Second-Tier Links. The Black Sheep of Link Building

Have you ever tried tiered linking?

For the uninitiated, tiered linking is when you share content that has links to a post with links to your website.

That sounds a bit confusing, isn’t it?

Say, for example, that A has links to your client’s website. You create a social media post, B, with links to A. You then go on to make another post with links to B.

Link Building is a valid strategy to increase authority, whereas tiered linking may have its problems.

This isn’t to say that tiered links don’t deliver. They absolutely do. But if you don’t take care, things can quickly go south.

In this article, I have only discussed second-tier links because you run the risk of getting penalized by Google if you go above second-tier linking.

 

What Are Second-Tier Links?

As said earlier, tiered linking is when you create posts or websites with the intention of linking to posts that have links to your actual website.

First-tier links are the links you find in posts (social media or blogs) that redirect the visitor to your website.

Second-tier links boost first-tier links. These are the links that point to pages with links to your website, aka first-tier links.

You can find second-tier links in just about anything, from social media posts, articles, and emails to directories and forums.

So, what benefit do second-tier links provide?

The main advantage of second-tier links is that they improve your website’s backlink profile. A better backlink profile increases the authoritativeness of your website. The more domain authority your website has, the better its search ranking.

And finally, a better search ranking means more visibility, which means increased traffic.

This is why you shouldn’t ignore second-tier links when building a backlink profile.

Tiered linking follows the concept of link equity, which is explained below.

Link Equity

When one webpage links to another, some of the first page’s authority is passed on to the second page. This is called link equity.

In simple terms, when page A links to page B, page B gets some of page A’s authority.

This is why marketers go after websites with high domain authority (DA) to build a website’s backlink profile.

Another name for link equity is “link juice,” since the DA flows from one page to another, improving the rankings of everything along the way.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the ideal spots to place second-tier links.

 

Guest Posts

Guest posts are created for two reasons alone: one, to post your links, and two, to educate visitors on a certain topic.

Guest posts are the most commonly used tools when it comes to link building. You find a website relevant to your niche, request that they post an article with a link to your website, and, if they agree, post an article with a link back to your website.

You can also promote your guest posts this way. Just create additional posts that link back to your original guest post with a link to your website.

 

Secondary Website

You can place links to your main website on your secondary website(s). In other words, just create a blog post on your secondary website and include a link to your primary website.

You must also make sure that the websites that link to your primary website belong to the same niche, as Google will find it fishy if your website has multiple backlinks from sites that are irrelevant to your niche.

 

Social Bookmark Links

Social bookmarking is a phenomenon where websites have dedicated, organized forums for discussions and resource sharing. Social bookmarking sites allow visitors to engage with people with similar interests or professions.

Social bookmarking websites are great for sharing your second-tier links, considering the exorbitant number of people who use them.

 

Social Media

Just a heads up, social media links are nofollow, meaning they don’t contribute anything in terms of SEO.

But links in social media posts are great for one thing, exposure. They’re great at promoting guest posts with first- and second-tier links.

And, on top of that, social media links also help Google index content better.

 

Link Exchanges

It is exactly what it sounds like. Link exchanges are when two websites agree to link to each other with the objective of improving SEO rankings.

Google guidelines have given the green light for link exchanges, but only to a certain extent.

The link exchange strategy is great for second-tier links since you won’t directly link your website but to a post with the link, considerably reducing the chances of a Google penalty.

 

Forums

Forums are private, heavily moderated, and come with their own set of rules. The reason I say this is because if you’re directly promoting a post with your link, the moderators will flag you. Even if the moderators miss it, the members will report you.

At times like this, second-tier links are a lifesaver. Because, you’re not directly linking your website.

Another thing to keep in mind when posting in forums is relevance. Post your second-tier links on relevant forums, as most forums have strict rules against spamming and self-promotion.

Now that you’ve read what you can (or should) do, here are a few things you shouldn’t do.

 

Link Schemes

A Link Scheme is a strategy where marketers create websites, relationships, and processes for backlinking.

This is problematic because the websites that link to your pages don’t have any other purpose. They’re there only to post your links.

Also, Google penalizes websites that are involved in link schemes.

 

Relevance

Although Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are important factors to measure the strength of a website’s backlinks, you can’t ignore relevance.

Google will find out if your website has multiple links from websites that are outside your niche. And when that happens, your website will be handed a Google Manual Penalty.

 

Spamming

Spamming is, was, and will never be a good strategy for anything, especially SEO. That’s why it’s recommended to include links to your original post just once in your secondary post.

Take the case of email. You’re using an email for second-tier link building and have mentioned the links twice; Gmail will happily group your email under the promotions tab.

 

To wrap things up, link building is a viable strategy for SEO. Not only does it contribute to better website traffic, but it also improves your page and domain authority.

Just like every other thing, there are ways to speed up the process for quick results. But their consequences make them not worth it.

Second-tier links are something like that. Use it just the right amount, and you’re fine. Abuse it and face the consequences.

When executed correctly, second-tier links can do a world of good for your primary website, both in terms of traffic and ranking.

Expert Tricks and Tips: Link Building Resources and Strategies of 2023

 

Ranking on the first page of a search engine without effective backlinks is extremely challenging. That’s one of the main reasons link building is important in order to increase search visibility and organic traffic for digital marketers and businesses. Link building is well-known to increase the number of visitors to your website through SERP ranking, as it allows the search engines to decide if your content is reliable and relevant. There are several link-building strategies that you can use to create high-quality backlinks, and you can make use of off-page SEO techniques such as Image Submission, Blog commenting, and video submission to develop backlinks.

Are you ever looking for secret tips, tricks, and expert insights for link building? Have you ever wanted to improve your rankings and domain authority? If you ever decided to create authoritative backlinks for your site, then keep reading this blog post to know about link building completely, why it is necessary, what type of links to create and how, and which tools can support you in enhancing effectiveness and get more backlinks in 2023.

Here, we have given you the information that will help you learn the link-building tactics, how they works, and how to implement them on your website.

 

What exactly is Link Building?

Link building is a method of getting hyperlinks (backlinks) from other authoritative websites and related sites. The main objective is to notify Google that your website is a reliable information source and make sure that your web pages rank higher on the SERP for related keywords.

 

Take a look at white-hat link building strategies and tips below:

Here, we are going to discuss some of the most organic and effective link building strategies that help you speed up the receiving backlinks process on a regular basis. A great way to do so is to ensure the visibility of your website’s content.

 

Begin with Keyword Research:

Keyword Research may seem basic, even though suppose you need others to see your content and link to it, then you should have to gather what keywords people may regularly search on Google. Generally, professionals use premium tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush to find relevant keywords. Free tools like Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner are also available to get the relevant keywords. Using long-tail keywords will help you rank better and add more value.

 

Include Keywords in the Anchor Text:

Doing backlinks for your website is the most important thing ever. It is essential to ensure that while you create links to your site, you should have to add the keywords in the anchor text. So, the hyperlinked text leads to your content. It enhances your website’s relevancy. Moreover, it also ranks higher on Google and other search engines. It improves the chances of other websites linking to your web pages, resources, and articles.

 

Do Link Building Regularly:

Link building is a necessary criteria for your SEO strategy. Whether you are expecting an outstanding outcome, then it is essential to do the link building on a regular basis. After you begin developing your link portfolio, your website will improve and reach the world. Most professionals use special SEO tools to enhance their link portfolio effectively and quickly. For instance, Sitechecker is a familiar tool that allows you to get more backlinks and perform a detailed analysis of your backlink portfolio. Therefore, your site will get more links and rank higher.

 

Create Links from Related Websites:

You have to concentrate on the two main factors, which are as follows:

  1. How relevant is the article’s topic that you are linking to? It is essential that the sites you are linking to have content that is relevant to your site’s topic. Therefore, people clicking from those sites can easily understand why they are viewing content related to your site on their screens.
  2. How relevant should a website link to? You should check the topic’s relevance and also the domain authority of the website. So, it adds more value to the search engine of your site. By getting a higher DA, your link value will also be higher.

It is important to note that you should never add more paid links. Why? because Google penalizes sites that have too many paid links.

 

Build Visual Assets and Infographics:

Videos and infographics are always famous on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Because it can be easily inserted and easy to share into the websites and blog posts. In order to popularize your brand, then it is essential to build a video explaining a relevant topic or infographic.

Going behind the Infographics is an awesome option because they can be widely used on social media platforms and in blog posts. Additionally, they are understandable and easier to read. Simply put, it is necessary to ensure that the infographic includes the links back to your site.

 

Write Valuable Content:

Content marketing is an affordable option to create links for your website. It will effectively reach your message to the world. Whether you are looking to get more leads and revenue, then you should have to implement content marketing in your business plan. Your content relevance is important. When making the link building campaign, your content quality is essential. It is always necessary to publish content which is readable by the people. It is a crucial factor in the link building process.

 

Guest Posting:

Guest blogging is one of famous ways to gain links back to your site from all other relevant websites. The great thing about guest posting is that it does not need any programming skills or technical knowledge from your side. Simply choose a site that publishes content related to the topic and also mail them your article ideas. Suppose they like it and check for their audience benefits; they will post it on their website and share your credit for writing it. Generally, a normal website supports two backlinks for one article.

 

Outreach:

Outreach is the latest SEO link building technique that is used by new start-ups and leading companies like Google and Apple. In this process, you have to contact the relevant websites and request them to link your website or blog. Most SEO experts use the link building tool to identify their potential prospects and handle their link building campaigns.

 

Wrapping Up

We hope our article will help you learn the tips and tricks of link building. There are plenty of ways to create link building to your sites presently. If you want to implement link building, all you have to do is simply stay up-to-date on the link building strategies, tools, and methods.

 

10+ Link Building Promises You Can Expect From Us

Backlinks play a vital role in a website’s rank. And search rankings are essential for businesses to edge out the competition.

Building a backlinking profile isn’t difficult if you use strategies like private blog networks (PBNs), blog comment spamming, and cloaking. But here’s the catch: these are unethical black hat techniques and will have the opposite effect on your client’s website.

The ethical strategies, aka “White Hat methods,” take time and effort. This is something most businesses either don’t have or don’t give much preference to.

This is where the need for outsourcing arises. Outsourcing a business’ link building gives them the time and resources to concentrate on other essential tasks.

But not all digital marketing agencies are the same. Some use the aforementioned black hat techniques and can land your website in hot water.

As a white hat link building agency, Orange Outreach has stringent guidelines to meet your client’s expectations. There are 13 metrics in total. They are discussed in detail below.

High DA

Domain Authority (DA) is a score that rates how a website will be ranked in the search engine result pages (SERPs). These scores range from 0 to 100. Higher the score, higher the probability of your website ranking higher in the search results.
The DA score of a website increases as it gains more authoritative backlinks.
The DA of websites that Orange Outreach uses for your client’s website is 30 and above. This means that the lowest DA rating you can expect from Orange Outreach is 30, which is above average and is a sign of a reliable website.

High DR

Domain rating (DR) determines the strength of a website’s backlink profile. This metric goes from 0 to 100 and is pretty effective in determining whether a marketing strategy is producing the expected results or not.
Orange Outreach will ensure your client’s links are present on websites with a DR of over 30. This helps improve your client website’s backlink profile and its authoritativeness.

High Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is the traffic a website receives through unpaid means, such as search engine results. Apart from the obvious increase in footfalls, organic traffic is also scalable and improves the trustworthiness of a website.
Having Orange Outreach build your client’s backlinking profile comes with the advantage of including your client’s links on websites that have organic traffic of over 500. The value is calculated using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, which are reliable tools for website analysis.

High Referring Domains

A referring domain is an external website that links to your client’s website. It benefits your client’s website by directing traffic to it.
Alongside backlinks, Orange Outreach provides over 100 referring domains to your client’s website, increasing its reliability and authority in the SERPs.

Trust Flow 10+

Devised by Majestic, Trust Flow (TF) is the level of a website’s trustworthiness. This metric is calculated based on the quality of a website’s backlinks.
TF scores range from 1 to 100. Any score above 10 is considered preferable in terms of website authority, quality, and trustworthiness.
Orange Outreach will place your clients’ links on websites that have a TF rating of over 10. The more backlinks from a site with a high TF score, the higher your client website’s TF score will be.

Citation Flow 10+

Citation Flow (CF) is another metric from Majestic. Unlink TF, CF relies more on the popularity of a link on a website than its quality.
The CF score should be something between 0 and 100. CF scores are often used alongside TF scores. A ratio of 1 indicates that the links on the website are of high quality and influential.
Orange Outreach includes your client’s links on websites that have citation scores of over 10 and that are similar to TF scores. This ensures that the websites that hold your client’s links are not just influential but authoritative in their respective niches as well.

Low Spam Score

Spam Score determines how spammy a website is. A website’s spam score is essential to its trustworthiness. The more reliable a website, the more opportunities for backlinks it gets.
Moz takes 17 unique factors into consideration when calculating spam scores. Satisfying 3 of these 17 factors accounts for a good spam score. Meeting 6 of these factors results in an intermediate spam score, and anything above 10 is problematic.
Orange Outreach makes sure your client links are on websites with low spam scores, i.e., 3 out of 17. This accounts for high-quality backlinks, which, in turn, directly contribute to better rankings.

Niche Blogs

Niche blogs refer to blogs written for a specific geographical location or a specific category of people. These groups are also known as the target audience.
Finding blogs for categories that are not mainstream can be difficult. But that’s not the case with Orange Outreach.
Irrespective of your niche, you can find high-quality, plagiarism-free blogs for your links. This is a great way to increase traffic to your website and improve rankings in the SERPs.

No PBN Blogs

PBN stands for Private Blog Networks. The sole purpose of PBNs is to provide backlinks to other websites, trying to manipulate Google for better rankings.
Google considers PBNs as link spam, and it will have the opposite effect on your website.
Orange Outreach follows clean, white hat methods to build your backlinking profile without using unethical methods like PBNs.

3-Year-Old Domains

Domain age is vital in backlinking. What this means is that the longer a website has been online, the more credible it is.
Orange Outreach posts your links on websites that are at least 3 years old. This makes sure that the backlinks for your clients are from reliable, well-established websites that Google prefers over websites that are more recently registered.

Hosting Location Advantage

A blog’s hosting location becomes an important point when talking about the target audience. The average person prefers to trust local websites. “Local” here refers to the country the website is based in.


Orange Outreach understands this. That’s why 90% of the websites provided by Orange Outreach for your client’s backlinking profile are from the U.S. This means more trust in the websites and the data shared on them.

Blogs with Contact Information

A vital factor that distinguishes blogs that are from PBNs and those that are not is contact information. Blogs with additional data, like contact information and links to the writer’s or blogger’s social media handles, are genuine. Blogs from PBN will mask contact information to hide their identity.
The blogs in which Orange Outreach includes your client’s links will carry contact information to prove their authenticity.

No Link Farm Networks

A link farm is a shady tactic some marketers use to create a backlink catalog. In layman’s terms, these are sites that are created with the intention of creating backlinks between each other.

Google penalizes sites that use link farms by lowering their rank in the SERPs.
The backlinks you receive from Orange Outreach will be devoid of links from link farms. They rely on increasing your client website’s ranking, the clean, white hat way.

These 13 factors exist so that Orange Outreach can provide high-quality backlinks to your clients.

Additionally, Orange Outreach uses generic, branded anchor text over location-based ones to eliminate the chances of Google footprint penalties.
Though there are multiple strategies for link building, the ones that Orange Outreach follows are ethical and time-tested techniques that Google prefers. These strategies have produced results for countless clients and will continue to do so.

How We Will Help You Impress Your Clients

Hello reader! Hope you are doing well.

This blog is to inform you of the birth of Orange Outreach – a link-building mastermind 🤯

We have been in the link-building business for over 10 years under a different name. Recently, we decided to rebrand.

Why? Well, why not? It’s 2023, and AI tools are taking over everything. So, why not a makeover?

A look at our homepage

 

Link-building seems to be the most efficient and effective way to boost a website’s ranking in Google’s SERP, even in 2023.

The first result in Google’s SERP has 3.8 times more backlinks than the other results. This stat alone states the importance of link-building.

The problem with link-building is that it is not easy at all. In fact, over 65% of marketers say that link-building is the hardest SEO challenge for them.

But why do they find it hard? Well, because it is not easy🙃(Hope you laughed).

Actually, there are a lot of reasons why link-building is hard. Here are some common link-building challenges every digital marketer faces:

 
⦁ Blog outreach
⦁ Finding relevant blogs (Niche relevant blogs)
⦁ Writing compelling content
⦁ Too many low-quality blogs
⦁ Heavily time-consuming
⦁ Anchor texts
⦁ You can buy two Titanics for the price of building quality backlinks
 

But why are we talking about link-building challenges instead of the new site? Because these are the challenges we can solve!

With our rebranding, we have carefully added many new features, packages, and blogs to make link-building easier for digital marketing agencies and solve their problems forever.

How We Will Help You Tackle Your Challenges

🍊 The first challenge is blog outreach. Well, we have a great database already, and we are adding blogs to our database every day, so it is not even a challenge.

A peek at our blog database. Visit our deals page to see our other features 😉

🍊 Niche relevant blogs. Come on! Do you have any actual challenges? We have niche-relevant blogs in our database for all the top industries that use digital marketing.

🍊 Writing compelling content. As a part of our rebranding, we created a partnership with more than 50 writers and recruited 6 proofreaders to create compelling content for our clients.

🍊 Too many low-quality blogs. All the blogs will go through a 13-step quality analysis before being accepted.

🍊 Anchor texts. We will use a mixture of natural anchor texts, branded anchor texts, and exact-match anchor texts. Our writers can place all these types of anchor texts in a natural and compelling way.

🍊 Price. No one can deny that link-building is expensive. But we are confident that we offer the lowest price among the competition.

Our prices and services we offer for the same

So, think we covered all the common challenges. We can offer custom solutions to your custom problems too.

In the above image, you can see the service features we offer. You won’t get these services from most link-building agencies. At least, not at our price.

Our Process

So, what is our magic process to boost your client’s website?

Well, our process doesn’t involve magic, but the results will be magical.

Once you place your order, we will start working on anchor texts and article titles. Yes, we will provide anchor texts and article titles.

You can provide your own anchors too. But why the extra work?

Once the article titles and anchor texts are approved by you, we will start with the next process.

We will give you access to our blog tools and allow you to choose any blogs that you like. We will also give you blog suggestions that we believe will be the best fit for your requirements.

Once you select and approve the blogs, we start publishing. Obviously, we skip the outreach step since we have all the blogs in our database. Our outreach process is a constant one. Meaning we will be outreaching every day.

We do this because we don’t want to consume too much of your time with outreach. Because we cut outreach time, our process is instant.

Voila! Now your client links are on top-notch, niche-relevant blogs.

We are reseller friendly, so you can flex to your client that you placed their links on amazing blogs in no time.

In addition to other services, we also do competitor analysis for your client.

Final Thoughts

Link-building is a great way to boost a website, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to build quality links. Luckily, we are here to help you. We can help you build quality links for your clients at a fraction of our competitor’s price.
Hope you had fun reading about our new site. While we believe we are a great link-building agency, our goal is to be number one. We are confident that we will get there very soon. We welcome you to wander around our website and see all the lovely pages we have created. If you think we can make some changes, contact us by mail or fill out our contact form.

Powerful Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2023

With every passing year, social media trends change and newer ways arise to increase engagements. The coming year 2023 is not an exception and there are some marketing methods that will be more popular than the older ones.

Companies and brands always seek for these trends so they can keep pace with the changing times and keep their existing audience engaged while creating more potential customers.

Let’s see what 2023 has in the bucket as trending marketing trends in terms of social media.

Micro Influencer Is the New Boss

This is one of the primary trends that will be in demand more than ever. The trick is in the name itself. Micro influencers means influencers who have an audience specific to one niche and who are very active in engaging with their audience.

Gone are the days when brands used to give value to influencers with millions of followers. These days, they are more concentrated on accounts that have 4000 to 5000 influencers. This is because when the crowd is less, the influencer is more able to respond to the comments and queries of their followers.

This way the influencer derives more power from their followers and has more influence on them than when there are millions of followers. So, these influencers have more engagement rates and the brands also don’t have to pay huge amounts as they would do for influencers having millions of followers. This makes a better return on the investments; it’s more about quality rather than quantity!

Online Shopping Without Leaving the App

Till now customers used to leave the platform and get redirected to a website if they needed to shop. Now the game is different and websites provide the ability to let the customers shop on the platform itself which means they don’t leave any page.

This is possible with social ads; one example can be seen in the Facebook Marketplace where the advertisement and shopping for the products happen in one place. Then there is another example that is the “Checkout with Instagram” feature which also allows customers to buy products that they like without leaving Instagram.

Short And Live Videos are the New Craze

These two methods of promoting yourself on social apps are trending in 2022. In the coming year as well, they are going to rise more and more with new creativity. TikTok and such apps for example are the apps that attract the most engagement from Gen Z as well as millennials.

Even YouTube has introduced its section of short videos and hence we can understand that this trend is only going up. Businesses can either create short videos from their existing regular videos and this way they can create many snippets or they can create short videos particularly.

The potential of this trend is robust because it doesn’t need any special high-priced instruments. All you need is a phone and an update to your audience about the new exciting products, services, events, and locations.

Instant Contact with The Brands is the New Attraction

There are popular social platforms like Facebook that have given an advantage to their users that they can access a chat window instantly. Twitter also allows its users to mention the brands to get their attention. There are more chatbots than ever because they give a user the ability to connect with a brand within a fraction of a second and share their queries.

The trend will continue and more and more companies will come up with such messaging options. This will save the visitors time when they will be served right away and determine their purchasing decision further.

More Specific Communities

Creating communities is another way to keep the audience interested. With the sudden rise of interest in social media platforms, users are more inclined toward discussing in communities. These communities are category-specific and Facebook groups are an example of the same.

In a specific community, like-minded people engage and discuss. Businesses need to create such communities and let the audience join them as per their interest. These communities have an edge over larger groups of people when it comes to engagement.

Paid Advertising – A Blessing

Organic results are great, but they are also time-consuming. In this fast-paced age, results are desired instantly and brands want to establish themselves in a jiffy. For the same, paid advertising is trending and will be trending in the coming year as well.

Brands who want to be seen, heard, and paid attention to without wasting much time need paid advertising incorporated into their marketing strategy. This also gives rise to the prices of social media advertising, but if brands are well-prepared with rich products and services, the price is worth it.

Augmented Reality – More Mainstream Than Ever

Nothing is more powerful than when social media blends itself with technology. This is high time when all the business platforms are incorporating the blessing of AI into their platforms. This augmented reality always creates a new spark and excitement in the way a user interacts with the website or services. AI is more in trend than ever and it will grow even more in the coming year.

The AI filters that are used in Instagram stories are a perfect example of how a new AI filter can make things exciting for users.

Top 5 Trends In Social Media Marketing

To remain competitive, focus on branding and ranking to reach out to your customers, it’s important to stay on top of search engine and social media marketing trends. You can always learn something new when it comes to Internet marketing if you take a look. Here are the top 5 social media marketing trends in 2019.

Did that you know that by the year 2020, which is less than two years away, experts are projecting that a whopping 80 percent of Internet traffic is going to be for videos? That might seem a little extreme at face value, but we’re heading there folks. As a content writer, I know that I still have value in terms of my profession because the content must accompany the video.

The fact remains, however, that quality, professional videos are where it’s at in 2019. When it comes to your efforts in relation to social media, the trends say that you need to be pursuing video marketing. To put it bluntly, the experts say that video content is eating social media.

As you stay up on trends regarding video marketing on social media, keep up with all the new features. Okay, that’s enough about the first powerful trend. Now let’s talk chat bots and CRM. What is CRM? You might have heard about this acronym in relation so software that businesses use to help with customer service.

CRM stands for customer relation management. It’s all about relating to customers, but how are chat bots helpful? Chat bots weren’t always the most helpful in their early stages, especially on regular sites. Yet social media is of course all about customer interaction. These bots are making a comeback, and it’s making sense for businesses to use them in integrated fashion with social media accounts.

In terms of social media marketing trends, think mobile. Don’t go in the direction of mobile. Think mobile first. Mobile traffic is where it’s at, as it has surpassed desktop and laptop traffic. You have to think in terms of social media in relation to smartphones and tablets. Keep that in mind as one of the top 5 social media marketing trends of 2019.

What about paid content? It’s completely fine to use paid content, and in many ways, it’s encouraged. Businesses need a solid marketing plan. Yet as you pursue the best social media marketing strategies, you might want to take a closer look at this next trend. It’s all about your social media content being paid yet personalized.

This trend has everything to do with resistance to ads. With changing algorithms, people are only seeing the ads that are more personal to them. Social media companies have made changes to ensure that happens in order to keep consumers happy. So it’s not just a suggestion but a recommendation if you want to get the best experience when pursuing social media marketing to reach your customer base.

Chat bots were mentioned, and you also are going to want to think in terms of automation. Business owners are reporting that automation is helping them to increase conversion rates. More than that, it’s helping them actually reach their audience in a way that they get their attention. Automation helps business owners handle social media accounts on a much grander scale.

There are all different kinds of automation tools out there. Some of them are for certain smaller tasks that can be handled without you having to do anything. Other tools help with much larger tasks. You’re going to have to look at what’s available. Perhaps your new objective now would be to know the trending social media marketing automation tools in 2018. See what other company owners are using to help automate the social media marketing experience.

You now know the top 5 trends for social media marketing in 2018. What steps can you see yourself taking as a business owner now? Where is there room for improvement? What are you itching to do right now after reading this piece? The work never ends, and now you have some leads. Improve your marketing efforts via social media, and watch your conversion rates improve as you interact better with your customer base.

How To Create A Viral Crowdfunding Video Campaign

Numbers don’t lie. Statistics at Kickstarter show that crowdfunding video campaigns have a higher than average success rate of getting funded.

According to Kickstarter’s numbers, campaigns that have videos are 85% more likely to hit their funding goals. But success is not just about having just any video. Your crowdfunding video campaign must be interesting and engaging enough to make people want to share it.

In short, to ensure your success your video campaign must go viral. And if you feel confident because you have a sizable network of trusted contacts, think again. Not everyone may relate or feel engaged with your video. You might not even get 20% of your network to share it.

But if your video campaign is well- produced, compelling and clearly addresses the needs and wants of a specific audience, it may gain traction from the contacts of the 20% who shared it. That’s how videos become viral; it picks up wave after wave of interest.

So how do you create a viral crowdfunding video campaign?

Here are 8 tips for you to consider

  1. Be Yourself – For sure you’ve seen crowdfunding videos where the performers aren’t quite themselves. It feels like they’d rather be somewhere else than where they are in the video.

Unless you’re an actor, it’s easy to understand why people get nervous in front of the camera. With a crowdfunding video campaign, the stakes are quite high. There’s pressure to perform well. And maybe that is the problem; trying to perform. Don’t be an actor. Just be yourself. You’re sharing a business idea that came from a passion or advocacy. Live it. Own it. Be Yourself.

  1. Have a Good Narrative – Everyone loves a good story. A compelling narrative places the listener in the shoes of the story- teller. You see and feel everything unfold.

The reason why storytelling works is that it creates empathy. When you’re creating a crowdfunding video, you want your audience to feel your purpose not just understand it. A good narrative strengthens the pitch for your product because the audience already becomes invested in you. They want to know how the story ends. And if you’re successful, they will help you re-write a happier ending with more funding support!

  1. Create a Hook – A “hook” is something that will get people’s attention within the first few seconds on your video. It could be a thought- provoking question; one that would resonate with your viewers.

To find your hook, you should know the biggest concern of your market. You must be 100% confident your product or service can provide the best solution to their problem. An example of a good hook is in the Kickstarter video of “Coolest Cooler”. The video starts off with a traditional cooler being pulled out of the back of a pickup truck.

Then the hook comes in: “Hear that? That’s the sound of a cooler coming down from a shelf. It’s the sound of imminent fun. So why haven’t cooler designs changed in the last 50 years?”

Makes you think, “Hmmm…”, right?

  1. Emphasize the Rewards – Of course, your audience has to know what makes your product special.

What differentiates it from everything else that is on the market? What will they get out of it as users and as investors? Why would people buy it?

You have to present your product as a game- changer by highlighting its innovative features.

Again, going back to the Coolest Cooler, the creator Ryan Grepper obviously gave his product much thought. It has everything you could ever want in a cooler: a wireless sound system, a blender, compartments for knives, plates and utensils and a bottle opener. No wonder, the Coolest Cooler remains Kickstarter’s most backed project of all time. With a goal of $50,000, Coolest Cooler raised more than $13 Million or 26,000% above target!

  1. Align the Message with the Brand – Behind every marketing campaign is a message. If the message is not delivered with pinpoint, laser-like accuracy, the audience will not understand what your product is about.

The first step lies in the purpose of your product. Why did you come up with this particular of product? An example would be the Kickstarter video campaign for FitBark, an activity tracker for dogs.

Within the first 5 seconds of the video, you already know the creators of FitBark are dog lovers who want to do more for their beloved pets. The product was designed to keep dogs happy and healthy. The message clearly resonated with dog owners who felt the same way. The campaign asked for $35,000 and received total funding of $80,000!. Near the end of your video, drive home the message by stating your Call to Action. Make an appeal! Tell your audience what you want from them and how they can help you out.

  1. Show People “It’s Happening” – It’s not enough to tell people your plans and goals for your product.

Show them.

Even if you have not received a single cent, show your audience that you are dead-set in seeing your product come to fruition. An effective strategy would be to include footage of design drawings or the production line in your video.

When the audience realizes how committed you are for this project to see the light of day, come hell- or- high water, they will get behind you. It also tells your audience that you are organized and have all the pieces in place to make this happen. Production creates a strong level of excitement. It screams, “It’s happening!” If your product successfully captures the imagination of an audience, they will gladly share your video with their network.

  1. Work on the Quality and Content – You may have seen the Kickstarter video of a campaign to fund a gentleman’s love for Burritos.

It looks like it was shot with a mobile phone camera. But believe it or not, this crazy crowdfunding video campaign which asked for $8 actually raised $1,050!

But if you’re dead serious about asking an audience to invest money in your venture, you should likewise invest on the quality and content of your crowdfunding video campaign.

And while you’re at it, why not join a crowdfunding video campaign competition? There are organizations that set up these types of competitions for prospective startups.

These contests attract a large audience which include industry influencers, reputable companies and venture capitalists. It is a great way to have your video go viral and secure the funding you need for your project.

  1. Keep it Short – For videos to go viral, they must be memorable. Unfortunately people have very short attention spans.

If you fail to grab their interest in the first 6 to 10 seconds, they will not see your video to the very end. Generally, studies show that the shorter the video the better. Videos that run under 1 minute have more viewership. But for crowdfunding videos, the ideal length is longer at 2 to 3 minutes because you have more material to cover.

When it comes to crowdfunding activities, there is no doubt that a video campaign is the way to go. It gets the job done because videos convey your message through sight, sound and at the same time has the ability to trigger powerful emotions that make people want to see your project come to life.

But take the time in planning your crowdfunding video campaign. Consider hiring the services of experienced video producers to ensure the quality and content of the finished product.

After all, a crowdfunding video campaign that goes viral can easily recover the cost of production.