a small scale. You can already start at 5 euros a day and can work very flexibly.

You may have heard stories about people boosting posts and only getting likes from false profiles. Indeed, this happens regularly when you use the Boost button.

Facebook Business Manager

But if you handle your Facebook ads properly, you don’t use the Boost button, but the Facebook Ad Manager. Sounds difficult? It really isn’t. In this blog post, I’ll give you a beginner’s training on Facebook Ads.

1. Why advertise on facebook?

Facebook is a huge platform. There are approx. 1.5 million registered people on the Costa del Sol and 75% of them even login daily. Moreover, you can find any target group on Facebook. You can use all the information that Facebook collects about its users to better attune your target group.

Unlike Google Ads, you don’t target keywords, but target groups. So you don’t have to wait for someone to look for keywords that are about your product and then try to place the highest bid. With Facebook ads, you can create the need yourself.

Facebook Ads is very flexible. You can start from 5 euros (per day) to hundreds or even thousands of euros per day. But above all: With Facebook ads, you can increase your impact enormously. Much more than is possible if you only focus on organic reach (or hope for viral reach).

2. Types of ads on facebook

Facebook has different types of advertisements. There are 3 major categories:

• Awareness
• Considerations
• Conversion

Maybe these words sound familiar to you, or do they ring a bell? They follow (more or less) the funnel or funnel in which your customers come before buying from you. Important for you to start is that you decide what you want to achieve with your advertisement. Start with the end in mind!

What do you want the ad to do? Do you want to reach more people with your update? Or do you want people to like your page? Do you want people to see your video, or do you want them to click through to read your blog post or even download your e-book? Depending on your choice you will get different options, your ad will look different and will be optimized differently.

Facebook Advertisement: campaigns in three layers 

We keep saying “Facebook Ads”, but a Facebook ad is more than just an ad.

Facebook ads are divided into 3 levels:

1. Campaigns
2. Ad sets
3. Ads

A campaign contains one or more ad sets. And each ad set contains 1 or more ads.

There are a number of settings at each level

1. CAMPAIGN LEVEL

BIDDING TYPE:
The bidding type is fairly new on Facebook ads. You can choose between “auction” and “range and frequency”. Range and frequency is mainly used for large campaigns. So I advise you to always go for the “auction” principle, where you automatically let Facebook bid for your ad. It may sound complicated but it isn’t.

OBJECTIVE:
What do you want to achieve with your ad? Each campaign has one specific objective. If you have multiple objectives (e.g. more likes and more visitors to your website) you have to create 2 campaigns.

2. AD SET LEVEL

GOAL GROUP:
Here you decide who you want your ad to see. You can set up target groups on the basis of Facebook data, or on the basis of your own data (e.g. website visitors or people on your e-mail list).

PLACE:
Where do you want your ad to be displayed? You can choose between computers vs. mobile, and between Facebook News review, Facebook Right column, Instagram and the reasonably new Audience Network (ads on other websites).

BUDGET & PLANNING:
Here you determine your budget and the duration of your campaign. You can let them run endlessly, only for certain days, or even only for certain moments of the day.

3. ADVERTISING LEVEL

INDICATION:
The classic ad has 1 image, but you can also create a video, a carousel (multiple images next to each other) or a slide show for your ad.

MEDIA:
Once you’ve chosen your format, choose the photos or videos you want to advertise with.

TEXT:
In addition to an image or video, you can also add text to your image. In any case, the text above it, but in the case of links, for example, the text below it as well.

PAGE & LINK:
Every ad on Facebook starts from a page. Here you determine which page (or which Instagram account) and where the link should lead to.

Note: if you promote your posted messages, you can no longer make changes to the text and image of the post itself.

Facebook is an auction system

Facebook ads work through an auction system. There are only limited places for ads to show to the people. Your ad will be shown to a person if you make the highest bid at that time. Well, that sounds complicated, but this all happens in fractions of a second and is fully automatic. All you have to do is decide how much you want to pay the maximum to display your ad. There’s a lot going on technically, but the most important thing to know is that the price you ultimately pay is influenced by the target group you target and the performance of your ad. The less active advertisements (from other bidders) to your target group and the better your ad works (conversions, engagement, landing page experience), the less you will pay.

Selecting the target group

On the Costa del Sol, Facebook has over 1.5 million users. And it would be nice to reach all 1.5 million, but not really realistic (unless you have a huge marketing budget.)

Suppose you could call 10 people from your address book to sell your new offer, would you choose 10 first or would you go for a selection of 10 people who you know are most likely to buy effectively?

The same applies to advertising on Facebook. The better you select who can see your ad…your target group, the better your results will be. The better you define your target group, the more people will click. And if people click quickly, you will pay less per click than if no one ever clicks. See the bidding system above.

That’s why it’s important that you make your Facebook advertisements as close as possible to your target group. Look at it this way: the more of those 1.5 million people you exclude, the less “waste” you have. The fewer people you reach who will never click (and buy).

How to select your target group

You determine your target group on the basis of data from Facebook, such as age, place of residence, gender, language, but also interests, employer, position, …

Play around with the options, add things and especially get started with “detailed target groups”. Try to reach your ideal customer on that basis. Here you can choose the suggestions from Facebook (browse through the categories), or you can type something yourself and choose from the options that come up. If the option is not available, you can’t target it.

In addition to these options, you can also target based on your own data, such as retargeting of people who have visited your website or people who are on your e-mail list. But that’s something we will cover in other, more in-depth blog posts. For now, let’s focus on the target group and the regular options within Facebook Business Manager.

Protip: You can put different types of target groups in different ad sets to test them against each other.

The creative (ad)

Finally, I’d like to discuss the creative. So the advertisement itself. Work with images or videos that attract attention: Bright colors that break the pattern of Facebook. And work with texts that appeal to and convince people. Preferably put no or as little text as possible on your image. Images of which more than 20% of the surface contains text will work much less well.

Protip: Create different images and texts and test them in each ad set.

Related article: How to build a professional Facebook Page

Getting Started with Facebook Ads

You now know the basics of Facebook ads. Now it’s mainly a matter of GETTING STARTED. If you need any help, or if you do not have time to do this yourself, contact FML Marketing. We are a professional online marketing agency. Specialized in online advertisement on the Costa del Sol. We are located in Estepona, between Manilva and Marbella on the Costa del Sol.

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Does your website attract few visitors or do you spend a lot of money on advertising every month? Then it’s probably time that you started investing (more) in creating good content. How? Not by just writing texts for your website. Online success requires a strategic approach: content that meets the needs of the visitors. In this blog post, we will show you how to create such a content strategy for the web.

What is a content strategy?

A content strategy (or content marketing strategy) is related to the marketing strategy, but then purely and simply focused on creating and sharing content. Because this is very broad, different forms of marketing can also fall under content marketing. Think for example of e-mail marketing, social media marketing, and search engine marketing.

Our definition:

A plan of approach for creating different forms of content to attract more visitors to your website, generate more sales and attract more customers to your brand.

The advantages of a strong content strategy

Of course, you don’t make a content strategy without a reason. These are the advantages that a good content strategy can offer:

1. Ensures that all content forms a whole. Every piece of content that you create has to support a different piece of content. In the long run, this amount of information ensures that your website is seen as an authority by Google.
2. Empowers the systematic growth of your website. A website that is regularly updated with new and good content creates new visitors and more opportunities to score high in Google.
3. It helps you to better represent the interests of your visitors. Content that is valuable to the visitor delivers more than content that is about your company, services or products.
4. The content delivers the desired results. A large part of the content created by companies is either not findable or does not yield enough conversions. With a strategy you increase the effect of the content you create.
5. It makes it easier to sustain the creation. Do you want to benefit from the advantages of content marketing? Then it’s important that you don’t stop your efforts after 1 month. With a good strategy you will make sure that you can go on for months to come!

Set up a content strategy step by step

A good content strategy consists of the following components: a description of the goals, the positioning, the target group, the content channels/forms, the frequency and the procedures for placing the content.

What are your goals?
Content marketing can bring benefits for the findability of your website in Google, your brand awareness or your relationship with existing and new customers. Clear goals are needed to be able to test whether your efforts are producing the desired results. Examples of goals are:

• Increasing the findability of your website
• Attract more visitors to your website
• Build brand authority
• Strengthening the relationship with the customer
• Reduce customer service efforts
• Increase the number of leads
• Improving the customer experience
• Become a Thought leader
• Transferring certain knowledge to the target group
• Convincing people of a particular point of view

The trick is to formulate your goals in such a way that they are specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and time-bound (SMART). For some goals, this will be easier than for others. For example, it is less easy to test whether your content marketing efforts improve the customer experience or make you a thought leader. However, you can easily solve this problem by making a distinction between your short-term goals and your ambitious long-term goals. The latter is actually the reason why you start with content marketing.

The impact of Content Creation on SEO

Positioning

Before you start creating content, it’s good to know who your competitors are and what they do in terms of content marketing.

On which channels are they present? What kind of content do they create? On what keywords are they found? What is the tone of voice? And how often do they post? The purpose of answering these kinds of questions is actually to find out whether there is still room for an extra player in the market. A competition analysis, therefore, helps you to find your distinctive character. By determining what your strengths and weaknesses are and what opportunities and threats are present, you research which positioning works for your content marketing strategy.

Target group

If you try to reach everyone with your content, there is a good chance that you will not reach anyone. But who are you making all that content for? For the people who are interested in buying your product? Not only that! Of course, your potential customers belong to the target group, but the main goal of content marketing is not to sell your products or services. For example, do you want to increase your brand awareness and/or the chance that visitors will become potential customers in the future? Then it is important to choose a broader target group than your current potential customer.

Then you want to know about your target group:

• What problems do they have that you can solve?
• What do they want?
• On which channels are they present?
• What keywords do they use?
• What other companies/influencers do they follow?

Content channels/shapes

The next step is to determine what kind of content you are going to create and where you are going to distribute it. Of course, this depends on the problems of the target group and the channels they use, but also on the possibilities you have.

Examples of channels are:

• Social media
• Newsletter
• Website
• Third-Party Websites
• Youtube

If you look at the shapes, you can see in the picture below that there are a lot of possibilities. In addition to blog posts, ebooks, videos, and social media messages, content marketing also includes case studies, manuals, events, webinars, and competitions.

In the content strategy, you set out which forms you are going to use, what the goal is and during which phase of the customer journey you are going to use the content.

Content creation frequency

If you want to benefit as much as possible from your efforts, it is necessary to continue to make and share consistency. But how do you determine how often you will place something? Don’t place too much or too little. Potential customers shouldn’t mind receiving your messages. Of course, they shouldn’t forget you because you don’t share enough content. Consistency is more important than frequency. If you first follow a clear schedule and then post content whenever you want, your loyal followers will disappoint. Also, take into account the timing of placing the content. It is often difficult to estimate when the best time to share the content is. It’s better to wait for the posting if you think that people will be less active online at a certain point in time.

Publication procedures

Do several people within your organization work on creating and publishing the content? Then it is even more important to work out in the content marketing strategy how the content should be placed. But even if you create and place all the content on your own, it is useful to have a small manual that you can fall back on. For the publication procedures, it is useful if these are clear. Every content creator must be able to place the content in the right way without the help of someone else.

In the publication procedures, for example, you can specify each channel:

• How large the images should be
• Whether particularities may/must be added to the images
• Which colors/fonts can be used
• How long certain texts can be (e.g. the intro)
• An example of what the end result looks like
• How content should be placed differs per channel, of course. Therefore, work out the publication procedures for each channel!

How do you use the content marketing strategy?

It’s good to know how to make a content strategy, but making a content strategy is not enough. Of course, you also have to do something with it. But how? When you have developed a good content marketing strategy, this is actually the thread that runs through your content marketing efforts. The strategy tells you:

• Who you are going to make the content for
• What kind of content you are going to create
• On which keywords you want to be found
• How the content should be placed
• And what results your efforts should yield.
• Based on the strategy you can make a concrete plan, a content plan (or content calendar).

What is a content plan?

In a content plan, you collect all the pieces of content that you are going to make, for example, for the next 3 months. For each piece of content, for example, you specify:

• What the content becomes
• For which channel you are going to create the content
• To which phase of the customer journey it belongs
• What the specific purpose of the content is
• Who the target group is
• For which keyword the content is written (only for blog posts and web pages)
• When you’re going to post the content

Unlike the content strategy, a content plan changes continuously. Is all content created and published? Then you make a new plan for the coming period. A content marketing strategy can only be changed if you have achieved the goals, if your goals have changed in the meantime or if your current strategy does not succeed in achieving the goals.

Assessing the success of your content marketing strategy

A content marketing strategy is not only a guideline but also a means of checking whether your efforts have produced the desired result. That’s how you want to know after a while:

• Which content gets the most attention
• How to score your blog posts in the search engine
• Which content will cause you to get more registrations or followers?
• Which content is shared the most
• Which conversions work best

By assessing the success of your content marketing strategy, you know whether your goals have been achieved or what else you can do to achieve them.

What if you have already started without a content strategy?

If you had already started creating content for your company, then you already have some results to analyze before you start with your content marketing strategy. Make sure you make use of this. Setting up a strategy is much easier with this input. Of course, we have a few tips on how you can best use this input for your content strategy:

1. Have you written a few blog posts, but haven’t done any keyword research in advance? Use the information in Google Search Console to check which keywords your blog post is already found on. This allows you to determine whether the keyword should only be added to the blog post more often, but it can also happen that the article in this form actually has no chance of scoring at all.
2. Do you find it difficult to determine what kind of content you should create? Then take a look at which content you’ve created gets the most attention from visitors and followers. You want to create this kind of content more often in the future.
3. Have you already added different types of conversion elements to your content? Then you also know which conversion elements work better than others. With this information, you can better determine what realistic goals are and how you can achieve these goals.
4. Use the feedback from your visitors for your content strategy. Have you already received reactions to your content from (potential) customers? Be sure to use this information for your content strategy.
5. If you have already created content, then you can already know where visitors drop out.
6. Do visitors spend little time on a page or do they often leave the website on a particular page? This kind of information can help you to set up an even better content strategy!

FML Marketing – Content Marketing Specialist Costa del Sol

If you want more online success with your website, we advise you to create content according to a well-thought-out content marketing strategy. Small businesses, in particular, can use a content strategy to reach a larger audience and thus grow their organization.

Would you like to know more about setting up a content marketing strategy? We can guide you in setting up a content strategy. Of course, we can also develop a complete strategy for your website!

The post Content Marketing Strategy: The Start to Finish guide appeared first on FML Marketing.

social media monitoring: 6 do’s & don’ts

DO: Assign a person responsible for monitoring within your organization

Social media is always on. Where messages used to spread more slowly, online reporting continues all day long. Even the smallest messages can affect your brand reputation. Within the organization, therefore, monitoring is not something you ‘just add to’. Certainly not at the moment that a crisis breaks out in which action is expected from your organization.

Think, for example, of a wrong reaction from a web care employee who goes viral or an accident about which reports are soon published via social media. Such events have a direct impact on a brand’s reputation. At that moment it is good to have a person who guides the process of media monitoring, informs the right people and does not panic. This person is extremely patient, can act quickly and thinks in terms of solutions.

DO: Use monitoring tools

To keep an eye on your organization’s reputation, you could hire someone to keep an eye on all channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) all day long. Fortunately, there are several useful and user-friendly tools available today that make social media monitoring a lot easier. Are you just starting media monitoring? A free tool such as Hootsuite offers easy solutions for different channels and offers you the possibility to respond via this tool.

Are you looking for a monitoring tool that can help you make a real difference in the field of reputation management? Then more advanced tools will help you out. Within such a tool it is possible to get graphs of volumes and scope of reporting, but it also offers the possibility of sentiment analysis, stakeholder monitoring and easy reports for internal use.

DO: Put relevant reputation pillars in place

To ensure optimum reputation management, it is important to focus on the pillars that are important for your organization. For example, by including the RepTrak© model in online media monitoring, you can measure the state of your brand’s reputation on a structural basis and where you may need to make adjustments. The model is based on seven dimensions with twenty-three characteristics and, with the right searches, can be easily integrated into a tool.

Does your organization appear online as an innovative company? Or do you show online that you are a sustainable company? By keeping an eye on this on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis, after a while you will gain insight into the online reputation of your brand. You can also see when situations threaten to get out of hand or when you have to make adjustments if you want to maintain or achieve the desired reputation.

DON’T: Lose your mind

The world of (social) media monitoring is enormous. The number of messages that organizations receive per day is sometimes between 1,000 and 10,000. Good monitoring helps you to get a clear overview of all these reports. Note: these are also messages that you might not have encountered in the normal course of business. An overview of these reports provides many new insights, which can lead to new ideas and solutions.

But you will also come across many negative reports that you have previously overlooked. Don’t panic! Look beyond the negativity and read carefully what your target group actually thinks. Are certain patterns visible? Or are the same people always negative? Map this out within the organization and think in terms of solutions. Monitoring can help you to actually adjust your reputation because you now have a good insight into what is being said about your brand. Think of it as a great opportunity from which your organization can benefit enormously.

DON’T: Ignore important questions or criticisms

Because monitoring provides you with more information, there is a good chance that there are also important and critical questions from consumers, external stakeholders, and interest groups, for example. In order to maintain or strengthen your reputation, it is important that you are able to answer these questions clearly. Put together the most important questions on a Q&A page (question-and-answer page).

Also, be aware that responses through public channels are visible to everyone. It is therefore even more important that you are unambiguous in the answers you give. Also, keep your organization’s customer service well informed of these questions. They are in direct contact with the customer and have a major impact on brand reputation. By responding quickly, clearly and unambiguously to important questions, your reputation will not be compromised.

DON’T: Forgot to ask questions yourself

Be constantly alert to changes in your customers’ purchasing behavior or the expectations they have. By constantly asking yourself how they see your brand and what they think of it, you can specifically monitor those answers.

For example, would you like to know how a recently launched campaign was received? Include this campaign name and related topics in your search. This gives you real-time insights into sentiment, volume, and media value around the campaign. Ask yourself such questions all the time, so that you can see whether the current strategy you are pursuing is a success or whether it needs to be worked on. Are you already aware of everything that is going on online around your organization? Or do you have any tips of your own? Let me know in a comment underneath this article!

Thank you for reading our article 6 do’s & don’ts of Social Media Monitoring. FML Marketing is a boutique digital marketing agency located in Estepona, Costa del Sol. We offer digital marketing solutions to small and medium-sized organizations. To learn more about our premium marketing services, please contact us for a personal approach.

The post 6 do’s & don’ts of Social Media Monitoring appeared first on FML Marketing.

Instagram has decided to ‘punish’ accounts that have bought followers, and likes, harder. In order to do so,The social media company has already developed tools for this purpose. These tools enable Instagram to recognize accounts that make use of this. One of the measures is, among other things, that accounts that are cheating will be asked to change their password. This immediately prevents third-party tools and companies that inadvertently have access to an Instagram account, can access the acounts.

Instagram influencers are a hot topic

Why? Well, actually everyone with an Instagram account is an influencer. Because even with few followers you are – if you notice a little – a nano-influencer. Especially if your Instagram account is thematic.

Instagram growth is a hot topic

Having a strong Instagram account, with many followers, is currently a massive challenge. Only those who have real media coverage will have a chance to reach a tremendous amount of followers. For large, or small accounts, the magic lies in having a lot of interaction. This is the sweet spot of where things are wrong.

Recognize fake Instagram followers

Needless to say, most accounts with an unickely lage amount of followers and likes are fake. You can recognize them, they are the private accounts, they have hardly any followers, sometimes have only posted five messages and the last one was in October 2017. Yet, they like your post and brands are overjoyed about it.

Shoot oneself in the foot

The market is in fact fooling itself. Because brands want to fully use and profit of all that authority on Instagram. But the people responsible for Instagram do not stick their heads in the sand. They are fully aware of the fact that if they want to boost their business model, they have to better monitor the quality of the platform. Whether that will work depends on the cleverness of the algorithm and the robots that have to carry out the cleaning. On the other side, the hackers and Insta-entrepreneurs who earn filthy stacks of cash by selling followers and likes, will not surrender without putting up a fight…

To be continued!

The post Instagram to hunt down fake followers and likes appeared first on FML Marketing.

These profiles are then converted into a business page by Facebook and usually, you can no longer join them. Therefore, just like me, be proactive and turn your personal Instagram into a business account. A business Instagram account also has the advantage that you get access to statistics and promotions. In this article, I will discuss the creation of a company profile, the statistics on Instagram and the option to promote Instagram messages.

Create a company profile

If you get the message from Instagram to make your business account a business account, you can follow that message. Sometimes you get the message that you are not a page manager, while you are. Then first do the following: First, link your Instagram to your personal Facebook page. Permission is then requested to be able to access the pages and you have to give them. Otherwise, you will not get any further. Then you can link your Instagram to your company page.

Company information on your profile

Then, you are enabled to click on the company profile almost at the bottom of settings. You then indicate with your page which information you want to share, such as your e-mail, telephone number, and address. If you have a store, you obviously want to share the address, but if you have an online business or no office where people can visit you can also keep the address for yourself and click on it. Then you can change or delete it.

Now there is a link next to your profile picture that people can click to email, call or to see your address. This can be very interesting because the step to do business with you via Instagram has become a lot smaller. Followers no longer need to go to your website first and find out everything there. It is now just a push of the button and you are in touch. Ideal!

Read also: Instagram and the use of hashtags

Or: Create your Instagram Business account now!

Instagram statistics

First, you had to check your statistics via external sites and grant them all kinds of permissions. Now you can check your statistics on Instagram yourself. If you click on the icon of the statistics in the app you will first get a kind of general page. This indicates how many people have seen your messages that week. Then you see the most popular messages, the time when your followers are online that day.

Views

In the views, you first see the total number of times your messages have been seen. Then you can swipe through and then you also see the number of people you have reached that week, how many people have seen your profile and how often you clicked through to your website.

Popular messages

In the popular messages, you can see which messages have been seen the most in the last 30 days. If you click through it you will get an overview with every number the number of how many times it has been seen.

Followers

For followers, the average time for your followers on Instagram is on the day you watch. If you click on more, you will also see how many followers you have and how many new you have received that week.Then you see the gender distribution of your followers. The ages of your followers, where you can also click on the gender for more specific insights, and you see where your followers come from. This may be important, especially for local companies. Because you want followers in your environment. At the bottom of the followers, you can click through to the other days of the week to see at which times your followers are online. This is useful for the best timing when posting messages.

Promote messages directly on Instagram

And therefore no longer via Facebook! It is the link with Facebook after a social medium that you can use individually for your online marketing activities and get people quickly on your website or on your phone. Promoting a message on Instagram is similar to promoting a message on Facebook. Would you like to know more about drafting, planning and promoting messages for Instagram? Then we can always help you with a workshop, social media coaching, or social media management.

The post Instagram for Business: Create company profile appeared first on FML Marketing.

Quantity and number of hashtags

Many people place as many hashtags under their a photo, with a maximum of 30 pieces. From now on Instagram will pay attention to the use of the same and the number of hashtags. If you always use the same 30 hashtags with each photo, it can now be that Instagram gives you the label ‘spammy’. Ultimately this can lead to a shadow ban!

A shadow ban is often used with spam accounts/bots, because it often has nothing to do with the site or the subject. The result is that the content is no longer visible to others. In the case of Instagram, this means that your own placed photo in your feed is shown normally. However, when other people search for corresponding hashtags, your photo is not shown.

How do you prevent this?

Below I give 3 tips on how to best use hashtags

1. Location of hashtags

Many people put their hashtags in the first comment of their post. It is recommended to always place the hashtags in the body of the post (the direct text below your photo).

2. The number of hashtags

It is recommended to use between 5 and 10 hashtags by mail. This way you prevent the ‘spam label’.

3. Which hashtags

Do not always use the same hashtags. Vary with hashtags by mail, this way you remain unique and Instagram does not give you the ‘spam label’. Win-win!

How to find more relevant #hashtags on Instagram

Besides scouting Instagram users manually to find the right hashtags, there are two more effective ways to get new and relevant hashtags. The first one is using the search bar in the top of your screen. If you choose the ‘tags’ tab, you will be able to search the popular tags.

The second option is a handy tool called Display Purposes. This simple, yet effective tool will search for more relevant hashtags, based on a hashtag (s) that you enter in the search box. Easy, fast and super effective!

FML Marketing – Social Media solutions Costa del Sol

Thank you for reading our Marketing blog. We try to share as many free tips as possible on our blog. Visit our Facebook and Instagram pages for more free insights or subscribe to our newsletter in the footer of the page. Or contact us if you are looking for a professional social media approach or social media content strategy.

The post #hashtags on Instagram: the dos & don’ts for 2018 appeared first on FML Marketing.

The benefits of video

The use of video has many positive effects. It is no coincidence that companies are increasingly opting to use video in their content strategy. These are the main advantages:

• You transfer more information in a shorter time because the brain processes images much faster than text. The information is also better remembered.
• When people watch a video, they stay on your website for longer. Thanks to the higher reading time, you will not only stay in the spotlight for longer, but your position in Google will also be strengthened.
• Whatever your marketing goal is: the effect will certainly increase with the aid of video! For example, you get more clicks in your newsletter, you sell more products on a sales page and you create more interaction on social media.

Different types of videos

Already convinced of the power of video? Beautiful! Then it is now time to compare the different forms. Not every type of video will fit your business (goals).

Ads
The oldest form of corporate videos is obviously commercials on television. And this form of advertising is also extremely popular. However, advertising in the form of video nowadays has many more possibilities. So you can also choose to show a short advertisement for specific YouTube videos. That way you can show the advertisement to a targeted audience, no matter what branch you work in. The result? More impact! It is important that the video is catchy and conveys a clear message within a very short time.

Product videos
Before you make an important purchase, it’s nice to know how the product works. In that case, images tell you more than words. Using a product video, you as a company can transfer important information in a playful and striking way. A product video can be inserted in different ways, namely:

Introduction: the characteristics of a new product
How to: extra explanation and instruction on the use of a product
Review: A comprehensive test of the product (sometimes compared to a similar product)

Webinar
When video is used as an educational form (with various speakers), we also call this a webinar. This is an effective way of conveying information because it has been proven that people can remember the message better thanks to a video. Interesting for (high) schools, but also for other organizations that want to transfer their expertise.

Do you want to inform your customers about your work or about a new approach? Then you can organize a webinar, for example with experts from the profession and professionals within your organization. A webinar is also an attractive internal communication tool for large companies. In this way, all employees are aware of important announcements, wherever they are. People can watch live, but in many cases, a webinar can also be watched.

Explanation videos in the form of animation
You want to transfer important information in the right way so that everyone understands you and memorizes the information. When it comes to complicated information, it is, therefore, wise to explain in the form of an animation. Airlines and hospitals, for example, opt for this form of explanation videos to ensure that the information is clear and understandable.

Social virals
It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to stand out on social media. But when a message from a company generates genuine interaction, you can still count on a wide range. And let us now just have discovered that videos provide a higher interaction.

Are you succeeding on social media to generate a huge amount of interaction with a striking video? Then you are dealing with a viral. This is a video that quickly becomes extremely popular because people like to share the video with their friends. Incidentally, this is not the case with commercial videos. You have to respond smartly to the interests of your target group to score high here.

Business vlogs
Vlogging is no longer to be forgotten in the world of video in 2018. With a vlog, you can communicate with your target group in a personal way. In the first instance, vlogging was mainly reserved for ‘influencers’ who had already built up a large network of followers online. In their videos, they tell what interests them and occasionally share some sponsored content. Because when known vloggers recommend a product, this has a lot of influence on their followers.

Do you not have a big budget? Then vlogging still offers possibilities. Nowadays we also see companies that employ their own employees. There is even the possibility to hire a business vlogger. The impact of a relatively unknown person obviously differs from that of a known influencer. One of the people that significantly increased his reach with video blogging is American entrepreneur Grant Cardone.

Livestreams
Almost every social media channel is now equipped with the ‘live stream’ option. The name says it all: a live stream is a video that is played in real time. In principle, this is much like a webinar, but a live stream is to a lesser extent intended to convey knowledge and information. The atmosphere is more informal and personal. This is the perfect way to give a look behind the scenes or to let an employee speak for example. Keep in mind that you do not get a second chance to do it again.

Business story
Nowadays it is no longer just about ‘what’ an organization sells, but also about ‘why’ you sell this. People simply want to know what kind of company they have to deal with. By displaying your company story, your target group gets to know the personality behind the company. With your own vision, you can inspire them and build a deeper connection with them.

Testimonials
Besides the fact that people want to know who you are, they also want to know how others think about you. You can, therefore, choose to let satisfied customers speak in a testimonial. By showing the experiences of others in a transparent way, you come across as reliable and honest.

FML Marketing – Video Marketing content strategy

Are you interested in making a video for your company? Or are you curious what we would advise in this area? Let us know! At FML Marketing we are happy to help you! We are located on Avenida Litoral 45 Estepona and serve clients in the Netherlands, the UK, and Costa del Sol. (Gibraltar, Manilva, Estepona, San Pedro, Marbella, Málaga.)

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