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Why We Use WordPress (And You Should Too)

When it comes to building and designing a website, there are many, many systems available to use, but at Solamar we always use WordPress. WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) that has been around since 2003, and it is hands down the best choice for use as the building blocks of any website we make, for a number of reasons.

Most clients don’t want to know the gritty details of the inner workings of their site, they just want it to look good and work properly, but using WordPress is one of the things we do to ensure that good looks and seamless functionality come with every Solamar website, and it can’t hurt to understand the reasons we do what we do. So stick around, and I’ll give you a quick tour of why WordPress is such a rockstar, and our default CMS choice.

It’s Insanely Popular

Being cool isn’t usually a good reason to choose anything, but in the world of open-source software, the larger the user base, the more secure, stable, and supported the software is. WordPress is used more than any other CMS in the market by a long shot. There are over 455 million WordPress sites in the world and counting. Those sites make up 21.5% of the top 10 million sites on the internet, and 60.1% of those using a CMS of any kind. The next highest CMS on the list, Joomla, comes in at a whimpering 3.2%.

It’s Free

One of the reasons WordPress has such an incredible market share is that it’s completely free. You can self-host it, and at no point do you need to pay to download, install or upgrade it. In addition, there is an ever-growing library of plugins you can use to extend WordPress’ functionality, and they are also often free. The chances are, if you want your website to do something, anything, there is a free plugin that can make it happen.

It’s Highly Flexible

Not only is WordPress capable of extending its functionality via plugins, but the framework itself is also malleable to a significant degree. This allows us as developers and designers to craft websites that fit the vision of our clients without compromise, and with relative ease. Its large user base means that anytime we run up against a particularly devious challenge, the likelihood that a solution has already been discovered by someone else is high.

It’s Easy To Use

When WordPress was first created, it wasn’t the powerhouse CMS you see today. Instead, it was designed to be a simple and easy-to-use blogging solution. While it has grown in leaps and bounds, it has always remained true to that core approachability. Thus, the documentation and user interface have been designed from the ground up for internet novices. This means we can hand our sites over to clients knowing that with a small amount of training, they will be able to use their sites without any frustration at all.

So if you are in need of a website, you can come to Solamar knowing that we use technology that delivers not only an attractive and functional site, but one that can grow with you and will be easy for you to use. Sound good? Give us a shout.

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Step Up, Stand Out, and Get Noticed on Social Media

I’ve always been a little quirky. Tactful people describe me as imaginative and creative. The not-so-tactful ones say I’m one-of-a-kind, maybe even a little nutty. I’m not offended, because all those words make me unique, which is perfect for a writer. I know that if I am going to get and keep clients, I have to step up, stand out, and get noticed.

The same is true when using social media to promote your business. On Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Vimeo, Instagram, and others, you have to get noticed or you are wasting your time and money.

“Why spend your life trying to fit in, when you are born to stand out?” says Ziad K. Abdelnour, author of Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics. Standing out is how to tap into the growing number of social media outlets and use them to your advantage, as we’ve stressed time and time again on our blog.

Show that you care…and be sincere

Knowing what to share is critical if you want people to remember it and share it. “…you need good, fresh, and original content,” says Social Media Solution. “People follow companies that care about their interests. The most successful brands on social media are the ones who are transparent and authentic. Social media users are clever; they will figure out very quickly that you are only pretending if you are not sincere.”

Social media works by sharing small bits of information at a time. When you share this information you want people to remember it, and share it with their friends. For this to happen, you need good, fresh, and original content. Social media users strongly reject self-boasting and strong sales pitches.

People follow companies who care about their interests the # can be a valuable tool when you want to draw attention to a subject. If you are for example a study center, you can use the #studytip for tips and advice during exams.

The most successful brands on social media are the ones who are transparent and authentic. Social media users are clever; they will figure out very quickly that you are only pretending if you are not sincere. When your promises and your behavior do not give the same message, then you are seen as a fraud.

Content is the new advertising, find out what your customer wants. Your content should be original, never copied, and always current. Make sure that you check your spelling. Allow people to share your content from your blog or web page with share buttons. When people share your content, you look like the expert. Make sure your social media buttons on your landing page are clear and that you have a call to action on your page.

Carefully select your social media outlets

You’re using social media to build and reinforce your brand. So, don’t fall into the trap of trying to be seen on every single social media channel. If you do, you will lose control and spread yourself too thin. Staying up-to-date on too many media outlets is time-consuming, especially for a small business.

“Rather be great on 4 channels than be average on 10.”

Get and keep your competitive edge

Knowing how to use social media gives you a great advantage over your competition, Get Noticed Social Media tells us. Using social media to stand out and stay on top fills a void. When you fill that void first, you make it more difficult for other companies to jump in and get your target followers.

Post frequently

Keep your name in front of them with useful tips, information, and advice. Don’t let your followers forget who you are and what you do.

Stay engaged. “The more people know of your social media presence, the better results you’ll have,” says Petra Neiger.

Be humble

Regardless of its general form and purpose, one facet your social media campaign must include is habitual rapid, and professional response to all comments, inquiries, and reviews. This one aspect could prove the factor that spares your campaign total failure in lieu of resounding success. It’s especially essential that negative comments and reviews get your response. Ignoring complaints and suggestions could compromise your brand’s integrity in the eyes of your customers. However, a fast and proper response can actually make you look good, because it shows you care.

“Customers tend to be put off by posts that carry an arrogant or conceded tone, regardless of your company size. You must always remember that it is your customers who ultimately wield the most power in your relationship, not you. So, make sure you do your best to make sure they’re happy with you and can appreciate your posts.”

When working with social media and using it to promote your business, you must be prepared for any negative feedback that comes with it. Of course, you want your followers to post positive comments about you, but this isn’t going to always happen. You must be prepared to handle the negative ones as well. Don’t ignore it, but respond to it in a helpful way.

Respond to comments fast

Customers expect you to listen to them. They count on your rapid and professional response to all comments, inquiries, and reviews (especially negative ones!). A fast and proper response can actually make you look good because it shows you care. We recently detailed how best to be responsive.

Make it worth their time

Offer your social media followers exclusive deals, discounts, and coupon codes. This can actually raise your profits and give you additional sales. Plus, it keeps them coming back for more.

Promote your posts

Integrate your social media efforts into all of your content marketing. Mention it on your Home Page and in your blogs to maximize your social media presence. Even add social media feeds to your banners. And remember to include social media in traditional advertising, like newsletters, email campaigns, signatures, business cards, and even presentations.

Mention Facebook in your Tweets and your YouTube videos on Facebook. That kind of attention to detail will maximize your efforts.

Encourage sharing

Use social media bookmarks and sharing tools to enable people to share your page. StumbleUpon, Digg, and other tools like these can help you get the word out to more people.

“Be active,” recommends Petra Neiger. “Don’t just rely on other people bookmarking and sharing your content, have people on your team do the same to increase impact. You can add this feature to almost anything you do online—web page, blog, social media releases, etc.”

If you really want your social media to step up, stand out, and get noticed, talk to our marketing experts.

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6 Ways to Boost Your Business With Webinars

Content Marketing with Webinars

Hosting a webinar is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your target audience and customers. If you aren’t using webinars yet in your business, you could be missing out on a lucrative opportunity to grow your reach, influence, and bottom line.

Webinars provide a platform to leverage your expertise and build rapport in much the same way that you can with speaking and in-person presentations. But the power of technology and ease of access allows you to save money, make efficient use of your time, and scale your effort and impact.

Webinar software is a versatile digital tool that helps businesses, organizations, and individuals host, manage, and conduct live or pre-recorded virtual events. These platforms provide high-definition video and audio streaming, screen-sharing capabilities, and real-time chat for remote audiences across the globe. They also feature extensive customization options to help create a branded experience. Furthermore, many webinar software solutions integrate with marketing tools such as email automation and CRM systems so users can more effectively promote their events, track attendee engagement, and collect useful data. Investing in webinar software can allow businesses to stay connected with customers, partners, employees, and prospects—regardless of geographic location— making it an indispensable tool for modern enterprises.

Here are 6 ways to boost your business with webinars:

1. Establish Authority

An information-rich webinar can help you create brand awareness as an authority in your market. Whether you are a personal brand or you’re promoting your company’s products and services, your potential clients and customers want to know they’re buying from a knowledgeable source. Webinars allow you to position yourself as an authority, demonstrate your expertise, and elevate your brand in the eyes of the people who matter most.

Host free webinars to get your name out there, create some buzz and interest, show what you have to offer, and demonstrate the benefits of hiring you or using your products.

2. Generate Leads

Smart marketers know the value of building an email list of interested prospects. Consider using webinars as a lead magnet by providing your presentation in exchange for contact information.

When using webinars to attract leads, your presentation should solve a specific pressing problem, so people in your target audience recognize the value they will receive and feel enthusiastic about signing up. Then follow up with an email nurture campaign to convert the leads that enter your webinar marketing funnel into future sales.

3. Pitch Offers

When selling a product, program, or service, you can use webinars to present your offer and make sales. Selling with webinars can be a convincing method to gain customers because it gives you a chance to educate potential buyers about the offer, address concerns proactively, answer questions, and give a well-crafted and persuasive sales pitch.

To increase sales conversions from your webinar, include a sense of urgency or scarcity by including a limited-time offer or limited availability. The purpose of this is to encourage your buyers to make a decision rather than sit on the fence, so be sure to do it in a way that maintains your brand’s integrity.

4. Joint Venture

Want to expand your reach and enhance your brand? Team up and host a webinar with other industry leaders, subject matter experts, and people who serve the same market. You can benefit by aligning yourself with thought leaders, influencers, and people who can share valuable nuggets of information with your audience.

You can do joint venture webinars as a list-building marketing activity or partner on something you’re offering for sale, such as a product, course, or joint service offering. When partnering with someone else to host a webinar, both parties should promote it to their email lists and social media followers.

5. Retain Customers

Keeping the customers and clients you have is far less expensive than getting new buyers. With webinars, you can keep them happily on board and coming back for more. Use webinars to provide training that strengthens your status as a go-to resource, informs customers about new or innovative ways to engage your company, or pitch upsells and cross-sells.

Give your existing customers insider access to special knowledge and exclusive offers through webinars, and watch your sales soar.

6. Sell Your Webinars

If your business is built primarily on one-on-one consulting, coaching, or other service offerings, or you teach in-person seminars and workshops, consider hosting paid webinars as a one-to-many leveraged approach.

You can sell one-off classes taught by webinars, host webinars within membership subscriptions, or include webinars as one part of a more robust program. Getting paid for webinars can be a profitable additional stream of revenue to scale and grow.

Whether live or pre-recorded webinars have fast become a powerful tool to boost business. Looking for strategic support in using webinars in your business? Give us a shout!

Webinar Software Choices

When considering the ideal webinar software for your business, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of both free and paid options. Free webinar software provides a great opportunity to get started with little to no upfront costs, as well as allowing you to become familiar with the hosting process. However, this type of software typically has limited features and functionality, as well as reduced customer support compared to paid platforms.

On the other hand, paid webinar software can provide more advanced features, greater customization, and scalability, allowing companies to host much larger and professional-level events. The downside is that these platforms often come at a cost, with recurring fees and potentially extra charges for features that may not be used.
When making your decision, consider your budget, desired level of features, and specific webinar goals. Additionally, take into account metrics such as user-friendliness, integration capabilities, security and compliance, and quality of customer service when selecting a webinar platform. By doing so, you’ll be able to make an informed decision on the best option for your business.

Zoom

Zoom has seen a tremendous surge in popularity since the pandemic hit the world, making it one of the most sought-after software for professional meetings and connecting people from all around the globe. Once you delve deeper into its features, you’ll find that Zoom also offers webinar conducting capabilities. All the user needs is a reliable internet connection to have an optimal experience with this cloud-based software.

The intuitive user interface sets Zoom apart from other webinar programs as it is easy to set up and use. The app comes in handy with its HD video, audio, screen sharing, desktop, and app-sharing capabilities. Scheduling your next Zoom meeting couldn’t be easier, thanks to its integration with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Other useful features include private/public chats so that the audience doesn’t disturb speakers during their presentations, virtual whiteboards for efficient host controls, and 1GB of cloud storage after every session.

Signing up is absolutely free, with no hidden charges! There are three paid plans: Freemium (40 min webinar for 100 attendees), Basic ($14.99/mo), and Business ($19.99/mo). The latter one is suitable for enterprise-level organizations. Thus, anyone looking for a reliable web conferencing tool can try out Zoom without hesitation; it lives up to every promise it makes.

Google Meet

Google Meet offers impressive video conferencing capabilities for the modern user and continues to get better with new features and improvements. However, Zoom Meetings is our overall choice pick due to its comparable range of tools and powerful feature set. On the other hand, Google Meet may be all you need if your organization already uses Gmail and others included with Google Workspace. As for pricing, Google Meet is free for basic meetings, but more features are available with a subscription to Google Workspace. The free tier is sufficient for simple calls but lacks extra features such as meeting recording, noise cancellation, breakout rooms, polls, and others that could be useful for more intensive sessions.

Google Workspace Updates: Use the new Google Meet web app for better ...

The basic Google Workspace subscription, Google Workspace Individual, adds these capabilities for $7.99 per user per month, while a 14-day free trial is available for those wishing to test the waters. For larger companies, Google Workspace Enterprise brings upgrades such as 500 participant meetings and stronger security measures; pricing for this package must be negotiated directly with Google.

GoToWebinar

GoToWebinar is a webinar software that provides an effortless experience for enterprise-level organizations. It allows you to launch and manage your webinars with ease, regardless of the number of attendees, and its feature-packed orientation minimizes the risk of getting stuck anywhere.

Some key features include advanced analytics, HD video quality deliverance, built-in polls and surveys, automatic recording, and 24/7 customer support. Plus, it seamlessly integrates with other sales and management software. You can also customize your webinars with email reminders, registration pages, and more.

In terms of pricing, GoToWebinar only charges for participants. The cost starts at $89/mo/100 participants for the Start plan, $199/mo/500 participants for the Medium plan, and $429/mo/1,000 participants for the Enterprise plan. You are eligible for a free trial package of 100 participants as well. With all these features at your disposal, now’s the time to start delivering an exceptional webinar experience!

Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect is the ultimate solution for all your webinar needs, especially if you’re a large company. With its cutting-edge technology and comprehensive features, it’s easy to quickly create and launch a successful webinar.

Adobe Connect offers an impressive variety of tools, ranging from customizable meeting rooms and registration pages to video streaming, document sharing, polls, blogs, images, and more. Plus, its analytics monitoring feature makes it simple to monitor engagements and track key performance indicators. Furthermore, it integrates well with other CRMs such as Salesforce. All of these features make Adobe Connect ideal for showcasing your products or services in an engaging and persuasive manner.

There are three tiers of service with different pricing plans; the basic plan offers 100 attendees for $130 per month, the Premium plan offers 500 attendees for $470 per month, and the Pro plan has 1000 seats for $580 per month. With all of these features, Adobe Connect is the perfect choice for any business looking to host successful webinars.

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How AI Is Making Marketing Smarter

It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our everyday lives. No longer just the stuff of science fiction, a recent episode on CBS’s 60 Minutes was devoted to this topic. “The Oracle of AI,” Kai-Fu Lee, said that he believes, “…it’s going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind. More than electricity.”

Own an iPhone 15? Its facial recognition system is powered by AI. Ever been redirected by Google Maps or Waze because of an accident or construction ahead? Ever used Spotify’s voice interface to make your personalized music selections? You guessed it: AI. These are just a few small examples. Forbes tells us, “By one estimate, AI contributed a whopping $2 trillion to global GDP last year.” By 2030, it could be as much as $15.7 trillion, “making it the biggest commercial opportunity in today’s fast-changing economy” (more than the combined output of China and India), according to a recent report by PwC.

So, what the heck is AI, anyway?

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for ‘smart’ technologies that are aware of and can learn from their environments, enabling them to subsequently take autonomous action… What separates AI from general-purpose software is that it enables machines to respond autonomously to signals from the external world—signals that programmers do not directly control and therefore cannot always anticipate,” says a PwC post.

In simple English, AI is a term for computer systems that can sense their environment, think, learn, and take action in response to what they’re sensing and what their objectives are. Artificial intelligence includes such things as digital assistants, chatbots, and machine learning. It’s a thrilling new frontier, packed with promise and possibility…and it’s here to stay.

Savvy marketers know they need to get ahead of this technology (or at least stay up to date), but many are unsure as to where they should jump in or how it’s affecting their business today and in the future. As marketers see, understand, organize, and use AI, they are able to deliver better, more informed, cost-effective marketing and advertising decisions. But the big question is, “How do you tap into the potential of AI?”

How is AI making marketers like us smarter?

Today, AI is manifesting in chatbot customer service integrations, social media analysis, and myriad forms of data analysis, according to AdExchanger. And if you’re like me and millions of others, you’ve probably benefitted from AI marketing while online shopping, where AI takes the form of automatic recommendations based on what you’ve already purchased.

AI is a powerful technology that can play a major role in marketing, especially when you are able to take the resulting data and make it easier to understand and use through data visualization approaches. Marketing professionals must establish a strong understanding of AI’s data capabilities to solve complicated problems and analyze results.

Here are just a few examples of how you can tap into AI:

  • AI can be used to generate insights based on data and analytics that may have been otherwise missed.
  • AI has the potential to improve product development and reduce costs.
  • AI can help better utilize limited resources.
  • AI’s data-centric architecture allows you to aggregate, cleanse, and organize data and turn it into visual media (like charts and graphs) to support current and future AI projects.
  • AI can help make sure your brand reflects your current message and/or goals.

Deep learning is the key.

Understanding what consumers want and need—ideally before they even do—is essential for marketers. AI can make that job much easier, especially with AI’s deep learning.

Business 2 Community tells us that, “A subset of AI, deep learning has the potential to transform the future of marketing by helping businesses to predict consumer behavior… Deep learning provides a way to train AI to predict outputs, given a set of inputs…it can learn to predict human behavior pretty accurately.” That means it can help you uncover new customers and predict customer behavior in advance.

How AI is taking marketing automation into the future.

In an era when customers are demanding fast and hyper-personalized service, AI-based technologies are more critical than ever before. Your business can benefit on a multitude of fronts by embracing these game-changing marketing AI-based advancements:

In email marketing. AI-based technologies are helping marketers win the attention of potential email customers in numerous ways. For instance, they’re allowing small and medium-sized businesses to improve their email marketing automation strategies by knowing who to target, when and how frequently. Plus, adding a personalized touch (including personalized offers), with the help of AI, pays off. A Statista study shows that personalized emails had an open rate of 18.1 percent, compared to a 13.1 open rate for non-personalized emails.

In lead nurturing. “AI-based programs are capable of processing user data at lightning speed and can be hyper-responsive to customer needs,” according to a recent article in Betanews. AI helps capture information faster and can use that information to close sales with targeted responses in real-time.

In cross-selling. AI can take response information and make predictions on the potential for additional sales. It can determine whether a customer is a good candidate for additional products or services and establish which products a customer might be in the market for next.

In retention. Every marketer knows that a happy customer is a loyal customer. AI can help you retain your existing customer base by providing you with a better understanding of client needs. Customers will appreciate the personalized service AI-based software offers and are more likely to become repeat customers.

In bringing back past customers. Whatever the reason for losing a customer, it’s never too late to win them back, especially with some artificial assistance. AI can provide insight into how and why a customer left, and help determine the best way to reconnect.

How far can AI take us?

With the revolution driven by AI, marketers have unleashed a multitude of possibilities to know their customers better. Artificial Intelligence has delivered business tools to help with predictive selling, informed buying, enhanced sales, and data-driven decision-making. It’s the main driving force in ensuring a great customer experience…the silver bullet for marketers to thrive in the coming years.

According to Colin Angle, one of the world’s leading authorities on mobile robots and chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and co-founder of iRobot, “It’s going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool.”

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How to Find Good Keywords

Finding keywords for your website content is mission critical to the success of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. The accurate targeting of keywords will make or break your SEO campaign, because finding the right search words is the underpinning of the success of every other SEO effort.

If you’re not finding and using the right keywords, you’re going to have very little SEO success.

The good news is that the formula for successful keyword selection is simple. All you have to do is identify those keywords that are the most searched for by your potential customers but the least targeted by your competitors’ websites. These are the most in-demand, competitive keywords. Sounds easy, right?

The idea is straightforward, but the execution in selecting the right keywords is challenging. And like all things SEO, keyword optimization is an ongoing process.

Keyword Selection in SEO Software

Keyword selection is so important that Keyword Research & Analysis is one of the five technical categories  we used to evaluate the top SEO software product companies. We evaluated these tools for:

  • Keyword suggestions
  • Keyword search statistics
  • Keyword density analysis
  • Keyword Effectiveness Index
  • Unlimited URLs
  • Unlimited keywords
  • Google Adwords features

Below are three excellent tools to help you select your keywords. Many of the SEO products we reviewed integrate with one or more of these tools for keyword selection.

3 Top Keyword Tools:

Wordtracker
Wordtracker is one of the most popular SEO tools for selecting keywords. It costs a flat fee of $329 per year, and monthly licensing options are also available. It’s very easy to use, even if you have no keyword research experience. The keyword product also provides easy and meaningful reporting. Powerful and efficient, Worldtracker can be used to find all possible keywords and combinations that relate to your business. https://www.wordtracker.com

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is the other most popular SEO keyword tool. It’s heavily utilized by SEO pros and novices alike. It’s easy to use, and it’s completely free. It will provide intelligence on your organic keyword selection, but it’s an even better tool for pay-per-click campaigns.

Also included with the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a Global Monthly Search Volume feature. This shows you how many monthly searches were made for a specific keyword and the saturation for that word. Even if you aren’t using Google Adwords, the Keyword Tool will provide intelligence and insight you can use.

KeywordSpy
KeywordSpy isn’t as well known as the Adwords Tool or Wordtracker, but it’s gaining momentum. The price certainly is right. This free tool provides some very interesting competitive intelligence in an easy-to-use interface. You can enter a keyword and see which websites are using that phrase, including those that are running Google Adwords pay-per-click campaigns. You can even see the other keywords specific websites are targeting. This is excellent competitive SEO intelligence. http://www.keywordspy.com/

If you’re serious about SEO, then you’re definitely serious about keywords. These three tools can help you plot the course and stay on track to search engine success.

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How To Write Great Ads On Facebook

How to advertise with Facebook successfully basically means being ready to do some writing! But perhaps you don’t feel qualified to write ads. But you can do it! Writing is not an art, it’s a craft—it’s made by hand, with diligence and patience. Even if you’re ready to work hard you might still not become the best writer in the world, but you can still produce great ads to promote your products or services.

How can you create appealing ads that people will act on? Use the following guidelines on how to advertise with Facebook or any other network. Actually, these principles apply to most writing.

Communicate well: Sound warm, human and genuine; make the text come alive

It has been said that “facts tell, stories sell”. Facts and correct information is important but it can be very dry, impersonal, and this has little appeal to people. If not used properly, too many facts and too much information tires the reader out; it’s as reading a boring instruction book. However, stories about people and their feelings and experiences has an appealing aliveness; they make the reader want to continue reading. Stories can deal with your own experiences with the products or services you’re promoting, or they can deal with customers and their views on the matter.

A successful advertisement, article or review has certain characteristics–it appeals to people and they act on it; buy a product, visit a fan page, or answer a question. Good writing is human; it recognizes how people feel, think and dream, and it expresses this in a way that feels natural. For most small businesses it’s best to avoid academic or technical terms and jargon.

A brief, well-told story avoids confusion–it follows a pattern, it’s logical and has a clear beginning and end. It can also stir emotions. This is one of the most important aspects of good marketing–humans are emotional and act in line with emotions. First you have a wish, or a need of something, then you start looking for the facts on the product and where to get it.

Of curse, you can’t tell a story in a headline, it’s usually too short. But in the body text you can try to include a short story. It makes the text easier to read and experience show that this technique increases conversions.

Your target audience are real people with feelings, pursuits, fears, and dreams

Ask yourself: Who am I writing for? What are these people interested in? What are their dreams? Ads are either general or they target specific groups of people. You can test a few different advertisements to see what works best. Some have created one advertisement targeting the public and another advertisement targeting only women. It turned out that ads targeting women got many more new fans that targeting both sexes. You might need to experiment a little to see what works best for your product.

Understanding your target audience is vital because it’s them you’ll be talking to and who will buy your products.

Be clear! Clarity makes the text easily understood; people will not act on what is not understood

Ads are by nature short, pithy messages–be economical, choose words carefully, avoid ambiguous language and get to the point. People spend only brief moments reading an ad and if it doesn’t catch their interest in that time they’ll move on. Your ad can be intriguing or witty but if people don’t understand the point they lose interest. Just because you understand the ad you’ve just written doesn’t mean others will understand it the same way. Ask the opinion of others before you publish it.

Why do you think this ad was very successful?

  • Feel pleasure in places you never knew existed (For instance, Lenox, Massachusetts.)

It’s simple, clear, witty, and human; its contains the main ingredients for success. And with a fitting image it becomes even better.

Why do you think this next ad did not generate the same response?

  • New life form discovered in Massachusetts.

This text is ambiguous; it’s not clear what they’re aiming at; the reader most likely lose interest.

Be simple! Simplicity is the opposite to complex, bureaucratic, or academic language

Avoid clutter; delete every word that serves no function or weakens the sentence. Clarity and simplicity go hand in hand. Ask: What am I trying to say? Look at your ad and ask: Is this what I’ve said? Will everyone clearly understand the message? Is this something I would act on? Get feedback from your friends; ask what they think of you ad.

  • Phrases like “It’s interesting that…”, “I should point out…” clutter the text as weeds—uproot them.
  • Clear, simple sentences are not an accident—most such sentences come out best the third or fourth time. Simplicity makes your ads easy to grasp and thereby more profitable.

Most people read the headlines, fewer read sub captions and the text body. In the headline, touch the reader emotionally—make him laugh, get her intrigued, or stimulate curiosity. Simple and effective questions capture interest; they help the readers to think and reason. Then they will read on.

Be you can go overboard also here, “Me like Jane” or “Buy product, you happy” is understandable but no very appealing. The idea is to clean your text from all weeds darkening the bright, simple facts.

Originality makes you ad stand out

A good picture can make the difference between and good ad and a lousy one. Good pictures enforce the ad text and strengthen the message. If your pictures are original, funny, fitting or just plain cool, more fans will “Like” your ads.

Don’t choose suggestive, erotic, or shocking images–such pictures can have a negative impact on your business reputation and your fan page.

Avoid legal traps; they can cost you more than you think

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says” Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive… advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims. Advertisements are considered deceptive if they are “likely to mislead consumers.”

Legally you are responsible for claims made in your ads. Avoid untrue or deceptive claims; use caution with phrases like “free,” “curing ailments,” “profit guaranteed,” “easy to use,” “the latest,” “best” and similar. You must be able to verify or prove claims and promises, otherwise you can be charged of misleading your customers.

Before you publish an advertisement on Facebook or on the Internet, make sure you can substantiate all claims.

Copying other companies’ headlines, text or images might be quicker than writing them yourself. But equally fast you could also lose your reputation and fans. You might also hear from the copyright owners’ lawyers. How can you advertise with Facebook if you’re in jail?