Facebook to Local Businesses: You Should Still Use Facebook Pages

by | May 26, 2015 | Marketing

According to Facebook, local businesses should still use Facebook Pages to market their services, despite ongoing decreases in organic reach. Mark Zuckerberg recently gave several reasons why SMBs should stay on Facebook and even consider using Facebook as their primary marketing tool.

Facebook to Local Businesses: Keep Your Pages

At a recent town hall Q&A, a small business owner asked Zuckerberg,

“Given the decline in organic reach, how should businesses like ours or any business think about the role of Pages?”

Zuckerberg replied that Facebook Pages were still the best option for most businesses. Despite the overall decline in organic reach, which was due to Facebook’s ongoing effort to optimize the user experience, he claimed there was no better way to reach customers.

He argued that:

  • All or most of SMBs’ customers were on Facebook
  • Most SMBs probably had more connections through Facebook than through any other online channel
  • Most people aren’t going to download small business apps
  • Many small business websites weren’t optimized for mobile
  • Facebook was acting as a go-to directory tool, where people went to look for store hours and updates

Zuckerberg argued, as other Facebook executives have before, that Facebook Pages should act as landing pages for many small businesses.

Facebook’s Relationship with SMBs

Since Facebook Pages first emerged on the social network, small businesses have been lured in by the free marketing potential offered by Facebook Pages. Many businesses have, in fact, built large followings on Facebook and used Facebook to reach out to and engage with customers.

However, over the past several years, the organic reach of Facebook Pages has declined. That is, businesses’ posts show up less and less frequently in users’ News Feeds, in favor of friends’ posts.

These decreases in organic reach eventually prompted Facebook to tell businesses to pay for advertising. Suddenly, the SMBs who had spent so much time building audiences were left in the cold. In order to reach the same audience they had engaged with, they were being coerced into paying for advertising.

According to Jonathan Czaja, Facebook’s director of small business for North America, “There’s still a lot of value to the Page apart from distributing content to your fans.” He stated that more information was forthcoming and local businesses should still “create a presence on Facebook and demonstrate the value they bring to their customers.”

Czaja also stated that Facebook is very committed to improving support tools for its 2 million advertisers, many of which are local businesses. In the future, expect to see voice support, online courses, and other help tools.

Hints of Facebook’s Local Business Agenda

While Czaja acknowledged that Facebook has “underinvested” in local businesses and SMBs, there are signs of change.

Facebook Place Tips

Recently, Facebook introduced Facebook Place Tips, a feature that uses geo-targeting to display local business-related social content to people in the vicinity. A person close to a restaurant, for instance, may see their friends’ photos taken in that venue, weekly specials from the restaurant’s Facebook Page, and so on.

The feature isn’t completely rolled out yet, but local businesses shouldn’t expect a free lunch with this feature. In crowded areas, for instance, there will likely be several local businesses competing for users’ screen space. This could easily result in another opportunity for Facebook advertising.

The Find

Facebook’s acquisition of The Find, a database that aggregated products from a variety of retailers, now gives the social a foothold in the local retail industry. A user searching for “black shoes,” for instance, could compare prices from a large number of retailers. And if the user wanted to make a purchase immediately, The Find would provide local retailers selling those products.

Facebook’s acquisition seems aimed at “direct marketers, e-commerce companies, and fashion brands,” according to TechCrunch. However, with the capability to incorporate local retail in the mix, Facebook may be looking to swallow up the local business market as well.

Instant Articles and Native Video

Facebook already dominates much of its users’ online time, but recent developments suggest Facebook wants an even bigger time share. Two recent features indicate that Facebook wants to become the only content source for its users.

Facebook Instant Articles, a new feature that allows major publishers to publish articles natively within Facebook, will allow people to view and read these articles without ever leaving their iOS app.

Facebook’s native video platform also allows users to host their own videos in their Timelines. These videos, and Facebook video ads, will show up in News Feeds, just like the rest of Facebook’s multimedia content.

What This Means for Local Businesses

Though these two features are currently rolling out on a large scale, for large businesses, it’s easy to look ahead to see how these changes – if successful – could impact local businesses.

With the decreasing cost of video ad production, and the increasing necessity of video marketing for all businesses, it’s not hard to see how both these features could impact local businesses:

  • Local businesses can and probably should be using Facebook video to market their services. And soon, video advertising will become a possibility and a necessity for all businesses, large or small.
  • Native articles, if successful, could just as easily extend to local newspapers and local news blogs, many of which are run by large media companies.

 

Despite the fact that Facebook Pages’ organic reach has declined, Facebook still claims to be committed to their success. If Page continue to remain a viable marketing option, which they may if Facebook’s ongoing feature developments prove successful, small businesses should expect to pay if they want to remain visible.  

LinkedIn Monetization: Learn How to Make Money via Your Personal Brand or Business

by | Apr 20, 2015 | Marketing, Monetization

LinkedIn monetization is less about content monetization and more about smart networking.

Other forms of content monetization focus on affiliate marketing, advertising, information products, and so on. While LinkedIn does have a publishing platform, it’s more about professional networking. And though it’s more difficult to make money with affiliate links – and impossible with advertising – there are ways to monetize LinkedIn.

Understanding LinkedIn Channels

As you probably know, LinkedIn is a professional network. And there are several features that allow you to connect with others, promote yourself, promote products, publish content, and so forth.

Each “publication outlet” offers different possibilities in terms of monetization.

Here are the major features to be aware of:

LinkedIn Profiles – Profiles are the place to showcase yourself, your company, your products, and your services. You can link to websites and promote whatever you wish.

Long-Form Publishing – You can publish long-form blog posts on LinkedIn, just like you can on a blog. These posts are a great way to promote whatever you wish. And they can be a great tool to build your thought leadership.

Groups – LinkedIn Groups are forums. People can create, moderate, join, and participate in groups as they wish. Some are open to the public, others are private, but all are excellent opportunities to connect with others.

Advertising – LinkedIn allows targeted advertising to anyone within the network. You can target your ads based on a number of factors, including job title, company title, industry, and so on.

Using LinkedIn Channels for Monetization

There are several standard types of ways to monetize content online:

  • Placing ads in your content that earn you money
  • Using affiliate links to earn commissions
  • Selling your own products and services

There are plenty of other derivations of these models, but these three are the most common.

Generally speaking, “monetizing content” simply means using that content as a sales vehicle. You may be selling someone else’s products or services or your own. But to make money, you need to sell something.

Here’s how to use LinkedIn’s publication channels to make money:

Promote yourself, your business, your own products, or your own services. This is by far the most common way to monetize LinkedIn. After all, that’s what the site is designed for – professional networking. So this should become the core of your LinkedIn monetization strategy.

Everything you promote and publish on the site should help build your brand and your authority. And it should all help promote your business, your products, and your services.

Promote affiliate products through your profile page, through groups, and in long-form posts. Affiliate links can be placed in most places throughout the site. Some groups, however, may prohibit affiliate links – or any links at all. But you are allowed to place links in long-form posts, in your profile, and in groups that allow links.

Bear in mind, however, that many people may find affiliate links distasteful if used improperly…or too often. Another drawback to using affiliate links is the fact that your posts won’t get that much traffic.

A website can generate thousands of visitors per month, week, or day. But it is highly unlikely your affiliate links will see that much traffic on this network.

Use LinkedIn advertising to grow your brand or your business. You can’t really make money by placing ads on LinkedIn, like you can with a website. But you can use the network’s built-in ad service to focus on highly targeted audiences.

The best way to use LinkedIn advertising – and the network in general – is as part of a larger marketing and monetization plan. Develop a strategy that focuses on a standalone brand with a standalone website, then use LinkedIn as a tool to build that brand and website.

If, for instance, you are creating a website that caters to a crowd of targeted professionals, then LinkedIn is the perfect tool to help you build a following.

Create email lists from your contacts and market to those prospects. It’s possible to download your email list from LinkedIn, import those contacts into an email marketing program, and market directly to those prospects. Be careful with this technique, however, because misuse of this tactic can irritate people and cost you some connections.

But when used properly, you can generate an email list directly from your LinkedIn contacts. And you can then market to them via email, which offers more direct monetization potential in terms of advertising, affiliate marketing, product sales, and so on.

Summary

LinkedIn is best used as a tool to support your business, which should have its own core profit structure. Monetizing content on LinkedIn publication channels – groups, long-form publishing, profiles, etc. – just doesn’t earn as much traffic as a website might.

However, when you use LinkedIn as a professional networking platform – which is what it was designed for – then you can build an audience, a reputation, an email list, and enhance your existing monetization efforts. 

5 Marketing Benefits You Should be Bundling with Software Now

by | Mar 19, 2015 | Marketing, Software

Software bundles are product suites that contain multiple applications. They are frequently used to combine multiple small apps, tools, extensions, or plugins into a single package. For instance, you could purchase a bundle of WordPress plugins or Photoshop extensions.

Since selling an individual plugin is often not possible, developers will often package multiple tools together in order to make a viable sale. While you can package your own apps and plugins together, it’s often more feasible to work with others when creating your software bundle.

Doing so carries a number of benefits that can give you edge in marketing and monetization.

How?

Here are 5 of the top reasons.

1. New Partners

No developer is an island, and bundles are proof of that. When you work together with other developers, you build connections with other companies and individuals who can be your partners in business.

In marketing there is an awful lot of emphasis on the competition, but sometimes not enough on non-competitors. Forming relationships and pooling resources is sometimes the best way to climb the ladder and become successful.

More successful companies are excellent resources that can help you further your career, while smaller fish help reinforce your own position as an authority in your industry. Besides, who knows how they could help you down the line?

2. Bigger Audience

Another benefit to partnering up and bundling is growing your audience. The more partners who are involved, the more audiences you’ll have access to. Since each partner will undoubtedly let their followers know about the software bundle, you’ll gain exposure to that audience as well.

Promotion is one of the primary reasons you should consider bundling your software. While many developers shun the idea if the bottom line won’t see a big enough impact, it’s often best to look at it as a marketing investment. It’s very unlikely that bundling will hurt your business in any way.

In fact, the opposite is usually true. If, for example, two developers pool their audiences, revenue-share programs can often earn more money for each developer, even if they charge the same price for their bundle as for the individual app. Why?

As mentioned below, a bundle enhances the value of a product. If you include two apps for the price of one and double the audience pool, you are likely to see more than double the number of purchases, due to this enhanced value.

The end result?

3. More Money

If you do your math right, the aggregated demand of your audiences combined with the enhanced value of the bundle will bring in a larger net income. In other words, if you create or join a bundle, you’ll be able to see a return on investment.

On its own, a plugin can be difficult to monetize, unless it has an extensive range of features and provides serious value to the customer.

Given the increased value and demand for a bundle, however, that plugin can potentially earn more money, in addition to the other marketing benefits and networking benefits mentioned here.

4. Portfolio Experience

For new and intermediate developers, extensions and plugins are ideal ways to get your feet wet. And a portfolio piece looks that much better when it has been included in a bundle along with product from other well-established companies. This way, you can point to the project and its reception: the number of downloads, the ratings, the revenue, and so forth.

It can be daunting and difficult to jump headfirst – or even feet first – into software development. And if you don’t yet have the technical knowledge, it makes sense to take baby steps towards that goal. But just because you start small doesn’t mean you have to go unnoticed.

5. Enhanced Value

A sole plugin has much less value than a suite of products. This enhanced value increases the likelihood that you’ll gain all of the above benefits, such as increased recognition and income. Products that are more valuable in a customer’s eyes will also reflect better on your company. 

It is for this reason that subscription models like Netflix are so successful. Despite the service’s low monthly cost, it has been able to outstrip the traditional a la carte model used by other movie rental outlets.

A Word of Advice

When you bundle your products, ensure that you are adding value to the complete package. Don’t include software that you yourself wouldn’t use or recommend. If, for instance, there is persistent or annoying software, this could have a negative impact on your business instead of a positive one.

Finally, it should be noted that there is another use of the term bundling. The other usage of “bundling” is almost synonymous with pay-per-install, where you include third-party apps with your main software program and earn income when users install those apps. This is also a common monetization strategy, implemented successfully by advertising industry leaders like CodeFuel.

 

Happy bundling!

Software Marketing in 2024: 5 Tips for Getting the Word Out

by | Oct 13, 2014 | Marketing

Software marketing in 2024 isn’t the same as it was five or ten years ago. Gone are the days when you can create a quick-and-dirty app for quick-and-easy profits. In most cases, a single app needs to form part of an ongoing, long-term business and marketing plan.

With that in mind, it’s best to build a product that adds lasting value to customers, so they stay engaged for the long term. Loyal users make more money, aid your reputation, and fuel your business growth.

Here are five tips for developing a long-term, successful software marketing plan in 2024.

1. Target Your Advertising

Advertising is becoming a complex science. To be successful, you need to know who your audience is, where they spend their time, and how to target them.

Who – Most analytics, advertising networks, and marketing platforms offer sophisticated targeting. Depending on the advertising platform, you’ll be able to target gender, geographic locale, age groups, education level, interests, relationship status, and so forth. This information is extremely powerful and has a big impact on conversion rates. Use user testing and analytics to gather as much of this information as possible.

Where – Though you want to know where they are in the real world, you’ll also want to know where your users spend their time online. Knowing the “who” will help you find out if they spend more time on certain social networks, on certain websites, on certain apps, and on which devices and operating systems.

How – So now that you know all about your audience, how do you target them? Choose the right advertising platforms. If your audience spends time on Facebook, then Facebook is clearly a good option for advertising. If a niche audience spends a lot of time on a set of niche websites, make sure that your advertising networks or marketing platforms can advertise on those websites.

Targeting the right users is half the battle.

2. Automate the Right Parts of Your Marketing

Marketing automation is an essential asset for online marketers. When used correctly, automation can give you a competitive edge; when it is misused, it can sound artificial. Here a few things you should automate:

Data Gathering – Keep track of what’s going on in your industry through tools such as Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Digg, and similar aggregators.

Auto-Responding and Auto-Posting – Automatic responses to inquiries, social media follows, blog comments, and emails are fine. Some automatic social media posting is fine, but too much can seem artificial. Some marketing firms have found that automatic social media posts lowers the number of followers, likes, and so on.

Custom Triggers – Easy-to-use tools like IFTTT (if this then that) allow you to set up triggers between online channels that automatically perform another action. For example, each time someone follows you on a social media channel, you can automatically send them a thank you message. Programmers will probably be able to create custom scripts that perform certain actions under certain circumstances.

In general, when automating your marketing, auto-responses are fine. But avoid automating your online socializing, such as commenting, Facebook posts, Tweets, and so forth. People can tell.

3. Use Marketing Platforms

Marketing platforms, such as Grow Mobile and CodeFuel’s monetization products give developers an array of marketing tools.

Grow Mobile, for example, gives you access to multiple ad networks in one handy interface. Instead of tracking and engaging multiple campaigns on multiple networks, you can follow all your campaigns under one roof. Tracking analytics, ROI, and customer value becomes much easier.

In a way, this could be considered a form of automation. Elsewhere on this blog, we discuss monetization platforms and marketing platforms in depth, and their future role in online marketing.

As with other marketing automation tools, these platforms are particularly useful – and practically necessary – for any developer who wishes to remain competitive.

4. Use a Pay-Per-Install Program and In-App Ads

Pay-per-install software works by presenting advertisements during the download process. You can tweak and customize the installation process the same as you can with any other conversion funnel. Split-testing and analytics allow you to boost conversion rates and your revenue.

Once your download is completed, you want to keep making money. That’s what in-app ads are for. Using the information you gather about your audience, choose an appropriate ad network that targets the right users.

Keep your ads streamlined, unobtrusive, and as relevant and integrated as possible. Some highly relevant ad formats, such as recommendation engines, actually work with a program to add value, which increases conversions that much more.

5. Get Listed

Get your app listed wherever you can as lists are amongst the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Here are some others to consider:

Software Directories – Find a software directory that allows you to use a pay-per-install program, and use the directory to get in front of thousands upon thousands of users.

App Stores – App stores aren’t just for smartphones any more – Windows 8 and Mac have their own app stores. Store listings is a must for any developer.

Top Ten Lists – Bloggers love top ten lists, so find your nearest niche blogger and let them know about your app. If the app is good enough, it may be included in their next top ten list.

Affiliate Networks – If you charge for your product, get listed on an affiliate network. With the right commission, your software will get picked up by affiliates, who will end up marketing your software for you.

Pay-Per-Download Networks – Another way to earn money and get the attention of marketers is on pay-per-download networks, which often have affiliate programs of their own.

These are just a few tips to help you improve your software marketing. For more, check out our blog.

Simplify Your Software Distribution with These 4 Tips

by | Jun 17, 2014 | Advertising, Installs, Marketing, Monetization, Monetization News, Pay Per Install, Software

Developing software that your business clients can use is one of the best ways to provide value for them and to establish yourself as a valuable resource or authority in your industry. The software doesn’t have to be a huge, comprehensive suite. It just needs to provide a specific solution to a specific problem in order to be successful.

Developing your software is just stage one of the process. You also need to develop a marketing and distribution plan to drive sales and ensure your success. Here are a few tips for how to make software distribution easier and help meet your sales goals:

Use an Installer

Downloading software can be a laborious process – more so the larger the software package is. Clients may lose their patience with the process if the download takes too long or uses up too many resources on their computers. This can lead to a bad reputation for your software, which can hurt sales and hurt your overall business.

Using an installer can help you make the process easier and speed up the pace of the download. In doing so, the installer will increase the completion rates for your downloads. Tools like InstallFuel provide these benefits and also allow you to monetize your software.

You can display special offers during the installation process, either for your other products or for products and services from advertisers. The installer is customizable so you can get the look you want for it and can make it display what you like during the download process.

Sign Up for a Browser Extension

Browser extensions can be powerful advertising tools. People download them to make searching the Internet a bit easier while they are online.

However, they can also display special offers during the installation process or during regular use. If you sign up as an advertiser, you can get more exposure for your software. If your software can be downloaded online, the browser extension can also encourage more downloads.

Explore the available options to sign up with a browser extension that will reach your target clients.

Signing up for the right extension can make all the difference to your success. Research thoroughly and read reviews from other businesses.

Check the stats on users and their demographic information.

Create a Bundle Deal

A great way to increase downloads of your software is to bundle it with other programs or apps. You can do this by creating a partnership with another company. It’s best not to approach your direct competitors for this partnership. Instead, focus on those that offer complementary services.

For example, if your software helps businesses handle project management, you might approach a company who offers software for record keeping or payroll (if that’s not included already in your software package).

By partnering with another company, you get more traffic and customers thanks to the exposure and reputation that the company already gets.

By creating the bundle, you also encourage more downloads by making the software available at a discount. Just be sure that you’re using an installer to make the download process fast and efficient.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great way to increase software distribution. By offering affiliates a commission for software sales, you gain access to a large network of promoters. The better the commission you offer, the more advertisers will agree to promote your product.

Find the sweet spot where you can offer the largest commission while also retaining the margin you need to stay profitable.

Sign up for large affiliate marketing sites to gain access to the largest number of advertisers.

Create professional marketing materials for those advertisers to create brand consistency and to make it easier for them to get the results you need.

Make sure your site is optimized for sales so that you can convert the traffic that is sent your way. The better the affiliate marketing program you create, the more downloads you will get and the more successful you will be.

Software development and distribution can be a successful branch of your business.

With the right software, you can raise your business profile and generate significant revenue.

Creating the right marketing strategy is essential if you want to maximize the potential for your software. In addition to the usual methods – such as content marketing, e-mail campaigns, search engine optimization and social media marketing – you can take advantage of these tools to drive downloads and make the distribution process a little easier.

An installer can help speed the download process and increase completion rates, and browser extensions, bundle deals and affiliate marketing programs can help you increase download rates. Don’t limit your efforts to only one of these.

Take advantage of all the tools available to you to create a multi-pronged strategy and maximize your results.

What Is Software Marketing? – A Guide to Market Your Software Effectively

by | Jun 15, 2014 | Advertising, Marketing, Monetization, Monetization News, Software

So, you’ve come up with an amazing piece of software – a stellar app, an app that has unique features, amazing potential, and maybe (just maybe) the power to change the world. It’s bug-free, easy-to-install, and user-friendly. It’s like eye-candy for the coded soul. But now you’ve run into a problem. Your app is great, but no one knows about it! A few of your friends downloaded it, and your Aunt Alice in Southwest Australia, but that’s it. No one else. Not a soul.

What you need to do next is market your app. But you’re a developer, right? You know how to develop. What in the world do you know about marketing?

You might know nothing now, but that’s going to have to change if you want people to discover your software. Because marketing is the secret to getting your software out there. And just because it’s a nine-letter word, doesn’t mean you should be intimidated by it.

Back in the Day

In the olden days, marketing was pretty simple. You placed an ad in a newspaper or magazine. You sponsored a local race. You put up billboards and handed out flyers. If you had the means, you bought a sports stadium and named it after your company.

But in today’s saturated world of software development (there are more than 1 million apps on the Chrome Web Store), waiting for people to find your app and start using it could take a very long time. In fact, it might actually never happen.

If you want your app to get noticed, you’re going to have to do a bit more than list it on the Chrome Web Store. So roll up your cargo pants, take off your flip flops, and get ready to dip your toes in the sea of software marketing.

The Scoop on Software Marketing

There are many methods of software marketing today, and they can generally be grouped into two categories: inbound marketing and outbound marketing. If you’ve never heard of these terms before, don’t sweat it. Just because you’re not familiar with the terms doesn’t mean you’re not familiar with the techniques. You’ve definitely been exposed to forms of both inbound and outbound marketing, even if you didn’t know. (Hint, hint – you’re being exposed to one right now!)

Inbound Marketing – The IN Way to Market

Let’s start with inbound marketing, the trendier form of online marketing today. The term inbound marketing was coined by Brian Halligan of HubSpot less than a decade ago. Since then, it has turned the world of software marketing (and marketing in general) on its head.

Inbound marketing is marketing that aims at drawing customers to a product in a natural way by appealing to their genuine interests. Inbound marketing efforts are meant to be interesting and value-rich. They should offer something of real benefit, knowledge, or insight, so that people become fans, admirers, and eventually, paying customers.

Primary forms of inbound marketing include podcasts, tutorials, eBooks, newsletters, social media posts, and blogs (yes, even this one!). The goal? To bring in customers that are attracted by useful information.

Outbound Marketing – I shot an arrow in the air…

Outbound marketing is the term used to describe marketing activities that are not inbound marketing. These activities are the older, more traditional elements of the marketing equation.

Outbound marketing, albeit without the fancy name, has been around since the first vacuum ad appeared in a newspaper, the first Lost Cat poster appeared on a tree, the first pizza flyer was delivered to an empty apartment. It’s a promotional arrow shot into the air. Where it falls, the marketer knows not where.
In the world of software marketing, outbound marketing efforts include mass emails, online banners, text ads, and more.

They are marketing efforts delivered to potential customers who have not asked for them, and may not have any interest in them. From a marketer’s perspective, these potential clients have hopefully been targeted in some manner. Perhaps they signed up for a mailing list because they were really interested in taking a course on deep-sea diving. Maybe they are seeing ads for a trombone case because they actually have a trombone. Hopefully, but not necessarily.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Market!

Most software marketing campaigns include both inbound and outbound marketing techniques. The combination of techniques that works best for you is something you’ll have to figure out, probably through trial and error. As for how you can get started, Mike Taber and Rob Walling from Startups for the Rest of Us suggest starting every software marketing campaign with a list. Write down your ideas. Check them twice. Then choose a few and get started.