8 Content Marketing Tricks That Helped Dollar Shave Club Go Viral

Ask any North-American male aged 17-30 whether he’s heard of Dollar Shave Club (DSC).

He’ll probably say, “Yeah.”

And it’s not just dudes who know about DSC. A lot of women know about it too because they’ve bought subscriptions for the men in their lives.

Dollar Shave Club is a classic example of startup that blew up—in a good way.

What was one of the first signs of their success?

A video. A viral video.

If you haven’t seen it, you ought to check it out:

The company’s launch video, casually titled “Our Blades Are F**king Great,” quickly became a sensation on the web.

With punchlines and gags to suit a variety of tastes, the video racked up nearly 5 million views within the first 90 days.

The company’s founder, Michael Dubin, had a few aces up his sleeve to help create a professionally cut video.

The CEO studied performing arts at Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) in New York, where he learned to use the power of comedy to capture the attention of an audience.

He also leveraged his contacts from his time at UCB to bring on a director and connect with a production studio that helped keep costs low. The original DSC launch video was only $4,500.

Most brands trying to produce a tightly choreographed video like the one DSC produced would expect to spend closer to $60k.

But the viral video wasn’t pure luck. The whole thing was carefully orchestrated. But let’s be honest, most startups aren’t Dollar Shave Club.

You probably don’t have a background in theater to help you be as funny as DSC’s CEO, and it’s not likely that you’ll create something that goes on to secure over 7 million views.

But don’t get caught up on the view count. You can still be successful without trying to chase the same numbers if you break down what DSC did in their quest for a successful launch.

Here are 8 tricks you can pull from their viral campaigns to help you boost your own content strategy.

1. The power of video

Simply put, video is the best format for telling stories. You can connect with a consumer and establish a powerful emotional connection with your audience through the use of video more so than any other content format.

You can flesh out that one concept that resonates with an audience and deliver it with a voice and personality that captivates them through a one-on-one connection.

DSC use of video was a smart move, especially given video usage statistics. HubSpot shares a number of compelling stats that show why diversifying content marketing to include video is a smart move:

• 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others
• More than a third of all online activity involves watching videos
• More than a third of consumers trust video ads
• 80% of users can recall a video ad they viewed in the last 30 days
• Enjoyment of video advertising increases purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%

2. Great storytelling

I’m convinced that great storytelling is crucial to a brand’s viral success. This happened at DSC.

Here’s the story (about the story) from Adam Weber, Dollar Shave Club’s CMO.

“What we’ve really focused in on since our launch video has been all about finding which new stories to tell, to what consumers, and then finding the right distribution platforms to tell them. We take our video storytelling to the obvious places. We do a lot of investment in television, which is a great place to tell a narrative with video.”

Here’s more of his explanation:

I think in the long term, as you get more into the digital places, the social outlets like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter — those types of venues are great venues for telling stories via video. Those have become an increasingly larger part of our game plan. They offer a lot of unique capabilities that something like television doesn’t offer.

Not every aspect of a marketing strategy needs to contain storytelling, but it should be a part of your marketing strategy, and DSC’s success is proof of that. There are three reasons why it works.

1. First, stories grab the attention of the audience. When you have an impressive and captivating narrative, people will want to satisfy their curiosity—especially if the story is relatable.
2. Second, having a strong narrative helps build the trust with your audience. People trust you more when you open up and share personal stories with them. It works very similarly when brands share their narratives, and it brings the audience back for more.
3. And third, stories simply do a better job at grabbing the attention of most people over raw content like statistics or facts. Not to say those aren’t interesting at all, but you’re guaranteed to capture more interest if you can tell a story around facts and data.

3. They knew their audience

Another thing that stands out with Dollar Shave Club is their knowledge of their target audience. DSC talks to men in a pretty relatable voice, providing something that never existed when it comes to men’s grooming products.

Prior to Dollar Shave Club, a lot of the razor content and brand positioning either used a highbrow “gentlemanly” approach or painted men as hairy Neanderthals who needed blades with the edge of a katana to stay smooth.

But how long can you sell products pushing the “closer shave” approach?

Dollar Shave Club shows that when you take the time to unearth what your audience wants, you learn how to talk to them. You can create content that uses language they can relate to, with ideas that make sense.

Every content marketing strategy should begin with good, deep buyer research so you know what they want, how they want it, where to find them and how to get it to them.

4. Focused on the value proposition

No matter how hilarious the video is, all those views won’t translate into sales and revenue if you can’t connect the product to the consumer in some way. Storytelling is a good start, but so is knowing your audience.

Dollar Shave Club knocked it out of the park by staying focused on the value proposition with their messaging and content, from landing pages to videos.

When you watch the videos, you understand the convenience of never having to shop for replacement blades, and you also appreciate the price. I know, like many men do, the frustration of watching the price of blade replacements climb constantly.

Dollar Shave Club didn’t have a unique product. Razors are everywhere. Still, they developed a unique value proposition around their products and made sure to keep that front and center throughout their content marketing campaigns.

5. Easily sharable

Dollar Shave Club includes traditional media placement, like television, in their marketing strategy. But the success of the launch and rapid growth can be attributed to the shareability of their digital content.

By creating a variety of video content, along with stop-motion animations, promoted through social media, they made it easy for prospective customers and consumers to share that content with their friends and family.

It was, and still is, a perfect formula for getting content to spread. Simply create content that triggers positive emotions.

Awe-inspiring content, humor, and strong stories make any piece of content engaging and shareable.

6. Every word has a purpose

Early in the production process, Dubin had a sizable script that ran upwards of four pages. Part of the creative process meant trimming that down. It’s an approach you have to take with content, no matter the format.

If content isn’t 100% essential to delivering the message, it needs to be cut. Every word, moment, and frame of a video must have a purpose or a point.

Once the content was stripped down to its bare bones, focused only on the brand messaging, the team went to work scripting humorous content to keep the video light-hearted, but sharp-witted and funny.

People understand brand messaging, and when you subvert that, they recognize the risk you took,

says Lucia Aniello who directed the launch video for Dollar Shave Club and worked with Dubin to craft the script.

Learn to trust the funny. If you take a risk, you may get a reward.

A perfect example is the unofficial tagline of the company that acts as the title for the first video. While trying to establish a solid line that would hit the audience hard at the beginning of the video, Aniello suggested “Our blades are f**king great.”

I remember Mike’s face when I first said that line,

Aniello recalls.

There was a half a second of concern, and then whatever angel sitting on his shoulder—or devil maybe—said, “Go for it.”

7. Strategic content release

There are plenty of marketers who will tell you that Dollar Shave Club just got lucky with the content. Some would say the same for the Old Spice commercials that mixed randomness with wit and humor.

Luck certainly plays a role in any piece of content going viral, but timing is important as well. Dollar Shave Club knew this much, which is why they had some strategy for the release of their content.

In fact, the video was technically live online before it was a viral hit as the team showed it around to attract investors and to gauge reactions.

When it came time to launch, the video piggybacked on a funding announcement Dubin knew would gather plenty of media coverage. That pushed a lot of traffic toward the content and ensured it wouldn’t disappear among the countless hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day.

You have to think strategically to give your content a fighting chance. Don’t try to release content into a vacuum.

8. The content was funny

People don’t share content just for the sake of sharing it. Think about the content you’ve shared most recently. There are likely one or more reasons you did so:

• The content resonated with you on a personal level through a common thought or belief
• It was inspirational and connected with you emotionally
• It was funny or educational—or both
• You found value in it and felt your connections would also enjoy it

The Dollar Shave Club video, and much of their content marketing, revolves around an amusing, witty, self-deprecating sense of humor. It’s compelling in a Jackass/Knoxville kind of way (minus the violent shots to the groin.)

But you don’t need to have raw comedic talent or formal training to make a strong connection with your audience. In fact, if you try too hard, your message could come off as forced.

It worked for DSC because they knew their audience, but more importantly, it was the personality of the brand. There was consistency in the brand messaging and the content itself.

DSC wasn’t funny just for the sake of being funny.

Conclusion

The success of Dollar Shave Club’s content can be replicated, but it shouldn’t be duplicated.

With the right strategy, you can develop content that will captivate your audience. You just need to understand what they want and discover how to talk to them.

With that information, you can diversify and produce content in formats that will be most successful with the people you’re trying to target.

You don’t need to be funny. You just need to be authentic, sincere, consistent, and willing to listen.

What tricks can you borrow from Dollar Shave Club to increase your brand’s power?

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How to Become a Marketer Who Thinks Strategically

One of the greatest challenges a new marketer will face is getting into, and staying in the right mindsight.

By its very nature, marketing is highly tactical. There are countless ways to engage your audience.

Unfortunately, most of the tactics tend to be done in a vacuum without any thought to strategy.

They’re reactionary, which can bring diminished results and less-than-desirable returns.

In the B2B space, only about a third of marketers actually have a documented strategy to drive their business forward.

That’s why more than half are struggling to create marketing campaigns that actually engage an audience and produce a substantial return. Those diminished returns tend to drive marketers back to traditional channels like banner ads.

But even display advertising without a strategy isn’t necessarily going to perform the way you want it to.

To get the best results, you need to take a proactive and strategic approach to your marketing. Here’s how you can start thinking like a strategic marketer.

See Beyond Urgency

If you’re constantly in reactive mode, chasing fires and responding to things as they come up then your resources will remain tapped. You’ll never have the opportunity to plan ahead or develop campaigns based on research.

I hear about this all the time with brands who suddenly realize that a holiday or promotional opportunity “snuck up on them.” They scramble at the last minute to put together email campaigns, promotions, social initiatives, display ads, and even direct mail campaigns.

The first step toward strategic thinking is to get your mind out of urgency/emergency mode.

Without proper planning, you wind up with last minute marketing efforts – like this mattress company that tossed together an offensive commercial to promote their product on 9/11.

Marketing must be considered a strategic imperative if you want to actually see results. Reactive tactics are not a strategy and are much riskier when the time isn’t taken to research and measure potential outcomes.

Strategic marketing looks months ahead of the current situation, planning well in advance so you have time to research, plan, create assets, review and deploy effectively.

Take the Time to Calculate Risks

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks is not strategic thinking. That’s just hoping you’ll get lucky with results, and it’s incredibly wasteful especially if you have limited resources.

Strategic marketers look forward and can often see the repercussions of their plans more clearly than tactical marketers. They also don’t charge blindly forward because an idea sounds good. They take the time to carefully consider the downside of every action.

“What happens if this or that happens after we execute. Can we live with outcomes X, Y or Z?”

Weighing the risks of campaigns and potential outcomes provides insight into next steps. This makes it that much easier to pivot to another brand in the strategy rather than scrambling to find a solution when the single tactic doesn’t perform as expected.

Be Capable of Execution

I’ve met my fair share of strategic marketers that have impressed me with creative prowess. Among them have been some of the most creative minds, yet struggled tremendously with executing the ideas they developed.

Strategic marketers don’t overthink or worry incessantly about outcomes. They’re not afraid to pull the trigger once their strategy is constructed. They recognize that no strategy is 100% sound, and change is likely.

You need to have the confidence to pull the trigger and know that no strategy is perfect. Becoming a strategic marketer means never procrastinating.

Get your strategy developed and don’t be afraid to execute it.

Just remember that once a strategy is executed, the cycle begins again. There’s no finish line.

Be Willing to Detach From Your Ideas

The most effective strategic marketers I’ve met have always been able to see  beyond their own brilliance. They cut through the fat and are willing to discard their own ideas when better ideas come from outside, and they’re willing to consider the ideas of others – no matter how crazy those ideas might seem.

Don’t get caught up in your preconceived ideas and plans. A smart marketer knows to leverage the skill and brilliance of others through group ideation and brainstorming to fuel more robust marketing strategies.

Rob Carpenter from Hitshop shared with Moz how his team takes content brainstorming and ideation to the next level:

When we think we have a good idea, we use Publicate to flesh out an idea by compiling all of the content out there for that specific topic (especially those that rank for the key term we are aiming for). In Publicate we can add notes to each piece of content we curated on what elements of the post we could expand on, and what we can say differently. We also mark which posts we want to link to and quotes to include in our piece. This step is extremely important for helping us create not just ‘good, unique content,’ but content that is 10x better than what is currently available.

Make Decisions Based on the Data

In my opinion, data is the heart of business. It should be at the center of decision making for any kind of business or marketing strategy. It provides insights to answer key questions, while raising other questions you may not have considered.

Later, that data will help change the direction of your strategy. Initially though, that data is necessary to create the strategy.

Strategic marketers rely on a lot of data to build their long-term strategies. This could include:

• How long audiences engages with certain topics
• Which products are abandoned most often
• What are top products during different seasons
• How long does it take the average prospect to convert
• What type of content or advertising do prospects respond to best
• How can audiences be segmented for the best engagement with email marketing
• How does the consumer respond to direct mail campaigns post purchase compared to the same campaign used on prospects that have not yet purchased

Find the data to answer your most important questions, then identify the data you have and use that to start building your strategy. Leverage it to define your goals and the tactics you’ll use to reach them. A strategic marketer can use the data and information they compile through research to work out the costs of campaigns and define whether the efforts are justified.

Your data is a key part of risk assessment – something every marketing and PR campaign needs. It’s a loop that constantly feeds back to the beginning, using the data to establish then continue to drive the strategy forward

Know the Target and Create Goals

Anyone can set a marketing goal, but the most strategic marketers set goals that are realistic, achievable and are based on business goals.

Like these organizational goals for B2B content marketing compiled by CMI and Marketing Profs based on survey respondent data.

Setting goals might sound simple, but it’s something of a mix of art and science. Like anything, it takes practice. That comes from constantly refining existing goals, refocusing, pivoting and a willingness to try some weird stuff.

How do you set goals for something as fluid and changing as a marketing strategy? Practice. And find someone who has been doing it for a while and apply what they’ve learned.

Shanelle Mullin, Content & Growth at ConversionXL, shared some smart advice with Kissmetrics on creating goals for your marketing strategy.

The key to setting achievable marketing goals is to spend time evaluating your current position. Many startups set lofty, unattainable goals and end up discouraged, which can be detrimental in the early days. On the other hand, some startups set easy, insignificant goals and end up missing out on growth potential.

Take the time to really understand your growth levels to date. If you run a popular blog and traffic has increased by 8-10% for the last four months, you know that a 12-15% month-over-month increase in blog traffic is a challenging yet attainable goal. Don’t be the startup that shoots for 20% or the startup that considers anything above 8% a win.

In terms of what types of goals you should be setting, it depends heavily on what stage your startup is in. Early on, focus on engagement goals and collecting feedback to validate your product or service. Later on, focus on growth metrics. There are no universals when it comes to metrics, unfortunately. What’s important is that your core goals are tied to major business objectives.

The single most important thing to remember about marketing goals is to stay focused. Choose 1-2 core goals that impact the bottom line and 3-5 supporting goals. Anything more than that will distract you from what’s most important (as will changing goals too often).

When you identify those primary and secondary goals, you can break them down into milestones that will help define the roadmap of your marketing strategy. That map plays a major part in defining the tactics you’ll use along the way.

Follow the Course; Don’t Chase the Glitter

Ideation and brainstorming are a critical part of creating a marketing strategy, but that doesn’t mean that every idea is going to pan out.

Likewise, your research is likely to reveal what competitors and other businesses are doing to market themselves.

With all the options and potential ideas, it’s pretty easy to get lost in transit without a mapped plan.

I liken it to steering a ship; if you spin the wheel every time an a glimmer on the horizon catches your eye, you’re going to zigzag across the ocean and never really get anywhere.

Even with a documented marketing strategy, it’s easy to get off course trying to do the next big thing everyone things is a trend for the year. Experimenting is OK, but not at the expense of your plans.

The most successful marketers know to stick to their strategy, and work those experiments into that strategy.

Establish Your Measurements for Progress and Success

Effective marketing goes well beyond ideation and deployment. Success isn’t automated, and as I mentioned there’s no such thing as a perfect strategy.

More often than not you’re going to have to make changes on the fly and refine your strategy. Knowing when to do that, and why, comes from constantly measuring the performance of your campaigns.

Just like you use data to form the basis of your strategy, you’re constantly using data and analytics to monitor the health of your marketing campaigns.

Know what success looks like, and identify how you’ll measure that success as part of a marketing strategy.

Document Your Strategy

It continues to surprise me how many marketers don’t document their marketing strategy, instead choosing to fly blind from memory.

There’s a lot that can go wrong when your strategy isn’t documented.

It’s more than just a roadmap detailing what you do to get to the next step. It’s a living document that ties together a lot of moving parts, and a lot of people. Some of what would be included in a sound documented strategy…

• Who the audience is, and how to reach them
• The tactics to be used
• The USP(s) to connect with the audience
• Who is involved, who is responsible for what aspects of the strategy
• How marketing materials are distributed, or where the audience is engaged
• How success is measured
• Conversion strategies used
• Promotions, pricing and incentives
• Communication requirements and reporting

There’s a great deal more that can and should be included, and that’s a lot to be floating around – especially with multiple people or teams involved. With all the moving parts, lacking a documented strategy invites error and mistakes.

Conclusion

Among all the aspects of being a strategic marketer, there’s one thing that remains consistent: looking forward.

If you want to think like a strategic marketer, you have to look beyond now.

Don’t get caught up in the urgency. Plan ahead, look to the future, and develop a rolling strategy that is built around proactive outbound and inbound practices, rather than the reactive deployment of tactics.

What mental practices have you tried in order to think strategically?

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How to Get Your Boss to Invest More Money in Content Marketing This Year

Content marketing has come a long way over the last 10 years.

More and more companies have come to realize the tremendous return and savings from investing in inbound marketing like blogs, white papers, and video.

Still, there’s a surprising number of businesses that either don’t leverage content marketing at all or have fairly slim content budgets.

While some 88% of marketers are using content marketing to reach their audiences, only about 30% see their campaigns as effective.

That can create a problem when it’s time to try new things, launch new campaigns, and venture into new content formats.

Getting management to invest in more content is a difficult, especially if the company struggles to create engaging content and produce effective campaigns.

If the value of or return on the content isn’t readily apparent, you’ve got a challenge to win over your leadership when it comes to content marketing.

To get them to buy in, you need to be well prepared with a smart plan that makes them see additional content marketing as a worthwhile investment they can’t live without.

Here’s how to do it.

Build a case for content marketing

If content marketing is already a part of your strategy, you’re halfway there. I run into countless marketers who try to sell leadership on content after visiting a workshop, only to be shot down.

Thankfully, you don’t have to get that initial commitment as your boss is already behind content marketing to some degree. I hope at this point you’ve got some data to prove that content marketing is working in your specific business and industry to back up your claim that a greater investment is needed.

Regardless of the size of the investment or how lofty your goals are, you need to put together a solid pitch and presentation. It shouldn’t be a casual or passive ask.

Keep these points in mind when you’re preparing your pitch:

Education is still important

Just because your boss understands content marketing doesn’t mean they understand it to the extent you do. They may see the value in blogging but may feel video is costly with minimal return because they don’t understand it.

Basic education on the formats and channels you propose to expand into should be a large part of your pitch.

You can’t expect leadership to invest more in something they don’t understand.

Focus on the value

Make sure you’re expressing the value of the investment, just like you do when highlighting the value proposition when selling something to your consumer audience. This way you’re not stuck on the technical aspects of content marketing expansion.

Focus on things like education, relationship building, teaching, and entertainment—things that make for stronger relationships and greater return.

It’s also a good time to show how your content strategy aligns with company goals. For instance, give examples of how to use content to boost relationships, resulting in a greater customer LTV and revenue lift.

Back it up with data

It’s not always easy to show the ROI or effectiveness of content marketing, but pull the data, and find a way to present it. This could include content metrics such as:

• Increased on-site time
• Content drawing in new traffic that moves fresh leads into the sales funnel
• Increased opt-ins from prior content offer campaigns
• Sales and revenue traced back to email campaigns

Leverage the content marketing metrics and data you have to show that your current efforts are moving the needle.

You can also use data from outside sources. This can come from case studies as well as research, trends, and benchmark reports in the industry that support the type of content marketing you plan to expand into. That data shows that it’s not just you who is planning to expand—it’s a direction the industry is headed.

Showcase a competitive analysis

A smart way to sell an expanded content strategy to leadership is to show what the competition is doing (and what they’re not) with an analysis of your competitor’s content marketing efforts.

Part of selling the value of your proposed campaigns is detailing how it will put the company ahead of major competitors to grab more market share.

Performing competitive content analysis takes significant upfront time, but doing so will help you set a realistic content strategy that will allow you to compete, and eventually overtake, your competitors online.” Corey Eridon writing for Hubspot.

Rather than copying their efforts, show—while speaking to company goals—that what you’re doing (and what you plan to do) will help outpace competition.

Align with company goals

Demonstrate why content marketing makes sense for your business and how the company (and customers) will benefit.

This can include goals such as:

• Greater brand visibility and increased brand awareness
• Improved thought leadership
• Increased frequency and volume of qualified leads for the sales team
• Reduced cost of customer acquisition
• Improved customer satisfaction/delight
• Reduced customer churn

Alignment between marketing and company goals is critical. Be prepared to make your case and provide research to back up your claims that your proposed strategy and the tactics you’ll use will help the company meet current goals.

This is a good opportunity to circle back to the competitive analysis and present case studies in which other brands have used similar tactics to accomplish their own objectives and engage their audiences.

Be ready for objections

You’re likely to come across objections when making your case for a greater investment in content marketing. With an existing investment in content, you’re not likely to get a hard no, but you should still be prepared for some pushback and the need to negotiate.

For leadership, everything comes down to the bottom line. If you want the dollars you’re asking for in your budget, you need to be prepared to counter the objections that may arise.

Here are some of the most common:

• People don’t want to hear more from us (we’re not interesting enough)
• Let’s just move resources; limit old campaigns to run new ones
• We don’t have the budget for it
• We’re giving away too much
• We don’t want to hire more people

For cost and resource related issues

Make sure you clearly lay out how to get around resource limitations. If you don’t need to hire anyone or the costs can be minimized with strategic outsourcing, showcase that in the proposal.

Don’t just discuss how much the expansion of your content marketing will cost. Be sure to include details of how much they can save. Circle back to your existing data that highlights things like:

• Reduced customer acquisition costs
• Increased volume of leads through organic search and content
• Reduced load on service teams through top-of-funnel content
• Improved velocity of lead closure through the strategic partnership of sales and content marketing

All of it equates to savings, providing a greater return on the initial investment.

The “We’re Not Interesting Enough” argument

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, your prospective and current customers will have questions. They face issues every day in their businesses. Every issue, question, and concern is a content opportunity that can turn your business into a hero, solving problems while asking for nothing in return.

Counter this argument by presenting common questions and concerns from your customers and showing how your company can create content to solve their problems.

The “Move Resources” argument

Sometimes management might suggest turning off other campaigns in order to test new ones. When you want to fill a container faster, you don’t turn off one tap to turn on another.

You turn on multiple faucets to let more water in.

Use your data from previous campaigns to show that virtually every campaign has some ramp-up time, necessary to gain traction to see a return. Shutting down or limiting existing campaigns to move resources would actually cost more when you factor in revenue and leads lost in the interim.

The “Giving Too Much Away” argument

This is the point of content marketing: give away vast amounts of value-rich information in order to create a winning experience for your audience. It’s the only way to build your brand as a trusted, reliable thought leader.

All of that content has a tremendous influence over purchasing decisions. When customers feel you have their best interests at heart, they are more likely to buy from you.

Even if you share the bulk of your knowledge, your customers won’t go to great lengths to learn how to do it all on their own. They’ll still need you.

This is where you make the case that limiting the amount of information you share only provides competitors with an opportunity to be the better resource.

Conclusion

When you make your presentation, you should have a strategy to showcase your vision, including the expected results. Have a plan ready that shows how serious you are about the expansion of your content marketing.

Even if you are presenting a pilot program, detail its implementation, ownership, ways content is created, cost allocation, distribution, promotion, and the measurement of its success against company goals.

From there, all that’s left for you to do is to make your case and ask for the investment. With a detailed pitch outlining a solid content marketing plan, you should be able to overcome any objections your leadership may have and get them to buy into growing your marketing efforts.

Have you ever tried to convince your boss to invest more in content marketing? How did you do it?

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Niche Site Project 3.0 Update for November and December 2016

Another couple of months have passed, and Samara, Colleen, and Ryan have been hard at work.  Below you will find their updates for both November and December.

As you can see, they are started to see varying degrees of success.  I’m very happy with the effort that they have put in, and I expect that their sites will continue to grow.

Remember, this is the first time that any of them have really attempted to build a niche site, so the fact that they are starting to make money and get traffic is a good thing.  Below you will find the updates written by each of the students.

Samara Update for TinyFry.com

Hey everybody!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone and their niche sites went out with a bang in 2016.

I have been busy these last few months working on TinyFry.com. In truth there’s not a ton of new info to share, as you already know the strategy I’m using: publish good content, do some outreach, get a few backlinks. I’m also pleased to report that it seems to be working.

Traffic continues to grow, as you can see from this screenshot from Google Analytics.

In other positive news, I had my best months yet in November and December, earning $149 and $284, respectively. I’m obviously excited about this, but I also fear that my good performance was attributable mainly to holiday shopping and doesn’t truly reflect the growth trend I’ve been seeing. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in January.

November Earnings

December Earnings

I took some time out to redesign and reorganize my home page, and I think it looks pretty respectable! I’ve also reformatted almost all of my articles, so that they all follow the same structure, for the most part. This was time consuming, but I think the feel and look are more coherent now.

On a negative note, I’ve realized I completely suck at social media. Theoretically, it doesn’t seem that difficult to find something interesting and relevant to post on a daily basis, but it actually is. I was able to get my act together for maybe a few weeks in the last two months, but then I just put social media on the backburner again.

I’ve also dropped the ball with my monthly newsletters. Embarrassingly, I actually forgot to send them on more than one occasion! At the moment they’re kind of like an afterthought for me, so now I’ve programmed a reminder in my phone to make sure I send them out. I haven’t made much of an effort to get new subscribers, although they continue to trickle in, and now I have about 50.

Overall I’m super pleased, and I feel like I’m seeing results from all the content creation, linkbuilding and outreach I’ve been doing. But to be perfectly honest, I thought I would see faster growth and better results sooner. Realistically, there are only so many hours in the day, and like lots of you, I’m also juggling a family and a job, among other things, and sometimes I don’t even sit down at my computer until 11 pm!

The real truth is that it’s an uphill battle that takes a lot of time, patience and perseverance. That’s okay though because, as I’ve said before, I’m in this for the long haul! I hope you guys are too!

Colleen Update on Coustii.com

Hi everyone,

It’s been a short couple months since our last update, or maybe it feels a bit longer for you. Things have been busy, but in a great way! In the past month I’ve started my own business in the SEO/Web Development realm AND am getting ready to jetset off to Southeast Asia for a few months. Nothing like the sand in your toes and a cocktail in hand while you work, am I right?

Enough about me, let’s talk about Coustii! November and December were big months for my site. If you remember, back and July I switched my link building efforts to content creation. Selecting keywords in Long Tail Pro that had low competition and good traffic.

In October, I received about 4,500 sessions. In November I had 6,700! Then things got real in December when I received 12,500 sessions! That means I practically doubled my traffic from November to December. I also noticed a slight increase in my DA from 32 to 34.

November:

December:

Of course November and December are prime Amazon affiliate months. With people buying presents for friends and family, I received a nice little check from Amazon. In November I made $92 and in December $111. I know that the holiday gift giving will subside in January, but I’m looking forward to seeing how my increase in traffic impacts my Amazon earnings.

November Earnings:

December Earnings:

I do have to thank Spencer and Perrin immensely, because these skills and opportunities that I’ve gained through the Niche Site Project 3 is what is allowing me live the lifestyle I’ve always dreamed!

Until next time!

Ryan Update on FiveToolSchool.com

Oh man, do I dread these write-ups.

They are a reminder that time flies, and that excuses build walls between you and your dreams. But, it’s not all bad this time around.

I do have some victories (small ones)! And everything is still trending in the right direction – just very slowly. So, I’m going to choose to look at things being positive in general.

The Victories:

1. I think I’ve published three or four articles since our last check-in. I know that is pathetically low, but it’s a lot for me – especially considering how long it can take me to finish just ONE article. Maybe it’s actually time to outsource a few. I’ve been trying to avoid that because money is tight as it is, but I think I’m finally going to bite the bullet and see if I can find a decent writer at a decent price.
2. I wrote my first guest post. Yeah, that’s right. I’m a guest-poster now. I actually think I wrote a really great piece that’s going to (hopefully) get a decent amount of traffic for this person’s site. I also allowed a guest post on my site. I wasn’t expecting to do that, but I trusted the person, I need content, and it’s kind of hypocritical to be a guest-poster and not a guest-postee, no? So, I did it, and I’m glad I did.
3. I’ve reinstated my Amazon Affiliate links. I was starting to get some actual traffic, and I figured it was time to see what kind of clicks I was getting. No sales yet, but I’m getting clicks. Just waiting for that first person to order! You can see my pathetic Amazon stats below. Here’s the thing… I only have two affiliate articles right now. Everything else is informational. After I finish the big article that I’m working on, I’m going to transition to writing 2-3 (killer) money articles. Maybe more. I don’t want the site to become lopsided, but I’m definitely out of the sandbox and it’s time to see if I can get some sales.

I have a concern about my market…

I’m a little worried that a large portion of my market is going to be under age. When I think about who’s the most interested in baseball products, it’s definitely kids. Most adults (with the exception of me, and awesome people like me) don’t play baseball.

They used to, but they don’t now.

That means that a lot of the traffic to my site may be kids that have no means to actually make a purchase.

I’m not naive enough to think that parents don’t search the same things their kids do, in an effort to buy them the best gear. But I also know that kids are going to be driving these purchases, and how does that work, exactly?

I really don’t know.

Do teenagers put stuff in their parent’s Amazon cart and then beg them to buy it? Do they research this stuff and then show their parents the screen and say, “this is what I want”! Only to have their parents ignore them for weeks at a time until they’re ready to make a purchase?

I don’t now how modern e-commerce works. When I was a kid, you went to the sporting goods store with your parents and showed them what you wanted… and then they bought you something cheaper.

So it’s a legitimate concern, I think. Do any of you guys have niche sites that fall into this category? I’d be interested to hear.

The Stats

As you can see from the stats below, I’m not exactly blowing the doors off of Google. I’d say I’m doing okay considering the lack of backlinks and the lack of content. Keyword planning and on-page SEO are the only things garnering me traffic right now.

But, as I say every time we have an update, I’m not giving up. This is just what my pace has been. I was never in this for a quick buck, anyway. Authenticity was probably the most important thing to me.

It just kinda sucks that I’m authentically slow. I hope everyone else is crushing it!

Your Thoughts

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the progress of Samara, Colleen, and Ryan.  Each of them have been putting in effort and starting to see some results, and earnings!

I believe that they all have the skills now to more or less do everything on their own.  So, whether they continue to work on these existing sites or whether they decide they want to build something new, they have the knowledge and ability to do so.

I look forward to seeing the progress they make over the next couple of months.

The post Niche Site Project 3.0 Update for November and December 2016 appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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15 Advanced Facebook Advertising Techniques You Probably Didn’t Know About

Facebook advertising is just as powerful in 2017 as it’s ever been.

Perhaps even more so.

The sheer volume of users alone (1.71 billion as of July 2016) makes it a digital marketer’s playground.

When it comes to Facebook advertising, I could spout off a laundry list of done-to-death conventional techniques.

And most are still quite effective.

But what I want to do here is delve a little deeper and truly dissect Facebook.

I want you to understand its full potential.

Here are 15 advanced Facebook advertising techniques you probably didn’t know about but should most definitely experiment with.

1. Using “Pages to Watch”

Facebook has a pretty cool feature called “Pages to Watch.”

It’s not something I use for marketing directly, but it can provide some helpful insights to assist me in my marketing.

Long story short, you can compile a list of pages you’re interested in along with analytics.

Here’s what I mean:

Just add pages from brands that are relevant to your industry and have a strong Facebook presence.

This is helpful because you can see which posts are the most and least engaging. In turn, you can use this information when deciding what to post on your own page.

Check out this article from Buffer for more info on the Pages to Watch feature.

2. Post images via Instagram

Here’s a sneaky little tactic I stumbled upon.

Rather than posting images directly on Facebook, post them via Instagram.

Why?

A study from Buzzsumo found that “images posted via Instagram get 23% more engagement.”

And this makes sense, considering the insane level of engagement Instagram receives.

According to Brand Watch, “Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest and 84 times higher than Twitter.”

Legitness!

In theory, following this simple step can net you nearly a quarter more engagement than simply posting directly on Facebook.

3. Forget the hashtags

Okay, hashtags are well and good in certain situations.

In fact, they’re quite beneficial on networks such as Instagram and Twitter.

But not so much on Facebook.

The same study from Buzzsumo found that posts with hashtags received less engagement than posts without.

Not only does this save time, but you’ll also get more bang for your buck with every piece of content you post.

Think of it as a mini-hack.

4. Post between 10 p.m. and midnight local time

I’m sure you already know that timing is essential on social media.

Even if you post a masterpiece, it’ll have only a marginal impact if your audience never actually sees it.

It’ll get shuffled to the bottom of their feeds.

From my experience and concrete data from Buzzsumo, the ideal time to post is between 10 p.m. and midnight local time.

There are two main reasons why.

First, there are fewer people posting content, which means less competition and more visibility.

Second, there are enough people still awake and active on Facebook to make it worth your time.

This graph from Buzzsumo illustrates this phenomenon:

Stick with this two-hour window, and you should be golden.

5. Using “Audience Insights”

You should know by now that I’m a sucker for cool social media features.

Especially those that are highly data-driven.

The “Audience Insights” feature is perfect for helping me get a detailed snapshot of my audience so I can cater to them more efficiently and create relevant content based around their interests.

And relevancy is essential because it ultimately maximizes your impact and increases your ROI.

You can get information on:

• Age
• Gender
• Lifestyle
• Education level
• Job title

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The data you generate from this can spill over into other elements of your overall marketing campaign.

Check out this resource from Facebook for more on this feature.

6. Work video into your core strategy

I think we can all agree that video is huge at the moment.

Some might even consider 2016 as the year of video.

The interesting thing is that video accounts for only 3% of all content on Facebook.

I found that number to be staggeringly low.

But it also presents a great opportunity.

Posting plenty of high-quality video content allows you to grab the low-hanging fruit many of your competitors appear to be missing out on.

This leads me to my next point.

7. Directly embed videos

Considering YouTube is so huge, your first instinct may be to embed YouTube videos into your posts.

But that’s the wrong move.

That’s because “directly embedded Facebook videos get more engagement than YouTube embedded videos.”

A lot more!

Just look at how much the total number of interactions from direct embedding dwarfs the number of those embedded with YouTube.

Keep this in mind moving forward, and your engagement levels should increase considerably.

8. “Crowdsource” your business decisions

You’re probably familiar with the term “crowdfunding,” where capital is raised with contributions from a large number of people.

You can apply a similar concept to Facebook with “crowdsourcing” key decisions.

Here are some examples:

• Ask your audience to choose your brand’s new logo
• Ask which new background to use for your Facebook profile

This is cool because:

a) it lets your audience know you’re genuinely interested in their opinions, and
b) it is a natural catalyst for engagement.

The easiest way to crowdsource is to create polls in which people can vote.

9. Keep posts under 150 characters in length

Less is best in terms of Facebook character count.

In fact, I recommend treating it like Twitter—use a max of 150 characters.

Why?

It’s simple. Shorter Facebook posts receive far more engagement than longer ones.

Here’s data to prove it:

As you can see, posts with 50 characters or fewer receive the most interactions, and the number of interactions gradually declines as more characters are added.

In other words, keep it short and sweet.

10. Add CTA buttons to your Facebook ads

Here’s an interesting fact:

“The average advertising click-through rate on Facebook is 0.9%.”

But “adding a CTA button can lift your click-through rate by 2.85 times.”

Just think of the long-term impact this can have on your campaign.

Adroll even made a brief infographic that mentions the “big results from a little button.”

Check out this guide from Facebook to learn exactly how to create a CTA button.

11. Using “Facebook Groups” for community building

You may have heard Seth Godin talk about the importance of groups or “tribes” as he calls them.

It’s an essential component of brand building.

But one resource I think that many marketers are failing to capitalize on is “Facebook Groups.”

It’s a lot like LinkedIn Groups where you create a specific group based around a key topic of interest (usually your niche).

This is beneficial for several different reasons:

• It strengthens your relationships
• It helps you build new ones
• It builds brand equity
• It facilitates interaction
• You can gain valuable intel

If you’re not sure how to go about this, consult this quick tutorial from Facebook.

12. Pin your most epic post

Another feature I love is the option to “pin” posts at the top of your timeline.

That way, Facebook users see your best content once they land on your page.

It’s kind of like putting your best foot forward, which hearkens back to the halo effect, which I discussed in another post.

I suggest looking over your timeline and finding the highest quality post that received the most engagement and “pinning” it to the top.

Here’s how to go about it.

13. A/B test your ads with Qwaya

I won’t launch into a long-winded discussion of how much I love A/B testing.

You probably already know that.

I will say, however, that it’s your ticket to maximum conversions and for cleaning up any inefficiencies in general.

But how exactly can you perform A/B testing on Facebook?

I suggest using Qwaya.

It’s a great Facebook ad manager that will help you take things to the next level.

Here’s a screenshot:

If you’re funneling a considerable amount of money into Facebook ads, this tool is a must.

You can learn more about it in this article I wrote.

14. Use plenty of “question” posts

In a previous article on Quick Sprout, I examined which types of posts received the most interactions on Facebook.

Here’s what I found:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that “question” posts are ideal in terms of generating interactions.

It’s probably because people like to get in on the action and have their voices heard, so I suggest using this quite a bit.

15. Stick with articles between 1k and 3k words

I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going on a quick long-form content rant.

Once again, according to Buzzsumo’s findings, long-form content performs best on Facebook.

In particular, posts between 1,000 and 3,000 words are ideal.

However, you don’t want to go any further than 3,000, considering the fact there’s a significant drop off in the number of interactions.

Conclusion

I think Facebook gets overlooked these days sometimes because it’s become the old man of social media.

By this I mean there are always newer, hipper, sexier networks popping up.

But Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

In fact, it’s on track to reach two billion users within the next couple of years or so. That’s pretty insane when you think about it.

By going beyond the basics and swimming into the deep end, you can find some real potential for high-quality leads.

And by following the right formula, you can cash in on a large percentage of those leads and convert them into customers.

Can you think of any other advanced Facebook advertising techniques?

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