In the run up to Marvel’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” the brewer is hoping to spread the word about its alcohol-free option.
Originally posted on January 12, 2023 @ 11:41 am
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In the run up to Marvel’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” the brewer is hoping to spread the word about its alcohol-free option.
Originally posted on January 12, 2023 @ 11:41 am
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Are you feeling overwhelmed with all of the digital marketing tools out there? Paralyzed by choice? Don’t worry; you’re not alone! In today’s digital age, knowing where to start and which tools are right for your team, budget, and business can be hard.
We’re here to help you navigate the ever-evolving world of digital marketing tools. This guide has the top tools for everyone, from novice marketers to managers of enterprise corporations. Keep reading for a spectrum of digital marketing tools that’ll put you in the upper echelon of your industry.
Bonus: Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.
Want to automate tedious tasks, stay organized and on top of to-do’s, and better connect with your audience on social? If you answered no to any of those prompts, you’re in the wrong place. How did you even get here?
Jokes aside, the right digital marketing software will super-boost your social media strategy. These tools can make your work life so much easier, to the point where it might not even feel like work anymore.
Number one in our hearts is Hootsuite. Obviously, we’re a little biased but hear us out. Hootsuite can do so many social media marketing-specific things. As far as digital marketing platforms go, this one’s a banger.
Hootsuite is beloved by over 16 million users, too, many of them solopreneurs, busy marketing managers, and content creators. That many social media marketing professionals can’t be wrong.
Now, Hootsuite is famous for its ability to help you publish content, plan your social media calendars, create account-specific streams that keep you organized, and organize your many different social communications in one place. But there are other, more niche features that you’ll discover as you use the tool.
For example, here are two Hootsuite social features you don’t want to sleep on:
Do you ever hit a wall with marketing content generation for your social media calendar? Well, Hootsuite’s got your back.
You can browse through this nearly endless source of inspiration for new social media content ideas. Each content idea is a three-parter, including:
A sample post that you can open in Composer to customize and schedule
A description of how and when to use it
A list of best practices for creating variations on the idea
This Hootsuite Analytics feature gives you automatic suggestions for the best time to post based on your unique audience. You don’t have to do any data-crunching yourself. Simply schedule your content for the future, and when you go to choose your time, Hootsuite will make suggestions for you.
Price: Included with every Hootsuite plan, starting as low as $49/month.
Who it’s for: Content creators, brand managers, marketers, and small business owners. Businesses of all sizes.
Brandwatch is a social listening integration for Hootsuite. It lets you track and analyze keywords, brand mentions, and the general activity of your audiences on a large scale. You can easily track, study, and shape the conversation around your brand, also known as brand monitoring.
With Brandwatch, you know what your audience is saying about you and topics related to your brand and industry. Then, you can deliver content that speaks to what’s relevant to them or chime in on conversations about your brand.
Source: Hootsuite
Price: Included with a Hootsuite Business or Enterprise account.
Who it’s for: Marketers, content creators, brand managers. Businesses of all sizes.
We’ve got you covered if you’re thirsty for more of the best marketing tools for social media.
Keyword research tools are crucial for setting up a successful SEO marketing strategy. Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a small business owner, everyone has to play by the same SEO rules. And when you play the game right, with the right tools in your belt, you can bump your brand to the top.
Keyword research and SEO marketing tools can help you to track search trends, create powerful content, and optimize your visibility on search engine results pages.
Ahrefs is one of the most popular keyword research tools out there, and for a good reason. It has a range of features, like an all-in-one SEO toolset that allows you to audit and optimize your website. You can also audit your competitor’s sites and uncover the keywords they’re ranking for, discover your industry’s top-performing content, and track your ranking progress.
Ahrefs makes it simple to discover profitable keywords that’ll help skyrocket your site’s ranking in no time.
Source: Ahrefs
Price: Ahrefs has a host of free SEO tools anyone can use. Paid plans range from $99/month to $999/month.
Who it’s for: Marketers, SEO strategists, small business owners, and marketing teams for enterprise-level corporations.
SEMrush is another great keyword research tool for any marketer or SEO strategist. It helps to identify long-tail and highly targeted keywords that can show significant improvements in online traffic and conversions. Plus, the keyword ideas are especially helpful when brainstorming new keywords to rank for.
SEMrush provides a powerful and easy interface to quickly find targeted keywords ideal for SEO campaigns or content creation. It also offers a Social Media Toolkit that includes advanced social media analytics.
Source: SEMrush
Price: Paid SEMrush plans range from $119.95/month to $449.95/month
Who it’s for: Marketers, SEO strategists, small business owners, and marketing teams for enterprise-level corporations.
Google Keyword Planner is a research tool for anyone looking to better their advertising, optimize their keyword performance, and streamline their SEO efforts.
The best thing about it? It’s free. Google Keyword Planner is a cost-effective alternative to expensive SEO marketing tools. Plus, it offers up-to-date analytics about the most effective search phrases your business should target.
Of course, it has some limitations compared to the bossy Internet marketing tools mentioned above. But again, you can’t beat free.
Source: Google Keyword Planner
Price: Free!
Who it’s for: Solopreneurs, content creators, marketers with small budgets, small business owners.
Graphic design and video marketing tools are invaluable when creating stunning online content. Today’s world is dominated by visuals, which makes having professional-looking online assets so important. Listen, even if you’re not an artist, you can fake it till you make it with tools.
Graphics and videos that are aesthetically pleasing can help draw in viewers and add a level of credibility to your brand. Tools make it easier than ever to create quality content while minimizing cost and effort. This ease of use and stunning visuals make these tools a no-brainer for any business.
You know we love a free, template-rich, and intuitive tool! Canva is one of the only online graphic design tools that checks all of those boxes and more.
Canva contains a huge library of pre-made templates and images, so it’s easy to create a video with stunning graphics in minutes. Their intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes the process even simpler, taking much of the necessary technical know-how out of graphic design.
You can also easily create an animated video in Canva using one of the pre-made templates. Then, use their video editing software to make it your own. You’ll be able to create the type of video you want in minutes with their drag-and-drop capabilities.
The online tool also offers powerful features such as photo filters, email editors, and team collaboration capabilities. Oh, and Canva integrates seamlessly with Hootsuite.
Source: Canva
Price: Free! If you want to upgrade, Canva Pro starts at $119.99/year per person.
Who it’s for: Non-designers who need to create assets, content creators, and solopreneurs.
Visme is another free and intuitive design tool. Where Canva is focused on simplicity, Visme is great for more complex designs, like infographics or presentations. It has tons of professionally-styled templates for you to choose from.
Visme’s focus on business-forward templates makes it easy to film a corporate-style explainer video. These are particularly useful when producing assets for your internal team. With Visme, you can easily create both internal and external video content that can help you further your business goals.
Source: Visme
Price: Free! A premium Visme account is available from $24.75/month.
Who it’s for: Non-designers who need to create assets, marketers with client presentations, and solopreneurs.
Data analytics tools are a must-have for any digital marketing venture. If you’re not measuring your tactics and strategy, you can’t know what’s working and what’s not.
When it comes to analytics tools, choose ones that serve your specific business goals, whether that’s insights into optimizing your operations, increasing your sales, improving your customer experience, or all of the above.
The right tools will help you reduce your churn rate and predict future trends based on your collected consumer data.
Google Analytics is proof that you don’t need a big budget to stay on top of your data. It’s free to use and will help you better understand your website traffic. For the social-obsessed folks out there, Google Analytics can give you detailed insights on your social traffic and conversions.
You’ll gain insights into how visitors interact with your website; you can monitor marketing campaigns and gain valuable data about the demographics of your customers. Then, you can optimize your site and campaigns for better user engagement and higher conversions.
Source: Google Analytics
Price: Free!
Who it’s for: Everyone who has a website, from solopreneurs and small businesses all the way up to larger enterprise companies.
Hotjar, a popular analytics tool, gives you insight into how your consumers interact with your website and apps. It can create Heatmaps or Recordings where you can watch the path your users take, where they pause, and where they quickly click away from.
Hotjar’s features are undeniably useful when it comes to creating user journey maps or understanding the areas of your UX that need improvement.
Source: Hotjar
Price: Free! Paid subscriptions range from $39/month to $99/month.
Who it’s for: Product teams and designers, UX designers, and people looking to better understand their user’s journey.
It’s not hard to see why email marketing tools are a must-have for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Email marketing boasts an average ROI of $45 for every $1 spent. And with the right tools, you can maximize that profit and make it as painless as possible.
Email marketing tools make managing customer contact lists, automating and designing campaigns, and tracking results simple and straightforward. With the ability to monitor open rates, clicks, conversions, and more, tools for marketing with email provide valuable insight into customer behaviour.
Mailchimp is one of the leading email marketing SaaS companies out there. They offer automation capabilities, templates for content creation, and omnichannel, integrated campaign tools. Plus, Mailchimp makes it easy to create professional-looking emails with a drag-and-drop interface.
Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing platform. They offer tools for automation, insight, content creation, and audience data. Mailchimp also integrates with Hootsuite.
Source: Mailchimp
Price: Free! Paid Mailchimp accounts range from $17.80/month to $479.24/month.
Who it’s for: Marketers, agencies, small owner-operated businesses to enterprise-level corporations.
Marketo takes a slightly more personalized approach to email marketing than Mailchimp. This tool makes it possible to manage multiple lists for different customers all in one place.
Marketo offers a highly-customizable system with equipped with useful email templates. So you can build personalized email and nurture campaigns. This way, you can send individualized emails based on your customer’s past purchases and interests.
Source: Capterra
Price: The pricing is based on your database size, but there are no free options.
Who it’s for: Marketers, agencies, and small- to mid-sized businesses. Those who want to make personalized sales.
If you want to increase website conversions and generate leads, then you’re going to need landing page and lead capture tools. By creating attractive, engaging pages that are specifically designed to convert, you’ll foster powerful relationships with potential customers.
Lead capture tools help followers take action more easily by providing them with simple and intuitive processes. Essentially, the right combination of content, visuals, and calls-to-action gives your users a natural path to convert.
If you’re, say, a food blogger, an ecommerce business, or any brand interested in social selling, you might want to link more than one URL in your Instagram bio. But alas, Instagram won’t technically allow it. Enter Linktree: One of the best link-in-bio landing page tools.
Linktree allows you to create and customize a bio link. With it, you can connect anything you have a URL to, like your social links, website, store, videos, music, podcast, and events. Plus, Linktree is easy to set up, so you’ll be reaping the benefits in no time.
Source: Linktree
Price: Free! Paid Linktree plans start at $6/month and go up to 27$/month.
Who it’s for: Marketers, content creators, and brands on social media who want to share more than one link.
Unbounce makes creating, optimizing, and launching landing pages a breeze. With its built-in A/B testing and analytics features, you can easily determine which page elements are delivering the most bang for your buck. It’s a landing page and lead capture tool in one.
Unbounce’s intuitive editor lets even the most design-challenged among us customize one of their pre-built templates. You’ll be able to give each page a personal look and feel while still relying on proven strategies for success. And once they’re published, advanced analytics take over, so you’ll know exactly which elements are resonating with visitors down to the finest detail.
Source: Unbounce
Price: Free two-week trial, then $90/month or $575/month.
Who it’s for: Business owners, agencies, B2B marketers, and ecommerce brands.
Collaboration and productivity tools can significantly improve communication within the workplace. With remote working taking over, water cooler chats and boardroom meetings have been replaced with online communication.
Having a range of simple tools like chat, video conferencing, and cloud-based document storage makes work easier, whether you’re working alone or with colleagues. By allowing team members to collaborate easily on projects, these tools help take the strain out of managing complex tasks.
If you’ve used Slack before, you know it trumps most other tools for work-related communication. Within the app, you have public and private channels where you can pin important messages or share files. It integrates easily with other communication and collaboration tools like Zoom and Google Drive.
Slack works on pretty much anything, from your phone to your laptop and your tablet. Just make sure you turn your notifications off at night, as the classic Slack ping can induce a Pavlovian effect for work-related stress.
Price: From $7.25/user per month to $12.50/user per month.
Who it’s for: Agencies, enterprises, and businesses with large, medium, and small internal teams.
Airtable is a cloud-based collaboration platform. Its capabilities are wide and far-reaching, but at its core Airtable is a database-spreadsheet hybrid where you can link records and store information.
Airtable is great for collaborating on projects, mapping out calendars or timelines, and generating easy-to-digest plans or strategies. It has tons of templates to get you started, from content calendars to marketing campaign trackers and product launches.
Source: Airtable
Price: Free! Paid models are $10/ seat monthly to $20/ seat monthly
Who it’s for: Content creators, agencies, large to small businesses, project managers, and marketers.
Google Sheets is a classic collaboration tool. You can create a spreadsheet in Sheets, share it with your entire team or clients, then communicate back and forth by commenting on the cells in question.
Google Sheets also hosts a number of templates that project managers will love, like project timelines, plans, and trackers. It has Gantt chat functionality so you can see at a glance your project’s start date and task timelines.
Source: Google Drive Sheet’s Template
Price: Free!
Who it’s for: Agencies, large to small businesses, project managers, marketers, and content creators.
If your team struggles with collaboration, try implementing some tips from our Social Media Collaboration guide.
Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversions, engage the audience, measure results, and more. Try it free today.
Bonus: Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.
The post 15 Digital Marketing Tools for Every Team and Budget appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on January 10, 2023 @ 9:40 pm
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Having an orderly, beautiful and consistent set of Instagram highlight covers looks cool, sure — but it’s also a great opportunity to show off your branding, color palette and sense of style to your followers. And, aesthetic highlight covers encourage profile visitors to click and view the Stories that contain all the important information you’ve essentially pinned to the top of your profile.
You can design personalized highlight covers from scratch or use a graphic design tool or photo editing app for extra support. Read this post and you’ll be, well, covered.
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
First: What is an Instagram highlight?
An Instagram highlight is a collection of Instagram Stories that a user has saved under a certain category. Instagram Stories can only be viewed for 24 hours, but adding a Story to a highlight gives it a permanent spot on your profile.
An Instagram highlight cover is a photo or graphic that appears above the highlight name on your profile page. It’s like a book cover, but for your highlight.
In the example below (indicated by the blue rectangle), a fashion brand uses highlights to feature important information—a sizing guide, care info, new launches, etc.—and each highlight has a cute floral highlight cover.
Source: Instagram
Highlight covers aren’t essential, but they do provide your profile with a polished look—and they make a great first impression for people visiting your Instagram page for the first time.
Here’s how to make them.
To create an Instagram highlight cover, first you need to have an Instagram highlight. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a highlight (and if you already have a highlight set up, skip this part).
1. Open your Instagram account in the mobile app and click “New” in the highlights section below your bio.
2. Scroll through your Story archive and select the Stories you want to include in your highlight. Then, tap Next in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Type in the name of your highlight.
4. Optional: Tap Edit cover to edit the default cover picked by Instagram (a frame from the first Story in your collection). You can also do this later, once your highlight is live — we cover the process in detail below.
5. Click Add in the top right cover of the screen.
That’s it! Your highlight will show up on your profile page.
Once you create an Instagram highlight, the cover will generate automatically — but personalizing your Instagram highlight covers is way more fun. It’s also a great way to showcase your branding and add an individual touch to your profile.
We’ve put together 40 Instagram Story highlight cover icons that are free to download and easy to customize. Or, you can make your own.
You can create circular Instagram highlight covers using any design app or software. We’re fans of Canva (and psst… Canva is now integrated with Hootsuite, making it simple to design beautiful graphics for free). Here’s how to create a highlight cover using Canva.
1. Go to canva.com. Canva is free to use, but you do need to create an account to log in.
2. You can design your own Instagram highlight from scratch using any circular image, or personalize a Canva template (that’s what we’ll be doing in this example). Type “Instagram Story highlight” into the search bar to find thousands of templates.
3. Select your favorite template.
4. Once you’ve selected your template, you can edit the text…
5. …and the colours…
6. …and even add graphics, if you want to. Canva has a ton of free images and designs to choose from.
7. When you’re happy with the design, click “Share” at the top right of your screen to download the image.
8. Choose Download from the drop-down menu. Download the image as a PNG or JPG. If the template you’ve chosen has several pages, only download the pages that you want—in this case, we’re only saving page 2.
9. Save the image to your phone’s camera roll. Now, it’s time to use the image as a highlight cover.
To change your Instagram highlight cover to a personalized image, follow these simple steps:
1. Open the highlight from your Instagram profile.
2. Tap More in the bottom right corner.
3. Tap Edit highlight. Then, tap Edit cover, near the top of your screen.
5. To choose an image from your camera roll, tap the photo icon near the bottom of your screen.
6. Choose the new highlight cover from your camera roll. Then, tap Done.
That’s it! Your brand new highlight cover is live.
Still searching for inspiration? Here are some great examples of engaging Instagram Story highlight covers and tips on how to get it right.
Instagram Story highlight covers are small—so small, in fact, that you’ll want to avoid crowding that precious little circle with too much text or overcomplicated images.
Source: Instagram
Keeping your covers basic and clean is ideal. Even simple color-blocked highlight covers (like the ones used by the artist above) are super effective: they’re not too busy, and pleasing to look at.
Your IG highlight covers don’t need to be identical, but ideally, they’ll match: consider picking a certain color, theme or pattern to follow when making your covers.
Source: Instagram
This restaurant uses a red circular frame on all of their highlight covers, creating a consistent look even though the photos within each frame are all different. It’s a small detail, but it gives the covers a cohesive look.
Highlight covers are an opportunity to show off your creativity as a brand. Think about how you can infuse your brand into your highlight covers as much as possible.
Source: Instagram
For example, paint brand Farrow and Ball has highlight covers that look like paint mixing together. It’s a very unique choice that effectively communicates something about the brand (mainly, that they sell paint).
Another way you can incorporate your brand into your highlight covers is by using your brand’s colors in the designs. Think of a cover like a label for your business: audiences should be able to look at it and immediately know that it belongs to you.
Source: Instagram
This cosmetic brand, for example, has a very consistent color palette across their products and on their Instagram. The highlight covers are no exception: they take on the same trendy pinky-brown hues as the rest of the profile.
Because there’s not much real estate on a highlight cover, using pictures that symbolize words and ideas—or icons—can be an excellent tool for communicating simple information.
Source: Instagram
Crate and Barrel’s Instagram highlight covers are quite basic, but the icons are effective when it comes to symbolizing ideas (and they’re pretty cute, too). Icons are where editing apps like Canva really shine—there’s thousands of symbols and simple illustrations built right in.
If you use Instagram for business, your highlight covers work as a tiny marketing tactic. Instead of having to scroll through your feed to see all of your merchandise, Instagram users can get a quick look at your products via the highlight covers.
Source: Instagram
This slow fashion brand uses highlights to feature specific products, so curious shoppers can easily research the design and fit of different pieces of clothing.
Don’t make the high school mistake of highlighting everything. Highlights should be used to showcase only the most important and useful information to your audience. It’s good to be picky about which Stories you highlight (and as a bonus, being selective means you won’t have to design a ton of highlight covers).
Source: Instagram
Pottery Barn Kids keeps their highlights simple and broad: topics like “Nursery,” “Toddler,” and “Bedroom” make it easy for Instagram users to find the inspo they’re looking for.
Highlight covers often symbolize the highlighted category in a very literal way, but if you’ve got an idea, try it—one of the best things about highlight covers is that they can be edited or switched out if you change your mind. Let your imagination go wild.
Source: Instagram
It’s not surprising that this graphic designer has very bold, distinctive highlight covers—they fit perfectly with his brand. For example, it would be the typical choice to go with Twitter’s logo for the “Tweets” section, but this designer created his own personal version of that iconic bird.
Now that you know how to create Instagram highlights and add custom covers to them, download this bundle of 40 free customizable designs and take the look of your Instagram profile to the next level.
Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.
Easily manage all of your Instagram marketing with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.
Grow on Instagram
Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.
The post How to Make Clicky Instagram Highlight Covers [40 Free Covers] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on January 12, 2023 @ 2:41 pm
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Social media RFPs (requests for proposals) are the starting places for many successful social media strategies, campaigns, and collaborations.
Actually, a social media RFP template is the starting place. Creating a great RFP for social media marketing services isn’t easy, after all.
Write something too vague, and you’ll be sifting through unhelpful applications.
Leave too many questions unanswered? You’ll spend all your time writing lengthy responses to emails from interested vendors.
Whether you’re an agency or vendor, what you get out of a social media RFP depends on what you put into it. So why not use a tried-tested-and-true social media RFP template to set your project or brand off on the right foot?
Bonus: Get the free social media RFP template to create your own in minutes and find the right agency to help you achieve your goals.
Here’s some important marketing vocab for you: RFP stands for “request for proposal.”
A social media RFP is an open call for pitches, whether for a one-off project or a longer-term collaborative relationship. It can be put out to social media marketing agencies or individual practitioners.
Your RFP for social media marketing services might do the following:
outline a specific project or need your business wants to address (for example, the promotion of a limited-edition line of belts for dogs)
invites agencies, management platforms, or other vendors to pitch general creative ideas or solutions for your brand as a whole
The RFP process provides a way for a company to vet ideas and providers before committing to a significant collaboration or long-term agreement. Why wouldn’t you want to scope out your options before locking one down?!
A good RFP for social media management services should provide background, describe the project and its objectives, and spell out bidder requirements.
That being said, it’s a delicate balance between providing info and oversharing. The art of an RFP for social media lies in providing the necessary amount of detail while leaving room for creativity. It’s worth taking your time and doing it right, though, because the better your RFP, the better the vendor proposals will be.
(FYI: RFPs can be used for other business needs as well. You might create an RFP for help with a print marketing campaign or for manufacturing services. A social media RFP is specifically seeking proposals in the field of social media marketing.)
Wondering what to include in your social media RFP?
While every RFP is different, most strong social media RFPs feature a few common elements. (Just read a few social media RFP examples, and you’ll see these same details coming up again and again and again.)
Your social media content should be creative, but when it comes to social media RFPs, it really is best to stick with a proven structure.
Whether you want to work with a social media agency, digital marketing agency, or individual contractor, we recommend including these ten sections (in this order!) for your next social media RFP.
1. Introduction
2. Company profile
3. Social media ecosystem
4. Project purpose and description
5. Challenges
6. Key questions
7. Bidder qualifications
8. Proposal guidelines
9. Project timelines
10. Proposal evaluation
We’ve parsed out each section so you can get a better sense of what it should include in your RFP for social media services.
This is your first impression: a chance to give a big-picture overview of what you’re looking for. It’s like your objective on a resume.
Provide a top-level summary of your social media RFP. This short section should include key details such as your company name, what you’re looking for, and your submission due date.
Here’s an example:
Fake Company, Inc., the global leader in fake companies, is looking for a fake social media awareness campaign. We are accepting proposals in response to this fake request for proposal until [date].
Time to peel back some layers and let the reader know what your brand is all about.
Share some background on your company. Try to go beyond the boilerplate and provide information that may be relevant to an RFP for social media marketing services. This may include your:
Mission statement
Core values
Target customers
Key stakeholders
Competitive landscape
If including any of the above in your social media RFP would require disclosing trade secrets, note that additional information is available upon request and/or NDA signature.
In order to get great social media proposals, you’ve got to give your vendors a peek behind the curtain. Knowledge is power!
Give vendors an overview of how your company uses social media. Let them know which social channels you’re most active on or which networks you’ve chosen to avoid. Some other things you might mention in this section may include:
A summary of active accounts
Essential aspects of your social marketing strategy
Overviews or links to past or ongoing campaigns
Relevant social analytics (e.g., audience demographics, engagement, a social media audit, etc.)
Highlights from your social accounts (e.g., content that performed well)
Discover Puerto Rico outlined its wide range of social media accounts in its social media RFP, clarifying the distinction between their leisure audience and their business audience.
SOURCE: Discover Puerto Rico
A key reason to provide this intel in your social media RFP is to avoid repetition. Without this information, you may end up with social media proposals that are too similar to past concepts, which is ultimately a waste of everyone’s time.
The better a vendor can understand your social media landscape, the better they’ll be able to deliver a successful concept.
Explain the purpose of your social media RFP. What are you looking for? What social media goals are you hoping to achieve? Be as specific as possible.
Some examples may include:
Promote awareness of a new store opening in [location]
Gain new followers on a recently launched social media channel
Increase consideration for an existing product or service
Generate more leads via specific social media channels
Establish your company as a thought leader
Share company values or initiatives with a target audience
Run a seasonal promotion or social contest
Remember, social media campaigns can and should include multiple objectives. Each goal provides a box for a vendor’s proposal to tick off.
This RFP from SkillPlan outlines the company’s primary objectives and secondary objectives clearly and concisely.
SOURCE: Merx
Consider using primary and secondary goal categories so that it’s clear what matters most.
The struggle is real… real important to share with your potential new social media collaborator, that is.
Most companies are well aware of the unique challenges they face on and off social media, but an uninitiated third party won’t have that same understanding.
Identify roadblocks upfront in your social media RFP so you can work together to solve or work around them.
Challenges may include:
Customer sensitivities (e.g., anything that would help a vendor avoid pressing known pain points)
Legalese (e.g., cumbersome disclaimers and disclosures that often get in the way of creative concepts)
Regulatory compliance (are there age or other restrictions associated with marketing your product?)
Differentiation (is it difficult to differentiate your product or service from competitors?)
Social media security (have you faced issues with scammers or hackers in the past?)
Resource and budget challenges may be relevant here, too. Does your company have enough staff to support necessary customer service and community management? Be honest. The best proposals could present invaluable solutions.
It’s going to be tough for a vendor to provide a great answer when they don’t know what you’re asking for.
That’s why it’s super common to find questions in social media RFPs used for marketing purposes. They often follow or are included as a subsection in Challenges. In some cases, they simply ask: How will your proposal address these challenges?
Including questions is a way to make sure that proposals provide the solutions or answers head-on rather than dodge or skirt around them. If your company faces significant challenges, these answers will make it easier to evaluate the proposals you receive.
Sure, there’s a chance a young hotshot with a heart of gold is going to just crush your project, but chances are you’re looking for someone who’s been there and done that. So ask for what you want.
The bidder qualifications section of a social media RFP is where you can request details on why a company may be uniquely qualified to take your project on.
Experience, past projects, team size, and other credentials are important factors when evaluating vendors who answer your RFP for social media marketing services.
Include qualifications that will make for a successful project, help you evaluate social media proposals, and are important to your business. For example, while it may not be pertinent to a social media RFP, your company may prefer B Corps.
Some things to ask for:
Details on the size of the vendor’s team
Proof of social media training and certification (Hootsuite’s social marketing education and certificate program, for example)
Examples of work with past or existing clients
Client testimonials
Results from previous campaigns
A list of employees—and their titles—who will work on the project
Project management approach and strategy
Resources that will be dedicated to the project
Anything else about the vendor and their work that is important to you and the execution of the project
Sure, you can disregard the bidder qualifications section, but you might end up with a bunch of applications that lack the information relevant for you to make a decision. So include anything and everything you want to see from prospective vendors.
This is where you get into the nitty gritty: how exactly do you want this social media RFP packaged and delivered?
This section should cover proposal submission basics: when, what, where, and how much. Indicate the deadline for submission, how proposals should be formatted, and the level of detail you require for budget breakdowns.
The Government of Nova Scotia gives vendors a clear outline for their proposals.
SOURCE: Nova Scotia
If your company has brand guidelines, social media guidelines, a social media style guide, or any other relevant resources, include links or information on where vendors can find them.
Make sure to add a point of contact as well. Our social media RFP template puts contact information in the header. But it doesn’t matter whether you put it first or last, so long as it’s available for agencies to direct questions or clarifications.
Every social media RFP should indicate proposal and project deadlines—that’s why you won’t find a social media RFP example without one.
In this section, provide a structured proposal schedule that vendors can follow. If your project is tied to a specific date or event, include those key delivery dates too, but if you’ve got some flexibility, it’s OK to be broad here.
A social media RFP timeline may include:
Deadline to RSVP participation
Meeting period with vendors for preliminary discussions
Deadline for agencies to submit questions
Proposal submission deadline
Finalist selection
Finalist presentations
Selection of winning proposal
Contract negotiation period
When notifications will be sent to bidders who were not selected
Include a hard deadline or target project date. If key milestone and deliverable deadlines are already in place, that should be indicated here as well.
Just like your teacher provided you with a rubric back in your schooldays, you should offer vendors a clear set of judgment guidelines to work towards. How can they wow you if they don’t know what wows you?
Both you and prospective vendors should know ahead of time how their proposals will be evaluated. List the criteria you will measure and how each category will be weighted or scored.
The National Institute of Urban Affairs provides a detailed chart outlining how each application will be judged. Intimidating? Yes. Crystal clear? Also yes.
SOURCE: National Institute of Urban Affairs
Be as transparent about your agency selection process as possible. If a rubric template or scorecard is available, include it here. If evaluators will provide comments, let bidders know whether they should or should not expect to receive them.
Finally, indicate the stated budget’s role in your decision-making process. Will it be revealed to evaluators after they’ve scored the proposal? How will cost vs. value be determined?
If you skimmed over all that content, we don’t blame you—it’s a lot to take in and process!
That’s precisely why we built this free social media RFP example: a template to make things easy for you.
Use this social media RFP template as a starting point, and tailor it to your needs. You’ll be able to use this to create your own in minutes and find the right vendor to help you achieve your goals.
Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversions, engage the audience, measure results, and more. Try it free today.
Do it better with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.
The post Social Media RFP: Free Templates and Examples appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on January 12, 2023 @ 5:41 pm
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Tired of being your own producer, editor and star in your TikTok rise to fame? Good news: There are plenty of places to find cheap or free TikTok templates that can help you reduce the stress (and cost) of creating video content.
Besides, there are plenty of other things you can stress out about — let’s leave TikTok out of it.
This article will show you the top 10 places to find TikTok templates, walk you through how to access TikTok’s own free templates, and answer your burning questions to help you make better TikToks.
A TikTok template is a pre-made video model that others can use as a starting point to create their own engaging and entertaining content.
Templates consist of a variety of different elements, including images, text, background music, and other multimedia components which can be customized to suit the user’s needs. They provide a convenient way for creators to quickly create videos without having to start from scratch.
Templates on TikTok are a cache of these video models within the app.
Creating and managing TikTok marketing campaigns often involves a lot of moving pieces. At times, it can feel like juggling plates while balancing a bowl full of fire on your head.
A TikTok template can take some of the pressure off. An easy win, they ensure cohesive-looking content that reflects your brand.
Tailored templates give you an easy way to create quality content at speed. No more starting from scratch, no more slapped-together visuals. Plus, they can save you from extra costs, such as expensive design software, since you can often edit within the template platform.
Looking for TikTok templates free or cheap? You’ve come to the right place. The list below is a treasure trove of the best TikTok templates out there! Take a look, pick your pony, and start creating content on cheat mode.
Canva is full of free-to-use TikTok templates that can take your content creation to the next level. You can use Canva’s filtering capabilities to narrow your results by style, theme, color, or price. Aside from the tons of free templates, you can also purchase certain premium templates off the platform.
Once you’ve filmed your video and attached your template, you can add graphic elements, text, animation, and other effects.
Source: Canva
Cost: Free! Pro accounts are $149.99 per person annually.
Vimeo has hundreds of TikTok templates available, but what bumps them up past their competitors is, surprisingly, their search functionality. Sometimes, when you use a specific search term like “TikTok Events,” you will only get direct matches. Vimeo provides results that are adjacent to your search term.
So when you search “TikTok Events” on Vimeo, you will wind up with templates on many different event themes, like “Discussion Panel,” “Bible Study,” or “DJ Set Times.”
If you’re a content creator who has many brands under your umbrella, this could be the app for you. You can search a wide range of industries, events, or types of content.
Source: Vimeo
Cost: Free! Paid memberships start at $14 per person per month.
While TikTok doesn’t technically own CapCut, the two share a parent company. This makes CapCut pretty in tune with the kind of templates one would want for TikTok.
CapCut is best known for its TikTok video-editing capabilities, but it also offers TikTok creators templates they can use for their own content. Not only that, but you can use popular TikTok creators’ templates.
If you find a TikTok creators template you like that was made on Capcut, you simply have to click on the CapCut tag on the video. This will open another screen with the prompt “Use template in CapCut.” Click on that, and boom! Your template is ready to use in the CapCut app.
#CapCut Use this template full trending template don’t underreview my video #editing #new #trend #foryoupage #aw_afridi_10 #fw_afridi
? original sound – ?ØV???????_??Ø
Note: CapCut templates are only available in certain regions.
Cost: Free!
Kapwing’s video editing software is easy to use and comes with a multitude of TikTok templates. Also, if you’re into repurposing your content for multiple platforms, Kapwing makes it easy to do so.
Kapwing’s TikTok templates are full of trending challenges, sound bytes, and memes. With timely content, you can stay on top of the For You page curve. Plus, with Kapwing’s pro account, you can upload your own fonts, making sure you stay on-brand.
Source: Kapwing
Cost: Free! Pro accounts are $16 per month, and team accounts are $16 per month, per user.
While originally created for Instagram Stories, Instories has some great templates you can repurpose for your TikTok account. Many of their Lifestyle templates, for example, would make dynamic covers for your TikTok videos.
The only drawback is that you have to provide your credit card information before you can use the app. There is a 3-day free trial that, once over, will automatically begin your subscription unless you cancel.
While it’s pricier than free, if you use it to create content for your Instagram Stories and posts, too, you can make it worth it. And if you use some pre-thought-of Instagram content ideas or some brilliant TikTok ideas, your production will be a breeze.
Source: Instories
New way to create a viral TikTok edit! Which one do you like better?
? Fadeaway – Official Sound Studio
Cost: Starting at $11.99 per month
Biteable helps you create animated videos to grab attention on the For You page. For non-designers (looking at you, marketers, social media managers, and entrepreneurs), it gives you the tools to whip up professional-looking footage for your feed. Biteable is certainly geared toward business-friendly content, making it useful for those in corporate industries.
This app is loaded with thousands of photos and video clips for you to choose from, plus new content is added frequently. The TikTok templates are easy to make your own, but you’ll likely find yourself just using them as-is and adding your text. Be sure to take a glance at their tutorials for some hidden features you don’t want to sleep on.
The only drawback with Biteable is the cost. At $49 per month, this software may be too much for some out there. But if you’re a part of a larger corporation, you can absorb this cost into your marketing budget.
Source: Biteable
Cost: 7-day free trial, then $49 per month
Zoomerang has, allegedly, the largest template marketplace out there. There are tons and tons of templates you can scroll through. You can also browse template creators’ works, too. So if you find a template you’re vibing on, you can see more from the same creator. There’s even a leaderboard ranking the trending, top, and newest template designers.
The app is set up like a social platform. It has what’s essentially a content feed of templates, and you can search what’s trending or templates tagged “for you.” You can also look through user accounts of template creators. It’s like a mini-TikTok, just for templates.
If you’re budget-conscious, though, you may want to watch your spending. There are plenty of free templates on Zoomerang, but the popular ones typically come with a price tag.
One thing you don’t want to miss out on? Zoomerang has in-app tutorials teaching you how to recreate trending TikTok videos.
Cost: Free 3-day trial, then $37.99 per year, which is $0.73 a week.
If you’re looking to incorporate an AI assistant into your content creation, Simplified could be for you. Simplified has tons of beautiful TikTok design templates you can peruse, personalize, and publish.
It has a ton of tutorials for beginners, plus you can do most of the marketing and creation tasks you’ll need to do within the app. You can design and edit content, write marketing copy, create videos, collaborate, and publish to your social feed, all within Simplified. It’s not hard to understand why they chose the name.
Source: Simplified
Cost: Free! Paid memberships start at $30 per month.
VistaCreate has a user-friendly platform packed with professionally designed templates, making it simple to explore, create, and edit your content. You can customize your videos with animation, different objects, text, styles, and music.
You can create a brand kit that houses all of your brand colors, fonts, and logos for easy personalization. While VistaCreate might not wow you with bells and whistles and features, it does the job, is easy to use, and, best of all, it’s free!
Source: VistaCreate
Cost: Free! Paid subscriptions start at $10 per month.
Flexclip is easy to use, intuitive, and full of templates. It’s optimized for novice video creators so editing and personalizing your templates is a breeze. You can create unlimited projects, which is great for those pumping out content.
When you choose your template, you can either create it in Timeline Mode or Storyboard Mode. Timeline Mode gives you total control over the music tracks and video, so if you’re into customizing your templates, this one’s for you.
Storyboard Mode is for those looking to crank out content as quickly as possible. It has an intuitive view and allows you to smash production in just a few minutes.
Source: Flexclip
Cost: Free! Paid subscriptions start at $5.99 per month.
Get better at TikTok — with Hootsuite.
Access exclusive, weekly social media bootcamps hosted by TikTok experts as soon as you sign up, with insider tips on how to:
Grow your followers
Get more engagement
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And more!
TikTok also has templates built into the app for easy use. All you truly need to do is drop your photos or videos into the templates, adjust as you like, and publish!
Here’s the step-by-step:
This will bring you to the screen where you can record videos.
This is beside the Story button on the bottom right of your screen.
Once you find one you like, click Upload photos.
Pick the photos you’d like to feature here by tapping the little circle in the top right of the image. Each template will give you a maximum number of images you can add.
TikTok will process your photos into the templated video and provide you with a finished piece.
Here, you can add your flavor. Stickers? Voice overs? Filters? This is the place! Once you’re done, hit Next.
Add a caption, your hashtags, any @ mentions, and your location if you like. Then, click Post to publish your video.
Still have questions? We’ve got answers. And other resources, like how to use TikTok, how to make a TikTok, and TikTok tricks.
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about TikTok templates.
A TikTok template is a pre-made video model that others can copy for their own use.
Templates on TikTok are a cache of these video models within the app.
You can find templates on TikTok by clicking the large plus icon at the bottom of your screen. It’s settled between the Now and Inbox icons. Within that screen, Templates can be found along the bottom bar, to the right of Story.
When TikTok says “failed to generate template,” it means one or more of your photos are corrupted and cannot be uploaded. Deselect one photo at a time and try to re-upload until you find the corrupted one.
If you’re looking to make your own template, you can find free background videos on sites like Pexels.
Grow your TikTok presence alongside your other social channels using Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts for the best times, engage your audience, and measure performance — all from one easy-to-use dashboard. Try it free today.
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Grow on TikTok faster with Hootsuite
Schedule posts, learn from analytics, and respond to comments all in one place.
The post The 10 Best Places to Find Cheap (or Free!) TikTok Templates appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on January 11, 2023 @ 5:41 pm