The goal when filing business tax returns is to pay as little as possible. This is a worthy goal, and tax write offs help serve this purpose. However, it’s important to remember that lenders will ask for financials. If business financial statements are not available, they will look at business tax returns. If it looks like your business is not profitable, you will not be able to get funding, or you may get less funding.
Taxes, Tax Write Offs, and Fundability
To understand how tax write offs can affect your ability to get business funding, you need to understand the relationship between taxes and Fundability.
There are many factors that affect the overall Fundability of a business. Credit Suite identifies 23 core principles of Fundability. We break these down further into 125 Fundability factors, and one of these is “Business Financials.” Business tax returns, in turn, are one of the factors included in this principle.
Business Tax Returns
According to the IRS, except for partnerships, all businesses have to file an income tax return. There are different forms, and the one you need to use depends on the business structure you choose. This could be a sole proprietorship, corporation, S-corp, or LLC.
Business Tax Returns 101
Business taxes are not exactly the same as personal income tax. Here are the major differences you need to know.
Estimated Tax
Federal business income tax is pay-as-you-go. You have to pay the tax as you earn or receive income. Usually, this is done on a quarterly basis. Sole proprietors and S-corps that expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when they file their business tax return, will generally need to make estimated payments. Corporations that expect to owe $500 or more will need to pay estimated taxes as well.
Documentation Differences
There are also differences in required documentation. For example, you have to track expenses, asset purchases, income and more. As a result, it’s best to hire a bookkeeper or bookkeeping agency. At least choose a great accounting software option. Then you can print reports at the end of each tax period and just hand them over to your tax preparer.
Tax Preparation
Don’t try to do this on your own. Splurge on a tax professional. The cost will be well worth the time and money you save, and you’ll reduce the chances of a mistake. They will have more in depth knowledge of the tax write offs you can take legally and how they will help you. They can also help if you end up in an audit.
Your tax preparer should not be the same person as your bookkeeper or accountant. With smaller businesses the same firm is ok, but it is not wise for the same person to do both. This helps deter and detect fraud. Even if you have an in-house bookkeeper or accountant, they can get ready everything the tax preparer needs. However, they should not complete the tax forms themselves.
Cash vs. Accrual
You will need to choose your method of accounting. You can choose either cash or accrual basis accounting. Cash basis includes income as revenue when it is collected. Expenses are deducted from revenue when they are paid.
With accrual basis accounting, you record income when you earn it. Consequently, you count expenses when you incur them.
For example:
Using cash basis accounting, you don’t necessarily count revenue as soon as an item sells. You count it when you get the cash for it. Unless the buyer pays cash on the spot, you do not record revenue until the customer pays the invoice. As a result, there are no receivables carried on the books.
With accrual basis accounting, you record revenue at the time of sale. Then, a receivable for the invoice goes on the books. New businesses may have more unpaid expenses and more uncollected income at the end of the year. Taking those outstanding expenses as a deduction can reduce tax liability. This accounts for many of the most common tax write offs.
Later, when your business is profitable, your outstanding receivables will likely be higher than outstanding expenses or payables. If you are using the accrual method, you will be recording more net income, and paying more in taxes versus the cash method. Be sure you consider this when making your decision.
The decision of which method to use is for the life of the business. However, there are some exceptions that allow for changes to be made. In contrast, businesses with larger revenues or that carry inventory don’t even have a choice. They must use the accrual method of accounting.
Depreciation Decisions
Depreciation is one of the most common tax write offs, but there are some decisions to be made. Discuss them thoroughly with your tax preparer to ensure you are doing what is best for your business.
The first choice will be about first year depreciation. Typically, depreciation on assets is written off over the course of five to seven years. But the IRS allows a first year deduction of up to $100,000 for equipment and most furniture instead. This is an election most business owners take. If you do not make a profit, you cannot take the $100,000 deduction. Yet, you can carry it forward to a year that you do make a profit.
In the beginning, a slower depreciation method may work better. You can save the deductions for later, when there will likely be more income and you will probably be in a higher tax bracket. Again, a tax professional can help you make that decision.
Tax Write Offs and Fundability
Now to the real question. How does all of this affect your ability to get business financing? For a business to be Fundable, it needs to be fully recognizable as an entity separate from its owner. There is a lot of crossover between Fundability and business taxes. Entity choice is one example.
Entity Choice
You can choose whichever entity you want for your taxes, but you do have to choose one. That choice will depend on your budget and needs for liability protection. Your tax advisor will be able to help you decide. However, it’s important to note that the decision you make affects Fundability as well.
For Fundability purposes, operating as a sole proprietorship or a partnership doesn’t work. Your business needs to operate as a completely separate entity from you as the owner. To do that, you need to choose to operate as either an S-corp, LLC, or corporation.
Fundability, Business Tax Returns, and the EIN vs. SSN Saga
If you are operating as a sole proprietor, it is possible to use your SSN to file your business tax return. You should not file a business tax return using your Social Security Number for maximum Fundability. You need to use an EIN, and you can get one for free at IRS.gov.
How Tax Write Offs Can Affect Fundability
Business lenders will not always request business tax returns, but what if they do? It’s not likely that they will if you have complete, professionally prepared financial statements. Still, if tax returns are the only financials you have for your business, that is what they will use. This poses a difficult dilemma.
This is a problem because you want to make it look like you made as little money as possible on a tax return to avoid paying any more than necessary in taxes.
Typically, even if tax returns are on a cash basis, financial statements are prepared on an accrual basis. If all the lender sees is your cash basis business tax return, and it looks like you didn’t make a profit, they are going to be less likely to approve funding. And you can imagine why they will be likely to approve less funding.
Personal Taxes Can Impact Your Ability to Get Business Funding As Well
Even if they do not look at business tax returns, most if not all traditional lenders will usually look at personal financials separately. This is because almost all of them require a personal guarantee.
When they do, they will note how you get money from the business. Do you pay yourself a salary? Do you just take funds as needed? This may, again, lead to questions that require them to look at your business tax returns.
Tax Write Offs Can Impact Your Ability to Get Financing
Tax write offs are a great way to save on taxes. They are totally legal and it would be ridiculous not to take advantage of them. However, be certain you have someone preparing professional financial statements at the same time. These documents serve two different purposes. Tax returns are to show the IRS how much taxable income you have. Financial statements are meant to show profit, and that is what lenders want to see.
You have to pay your taxes. Not only is it illegal not to, but paying your personal and business taxes is a major factor in fundability. If you apply for business funding and a lender sees you have not been paying your taxes, it will likely result in denial. After all, if you can’t pay … Continue reading 11 Tax Write Offs for Small Business That May Surprise You
You have to pay your taxes. Not only is it illegal not to, but paying your personal and business taxes is a major factor in fundability. If you apply for business funding and a lender sees you have not been paying your taxes, it will likely result in denial. After all, if you can’t pay your taxes, how can they believe you will repay them? That said, there is no reason to pay more than necessary. There are several tax write offs for small business that can help. Many of them may surprise you.
Tax Write Offs for Small Business Can Save You Money
In truth, a tax professional is the best way to make sure you take advantage of all of the tax write-offs available. There are more than most realize. Below is a list of tax deductions for small business that can help. Remember, this is not a complete list, and not every business will be eligible for every deduction. Always work with a tax professional to ensure your business taxes and personal taxes are filed properly.
Check out this list of tax write offs for small business, and ask your tax professional if any of them are an option for you.
#1: Simplified Home Office Deduction
When it comes to business tax write offs, this one is pretty popular. Most everyone knows there is a way to deduct home office expenses on your taxes. If you work from your home, you can deduct the portion of that home that you use specifically for business purposes. However, you must have a dedicated office space that you only use for work. Then, you have to determine the percentage of home expenses that are associated with the business.
For example, if your home office space is ¼ of the total square footage of your home, you can deduct ¼ of the utilities, etc. as a business expense. As you can imagine, this calculation can get complicated and tedious quickly. As a result, a lot of home business owners do not take this deduction. They do not feel they can properly keep up with it. Some do not feel the deduction is worth the time it would take to keep up with all that is necessary for the calculation.
What you may not know is that there is a simplified calculation for this deduction. The simplified option is a quick and easy way to determine your home office deduction. You just multiply the total square footage of the space you dedicate to work only by $5. Remember, the maximum amount you can claim using this method is $1,500
#2: Qualified Business Income Deduction (QBI)
If you own a sole proprietorship, partnership, or an S corporation, you may be eligible for a qualified business income deduction. If so, you could deduct up to 20% of your qualified business income from your tax return.
That means if you have qualified business income of $100,000, you can deduct $20,000 and only pay taxes on $80,000.
#3: Bonus Depreciation
Depreciation tax write offs for small business are nothing new. Business assets like equipment are depreciated on the books over time at a set rate. That means you do not count the full cost of the item in the first year it is purchased. However, under bonus depreciation, you can deduct more than standard depreciation in the first year.
Before 2017 the bonus depreciation amount was 50% of the cost. Then, you would depreciate the remaining 50% of the cost over the life of the asset. However, the new law says that for anything purchased between September 27, 2017 and January 1, 2023, you can deduct 100% of the cost in the first year the item is put into service.
You don’t have to, but it could be advantageous to do so. Your tax professional can help you make that decision.
What types of items qualify for bonus depreciation? Tangible assets with a useful life of 20-years or less as dictated by the IRS.
Some items that fall into this category include:
Machinery
Equipment
Computers
Appliances
And furniture
#4: Business Related Legal and Professional Fees
If you use an attorney or an accountant for business services, their fees are deductible. Did you have an accountant prepare your taxes? That’s deductible. Using an attorney to help draft employment contracts or a writer to write a business plan? That is all deductible.
#5: Dues and Memberships
Fees paid to professional organizations for membership are deductible.So, a pediatrician could deduct any fees paid for membership to the American Academy of Pediatrics, or an architect could join the American Design Drafting Association (ADDA). If the business pays the fees, it is tax deductible on that business’s tax return.
#6: Interest on a Business Loan
Did you know you can deduct the interest you pay on a business loan? If you meet a few qualifications that is.
Qualifications include:
Funds come from an actual lender, not family or friends
You are liable for the debt, legally
Both you and the lender intend for the debt to be repaid
It’s also important to note that you have to actually spend the loan funds. You can’t just put them in an account and make payments. That’s considered an investment by the IRS, and therefore does not qualify as one of the tax write offs for small business.
#7: Bank Charges
Pay attention to your bank and credit card statements. All those little charges and fees are tax deductible. It may not seem like much, but they can add up. Especially when you consider all of the charges this can ecompass.
Costs such as:
Cash deposit fees
Merchant service fees
Late fees
Online banking fees
And even credit card convenience fees
These all count, so keep up with them.
#8: Continuing Education Expenses
As a business owner, you can pay for continuing education for your employee and yourself, and it could be tax deductible. The IRS says if the cost is related to training that maintains or improves skills required for the job, it is deductible. The deduction includes a number of education related expenses.
For example:
Course fees and tuition
Books
Supplies
Lab fees
And other similar items
#9: Business Animals
Animals that are used in the course of business are tax deductible. That means both the cost of the animal itself and the care and feeding of it. Of course, you can’t just buy a dog or cat and call it a business animal. However, if you have a dog and you use it as a guard dog in your business, some of those expenses could be tax deductible.
One fun example is a junkyard owner who bought cats to help with rats. The IRS ruled it was a legitimate business expense and therefore, deductible.
If you are an animal breeder, you can also deduct costs related to animals for breeding.
The costs associated with maintaining a website can be tax deductible. This may include hosting fees, design costs, and a number of other related expenses.
#11: Magazine Subscriptions
You can deduct the costs of some subscriptions, including those for professional journals, trade publications, and even technical journals. It’s important to note that you cannot deduct the cost of magazines for a waiting room.
Don’t Do It On Your Own
Want to know the number one sure fire way to pay more than you need to in business taxes? Try to do them yourself. Don’t do that. Hire a professional. After all, the fees are tax deductible. Then, you can know you are getting all the tax deductions for small business you are eligible for. Don’t let not paying taxes negatively affect business fundability. Want to know more about fundability and what may be affecting yours? Try a free consultation with one of our business credit specialists now.
Below, we’ll explain the best practices for creating meta descriptions to help you dominate Google search results.
What Are Meta Descriptions?
Meta descriptions are 160-character snippets used to summarize a web page’s content. Search engines display these snippets in search results to let visitors know what a page is about before clicking on it.
Meta descriptions help users decide if they want to click on your website in a search result. They are also an important factor in where your website ranks in the search results.
Below, you can see a quick example of a meta description on our site.
Why Are Meta Descriptions Important?
Meta descriptions are important because meta tags (including meta descriptions) are used by the Google algorithm, which helps determine what pages should rank well for certain keywords.
If you’re using meta descriptions properly, you have an opportunity to add a meta tag that isn’t in your content. This could be the difference between ranking on page four for “best shoes,” or on page one.
Meta descriptions help:
Increase click-through rates, which in turn will boost your conversions and sales.
Improve indexing so you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Make it easier for visitors to find the content they’re looking for without scanning page titles or meta tags.
On the user-experience side, meta descriptions show searchers what your website is all about and what information they can expect to find if they click.
Meta descriptions can also show up on social media sites when a link is shared.
If a meta description is not present, or if you have written it outside of best practices, a search engine may create one for you. The problem is, it might not be as accurate or compelling as the one you write yourself.
That’s why it’s crucial to write your own meta descriptions.
How do you write meta descriptions that drive clicks and improve your ranking? Here are eight tips to help you create more compelling meta descriptions.
1. Include a CTA in Your Meta Descriptions
Using a call-to-action (CTA) in your meta descriptions is a great way to compel people to click on your website. You can use phrases like “Learn More” or “Click Here” or “Shop Now,” when they see it come up in SERPs.
CTAs help readers understand what the page offers and what they can expect if they click. They can also give users an incentive for clicking through and engaging with your site.
CTAs can be used to sell a product, offer an email sign-up, or direct readers to your social media pages.
This example from Automattic on LinkedIn asks users to join LinkedIn to apply for their positions.
2. Focus on Value Your Meta Description
Adding words that describe the value you offer is a great way to entice people to click.
When someone reads a meta description, they should be able to understand what is on offer and whether it is worth their time.
Include words like “learn,” “see,” or “watch” when appropriate to interact with your content.
Other words, such as “best,” “deal,” “new” or “popular,” can also make your meta descriptions more compelling.
3. A/B Test Your Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a great place to experiment with different keywords, phrases, or CTAs.
This will help you determine what drives more engagement without doing anything permanent or drastic in your site’s design itself.
One meta description could use one variation of a keyword, phrase, or CTA. The second meta description could be your current meta or focus on a different offer or term.
Run each meta for a few weeks, then check your Google Analytics to see which version earns more clicks. Then, use that information when crafting new meta descriptions.
(If clicks are close, consider looking at other metrics, such as bounce rate, time on page, or conversions. Traffic isn’t the only thing meta descriptions can impact!)
4. Experiment With Character Length
Meta descriptions are limited to 150 characters. Going over this length will result in your meta being truncated in the search results, which means users won’t see any content after the cut-off.
Here’s an example of a truncated meta. Notice the ellipses:
Even though you can’t go over the limit, you can experiment with your description to see what works best for each page. For example, in-depth guides may actually get more clicks with the truncated results because users want to learn more.
You may find shorter meta descriptions work best on your home page, while blogs perform better with a higher word count. Or, you may find meta descriptions with a higher word count work best for your recommended products page.
5. Make Your Meta Descriptions Unique and Interesting
Meta descriptions provide an overview of what content is contained on a page, so they’re important for attracting readers’ attention.
Try different approaches to grab user attention, such as using a clickbait title or asking a question users want answered.
Try using eye-catching words or phrases that will grab a user’s attention such as “shocking,” “hilarious” or “life-changing.” Just be careful not to overpromise and under-deliver.
As you can see in the example above, they use a very active voice that provides a momentous push for the reader.
You’re told what you can expect but without any unnecessary details. If you’re looking for a simple way to help your SEO, you would most likely click on this link.
You’ll also notice the example above is very specific and doesn’t contain any fluff.
This is especially important if you want to rank high in the SERPs.
Most importantly, make sure the description matches the content of the page.
6. Include Keywords in Your Meta Descriptions
It’s important to include keywords in meta descriptions for two reasons:
It helps search engines understand the page and better rank your content.
It reassures users that the page covers the topic they are interested in.
Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find the best keywords for your site. Then, add them to your meta descriptions to improve your ranking.
Note: Each page should use different keywords in the meta descriptions to ensure your page shows up in all relevant searches.
Also, avoid keyword stuffing in your meta descriptions or you risk a search engine penalty. Each meta description should contain one or two keywords per phrase and they should be relevant to the page.
7. Implement Structured Data
Structured data meta tags are HTML tags you can add to your website to provide additional context for search engines and social media platforms.
The most common types of structured data meta tags used by marketers are the business name, address, phone number, email address, a product description with price points (if applicable), an image URL and a Twitter handle.
There are plenty of ways you can start implementing structured data.
One of the most popular ways you may have seen is when websites implement reviews in their meta description:
This provides an immediate signal to your viewer that they can find something of value on the site.
Since social proof is such a powerful way to sell and grow your brand, this is a fairly easy hack that lets you start capitalizing on user behavior with ease.
Structured data can help you build a more powerful meta description that will help you rank higher in search results. They can also help you snag Google snippets.
8. Do Not Duplicate Meta Descriptions
A meta description is crucial to ranking, so make sure to write unique meta descriptions for each page. Unique meta descriptions increase the probability that search engines and other browsers can understand what content is on a page and how it compares to other pages.
For example, if a user sees duplicate meta descriptions on every page of your website, they won’t know what kind of content is on what page.
This is especially important for e-commerce sites, which may have several pages with similar content. Even if the products are similar, the metas should be unique.
Duplicate meta descriptions can have negative effects on your website as they make it difficult for meta description crawlers to crawl your site. You may also face indexing penalties because crawlers are not able to determine which page is original.
Examples of Great Meta Descriptions
The best examples of meta descriptions come from search engines themselves. Let’s look at Google’s own meta description for starters.
Here’s the coding for Google’s own meta description:
<meta name=”description” content=”Search the world’s information, including web pages, images, videos and more. Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.“>
It is exactly 159 characters, including spaces. Google’s meta description is displayed as follows in the top three search engines.
In Google:
In Yahoo:
In Bing:
Here are a few branded meta descriptions that do well:
Tesla
Tesla’s meta description quickly and efficiently tells you everything you need to know about the company and its values. The meta description fits perfectly within the SERP and none of the words are cut off.
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet starts with a question to draw readers in and encourage clicks. From there, they explain their unique value propositions and get you excited about traveling the world!
Meta Descriptions Frequently Asked Questions
How many characters should a meta description be?
A meta description should be approximately 160 characters in length, including spaces, and include a concise but compelling description of the content on that page.
Where does my meta description appear?
Your meta description appears on the search engine page when a user searches for your site’s keyword. It is directly under your meta title.
Do meta descriptions affect SEO?
Yes, meta descriptions affect SEO as they provide search engines with information about your page and impact user experience.
Should my meta description be the same as my page's title or H1?
No. Use unique meta descriptions and meta titles for each page of your website. Remember, the meta description is right under the title, which is generally your H1. Don’t waste that space!
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How to Write Meta Descriptions: Conclusion
Meta descriptions are an important part of your onsite SEO. They should be compelling, descriptive, and unique to each page.
Meta descriptions may be short, but they can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) by helping search engines and users better understand what your page is about.
Remember to include meta descriptions on every page of your site, including blog posts and product pages.
What tips do you have for creating great meta descriptions?
If you want your blog posts to perform well, one simple way is to achieve this is by writing magnetic headlines. By playing around with your title after publishing a post, you may significantly increase the post’s conversion rate.
Traffic to your post will vary depending on the power of your headline. If you fail to make it impactful and clickable, every other marketing step that you take will be a total waste of time.
Step #1: Use Specific Numbers and Data in Your Headline
Integrating specific numbers and data into your headline is an effective way to make your article more enticing to readers. Several research studies have shown that headlines with numbers tend to generate more social shares and engagement.
According to Debra Jason, one of the reasons why using numbers works in your headlines is because numbers are like “brain candy.” They are addictive, and our minds can’t get enough of them.
Additionally, it’s very important to understand the science behind odd numbers in particular. Often, you find viral blog posts with seemingly random numbers in the headlines and you may have stopped to wonder why the authors didn’t use even numbers in their list post. For example, from Buzzfeed.com:
According to the Content Marketing Institute, the brain seems to believe odd numbers more than even numbers. Odd numbers help people digest and recall information more easily.
What’s more, when they tested their hypothesis and tweaked their headline to include the number 7, click-through rates increased by 20%.
We’ve also found that instead of using the word “seven,” you should always replace it with the numeral “7” in headlines. Meaning instead of writing “Seven Steps To Start A Home Business,” use “7 Steps To Start a Home-Based Business” to appeal to the number-craving side of our minds.
We’ll also let you in on another secret. If you’re writing a step-by-step guide, don’t include more than nine steps, because the human brain typically finds it difficult to process more than nine items at a time. However, if you’re writing about tools or different ways to do a thing, there is no limit to the number you can use.
Step #2: Utilize a Unique Rationale
I’ve used unique rationales to write great headlines (if I say so myself) that went viral. The word “rationale” simply means “an underlying reason why something should be done.” If you want people to read your content, do you have a good reason why they should?
With 59% of people sharing content without reading it first, we need to make sure our headlines appeal to people who will. To avoid wasting time on content, give people a strong reason why they should click, read and above all: share your content.Businesses that have a blog experience twice as much email traffic as businesses who don’t.
Some of the rationales that you can include in your headlines are:
Tips ✅
Reasons ✅
Lessons ✅
Tricks ✅
Ideas ✅
Ways ✅
Principles ✅
Facts ✅
Secrets ✅
Strategies ✅
Here are some examples of our rationale in action:
5 Tips to Write Blog Introductions Like a Pro
15 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way as a 3-Year-Old Blogger
8 Principles for Designing a Perfect Landing Page
17 Facts About Content Marketing That You Didn’t Know
6 Insights to the Future of Search Engine Optimization
3 Secrets to Make Your List Post Sing
4 Headline Writing Tips to Make Your Titles Soar
Step #3: Call for Attention
The purpose of the headline is to get your viewer to read the first sentence. Every headline should call for attention. “Attention” simply means mental focus and serious concentration on a given task.
If you’re a small business owner, one of the ways to acquire and retain customers is by engaging them with great content.
After all, great content always starts with a headline that captures your reader’s attention.
You’ve got to convince your customers and prospects to keep reading. The headline can build that momentum for you.
So, instead of putting all your time and energy into getting email subscribers and making sales, start focusing on using headlines to get people to read the first sentence.
That should be your headline’s true purpose. If you accomplish that goal, the introduction, the subtitles, the bullet points, and the storytelling will take care of the rest and convert the reader into a customer.
Before I show you some simple ways to write headlines that will call for attention, here are four rules to follow. They’re considered the “4 Us” of writing attention-driven headlines:
The four Us are:
make the headline unique
be ultra-specific
convey a sense of urgency
provide something useful
1) Make the Headline Unique
A blogger friend of mine once told me that anytime he finds a compelling headline while reading, he will tweak it and make it unique for his audience.
“Unique” means being “one of a kind.” In other words, your headline has to be different from others.
But, how do you test for uniqueness?
Simple: plug it into Google and enclose the headline in double quotation marks. Here’s an example:
Note: You’ve got to use the double quotation marks in order to get the exact result you want. In the above Google search results, the headline has “no results found.”
Of course, thousands of people may be targeting the same keyword (conversion rate optimization), but your goal is to write a headline that no one else has.
2) Be Ultra-Specific With Your Headlines
The second rule for writing a headline that calls for attention is: be ultra-specific.
Your content’s headline drives every piece that you put out there, no matter what format or platform you use to publish it.
Your prospects have questions and they want answers. If you can provide them with an ultra-specific headline and the answer to their questions, you can convert them into loyal readers and customers.
The more precise you can be, the more authority you’ll command in your industry and the easier you’ll find it to build a strong connection with customers.
There are times when you might want to mask the content’s real purpose from your target audience and use click triggers, such as power words and strong adjectives in your headline.
There’s nothing wrong with this, exactly. However, headlines that are ultra-specific give the reader a sense of what they should expect, when they click to read the content.
Whether you’re an established content marketer or a beginner, you need to set specific and realistic objectives. Don’t confuse your readers with your headline. Avoid vagueness. Get straight to the point.
If you’re sharing five steps to achieve something, go ahead and make it known in the headline. This is another reason why you need to choose your niche carefully.
Unless your blog is about “everything technology,” you don’t have to write headlines on different topics the way Mashable and TechCrunch do.
Know your audience and write headlines that indicate your posts will about topics that meet their needs.
So, how do you write such ultra-specific headlines?
Let’s assume that your target keyword is “small business plan.” Here are specific headline variations that would work:
3 Simple Steps to Write a Small Business Plan for Beginners
Top 10 Small Business Plan Templates That Succeeded
Learn How to Write a Small Business Plan From Scratch
Step-by-Step Process for Writing a Small Business Plan in 30 Minutes
Do you see how specific the above headlines are? The bolded portions contain phrases that make the entire headline ultra-specific (directed at something). Admittedly, they may not be unique – it’s very difficult to achieve both uniqueness and specificity in a single headline.
Steve Kamb, of NerdFitness.com, writes specific headlines about meals that help you stay fit and healthy.
I’ve studied Peep Laja’s headline styles for a long time, as well. He uses only specific titles that help his conversion rate optimization community. Here’s an example:
3) Convey a Sense Of Urgency: Don’t miss out!
Derek Christian, founder of Cleaning Business Today, once said that “effective marketing boils down to creating a fear of losing out on an amazing deal.”
Unless you infuse your headline with urgency, your readers are likely to put off reading your content or possibly bookmark it and never come back to it again. The purpose is to get readers to click your headline now.
Your own case may not be health-related, but we’re all in the same boat. Everybody is looking for the propelling force that will nudge them to do something right now and not put it off until tomorrow or next year. That’s what urgency does, when you use it in your headline writing.
A sense of urgency is not only applicable to content marketing. It cuts across your personal life and productivity as well. Hyatt simplifies it:
Copywriters usually improve conversion rates when they strategically use a sense of urgency in their copy. Potential customers tend to respond quickly, because their psychology is wired to persuade them to buy based on emotions, but to justify that decision based on logic.
Scarcity and urgency are two powerful copy elements that usually go together to produce outstanding results.
Ecommerce sites use urgency and scarcity a lot. This is how Amazon uses both elements, to sell more physical products, especially in the electronics and gadgets category:
Urgency-based headlines will always grab attention, because it makes the reader anticipate what comes next. Consider Upworthy’s well-known headlines:
Ideally, you want to tailor your message to where your customers are in the decision process.
They’re not going to ignore your headline, because they don’t want to miss out on what’s on the other side of the headline. The only way that they can find their answers is to click and read.
4) Provide Something Useful
The last rule that you should definitely follow, if you want your headlines to grab attention and get the job done, is to make them useful. The above three rules – uniqueness, ultra-specific and urgency – all correlate with usefulness.
If your headline and content aren’t useful, no matter how much urgency you employ, it will fail. In fact, there is no way to write a specific and unique piece of content, without it being useful at the same time.
Useful can mean several things – practical, helpful, valuable, informative, worthwhile, beneficial, advantageous and so on. The bottom line is to help the readers experience hope, knowing that their problem can still be solved.
Just remember: Don’t forget to include plenty of data in your blog posts, capture screenshots and write in-depth posts, because studies show that content length affects search rankings and conversions. Adding data creates credibility, traffic and above all: usefulness.
Do you understand 4 Us of writing attention-grabbing headlines? Are you ready to put them into action?
It’s time to look at the various ways you can write powerful headlines that generate qualified clicks and leads for your business.
1) State the Obvious in Your Headline:
Write headlines that are easy to understand. The moment a potential reader stumbles on your web page from anywhere, they shouldn’t need any help to figure out what you’re talking about.
I have to point out here that most headlines with a sense of urgency usually lack clarity of purpose. The purpose of the headline is to get people to click, so that you can earn a better ROI. The purpose is not to appear clever or educated.
Another way to confuse readers is to use words and phrases that aren’t common. Readers don’t want to know which university you attended or your academic status (unless you run an educational blog, of course).
Instead, demonstrate your cleverness through your ability to explain complicated issues and make them simpler for the ordinary person.
Use simple words to express yourself and convey your message. If your readers are hungry for useful information, don’t ask if they’re famished. Both words mean the same thing. But one is more commonly used than the other (and it’s great for SEO!)
Examples of confusing headlines that you should avoid are:
Don’t use: 12 Meticulous Savings Tips For The Financial Amateur
Instead use: 12 Effective Saving Tips For Those Who Want Extra Cash
Never use: How to Annihilate Inflammation of Skin Due to Unfavorable Weather
But use: How to Get Rid of Acne and Other Annoying Skin Conditions
Never ever use: Top 10 Ubiquitous Places to Find Ravishing Blog Post Theses
Feel free to use: Top 10 Places to Find Useful Blog Post Ideas
Sure, you’ve got to raise the bar in your content. But, always use common words and adjectives that people can relate to. That’s how you can encourage fellow internet marketers, content marketers and bloggers to share your content, especially on LinkedIn.
Now take a look at the screenshot below. You’ll notice that this article appears in the Harvard Business Review, but the headline is a bit confusing. Let’s see if we can make it better:
Quick problem: The above headline could be written much more clearly. Let’s do it:
How To Move Up And Not Get Stuck In Your Boss’s Shadow
How You Can Move Up Easily in Your Workplace
A typical landing page headline, with both clarity and simplicity, is this one, from Rainmaker.fm:
Digital Photography School, a popular content-rich site that was founded by Darren Rowse, has some clear and clickable headlines. Even though the photography niche/industry has some technical terms, the authors ensure they don’t confuse readers.
2) Use Interesting Adjectives in Your Headlines
Adjectives are important in both spoken and written English language.
Adjectives are great for emotive writing and pulling your audience along with you on a story, keeping them engaged and interested.
As a content writer, you can use adjectives to give your headline a boost and make it super-attractive to your audience’s needs.
Jeff Goins provided some examples of interesting adjectives that you can use to create your headline:
Fun
Painstaking
Free
Strange
Incredible
Effortless
Absolute
Essential
And so much more…
Here are some headline examples that use the adjectives:
Fun headline:
“Incredible” headline, at DPS.com:
And, here is the “free” headline:
3) Flag the Reader in Your Headlines
Dan Kennedy once introduced the “flagging technique” and it’s a powerful way to write headlines for both copy and blog posts. You already know one of the basic techniques, which involves addressing the readers as “you.”
Personally, I use “you” in a lot of my headlines. I discovered that for every headline that contains ‘you,’ the engagement is very high. The word “you” connects and captivates your readers, on a personal level.
Since the majority of your competitors are also using content to reach and attract customers, you’ve got to reach your prospects on their level, whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer.
Beyond that, address your readers and write headlines specifically for them. I’ve used this approach several times and it works. Here are examples:
For Clickbank Affiliates Only: Double Your Affiliate Commission in 15 Minutes a Day
WordPress Fashion Bloggers: 4 Ways to Secure Your Blog Against Hackers
Struggling Bloggers: Create an Endless Stream of Content Ideas With This 1 Website
Calling All Struggling Bloggers: Use These 3 Strategies to Get More Blog Visitors
4) Use Emotional Words in Your Headlines
All words are not created equal. Some words have the power to prompt change, while others simply reaffirm the status quo. Some words can make people cry, while others can evoke joy.
Emotionally impactful words are popularly referred to as “power words.” Here are some emotional power words that you can use to give your readers a pep talk and spur them into action:
Here are a few examples of unique headlines that use some of the power words:
How to Conquer Writer’s Block in 6 Simple Steps
Case Study: How Courage Helped Me to Build a 6 Figure Online Business
The Best Way to Write From Your Heart and Connect With Customers
Audacity of Content Marketing: 3 Secrets to Outsmart Your Competitors
Note: You can use one or more power words in your headline. But, make sure that they’re useful for the user and read naturally, so you don’t get a Google penalty for “keyword-bombing”.
Be warned, there are people who use emotional words in the wrong way – to deceive and manipulate consumers, or even create “clickbait”– that’s not what we’re trying to do here.
Your purpose is to use power words in the right manner – to increase the conversion rate for your emails, blog posts, copy and adverts. Words have power, so use them wisely.
Appealing to your customer’s emotions should increase your sales and social shares in a significant manner.
Once you understand that, you’ll quit pushing sales messages to them all of the time. Instead, focus on answering their questions. Legit marketing is about building relationships, not chasing customers away.
What makes a headline good is it’s structure – aka “the formula.” Every authority blogger and content marketer has one or more formulas for writing headlines.
I have mine and, sometimes, I tweak and test different headlines, before deciding which one works best. When using formulas, make sure to include power words that will get people to buy your product or join your waiting list.
Some bloggers prefer to write their content first, before crafting the headline. I don’t do that. However, there is no hard and fast rule. What works for me may not be the right approach for you.
We’ve addressed some ways to write a powerful headline. But, I also love the way that Bronn outlines a simple approach to make your headlines stand out, using the acronym “SHINE“:
S – Specificity
H – Helpfulness
I – Immediacy
N – Newsworthiness
E – Entertainment value
To make it easier for you, consider adopting the headline formula used by many fitness experts. They first identify the problem, then offer a solution and then make a promise.
That’s not all. There are plenty of easy solutions to powerful headlines, such as:
1) The “Little Known Ways” Formula
How many times have you used this formula to write a catchy headline? Each of the words in the formula is emotionally driven. These types of headlines usually pop into people’s minds, even well after they’ve seen them.
People like simplicity and appreciate when little things build up to something significant. Big Data is the by-product of little data, collected over time, eventually becoming a giant database of data.
Here are a few “little known ways” headlines digital marketers are likely to use:
3 Little-Known Steps to Monetize a Brand New Blog Successfully
How These 5 Little Known Secrets Increased My Search Traffic by 54%
17 Little-Known Ways to Increase Conversion Rate
2) The “Get Rid of [Problem] Once and For All” Formula
Who wouldn’t want to permanently get rid of an annoying problem that they’re faced with on a daily basis? When you write your headlines with this strategy in mind, you’ll captivate your audience from start to finish, because they want to know the secret, too.
This headline formula is mostly applicable in the health industry, where people are looking to treat, cure, remedy or alleviate a physical problem – e.g., acne, skin scars, high blood pressure, eczema, bad breath, etc.
This is quite similar to the formula introduced by Sherice Jacob, known as “How to Survive Your First [put the topic here].” Headlines that promise to help the reader get rid of a particular problem will persuade the reader to take three steps:
Click the headline
Read the first paragraph to determine if you truly have the answer
Read through to the end or scroll down and take action
Even though the “Get rid of” headline formula is mostly used in healthcare niches, you can reverse-engineer it and still use it in online marketing topics, such as blogging, CRO, affiliate marketing, self-publishing, SEO, social media, web traffic and so on.
Here are examples:
How to Get Rid of Content Marketing Failure and Drive Search Traffic
Stop Wasting Time: Get Rid of Flashy Social Media Tools and Get More Done
7 Smart Ways to Get Rid of Affiliate Marketing Struggle and Make More Money
The “get rid of” headline formula usually goes viral, especially when promoted strategically by the author.
3) The “Who Else Wants” Formula
This headline style works because it asks a question and the right question usually generates the right answer.
The formula brings your target audience into the discussion and makes them feel comfortable; it’s like you are there having a conversation with them. Copywriters often ask several questions in their copy, just to get the targeted customer to pause and consider the product; the same principles apply to headlines, too.
Just like finding and sharing timely content and including at least one image in your post, simply asking the right question can increase your social shares and engagement level.
Here are some examples of the “who else wants” headline formula:
Some of the headlines that you can tweak, to appeal to your target audience are:
Who Else Wants to Learn About Conversion Rate Optimization [Step-by-Step]?
Who Else Wants the 6 Steps to Master A/B Split Testing?
Who Else Want to Raise Capital for a New Startup?
Step #5: Measure Your Headline’s Success
People love to share articles that are lengthy (usually 2000+ words). But, as a smart marketer, you wouldn’t simply assume that longer posts would work for you. The best way to make your own decision is to write a similar, in-depth article and see how it goes.
What’s the benefit of using a headline formula or rule that doesn’t produce results for you?
It’s essential for you to measure your headline success. You want to make sure that your time isn’t wasted – or your money, if you hired a professional to write the content.
You can measure content and headline success through:
i). Client/customer inquiries: Within a period of 2 – 3 months, did your content generate any client inquiries? It doesn’t have to be much. But, the very fact that you got a handful of clients is a sure signal that your headline style is working. All you’ve got to do is just optimize and improve it.
ii). Social media stats: Are people commenting, liking, and sharing your content? Most social media platforms provide engagement statistics at the click of a button, and it’s important to keep your eye on what your audience enjoys the most.
By making social sharing buttons visible you can increase engagement by 7x, especially when the post is insightful.
iii) Other forms of digital statistics: Another thing that you may want to measure is the amount of inbound links that you generate through your powerful headlines and content.
Editorial links are the best kinds of links to get, because you don’t ask for them. And, they mainly appear within content, thus passing significant SEO value to your web pages and improving your search rankings.
iv) Measure direct responses: A lot of content producers prefer to turn comments off, but really they can be a brilliant way of generating and following up on leads, engaging with your audience and seeing which articles are working and which aren’t.
Figure out what’s delivering your success, and repeat it. Maximize your powerful headlines.
Powerful Headlines Frequently Asked Questions
Why are powerful headlines important?
The average person has an 8 second attention span, and you need to pull your audience in from the second they start reading – you can do this by following our 5 step headline guide.
How can I get more people to see my article?
It often involves a combination of marketing techniques including SEO and “being in the right place at the right time”. One easy life-hack to improve conversion rates is using emotive language or numerals in your headlines.
What makes an article interesting for a user?
It’s often as simple as using the 4 Us detailed in this article. Uniqueness, ultra-specific copy, conveying a sense of urgency and above all: providing something useful to your readers.
The average person has an 8 second attention span, and you need to pull your audience in from the second they start reading – you can do this by following our 5 step headline guide.
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How to Write Headlines Conclusion
With new and emerging content marketing strategies emerging everyday, it’s becoming difficult to focus on what works. This is why smart digital marketers are disciplined. They understand the importance of great content and whether it generates search traffic and leads.
It’s a given that the headline is an integral element of your content, no matter what format the content may take. Then, you can focus on making the introduction, subtitles, bullet points, and call to action equally important.
Your overall focus should be to educate prospects and customers, by teaching them new things. It’s not enough that they click your headline. They need to read the information you’ve provided them in the body of your content, as well.
The best approach is to use storytelling and data-driven content to build your authority, while solving their problem. Above all, be consistent and keep learning new ways to turn a good headline into a catchy headline that begs to be shared.
Do you have any other headline writing tips? What’s been most helpful for you in producing great headlines?
Special announcements also receive high engagement.
These kinds of updates are interesting, important, and sometimes funny. They inspire people who follow Starbucks, and they have good photography to boot.
Even if you aren’t as big as Starbucks, you can use the same tactics to drive your Facebook strategy.
Overall, remember your content needs to be interesting, important, timely, and funny (if it’s appropriate for your brand).
Let’s break down each one of these to see how they work.
Tips for Writing Engaging Facebook Posts
If you’re ready to start writing engaging posts, you need to start with a strategy built around your audience’s likes and needs.
Follow these seven tips to impress your Facebook audience and improve your inbound leads.
1. Make Your Facebook Post a Source of Useful Information
Your audience wants information that is relevant to their interests.
More than that, they want information that is educational and interesting.
Starbucks’ new product announcements get high engagement because they are useful.
A Starbucks customer sees the post and gets excited about a new drink or food item they can try.
The key to writing engaging Facebook posts is to be an invaluable source of information.
Take this example from the grocery store Safeway, which offers users valuable information about healthy eating.
The bestposting times are often debated in the world of social media marketing.
However, being timely is about more than simply posting at the right time of day. It means putting out the right content when your customers are looking for it.
Specifically, timeliness means using seasonal content and leveraging current events.
Think of every major retail company in the world. They all take advantage of certain seasons like Christmas and summertime.
Why shouldn’t you?
Seasonal content allows you to be timely and create stuff people want to see.
That’s not all—seasonal content can refer to literal seasons, but it can also refer to trends.
Once you’ve got a few formats down, play around with it a bit. Your followers may like status updates that are only one sentence long, or they may enjoy a full paragraph with media.
Find out what your users engage with and run with it.
6. Start a Conversation
Too many posts are one-sided, but your audience wants to engage with your content!
Asking questions, prompting responses, or even giving away free items in return for engagement can help your post perform better.
Take this example from Publix, which asks users a question before offering valuable information.
By offering a range of prizes, KFC encourages its users to stay up-to-date with the channel, which drives engagement for all their posts.
Other contest tactics can include asking your audience to tag their friends to improve your post reach and follower pool.
Tagging specific locations can also promote business in localized areas for brands that have multiple locations.
When creating your contest, offer something your audience is interested in.
This could be a product, discount, or even educational information.
Remember to exchange the prize for the desired action.
If you want more followers, ask users to tag a friend. If you want more website visitors, ask users to enter your contest through your website.
Whatever you do, be sure to measure your results.
Facebook Post Frequently Asked Questions
How do I increase reach on my Facebook posts?
The best way to get your Facebook posts seen is to understand your audience insights, create content they want to see, and supplement organic reach with paid advertising to grow your audience.
Yes, Facebook should be an important part of your overall digital marketing strategy. Not only does it provide advertising opportunities in itself and within Instagram, but being present on Facebook can help drive traffic to your website and improve user engagement.
What do the best Facebook posts have in common?
The best Facebook posts contain a mix of video, text, and photo, use links often, and use engagement tactics to improve audience relationships.
How do I get more likes on my Facebook posts?
To get more likes on your Facebook post, create shareable content, keep your posts short, respond to your audience, and run contests. Looking for more info? Check out our seven tips for writing engaging posts above.
Facebook Posts Conclusion
Facebook is a powerful platform if you know how to use it right.
The best way to improve the performance of your Facebook posts is to create content your audience wants to see. So how do you do that?
Having a marketing plan isn’t enough for success. You need strategic marketing objectives to help you set, plan for and achieve your business goals. And you need to have them not just for your overall marketing plan but also for specific portions, such as paid social media marketing.
This guide will offer you a detailed breakdown of what marketing objectives are, what are the best practices for creating effective marketing objectives, and a few examples of what successful marketing objectives look like.
We have also included tips, tricks, and strategies to make your marketing plan more efficient with tried and tested marketing objectives.
You should tailor your SMART goals to your unique situation, but here’s an example to get you restarted on your marketing objectives:
Smart Goal Structure
S – Specific: Visits, Leads, or Customers
Do you want to increase traffic, nurture traffic into leads, or convert leads into customers?
M – Measurable: Provide a Number
Decide on an exact number to measure and increase.
A – Attainable: Understand Benchmark
Research your past analytics to make sure the goal is realistic with your resources.
R – Relevant: Relates Back to Overall End Goal
Make sure each goal relates back to overall end goal.
T – Timely: Include a Time Frame
Pick a date that is realistic to reach your goal.
Why Is It Important to Set Paid Social Marketing Objectives?
When you launch a paid social media marketing campaign, it’s essential to start with solid marketing objectives so you create a strong strategy to meet or exceed your marketing goals.
For example, if you want to increase your newsletter subscribers, focus on building a robust email sequence and craft marketing content in a way that should convince your audience to hit subscribe. Having this marketing objective clarifies your key goals and can help you build an effective social media marketing strategy.
If you don’t have any marketing objectives, you may end up wasting time, money, and effort on the wrong marketing campaign (for example, increasing passive visitors instead of engaged subscribers).
To better direct your resources toward building successful ad campaigns, you need to understand the types of marketing objectives you can set and what they mean for your business.
10 Types of Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives
Marketing objectives are crucial to clarifying and meeting your business goals. This section is here to help you narrow down your choices and dig deeper into what each type of marketing objective looks like in practice.
1. Marketing Objectives to Increase Brand Awareness
This is one of the most common types of marketing objectives. No matter how great your business is, if customers don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. That’s why paid social media marketing objectives aimed at increasing brand awareness often come first, especially for new business owners.
Like other marketing campaign metrics, these can be customized and measured according to your key business needs. For example, if you’re a new brand looking to increase brand awareness, you need to tailor your social ad campaigns to attract new visitors.
Here are a few examples of what a brand awareness-based marketing objective could look like:
Increase social media visitors by 25 percent.
Improve page visits by 50 percent.
Increase the number of target demographic visitors by 20 percent.
Your website’s analytics page will offer you all the details about your progress (or decline in growth) so you can adjust your marketing objectives and strategies accordingly.
If you notice you’re falling short of the goals too frequently, it may be a sign you’re setting unrealistic goals. Try to reduce the number and see what happens.
2. Marketing Objectives to Increase Repeat Visitors
Attracting new visitors isn’t enough; you must find a way to make them stay (and eventually convert). If you’re at that stage, you can create marketing objective plans to improve on-page retention and increase your number of regular visitors.
Here’s what that goal could look like:
Improve click-through rates from existing visitors.
Increase social media engagement among regular users.
Reduce bounce rates to retain customers.
This graphic by CXL explains how to calculate your click-through rates.
Once somebody starts visiting your page regularly, that’s a great time to ask them to subscribe to a premium level of whatever you offer. They’re already a free subscriber showing interest in your products, so they may be more likely to subscribe to your paid service than new users who don’t know or care about your business.
Marketing objectives to increase subscribers could look like:
Increase subscribers by 15 percent over the next month.
Reduce unsubscription rates by five percent over the next three months.
If you’ve just launched (or are planning to launch) something new, here are a few marketing objectives you can set:
Increase new product landing page visits to 100,000 per day.
Boost social media engagement related to the new product by 40 percent.
Sell 25 new units per day through organic traffic.
Such marketing objectives and strategies are often time-bound and only last for a few weeks or months, but you should track them like you would a long-term campaign to learn what works and what needs to be improved upon for the next time you run a short campaign.
5. Marketing Objectives to Increase Sales
Now that you’ve launched your new product and successfully promoted it, it’s time to focus on increasing sales. Most companies across several industries think of increasing sales when they discuss marketing.
Although marketing can serve several purposes, most businesses primarily use paid social media campaigns to boost sales, so this step is quite important.
If you’re at a stage where you’re prioritizing sales, here are a few examples of marketing objectives aimed at boosting sales:
Increase conversion rates by three percent in the next three weeks.
Connect with 25 influencers to increase social media sales.
Increase affiliate sales by 12 percent in the next month.
These marketing objectives can be directly tracked by how many units or subscriptions you sell. We recommend keeping track of your results to know which marketing objectives and strategies work best for you.
6. Marketing Objectives to Increase Revenue
Even if your sales have increased, it doesn’t mean your revenue necessarily has. If you notice you’re not meeting your revenue goals, it’s time to devise new SMART goals, such as:
Bring down customer acquisition cost to $5 per new buyer.
Here’s an example of how these marketing objectives can be tracked, explained through a graphic by Chorus.ai.
7. Marketing Objectives to Optimize the Conversion Funnel
Once you’ve set practical marketing objectives and begun working on your paid social media marketing campaign, you may notice the customers still aren’t converting. Maybe you’re attracting ample visitors, but your repeat customers are low. Perhaps you have a growing number of subscribers, but your customer acquisition cost is too high.
8. Marketing Objectives to Grow Your Digital Presence
Today, 2.14 billion people shop online, making digital marketing essential. If you have a successful brick-and-mortar business and want to expand your digital reach, this marketing objective could be right for you.
Here are a few helpful examples of what digital reach marketing objectives could look like:
Post four blog posts per month to drive audience engagement.
Understanding international markets can be tricky, so you may have to experiment with marketing objectives and strategies before finding something that provides the best return on your investment.
10. Marketing Objectives to Increase On-site Time
Once you have an effective conversion funnel that meets your sales, revenue, and engagement goals, you can look for ways to increase each users’ on-site time. The more time somebody spends on your page, the more they’re likely to come back and buy something from you.
For this, you can set marketing objectives like:
Reduce bounce rate by 4 percent every month.
Increase user reading time up to 30 minutes per visitor.
You can track how long visitors stay on your page through your website’s built-in analytics tool. Measuring your marketing objectives solely through on-site time can be tricky, though, as many people leave their tabs open or are too busy to give their full attention to your page. So, we recommend you don’t focus on this objective too heavily unless you’ve completed all the others we discussed above.
How to Pick Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives
Now that you understand the 10 essential marketing objectives, it’s time to choose one for your company.
Consider your business goals
When selecting a marketing objective, consider your business goals. Ask questions like: Do you need to increase sales, or should you prioritize social engagement?
Get perspective
Consider the entire team’s perspectives before honing in on one goal.
Narrow it down
Narrow your options to the top three choices you can work with.
Test your goals
Start with one to see what works and what needs to change. If your goals aren’t supporting your overall growth plans, tweak and try again.
Repeat the process with new objectives
Setting goals should be an on-going process, not a one-time deal.
Tips to Help You Meet Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your paid social media marketing objectives, make sure you:
Periodically check in with your team members to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Track your progress toward SMART goals to identify problems and possibilities for growth.
Include external experts’ suggestions to improve your process.
FAQ about Social Media Marketing Objectives
This guide covered a ton, but you’ve still got questions. Here’s a quick FAQ to help you get started.
Can my business have more than one marketing objective?
How many marketing objectives you set depends on your business goals and planning capacity. Larger businesses with bigger teams may be able to plan and execute multiple marketing objectives and strategies at once. In comparison, newer businesses with smaller teams might perform better by working on one goal at a time.
Who should set the marketing objectives for a successful social media ad campaign?
When you launch a new social media ad campaign, involve everyone in the decisions about marketing objectives. The leaders and managers should specify the big-picture goals, while the marketing team can dig deeper into the details of how to execute your businesses’ marketing objective plans.
What are the most important marketing objectives?
Every company prioritizes different goals at different stages of its growth. Creating brand awareness and expanding your digital reach could be solid marketing objectives to aim for if you’re a new business. If you’re an established company, increasing sales and profits may better serve your key business goals.
What to do if my business isn’t meeting any marketing objectives?
If you notice your company is consistently falling short of your marketing objectives, it’s a sign warning you to change strategies. If you’re significantly behind your goals, it may be better to change your marketing objectives entirely. Track your goal metrics, see where your plan is failing, and set SMART marketing objectives to improve accordingly.
How often can you change your marketing objectives?
For your marketing objectives to succeed in accelerating your business growth, they have to be effective and profitable. If you notice you’re spending increasing time and effort trying to meet your goals without seeing great returns, reconsider your marketing objectives and perhaps swap them for new ones.
Social Media Marketing Objectives Conclusion
Setting SMART marketing objectives can truly change the way you reach your target audience and encourage them to do business with you.
You need to be especially SMART about your objectives when creating paid social media marketing campaigns, as you’re spending money regardless of how well things go.
Having a marketing plan isn’t enough for success. You need strategic marketing objectives to help you set, plan for and achieve your business goals. And you need to have them not just for your overall marketing plan but also for specific portions, such as paid social media marketing.
This guide will offer you a detailed breakdown of what marketing objectives are, what are the best practices for creating effective marketing objectives, and a few examples of what successful marketing objectives look like.
We have also included tips, tricks, and strategies to make your marketing plan more efficient with tried and tested marketing objectives.
You should tailor your SMART goals to your unique situation, but here’s an example to get you restarted on your marketing objectives:
Smart Goal Structure
S – Specific: Visits, Leads, or Customers
Do you want to increase traffic, nurture traffic into leads, or convert leads into customers?
M – Measurable: Provide a Number
Decide on an exact number to measure and increase.
A – Attainable: Understand Benchmark
Research your past analytics to make sure the goal is realistic with your resources.
R – Relevant: Relates Back to Overall End Goal
Make sure each goal relates back to overall end goal.
T – Timely: Include a Time Frame
Pick a date that is realistic to reach your goal.
Why Is It Important to Set Paid Social Marketing Objectives?
When you launch a paid social media marketing campaign, it’s essential to start with solid marketing objectives so you create a strong strategy to meet or exceed your marketing goals.
For example, if you want to increase your newsletter subscribers, focus on building a robust email sequence and craft marketing content in a way that should convince your audience to hit subscribe. Having this marketing objective clarifies your key goals and can help you build an effective social media marketing strategy.
If you don’t have any marketing objectives, you may end up wasting time, money, and effort on the wrong marketing campaign (for example, increasing passive visitors instead of engaged subscribers).
To better direct your resources toward building successful ad campaigns, you need to understand the types of marketing objectives you can set and what they mean for your business.
10 Types of Paid Social Media Marketing Objectives
Marketing objectives are crucial to clarifying and meeting your business goals. This section is here to help you narrow down your choices and dig deeper into what each type of marketing objective looks like in practice.
1. Marketing Objectives to Increase Brand Awareness
This is one of the most common types of marketing objectives. No matter how great your business is, if customers don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. That’s why paid social media marketing objectives aimed at increasing brand awareness often come first, especially for new business owners.
Like other marketing campaign metrics, these can be customized and measured according to your key business needs. For example, if you’re a new brand looking to increase brand awareness, you need to tailor your social ad campaigns to attract new visitors.
Here are a few examples of what a brand awareness-based marketing objective could look like:
Increase social media visitors by 25 percent.
Improve page visits by 50 percent.
Increase the number of target demographic visitors by 20 percent.
Your website’s analytics page will offer you all the details about your progress (or decline in growth) so you can adjust your marketing objectives and strategies accordingly.
If you notice you’re falling short of the goals too frequently, it may be a sign you’re setting unrealistic goals. Try to reduce the number and see what happens.
2. Marketing Objectives to Increase Repeat Visitors
Attracting new visitors isn’t enough; you must find a way to make them stay (and eventually convert). If you’re at that stage, you can create marketing objective plans to improve on-page retention and increase your number of regular visitors.
Here’s what that goal could look like:
Improve click-through rates from existing visitors.
Increase social media engagement among regular users.
Reduce bounce rates to retain customers.
This graphic by CXL explains how to calculate your click-through rates.
Once somebody starts visiting your page regularly, that’s a great time to ask them to subscribe to a premium level of whatever you offer. They’re already a free subscriber showing interest in your products, so they may be more likely to subscribe to your paid service than new users who don’t know or care about your business.
Marketing objectives to increase subscribers could look like:
Increase subscribers by 15 percent over the next month.
Reduce unsubscription rates by five percent over the next three months.
If you’ve just launched (or are planning to launch) something new, here are a few marketing objectives you can set:
Increase new product landing page visits to 100,000 per day.
Boost social media engagement related to the new product by 40 percent.
Sell 25 new units per day through organic traffic.
Such marketing objectives and strategies are often time-bound and only last for a few weeks or months, but you should track them like you would a long-term campaign to learn what works and what needs to be improved upon for the next time you run a short campaign.
5. Marketing Objectives to Increase Sales
Now that you’ve launched your new product and successfully promoted it, it’s time to focus on increasing sales. Most companies across several industries think of increasing sales when they discuss marketing.
Although marketing can serve several purposes, most businesses primarily use paid social media campaigns to boost sales, so this step is quite important.
If you’re at a stage where you’re prioritizing sales, here are a few examples of marketing objectives aimed at boosting sales:
Increase conversion rates by three percent in the next three weeks.
Connect with 25 influencers to increase social media sales.
Increase affiliate sales by 12 percent in the next month.
These marketing objectives can be directly tracked by how many units or subscriptions you sell. We recommend keeping track of your results to know which marketing objectives and strategies work best for you.
6. Marketing Objectives to Increase Revenue
Even if your sales have increased, it doesn’t mean your revenue necessarily has. If you notice you’re not meeting your revenue goals, it’s time to devise new SMART goals, such as:
Bring down customer acquisition cost to $5 per new buyer.
Here’s an example of how these marketing objectives can be tracked, explained through a graphic by Chorus.ai.
7. Marketing Objectives to Optimize the Conversion Funnel
Once you’ve set practical marketing objectives and begun working on your paid social media marketing campaign, you may notice the customers still aren’t converting. Maybe you’re attracting ample visitors, but your repeat customers are low. Perhaps you have a growing number of subscribers, but your customer acquisition cost is too high.
8. Marketing Objectives to Grow Your Digital Presence
Today, 2.14 billion people shop online, making digital marketing essential. If you have a successful brick-and-mortar business and want to expand your digital reach, this marketing objective could be right for you.
Here are a few helpful examples of what digital reach marketing objectives could look like:
Post four blog posts per month to drive audience engagement.
Understanding international markets can be tricky, so you may have to experiment with marketing objectives and strategies before finding something that provides the best return on your investment.
10. Marketing Objectives to Increase On-site Time
Once you have an effective conversion funnel that meets your sales, revenue, and engagement goals, you can look for ways to increase each users’ on-site time. The more time somebody spends on your page, the more they’re likely to come back and buy something from you.
For this, you can set marketing objectives like:
Reduce bounce rate by 4 percent every month.
Increase user reading time up to 30 minutes per visitor.
You can track how long visitors stay on your page through your website’s built-in analytics tool. Measuring your marketing objectives solely through on-site time can be tricky, though, as many people leave their tabs open or are too busy to give their full attention to your page. So, we recommend you don’t focus on this objective too heavily unless you’ve completed all the others we discussed above.
How to Pick Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives
Now that you understand the 10 essential marketing objectives, it’s time to choose one for your company.
Consider your business goals
When selecting a marketing objective, consider your business goals. Ask questions like: Do you need to increase sales, or should you prioritize social engagement?
Get perspective
Consider the entire team’s perspectives before honing in on one goal.
Narrow it down
Narrow your options to the top three choices you can work with.
Test your goals
Start with one to see what works and what needs to change. If your goals aren’t supporting your overall growth plans, tweak and try again.
Repeat the process with new objectives
Setting goals should be an on-going process, not a one-time deal.
Tips to Help You Meet Your Paid Social Marketing Objectives
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your paid social media marketing objectives, make sure you:
Periodically check in with your team members to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Track your progress toward SMART goals to identify problems and possibilities for growth.
Include external experts’ suggestions to improve your process.
FAQ about Social Media Marketing Objectives
This guide covered a ton, but you’ve still got questions. Here’s a quick FAQ to help you get started.
Can my business have more than one marketing objective?
How many marketing objectives you set depends on your business goals and planning capacity. Larger businesses with bigger teams may be able to plan and execute multiple marketing objectives and strategies at once. In comparison, newer businesses with smaller teams might perform better by working on one goal at a time.
Who should set the marketing objectives for a successful social media ad campaign?
When you launch a new social media ad campaign, involve everyone in the decisions about marketing objectives. The leaders and managers should specify the big-picture goals, while the marketing team can dig deeper into the details of how to execute your businesses’ marketing objective plans.
What are the most important marketing objectives?
Every company prioritizes different goals at different stages of its growth. Creating brand awareness and expanding your digital reach could be solid marketing objectives to aim for if you’re a new business. If you’re an established company, increasing sales and profits may better serve your key business goals.
What to do if my business isn’t meeting any marketing objectives?
If you notice your company is consistently falling short of your marketing objectives, it’s a sign warning you to change strategies. If you’re significantly behind your goals, it may be better to change your marketing objectives entirely. Track your goal metrics, see where your plan is failing, and set SMART marketing objectives to improve accordingly.
How often can you change your marketing objectives?
For your marketing objectives to succeed in accelerating your business growth, they have to be effective and profitable. If you notice you’re spending increasing time and effort trying to meet your goals without seeing great returns, reconsider your marketing objectives and perhaps swap them for new ones.
Social Media Marketing Objectives Conclusion
Setting SMART marketing objectives can truly change the way you reach your target audience and encourage them to do business with you.
You need to be especially SMART about your objectives when creating paid social media marketing campaigns, as you’re spending money regardless of how well things go.
It’s no secret: the world of PPC advertising is not for the faint-hearted. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could end up throwing money down the drain.
How can you increase the chances of the right people clicking on your ads? You need to learn how to write ad copy that converts.
Thankfully, technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) are here to save the day. AI tools can help you write ad copy that produces results.
How Can Artificial Intelligence Help Your PPC Campaigns?
Just so we’re on the same page, let’s quickly look at a simple definition of AI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a multidisciplinary branch of science that includes machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), deep learning, and many other emerging technologies.
The main benefits of AI when it comes to creating compelling PPC ad copy include:
Unmatched data processing power
Ability to better “predict” click-through rates and quality scores
Identify bids that will get the most traffic
Saves you time managing campaigns
However, no matter how much data you have at your fingertips and how well you can identify lucrative bids, all that will be to no avail if your ad copy sucks.
AI can help you with that. I’ll show you how below.
6 Ways AI Can Help You Write Good PPC Ad Copy
Many tools can help you write ad copy. However, many AI-powered tools have one huge advantage: unlike their predecessors that relied on historical data, AI-powered tools give you real-time data. This process allows you to refine your copy to better suit the market situation when the content is created and published.
These are tips that will help optimize your ad copy, whether you’re advertising on Google, Bing, Facebook, or any other of the myriad platforms available.
Use AI for Audience Research
The very first thing you need to do before writing ad copy is to understand your target audience. The key to successful ad copy is to know not only who your target audience is, but also to know:
What they’re looking for
Why they’re looking for it
In short, understanding your audience will help you understand the intent behind your prospect’s search. Knowing this could help you write personalized ad copy that will resonate with your audience, eliciting a click through to your offer.
It will also help you create ads that are so targeted that only the right people will click on them. Additionally, it will help you write ad copy that addresses any objections your audience may have.
When you know how to write ad copy that speaks directly to your audience, you’ll likely enjoy a reduction in wasted clicks and an increase in your return on ad spend (ROAS).
How do you get to know your audience? This process is where AI shines best.
AI-powered audience research tools like IBM’s Watson are great for helping you with predictive audiences. These consumers may not look anything alike but have some common threads that make them relevant targets for your PPC ads. By processing data from multiple sources, AI helps you understand the type of people you should target with your ads.
These insights help you significantly reduce the risk of ad waste, as your ad copy will be hyper-personalized, making it appealing to the right people. With ad spend steadily increasing across all industries, AI will help ensure that you get a good ROI from your campaigns.
Conduct Competitor Research Using AI
Before you put pen to paper, you must study the competitive environment.
You must conduct competitor research. This data will help you understand (among other things):
Opportunities your competitors are missing that you can leverage
The data you get from your competitors’ ad campaigns is invaluable in helping you know how to write ad copy that will perform exceptionally well.
This process is where AI-powered competitor research tools like Adthena come to play.
By gaining insights into your competitors’ PPC activity and market shifts, you’ll be better armed to write compelling PPC ad copy.
The real-time data AI technologies provide may help you gain or keep a corner the market by ensuring you’re up-to-date with trends and news that affect your market audience. Real-time data is also essential when conducting competitor analysis, as any lag in time could result in the competition cornering the market.
Don’t delay to get on the AI bandwagon, especially when it comes to writing ad copy.
AI Can Help You Discover Keyword Opportunities
Everyone knows keywords are the foundation of every good PPC campaign. Unfortunately, with more businesses vying for the same target audience, relevant keyword opportunities are becoming harder to find.
AI can help.
With the competition for profitable keywords being uber-stiff, normal keyword research just doesn’t cut it anymore. You must leverage AI to help you uncover hidden keyword gems.
This fact is especially true since keyword research for SEO and PPC is not the same. For PPC, your money rides or sinks on the keywords you use. That’s why you must find keywords that will give you a good return when you bid for them.
AI-powered tools like BrightEdge, for example, not only help you discover profitable keywords but are also able to give insight into the intent behind those keywords.
Because they offer real-time data, you are in a better position to write ad copy based on keyword opportunities as they arise. Of course, this will give you an edge over the competition, as your ads will have a better chance of being served to users while keeping your ad spend low.
Headline Optimization Is Easy with AI
Saying that your headline is a critical part of your ad copy is an understatement. Its value can never be overstated because it’s your first chance to hook your customers.
If your headers are poorly crafted, users will just scroll past your ad. But if you write your headline well, it will stop them from scrolling so they look at the rest of your ad copy. AI can help you craft headlines that stop people in their tracks by helping you write headlines that result in much-coveted clicks.
A great example is Persado. The AI-powered copywriting tool helped Chase Bank increase the CTR on their ads by as much as 450%. How? By crafting headlines that resonate more with their target audience.
There are AI-powered tools that are designed to help you optimize your headers to elicit users to click on your ads.
The success of your ad campaigns rides on your headlines.
The next part users look at is the ad description.
Use AI to Nail Your Ad Description
Next to your headline, your ad description is the most crucial part of your ad copy. While the headline is the hook that grabs your prospect’s attention, your ad description is the sales pitch that gets them to click on your ad.
However, there’s a catch: you have a limited number of characters to use to convince your prospects to click-through to your offer. This means every character counts. It must help elicit a positive reaction from users. That’s why you must make sure you know how to write ad copy that drives clicks.
Fortunately, AI can help you write compelling ad copy.
With AI copywriting tools like Phrasee, you don’t have to guess what kind of copy works.
Using machine learning and gathering data from different platforms, AI copywriting tools have “mastered” the art of writing great ad copy.
Using machine learning (ML), natural language generation (NLG), deep learning, and other technologies, AI-powered copywriting tools can help you create compelling ad copy that stands out from the crowd. AI takes into consideration many facets, such as language, semantics, sentence structure, and a whole lot more to help you create optimized ad copy at scale.
Another great AI-powered ad creation tool you can consider is CopyAI.
Copy AI is designed to take the grunt work out of brainstorming unique ad ideas. It will help you increase your ROAS by helping you come up with relevant audience-based copy that your customers won’t be able to resist. The deep learning platform that powers CopyAI can personalize your ad copy to suit any holiday, occasion, or campaign.
AI-powered copywriting tools are a great way to save time and money as they work faster and more efficiently. And at the end of the day, they’ll help you boost your bottom line.
Calls-to-Action: AI Can Help With That Too
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a tricky part of writing ad copy. That’s because your CTA is usually made up of 2-5 words to inspire people to take action.
While platforms like Google and Facebook give you some CTA options to choose from as you create your campaigns, it’s always better to create your own CTAs. After all, if you use the options generated by search engines and social media platforms, you won’t stand out from the competition.
Your CTA plays a crucial role in pushing your prospects across the finish line. As such, give it careful consideration. You may get every other element of your ad copy correct, but if your CTA is weak, your hard work will be in vain.
Different audiences respond differently to CTAs. That’s why you must pay special attention to the language your audience uses and try as much as possible to implement it in your CTAs. This is one area where audience research pays off because it helps you craft personalized CTAs. Studies show that personalized CTAs perform up to 202% better than generic ones.
Note: make sure to create a different CTA for each campaign. Don’t just regurgitate past CTAs, even if they worked well in previous campaigns.
Yes, it may be a lot of work if you do it manually. That’s why you shouldn’t do it manually; use AI instead.
Again, tools like Persado make creating impactful CTAs easier.
Leveraging data such as sentiment analysis (or emotion AI), AI-powered tools help you create CTAs that tug at your prospects’ heartstrings. Of course, every marketer knows that it is easier to loosen your prospects’ purse strings if you can do that.
By leveraging AI in crafting your CTAs, you increase your ad copy’s chances of achieving its goal of boosting your bottom line.
Conclusion
It’s impossible to ignore AI as a digital marketer. It’s everywhere around us. From AI SEO to AI in website design, every facet of digital marketing is becoming more efficient thanks to artificial intelligence.
As a marketer, if you’re looking to know how to write ad copy that converts, you must lean heavily on AI-powered tools to help you. From the planning stage to deployment, AI can help you optimize every part of your PPC ad campaigns.
Though remember: without good ad copy, your ad spend will be wasted. How do you write good ad copy? By using AI.
Sure, AI may not be able to handle the creative side of writing ad copy completely alone. However, it does go a long way in helping you create ad copy that sells.
Are you ready to embrace the power of AI in your ad copy creation?
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