Search Results

If you're a business who prioritizes staying "in the know," keeping up with social networks is just a part of the job in the online world. We’re not just talking about posting regularly either — even though responding to questions and concerns from customers is an important step for your online business presence. However, if you often find yourself semi-swamped with Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram DMs, imagine how many people out there are discussing your business or product without directly mentioning you? There are so many conversations happening on social networks that several pertaining to your business can go unnoticed if you’re not mentioned or tagged within the post itself. If you’re missing these conversations, you’re missing potential opportunities to help existing and find potential customers, as well as resolve issues that may have risen for past ones. Moreover, these conversations can allow you to see how others feel about your business. This is called social listening, and it’s a vital tactic to improve the perception of your brand. From the way you choose to create a free website to all of your social media marketing strategies, below, we’re going to tell you about what social listening is and how you can apply it to your own business. What is social listening? Social listening is actively monitoring conversations that are happening across social networks about your brand, products, your competitors, or other industry-related and relevant keywords. Then, you try to find actionable responses to these conversations. These responses could be in the form of a literal response to a social post or an adjustment to your marketing strategy due to feedback you found. Social listening allows a brand to be proactive in conversations about it, improving reliability, social relevance, and trust with your audience. Social listening also allows you to see the social media sentiment, which is how people feel about your brand by gauging whether the responses (on either a particular post or a broader range, such as account as a whole) received are positive, negative, or neutral. Knowing this can let you respond accordingly by changing your wording, advertising strategy, and more, so you can increase your positive reactions. Social listening versus social monitoring If you’re new to the world of social media management for your business, the terms “social listening” and “social monitoring” may seem interchangeable, but they aren’t. While the two share similarities, each has their own purpose and benefits. Social monitoring is the act of responding to customer comments, questions, and issues as they’re received. This reactive approach is primarily in place to get the commenter from point A to point B — whether point B is a how-to guide, support article that solves the issue, or information, such as how to contact support. This type of social interaction is not only vital for customers, but also the minimum effort you should be putting forth on your social media branding . Social listening, on the other hand, is proactive. It zooms out on social monitoring’s macro focus and looks at the bigger picture: How are people talking about your brand in conversations you’re not tagged in? For many businesses that don’t take part of social listening, these conversations are as far gone as the dark web, and this valuable data is lost to the ether. It’s not just about your brand, either. Social listening zooms out to your entire industry, so you can identify trends, keep up with competition, and let your customers know you’re there for them when they need you. Why is social listening important? Now that you know the difference between social monitoring and social listening, it’s a little easier to discern why the latter is important. In a nutshell, it provides insight that social monitoring doesn’t and wasn’t intended to do. It doesn’t mean this reactive tactic is not important, but here are some of the things you can’t find with monitoring that you can with listening. Proactive tactic : Allows you to take initiative and create opportunities instead of waiting for them. Identify happy customers: Surprise and delight happy customers by thanking them, giving special offers or perks. Find unhappy customers : Address unsatisfied customers head-on, without being prompted, to direct them to the solutions they seek. Pinpoint influencers in your industry : Find social accounts that hold clout within your industry. Define trends in your industry : Provide relevant, on-the-nose posts that respond to a trending topic in your industry. Take note of potential customers : Chime in when people are looking for suggestions within your industry. Provide customer service: Offer help to customers or remind them that you’re available to help them if they need it. Avoid PR nightmares: Address potentially brand-threatening situations before they grow into a full day of damage control. Get a sense of what people think of your brand: Without adding a mention or tagging you in a post directly, people will tend to speak more freely about your brand, allowing you to get an idea of how people perceive your brand. This kind of customer feedback is invaluable. Social listening in action Sometimes seeing is believing, even if we’re talking about listening. While we can tell you all the ways social listening can be used, seeing real examples can be just as helpful. Below, we’ve detailed a few examples of the tactic in action. Netflix Socks: Sometimes, just showing that you’re listening can be effective. Netflix proved that in a big way. It received several complaints on social media from users that were falling asleep while watching Netflix, only to wake up to spoilers or rolling credits. So, the streaming service took action in the most hilarious of ways. It made socks. Not just any socks — socks with a built-in sleep detection system that will pause Netflix if you doze off. Falling asleep to Netflix is far from Netflix’s problem. Still, the socks it created were in response to the comments it received from its users. It’s funny, fairly amazing, and more than a little bit clever. The cherry on top? The socks won a Shorty Award for Best Creative Use of Technology. Samsung responds to competition: As mentioned earlier, social listening requires you to take a look at your industry as a whole, including your competition. When Samsung noticed that one of its competitors, Huawei, released a new smartphone and focused on its camera and slow-motion video capture features, it was able to respond by adjusting its marketing strategy and focus on its own phone’s slo-mo prowess. Morton’s Steakhouse delivers to airport for one traveler This one sounds too good to be true, but there’s enough coverage on it to shirk any non-believers. In 2011, Peter Shankman jokingly tweeted out to Morton’s Steakhouse, asking if they’d deliver a porterhouse at the Newark airport when he landed. Well, the steakhouse saw the tweet and a man in a tuxedo holding a bag was waiting for Shankman when he got off the plane. You can even read Shankman’s full rundown of the story here . Social listening tools After reading about the opportunities you can find via social listening, we’re sure you’re excited to start trying it out yourself, but it wouldn’t be right to send you off without knowing the tools to make the entire process easier for you. Hootsuite Insights : Not only does Hootsuite Insights offer a rich set of social media analytics tools specifically aimed at listening, they also include an analysis of sentiment, trend-tracking, and in-depth performance reports. Brandwatch : This is a “does it all” tool that may be overkill for many small businesses. Still, Brandwatch offers a fantastic set of tools for things like competitor analysis, brand management, influencer marketing, and much more. Awario : If you’re looking for a sophisticated suite of social listening tools, Awario can help. It specializes in social media monitoring, social selling, social listening for both teams and agencies, and influencer marketing. Audiense : If deep insights into your audience is what you’re looking for, Audiense Insights should definitely be on your list. Whether you’re trying to understand your audience, or looking to further develop it, Audiense will get you there. Sprout Social : To say that Sprout Social offers an elaborate set of solutions would be an understatement, but that’s very much a good thing. Whether it’s social monitoring, customer care, or data and analysis (including social listening), it’s really hard not to recommend. Starting with Sprout Social may be a smart idea if you plan on seeking out additional social media management solutions after you’ve become a social listening master. By Blake Stimac Wix Blog Writer

CTAs, or calls to action, are ubiquitous on the web. Every banner ad, blog post and knowledge base article will finish off with a directive about where to click. When writing in the online realm, we not only want to inform and delight our users, we also want to show them what their next step should be – in the clearest way possible. Through tests, trial and error, and more than a decade of experience, we’ve honed in on some best practices when it comes to CTAs, and learned the hard way what doesn’t work. Following these guidelines – and steering clear of these pitfalls – has helped us create a consistent style when it comes to writing CTAs. It helps us streamline what we do, provide clarity to our audience, and – best of all – it helps us get clicks. Here’s an inside look at some of our rules of thumb when it comes to writing CTAs: 01. Don’t say, “click here” Though this call-to-action example is about as clear and concise as you can get, we’ve found it falls short because it tells users that they should click, but not why . Rather than go for this classic (and boring) CTA, we opt for benefit-driven CTAs that show our users where they’re going, why they should go there and what they’ll get from doing so. 02. The problem with, “Do this, this and this” A common error we’ve come across is too many ideas in one CTA. Not only does this make the CTA long and unwieldy, but it also confuses users. If you ask visitors to do 2 or even 3 things in a CTA, they won’t know which action to take, or why they should click at all. Write CTAs with just one directive. And if you need to provide more information, do it in your body text. This is not just great for the users; it will also help you when the time comes to measure the effectiveness of your CTA. 03. Embrace action words Convincing users to take action depends on many factors, from how attractive your offer or product is to the appeal of your design and text. But a good, action-oriented CTA can go a long way to giving your visitors the extra little push they need to click, call, or send you an email. Start your CTAs with a verb – an action word that helps to sell users on the benefit of clicking. 04. Match the tone and voice of your text It’s easy to write a CTA that’s cute, funny, or simply looks right in the space that the designer has given you. But your CTA should tell the same story as the rest of your text – and use the same language to do it. Otherwise, your users can get confused or annoyed, and they may simply give up and click away from the page without taking action. So while it may be tempting to make every CTA, “Click here for world domination,” stick to the story you’re telling. 05. Don’t try too hard to sell We’ve all experienced the moment when someone tried a bit too hard to sell us something. This makes most of us pretty uncomfortable, and oftentimes leaves us with a lasting, negative view of the brand. Moreover, it smacks of desperation and probably decreases the chances we’ll ever purchase from that business. At Wix, one of our core values is “tell, don’t sell,” and we carry this through to the way we write our CTAs. We want our users to make choices based on our products, their merit, and how we describe them. And we’ve found that trying too hard to sell them on a product can quickly backfire, giving them instead a feeling of suspicion or mistrust. While you may find that the CTA, “Buy It Right Now,” works for you, don’t overuse it. Instead, focus on what users have to gain. You can keep words that create a sense of urgency, however, particularly if what you’re promoting comes with an expiration date. Including “today” and “now” in your CTA makes a lot of sense when you’re running a sale. Let’s wrap it up The way you use CTAs depends on what type of material you’re creating and what you want to achieve. That being said, it’s vital that you measure your CTAs. Determine what’s getting your users to click and what they’re not interacting with. This will give you a really good idea of what works – and what doesn’t – for your brand. Did you like this article? Subscribe to the Wix Content Blog  for your dose of free expert writing tips, ideas and inspiration. You won’t regret it! You can also check out this guide for more beginner CTA tips. Ready to establish a powerful online presence? Create a website with Wix today !

A large part of email marketing is setting a good first impression and leaving with a lasting one. However, we can only get so much across these days in our often impersonal, digitally-driven world. So many people do business without ever meeting the person on the other end of the computer. These types of interactions aren’t going to disappear anytime soon, nor should they have to. Instead, as a business owner it should be your duty to leave a lasting impression in every online interaction with a professional email signature. That's why it is so important to connect your email to your Wix website . A well-written email signature can say a lot about a person or business without taking up too much space. It’s basically a digital business card . It provides a way for you to be contacted and also for you to share other important pieces of information like your business website . Below, we’re going to give you some top tips on how to write great email signatures to leave lasting impressions. What is an email signature? An email signature, sometimes referred to as a digital signature or signature block is a piece of text that is added to the end of an email. It contains contact information and sometimes other pieces of relevant content pertaining to a person's or brand’s online presence - such as graphics showing portraits or a logo design . Some countries have regulations that require that each business email has a proper email signature containing specific pieces of information for all company-related emails. Email signatures: Importance and benefits Even if you live somewhere that doesn’t require an email signature for business-related communications, it’s a very good idea to create one in order to place at the end of your emails for a couple of reasons: Shows professionalism and willingness to communicate further. Great resource for branding and recognition. Free promotional tool for your business, website, or other CTA . Sometimes serves as the last impression between you and the recipient. The perfect place to add social media icons so others can follow you or your brand. 9 tips on how to write professional email signatures: While it may sound like you simply need to write a couple of things about yourself or your business and slap it to the end of every email, there are some practices that will help you along the way. Below, we’ll give you some tips to consider while you’re creating your own email signature. Keep it simple: There’s nothing wrong with staying minimal with your email signature, foregoing a photo or a logo. An effective email signature can be simple as long as it’s approachable and provides the essentials. If you are going to go the minimalist route, just make sure that the information you do place in your digital signature has the most impact. An example of a great, minimalist email signature example is below, showing only the name prominently displayed in bold, along with the job title and two contact methods. Don’t write a book: Following along with the previous tip, remember that sometimes less is more. Don’t write too much information. If you have a lot of things you want to share, you can create a website and keep it all somewhere else. Then, insert a link to this information in your email signature. Adding a large block of text in general to an email signature will have the recipient’s eyes glazing over in no time. Use color to accent, not showcase: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with adding some color to your email signature. In fact, it’s encouraged. However, it’s important to note that the use of color can be used to both your advantage and disadvantage. It can show personality, or to highlight the most important pieces of information you want to share. However, with all of your text in one uniform color, no single element will stand out amongst the rest. Stay in the (font) family: While your favorite font combo of Comic Sans and Times New Roman works for your personal computer notes, believe us when we say no one else wants to see them, especially when it comes to your business. The fonts you choose should be legible and similar to one another. If you’re looking to differentiate your fonts, you can use different weights of the same font family to stay consistent and avoid any visual messiness. Whether it’s your website or your professional email signature, we have just the article if you want to know how to choose the best fonts . Use social media icons: While adding links to your social media profiles in your email signature is 100% optional, if you are going to do it, opt for using icons instead of text links. It should be a bit obvious as to why, but adding 2-4 separate text links to the end of your email signature will look cluttered. This also adds unnecessary bulkiness to your overall signature. Using small social media icons that have individual links allows you to avoid this. Having your social media linked in your email signature is a good practice in general for email marketing . If someone follows you on social media based off of clicking a link from your email signature, it’s a sign that you’re strengthening your relationship with that person. Add graphics: The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” can be aptly used here. Whether it’s your own photo or your business logo, a graphic will draw the eyes of a recipient to it and you’ll have a better chance of them actually reading your signature text. Be mobile-minded: Just like websites, it’s important to expect your email signature to be viewed and interacted with on a mobile device. This may require you to adjust the structure or design of your signature so it doesn’t have any alignment issues, given that the screens on mobile devices have a shorter width than that of a computer screen. Place the most important info first: Just because you’ve worked hard on your email signature doesn’t mean it’s going to be an effective one. We live in an age where ads are everywhere. So much so that we tend to tune them out without realizing it. Not only that, readers also tend to move on quickly after they’ve gotten the information that they want. This means it’s super important to get your message across as quickly as possible, which includes prioritizing your most crucial pieces of information at the top of your signature. It will more than likely be your name/title, but it could also be your business name. Follow this with something like your website address or contact number. However you decide to order the information is up to you. It’s all about what you want the reader to know most. Have your signature pieces fit together like a puzzle: After you’ve decided what your digital signature will consist of, you want to look at all the pieces and make sure they look like they belong together. This is not just in terms of alignment, but also that the information presented isn’t too dense or imbalanced. If it feels cramped, consider rearranging the placement of things for a bit more freedom. Get inspired by email signature generators and creation tools We can give you tips until we’re blue in the face, but you may need to get your hands digitally dirty before you get a good idea for creating your own. Here are just a few sites you can check out to create yours for free. Mail Signatures - This is a free, no frills, and straightforward generator for those who want a simple email signature. Design Hill - This digital signature generator offers some advanced controls, but also come with a few hoops to jump through to get a free email signature. MySignature - A very easy to use generator to help you create professional email signatures. It will come with a small, “Create your own signature” ad at the bottom unless you pay to remove it. Wisestamp - One of the more robust options available, Wisestamp requires you to create an account to receive your free signature. The paid option offers an assortment of additional features. So whether you want to play around with free options or pay up to make sure you have everything you need for your professional email signature, you’re not stuck without options.