There’s no single best lead generation approach, as every business is unique. Keep this in mind as you look over the following best lead generation examples. Think about your current pain points, your audience, and available resources, and choose lead gen examples that check the right boxes!

Contents

1. Ebooks and white papers
2. Long-tail SEO
3. Online quizzes
4. Free demos or trials
5. Infographics
6. Interactive tools
7. Webinars
8. Newsletters
9. Website chat
10. Search ads
11. Social media marketing

We’re just getting started! Download The Definitive Guide to Lead Generation: 25 Ideas (+Tips and Examples).

11 lead generation examples to help grow your business

It’s easy to find one or two methods that attract new customers and stick with them. But sometimes, you need to think outside the box to grow beyond your current trajectory. These lead-generation ideas and examples will help you do it.

1. Ebooks and white papers

Ebooks and white papers are both great ways to drive leads because you’re offering valuable information for your prospects’ contact details. You’re also showcasing your knowledge, which will help build trust in your brand. Once someone downloads the asset and gives their address, you can engage the new lead with email marketing.

The line between ebooks and white papers is constantly blurred. But in general, an ebook is usually an in-depth how-to guide—like a long blog post that covers a topic in-depth.

White papers are usually backed by research and data. They may cover more technical or detailed topics.

This book on natural lawn care is a good example.

Notice that the business even charges a fee for it. Usually, just asking for an email address is enough.

Best practices

Whether you’re going with a white paper or ebook, you want to make sure you’re giving out quality information in exchange for an email. This builds brand loyalty and generates leads in the process.

There are a few things to keep in mind to make sure your ebook or white paper shines:

• Focus on real pain points your customers feel.
• Include expert quotes and advice to make it more human and valuable.
• If possible, include proprietary data to make it unique so other websites are more willing to backlink to it.

Once you’ve made your ebook or white paper, shout it from the rooftops. Promote it in your blogs and social media feeds. Also, create a flashy, actionable landing page for it to live on. If it doesn’t perform well, go back to the drawing board and look for ways to add further value.

2. Long-tail SEO

In this lead generation example, you’ll create web pages and blog posts targeting long-tail keywords—multi-word search phrases people use to find specific solutions.

Unlike shorter, high-volume keywords, people who search for long-tail terms often have a higher buying intent. If someone searches for “what’s the best mattress for people with lower-back injuries,” they’re looking for a specific type of product, not just general better sleep solutions. This makes them ideal for blog posts that pitch your product as a solution to a problem.

For example, when searching for “the best baby carrier for newborns,” you’ll see a result from Home and On the Way, a small business run by a Montessori parent. The blog is informative and not a direct sales page, but it includes product recommendations from the brand. That’ll drive high-intent traffic (aka, leads) to the business’ website.

Best practices

Long-tail SEO is a different game from high-volume, shorter terms. Make sure you’re getting as much value as possible by following these best practices:

• Focus on lead generation, not high traffic, since many long-tail keywords don’t get millions of searches. But the people who search are more likely to buy.
• Aim for long-tail terms with lower competition so you have a better chance of ranking for them.
• Check out Google’s “People also ask” section for long-tail ideas.
• Optimize your long-tail blog posts for search.
• Link to your long-tail pieces in other blog posts and add links to your ebooks to keep people engaged with your website longer.

Pages optimized for long-tail keywords may not deliver high-traffic numbers like high-volume ones. However, the people who come to your website will be much more likely to become leads since they’re looking for specific solutions you provide.

Finding the right keywords can be tough. Get The Complete Guide to Local Keywords to make it easier.

3. Online quizzes

Online quizzes or surveys are a great way to entertain and entice your audience and a stellar way to snag some email info and generate leads.

Depending on your industry, quizzes can take numerous forms. If it makes sense for your audience, they can be playful and fun while still having a product angle. But, if you have a more serious audience or brand, they can still be engaging.

For example, if you have a playful brand that sells plant seeds, you could have a quiz about what kind of gardener someone is. On the other hand, if your audience or brand is more serious, you could create a survey that helps people determine what kind of soil they have.

In either case, you can conclude that survey with a prompt to input your email for results and then include a pitch for your products in a follow-up email.

Best practices

Quizzes aren’t all fun and games. Some foundational work and research goes into making sure they’re worth your time and your audience’s. Use these tips to help:

• Make sure the quiz matches your audience and brand. You don’t want to overdo the playful tone or be overly serious.
• Keep questions and responses short and clear.
• Give people the option to share their results on social media easily so you get some extra reach.

Lastly, don’t forget to include some kind of product angle. Your quizzes should be entertaining, but they should also help your brand work toward the goal of generating more leads.

4. Free demos or trials

Free demos or trials of your product or service serve multiple purposes. First, they allow prospective customers to see if they like your solution without throwing down any money first. Second, demos and trials help you gather contact information from new leads.

Best practices

Demos and trials are fairly straightforward. They offer a sample of your product, show off what you do, and hopefully get people hooked. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind when putting together a trial or demo:

• Make sure your demo or trial page features testimonials, screenshots, and other elements to encourage people to sign up.
• Clearly state what people get in exchange for their email on your demo or trial page.

While you’re giving away a sample of your service, you’re still asking for a time commitment and the visitor’s information. You have to make it worth their while and convince them, and this ultimately rests on your demo or trial page.

5. Infographics

Infographics are a visual way to convey information, whether high-level and top of the funnel or complex and further down the funnel.

You can use infographics as a form of lead gen in one of two ways:

• Make your infographic a lead magnet (put it behind a signup gate) and hope people put in their email for the graphic. But, this is less common and not likely to yield results.
• Feature an infographic on a blog post that covers a similar topic, then include a call to action that drives people to a lead-generation landing page.

Typically, the second route is the way to go. It’s what people expect, and it builds good faith between your brand and your audience.

Topeka Landscaping provides a great example of an infographic, as it’s packed with information, features branded colors, and builds awareness with its logo in the first panel.

Best practices

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to infographics. Instead, keep the following points in mind when deciding how you want your infographic to take shape:

• Pick a topic that lends itself to visuals, like a workflow, checklist, or list of statistics.
• Outline your infographic before designing it, and ensure it’s not too long.
• Ensure the infographic is on-brand with your colors, font, and messaging.
• At the end, provide a clear call to action to visit your website, book an appointment, or engage in other lead-generating activities.
• Chop up the infographic into smaller pieces and share it all over social media to get the most use out of it.

Infographics can take a nice chunk of time and resources, but they can yield great results. They also appeal to an audience that prefers visuals over heavy text or video. Start with something simple, see how it performs, and go from there.

6. Interactive tools

Interactive tools, like estimators or calculators, can set you apart from competitors while delivering value to your audience. And these tools can be a great form of lead generation.

Interactive tools vary greatly, especially depending on your business. For instance, if your handyman business does interior painting, you could offer a “paint estimator” that calculates how much paint a house will need.

This lead generation example works wonders because it’s a truly helpful resource for your followers, so people will be happy to register to use it.

Best practices

Interactive tools are pretty nuanced, both technically and in presentation. The following tips can help you have as smooth a launch as possible.

• Find an existing framework, if possible, so you don’t have to develop a tool from scratch.
• Make sure your tool is intuitive and easy for users to access and use.
• Test, reiterate, and test again before launching your tool.
• Include a lead-gathering method like requiring an email to use it or prompting users to contact you to talk about the results.

Again, interactive tools aren’t a walk in the park. But, when done well, they offer you a chance to drive leads and set yourself apart from the pack.

7. Webinars

Webinars give you a chance to host a professional discussion around a topic of interest to your audience. They also open the door to inviting special guests, which can help you network and further expand your reach.

Hunter, an alignment, tire, and wheel engineering company, has an excellent example of this lead-generation technique. The business partnered with another brand called Shop Owner Tire Review to produce a webinar on inspections and wheel alignment.

Partner marketing like this spreads the work across two teams and allows both brands to access each other’s audience.

Best of all, people expect to sign up for a webinar with their name and email address and, in some cases, their job title as well. All of this makes webinars a natural way to get lead info and start the conversation.

Best practices

Webinars can be naturally engaging, as you have speakers and visuals that people will connect with. Here are a few ways to get the most out of your lead-generation webinars:

• Know which market you’re targeting.
• Stay focused on a specific topic so people get what they came for.
• Engage your audience by involving them in the chat and asking questions.
• Invite interesting, relevant guests to mix things up, and ask them to share the webinar in their networks.

Once you’ve put together your first webinar, put the pedal to the floor on promotions. Make sure you leave at least a month to promote, if not longer. The last thing you want is a guest speaker and no attendees.

8. Newsletters

Newsletters work as a lead generation tactic much the same way ebooks do. You’re promising valuable information in exchange for someone’s contact details. Where newsletters have the advantage is that they let you continue to engage your leads and customers for a long time.

The best part is that newsletters are cheap and easy to produce. Just share your knowledge, and people will follow.

Best practices

Newsletters are a great lead-generation strategy, but you’ll need to do a few things to make sure yours doesn’t get lost in crowded inboxes. For example:

• Always deliver what you promise, including the newsletter frequency and content.
• Let people know if you change something, like making it weekly instead of monthly.
• Promote your newsletter every chance you get on social media and in blog posts.
• Give people a clear way to unsubscribe.

Email marketing is an entire industry. Take things slowly, start small, and don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board when things don’t work.

9. Website chat

Website chat, whether driven by humans or an AI chatbot, can be a uniquely personal way to drive leads while serving your audience.

Website chat allows you to answer customer questions, serve up the right content, and even respond to product-related queries. Modern chatbots can also collect contact info, allowing you to collect leads even while you sleep.

Best practices

Chat is all about offering human responses. While mistakes can and will happen, many are avoidable, especially if you follow these best practices:

• Collect contact details whenever appropriate so your team can follow up.
• Track essential metrics, including first response time (FTR), first contact resolution (FCR), and the number of chats people enter.
• Collect feedback at the end of each chat session to learn how to make them better.

People are beginning to expect instant answers. Give them what they want with an always-on chat option.

10. Search ads

Google Ads, also known as paid search or pay-per-click ads, allow you to pay to feature a text-based or visual ad for your business on Google and sites in the Google Display Network. For the record, that’s more than 2 million sites.

While search ads can be expensive, they also allow for customizable spending and budgets. This lets you keep costs under control while still benefiting.

With search ads, you can drive traffic straight to a chosen page, including lead-gen pages like demos, trials, and premium content. And, of course, there’s the added benefit of building brand awareness while people search for things relevant to your business.

Best practices

Search ads are intimidating to many small businesses, as they can get expensive. The following best practices can help you keep costs under control while still drawing in leads:

• Start with a small PPC budget, test copy and offers, then increase your spending for the ones that provide the best return.
• Revisit keywords frequently, updating the ones you target as behavior changes.
• Write ad copy that differentiates your brand and makes your offers stand out.

Spend a little time learning how to target search ads. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to generate leads from very specific niche audiences.

11. Social media marketing

Our final lead generation example is also one of the most valuable and versatile. That’s because social media marketing covers both paid ads on social media platforms and the organic content you post on your feeds. Combined, the two strategies can engage huge new audiences, bringing direct leads to your website.

Social media ads can help you capture audience attention in competitive spaces like search ads. And social media marketing, while a longer game, can help you capture similar attention with a much better ROI over time.

Boredwalk, an online retailer of clothing and various gifts, has done a great job with its social media marketing over the years. Leaning into their witty tone, their posts blur the lines between marketing and comedy. They also frequently feature customers who tag them while wearing their merch (user-generated content), encouraging people to engage. It also adds a nice dash of social proof.

Best practices

Social media marketing and advertising are big lead-generation strategies that can take several directions. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Start with a small budget and focus on testing the waters like you did with search ads.
• Tweak your copy and approach depending on the social platform, as your audiences and expectations on each can vary.
• Take advantage of platform-specific ad formats, like Instagram’s Story Ads or Facebook carousels.

Social media marketing, like email marketing and SEO, takes time to build momentum. Your paid ads will accelerate lead generation while you build your organic presence on social media platforms. Over time, you may be able to reduce your ad spending as people find your brand organically.

Pick the best lead generation examples for your business

There’s no single “best” way to generate leads. That’s the fun part. You can try several tactics, see which you enjoy managing, and test which delivers the best return. You’ll find your perfect recipe for long-term lead-gen success as you go.

And when you need a little boost, contact us. We’ll show you how we can help increase the number of leads you get and decrease the cost of each one.

The post 11 Best Lead Generation Examples to Help Grow Your Business appeared first on LocaliQ.

In partnership with our friends at WordStream by LocaliQ, we’re sharing Facebook ads benchmarks across 20 industries to help you better understand how your Facebook ads performance compares to averages in your industry. The report includes Facebook ads benchmarks for click-through rate, cost per click, and more.

Want to take this data to go (+get key trends and even more insights)? Download our free Facebook ads benchmarks guide here!

Table of contents

• Facebook ads benchmarks: Traffic campaigns
  
  • Average click-through rate
  • Average cost per click
• Facebook ads benchmarks: Lead gen campaigns
  
  • Average click-through rate
  • Average cost per click
  • Average conversion rate
  • Average cost per lead
• Facebook ads tips

Facebook ads benchmarks: Traffic campaigns

Facebook advertising optimizes your campaigns against an ad objective. Your chosen ad objective for each campaign helps Facebook know how to best serve your ads to reach specific goals.

When you want to drive clicks from your Facebook ads to your landing page, app, or event, you’d use the traffic objective. Many small businesses favor traffic campaigns since they increase the chances of getting more website visitors, and more importantly, potential customers!

Note: Because this campaign objective focuses on driving traffic, it often results in higher cost per lead and conversion rates. Concentrating on the most relevant metrics for your advertisement objective is essential, which is why we’ve left out those particular metrics.

Average click-through rate

CTR or click-through rate measures how frequently users click on your ad. CTR is a good indicator of how click-worthy your ad is and can help you determine the quality of your Facebook ad content.

The average click-through rate in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns across all industries is 1.57%, which is up from last year’s overall average of 1.51%.

The industries with the highest CTR were Real Estate at 2.60%, Arts and Entertainment at 2.59%, and Travel at 2.20%.

The industries with lower average CTR were Dentists and Dental Services at 0.88%, Attorneys and Legal Services as well as Industrial and Commercial at 0.99%.

Since Facebook ads are so visually driven, it makes sense that industries that can offer more creative ads tend to see higher click-through rates.

“CTRs differ strongly between different business types across Facebook, even more so than on Google Ads. Successful Facebook ads require impressive, visual proof to attract attention from the scrolling audience—and that's why you see some of the best Facebook ads CTRs from those industries that can wow us with the promise of a good time, like Travel, Arts & Entertainment, and Sports,” said Mark Irvine, Director of Paid Media at Search Labs.

Unlock more secrets to a higher click-through rate now!

Average cost per click

Cost per click or CPC tells you how much you're paying for each click on your Facebook ad. It’s calculated by dividing your total spend by your total number of clicks. Maintaining a lower average CPC on a traffic campaign is something most businesses strive for since it proves you’re driving website visitors at an overall cheaper cost.

The average cost per click in Facebook ads for traffic campaigns across all industries is $0.77—down from last year’s average of $0.83.

The industries that saw the lowest cost per click were Travel at $0.42, Arts and Entertainment at $0.43, and Restaurants and Food at $0.72.

The industries that saw higher-than-average costs per click were Furniture at $1.06, Dentists and Dental Services as well as Apparel, Fashion and Jewelry at $1.07, and Attorneys and Legal Services with $1.09. These industries typically have a higher lifetime average customer cost, so it makes sense that their advertising costs would be more than a restaurant or entertainment venue.

“The biggest trend I am seeing with this Facebook ads CPC data is that consumer demand remains strong despite the uncertain economy. Cost per click is well within range of what we’ve been quoting advertisers for years now, while click-through rate also remains strong,” said Tyler Mask, Senior Manager of Social Advertising and Custom Solutions at LocaliQ.

Facebook ads Benchmarks: Leads campaigns

Facebook ad campaigns using the leads objective are optimized to drive leads. This can be done through actions such as form fills, messages, calls, and conversions.

Leads objective campaigns use Facebook Lead Ads. The unique format of Facebook Lead Ads includes a prompt directly within the ad to collect a lead. That way, users can provide your business with their information without having to navigate away from the Facebook platform.

We added conversion rate and cost per lead to these benchmarks because this objective is primarily used for increasing leads and conversions.

Average click-through rate

While Facebook lead ads don’t necessarily require users to click to your business’s website, they still have to click on your ad to become a lead. The option to click on your website also is still included in the ad. Prioritizing a higher click-through rate for your Facebook lead ads is key to attracting users to take action with your business.

The average click-through rate in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across all industries is 2.53%, which is slightly higher than last year’s overall average of 2.50%.

The industries that saw the best CTRs on their Facebook ads running with the leads objective were Sports and Recreation at 3.74%, Real Estate at 3.71%, and Personal Services at 2.56%.

The industries with the lowest CTRs were Industrial and Commercial at 1.48%, Health and Fitness at 1.46%, and Automotive – Repair, Service and Parts at 1.08%.

Average cost per click

Each click from your Facebook lead ads costs you money, so trying to maintain the lowest average CPC possible is a no-brainer. However, you’ll also want to factor in your lead quality when looking at your CPC. You ultimately want to turn your leads into customers, so a higher quality lead may end up being worth a higher CPC.

The average cost per click in Facebook ads for the leads campaign objective across all industries is $1.88—a bit lower than last year’s average of $1.92.

The industries with the lowest CPCs were Arts and Entertainment at $1.20, Real Estate at $1.36, and Business Services at $1.52.

The industries that saw the highest CPCs for the leads objective were Attorneys and Legal Services at $8.50, Finance and Insurance at $4.57, and Dentists and Dental Services at $4.10.

When you compare average CTR and CPCs between the two objectives, you’ll find that CTR for lead gen campaigns are trending higher than that of the traffic objective. This may indicate that, while costs for lead gen clicks are higher, Facebook is likely targeting users that are actually a better fit for businesses (on average) than the traffic objective.

Average conversion rate

Conversion rate indicates how frequently your Facebook ads are turning clicks into leads. You can find out your conversion rate by dividing your total number of leads by your total number of clicks. Of course, a high conversion rate signals that your Facebook ad is compelling enough to convince potential customers to take the next step and become a lead with your business.  If you find you have a lower conversion rate on average, you may need to rethink your ad targeting, copy, or landing page.

The average conversion rate in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across industries is 8.78%, which is higher than last year’s average of 8.25%.

The industries with the highest CVRs for Facebook ads running the leads objective were Industrial and Commercial at 12.03%, Dentists and Dental 9.83%, and Real Estate at 9.70%.

The industries that saw lower-than-average conversion rates were Restaurants and Food at 4.03%, Physicians and Surgeons at 4.81%, and Automotive Repair, Service and Parts at 4.86%.

Facebook ads conversion rates are heavily reliant on your ad quality. Taking a bit more time to effectively map out your messaging and creative can make all the difference in your conversion rates.

Average cost per lead

Similar to clicks, securing a new lead from Facebook ads also costs your business money—which is known as your cost per lead. Cost per lead is calculated by dividing your total spend by your total number of conversions.

The average cost per lead in Facebook ads for the leads objective across industries is $21.98—an improvement on last year’s average of $23.10.

6 Facebook ads tips

If your Facebook ads are not converting or driving traffic as much as they should when compared to industry averages, you’re not alone. There’s always room to improve—especially by following these Facebook ads tips and best practices that can enhance your performance:

1. A/B test CTA buttons

A powerful call to action can entice users to click on your Facebook ad—increasing your click-through rate. Luckily, Facebook gives you plenty of options to play around with when it comes to choosing an effective CTA button for your ad. Your best bet is to A/B test a few different CTA buttons to see what works.

2. Perfect your lead ad form fields

You may need to test to see what form style works best to maximize both lead quality and quantity. For example, this year Meta announced that it added conditional logic to the Facebook lead generation form setup. Leveraging conditional logic in your forms can help you pre-qualify your leads.

An example of conditional logic settings within a Facebook Lead Ad.

3. Pay attention to the right metrics

Beyond what was covered in this report, there are tons of other social media metrics that can indicate Facebook advertising success for your business. Find a measurement and reporting method tailored to your needs and stick with it. For example, metrics like CTR may not always be the “end all be all” Facebook ads KPI for your business.

4. Get strategic with your audience

You may want to target different Facebook audiences for different objectives. For example, you may target a Facebook lookalike audience with a traffic objective, so you can educate a new crop of potential customers about who you are and what you do.

Alternatively, you may target a specific email list or retarget users while using the lead gen objective. That’s because these audiences are already aware of your business and may be more likely to convert.

On the other hand, you may go for a more general, broader audience based on Facebook’s behavior and interest targeting options. A larger reach has been found to lower your overall cost per thousand impressions (CPM), since you’re casting a wider net.

Facebook ads audience size indicator on the right-hand side of your screen during the ad set buildout level can help you know if your target market size is just right.

Source

5. Evaluate all your campaign objective options

If you have experience with search ads, you can think of your Facebook campaign objectives like how you would your Google or Microsoft campaign goals and bidding strategies. Campaign objectives impact how Facebook serves your ads, so you may want to test out a few. That way, you can see which ones serve your ads the most efficiently. In short, don’t be married to one campaign objective.

One of the best perks Facebook offers to advertisers is that there are tons of campaign objectives to choose from. Keep an open mind for all the potential campaign objectives you may want to try.

Here's a breakdown of the Facebook ads campaign objectives you can choose from:

• Leads
• Traffic
• Awareness
• Engagement
• App promotion
• Sales

6. Incorporate other channels into your strategy

Your Facebook ads should play a role in a larger marketing plan that rounds out your business’s advertising strategy. To start, be sure to regularly share organic posts to Facebook to fill any gaps in your paid Facebook ad performance.

You’ll likely want to also leverage other social media platforms, as well as channels like SEO and search ads, to supplement your Facebook Ads.

For example, your audience members are probably using TikTok and Snapchat in addition to Facebook or Instagram. You could promote your business across these platforms to grow your overall social presence. Many marketing channels provide similar benefits to businesses, so it’s best to use as many as possible in tandem for a holistic marketing approach.

A cross-channel marketing approach that includes social and search ads, as well as other channels, helps you reach your audience regardless of where they are online. However, juggling all those channels can be a challenge. Luckily, there are plenty of tools and solutions available that can help you manage your campaigns across channels.

"LocaliQ's cross-media optimization (XMO) technology simplifies this approach by leveraging AI and automation to optimize your campaigns across channels based on what's driving the best performance to your business's goals—and your budget.” said Stephanie Asrymbetov, Director of Product at LocaliQ.

Promote your business across channels with our easy-to-use growth strategy template.

What these Facebook ads benchmarks mean for your business

You can gauge how your business compares to the competition in your industry by tracking your Facebook ads performance against these industry benchmarks. This can be especially helpful when you don’t have a ton of data or you’re unsure of how to best measure your Facebook ads marketing ROI.

Keep in mind, though, that every business is unique. No two Facebook ad accounts are the same. So, be sure to align your advertising expectations with what’s achievable for your business. That said, if you tried our suggested tips above and still find your business’s performance isn’t up to the industry standards outlined here, that’s okay! See how our solutions can help you improve your Facebook ads strategy.

The post Facebook Advertising Benchmarks for 2024 (+Quick Tips to Improve Results!) appeared first on LocaliQ.

You can catch your audience’s attention this September and increase your online presence with a September newsletter email. Emails sent during fall and winter have been proven to drive the most traffic, so this strategy is a no-brainer.

However, coming up with the right September newsletter content to fit your brand can often be more of a challenge than one might initially assume. Unless, of course, you have this handy list of September newsletter ideas, subject lines, and examples!

Let’s dive right in to take the guesswork out of your September newsletter content strategy.

Contents

• September newsletter ideas for any business
• September newsletter ideas based on holidays and observances
• September newsletter subject lines

September newsletter ideas any business can try

Whether you already have a consistent monthly newsletter campaign, or you’re just starting out this month, these September newsletter ideas can help your business grow.

Ready to build a holistic email marketing strategy for year-round growth? Download our free email marketing toolkit complete with templates, subject line ideas, tips, and more!

1. A newsletter to welcome fall

The first day of fall is September 22, so welcome the season with a simple “happy fall” newsletter. You could share your fall plans, give seasonal tips that relate back to your business, and more.

Source

2. Back-to-school newsletter

Back-to-school newsletters are a staple strategy for many small businesses in September. Even if your business doesn’t directly connect to the education industry, you can still work back-to-school advice, tips, good luck wishes, memories, and more into your September newsletter.

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3. Summer recap newsletter

Use your September newsletter as an opportunity to reflect back on the latest and greatest from your summer. You could recap any notable customer success stories from the summer to remind your readers of what your business accomplished this summer.

4. Q4 prep newsletter

September is the final month of the third quarter of the year. Next, businesses will move forward to Q4 in October. In your September newsletter, you could tease what you have planned in the last three months of the year and tee up any exciting fourth-quarter promotions.

5. Simple September updates newsletter

Remember, the whole point of a newsletter email is to update your target audience on the latest and greatest from your business. If you’d rather do a simple September newsletter that just includes important information, news, and updates for the month, that’s still an effective strategy! To spice it up, try including a helpful planning calendar, like the example below, to give your readers a visual as they review any notable dates and happenings.

Download this marketing planning calendar template for free here!

September newsletter ideas for holidays and observances

There are tons of September social media holidays, monthly observances, and more, that you can frame your newsletter email around. Check out these September newsletter ideas based on holidays below.

Make a plan to grow your business every day this September with our free, easy-to-use growth strategy template!

6. Raise awareness for National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month

September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, and with 25% of Americans admitting to abusing substances—plus nearly 49 million people nationwide struggling with addiction—this is likely a topic that has touched your audience members in one way or another. Show that your business cares by including substance abuse and addiction statistics, recovery resources, and more to spread awareness for this monthly observance.

7. Share helpful resources for National Suicide Prevention Month

Equally as somber as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month is National Suicide Prevention Month—which also takes place in September. Since this can be such a sensitive topic, you’ll want to ensure you’re using inclusive language within your newsletter to cater to readers who may struggle with mental health themselves, have lost loved ones, and so on. Try incorporating a few resources related to this observance, like contact information for mental health resources and suicide hotlines, within your September newsletter.

Source

8. Give back for World Alzheimer’s Disease Month

In addition to National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month and National Suicide Prevention Month, September is also World Alzheimer’s Disease Month. If you, your employees, friends, or family have been touched by this disease, share your story in your September newsletter. You could also donate to an Alzheimer’s Disease-related organization, and encourage your readers to join you in doing the same.

9. Include a shareable playlist for Classical Music Month

For Classical Music Month this September, you could create a shareable playlist on a public streaming platform like Spotify or Pandora. Include the link in your September newsletter so your readers can listen along with you all month long. Just be sure to include your business name in the playlist title, or upload your small business logo as the playlist cover image, to keep your brand top of mind to listeners.

10. Turn your newsletter into a personalized letter for World Letter Writing Day

World Letter Writing Day falls on September 1. Since you’re already creating a September newsletter email, you may as well format it as a personalized letter from your business to your email list’s recipients. You could use an automated email template to insert your recipients’ first names into your newsletter introduction. That way, it reads as “Dear _____,” and signs off with a fun ending like “Sincerely, [business name]” to play on the holiday.

11. Labor Day newsletter

Labor Day is September 2 this year, and there’s plenty you can do with your September newsletter to acknowledge the holiday. To start, your primary goal for a Labor Day newsletter email should be to relay any impact the holiday may have on your business operations. For example, if your business will be closed for Labor Day, or your shipping or appointment booking will be delayed, be sure to let your readers know.

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12. Shoutout a partner business on Cheese Pizza Day

Does your business’s community have a local pizza shop everyone loves? Cheese Pizza Day on September 5 is the perfect opportunity to partner up with this business and shout one another out in your September newsletters!

13. Highlight a hero for Patriot Day

September 11 became Patriot Day (not to be confused with Patriots’ Day on the third Monday of April) in remembrance of the tragic New York City attack on September 11, 2001. Many first responders risked their lives to keep the city safe that day, and you can honor this in your September newsletter by highlighting a hero within your brand’s community.

14. Share a recipe for the start of Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15 and runs through October 15 each year. Of course, one of the best parts of any culture is the food! Spark your readers’ interest by including a traditional Spanish cuisine recipe in your September newsletter to kick off this monthly observance.

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15. Showcase talented female employees for Business Women’s Day

Business Women’s Day falls on September 22, so if you have any superstar female employees you want to thank in your September newsletter, use this day to do so!

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16. Create a family fun to-do list for National Family Day

For National Family Day on September 26, try providing your September newsletter readers with a list of action items to help them spend more time with family. For example, you could create a to-do list full of family-friendly activities. As a bonus, you could include visiting your business as one of the items on your list.

17. Try incorporating podcast marketing for International Podcast Day

If you haven’t done any podcast marketing yet, take International Podcast Day on September 30 as your sign to try it out! Podcasts are a rapidly growing marketing channel, so whether you share your own podcast, an interesting industry podcast, or start a sponsorship with a podcast, this September newsletter idea is sure to be a hit.

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September newsletter subject lines

64% of email recipients decide to open an email based on the subject line alone. With these September newsletter email subject line ideas, you can make your business stand out in busy inboxes.

• Hello, September here’s what we need to catch up on
• Never fear, September is here!
• [Name], don’t miss our September updates
• Click to see what’s coming in Q4…
• Happy fall to all
• Class is in session! Back-to-School tips, tricks, and more
• Bye summer, it was nice to know you!
• TTYL, Summer Hello, Fall
• This summer was a great one, here’s why
• This September, we’re recapping summer success stories!
• Here Are Actions You Can Take for World Alzheimer’s Month
• Tune in for Classical Music Month
• Patriot Day: We Will Never Forget
• A letter from us to you for World Letter Writing Day
• Happy Labor Day! Key LDW Info & Updates
• [Name], Celebrate the Start of Hispanic Heritage Month With Us!
• Make National Family Day Full of Family Fun Using This List

Get email subject lines for every month of the year for free here!

Take your September newsletter to the next level with these ideas

Whether you’re totally new to newsletter emails or a seasoned pro, these September newsletter ideas can fit seamlessly into your strategy. Just be sure to add a unique twist to the ideas above to make them your own and maintain brand consistency throughout your email content. If you try these ideas but want to squeeze even more out of your email marketing, see how our solutions can help you maximize your email results for every month of the year!

The post 34 September Newsletter Ideas that Encourage Email Engagement appeared first on LocaliQ.

Facebook remains an extremely popular social media site, with nearly seven in 10 US adults reporting using the platform. That’s why real estate Facebook ads work. Facebook is a platform that attracts adults of all ages, meaning you can target a wide range of prospective homebuyers or renters—from Gen Zers to Baby Boomers.

So, how do you create the best real estate Facebook ads? Here, we’ll look at some agencies, properties, and realtors that are already doing it and share what makes their approach so effective.

Contents

• Real estate Facebook Facebook ads with dynamic content
• Virtual tour ads
• Ads with tailored language
• Top-of-funnel real estate Facebook ads
• Real estate Facebook ads that spark a sense of urgency
• Ads that include photography and detail
• Real estate carousel ads that share more selling points
• Real estate Facebook ads that build personal connection
• Ads that speak to the bigger benefits of your real estate offering
• Ads that play with a color palette

The 12 best types of real estate Facebook ads (and why they work)

1. Real estate Facebook ads with dynamic, moving content

As attention spans grow ever shorter, creating content that can seize focus is vital. Video ads are notoriously effective at doing just that.

To create engaging video Facebook ads:

• Optimize for mobile by using properly sized video. Vertical is friendly for mobile screens and makes it easy to cross-advertise on Instagram (another Meta-owned property, where vertically-oriented Reels rule supreme).
• Begin your video with a killer hook. A stunning backyard vista, Architectural Digest-ready kitchen — whatever it is, show off the best part of your property, and keep the content short and sweet.
• Design for silent viewing. Ensure your ad’s message is clear, even if someone’s scrolling with sound off. Opt for music, or if you have spoken word in the video, include captions.
• Add a strong CTA. You can customize your call to action line on Facebook—take advantage of that feature. Draft a strong line that works well with your chosen CTA button (which you select from among a handful that Facebook offers).

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Find out the average Facebook ads click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per click, and cost per click for the real estate industry in our new 2024 Facebook ads benchmarks report!

2. Virtual tour ads

Out of necessity, real estate agents got very good at video content during COVID. Many deals were closed following virtual home or apartment tours.

Just because we’re out of the depths of the pandemic doesn’t mean you have to shelve those video skills! Creating a tightly edited video tour of a beautiful property is stunning Facebook ad content that makes scrollers stop in their tracks.

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3. and 4. Ads with tailored language

In all your marketing channels, including Facebook ads, crafting your language to speak to your target audience is essential.

Take these two ads below, which are selling properties with similar attributes: both are selling multi-bedroom apartments in established Manhattan neighborhoods. However, the language to sell them couldn’t be any different.

The following Upper West Side property listing focuses on practicality—the price was recently reduced, and the purchase does not require board approval (an arduous process typical in New York cooperatives). It also highlights the unit’s traditional features—a classic five layout, partial river views—targeting a buyer who appreciates the stability and heritage of the address.

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Meanwhile, the following financial district listing focuses on luxury and amenities. It doesn’t show you the inside of the home, which says, “We’re so confident you’ll be blown away, we don’t even need to let you see it.” Instead, the image features the building from the outside, where you can see units enjoy unobstructed, sweeping views of downtown Manhattan.

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5. Top-of-funnel real estate Facebook ad

Not everyone is ready to buy, sell, or rent today, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future.

Creating and sharing educational content can establish your business as a go-to resource for trusted advice. When those on-the-fence readers are ready to make moves, you’re the one they’ll turn to for help.

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While you can’t target by factors like “show my ad to someone who might want to buy a house in 5-10 years” (even Meta hasn’t yet figured out how to foresee the future!), Facebook does allow you to direct your ads to users based on granular demographic information. You can target by age, geography, interests, and more.

6. Real estate Facebook ads that spark a sense of urgency or FOMO

When selling a home or leasing up a property, creating a sense of high demand is good. It can inspire a bidding war in a sale or get your rental property to full capacity sooner.

Using language like “new to market” or “85% sold” creates urgency. It says, “This is a hot new listing, or space is almost full—if you’re interested, you better act fast before it’s gone!”

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Are you including the right value propositions for your real estate Facebook ads? Find out with our free guide to unique value propositions!

7. Ads that include stunning photography and unique details

As in any marketing effort, you want to create real estate Facebook ads that show what makes your property special. Photography can help you do that.

When you first walk through a home or tour the property you’re managing, you take stock of the things that stand out. Perhaps it’s beautiful, antique details like original tin ceilings and an Art Deco tiled fireplace. Maybe it’s a balcony with sweeping city views. Whatever those noteworthy attributes are, photography can help you communicate this to prospective buyers or leasees.

The good news is that you’re likely taking photos anyway as part of your other promotional efforts (for the MLS listing, your website, mailers, etc.), so employing them in Facebook ads allows you to get even more bang for your buck.

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8. Real estate carousel ads that share more selling points

The only thing more potent than one beautiful photo in your real estate Facebook ads is a series of stunning images!

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A carousel ad allows you to show off all of the winning facets of your property. This type of ad is especially compelling for rental properties or condos in luxury, amenity-rich buildings, as it allows you to showcase the features of the individual unit alongside property-wide benefits, like a gym or rooftop space.

9. Real estate Facebook ads that build personal connection with prospects

If you and your team have a strong reputation and local brand recognition, leading with your name in your real estate Facebook ads is a no-brainer.

But even if you’re not a well-known realtor in the area, including your name and a friendly headshot can immediately build trust and a sense of connection with prospective buyers or renters.

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This listing from Compass features the broker’s photo and name at the top. The bright, sunny living space is welcoming, and the listing agent’s headshot feels similarly approachable and friendly.

10. Ads that speak to the bigger benefits of your real estate offering

Why do people buy homes? It is, in part, because of its investment potential. Homeownership is traditionally considered a pathway toward building wealth.

Ads like this speak to the long-term benefits of home ownership. This condo is not just a pretty place to live with a nice rooftop pool (though it is also that!); it’s “the smartest buy in Brooklyn.”

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The ad highlights the building’s solid financial position—it’s already 85% sold—and the benefits to you as a prospective buyer in the form of a 25-year tax abatement. With financial bona fides like that, this property sounds like an ideal place to buy if you want to achieve some of those long-term home ownership goals.

11. and 12. Ads that play with a color palette to set a mood

As we all know, photography is a huge component in all real estate advertising, but it’s not just the facts—like the number of bedrooms or type of kitchen appliances—that the images convey. They’re also setting a feel for the property.

Here, you’ll see two similarly upscale rental properties in Manhattan. While they both have beautiful, newly renovated spaces and many amenities, the photography sets a vibe for each. While One Manhattan Square feels like the place to go if you’re in the market for a sleek, sexy bachelor pad, 222 W. 80th feels like a welcoming, family-friendly building with sun-drenched images and bright, pastel interiors.

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Feel at home creating your real estate Facebook ads

Getting comfortable on the Meta advertising platform can reap real rewards for your real estate business. Whether posting video tours or creating carousel ads filled with stunning still images, Facebook offers you dozens of ways to showcase your properties.

As with any digital advertising endeavor, it’s wise to test out various approaches to see which ones generate the strongest results for your business. Once you know what’s working, you can lean into those tactics that resonate and drop the ones that don’t.

Are you fired up and ready to start your own real estate Facebook ads campaign? Check out these simple steps and best practices to get you started, or see how our solutions can help you take your strategy to the next level.

For more real estate marketing help, check out these resources below:

• Smart Ways to Generate Free Real Estate Leads That Actually Close
• Best Real Estate Call-to-Action Phrases to Convert Buyers, Renters, or Sellers
• Google Local Services Ads for Real Estate: 5 Reasons You Need Them Now
• Real Estate Marketing Ideas for Summer
• Free (& Nearly-Free) Fall Real Estate Marketing Ideas
• Real Estate Advertising Benchmarks (+ Ideas for Better Results)

The post 12 Stunning Real Estate Facebook Ads (+Why They Work) appeared first on LocaliQ.

The Labor Day long weekend is a popular time for travel, barbecues and backyard parties, and one last family beach day before the cooler weather sets in. And like many other holidays in the US, Labor Day has also become a big day for businesses to host sales and craft holiday-minded marketing messaging that gets consumers shopping on their time off from work.

Let’s take a look at how your business can make the most of the Labor Day weekend to drum up sales. From special deals and offers to themed social media contests, there are plenty of opportunities to create excitement around your business. We’ll also share some marketing ideas and slogans to help you promote whichever approach you try!

Contents

• Labor Day slogans to promote sales
• Labor Day slogans for email marketing campaigns
• Labor Day slogans and hashtags for social media
• Labor Day marketing slogans for contests and giveaways

Labor Day slogans to promote sales

Who doesn’t love a Labor Day sale? We’ve all been on the receiving end of Labor Day sale messaging, so we know it’s a popular tactic for brands to employ. And that’s because it works!

Last year, Numerator asked consumers if they planned to hit the Labor Day sales, and even with inflation rates at record highs, 86% of respondents said they’d still consider shopping over the weekend.

With statistics like that, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses get in on the Labor Day sale action. Holiday sales can help you convert prospects who have had an eye on your brand for a while, and they can reengage existing customers who may not have purchased from you recently. Deals and sales can often serve as the tipping point for consumers considering a purchase, pushing them from a maybe to a yes.

End-of-summer sales are also an excellent opportunity to make room for next season’s items on your shelves. Additional markdowns on on-sale products are a great way to catch consumers’ eyes and help you move that inventory–a win-win!

This brand even acknowledges that it’s offering discounts to clear out its summer inventory and make room for “new pretties.” 

Service providers can also get involved in Labor Day sales, whether your brand serves consumers or businesses. A spa might offer a discount on its services framed as a “last chance at summer relaxation” deal, while a B2B may offer a discount and promote it with messaging about how the offer can help businesses start Q4 off on the right foot.

As part of its Labor Day sale, this auto detailing garage offered rewards points and swag when customers spent specific dollar amounts on services. 

No matter what kind of business you run, these slogans can help you advertise your Labor Day sale, deal, offer, or promotion:

• Your Wallet Deserves a Vacation
• Holiday for your dollar
• You work hard! Treat yourself with our Labor Day deals
• A Reward for Your Hard Work
• Work Hard, Save Big
• Work Hard, Spend Smart
• Our Sale Is Working Overtime
• Kick back and relax with our Labor Day deals
• Deals to Curb the End-of-Summer Blues
• Back-to-School Deals
• Going, Going, Gone: End of Summer Specials
• Relax & Save This Labor Day

Free guide: 37 Ways to Promote Your Business (Whatever Your Budget!)

Labor Day slogans for email marketing campaigns

You have to get the word out when you’re having a sale! Email marketing can be a great way to reach those who are already familiar with your brand–to remind them about your sale and encourage them to stop by (either in person or virtually) to shop.

The key here is to start teasing your sale early. Begin mentioning your Labor Day deals in your regular communications a few weeks out so that people know you’ll be offering discounts and can make plans to shop with you then.

As you approach the holiday, you can step up your sales-focused messaging. Writing subject lines that create a sense of urgency is an effective way to catch readers’ eyeballs and drive up open rates.

Don’t just send one email at the start of the weekend; you can continue to advertise your sale throughout the Labor Day holiday. If you’re offering any additional deals on certain days or as the end of the sale gets closer (steeper markdowns, free shipping, or any other perks), call those out in your subject lines.

Not sure how to write your Labor Day email subject lines? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Labor Day Sale Preview: First Look at Our Deals
• Hard at Work on Our Labor Day Sale: Preview Deals
• Exclusive Offer: Labor Day sale early access
• 1 Day Only: Shop Our Monday-Only Labor Day Sale
• Free Shipping When You Shop our Labor Day Sale
• Spend & Save! Take an Extra X% Off When You Spend $X or More
• Only X Hours Left to Shop Our Labor Day Sale
• Best deals of the year: Labor Day sale is on
• Labor Day Sale Final Hours – Shop Before Midnight!
• Free Shipping Countdown: X More Hours

Need more email subject lines inspo? We’ve got you covered: Email Subject Lines for Every Month of the Year

Labor Day slogans and hashtags for social media

When it comes to spreading the word about your Labor Day sale, don’t just stop with email marketing. Sharing details on your social media channels helps you reach even more people. Consumers who haven’t subscribed to your mailing list will still want to know about your special offers!

Just as with email marketing, teasing your sale in advance on social media is crucial. Begin sprinkling in Labor Day messaging a few weeks in advance to get your followers excited to shop with you over the long weekend.

This brand offered doorbuster deals to build anticipation leading up to the main Labor Day sale.

As you get closer to the holiday, you can focus more of your content on your upcoming sale. One benefit to marketing on social media is the ability to create interactive content. Consider making Instagram Stories showcasing the products or services included in your sale, and add stickers, polls, and other interactive elements so your audience can engage with your content.

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It’s great for your followers to see your sale messaging, but it’s even better to spread the word to consumers beyond your immediate social media circle. And to do that, you need to include hashtags in your posts.

When you include related hashtags in your content, you give your posts the opportunity to appear in the results of any social media users who search for that hashtag–whether they’re already familiar with your business or not. Hashtags can drive consumers’ discovery of your brand at an opportune time (namely, right as they’re searching for things to buy over the holiday weekend!).

When deciding which hashtags to include, aim for a mix of event-specific hashtags (in this case, ones that talk about your Labor Day sale), and industry, location, and brand-specific hashtags.

When it comes to selecting the right Labor Day hashtags for your content, here are a few to consider:

• #LaborDaySale
• #LaborDayWeekend
• #LaborDay2024
• #LaborDaySpecial
• #LaborDaySalesEvent
• #WorkHardPlayHard
• #KickBackAndRelax
• #LongWeekendVibes
• #LongWeekendAhead
• #DealOfTheDay

Labor Day marketing slogans for contests and giveaways

What if you’d prefer not to have a Labor Day sale? They’re an effective tool for many, but they won’t be suitable for every business. If you’d like to get in on the long weekend fun but prefer not to offer any deals or discounts, a Labor Day-themed contest or giveaway may be right for you.

Social media is the perfect place to host a contest or giveaway for your brand. Contests and giveaways allow you to generate buzz for your business and capitalize on the broader excitement around a holiday.

Social media contests and giveaways also help you to expand your reach online and can really give a boost to your follower count. And that’s great news because, even if new followers don’t convert to new customers right away, they’re now a part of your social media circle and will see your future content.

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With a social media contest, you may ask your followers to create and share content to enter. Contests usually have a competitive element and sometimes include audience votes for the best submission. Social media giveaways often take a “comment to win” format, with entrants being asked to like and comment on one of your social media posts to enter.

No matter how you structure your event, be sure to tie it into the Labor Day holiday. How you do so will depend on your business, but there are plenty of creative ways to lean into the holiday messaging in your promotion.

A grocery store might host a contest asking users to share pictures from their Labor Day barbecue, tagging the store and using a hashtag that celebrates the end of summer. A dry cleaning business might run a giveaway where they’ll clean a lucky winner’s white outfits for free (a longstanding fashion “rule” says you shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day!).

As you craft your social media posts around the event, read up on the rules around hosting an online contest or giveaway. Each social media platform has its own guidelines, and there are laws that govern the process.

As for slogans or concepts for your Labor Day contest or giveaway, use these ideas as a jumping-off point:

• The Last Hurrah: End of Summer Giveaway
• Enter our giveaway–No labor required
• The 3-Day Giveaway Event
• Best sandcastle contest
• Ultimate Beach Day Contest
• Dog Days of Summer Contest
• Labor Day Grillmaster BBQ Contest
• End of summer photo contest

Make the most of these Labor Day slogans

The Labor Day long weekend provides business owners a golden opportunity to create fun, enticing marketing messaging. Consumers are celebrating the end of summer and are on the lookout for good deals. The brands that start advertising early, with clever Labor Day slogans to tout their offers, are most likely to catch consumers’ attention and end up on their Labor Day shopping lists.

The post 40 Useful Labor Day Slogans for Sales Promotions, Email Campaigns, Social Posts & More appeared first on LocaliQ.

Along the way, we’ve also seen Facebook’s advertising arm expand to include mobile ads, dynamic ads, and carousel ads, to name a few. With each update, businesses have had to learn new techniques to ensure they reach the right consumers and maximize return on investment.

As the platform continues to evolve to take advantage of new technology—i.e., AI—and to keep pace with competitors, here’s a closer look at the features and ad types that can elevate your own Facebook advertising strategy in 2024 straight from the experts.

14 expert Facebook advertising tips to try

Get a deeper look at the top tips experts say you should try to see Facebook ads success.

1. Try Advantage+ placements

Previously known as automatic placements, Facebook’s Advantage+ is an automation tool that finds the best places for your ads across all of Meta’s apps and services in real time. The system was designed to automatically search for lower-cost placements first.

The tool uses machine learning to help streamline the process of finding high-intent customers and optimizing delivery for maximum return on investment.

“For Levy’s Fine Jewelry, using Advantage+ allows us to focus on showcasing our high-value items, like rare gemstones and diamond rings, to audiences most likely to purchase,” said Joseph Denaburg, a jeweler at Levy’s Fine Jewelry. “This not only increases the efficiency of our ad spend but also drives high-quality traffic to our website, ensuring that our marketing efforts are successful and our audience is confident in their purchase decisions.”

Plus, as Jacqy Peh, contributing editor of review site Smart Singapore, noted, if one placement is not performing well, the algorithm will automatically adjust.

It’s a good option for new advertisers who are unsure about how to select and target the right audience. That’s according to Sofia Perez, owner of CharacterCounter.com, who said Advantage+ campaigns helped to connect marketers, writers, and students to her website while minimizing cost.

“I observed a better ROI and decreased CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) for every specific ad by deploying the Advantage+ campaigns,” she added.

However, Brooke Webber, head of marketing at ecommerce site Ninja Patches, recommends waiting to use automated options like this until you have adequate audience data. That’s because Advantage+ needs data on audience behavior, past performance, and conversions to “do its thing.”

How do your Facebook ads results stack up to the competition? Find out in our 2024 Facebook Ads Benchmarks Report.

2. Look into Meta Lattice

In 2023, Meta introduced Meta Lattice, an AI model that learns to predict an ad’s performance across datasets and optimization goals. According to a blog post, it better understands data and optimization goals and can yield better performance.

“The system will now continuously learn the essential characteristics that improve ad performance across various surfaces, objectives, and ad types simultaneously,” the post said. “This new model architecture creates a more nimble system—one that is more adaptable to broader market changes, can quickly utilize new AI innovations, and operates more efficiently to deliver the results that help businesses grow.”

3. Take advantage of lookalike audiences with detailed targeting

Facebook has offered lookalike audiences for more than a decade to help advertisers reach new consumers who are likely to be interested in their products or services because they share similar characteristics to existing customers.

Now, however, you can also tap into a targeting option known as detailed targeting to refine the group of consumers who see your ads based on additional demographics, interests, and/or behaviors.

“Given our market, we can add music festival interests, rave culture, or famous EDM DJs and artists to our lookalike audience,” said Brian Lim, CEO of clothing brand iHeartRaves. “Doing this will enable your Meta ads to reach people who are similar to your best customers and optimize your budget by keeping it to those with relevant interests. This also increases the probability of engagement and conversions.”

Custom audiences can also include exclusion targeting, which prevents a particular audience—like current customers—from seeing an ad.

Facebook advertising is an important part of a successful marketing plan. Get our free guide >> 6 Simple Steps to a Complete Small Business Marketing Plan (+Template!)

4. Combine Facebook/Instagram Shops with custom audiences

Shops are online storefronts on Facebook and Instagram that allow consumers to browse and purchase products. By creating a custom audience of Facebook and Instagram users who interact with your products in these shopping experiences, you can also remarket your ads to interested consumers.

5. Use the Meta pixel with Google Tag Manager

The Meta pixel is a piece of code you can put on your website to better understand the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns by seeing what consumers actually do on your site. That includes putting a product in a cart, initializing checkout, and converting.

“Installing a pixel on your website is vital for improving ad delivery, reconnecting with former visitors, and creating bespoke audiences with precise targeting,” Peh said.

She also recommends using Google Tag Manager, a tag (or code snippet) management system that allows you to manage your site tags without having to change any site code. Like the Meta pixel, you simply add two snippets of code to each page of your website and Google Tag Manager is ready to go.

6. Perform cross-platform tracking with advanced matching

Setting up the Meta pixel and Google Tag Manager also allows you to take advantage of cross-platform tracking as the pixel works across devices and platforms.

With this strategy, you can observe how consumers interact with your ads on desktops, tablets, and smartphones, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. Reports in Facebook Ads Manager will help you better understand which ads and platforms are driving conversions, as well as provide insights into behavior trends, which you can use to optimize Facebook ads further.

“Then utilize Facebook’s advanced matching feature, which enhances cross-device tracking accuracy by matching user actions to their Facebook profile based on identifiers like email addresses and phone numbers,” said Danielle Hu, founder of entrepreneurial site The Wanderlover.

She also noted cross-platform monitoring helps you create more precise retargeting campaigns. For example, if a consumer engages with your ad on Facebook and then converts on mobile, you can retarget them on both platforms.

7. Track cross-device conversions with events data sources

The events data source feature in Meta Business Manager tracks actions like views and conversions on your site, app, or store. These data sources include the Meta pixel, as well as events datasets, properties, event source groups, and shared audiences.

Denaburg called out event source groups in particular as they help combine data from your site, app, and Facebook page for a more comprehensive view of the customer journey.

“This insight helps identify where users drop off and what encourages them to complete a purchase,” he said. “For instance, we’ve discovered that many customers start their search for vintage jewelry on mobile but finalize their purchase on desktop. With this knowledge, we optimize our ad placements and messaging to cater to this behavior, improving overall conversion rates.”

8. Combine dynamic content with Facebook’s dynamic creative tool

Here, Facebook takes multiple media types, like images and videos, and ad components like images, videos, text, audio, and calls-to-action, and then mixes and matches them to improve performance. You can even automatically create personalized variations for each person who sees your ad.

“Dynamic creative optimization allows you to automatically build and serve a number of ad combinations right into top performers,” said Oliver Smith, founder of the website VAT Calculators. “It means that relevant content will be shown to your audience, driving the engagement and conversion rates without manual A/B testing.”

9. Connect the Facebook Conversions API

The Meta Conversions API allows you to create a direct connection between your marketing data and Meta to help optimize targeting, measure outcomes, and decrease cost.

“Using Facebook’s Conversions API to optimize for conversions improves data accuracy and ad performance by linking directly to your server,” said Tushar Thakur, tech blogger at TechKV. “This has been a key part of making my campaigns more effective at getting conversions.”

10. Test out Facebook’s attribution settings

The attribution setting in Meta Ads Manager is the period—typically one or seven days—during which conversions can be credited to your ads and used for campaign optimization. You can choose the attribution setting when you create a campaign. Meta notes the ad delivery system may help improve performance by showing your ads to people who find them most relevant.

According to Lim, you can gain deeper insights into which ads truly drive results if you customize your attribution window.

“Consider using a longer attribution window if your customers tend to research before making a purchase,” he added. “Taking this step will help you understand the entire customer journey and allocate your budget more efficiently.”

11. Use Advantage+ catalog ads

Formerly known as dynamic ads, Advantage+ catalog ads deliver relevant product recommendations to consumers based on their interest, intent, and actions. To create an Advantage+ catalog ad, simply create a catalog with your products and a campaign that drives sales on your website or app. When a Facebook user expresses interest in an item from your catalog, Meta generates a dynamic ad for that person on mobile, tablet, and desktop.

“If a visitor has browsed our collection of vintage engagement rings, dynamic ads will highlight similar products they might like,” Denaburg said. “This personalization boosts relevance and conversions by ensuring customers see items tailored to their preferences. The automated nature of dynamic ads also saves time and effort, allowing us to focus on curating our unique collections.”

12. Implement Stories ads

Stories allow Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users to share photos and videos that disappear within 24 hours unless saved. It’s a popular format—1 billion stories are shared every single day. Stories ads are full-screen image, video, or carousel ads that appear between stories.

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“Use this inventory to share engaging and consumable full-screen, vertical multimedia,” Smith said.

13. Add poll ads to video ads

A poll ad allows you to integrate a two-answer poll into a video ad in Meta Ads Manager. These ads appear in the Facebook feed and Instagram Stories.

“One can ask questions using this ad format and get responses instantly, creating a two-way conversation with users that can increase the level of engagement a lot more,” Smith said.

14. Experiment with augmented reality ads

Facebook and Instagram have multiple ways to offer augmented reality ads. Ads Manager offers AR experience templates like face effects, mini-games, and product try-ons, which you can incorporate in ads, along with a URL to drive conversions.

This augmented reality Facebook ad promoted the release of Top Gun: Maverick. 

You can also create custom AR camera effects for Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger with the Spark AR Studio tool and use ads to drive traffic to them.

Run Facebook ads like a pro

These tips can help you maximize the success of your Facebook ads to reach more customers and increase awareness for your business. Need help running Facebook ads? Reach out to get a demo to see how we can help.

Here are the top Facebook ads tips for success in 2024:

1. Try Advantage+ placements
2. Look into Meta Lattice
3. Take advantage of lookalike audiences with detailed targeting
4. Combine Facebook/Instagram Shops with custom audiences
5. Use the Meta pixel with Google Tag Manager
6. Perform cross-platform tracking with advanced matching
7. Track cross-device conversions with events data sources
8. Combine dynamic content with Facebook’s dynamic creative tool
9. Connect the Facebook Conversions API
10. Test out Facebook’s attribution settings
11. Use Advantage+ catalog ads
12. Implement Stories ads
13. Add poll ads to video ads
14. Experiment with augmented reality ads

The post The 14 Best Facebook Ads Tips – From the Experts! appeared first on LocaliQ.

Let’s send summer off with a splash by diving into some Labor Day social media ideas that are sure to bring you a wave of customers to last through fall and winter. We’ll be covering Labor social media tips to keep in mind, post ideas to last the holiday weekend, and Labor Day social media post templates any business can use

Let’s jump right in!

Contents

• Labor Day social media tips
• Labor Day social media post ideas
• Labor Day social media templates

Tips for your Labor Day social media posts

Before we get into all our Labor Day social media posts, let’s first review some key tips.

For year-round social media marketing ideas, tips, and examples, download our free, copy-and-paste social media marketing calendar!

Choose your best time to post on Labor Day

A common small business challenge is knowing when, exactly, is the best time to post on Labor Day to maximize your marketing ROI. This doesn’t just go for social media but rolling out promotional campaigns across any marketing channel can feel daunting on such a major holiday.

To pre-plan your Labor Day marketing schedule, you’ll first want to refer to any historical data your business has as well as any information you can find regarding your target market.

When you understand how your customers behave throughout their buyer’s journey, you’ll have a better handle on when they might be online during Labor Day. Lastly, check out our resources on the best times to post, like:

• The best times to post on social media for small businesses
• The best times to post on Instagram
• The best times to post on TikTok

Check your image sizing

Along with scheduling your Labor Day content ahead of time, you’ll want to prep your materials in advance as well. Each social media platform will have different specifications for images or videos that you’ll need to stick to. Our Labor Day social media post templates linked at the bottom of this post can streamline this for you.

As you create your Labor Day social media posts in advance, you can size out all your images to match the various platform requirements while maintaining brand consistency. Here is a quick breakdown of the social media image sizes you should shoot for:

Use Labor Day hashtags

Be sure you always include eye-catching elements like emojis or hashtags.  Hashtags help your posts get found by new followers, so here are some Labor Day hashtag examples your business could test:

• #laborday
• #happylaborday
• #dayoff
• #nowork
• #restandrelaxation
• #longweekend
• #labordayweekend
• #ldw
• #lastdaytowearwhite
• #nowhiteafterlaborday
• #yayforlaborday
• #grillingandchilling
• #longlivelaborday
• #livelovelaborday
• #thankyouworkers

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Labor Day social media posts to try

Leveraging Labor Day social media posts is a no-brainer for small businesses since it’s a free strategy! Try out these Labor Day social media posts to refresh your Labor Day marketing strategy.

Make a plan to grow your business on social media this Labor Day with our free, easy-to-use growth strategy template!

Challenge customers with a Labor Day contest

A Labor Day social media contest is a great way to build an audience and increase engagement with your business around the holiday. Plus, it gives you an easy way to gather some user-generated content you can use to fill your calendar beyond Labor Day. Challenge your followers to come up with the best video or photo relating to your business and repurpose it for your own post later!

Another Labor Day social media contest to increase your social media engagement would be to incentivize newcomers to follow, like your posts, or repost your post so that their network can see your business too! Regardless of what type of contest you decide is the best fit, be sure to promote the post by including your own hashtag to go with it.

Honor your workers with an employee video

A fun way to get both your customers and your own employees involved this Labor Day is to leverage video marketing to turn your social media marketing strategy into something great for the season. Labor Day originally started in 1866 to honor the workforce of America, and so what better way to appeal to your social audience than to celebrate your own workforce?

If you start now, you could film quick clips of your employees hard at work and compile them into a video thanking them for all they do! Or, you could take a comical approach and have a Labor Day-themed “blooper” or funny video of your employees to appeal to your followers.

90% of consumers say it’s important that a brand takes care of its employees and treats them well. So, Labor Day is the perfect time to display that and establish credibility with your social audience.

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Play on Labor Day traditions

Aside from honoring your own workers, you can have even more fun in your Labor Day social posts by playing on the traditions of the holiday. For example, 40% of people plan to barbecue on Labor Day with an average of 7 billion hotdogs being consumed during the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day. You can quickly snap a picture of a food-themed social media post to attract hungry customers to your business. Or add a personal touch with posts from a company barbeque.

Another tradition is the infamous “you can’t wear white after Labor Day” due to the approaching fall season. You could create a fun social media post series of you or your customers wearing white which will help you have multiple pieces of social content to last the holiday weekend.

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Try a happy Labor Day post

While it sounds simple, this Labor Day social media post idea is too often forgotten! A great way to acknowledge the holiday is with a short and sweet message wishing your audience a happy Labor Day.

To boost your post interactions, you could even ask your followers to comment on how they’re spending the weekend. Not only with this Labor Day social media idea save you time, but it also still shows that your brand truly cares about how your audience enjoys the holiday.

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Promote a Labor Day event

Whether you decide to host your own Labor Day event in-store, in-office, or virtually, your social media platforms are the perfect place to promote it! Even if you don’t have the bandwidth to run an event and post it on social media, there are likely plenty of Labor Day happenings within your business’s community you could promote, attend, or sponsor. With this Labor Day social media idea, you can share posts or create stories before, during, and after the event to increase your social presence over time.

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Update customers on any Labor Day operational changes

Will Labor Day impact your business hours, shipping options, appointment slots, or other operations? Similar to how you would update your local listings for a holiday like Labor Day, you’ll want to share any important information regarding your business’s Labor Day plans with your social media followers. You could create a simple, custom social media image focusing on your updated business hours or other key bits of information.

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Use catchy Labor Day Instagram captions

Certain platforms, like Instagram, necessitate a strong caption with each post. If you’re unsure what to put in your Labor Day social media captions, try checking out some social media trends or what popular influencers might be doing for inspiration. A caption could be a motivational quote or a short and sweet “Happy Labor Day” message.

Whatever you choose for your caption, be sure your brand’s voice shines through. Here are some Labor Day Instagram caption ideas to get you started:

• All play, no work this LDW!
• Let us do the labor so you can enjoy your day?
• It’s Labor Day! Kick back, relax, and shop
• We’re chilling? and grilling? this Labor Day!
• Public workers for the public interest?
• America runs on hard work. Thank you to all laborers today!
• No work, just sales this Labor Day!
• We Labor Day sale
• Long weekend = even longer sale savings
• You worked hard, treat yourself this Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day social media post templates

When creating your Labor Day social media posts, be sure to try our easily customizable templates linked below:

Get the templates here: [X] [Facebook] [Instagram]

Say goodbye to summer and hello to business growth with these Labor Day post ideas

Finish off your summer marketing the right way with these quick and simple Labor Day social media posts. People are ready to spend over Labor Day weekend, so your business acknowledging the big weekend to customers will give you a competitive edge.

Plus, you can run with these Labor Day marketing ideas this year and recycle them for years to come—saving you time and resources. By working smarter, not harder, you’ll bring your small business marketing to the next level with these tips. If you tried the tips, ideas, and templates above but still want to squeeze more out of your seasonal marketing, see how our solutions can help you maximize your results through every holiday.

Also, September’s not over after Labor Day! Get September social media holidays and ideas to fill your calendar all month long.

Want more Labor Day marketing resources? We’ve got you covered:

• Useful Labor Day Slogans for Sales Promotions, Email Campaigns, Social Posts & More
• Labor Day Promotions & Marketing Ideas You Can Do in a Flash
• Hard-Working Labor Day Email Subject Lines (+Tips & Examples)
• Perfect Labor Day Messages & Greetings for Customers & Employees

The post Happy Labor Day Social Media Posts To Celebrate (+Free Templates!) appeared first on LocaliQ.

Writing a restaurant business plan may feel daunting, but it doesn’t need to be! We’ll walk through the steps to create a restaurant business plan and share a template with examples so you can create your own with ease.

Contents

• Why do you need a restaurant business plan?
• How to write a restaurant business plan
• Restaurant business plan template

Why you need a restaurant business plan

Before we get into how to create a restaurant business plan, let’s talk about why you need one. A restaurant business plan:

• Sets expectations and creates a common set of goals for you and your business partner(s).
• Acts as your North Star to keep you on track as you open and run your restaurant.
• Can be shared with investors or lenders to secure loans or angel investments.

A business plan can help put you on solid financial footing from the start and keep you focused on the steps you must take to succeed.

Learn how to build awareness for your new restaurant. Free Download >> The Definitive Guide to Brand Awareness: Top Strategies, Examples & How to Measure Success

What to include in your restaurant business plan

Here, we’ll walk through the sections your restaurant business plan should include and how to get started.

Your restaurant name and logo

Start by including your restaurant name and logo right on the front page of your business plan.

A legally registered name and well-designed logo show that you’re serious about your aspirations and have already started doing foundational work on your business.

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Executive summary

The executive summary is a high-level description of your restaurant. This should set the scene for what you want to do with your business. In a few sentences, share:

• Your restaurant concept: What kind of restaurant do you want to create? Talk about cuisine, vibe, and any particular areas of focus (e.g., “Our restaurant will be a high-end Italian spot with a rotating menu of homemade pastas featuring fresh, locally sourced ingredients.” Or, “Our sports bar will cater to the local post-grad crowd, providing a place for them to grab pitchers of beer and watch their college sports teams on one of our 12 screens”).
• Your customers: What type of clientele do you hope to attract? Will you be a beloved local haunt or a spot for tourists? Are you family-friendly or a place for high-end date nights? Are you courting sports aficionados or hoping to corner the girl dinner market? (This is where knowing your target market comes in handy!)
• Your proposed location: You may not have an actual space secured yet, but share what neighborhood, town, or geography you’re targeting.

Free guide >> How to Write a Business Description that Gets Customers

Organization and management

The organization and management section of your restaurant business plan should introduce the team that will bring to life the vision you outlined above.

Of course, you, as the founder, will be listed in here! You should also include any co-founders or people you’ve already brought in for leadership roles, like your general manager, director of operations, or food and beverage director.

If you have the beginnings of an org chart, you can include that here (i.e., the director of operations oversees the GM, food and beverage director, and wine director).

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This is also the place to introduce outside experts helping get your business off the ground. Think: attorney, CPA, architect, interior designer, PR/marketing firm, etc.

Include short bios of all the key players and highlight their relevant experience.

Restaurant operations plan

Your restaurant business plan should also include a sneak peek at how things will run once you’re open. This includes a sample menu and an overview of service and staffing plans.

The sample menu should be based on actual cost analysis and include pricing. Detailing your pricing gives prospective investors a sense of the type of restaurant you will open—for example, fine dining pricing will vary significantly from a QSR concept.

Additionally, it shows you’ve done your research. You understand the costs of inputs, know the market, and have priced yourself to be competitive while also watching your margins.

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Your service and staffing plan should be high-level, but this is where you can call out any noteworthy details affecting your operating costs or significantly impacting your business model.

For example, if you plan to open a fine dining restaurant with a full FOH team—captains, servers, food runners, bartenders, host staff, coat check, and more—your payroll costs will be significantly higher than the coffee shop that can run with one or two baristas.

Similarly, if you have a particular service piece that will impact operations, mention that here, too. If your differentiator is to be a restaurant with an extensive wine list, including rare and high-end finds, your beverage budget will be higher than the sports bar that operates with Budweiser on tap.

Again, highlighting noteworthy elements of your staffing and operations plans up front demonstrates that you’re intentionally designing your staffing and service plans and that you understand how your operational choices will impact your financials.

Market analysis

Speaking of financials, the next portion of your restaurant business plan should explore the market around you. You’ve made plans for your own business; what research and assumptions about the broader market did you base them on?

In the market analysis section, you want to explore your:

• Industry
• Customers
• Competitive advantage
• Regulatory landscape

Industry

What are other restaurants up to? Answering that question can help refine your plan and develop suitable offerings and prices to attract your desired customer.

To find your competitors, look at restaurants that are:

• Operating in the same geography
• Doing something similar to what you hope to do
• Catering to a similar clientele

If you’re opening a pizza shop, you want to look at other pizza shops in the area—both local operations and outposts of popular franchises. But you should also consider the burger joint with a similar price point that caters to young families, just like you hope to. Plus, scope out the Italian food restaurant that’s a little more upscale but serves incredible brick-oven pizza. You can learn more about how to do a competitive analysis here.

Consumers

This is also the section of your restaurant business plan where you can delve into consumer research.

By knowing your customers, you can design the menu and experience they want. Do your research to understand who your customers are:

• Where do they live?
• What do they do for a living?
• How much do they earn?
• What is their marital and family status?

You can even undertake some consumer research as part of your planning process, though you needn’t include all the details in your business plan. Still, speaking with consumers who represent your ideal customer can give you a sense of the gaps in the market and what they would like to see from your business.

Company advantages

By understanding what others in the market are doing and what your prospective customers want, you can determine your unique advantages. What can your restaurant offer that’s new and needed?

Defining your special place in the market shows investors that you’ve thought about your positioning in the broader world and plan to offer something no one else is doing—a recipe for a successful business.

Regulations

Finally, it’s essential to understand any regulatory hurdles that may impact your plans to open and your ongoing operations. For example, if you plan to serve liquor, do you know how to acquire your liquor license, and is there a backup plan if it takes longer than expected?

Marketing and publicity

Getting the word out about your new restaurant is essential to creating buzz before you open and maintaining a healthy momentum in those critical first months.

In this section, you’ll share how you plan to market and promote your restaurant. What are your pre-opening and post-opening marketing plans? What is your overarching strategy, and what tactics do you plan to employ (i.e., local print advertising, digital ads, social media, etc.)?

MAR Y SOL is new to Dallas and making a splash on social media.

If you are hiring a marketing or PR firm to lead your efforts, include information about them here.

Need help with your marketing plan? Free guide >> 6 Simple Steps to a Complete Small Business Marketing Plan (+Template!)

Funding request

If you’re sharing your business plan with investors or lenders, this is your moment to make your financial ask.

What exactly do you need from a prospective investor or lender? Be specific—include how much money you seek and what you plan to use it for.

Financial projections

Your financial projections will be an essential part of your restaurant business plan regardless, but they’re especially relevant if you are using the plan to secure funding.

These projections can be complicated, so leave it to your CPA to crunch the numbers. But it’s still wise to know what typically goes in this section. Here, you’ll want to create projections for the next five years, with a particular emphasis (and more granular information) for the first 12 months.

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The key projections you can expect to include are:

• Income statements
• Balance sheets
• Cash flow statements
• Capital expenditure budgets

Ensure that your CPA has clearly explained your projections and the assumptions used to create them. And if you are asking for funding, double-check that your funding request lines up with the numbers you present here.

Restaurant business plan template

Ready to start drafting your own plan? Use this template to get started. (Want to make it even easier? We put this into a handy Google Doc template for you to copy and fill out!)

Front page

[Include restaurant name and logo, if you have it designed]

Table of contents

[Include a list of upcoming sections and page numbers for each]

Executive summary

[This information should be high-level and introductory — this is a summary, after all! More detailed information will follow in other sections. Keep these three sections to 3-5 sentences each.]

• Restaurant concept
• Target customers
• Proposed (or actual) location

Organization and management

[This section will include names and brief bios for each of the key players in your restaurant. It should also include details about any outside business partners playing a key role in your planning and launch.]

• Founder(s)
• FOH leadership (if applicable; for example, General Manager, Director of Operations, Head Sommelier, etc.)
• BOH leadership (if applicable; for example, Executive Chef, Chef de Cuisine, Pastry Chef, etc.)
• Outside business support, which may include:
  • CPA
  • Attorney
  • PR/marketing firm
  • Architect
  • Interior designer

Restaurant operations plan

[This section will provide additional details on how your restaurant will run once opened.]

• Sample menu, with pricing
• Staffing plan (including org chart/structure, if applicable)
• Service plan

Market analysis

[Analyze competitors, target customers, and potential outside factors that might impact your business.]

• Industry (competitors)
• Consumers
• Company advantages (your unique value proposition)
• Regulations

Marketing and publicity

[Share how you plan to market your restaurant pre- and post-opening. If you are working with a marketing or PR firm, include their information here.]

Funding request

[If applicable, detail your requested dollar amount and what you plan to use it for.]

Financial projections

[To be completed by/with your CPA. Include projections for up to five years, with more granular data for the first 12 months. Depending on your business and needs, your CPA may suggest additional projections.]

• Income/profit and loss statements
• Balance sheets
• Cash flow statements
• Capital expenditure budgets

Get started with your restaurant business plan

With this guide, your investors, partners, and team will feast their eyes on a stellar restaurant business plan that sets you up for long-term success. Need help marketing your restaurant? See how we can help.

The post How to Write a Restaurant Business Plan (+Free Template) appeared first on LocaliQ.

So how do you get your small business to appear on Yelp business search? We have an answer to that, plus more common Yelp questions, like “What are the benefits of claiming your business on Yelp?” or “Is claiming a business on Yelp free?”

Small businesses are known to have a superior level of quality and customer service. Yelp helps that shine through! Find out how you can make your business a Yelp superstar.

Contents

• What is Yelp?
• What are the benefits of claiming a business on Yelp?
• How to add your business on Yelp
• How to claim a business on Yelp
• Yelp tips and best practices

What is Yelp?

Yelp is a local-focused website and app where consumers can find information and leave reviews for all types of businesses. Yelp brings customers and businesses together by allowing businesses to respond to reviews and provide helpful information about their business.

Plus, Yelp allows users to contact businesses directly from the platform for things like reservations or directions. Additionally, Yelp has a social aspect as users can interact with other people’s reviews.

Looking for more ways beyond Yelp to increase your local business’s online presence? Download our free pocket guide to local SEO!

What are the benefits of claiming a business on Yelp?

With over 178 million monthly users, Yelp helps to increase your web presence by allowing your business to get easily discovered on its platform.

Yelp can help your small business successfully bring in new, local customers who wouldn’t have been able to find you otherwise. Aside from awareness, Yelp can have an impact on your credibility, your customer base, and your budget. See for yourself with these data-backed benefits below:

Yelp reviews can increase trust with your business

Nearly 90% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation when making a purchase. That makes Yelp a huge asset to your small business marketing plan due to its review-centric nature.

Ready to grow your business on Yelp? Download our free small business marketing plan template to get your strategy started!

Yelp helps you get discovered by new customers in your area

On top of building trust, Yelp helps you to extend your reach to new customers. In fact, 92% of Yelp users make a purchase after visiting a business’s page on the site or in the app.

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It’s clear that claiming your business on Yelp to get more customers will result in a marketing ROI boost, as businesses with higher reviews have historically grown the most revenue.

It’s free to claim your business on Yelp

The best part about Yelp is that it’s completely free for both businesses and consumers to use. There are higher-tier, paid options available, too. However, we find that for someone looking to grow their business, using Yelp for free does the job!

How to add your business to Yelp

In order to claim your business, it needs to have a listing on the platform in the first place! If your business is not already on Yelp, follow these steps:

1. Search for your business on biz.yelp.com (this is the Yelp for Business website) or by using the Yelp for Business app.
2. If you don’t see your business listed, select Add Your Business to Yelp.
3. Enter your business information and email for confirmation.
4. Click Add Business.

How to claim your business on Yelp

Once your business is listed on Yelp, you can claim it. Here are four simple steps to do so:

1. Navigate to your business’s Yelp page.
2. Select claim this business towards the bottom right of the page.
3. You will be prompted to create a Yelp for business owners account or log in if you already have one.
4. Follow the prompts to verify your business.

Congratulations! Your business has now been claimed and you can start managing your reputation on Yelp.

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7 Yelp profile tips and best practices

Now that your business is claimed on Yelp, here are a few tips to start optimizing your profile.

1. Double-check your business information

Yelp makes it easy for visitors to give you a call, go to your website, or find your store location in just a few clicks. That means that accurate business information is vital to the efficacy of your Yelp listing.

Take the extra minute to ensure your business description, address, operating hours, and contact information are all correctly updated.

2. Spice up your profile photo

A fun profile photo will help to catch your audience’s eye when they’re comparing you to a bunch of other listings. Yelp is one of the few instances when you might want to stray from using your logo and use an eye-catching image that represents your business instead, like your storefront or the inside of your location.

For example, a tasty signature dish or a sparkling clean car will help you stand out from your Yelp competitors.

3. Add plenty of extra photos

The more photos, the merrier! People retain about 55% more information if it’s paired with an image. Adding photos of your business, products, and community will help you be more recognizable later.

4. Respond to all reviews

Yes, even the bad ones. Bad reviews can be good for business… If you turn it into a positive experience through a response! Regardless of whether the review is positive or negative, responding to your customers’ feedback is a way for your business to interact and engage with your audience.

Get more tips for responding to reviews on Yelp here.

5. Share your best reviews

Leverage Yelp for its main purpose: to showcase your business! You can screenshot any stellar reviews you get on Yelp and share them elsewhere. Try including a “reviews” or “testimonials” section on your website where you share your best Yelp reviews. Or, turn those reviews into social media posts thanking your customers for their support. You can even use those top review stats to “brag” in your paid ad copy.

6. Put yourself into a few categories

Yelp for Business allows you to select up to three categories that your business relates to. This helps people find you when filtering down the Yelp results page. Think of them as “tags” for your business. They’re templated out for you by Yelp and could be industry-related or service-related, like “delivery available” or “walk-in availability.” You can quickly pick a few on your profile page with a few simple clicks.

7. Prep your profile for Yelp ads

Once you claim your business on Yelp, you’ll be eligible to run ads on Yelp. For many businesses, advertising on Yelp is the natural next step once a profile is claimed and set up. That’s because Yelp ads help your business show up at the top of Yelp business searches, alongside competitors’ Yelp pages, and more. In fact, Yelp ads have been proven to yield nearly three times more leads than an organic Yelp listing.

Since you’ll have to put a bit of marketing budget behind your Yelp ads, you want to ensure you get the most bang for your buck. Preparing your profile to build out Yelp ads is the first step. Some of the tips we already covered can impact your Yelp ads strategy. For example, Yelp ads dynamically pull in images you’ve already added to your profile. However, you may want to consider how other profile options, like setting up message leads and email notifications, could streamline your Yelp ad reporting and setup.

Claim your business on Yelp like a pro

Claiming your business on Yelp can be a quick win for any small business because it’s free and easy. Yelp is ideal for anyone looking to improve their customer experience based on actual feedback. It’s also key to any small business marketing strategy since it drives awareness, grows your presence, and builds your customer base. Is your business on Yelp? Try claiming it today!

For more help with all things Yelp, Yelp ads, and more, see how our solutions can maximize your local listing strategies!

The post How to Add or Claim a Business on Yelp (+7 Tips!) appeared first on LocaliQ.

But there are also simple ads that use strong color contrast and a few clever words to stand out. And often those deliver the best bang for smaller businesses that don’t have Spielberg-sized production budgets.

That’s why I pulled together a list of Instagram ad examples that run the gamut from bold and flashy to concise and functional. That way, every type of business can find something to be inspired by. I also pulled out some of the aspects of each ad that make them click and conversion magnets so you can swipe and adapt them for your next campaign.

Contents

• Instagram ad tips
• 13 Instagram ad examples to fuel your next campaign
  • Static image ad examples
  • Video ad examples
  • Story ad examples
  • Explore ad examples
  • Carousel ad examples

Instagram ad tips

Before we dive into these ads, let’s take a look at what makes them great examples of Instagram marketing. It’s not all golden-hour lighting and celebrity influencers. There’s actual structure here—sometimes too subtle to notice—that’s the difference between a skippable ad and one that pays for itself tenfold.

How’s your social media presence? Our free Website Grader gives you instant visibility into the strength of your social media accounts.

Get animated

You’ll see some great examples of static-image ads on the list. But where possible and appropriate, it’s always a good bet to add some type of animation to your Instagram ads. It doesn’t have to be a professionally shot scene or even a video at all—just some animated text or a quick transition between messages. Our brains evolved to notice motion, so a little movement will help your ad stand out.

Make it easy to buy

Friction is the biggest conversion killer in social media marketing—the fewer steps between discovery and conversion, the better. While you still can’t put links in your Instagram captions, you can use shoppable ads and conversion buttons so people can click a link without going to your bio. Use these features whenever possible.

Once people click your link, make sure they find a landing page focused on the one specific product or offer in your ad. Don’t dump potential customers off on your home page and make them navigate to the thing they want. They’ll love you for the convenience and reward you with conversions.

Add a killer CTA

Speaking of conversions, your call-to-action phrase is the most important piece of copy in any ad. That’s certainly true for Instagram ads, where you don’t have a lot of space to make a grandiose argument for your solution.

The #1 rule for writing CTAs is to be direct. If you can be clever and direct, great! But don’t let a funny phrase get in the way of telling people what they need to do next and what they’ll get when they do it. Use CTAs in your shopping buttons and captions.

Get the Copy & Paste Social Media Calendar for a full year’s worth of Instagram ideas.

13 Instagram ad examples to fuel your next campaign

Alright, let’s get down to business. While you review each of these Instagram ad examples, remember that its ultimate goal is to convert scrollers to buyers, donators, or downloaders. Some Instagram ads do that with beautiful imagery and storytelling. Others motivate action with a bright color or compelling copy. Think about which of these tactics best fits your business and budget.

Static image ad examples

I still stand by the power of animation in Instagram ads. But you can get great results with a static image, too. These ads show how to do the job well with features that grab attention.

Later

Later is a social media management tool that also helps brands connect with influencers. In their ad, they cleverly leverage a modern anxiety and offer a solution.

Why this ad works:

• No one likes to be ghosted or left on read (modern problems!). The image in the ad tugs at that anxiety in the context of finding influencers for your campaign.
• The caption steps in like the adult in the room and offers a clear solution to the problem.
• Tap the “Learn more” button, and you’ll land on a landing page designed for this specific pain point.

My Subscription Addiction

My Subscription Addiction is an affiliate marketing account that showcases and compares various products sold by subscription. Their Instagram ad example pulls at your heartstrings and piques your curiosity.

Why this ad works:

• The photo of an adorable dog is a cheap advertising trick in the best way possible. Include pictures of cute animals whenever you can (as long as it makes sense!).
• The question is a plus. Questions are a tried-and-true copywriting hack because they get readers interested in what’s next.
• The caption is absolute(ly wonderful) clickbait. Which option did you choose?! Better click to find out.

Bosch Tools

Bosch makes high-end construction tools (among other things) designed for the riggers of professional use. Their simple ad speaks to the heart of their target market.

Why this ad works:

• The four-word subhead is dripping with empathy (a core copywriting skill) for the ad’s target market. Ads that prove you understand your customers (especially how they see themselves) will always convert better.
• The image backs up the copy, featuring a professional-looking contractor in a commercial space, which helps position the product with the target audience.

Video ad examples

Besides grabbing attention on Instagram feeds, video also gives you more space to show products and tell stories. I picked these Instagram video ad examples because they each use different strategies to do those things.

Tractive

Tractive sells GPS and health trackers for dogs and cats. In their Instagram ad example, they pack several powerful tactics into one short video.

Why this ad works:

• There are three distinct “chapters” of this ad. The hook is a person walking their dog on a forested trail, which will give animal lovers a reason to pause (paws?) in their tracks.
• The second portion of the ad is a testimonial from a dog trainer, which adds a bit of social proof.
• The last portion of the ad uses visuals from the app to show how it works, which really helps viewers imagine what life will be like if they buy it.

Operation White Stork

Operation White Stork is a US veteran-led non-profit that delivered medical kits and other humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Their personally moving ad below leans hard on storytelling.

Why this ad works:

• The quickest way to donors’ wallets is through their (metaphorical) hearts, and this ad goes right for them with stories from Ukrainian medical personnel on the frontlines.
• The organization wisely included video captions, which are a MUST when you need to tell an important story in your video ad.
• Visually, the ad nails the tone with the right lighting, muted colors, and an understated logo at the top corner. The lesson: make the optics match the message.

Reiziger Hydroponic

Reiziger Hydroponic sells nutrients that boost growth for hydroponically grown plants. Their Instagram ad example proves less can be more, even in an Instagram video ad.

Why this ad works:

• The text, which is relatively huge for the size of the ad, appears letter by letter across the screen, which is a great way to add motion quickly and cheaply.
• The color contrast is so strong here that the message jumps off the screen and grabs you.
• In a field of busy Instagram posts, simplicity stands out.

Story Ad examples

It’s easy to lose 15 minutes tapping your way through dozens of Instagram Stories. That’s probably why over half a billion (!) people use Instagram Stories every day. These Instagram ad examples make great use of this channel’s bingability.

Casper

Casper is an OG direct-to-consumer brand that sells mattresses, bedding sets, and other sleep-related products. Their ad includes clever animation to highlight product features.

Why this Instagram ad example works:

• Casper sells in a crowded market, so they use clear, animated text to highlight the specific features that make their products different.
• The creative use of ad space shows the entire product in a cozy setting on top while two bottom panels do the sales heavy lifting, an excellent way to mix form and function.
• The simple subheader “soft and sophisticated” concisely positions the product with its target market (people looking for luxury) and exposes an essential product characteristic (soft) so people looking for a softer mattress know this is for them.

Cleaning Charlotte

Cleaning Charlotte is a furniture and rug cleaning business based in Charlotte, North Carolina. This to-the-point ad hits all the right points for marketing a local business.

Why this ad works:

• Oh, is there anything more soothing than watching a rug shampooer put clean lines in fabric? You can just feel how soft your couch would be after this company cleaned it. And that’s why their video is so effective.
• With a Story ad, you have to get your message across without the benefit of a caption. The copy at the bottom tells you what they do and offers a discount without cluttering up the video.
• Social proof is absolutely non-negotiable for local service businesses, especially those that work inside people’s houses. This Story ad shows some at the end (although it’s a little unclear who named them #1; it would be better if they included that information).

Penji

Penji offers visual design and marketing services. In their Instagram ad example blow, they expose customer pain points through a fun skit.

Why this ad works:

• The ad format is a little skit that highlights a real pain point—finding brilliant designers on an ad-hoc basis. It’s funny and relatable to the target audience, which makes it a hit.
• While the video is clean and clear, it’s not overly produced (notice the very visible mic on the “actor”). That fits the vibe of Instagram, where people want to connect and be entertained by real people.

Explore ad examples

If an Instagram feed is distracting, then the Explore page is like a New York shopping mall at Christmas. It’s so hard to stand out among all those other little squares vying for attention. These next couple of ad examples use techniques that play particularly well in the chaos.

Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is, well, you probably know it’s a news publication. Their ad includes a simple message shared boldly.

Why this ad works:

• You know those people who spin big signs on the street corner promoting a new bagel shop or tax office? This ad is basically the digital version of that. That big “$2” almost forces you to look, even in the middle of an Explore page.
• All the nearly monochrome negative space around the main message is a nice design choice. It acts as a buffer between the ad copy and other posts on the Explore page.
• I like that they included the old price. In general, it’s a good idea to show people how much they’re saving.

Mando Deodorant

Mando sells a range of personal hygiene products for men. Their Instagram ad example says it all in four simple words.

Why this ad works:

• You won’t win on the Explore page with a long-winded marketing message. Mando does the job with four words.
• The added CTA copy in white with contrasting orange is a nice touch. Sure, there’s a “Shop now” button below, but the additional call to action stands out better and is even more direct since it says what you’ll be shopping for.
• When used responsibly (not 30 of them), emojis can be a good device to attract attention to your captions. Mando uses them to highlight a new product, which might attract existing customers.

Carousel ad examples

Instagram carousel ads give you much more real estate to expand your message. Here are two ways to make good use of the extra square footage.

Jack Black

Jack Black offers a range of men’s skincare products (men’s grooming brands are on fire!). Their carousel ad below shows off a whole product collection.

Why this ad works:

• You’re often introducing your brand for the first time to potential customers in Instagram ads, which means they don’t know what you sell. Jack Black made sure Instagram scrollers saw a variety of its products by adding several to its carousel.
• The brand used dynamic comments to match each image in the carousel. That’ll give shoppers extra details about each item.

REI

REI is a large retailer of outdoor and sporting goods. Their Instagram ad example looks like a fashion magazine turned carousel ad.

Why this ad works:

• Unlike Jack Black, REI uses its carousel images to showcase a single product from different angles and positions. This makes the ad feel like a fashion layout where a model might strike several poses in one outfit. Consider this option if you sell products with multiple use cases.
• The photography (model, location, etc.) is relevant to the intended audience (assuming that audience is young athletes, particularly baseball players). That’s something small businesses should keep in mind. Are you targeting homeowners or renters? Weekend warriors or professionals? Choose images, locations, and models that match your niche target.

Swipe ideas from Instagram ad examples

The great thing about Instagram ads is there are always new ones to learn from. Pay attention to how other brands use images and video, take advantage of new ad features, and position their products in the copy.

This is especially true for your competitors. You don’t even have to wait for their ads to pop up randomly.  There are several ways to spy on them, including using the Facebook Ad Library.

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