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Streaming Trends for 2022

Though the internet has recently become an excellent advertising platform, starting out can be difficult. With more content every day, an abundance of competitors, and constantly evolving algorithms, many business owners will find themselves frustrated trying to get the reach they need. 

However, the newfound popularity of streaming presents business owners with a golden opportunity. The ability to engage with an audience in real-time makes for personalized and attention-grabbing content, leading many businesses to embrace the new format. If you’re interested in taking advantage of streaming to promote your business, you should be aware of current streaming trends, as well as how you can take advantage of them.

Streaming Trends

Reels Over Stories

TikTok’s explosion in popularity has been a game-changer for short-form content creators, with many major social sites adopting a similar video feature. In Facebook’s case, there are reels, fun, dynamic videos lasting a minute or less. Because of this, stories have begun to lose their prominence in short-form advertising. While certainly still a valuable feature, they’re becoming more of a way to engage with current followers, with reels taking their place in attracting a wider audience.

Short Form Gets Shorter

Over time, the video content social media users tend to engage with has become shorter and shorter. Generally, they’re looking less for a deep dive into your product or service, and more for a witty, to-the-point approach. Similar to the stories feature, long-form content still has its uses, but short-form will be your greatest source of public reach.

Streaming Spreads to New Platforms

Livestreaming’s diaspora to major social media platforms shows no signs of stopping. Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter have all hopped on the bandwagon, helping to establish its importance in the online world. And with the major tech giants adopting the format, more sites are soon to follow. As such, 2022 is a better time than ever to take advantage of the Livestream in your advertising.

Stream Quality Increases

Streaming’s meteoric rise has caused many corporations to see its value, setting their sights on the format’s potential. Its greatest weakness, however, has always been the strain it puts on the network. Being able to tune into a stream from anywhere in the world and watch in real-time can be taxing, and as such, maintaining stream quality can be difficult for streamers and viewers alike. Despite this, technology continues to develop, and with it, internet speed. This recent development has allowed for stable streams of a higher quality than ever before, so now is the ideal time to make your debut.

A Rise in Paid Advertising

Social media sites continue to expand, which means more users, and with them, more posts. As a result of this, it has become more difficult for businesses, especially small ones, to reach a large audience. Fortunately, Facebook has implemented a paid advertising feature to combat this. This gives businesses the ability to boost their posts, increasing their reach and even adding a layer of interactivity, with an optional banner that can redirect users to a website or shop. 

Of course, it’ll get costly to promote every single post you make, so be strategic in choosing which ones to boost. If you notice an unpromoted post suddenly receiving a burst of engagement, for example, ride that momentum. Chances are, you’ll be able to continue that initial burst, boosting your page’s public reach. Furthermore, your page’s increased reach means all of your posts are more likely to be seen, whether or not they’ve been promoted.

Rise of Live Shopping

What exactly is live shopping? Essentially, it’s a live stream in which a business’ products are displayed, giving potential customers a detailed look at what you have to offer. They can ask questions about a product or see them in use. This is especially useful for clothing brands, considering the difficulties that online clothes shopping presents. Customers may be reluctant to purchase a product, unsure of how it’ll appear in reality as compared to a model. Seeing it in use, however, could help to alleviate this confusion.

As for the stream itself, you may want to consider partnering with an influencer. Influencers are charismatic public figures with an established following and know how to sway or persuade an audience. Here, they’ll essentially serve as the public face of your brand, and their testimonial will send a stream of users your way.

Boosting Your Reach on Facebook Live

If you’re considering using Facebook Live to promote your business, don’t wait– take the plunge! Streaming’s rise in popularity, the prominence of online advertising, and social media’s wealth of users have made the format a veritable gold mine for businesses of any size. Even if you’ve struggled to reach your audience in the past, this is a prime chance for growth that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. If you’re still unsure, you can read more about the benefits of live streaming here. Once you start, however, you’ll be able to grow your business like never before.

Streaming to Zoom

In addition to the classic platforms, Zoom is becoming an increasingly popular place to stream. With its tight-knit feel and privacy, a meeting on zoom is the perfect way to truly connect with your audience. In this setting, individuals can feel a sense of recognition and belonging, which is facilitated by the collaborative nature of the platform. 

The widespread popularity and renown of the service also lends itself to adaptability. With our help, you can connect a zoom stream to other platforms, making it easier than ever to have a one-stop streaming spot. The service even has native integration with YouTube, meaning you can easily have two platforms running at once with little effort.

If you’re ready to learn more about the benefits of this more intimate streaming experience, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We can help you plan a streaming session that is sure to please everyone.

How to Generate Leads for Your Business

As small businesses boom, an unfortunate specter looms in their wake. For all the excitement and joy that they bring, small businesses are a risk. About a third of all small businesses fail to thrive and ultimately shut down within two years of starting. One of the biggest reasons for this is a failure to find proper leads.

What is Lead Generation Marketing?

Lead generation marketing is a method by which businesses find leads. By encouraging users to express interest in a product, businesses can easily find potential customers. Moreover, these users typically express their interest by submitting information, such as a phone number, email address, or form.

Today, with the power of social media, lead generation is easier than ever.

Why Are Leads So Important?

The primary purpose of a lead is to find a potential customer. For you, the information or interest you garner from a lead is potential profit. Every lead is a person who is looking for your product or service and is willing to pay for it!

As far as the sales funnel is concerned, a lead is perched firmly on the funnel’s edge. While not all leads pan out, those that do need only a slight push to invest in your business. This makes them essential to all kinds of businesses, from direct selling to B2B.

ow To Generate Leads For Your Business

How do I Generate Leads for My Business?

There are many ways to find leads. Traditionally, companies relied upon printed media, phone calls, and word-of-mouth referrals. However, with the advent of the internet, businesses have expanded their reach. Now, you can reach customers and generate leads across the country (and even the world!).

Online, lead generation falls into two extremely broad categories: paid and organic advertising. Each of these is exactly what it sounds like on the box. Paid advertisements cost money, while organic hits are generally free.

Organic Lead Generation

To generate organic hits for your business, you’ll need few resources and a good deal of creativity. The largest chunk of organic traffic still comes from search engines. This means that you’ll want to focus on making sure you have an amazing website and top-notch SEO.

However, with advancement comes change. Today’s digital marketing trends also rely on the power of social media and sharing. You want to create engaging, informational, and entertaining content. The end result of this data is that companies are investing more money than ever into developing a brand presence and identity through platforms like:

  • Sponsored on-site blogs
  • YouTube videos
  • TikTok shorts
  • Facebook posts
  • Twitter feeds

By focusing energy on developing content that people want to share, companies find that their name becomes more and more recognizable. Moreover, thanks to the way algorithms work on social media platforms, more shares mean more visibility.

Paid Lead Generation

For all of these benefits, however, a business cannot rely on organic marketing alone for their lead generation. Paid traffic is just as important, if not more so, for freshly minted businesses. In addition to the powers of storytelling and inclusivity, marketing trends demand that brands rise above the din of their competition and stand out.

That’s where paid traffic and lead generation come in.

ow To Generate Leads For Your Business

What is Paid Lead Generation?

While there are a few different forms of paid lead advertising, the most common is pay-per-click. This model works by displaying a pre-made, pre-written advertisement to a group you select. This group is ideally based on well-researched demographics, for example:

  • A divorce firm may advertise to newly widowed adults between the ages of 20–60
  • A trendy sneaker company will want to target fashion fans between the ages of 16–30
  • A humorous clothing company may want to focus on boys between the ages of 14–20

Once these parameters are set, your chosen platform will target the right audience on its own. Your ad will also receive a relevant link, which will likely lead directly to your site. (Other options include linking to a form or being able to send an email from the ad.) For every click or view this ad receives, you pay a small amount of money.

How To Optimize Your Lead Generation

Obviously, paying for your leads is a gamble. Without the right research and study, you’ll likely end up with a whole lot of nothing! That’s where we come in. Nexlaunch’s advertising services are built to optimize your results and guarantee success. We do more than just research. We help you build, design, and streamline your marketing plan. In addition to our paid advertising services, we also offer assistance with website design, SEO, automated messaging bots, and more! If you’re ready to boost your lead generation into the stratosphere, then contact us today!

Five Digital Marketing Trends You Should Be Watching in 2022

There are a lot of headlines on the internet touting digital marketing as “the future of marketing,” but the truth is that digital marketing trends channels have been dominating for years. 

The digital space currently holds some of the most valuable opportunities for marketers due to its adaptable nature and overwhelming popularity among consumers. Over two billion people worldwide engaged in some form of online shopping in 2021—that’s a digital audience of over a quarter of the world’s population. Keeping pace with digital marketing trends is essential for brands that want to reach this audience and improve their online lead generation. 

Here are some emerging trends to keep in mind as you plan and implement your digital marketing strategy for 2022:

Digital Marketing Trends

Brand Identity

There is so much digital marketing content competing for consumers’ attention that even the best content often gets lost in the noise. Preventing this from happening to your content is a matter of cementing your brand identity. Clearly and authentically expressing your brand’s values tells consumers why they should care more about your brand than the other brands pushing similar content.

However, be careful not to make your digital marketing campaign all about you—you should go beyond communicating your brand’s identity and also tell consumers what your brand can do for them. What product or service is your brand providing? What problems do you solve for customers? Your digital marketing content should communicate both your brand’s identity and its value to consumers.

Inclusivity

Consumers are holding brands to higher standards of diversity and equality than ever before. What is currently needed is for brands to approach these topics with a willingness to learn about the various identities that comprise their target markets. 

But rather than reduce your target market to a list of predefined characteristics, strive to understand and speak to the unique blend of experiences within your customer base. People can’t be wholly described by a single attribute, and they won’t feel a connection to your brand if they see themselves represented in a one-dimensional manner.

Take time to learn about the unique intersectional identities within your target market. The results of that research should influence your digital marketing style in 2022, including the kind of language you use and the experiences that are represented in your marketing efforts.

rketing Trends You Should Be Watching In 2022

Sustainability

More than ever, consumers are giving their business to brands that align with their values in general. Just as many consumers look to brands to set an example on the diversity and inclusion front, they also expect brands to play a part in environmental sustainability. 

Consumers identify with brands that care about the same issues they do. Right now, sustainability is what’s on many consumers’ minds. Making commitments to sustainability and communicating those commitments to consumers in your digital marketing messages should be a priority in 2022. You could communicate your brand’s shared interest in sustainability by switching to greener production methods or partnering with a nonprofit, for example.

Privacy

Privacy has always been one of the primary issues in the realm of digital marketing. With Google set to end its support of 3rd party cookies in 2023, now is a good time to review how your digital marketing strategy approaches consumer privacy measures. 

While data collection is necessary for brands to understand their market and offer relevant experiences to their customers, it is a practice that makes many consumers nervous, and rightfully so. 

Data breaches are a real threat, and it is the responsibility of every brand to ensure that the data it collects from customers is secure. Consumers tend to buy from brands they trust, and in the digital age, one of the best ways to foster trust is to show your customers that you care about their privacy and take significant measures to protect it. 

Five Digital Marketing Trends You Should Be Watching In 2022

Storytelling

Story-driven content is known for holding consumers’ attention and getting them emotionally invested in a brand—but the explosion of digital marketing channels, both in terms of availability and popularity, has quickly pushed storytelling from an effective technique to an essential one.

Using storytelling to engage consumers is not a new marketing tactic, but it is being implemented by more and more brands due to its natural compatibility with digital mediums. 

Video marketing, social media, and other digital channels have introduced new ways for marketers to utilize storytelling in creative ways. With Gen Z on track to overtake millennials as the leading consumer group in the United States by 2026, digital storytelling is poised to become more impactful than ever.

Digital Marketing in 2022 and Beyond

Perhaps there is some truth to the claim that digital marketing is “the future of marketing.” Digital marketing trends may already be in full swing, but they certainly aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. One of the keys to successful lead generation in the era of digital marketing is to pay close attention to which trends are on the horizon.

If you want help optimizing your marketing strategy for digital mediums, check out our lead generation service. Our team of digital marketing strategy experts is eager to assist you with digital marketing strategy and lead generation.

Top 9 Ways How Social Media Impacts Your Business

Social media has created a high impact in businesses and has certainly proven beneficial over the last two decades. Once a communication experiment that later evolved into platforms figuring out just how much personal data people would make available to their “digital networks,” social media remains a huge part of Americans’ everyday lives. This is why today we will discover the top ways how social media impacts your business and how can help ensure your brand’s success.

For businesses, social media has created a way to send a brand’s messaging to the right people at the right time and hope your brand sticks out to them enough to be interested, let alone loyal throughout their lives.

Here are the top nine reasons why it’s imperative for businesses to be on social media, and how it can help ensure your brand’s success.

1. Faster, Easier Communication

Customers can contact a customer service representative faster and easier now than ever before thanks to social media.

Businesses can also receive, review, and respond to customers’ grievances faster and easier than ever before.

Depending on the industry and the grievance, challenges may still remain, but the line of communication that once was somewhat challenging to establish is no longer nearly as difficult to do so.

It’s faster now than ever before to contact the right people — and oftentimes without having to even pick up a phone — and it’s only becoming easier as more people and brands use social media platforms to keep in contact with the people that matter most to their business.

Customers can now communicate real feedback in real time like never before, something businesses have strived to achieve for a long time.

2. Networking & Partnerships

In addition to the simplified lines of communication, there’s the aspect of general availability.

Let’s face it: there is a small part of the world’s population that it would be nearly impossible for most average humans to ever directly communicate with without the right kind of help (publicist, agent, etc.).

Also consider actors and actresses, athletes, and other high-profile people most of us Average Joes would never be able to interact with.

Social media helps connect us easier than ever before.

Building quality relationships becomes a lot easier with the streamlined communication we get from social media, and building relationships with key influencers earns a lot of value for your brand.

Some examples of the added value these connections facilitate are:

  • Trust from others’ networks and audience members.
  • The acquisition of quality backlinks (that offer SEO boost as well as, hopefully, an increase in referral visitors).
  • Potential business opportunities.

3. Boost Organic Visibility

There’s so much potential value to be unlocked through social media, aside from the networking and partnership-produced backlinks.

In addition to the SEO value gained from adding quality backlinks to your brand’s website (by way of social media relationships, as well as the ways social media help accumulate a variety of link types to comprise a healthy backlink profile), social media also sends relevancy signals and other signals to search engines like Google to ensure popular content is easily visible and shareable.

It’s important to understand how social media affects SEO as well.

Google has repeatedly said that social media likes, favorites, shares, backlinks, etc. are not direct ranking signals — but there is a correlation between social media activity/popularity and how/why it is ranked by search engines.

So, even though social media shares don’t serve as actual, full-value backlinks, the people, brands, and webmasters/marketers that may see your brand’s content via social media then may very well link to your brand’s content (since it’s quality content offering real value), and those backlinks would certainly hold real value.

4. Increases Traffic on Your Website

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow you to share links to your blog and your website. If you want to direct traffic to relevant pages, you can post your content links on your social profiles. People who follow your social media accounts can see these links and visit your site.

This is a huge benefit to your business because it helps you build more brand recognition with your audience. You can help them learn more about your business by reading the relevant page on your site. If you’re looking to grow your business, you can use social media to help you gain new traffic on your website other than people who search online using your brand name, product names, or key terms. It helps you expand your reach and drive more people to your page.

5. Customer Feedback

In the world of business, sales, and profits, regardless of what your industry is and who you are marketing and selling to, the focus has to truly be on the customer.

And success, both digitally and traditionally, is achieved by understanding — and delivering — the best quality customer service possible, and doing everything in your power to ensure your customer and potential customers have the best possible experience with your company.

Of course, the product or service you are selling should also be good, but there are always going to be unhappy customers. How we respond to the customers — regardless of how “good” or “bad” their feedback may be — is imperative to your business’s online success and its longstanding reputation.

Social media helps us maintain that reputation by giving us platforms to directly interact with our customers like we never have before. That also means we are receiving real customer feedback directly from the source, faster than ever before (and usually much more raw, too).

Businesses should be using this amazing opportunity to build their brand as a true, consumer-first operation, eventually building the brand’s reputation into one that can never be mistaken and is relied on for many years by an ever-growing customer base.

6. Learn about your audience 

On social media, you can gain insight into customer behavior. You learn what your audience is saying about your business. Many people will use social media to express their thoughts and opinions about businesses.

Using social media listening or social media monitoring is a great way for you to see how your audience perceives your company. Whether it’s positive or negative feedback, you’ll learn what your audience likes, dislikes, or wants to see happen with your business, which can help you amplify how social media benefits your business.

7. More Brand Authority

Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty both play a part in making your business more authoritative, but it all comes down to communication. When consumers see your company posting on social media, especially replying to customers and posting original content, it makes you appear more credible. Regularly interacting with customers demonstrates that your business cares about customer satisfaction, and is available to answer any questions that they might have.

Satisfied customers are eager to spread the word about a great product or service and they usually turn to social media to express their opinion. Having customers mention your business on social media will advertise your business, and show new visitors your value and brand authority. Once you obtain a few satisfied customers who are vocal about their positive purchase experience, you can let the advertising be done for you by actual customers who enjoyed your product or service.

8. Track Your Competition

Social media channels also allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of not just other marketing tactics and practices, but also with the tactics used by direct competitors.

And we can learn a lot from our competition.

No one is perfect, and we can all learn something. The ultimate goal is having the customer understand us and depend on us for our authoritative approach within our niche over our competition.

Our competitors are aiming to do the same things as us (establish and protect brand reputation and ultimately sell its products/services), so it’s worth us monitoring and finding out ways our business can do better to educate and entertain users, as well as the things our brand does well, and ways we can get better across the board.

9. User-Generated Content & Crowdsourcing of Ideas

User-generated and crowdsourced content isn’t just free and unique; it can also be awesome.

The larger the audience, the more potential the content has to really impact a brand and its messaging. Brands will receive and be able to (usually) use this sometimes-quality content — videos, images, infographics, memes, etc. — with proper permission, of course.

Social media allows us to ask for this user-generated content, then receive it directly, but there is quite a bit going in between all of that, too.

Most brands will have people post their content with specific hashtags. So, the brand isn’t just receiving the content; the content is actually being posted throughout social networks (being seen by each person’s network individually, as well as the brand and it’s network), and equipped with the required hashtags and other “requirements” (which usually includes following the brand, sharing directly with a certain number of connections, and plenty of others.

NexLaunch: we are a digital marketing agency specialized on Direct Selling companies and leaders with over 20 years in the digital marketing and systems world, we have built systems that have transformed online businesses and launched companies around the world. Book a Free Strategy Session here.

How to Set Up an Instagram Account for your Business

More than one billion people use Instagram every month, and roughly 90% of them follow at least one account business. This means that, in 2021, using Instagram for business is a no-brainer.

In just over 10 years Instagram has grown from a photo-sharing app to a hub of business activity. Brands can run fundraisers in Instagram Live broadcasts, open shops from their profiles and let people book reservations from their accounts. Updates of new business tools, features and tips in the app have become pretty much routine.

Learning how to set up an Instagram account for business is easy, especially if you’re already using Facebook. From a business standpoint, Instagram is simpler and less time-consuming than other sites.

You can use visual micro-stories to find out what entertains your audience and quickly grow a following.

Take these steps to create a profile and start promoting your business on Instagram.

1. Download the app

If you’ve never used Instagram, start by downloading the app. Instagram is available for smartphones, tablets, and computers through the Apple iOS, Google Play, and Windows app stores.

The app is geared toward mobile devices, and you’ll probably use a smartphone or tablet for most of your posting activity.

You can visit the Instagram website or use the app on a desktop computer if those options work better for you. However, some mobile features are not available or require special plug-ins to work for desktops and regular web browsers.

So, for the purposes of this guide, let’s focus on using the mobile app.

2. Create an account

Launch the app, and create an account in one of two ways:

  • Option 1: Sign up with your email address or phone number, and then enter a username.
  • Option 2: If you have a Facebook account, you can log in with the same information and link the accounts.

Already have an account? Just sign in, and go straight to your profile page.

3. Connect to Facebook

By default, you begin with a personal profile. To use Instagram for business, you have to connect your account to a Facebook business page. Click the profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.

At the top right corner of the page, open the settings menu. It appears as a vertical ellipsis in Android or a gear in iOS.

On the next page, scroll down until you see “Switch to business profile.” Click through the promo slideshow until you get a prompt to connect to Facebook. Select “Choose a page,” and set the page to “public.” Click “OK.”

Next, Instagram asks for permission to manage your Facebook pages. Look through the list of Facebook business pages you’ve already created. Select the right page, and click “Next.”

Only an admin on the account can complete this step. You won’t see the page if you’re just an authorized user.

4. Complete the profile setup

To finish your profile, enter an email, phone number, and address for your business. You have to fill in at least one of these contact fields to proceed. Some information will be auto-filled if it already appears on your Facebook page.

Click “Done,” and go to your profile. A new graph icon should appear at the top of the Instagram app. This is your Insights page, where you can keep track of promotions and engagement stats.

At any time, you can go back to the profile page and switch back to a personal account.

5. Create a new business page

If you haven’t already created a Facebook business page, you can do this at the same time. When you get the option to choose a page, select “Create one” at the bottom of the screen.

Set a title for your page, and choose the category that best describes your business. Some options include:

  • Books and magazines
  • Brands and products
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Event sources
  • Local businesses
  • Websites and blogs

Pick a subcategory to help people find your page in searches. For example, if you used “local businesses” as a subcategory, you have options, such as bar, home improvement, or arts and entertainment. Click “Next.”

6. Edit your profile

Go back to your profile page, and click “Edit your profile.” Here, you can add a photo, bio, and website link. If you switched from a personal account, consider changing the photo, name, and username to reflect your business. Using your brand’s logo and business name makes it easier for customers to find you on Instagram. You can make a logo in minutes if you don’t have a design yet.

Make a brief statement about what your business does or how you help customers. Keep in mind, you’re free to use a more casual tone on Instagram, even if your business is conservative.

From time to time, many brands change their bio to display fun announcements on the main page.

7. Invite contacts to follow you

Take advantage of any work you’ve done to build contacts online. In the settings menu, use the “Invite Facebook friends” option to send a notification to your entire Facebook network.

You can use the “Invite friends” option to access other networks, such as Gmail, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Yahoo! contacts. The more followers you have, the more it gives your business social media credibility.

8. Fill your gallery

Start adding photos to your gallery. The best thing about Instagram is your ability to reinvent old photos by adding filters. Users love the authenticity of the platform, so you don’t need pro skills to tell great stories.

Click the cross-shaped “Add” button to open a gallery from your phone. You can select the drop-down arrow at the top of the screen to get photos from other sources, such as Google Drive.

Once you know how to use Instagram for business, you can create Stories to drive engagement. Instagram stories are short photo or video collections that disappear after 24 hours. This simple feature is an effective way to share a funny, educational or heartwarming moment with your followers.

Even better, you have unlimited ways to be creative with storytelling. Show a product coming to life in your “food lab.” Offer a 10-second tutorial on cleaning the gutters. Make your audience laugh with funny filters on staff photos.

Instagram may seem intimidating at first, but the short, visual posts make it easy to learn fast and connect frequently with little effort.

Check out the Ultimate Guide for Instagram Shopping to get access to features like product tags, checkout, create ads with product tags and more!

Do you want to start running Instagram Ads for your business? Start here now!

Catapulting your Business Through Facebook Ads

Advertising on Facebook is one of the best ways to gain an audience for your business. Facebook ads reach a huge number of people–on average, 2.80 billion people actively use the platform every month. Because of this huge audience, online advertising through Facebook is one of the best decisions that you can make for your company. 

Using Facebook ads can help you reach out to future customers, create awareness surrounding your business, and grow your sales further. With that in mind, here are some ways that you can use paid traffic Facebook ads to expand your business to a larger audience. 

How Do I Create Ads on Facebook? 

Using Facebook’s Ads Manager makes creating advertisements on the platform simple. Ads manager is where you start for any ads that you want to run on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Audience Network. Ads Manager allows you to do many things with your ads, including the following: 

  • Creating brand new ads
  • Choosing your audience that your ads should be targeting
  • Setting up and managing your ad budgets
  • Run ads across multiple apps
  • Adjust your ad campaigns
  • Improve your ad performance with dynamic creative
  • Test which one of your ads performs the best
  • Get real-time insights 

Ad Manager with Facebook is a simple way to ensure that your advertisements for your business are successful and reaching the right audience. Ads Manager is an all in one solution to any problems you might be facing trying to get your advertisements out there. 

How Does Facebook Generate Leads?

Lead generation ads on Facebook are much simpler than they are on other advertising platforms. On Facebook, people who are interested in your business can tap your ad, and a form will pop up. This form is pre-populated with their Facebook contact information and is ready to be sent directly to your company. Facebook’s ability to do this makes it a great place to generate leads, and you will be more likely to get leads on Facebook over other platforms because of the ease of inquiring. 

Lead generation ads will not only help you get more leads–they will also help you reduce drop-off rates and find leads that matter and who are likely to stick with your business in the long term. 

What Kind of Ads Can I Make With Facebook? 

There are various types of ads that you can create by using Facebook ads. All of these ads are valuable in their own way, and it is up to you to decide which type of ad you think will have the best reception based on your target audience.

Image Advertisements

Image ads are a perfect way to get started when you are new to Facebook paid advertising. One can be made by simply boosting a post with an image directly from your business’ Facebook page. 

Video Advertisements

Video advertisements can also run in the News Feed and Stories, or they can appear as in-stream ads in longer Facebook videos. Because of these options, video advertisements have a good chance of reaching a wider audience over image advertisements. Video advertisements can show people how your team works and functions, and can get people interested in inquiring about your business. 

Poll Advertisements

Poll advertisements, which are for mobile only, is a great way to get your audience interacting with your business. If you’re looking to grab people’s attention, consider adding a poll to an image or video advertisement. 

Carousel Advertisements

Carousel advertisements allow you to put together up to ten videos or images to showcase your business. If you want to highlight different benefits that your business offers, a carousel ad might be the best way to go. These ads allow people to see different ways that your business works, and can draw in attention from a larger audience. 

Slideshow Advertisements

These ads offer you a simple way to create short video advertisements from a collection of still images, text, or video clips. Slideshow ads are eye-catching and will draw in a sizable audience because of this. 

Collection Advertisements

Collection advertisements are offered only for mobile users. They allow your business to showcase five images or videos that customers can click on if they wish to buy a product or service. Collection ads can also teach viewers how to do something, linking them to the products they would need to complete this task to encourage sales. 

Instant Experience Advertisements

These ads, which used to be called Canvas, are full-screen ad formats which load 15 times faster than a mobile website outside of Facebook. Advertisements can link to an instant experience to quickly introduce customers to your business. 

Using Facebook ads is a great way to get your business’ name out there in the public. Facebook advertising is simple to get the hang of, and it can help your business expand in ways that other advertising platforms are unable to. With Facebook ads, your business will reach a much wider audience and will have a bigger impact. 

Are you currently running any Facebook ads or do you want to learn more about our Social Media Marketing Strategy? Start here now!

Messenger Chatbots: Everything You Need to Know

What does Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant all have in common? They’re chatbots. With the rise of eCommerce and a change in consumer expectations surrounding access to instant communication, businesses need new ways to communicate with customers. Luckily, messenger chatbots have enabled businesses to connect with customers like never before.

Chatbots can dramatically enhance the customer experience your business provides by streamlining the interaction between consumers and your services; plus, the right chatbot solutions can help your organization cut back on customer service costs by reducing the number of people required to manage customers.

Although, some customer support staff is still needed as human intervention is still an integral part of the training and configuration process for chatbot technology.

In this guide, we’ll go over how chatbots work, how to set them up, and why your business needs messenger chatbots.

What is a chatbot?

Chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI) software used to simulate digital conversations and interactions with users. Chatbots communicate in a natural language (written, spoken, or both) through different mediums including websites, mobile and messaging apps, or even on calls.

Artificial intelligence

With recent advancements in AI technology,  chatbots have become extremely sophisticated making them suitable to do more than just respond to specific queries with pre-determined templates. 

Thanks to AI and machine learning, chatbots can gather and process information regarding users, such as their preferences, interests, and inclinations, all of which help chatbots “learn” and understand how to better respond to user requests.

For example, artificial intelligence can help an eCommerce brand drive sales by streamlining product promotions and recommendations to target customers that have specifically expressed interest in similar products. This prevents businesses from irritating their customers with constant promotional emails and also helps cut back on advertising costs.

Natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is at the root of chatbot technology and forms the foundation for voice recognition systems for leading virtual assistants such as Cortana and Siri. But how exactly do chatbots work with NLP?

A chatbot works by first receiving a user request, analyzing it, and then returning an appropriate response. After processing all relevant information it’s crucial that the bot provides a useful response. If the chatbot fails to understand the user’s request or the intent behind it, then a human agent is alerted and can intervene.

After the chatbot has determined the user intent correctly, there are a few ways in which the software can respond to the query. The response may come from a standard, predefined template, from information stored in enterprise systems, or a question prompting the user to clear up some ambiguity for the chatbot. If the digital assistant fails to provide users with an appropriate response or lacks the ability to resolve the issue at hand, then a human agent can take over.

How are chatbots built?

Major players like Amazon aren’t the only businesses that can benefit from chatbots; banks, restaurants, eCommerce businesses, and more can also use them. 

There are two ways to make a chatbot: Create one from scratch or use a bot-building platform.

To design a chatbot from scratch, it’s important to:

Identify specific goals that your chatbot should fulfill, and determine exactly what you want your chatbot to do.

Design your chatbot’s interaction. This helps ensure that your chatbot offers an engaging user experience.

After ironing out these details, you will need to actually develop the chatbot, which requires programming experience. Of course, hiring a developer is an option, but, in general, using a chatbot-building platform is much easier.

There are several good platforms out there that provide templates for building your own, intelligent chatbot. Many existing platforms, such as ManyChat, don’t even require users to code. Thanks to a sophisticated drag-and-drop interface, business owners can conveniently build their own chatbot in minutes.

Which channels can chatbots be used on?

Chatbots can be integrated and used on many different platforms including social media websites like:

Messenger from Facebook

Messenger from Facebook makes it easy for business owners to create and integrate chatbots with Messenger, specifying default responses, welcome messages, AI capabilities, and more, to handle customer queries.

Messenger also provides advanced options, like galleries, that help enhance customer experience and engagement. (A chatbot can curate a gallery that  provides customers with different links and images to match their needs.)

SMS

Did you know that SMS open rates can be as high as 98%? This makes SMS (short message service, aka text messaging) the best option for communicating time-sensitive information. For this reason, SMS chatbots have become increasingly popular amongst various organizations.

By equipping your chatbot with multiple default responses, customers can have a two-way text conversation effortlessly. Additionally, many Fortune 500 companies and growing businesses include an additional live chat support option, so customers can swap over to human support at any time.

Instagram

Facebook rolled out some updates to the Messenger application programming interface (API) that support messaging on Instagram. Now, business owners can integrate chatbots with Instagram messaging, improving customer communications even further. The Messenger API allows for omnichannel messaging platform management, whereby businesses can manage messages coming in from their stories, shops, and direct profile messages too, with different workflow tools.

For now, the new Messenger API is still in the beta stage and only a limited number of developer partners (including ManyChat) have access to its features. Businesses can sign up on the waitlist if they are interested in utilizing the features following the post-beta launch.

Voice

Chatbots can be used on voice channels to provide users with an optimal experience, which is precisely what software like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa does. These sophisticated software use NLP technology to understand user queries and simulate an engaging conversational interface.

What are messenger chatbots used for?

Chatbots can be used to implement a rigorous marketing campaign, drive your eCommerce sales, engage customers, and more.

eCommerce

Chatbots are a great way for eCommerce businesses to increase sales or provide real-time customer service. With a chatbot, you can automatically recommend products, answer customer questions, recover abandoned carts, and more. Think of chatbots as an online concierge for your store. Instead of having humans guide customers and answer questions, a chatbot can do it 24/7.

Marketing

When it comes to marketing, chatbots not only offer businesses a way to invite new customers to check out your service or product but keeps them engaged as well. While something like a well-developed video improves customer engagement, this only lasts as long as the video plays. Chatbots, on the other hand, are continuously gathering data and analytics and learning about how to better interact with customers.

By learning your customers’ names and gathering information about their preferences, bots can provide customers with a more personalized user experience. Rather than sending out multiple emails for every product and promotion, chatbots can send targeted notifications to specific customers about products they like.

Customer support

Chatbots have revolutionized customer support options, and allow businesses to communicate with customers over phone calls, messages, and mobile apps. Some banks, for example, provide a significant amount of customer support through call-based chatbots, wherein users can authenticate themselves and learn about account details such as their current balance and transaction history.

Live chat

Chatbots can be integrated into your brand’s live chat support to quickly and efficiently resolve customer problems. While more sophisticated bots are designed to analyze user intent and respond accordingly, some brands use simpler chatbot technology with the help of fixed message templates, which are also quite effective.

This way, users can contact the chatbot and select the nature of their problem from a predetermined list. The chatbot will continue to provide the user more and more response options until the details of the issue, request, or question are nailed down. Now, thanks to automation, the software provides a specific response to the user’s query. If the chatbot is unable to resolve the problem, then human support is alerted and an agent takes over the live chat operations.

Lead generation

Another area where chatbots shine is in nurturing leads for your business, which is an otherwise time-consuming and resource-taxing process. Bots can gather large amounts of data effortlessly which can be used to generate personalized messages and notifications for guiding your customers through the buyer’s journey.

In the initial stages, split testing (or A/B testing) the messages on your brand’s website can be useful for determining what works and what doesn’t so your organization can determine the best way to personalize your customer’s experience, which makes for a better lead-nurturing campaign.

Tracking and improving chatbot performance

Developing is only the first step, as businesses often need to continually track the chatbot’s performance and find new ways to improve it.

Revenue

When it comes to tracking revenue, it’s important to focus on marketing-oriented metrics such as the conversion rate for user-chatbot interactions, cart abandonment rate, and goal completion rate. These metrics offer insight into how well your chatbot is driving sales. Goal completion rate, in particular, is important because it reveals how successful the bot’s calls to action (CTAs) have been.

Customer questions answered

When a customer asks your chatbot a question, the AI software attempts to understand the buyer’s intent so that it can respond to the query with relevant information. The chatbot may answer with pre-programmed responses, or alert a human agent to take over if the task is too complex. Some chatbots, like Google Assistant, are synced with search engines and can pull up search results if they are unsure about how to answer a question.

Add common questions

Adding common questions to your chatbot software, with accompanying predetermined answers, can help your bot perform more efficiently. S when customers have a question that has already been asked, your chatbot can provide an automated response almost instantly.

Messenger Chatbots FAQs

People have many questions about chatbots, here are some of the most common ones.

Are chatbots only for Messenger from Facebook?

No! Chatbots can be used for any communication channel. Chatbots can be built for Messenger, Instagram, SMS, and more.

Is Siri a chatbot?

Siri is technically a chatbot designed to provide iPhone users with continual support and improving their user experience. Some people differentiate virtual assistants and chatbots by identifying the former as user-focused and the latter as server/business orientated. Under these definitions, Siri is considered to be a virtual assistant rather than a chatbot.

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How to Use The Facebook Ads Manager

Getting started with Facebook Ads Manager is easy! Let’s look at the steps you can take to get started.

Create Your Campaign

The first step to Facebook ad management is creating your campaign.

Before we dive into the steps for creating an ad, it’s important to note that Facebook offers two methods for creating them:

  • Guided creation: With guided creation, you have a step-by-step wizard that walks you through the steps on how to create your ad. This option is best for people that aren’t familiar with Facebook’s Ads Manager or creating ad campaigns.
  • Quick creation: Quick creation allows you to set up your campaign, ad set, and ad elements as you wish. This option is best for advanced advertisers and seasoned marketers that know Facebook well or have experience creating ads on other platforms.

Now that you know the two different options for creating ads let’s take a look at how you can start composing your ad.

  1. Select your objective: Your objective is what you want to achieve with your campaign. You can aim to increase traffic, increase leads, earn conversions, and more. Your objectives should always align with your overall campaign goals.
  2. Select your target audience: Your target audience is users that are most interested in your products or services. Facebook audiences allow you to get very specific with your targeting, so you can set custom perimeters and reach the right people at the right time.
  3. Upload your ad creative: You can create numerous types of ads on Facebook, including photos, videos, carousel ads, and more. You’ll want to upload these visuals, which are typically photos or videos, to your Facebook Ads Manager account.
  4. Write your ad copy: Once you upload your creative, you’ll add your ad’s text. Make sure your ad copy provides relevant information to users that inform them about your product or service.
  5. Set your bid amount: After you have your ad set up, you’ll set your bid amount. Your bid amount will depend upon your budget and ad placement.
  6. Finalize your ad details: This involves reviewing your ad to ensure the copy, placement, and bid details are correct.

If you’re looking to take on Facebook ad management on your own, following these steps will help you get set up with your ad.

Monitor Your Campaign

Once your campaign is up and running, you can start monitoring your ad’s performance. You can review different aspects of your campaign, including your:

  • Budget
  • Audience
  • Placement
  • Creative

When you’re reviewing your campaign, you can look at real-time reporting to see how your ads are performing. You can monitor your campaign to spot trends with your ads and identify areas of improvement.

If you fail to monitor your ads, your campaign is a waste of time. However, when you keep an eye on your campaigns, you’ll be able to determine areas that might need to be updated for greater success.

Monitoring your ads ensures that you always have the most successful ad campaign possible.

NexLaunch: we are a digital marketing agency specialized on Direct Selling companies and leaders with over 20 years in the digital marketing and systems world, we have built systems that have transformed online businesses and launched companies around the world. Book a Free Strategy Session here.

The Ultimate Guide For Instagram Shopping

Follow these steps for creating a shop on Instagram to get access to features like product tags, checkout, create ads with product tags and more!

Step 1: Confirm Eligibility

If your business checks all of these boxes, you are eligible and able to setup Instagram Shopping.

  • Your business is located in a SUPPORTED MARKET
  • Your business has an eligible product
  • Your business complies with Instagram merchant agreement and commerce policies
  • Your business owns a website domain in which you intend to sell from

Step 2: Convert To A Business Or Creator Account

Follow these steps to convert your account to a business account. Once you have a business account, you can add in relevant business information like store hours, business address, phone number and a link to your website.

  1. Go to your business’s Instagram profile
  2. Select “Edit Profile”
  3. Under the “Public Business Information” section, select “Page”
  4. Choose a Facebook Page from your Pages that you’d like to connect
  5. If you do not have a Facebook Page select “Create a New Facebook Page”
  6. Note: Facebook Page Shop is not required, only a Facebook Page.

Step 3: Connect To A Facebook Page

Follow these steps to link your Instagram business account with a Facebook page.

Step 4: Upload Product Catalog

Instagram Shopping is powered by your product catalog. There are two ways to connect a product catalog to your Instagram Business Account:

CATALOG MANAGER is the “do it yourself” method found within Facebook Business Manager. 

OR ECOMMERCE PLATFORM PARTNER is an integration through one of our certified ecommerce platform partners like Shopify or BigCommerce

Step 5: Account Review

Once you connect a product catalog to your Instagram and have products in your catalog, submit your account for review by following these steps. Account reviews typically take a few days but sometimes can take longer.

  1. Go to your business’s Instagram profile and tap
  2. Select “Settings”
  3. Sign up for shopping
  4. Follow the steps to submit your account for review.
  5. Visit “Shopping” in your “Settings” at any time to check your status.

Some businesses may be notified that additional information is necessary to prove ownership of your website domain. If you receive this notification, follow the steps to complete our domain verification process to submit your account for review.

Step 6: Turn On Shopping

Once your account is approved you can turn on Shopping features. Note: If you don’t see Shopping in your Settings, your account is probably still under review or it hasn’t been approved for Instagram Shopping.

  1. Go to your business’s Instagram profile and tap
  2. Select “Settings”
  3. Tap “Business” then tap “Shopping”
  4. Select the “Product Catalog” you want to connect to your account.
  5. Select “Done”

Step 7: Start Tagging

Now that you’ve enabled Shopping you can use product tags to highlight products in your photos and videos across Feed and Stories.

Product Tags In Posts

To tag products within an Instagram post, start by uploading a photo as you normally would and follow the below instructions before posting:

  1. Tap “Add Photo”
  2. Add a caption
  3. Tap on “Tag Products”
  4. Tap on photo
  5. Search for product
  6. Select product
  7. Tap “Done”
  8. Tap “Share”

Shopping Sticker In Stories

Right after you have chosen an image for your story follow the below instructions before posting:

  1. Tap the sticker icon in the top right corner
  2. Select the product sticker from the sticker tray
  3. Select the product from your catalog that you want to feature
  4. Move the product sticker to where you would like it to appear on your story
  5. Change the text color of the product sticker by tapping the sticker
  6. Share your story

Shopping Tips

Make Content Actionable

People engage with shoppable photos and videos all throughout the app. Use all available touchpoints across Stories, Feed and Profile to build shopping behaviors.

  1. Use clear CTA’s like this Perricone MD example to tell people how to shop your products on Instagram.
  2. Update your Profile bio to communicate how to shop your content now that you are on Shopping.

Own Your Brand Voice

Unlike other ecommerce sites and apps, there is no Instagram Shopping template your brand and content has to fit into.

  1. Maintain the same tone and voice your followers love. Shopping features shouldn’t change who you are as a brand.
  2. In this example, Outdoor Voices uses product tags with authentic non-commercial content consistent with their brand.

Plan Ahead

Build a calendar of moments that are important to your brand and plan your products and content in advance.

  1. Choose cultural moments that are important to your brand and your followers similar to how the NFL chose Draft Day and featured players in content selling their new team’s caps.
  2. Don’t be afraid to create your own moment like Julian Edelman who turned his epic game-winning pass into a shoppable moment for fans to embrace.

Ads With Product Tags

Ads with product tags drive people directly to a product detail page to learn more. From there, people can go to your website to purchase.

Ads With Product Tags And Checkout

If you are a U.S. checkout enabled business, people will be driven to purchase directly in-app.

ADS WITH PRODUCT TAGS RUN IN FEED OR EXPLORE USING SINGLE IMAGE, CAROUSEL OR VIDEO FORMATS

Ads With Product Tags In Feed

 

Ads With Product Tags In Explore

New Ways To Reach People Who Love To Shop

Shopping Engagement Custom Audiences

These are segments of shoppers who have taken certain actions, like tapped on a product tag to view a specific product. Businesses can re-engage these high- intent shoppers with any type of ad.

Shopping Lookalike Audiences

These are shoppers that have similar interests to your existing shoppers. Businesses can use ads to find and engage these potential new customers.

*Available to businesses that use checkout on Instagram.

How Shopping Businesses Can Use These Tools

Expand Reach

Use ads with product tags to expand the reach and drive engagement of your shoppable content and products.

Re-Engage Shoppers

Re-engage people that have shown interest in your products by using Shopping Engagement Custom Audiences to pull them back into the shopping journey.

Find New Shoppers

Find net-new shoppers who are similar to your existing shoppers by using Shopping Lookalike Audiences.

Success Stories

What They Did

With millennials as their main audience, a Korean skincare brand wanted to test new ways to engage its audience and drive sales. They ran an Instagram campaign using a combination of ads with product tags (to make it easier for people to discover and engage with the products) and Branded Content ads.

What They Delivered

  • 1.8X higher return on ad spend
  • 45% decrease in cost per purchase
  • 42% decrease in cost per add to cart
  • 41% increase in number of people reached

Strategy Recommended

Run existing shoppable posts as ads or setup new ads with product tags in Ads Manager.

What They Did

Hollister already ran a successful campaign that tested using ads with product tags to scale its shoppable content and drive sales. They wanted to also test whether showing these shoppable ads to the newly-available Shopping Lookalike Audiences would be effective. They compared running ads with product tags that targeted Shopping Lookalike Audiences to their “business as usual” prospecting audiences.

What They Delivered

  • 32% higher click-through rate
  • 47% lower cost per click
  • Over 90% increase in traffic

Strategy Recommended

Create Shopping Lookalike Audiences to find shoppers that are likely to enjoy your products but have not engaged with your content yet.

NexLaunch: we are a digital marketing agency specialized on Direct Selling companies and leaders with over 20 years in the digital marketing and systems world, we have built systems that have transformed online businesses and launched companies around the world. Schedule a Call here