Webinar Replay: Digital Marketing Ask Me Anything With Samantha Russell

In yesterday’s digital marketing “Ask Me Anything” we were able to answer so many great questions. From social media advertising to video marketing, SEO and more Twenty Over Ten’s CMO Samantha Russell covered a lot of ground. In case you missed it, check out the replay and resources below.

What Are Good Resources Where People Can Get Charts or Graphics to Include In Their Blog Posts?

Lead Pilot has really fantastic infographics and a section of our content library that you can use. When using Lead Pilot, you can use each graphic as if it is your own and tailor them to best fit your content.

If you are looking for different types of infographics, however, you can also check out:

• Visual Capitalist
• Dimensional Funds Advisors
• Pew Research Center
• Statista

Unless it is copyrighted, you can reuse the image in your content as long as you source it and you aren’t a paid platform. 

What are the Pros and Cons of Advertising on LinkedIn Instead of Facebook? What are the Best Calls-to-Action If You Are Doing Ads? Are They a Good Way to Grow Your List and Book of Clients?

Many people say they are getting good views, but nobody completes the call-to-action for a lot of service-based businesses, such as attorneys, realtors, advisors, etc. The ads are great for building awareness but aren’t great for getting people to book a meeting on your calendar. 

In terms of platforms, Facebook has the best options for targeting and retargeting and they support a lot of different formats. With LinkedIn, ad specifications are strict, so it can be more difficult while Facebook has better options to connect with your audience. YouTube is another great platform to use. It’s a great way to get more of your videos bumped up in the feet. Not so much banner ads, but more like your own videos will be promoted on YouTube. 

What Can You Do? 

If you have something succinct that someone can get to your ad, so make sure something is targeted to your niche. So, if you have an event or a webinar that people can sign up for free, then you can use that in your ad. If you are giving away a checklist or a Freemium, that’s a good time to use an ad, as well. 

When we create ads, we may have 20 different variations of an ad and we will try out different formats and CTAs, then we will run different ads and see which performs better. When we think one will perform the best, we will put more money behind that one. Also, think about the algorithms that will perform the best in the feed. 

Coming up with your own ads can be difficult if you have many moving pieces, so we suggest outsourcing to a firm that can do this stuff for you. You can reach out to other firms to help you create the collateral. There is a company out of Pittsburgh called Midstream Marketing that can help with this, as well. 

I Have an 8-Page Student Loan Ad That Was Being Run and Facebook Marked it as an “Ad For Credit.”

If you are running an ad that is in the “loan” category or credit, so you have to mark it as an “Ad for Credit,” even though you weren’t actually writing it about that, the Facebook Algorithms will run and they will mark it. There is a lot of bad information out there, so anytime there is an ad being shared relating to finances and health, Google is more strict on how they will rank it in their algorithm. We would recognize working with a company that specializes in Facebook ads to help you get this off the ground since there are so many different aspects that go into it. 

Does it Make Sense to Reach out Directly to People that Have High Scores in Lead Pilot and When Should I Make that Contact?

Lead Pilot gives contacts a score that goes up and down in real-time, so if it’s really high, they have been consuming your content recently and more of it. If somebody’s score is high for a longer period of time, that’s when we would reach out to them. If the score is 80 or 100 for weeks, then we would reach out to them. 

Click on the “History” tab in the Lead Pilot account, then it will tell you what that person has been opening, clicking and reading. When you reach out, make it more pertinent and personal so that you can connect with them easier.

What is Your Take on Posting Personal Pictures on LinkedIn?

We think that posting personal pictures is fine but you can tie it back to something more business-related. For an out of office message, you can try something more personal so that people can connect to you more just make sure there is substance behind it.

When Creating Videos What Do You Suggest for Hosting? Is There a Way to Eliminate the Videos at the End? 

At the end of YouTube, the next videos that come up will be new for every viewer, so it all depends on what you usually view. YouTube is the second largest search engine, so when you post a video, you are getting a lot of “bang for your buck.” It is fed in straight from YouTube, but it shows up right in your Google Searches, you don’t have to go to youtube. 

However, for a welcome video on the homepage of your website, you should use Vimeo or Wistia, where you can embed it and there aren’t any suggestions afterward.

Getting Started with Video

If you are struggling to get started with video, we have some resources you can use. If you have an up-to-date smartphone and good lighting, you can even do it on your phone. 

Do you Have Tips on Script Writing?

For script-writing, Lead Pilot is a great place for scripts, because all of our articles are broken down into 3-5 main points. The whole thing is written out and you can easily send the script to compliance, then use it for the video. For editing after the fact, you can use Pfizer or Upwork, which is what we recommend. 

If you work with a video editorial assistant, then make sure you set up expectations ahead of time, and they should know where to go to get images, sound effects, etc. for editing. 

Can We Have Google Reviews? 

The Investors Advisers Act that regulates everything was last written in 1940, so we have had updates and interpretations of it, and there was talk of them redoing it, but it hasn’t happened. When you read the rule, it talks about who is the publisher and can it be skewed. With Google, anyone can go to Google Maps and give your business a review. Google, by nature, is compliant, as there is nothing that you can do to stop someone from leaving a review. If you like the reviews or leave a comment, positive or negative or republish them anywhere else. You also don’t want to ask for reviews in writing to other clients. Having a review does positively impact your SEO if you are location-based. 

What is the Best Way to Handle Google and Google My Business if you Work From the Home?

Google My Business allows you to mask your home address, so you don’t have to make it public to everyone. You can set up service areas, so you do have to put in your home address to get the postcard, enter a verification code and then you can set up service areas. Google lets you set up 20 services areas, but she recommends setting up 5 or 6 and keeping it within your local geographic area. We have a great GMB checklist as to where you can add those service areas to your profile.

When you optimize your Google My Business page, there are a few things you need to do to claim your listing. 

1. Add at least 6 photos, such as pictures of your team, outside of the building, inside of the building, pictures of your team of an event. There is a correlation between pictures and higher rankings. 
2. Make sure you are localizing, as this is very important to local search. The more local you can make it the better. 
3. The more reviews that you have, that works as social proof, and people can see that this is a verified company and Google will rank you higher. 

What is the Best Way to Interact on Facebook and are There Other platforms to Interact With? 

Twitter makes it the easiest to jump into conversations and connect with people across the spectrum. Twitter is where you interact with journalists and peers rather than getting clients here, however. They will notice you and go to you as a source later, but provide valuable information as a great way to connect. 

For Facebook and LinkedIn, one of our favorite tactics is that a lot of people belong to local community groups. For example, every Friday you can tag people in a local social group on Facebook and let them know what is going on in our town. You can turn this into a blog post on your page or you can just make it a social post. 

If you start making this a weekly thing, then people will start to follow you, as you will become a great source for what is going on locally in your community. Facebook is great for building a local sense of community. 

Most people do not comment on other peoples’ businesses, so this is a great way to strike up a conversation. Work with partnering up with local businesses, as well, that can get you in touch with others in the community. 

What is the Best Way to Create Segments of Prospects? How Can I Build More Specific Niche Segments? 

People don’t segment enough, so they either have a list of clients or prospects. If you over-segment though, you risk putting too many people on a specific list. Have your client list and break that up by age. 

For prospects, it depends on their niche and what you are going after? Find out what they will be doing at different stages, so that you can push out useful content to them depending on where they are in their financial journey. You just really want to make sure someone isn’t on too many lists so they don’t get too many emails.  With Lead Pilot, you can easily segment your contacts.

How Often Should You Send Out Emails? 

If you have really great content to share then weekly is fine. If someone is interested enough to sign up for your subscriber list, then sending them an email weekly will not increase the likelihood that they will unsubscribe. As long as it’s highly relevant then weekly is great, but if you can’t do weekly, then bi-weekly or monthly is great. 

• Have established consistency so that people start to look out for it. 
• For titles, you should give some type of hint of what is inside and give them a preview of what the content is about. 

What do You Suggest for a Solo Advisor Looking to Get Into Podcasting? 

Check out Top Advisor Marketing, as they are podcasting experts for advisors and they have a whole program that can help you get set up. You can google “How to Start a Podcast” or “Podcast for Advisors” to get some easy steps for this. When it comes to getting subscribers, however, you need to make great content that will entice listeners. 

Next Thursday, we have a webinar on your daily digital marketing schedule, and after the webinar is over, we will take a quick clip of it and turn that into a clip, turn it into Twitter, LinkedIn or email it out and then build up subscribers that one. So, just tease the content and get people to subscribe. 

Just keep reminding people that they need to subscribe because it’s not on their radar otherwise. 

Thank you for coming with so many great questions today! We hope that this helped you and that you can start to use these tips to better serve your clients and boost your marketing and content creation.