Going Under the Hood Pt. 1|Optimize Your Marketing (2017)

by Hassan del Campo, Social Mediums

One of the recurring topics in marketing and business is optimization. Whether it has to do with refining your sales cycle for efficiency or implementing A/B tests for your email marketing campaign, a healthy business exploits opportunities to use systems for running your business. Optimization is the first-cousin of Automation; they both can work in tandem to produce amazing results – which ultimately lead to more profits and more growth. And as a micro business or small business owner, the path to optimization on all accounts is even more necessary. Over this series, we’ll be covering how to “fix the leaks” in your outreach campaigns and optimize your marketing and branding.

Let’s run through a quick checklist of recommendations for optimizing your marketing over the MailChimp, Facebook, and EventBrite platforms.

MailChimp

• Go to Accounts ->Integrations to link your account to all applicable and appropriate web services; Facebook, Shopify, Twitter, etc.
• Check the Personalize the “To” field box when sending messages
• Under Tracking enable Google Analytics link tracking (you will need a Google Analytics account)0
• When sending, under Who are you sending to? select Saved or Pre-built segment ->Active Subscribers. This will allow you to target your email campaigns to those that most likely to respond to your email campaigns. If you have a free account, this is useful in th at it eliminates sending out “extra” emails that count against your daily minimum. 

EventBrite – Power your events with useful applications. The EventBrite App Directory has several to choose from. To access go to Account Settings ->Developer ->App Management -> App Directory (eventbrite.com/spectrum) and browse. Here are some we like:

• Boostable – A paid advertising tool that takes the work out of getting a return out of your event campaign. Once you set your weekly budget, a team is assigned to: create a tailor-made ad, “thoughtfully craft a target audience”, and then launch your campaign. Through the dashboard, you’ll be able to monitor results as they come in.
• Membership Management by Join It – This tools works well for nonprofits and organizations looking to add another layer of engagement to their members. If your business has a membership, this would allow you to offer unique discounts to members.
• Survey Monkey – Helps extend the customer experience and engagement after the event has attended. Choose up to 15 different survey questions, your own customized version, or from a template. A great way for getting feedback.
•  WordPress – Turn your WordPress.com or WordPress.org page into an EventBrite integrated site. You can use an existing WordPress account or create one upon adding the app.
• Speaker List by SchedSched – Very cool plug-in that makes your event page more dynamic by allowing you to display your speaker(s)/presenter(s) in a professional layout. Add photos, name, position title, and company to encourage ticket sales.
• Hootsuite – Hootsuite is powerful on its own. Combined with EventBrite it gives your events the extra boost it needs. With this add-on, you’ll be able to share your events across social platforms easily (as you normally would on its own), as well as schedule or automate invitations for maximum visibility and click rates.
• Broadcast by Evvnt – This app reads like the Indeed.com of job searches. Submit your event once and Broadcast will share it to a network of listing sites, organized by category.

Facebook

• Under Settings ->General ->Page Verification. Verified pages show up higher in search rankings.
• Under Settings ->General ->Audience Optimization for Posts click box
• Under Settings ->Reminders use to tool schedule alerts for specific activities on your page
• Under Settings >Preferred Page Audience add interest groups and target areas and age ranges that you want your page to specifically be targeted for. Anyone will be able to see your page, however, these settings help Facebook direct who should more likely see the page.
• Under Settings ->Partner Apps and Services browse to see if there any applicable apps that you can or should link to your page.
• Under Settings ->Instagram Ads make sure your account is connected so that ad campaigns can run simultaneously on Facebook and Instagram.
• Under Settings -> Messaging adjust the settings. One thought is to include a sincere autoreply message, perhaps with a call-to-action, if you’re not used to checking for Facebook Page alerts frequently.
• Download the Facebook Page Manager app for your iPod and/or smartphone so you can monitor activity on-the-go.