Did you ever feel the heat as an online business when you found yourself losing big because of form issues?

Forms are essential to collecting leads and payments.

What if the friction in the process frustrates the user? Will it not bring down conversions?

It becomes even more annoying because many users must be interacting with your website for the first time. It negatively affects the user experience and your overall brand image.

As forms are directly responsible for boosting conversions, it becomes pivotal that the majority of your forms convert.

Major Issues Users Complain About Online Forms

For agencies, it becomes quite a task to manage forms coming from different sources because of their varying types. Device incompatibility can further complicate the issue.

Forms management is easier said than done, and you can't tackle it in a day or two. It can be challenging even if you are a small agency owner, as you might need to source and process forms from various third-party softwares and platforms.

That's the reason you need a robust and smart forms management tool. Your forms App should be able to create dynamic forms and enable real-time reporting, a seamless distribution process, and comprehensive document management.

DashClicks Forms App comes to your rescue here.

You can swiftly manage forms across different channels and enhance user experience using the DashClicks Forms App. It's a white-label automation tool that will transform data collection into an incredible experience. It improves your workflow designed to meet your every need.

What's more, it will dramatically improve the conversion rate on your website.

This article will discuss the Forms Application and how it works.

What Is the Forms Application?

The Forms application is a marketing automation tool created by DashClicks, the popular white-label platform for digital marketing agencies. With this App, you can quickly create, share, and embed forms on your websites and landing pages and resolve all your forms-related woes.

Replace default forms on other platforms with the forms created by the Forms App and make your life easier by bringing all your lead information to one place.

We will walk you through the various features of this intelligent App so that you can use it like a pro.

How to Use the Forms App?

Watch this video to learn more about Forms App.

How to Access the App?

Go to your DashClicks dashboard and open the app drawer in the top right corner.

How to Navigate the Forms App?

Click the Forms icon to reach the home page of the Forms app - My Forms.

1. My Forms

My Forms is the tab providing an overview of all the forms you created with updated information on submissions and pending requests.

Since you haven't started using the App, you won't find any forms in the table. However, you would still be able to see the column titles. These titles are listed below.

2. Form Type

This column is created to categorize your forms into three major types: Card, Classic, and Group.

3. Form Name

The terminology of the forms happens right at the moment they are created.

It's primarily dependent on the campaign it's created for and its general purpose.

4. Submissions

This section provides us with the number of submitted forms by the users.

5. Pending Requests

Many users might not fill up the forms at any point in time, despite your invitations. This column will highlight those users who haven't responded to your request and need a reminder.

6. Date Created, Last Updated

As evident from the column title, it provides you with the date you created the Form and last updated it.

7. Categories, Tags

By default, you'll not find any details in these two columns. You can manually create the tags and categories to classify the forms to keep them better organized. You can easily filter these tags and types in the column on the extreme left.

To create these tags and categories, click this help article.

8. Search Forms

Go to the search field at the top of the page if you want a specific form. If you know the form name, enter it. You can also enter any other relevant information to view the closest results.

9. New Form

Go to the + New Form button on the top right corner. This is the first step to creating a custom form. Move to the Builder tab now.

The Builder tab has a simple look. You can choose from the Classic Form or Group Form.

You need to click on any one of these to create brand-new forms.

Refer to the following help articles to create all three types of forms.

• Classic Form
• Group Form
• Card Form

How to Create Classic Forms Within the Forms App?

Here is the step-by-step process for creating a classic form within the Forms application.

For those not familiar with Classic Forms, a classic form is a general form that provides each question on the same page, followed by a button to submit.

These are the most basic and popular types of online forms that we frequently spot on websites and landing pages.

Here is the process of creating a classic form.

Click on the + New Form button in the top-right corner.

Or click on the Builder tab.

Next, select the form type by clicking on Classic Form.

Enter your form name.

You can name it according to the campaign you're running or just the objective of the Form.

Click the Create button.

You can use a drag-and-drop form builder. Find the components in the Fields Styles and Options columns, which you can use to customize your Form further:

To know how to work with many elements and options, you can click the following help doc links.

• Styles
• Fields
• Options

Click here to learn how to add, move, and delete fields and publish the Form.

Help doc on creating Classic forms.

Templates

Every Form has a template, which largely depends on the purpose it's being used for. The Templates tab is the storehouse of pre-made form templates. You can quickly choose a template and start creating forms without reinventing the wheel. You can select a template according to a specific purpose, such as collecting leads or booking appointments. Since these templates are already set up, you won't need to spend time on them.

Look at the column on the left side, and choose a category. Under each category, there are numerous templates you can choose from. All you need to do is to select a template to start creating the Form you need. It's that simple to use the Forms App.

You can also locate a template using a search field at the top of the page.

Customizing the Forms App

Here are a few ways to customize your Forms App.

Column Customization

Be ready to explore fantastic options for customizing your experience on the Forms App. Similar to the My Forms tab, you can quickly locate the Manage Columns button in the top-right corner of the page:

Go to the menu, and set the columns you want to display within your table. You can remove the columns from your page view by clicking the blue check marks next to the corresponding column names.

Note - Form Name can't be removed or moved up or down in the column.

You can use the section on the right if you want to drag and drop columns in your preferred order. Click the X to remove a column from the view.

Click Save at the bottom to save your customizations.

Similarly, you can follow the instructions and make other customizations.

How to Share & Embed Your Form?

Now that you have successfully created a form for your business objective, the next step is to share it with your audience. You can share or embed your Form using the Embed or IFrame options.

To embed, you need to post an HTML code in the text editor of your web page. It will integrate the Form and allow it to appear on the website exactly as it's designed so that users can interact with it on your website.

Final Words

DashClicks' Forms app creates custom forms for any data collection through easy-to-use forms. Moreover, you also get a drag-and-drop forms builder that's entirely white-label to make life easier.

Forms template also allows you to choose from hundreds of pre-built form templates. It will help you speed up your workflow by saving your time and ability to create forms on the fly.

User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most potent tools marketers can use to promote their brand.

But what really is user-generated content?

It can be any content, such as videos, reviews, images, text, etc. that people create rather than brands.

As compared to brand-pushed marketing content, UGC is regarded as the most trustworthy, authentic, and reliable form of content. If you see the latest statistics, 92% of customers trust the recommendations and reviews shared by individuals and not advertisements.

You can imagine UGC as a vote of confidence. If you observe the current scenario, any brand's biggest fans can be seen writing reviews, snapping pictures, and publishing blog posts promoting its services and products, many a time without any prompting.

In all, user-generated content is a killer asset, and can completely change the game for your business. In this post, we unearth the benefits of this kind of content and how your business can leverage it for successful growth. Let's begin:

What is User-Generated Content and Why Is it Important?

User-generated content is any content users create and share based on their opinions, feedback, ideas, or experiences. Different social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are the hub of this kind of content. Also, with comments sections on blogs, the ability to publish content for free with a single click, and digital forums, UGC is at an all-time high.

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Now that we are done with the definition, let's look at why user-generated content is important:

UGC simply boosts your credibility by outsourcing content creation to users.

It is effective content that builds authenticity and trust in your brand, further saving your financial resources and organization time!

Owing to its many benefits, 86% of companies have added UGC to their marketing strategy.

Here's more on why businesses are increasingly focusing on displaying user-generated content on different platforms:

1. A Win-Win Situation for Both You and Your Fans

User-generated content puts your customers front and center, while benefiting your brand as well.

When you use UGC in your marketing, this is what happens:

• You let your fans tell your story.
• You market “with” your audience and not “at” them.
• Your marketing messages come from your customers.
• You spotlight individuals who are helping shape your brand!

2. UGC Indicates That Your Brand Is Open to Conversation

In this day and age, people look for different ways to share their opinions about different brands. When you share UGC on branded social channels or simply use it in your marketing, it can make your audience feel seen and heard. It also shows that you are open to conversation.

3. You Get To Cut Through the Noise

UGC content marketing offers a way to cut through the various ads and promoted content your customers are bombarded with on a daily basis.

UGC is genuine and not salesy. It instantly grabs the attention of your audience and works to engage them because it is created by a member of your target audience only.

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4. UGC Provides Social Proof

Another reason why user-generated content is important is because it provides social proof.

Social proof is the validation you get from your customers about the authenticity, trust, and reliability of your activities and products. In this digital age, a brand needs to have social proof. This is because social proof can influence the buying decisions of a brand's customers.

5. Unlimited Flow of Content

As creating marketing campaigns is a constant process, there will always be a requirement for trendy, authentic content.

UGC helps you receive an unlimited flow of such content from your users.

It eliminates the need to spend money on constant idea generation and content creation!

Types of User-Generated Content

UGC comes in many formats and styles. Let’s take a look at the different types of user-generated content:

• Videos
• Testimonials
• Images
• Social media content (e.g., a Tweet about your brand)
• Blog posts
• Live streams
• Product reviews (learn how to get customer reviews)
• YouTube content

Top User-Generated Content Examples

Irrespective of their size, brands use UGC to boost social engagement, expand their reach, drive awareness, increase conversions, and cost effectively scale their business.

Here are some of the best user-generated content examples out there:

1. LuluLemon

LuluLemon is a Canadian athleisure brand offering leggings and yoga clothing to its customers. To increase their reach on social media platforms, they asked their followers to share the photos in which they are wearing LuluLemon's garments. They also had to use this hashtag:

#thesweatlife

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This benefited the brand in two ways:

• It got tonnes of easily searchable UGC content for repurposing.
• Sharing content from brand ambassadors increased its reach across social media.

2. GoPro

GoPro is a popular video equipment company that uses UGC for its YouTube channel.

If you check their top three videos, they are actually filmed by customers. These videos had 400 million views in total (as of December 2021).

The best thing is this content didn't cost the brand anything.

3. La Croix

La Croix is a sparkling water brand that also uses a hashtag (#LiveLaCroix), similar to the strategy that LuluLemon used. The hashtag helps the brand mine for UGC on their social media networks.

Image Source

The best thing about the brand is that it shares content produced by anyone and not just brand loyalists with higher follower counts. This makes their UGC super relatable to their followers.

User-Generated Content Tips

It's now time we discuss some important user-generated content tips. Let's begin:

1. Requesting Permission Is Mandatory

Always ask for your customer's consent before using or republishing their content. It keeps you out of hot waters regarding copyright concerns.

Asking for consent is also important because a lot of times individuals can use your branded hashtags without even knowing that you have tied them to a UGC campaign.

2. Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

Ensure you give proper credit to the original creator when you share UGC on your social media networks. What we mean is, directly tag them in the post and indicate if you are using their visuals and/or words.

Note: You may also want to share UGC across social media networks. For instance, you may want to share a picture from Instagram on your Facebook page. In this case, you can always ask the original creator how they want to be credited on the other platform.

Why is giving credit so important anyway?

Giving credit not only recognizes the work of content creators but also encourages them to use and post more about your brand.

3. Provide Clear Guidelines

If you observe the current scenario, only some businesses provide clear guidelines on the kind of UGC they want followers to create and share. UGC creators want to share their content, but they also want to know exactly what to do when it comes to UGC.

Don't be afraid to share specific requirements and tell the creators what kind of content fits your needs.

Tip: To determine the kind of content you should feature, ensure you follow these two steps:

• Sit with your social media strategy document to look for ways user-generated content aligns with your current marketing goals.
• Use this information to create a statement that tells users what type of content you will most likely feature.

Share your UGC task at places you know individuals will interact with your brand, such as your website, your social channel bios, your product packaging, or in other UGC social media posts.

4. Make UGC Entertaining

UGC should be entertaining for your followers. Sometimes it doesn't have to be product-related at all!

For instance, one of the best UGC trends you can see out there is:

Brands reposting their follower's tweets on their Instagram feed.

How to Get More UGC for Your Brand?

Apart from creating a unique hashtag, here are some ideas on how to get more UGC for your brand:

• Ask for feedback from users.
• Launch a contest on Instagram.
• Create a compelling challenge that pushes users creatively or physically. For instance, a fitness content creator can design a multi-day fitness challenge in which users can participate and share their progress on social media.

The Bottom Line

From helping you increase your reach to providing social proof, it's easy to see why user-generated content is important for brands in this digital age. It is a complete game-changer for businesses because it increases user engagement, which in turn boosts conversions and revenue.

All in all, UGC is a secret ingredient for successful marketing, and brands and marketers should definitely leverage it in their marketing activities. Just ensure you follow important user-generated content tips like always asking the customer's consent before you republish or use their content.

Welcome to another episode of the Marketers' Mindset.

DashClicks is a platform that you can use to scale your agency. Apart from that, you can also use it as a client reporting tool, a source of education, and an affiliate dashboard for your agency.

Marketers' Mindset is a podcast and video series where Chad Kodary, the CEO of DashClicks, shares the best-kept secrets of digital marketing and agency business.

You won't find these tips and tricks documented or published anywhere else.If you prefer the video format, here is the link to the first part of this webinar.

What Is InstaSites?

DashClicks’ InstaSites is a website-building automation tool that renders a niche-specific website within seconds. You can use InstaSites in multiple ways, but its best and most innovative use is for prospecting.

InstaSites as a Powerful Prospecting Tool

We built InstaSites almost three years ago for our digital retail agency, “Social Agency.”  The idea behind it was simple. We used to do a lot of cold calling to reach out to people.

Typically, people use the same old script for their sales calls, and sadly it doesn’t work anymore. 90% of the agencies offer a free consultancy and a free audit report to show their prospects where they are struggling. This approach doesn’t differentiate you from others, so, obviously, it has no appeal.

When you use this approach, you offer immense value to your prospect. It must address a big pain point. You will begin by saying that a few weeks ago, you audited their website and found that it had several flaws in it. A significant issue with the website is that it fails to engage visitors. You must be wasting your ad spending when a website doesn’t offer a good user experience and can’t engage or convert.

You can add, “So, our team spent a few weeks and built a custom website that will drastically improve your conversion rate. I would like to send you the link to view it. I can send you the link via email or a message on a social media app such as WhatsApp.”

Employ some empathy, and soon you’ll realize that it’s an irresistible offer, and even you can’t say “no” to it. It’s a killer offer when somebody uses their resources and time for two weeks and builds a whole new website to allow you to kill the old look of your website.

How Is an Instasite Different From Ordinary Websites?

Your new 60-page InstaSite is a highly responsive, custom-built, niche-specific, and content-ready website, with all the images and graphics already incorporated. DashClicks’ backend team has already built it for you, so you can use the preview link, import it into your website builder and activate it.

This offer differentiates you from others and dramatically increases your odds of converting a prospect.

At least, it gives you an edge over your competitors to be considered for the second round of sales i.e., an invitation to provide a demo.

So, first, you set up a call center and use these tactics to break the barrier, i.e., lack of trust. The hardest part of cold calling is that it’s challenging to establish trust over the call on the very first attempt.

It helps you drop the gate, the entry barrier for 99.9% of cold calls. And you provide value without even asking for their credit cards which the prospects will most likely love and accept.

The Number Game

Think about making a hundred phone calls and offering the same old stuff that everybody does, such as website issues, Facebook Ads, keyword rankings, lead generation, social media services, etc.

Sadly, if you are a marketer, you must be aware of the dismal results this approach gets you.

Suppose you need 10x better results. What about one person making about 30 bookings each day? Making 100 calls answered doesn’t sound realistic, so let’s put it as 50. So, let’s assume that you make 150 or 200 calls using an automatic dialer, and 50 people answer your call.

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Now, you can book an appointment with 30% of those, and in this case, it means you have your appointment calendar booked for 15 people. It can be a game changer for your marketing outreach.

Pro Tip: With ten people in your call center, you can raise this number to 150 (appointments booked).

Now, you have 150 people interested in your products on your calendar — ready to listen to you. It doesn’t happen through an outrageously innovative software program but through a software-based strategy.

The Modus Operandi

To implement this tactic, first, you need to sign up for DashClicks. Then you need to click My Agency>Agency Tools in the main menu>InstaSites.

You'll reach the subscription page, where you'll find four paid subscriptions. You can purchase any of these four subscriptions.

This strategy is so good that you won’t think twice before implementing it.

Initially, we offered the website for free and packaged it with other marketing services.  The standard development cost of a 50-page website is around $4000-$5000.

An InstaSite can open numerous sales opportunities in front of you.

It allows you to sell your client SEO, Google Ads, and content marketing services. If your client struggles with bringing traffic to their website, you can offer them your paid and organic marketing services.

InstaSites Overview and Plans

Let’s move to the InstaSites overview.

InstaSites has four different plans.

The lite version is free. It allows you to build three InstaSites per month.

So, if you want to use it for commercial purposes, opt for a paid plan. Furthermore, the free package will not work if you’re going to book 15 calendar appointments per day.

We are in the process of creating more templates for various industries, and every month, our developers are busy designing new and innovative templates. Dedicated content writers inject fresh content into each template.

The Lite Plan

With the Lite Plan, you get access to all the site templates. The 30-day site storage option provides an additional 30 days window to build and customize your site before you sell it to your prospects.

After 30 days, your website will be automatically removed. However, you can recreate your website when you buy it by paying a one-time fee of $97, followed by $25 per month. It includes hosting an SSL certificate and access to the drag-and-drop website builder.

It will automatically appear in your dashboard with a welcome message!

With the Lite plan, you can build three sites a month; with the basic plan, you can create 100 websites a month. The basic package also allows you to send SMS and email notifications, instantly sending the link to the website you have created using our tool to your prospects.

It is crucial during prospecting if you want to improve your conversion rate.

Pro Tip: Keep your lead response time under five minutes.  A Harvard study shows that businesses that respond to leads in five minutes or less are 100x more likely to connect and convert.

Thus, the capability to send emails and SMS instantly makes you a winner.

InstaSites Plus plan

Our InstaSites Plus plan costs $197 a month and allows you to build 250 InstaSites per month, apart from the features you get with the basic plan.

Suppose you have to build 250 websites for businesses such as plumbers, painters, roofers, electricians, etc. All you need to do is make a list of these 250 businesses, enter their business details on an Excel sheet, and upload it into InstaSites.

Select the notification references and a template and leave the rest to InstaSites. InstaSites Plus will automatically create 250 beautiful websites with an average of 50 web pages. The best part is you don’t do anything to make those sites.

InstaSites Premium Plan

The $297 premium plan offers value with a bulk site builder and a feature to build 500 websites.

So, I recommend you buy SMS packages along with these plans so that you can fire off SMS messages just after your sales call.

SMSes have a higher conversion rate than emails as they go straight into a customer’s phone and have much higher chances of the recipient reading them. Most emails get buried under the flood of incoming emails from social media and other random marketers.

To switch to a premium plan, all you need to do is to click on Upgrade Plan.

To purchase the Premium Plan, choose InstaSites from a dropdown on the top right, add InstaSites premium to the cart, and complete your order.

Now step two is to add clients and send onboardings. Ignore it, as it is an agency tool without any onboarding documents.

So, go back to agency tools. Under My Active Plan, you’ll be able to spot my site credits which are now increased to 500. As you don’t have any SMS credits, buy a thousand SMS credits.

The cost per credit goes down as you buy in bulk. You just need to pay a one-time fee of $120. The entire process shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

You’re ready to rock and roll with 500 site credits and a thousand SMS credits.

How to Use InstaSites Like a Pro?

While on a free plan, you might have seen some locked boxes under Bulk InstaSites builder and notification templates. In a Premium Plan, those locked boxes are now available, and you can click on each one.

Go to the InstaSites builder, enter the prospecting phase and speak to your prospects. Let’s suppose it’s Bobby, the painter in this case. Bobby is interested in the website and wants to see what it looks like.

You need to enter his business contact details, such as business name, address, and phone number. The software will use the same phone number to send out SMS messages and the email address you enter to send emails.

Currently, the tool can send SMS to the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, but we are adding more countries.

You can set up custom templates with a premium plan. Initially, the tool wouldn’t display any template (flashing a message “No Templates Available”). Still, you’ll receive an email and SMS notification that it will soon be sent from your default view. Set this button to “ON.”

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You can entirely customize your website if you're in the premium plan, and that's how you skyrocket your conversion rates.

We have templates readily available for seven industries, including locksmith, painting, roofing, plumbing, towing, and electrician HVAC, and we add new ones every month. So, soon, you'll see plenty of templates.

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Check the box off to agree to the terms of service.

You need a whole group of web developers to quickly build your website. My InstaSites shows that your website is in the “Queued” section right now.

Once this website is wholly built, it will move from the “Queued” tab to the “Prospecting” tab. It will take less than a minute.

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The website is ready now; you can show it to Bobby, the painter. This is how the website will look on three major screen types i.e., desktop, tablet, and smartphone.

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It’s much better than the website you make using the popular website builders available in the market.

Now check the content injected. The home page says, “Need a Qualified Painter?”

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You can also see a call button here. Overall, it’s a highly conversion-oriented page without any fluff or unnecessary fancy text. It includes all the relevant keywords, such as

• Painting services
• Trusted painting services
• Painting services in Miami, Florida

The “About Us” section is also optimized. The title is “About Bobby the Painter.”

And it reads like this: “At Bobby the Painter, we provide high-quality services in Miami for you.”

So, it injects everything visitors need to know about the business. They can instantly locate the contact numbers and the services offered.

The Websites That Offer Excellent User Experience

The InstaSites tool builds engaging and high-quality informative websites.

The InstaSites template for the painting industry builds a 60-page website highlighting all the services you may offer, such as Miami Residential painting, Bobby the painter, Interior painting, Exterior painting, Docks and decks, roof painting, etc. These services are similar to what every residential painting service can probably offer.

For example, if you look at the roof painting section and click on it, the page you reach is entirely on roof painting. On the sidebar, you can see Bobby, the painter’s phone number just injected into it by the system.

There is enough excellent content in the commercial and industrial painting sections.

You can view his complete contact information and a map on the Contact Us page.

Optimized for Different Devices

Try this website on multiple devices, and each time, it looks stunning. This website is mobile optimized, so it will likely receive tons of mobile traffic.

Didn’t it excite you? If you feel excited, what will happen to Bobby, the painter, when he sees such an intuitive website? Wouldn’t he get excited too?

The answer is a resounding yes!

Using this secret recipe, we sold millions of dollars worth of digital marketing here at DashClicks and Social Agency.

It’s more likely that Bobby, the painter, will dance with joy when he sees this website. It’s highly functional, detailed, conversion-oriented, and pretty. They may decide to buy this website immediately and provide their credit card details.

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You can get Bobby, the painter, on your invoicing system and charge them for this beautiful website.

Look at the little green “purchase” button on the screen and click “add to cart” to place the order.

It’s easy to complete your order.

So, the InstaSites website for Bobby the painter costs $25 a month with a setup fee of $97. So, a total of $122 has to be charged for the first month, and it covers an SSL certificate, the drag-and-drop web builder, and access to the dashboard, which is fully white-labeled under your agency.

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Onboarding Docs

Look at the onboarding docs for Bobby, the painter.

Go to setup>>Click on “Proceed.”

Enter Bobby’s first name, last name, and email address and send Bobby the onboarding documents. The system will quickly shoot an email to Bobby, so he can fill out his contact information from whatever’s left that we didn’t already pre-fill.

Another email your system will send to Bobby will be about your branding. It will inform them that they can access the dashboard and edit their website when needed.

Bobby, the painter, now has access to the CRM and website builder, and they can edit their website.

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They can edit anything they want, click the check box and republish in less than 30 seconds.

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DashClicks makes your life super simple. Just go back to Agency Tools>>InstaSites>>TutorialsAnd check this out.

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That’s all. You can now point your domain name to the fresh website.

The Sales Process Summary

Let’s sum up the InstaSites sales process here.

A. Sign up for the DashClicks dashboard

B. Create an account for your agency

C. Go to Agency Tools

D. Choose InstaSites

E. Buy the $297 plan and complete your order

F. Buy a list of plumbers, roofers etc. from Yelp, InfoGroup USA or ExactData.com for a few dollars and start firing off emails and SMSes to everybody on the list

G. Create a spreadsheet using your prospect’s contact details for the website you’re trying to build and upload the CSV file on the tool

Steps: From the Top Right, download a sample CSV file template >> Download an excel template>>Add your information and re-upload it.

H. Go to website builder

I. Choose a website template based on your target industry

J. Build a website using InstaSites for Bobby, the painter

K. Fill out a form

L. Call Bobby or send him an SMS/email

D. Sell the website using the script suggested below

A Sales Call Script to Sell Your InstaSite

You can try this script for your first sale call.

“Hey, I just sent you a link to your new website. Can we chat for a minute quickly? I’ve spent two weeks building you a wonderful website. Would that be cool with you?”

The ads for InstaSites work because nobody can offer your 50-page website within seconds.

Use This Cool Script

Here is the script you can use and share with your frontline callers.

“Hey, Bobby! How’re you doing? My name is Chad, and I’m calling from Social Agency. I’m actually local, right here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I’m right down the street from you. I was going through your website, and I see that your website is outdated and it’s not doing too good on Google Searches. So, I got my web development team to build you a brand new website.

It sounds crazy, and a random phone call, but I want to work with you. I’m looking for some painters in the area to work with. So, I took the time to build your website, and I would love to send you the link. All you need to do is to preview the link, and if you like it, I can activate it for you.

Okay, may I know your email and a good phone number?

(Note down his email and phone number.)

Okay, I got it.

So, I’ll go ahead and build your website in about one or two minutes.

(or, I’m going to go ahead and send you the link to the website in about one or two minutes.)

You’ll get an email and a text message with a link to the website. You can find my contact information at the bottom.”

If you’re in the premium plan, which you should be, all you need to do is fill out the form, select the industry, click painting, and turn on notifications. And it’s done.

If he is busy, you can still send the link and check with them after some time.

The InstaSites Plan That Will Skyrocket Your Sales

Buy a premium package and SMS credits and use your call center agents to sell these irresistible websites. Make long-term customers by offering additional digital marketing services such as SEO, PPC, social media, content marketing, local SEO and email marketing.

Don’t go for the $97 plan; if you want to scale your agency and earn real profits, go for the $297 premium plan. It has a bulk website builder that allows you to build 500 websites to skyrocket your sales.

Some Tips About Using InstaSites

Here are a few useful tips about using InstaSites.

Watch the video for details.

1. Take a list of 100 businesses. These can be painters, plumbers, roofers, electricians, etc. but make sure that you choose one business type at a time as we have industry-specific templates. So, choose painters first and upload their list as a CSV file.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales - Video 3 | Time Stamp: 00:32

Suppose you choose 50 painters; they will appear in the My InstaSites tab once you upload them in the Queued section.

2. Select your email or text message notifications>> select the template you want>> click Build InstaSite.

And you are done. You can move outside for half an hour, watch a movie or catch up with a friend and the system will create bulk websites for you.

3. You can upgrade your plan anytime you want and won’t lose your money. So, for example, if you are in the $97 plan, it will be deducted from the $297, and you’ll pay only the difference.

4. You need not know coding to create these websites.

5. The second message has to be completely different from the one when you did prospecting.

6. The tool allows you to send customized messages in bulk. Go to the email and SMS templates page to create the second message. The automated tool will automatically extract the business name and other information from its database and inject the “merged tags.”

A merged tag is a piece of information you give to Instasites. We will take that information and inject it into your messaging. Keep in mind that each SMS message is limited to 160 characters.

The InstaSites preview link you’ll share with your clients is 45 characters, and business names can extend, so write your message accordingly. With unnecessarily long messages, you’d lose your SMS credits.

The message can be: “Hey Bobby! I decided to build you a new website. Here’s the link. (It’ll actually give them the preview link.) Call me Chad from DashClicks.”

Here is the outreach template sample.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales - Video 3 | Time Stamp: 05:54

Enter your email separately in the provided space; if your client presses the reply button, their mail will land in the sending server email (such as noreply@notifications.com) and can be lost.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales – Video 3 | Time Stamp: 13:26

Assign a template name.

You can easily customize the message.

This way, you can create 50 templates in an hour.

Find Tutorials for Everything You Need to Build InstaSites

Use Tutorials for everything if you are stuck while creating InstaSites.

Tutorials are available for everything, including Single InstaSite Builder, Bulk InstaSites Builder, Notification Templates, Purchase InstaSites, Setup Custom Domain, Setup SSL Certificate, etc.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales – Video 3 | Time Stamp: 18:10

How to Upsell?

Upselling is an art, and we have charted a date-wise map of how to approach a customer for upselling your agency products.

In this video, Chad explains the process of step-by-step upselling that every agency owner should learn and practice. It prevents you from looking savage as you don’t charge exorbitantly for the website. Still, you make decent money through a one-time fee (OTF) and monthly recurring charges.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales – Video 4 | Time Stamp: 6:48

Now, look at the math when you sell 20 websites a month.

You earn $3980 as OTF and $980 per month as recurring income. Now it adds up even further when you offer your local listing services after seven days. Look at the screenshot below.

This additional service (local listings) will bring $792 OTF and $790 per month recurring income.

You might think you can easily sell this website for $3K to $4K. That’s fine. You can do that, but it would be savage. You can instead earn a decent income slowly through this value-based upselling process without hurting your client.

Watch the video for details.

Pay attention to the sequence. Also, save the first call for the fronters, i.e. the frontline sales callers, which can be the 21 members of your call center. The next upselling can be assigned to senior sales reps or customer care officers. Remember to take your customers’ feedback regarding their first purchase and cautiously offer the second product and tell them its benefits.

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales – Video 5 | Time Stamp: 02:50

A week after you sell a website, you can pitch a customer for Local Listings, and after 21 days, you can pitch for SEO services. If everything goes fine and the customer is happy, call them after two months for your outstanding and affordable PPC services. OTF is a one-time fee followed by recurring monthly charges.

Watch the video for details.

The value ladder goes from a low minimal product value to a higher product value.

The outreach methods other than using call center agents are as follows:

A. LinkedIn automation

B. Social media advertising

C. PPC Campaigns

D. Cold Calling

How To Use InstaSites Software To Super Charge Your Sales – Video 5 | Time Stamp: 15:30

Final Thoughts

We successfully use these strategies to sell InstaSites and other digital products. If we can do it, you can too. So, take your first step with the $97 plan, and if you see it’s working and helping you close deals faster, upgrade it to $297 and enjoy the fruits of scaling.

Do you want people to take a specific action after they find and consume your content?

The action is the thing you want them to do next. For instance, it could be making a purchase, reading another blog post, or downloading something.

If your answer is yes, you require a call-to-action (CTA) to convince them to take that action.

Essentially, a CTA is a piece of content intended to prompt users to carry out a particular action. It can be a line of text, a button, or an image. It usually takes the form of a directive or instruction and uses action verbs like “register”, “buy”, “follow”, “sign up”, etc.

You need to create a precise and effective CTA if you want customers to take a specific action when they land on your website.

Want to know more about what is a call-to-action, its importance, and how to craft the perfect CTA? Keep reading.

What Do Calls-To-Action Mean?

Put simply, a CTA is a marketing term referring to a prompt on a site that asks users to carry out an action. For example, you can ask them to download a demo, sign up for a newsletter, or purchase a product.

A CTA can appear in different places on a website, such as:

• Checkout pages or purchase pages
• Side panels
• Ads
• Pop-ups and slide-in content
• End-of-page for landing pages or articles
• Persistent headers

You can see a CTA as a hyperlink text or a clickable button. When potential customers click on it, they move a step closer to conversion.

Now, let’s discuss the types of CTAs.

The CTA types you will find on any professional website include:

• Newsletter subscription CTAs
• Social sharing
• Purchase CTAs
• In-line content upgrades
• Learn more
• Contact form submissions

Common Call-To-Action Examples

You may have seen or clicked on CTA buttons such as:

1. Buy now
2. Sign up today
3. Learn more
4. Download template now
5. Get 25% off your first order
6. Add to cart
7. Follow us on Instagram
8. Schedule a free consultation
9. Add to wishlist
10. Get your free ebook
11. Register for free webinar
12. Share on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn
13. Try a 15-day free trial!

You can also view CTAs as hyperlink texts in action phrases like:

Wish to know more? Read our post on XYZ!

Here are some top CTA examples ‌you can use in 2022:

1. Take a peek

Use “take a peek” on your CTA button when you want to give a tour of your platform. Using it can be a great substitute to “Learn more” as well. Here’s how thryv.com have used it:

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2. Try It

You can consider replacing “Sign Up” with “Try it” on your CTA button (if the context fits).

Here’s an example:

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3. Sure

“Sure” is a great way to replace the “yes” CTA button. Check out this image:

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4. I’m In

You can also use “I’m In” on your CTA button if it fits the context. Here’s a great example of a fact-based, amusing CTA that incorporates it:

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Why is a CTA Important?

Strategic CTAs effectively assist your visitors through the buying journey. They affect your conversion rates in a direct manner. A compelling and powerful CTA will grab the visitor’s attention, pique their interest, and encourage them to take action.

Let’s take a look at the importance of CTAs in closer detail:

1. The Next Step Becomes Easy and Obvious: When you make the next step easy and obvious with the help of a CTA, people are more likely to continue through your sales funnel and convert.
2. CTAs Encourage Interactions With Your Website: Let’s understand this point with the help of an example. If you add a CTA at the end of a blog post to provide links to the readers to read more information on a subject, you can convince them to stay on your site. This way, they interact more with your site. As a result of these interactions, they start to familiarize with your business and develop trust in your brand.
3. Visitors Don’t Have to Struggle: A CTA is an important aspect of the pages of your site. CTA links or buttons double up as signposts, signaling visitors about the next step they need to take. This way, they never have to struggle to find the route to sign up for a service or purchase a product.
4. CTAs Eliminate Decision Fatigue: Simple instructions or directive statements tell your clients what to do next and where to go, making the user journey simpler and time-efficient.

How to Write a CTA?

There’s not one defined formula to follow when it comes to writing the perfect CTA.

Here’s an example formula for crafting a CTA:

problem + solution + action

Take a look at this image that implements this formula:

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Listen Up: Consider these two key things when you write a CTA:

1. It should be impactful and catch your audience’s attention
2. It should convince your audience to take the required action

How to Create an Effective CTA?

Today, people expect to see a CTA in a prominent position on your landing page and website. Even if you place it correctly, you need to craft an outstanding CTA to convert your potential customers. Without a clear and effective CTA, site visitors may click away after feeling overwhelmed or confused.

To get your CTA right, you can take the help of some proven techniques. Here is a list of steps you can follow to create a tantalizing call-to-action:

1. Go for an Eye-Catching Design

Your CTA image or button should stand out from the design of your landing page. It needs to make a solid impact. Create it in a way that it pops out, combining brand colors and fonts that match your style.

Here are some helpful pointers on creating a powerful CTA button design:

• Size

Your site visitor is more likely to notice and click on a large CTA button. However, don’t create an oversized button as it may create a feeling of pressure on the visitor.

• Color

You can make your CTA buttons more noticeable with the help of color as well. Colors can cause a shift in emotions and mood, so use them accordingly. Here’s a complete list of color meanings for your ready reference:

• White: Clean, calm, and simple.
• Red: Confidence, power, and youth.
• Green: Peace, health, and growth.
• Orange: Friendly, energetic, and warm.
• Purple: Luxurious, wise, and creative.
• Yellow: Happiness, warmth, and optimism.
• Black: Reliable, experienced, and sophisticated.
• Blue: Security, trust, and stability.

Note: Bold colors such as red, black, and orange can instantly grab attention.

• Shape

The shape of your CTA button also plays a key role in making it noticeable to the site visitors. Refer to these shape meanings when you decide to design your CTA button:

• Rectangles and Squares: discipline, courage, reliability, strength, and security.
• Triangles: risk, excitement, danger, stability, and balance.
• Circles, Ellipses, and Ovals: eternity, magic, and universe.
• Abstract Shapes: uniqueness and elaborate.

Conventionally, CTA buttons are given the shape of horizontal rectangles, giving them the appeal of clickable buttons.

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Listen Up: We suggest you design your CTAs with rounded corners as they draw attention to the copy.

2. Create an Actionable Copy

Channel your inner copywriter and craft an action-focused copy.

Ensure you strike a balance between clear, simple instruction and jargon-free, compelling copy.

Also, don’t forget to use action words such as “start”, “register”, “download”, etc. in your copy.

Listen Up: You can always take inspiration from major brand websites to get creative while crafting your copy.

3. Make It Sound Urgent

You can also add a sense of urgency to your CTA to keep your visitors focused on the action you want them to take. Are there only a few items left in the stock? Is it a limited offer? Adding the element of urgency will let the visitors know that they need to take an action at that point in time instead of putting it off for a later stage.

4. Keep Your CTA Short in Length

For a CTA to fit into a button format, it needs to be short in length. A longer length of CTA can fail to grab attention in such a format. We recommend you keep the words to five or even less.

5. Tell Your Customers What They Should Expect

No one wants to get tricked or deceived into clicking on something that offers no value to them. Ensure you craft a copy that clearly communicates to your customers what they should expect if they click the CTA. We recommend you create an informative CTA that explains the benefits of clicking on it. For instance, you can tell your customers if they will be taken to a new page to complete an order or will they be signed to a newsletter.

Tip: If you incorporate target-audience-specific language in your CTA, you get to increase the conversion potential.

Bonus tip: You can consider using SEMrush’s Keyword Gap tool to search for keywords to use in your CTA. This will help you craft some unique CTAs (that your competition isn’t using) and assist you in your SEO ranking.

6. Ensure a Smooth and Logical Flow

It’s crucial that you align your CTAs with specific stages in the buyer’s journey so that you can make relevant offers. Let’s understand this with the help of an example. Promoting a full-year premier delivery subscription to a new visitor will be futile as it will be too early in their buying journey.

Call-To-Action Strategy

You can always use some effective CTA strategies to increase inquiries and customer data capture, which will in turn help you increase your sales. Here are some of these strategies:

1. Include More Than One CTA

The most common way you see a CTA appear is in a sentence, placed at the end of a blog, email, or website. However, you must incorporate more than one CTA in your blog to prompt the reader about what they should do next.

2. Don’t Go Overboard

While we recommend that you have more than one CTA in your marketing material, you must know how much is too much. Don’t include too many CTAs and overwhelm the readers. They may find you insincere or simply desperate if you go overboard with CTAs.

3. Placement Is Important

A difficult-to-find or hidden CTA doesn’t benefit both you or your audience. Ensure your page layout is such that your potential customer can easily find a CTA.

Here’s what you can keep in mind while deciding the placement of your CTA:

A simple offer that doesn’t need a lot of thinking to make a buying decision can use a CTA that’s placed above the fold. But if you think your readers need to digest all the information they have got and then make a decision, you should place the CTA at the end.

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4. Prioritize Your CTAs

It’s important to note that not every CTA of yours will carry the same priority. For instance, a CTA prompting a customer to “buy now” will be of greater priority as compared to the one that offers a white paper to read. Ensure the CTAs with the most priority are the easiest to locate.

5. Conduct A/B Testing

A/B testing compares two versions of a CTA to check which one performs better. The performance is checked based on real-time data and statistics.

Why do this kind of testing?

This is because it will let you know if you have the right message, placement, and design.

Now, when you create A/B test versions, ensure you change only a single detail so that you know what impacted the results.

Here’s an example of A/B test variations:

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Wrapping It Up

Used in marketing campaigns, a call-to-action is a written directive that encourages visitors to take the desired action. From eliminating the decision fatigue of your site visitors to increasing the number of interactions with your website, the importance of using CTAs cannot be emphasized enough. A persuasive CTA can help you gain subscribers, shares, likes, and customers. If you follow the tips and strategies we have discussed above, you will be able to create a CTA that's powerful enough to encourage your site visitors to take the desired action.

Natural backlinks are quintessential to formulating and implementing SEO strategies. In the eyes of Google and other search engines, it acts as a vote of confidence  for your website, making it look more authoritative and credible. So, if you are a business owner who wants to revamp your off-page SEO strategy but don't know how, start with building natural backlinks for your website's content!

Link building is a new, much-needed strategy for websites that want to boost their Google ranking and attract organic traffic. Do you want to know what lies at the heart of effective link building? Creating high-quality content that your potential customers want to consume!

Remember: The key is to create natural backlinks for your website.

Focusing on creating natural backlinks not only helps you improve your SEO but also fosters brand recognition. It propels your website and your products and service offerings to rank higher in the search engine results and helps you achieve the audience engagement that you want.

By now, you might have understood the relevance of natural backlinks for your website, yet the definition of natural backlink  may seem a little vague to you. Don't worry! We've got your back. Read on to find out what natural backlinks are and how you can earn them fluently.

What Are Natural Backlinks?

As the name suggests, natural backlinks are the links you gain by producing top-notch content for your website. This happens when other bloggers, web admins, or website owners link to your content because they find it useful for their audience and value-adding to their website. The ongoing digital marketing trends and Google has made it evident that they want backlinks to be as natural as possible to ensure higher rankings.

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Link diversity is one of the key ingredients in creating a Google-friendly backlink portfolio. A few critical features that determine the relevancy of a backlink are:

• Having a natural context.
• Offering valuable information to readers.
• Having an anchored text.

Hiring a well-experienced digital marketing professional who can help you create natural backlinks for your website or determine whether a link is worth pursuing, is recommended.

Remember: You must not cheat or cut corners when creating backlinks, as this can significantly disrupt your website's overall performance. Google watches everything. So, the only way to earn its trust and stand ahead of your competitors is by giving your audience what they want a original, informative content.

But, is creating quality content enough to inspire the top-performing websites to link to your page?

Content marketing is challenging. The internet is an ocean of content where even the most remarkable piece of content can get lost or remain undiscovered from the targeted eyes if not distributed strategically.

How To Create Natural Backlinks?

If you are an observant reader, chances are you have already noticed the oxymoron in the very topic of the blog. Creating natural backlinks can be time-consuming and confusing if you are new to digital marketing. However, you can always follow these below-mentioned tips to influence link generation on your website:

1. Focus On Quality and Value

To earn natural backlinks, you have to create SEO-rich, quality content. It is one of the most effective digital marketing techniques to help your website rank higher in search engine results. So, if you haven't already, it is high time to start leveraging the perks of content creation for your website. Wondering how to do that?

Hire a reputed digital marketing company that can assist in creating top-quality, keyword-rich content that offers practical solutions to your visitors. This technique works wonders in gaining much-needed exposure for your website, improving its ranking, and earning natural backlinks to your website.

Point to Remember: If your backlink holds an actual value, it will be considered natural.

2. Focus On Creating Targeted and Purposeful Content

Before starting to create content, make sure to check if anyone is interested in republishing your content or linking to it. While recycling your existing topics can be advantageous in maintaining consistency, you must know that creating natural backlinks demands more. It is advised to offer something new and exciting that gains attention and inspires other website owners to link to it. Wondering how to do that?

For starters, consider framing a list of websites that entices your targeted audience. Now, think of content that might interest these websites. For instance, to get featured on a top-performing website that publishes news and research articles, you must focus on creating newsworthy content on a hot topic to get noticed.

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Alternatively, you can also hire an experienced digital marketing expert to help you do so.

Point to Remember: Quality content comes with great effort. So, make your every word generate revenue!

3. Aim To Build Better Content

Building content based on someone else's content works for controversial topics, but what to do when creating content on generic topics? Well, a simple answer would be a to grab every opportunity and make the best out of it.

Identify your targeted audience, determine their needs, concerns, demands, expectations, and behavior, and offer them the most appropriate solutions. Strategize your content and make it relatable to your audience. This will allow you to inspire them and other websites to link to your content.

Point to Remember: Content without strategy is just stuff, and the internet is full of ordinary stuff.

4. Collaborate With Top Influencers

Influencer marketing has gained tremendous popularity in recent years, for the right reasons too. It equips high-end brands to entice new customers and allows small businesses to gain more visibility. Thus, it strengthens your brand's visibility and stimulates its credibility. So, what are you waiting for?

Prepare a list of top influencers or companies relevant to your industry and collaborate with them to create reputable, result-driven content for your website. This trick will boost your website's reliability, helping you build natural backlinks effortlessly.

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Point to Remember: Add influencers to your marketing campaigns to make this collaboration a win-win for all your brand, the influencers, and your audience.

5. Organize Interviews With Influencers

Interviews are another ideal, highly-engaging content that can benefit and interest both you and your interviewer. Content curation for interviews involves extensive research and can be arduous, but the eventual results make the hassle worthwhile.

Collaborate with top influencers and ask for their expert opinion to get awe-inspiring, highly linkable content while allowing them to boost their visibility.

Point to Remember: Your content can only generate natural backlinks if it is exceptional!

6. Research Potential Topics

All the tips mentioned above have one thing in common finding an ideal topic for your content. Finding what your audience is looking for is the key to putting forward phenomenal content.

One of the effective ways to create content on relevant topics is by taking the assistance of a professional digital marketing company willing to do all the research and work for you. Their expertise can significantly boost your odds of building natural backlinks.

Point to Remember: Having five quality backlinks is better than having twenty irrelevant ones.

7. Create Diversified Content

Once you have learnt the art of “how to get natural backlinks,” you will notice that natural backlinks can come from anywhere. If your content is worth a read, you can expect backlinks in different forms and from diversified websites that operate in different ways. Isn’t it a dream come true?

However, this comes with great responsibility. It requires creating valuable content (literally) and providing multiple linking opportunities to different websites. In fact, it is easier said than done. However, you can always consult with a digital marketing specialist to help you achieve the desired results.

Point to Remember: Do you want to achieve virality across multiple channels? Then make content that has the potential to go viral! Recent tidbits, trendy posts, and speaking on socio-cultural issues will do it.

8. Say Hi to Visual Content

Visual content creates optimum audience engagement, leading to more traffic and conversion rates. This is one of the most important reasons why you should constitute it into your link-building strategy. Wondering if it will work for your business?

The answer is yes, but with the right trick and assistance. If you are new to creating visual content, then consider hiring an experienced digital marketing expert to help you create linkable visual content for your website.

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Point to Remember: Content is everywhere. Aim for quality and variety!

9. Discover Your Audience's Favorite Channels

Knowing where your audience hangs out on the internet is a critical step in ensuring a foolproof digital marketing strategy. Even the best content won't bring any results if it does not reach its targeted audience. So, identifying the most appropriate channels where your potential customers spend their time is vital to promoting organic content.

Let's Give You a Perspective:

Email marketing is a vital digital marketing tool. It helps you reach out to your targeted audience, but does not guarantee that your email will be opened, let alone rejoined. This can be a bummer, but is an eye-opener to help you understand the importance of using the proper mode of communication and social channel for your business.

Therefore, consulting with a top-notch digital marketing company is recommended to help you pick out the best marketing channel for your business. Reaching your targeted audience via the right communication mode just where they are, will help you build natural backlinks.

Point to Remember: Create content strategically and have an effective promotion channel ready at your disposal to ensure desired results.

10. Ensure Optimization Across All Platforms

You might have already heard it a thousand times create content for people, not search engines. However, keep in mind that these two can go hand-in-hand. Wondering how?

Everyone appreciates organic traffic, but you can always boost it by posting a search-friendly title. This will help more people find answers to their questions and, ultimately, land on your business. Therefore, always follow SEO-friendly techniques when creating content to build natural backlinks.

Point to Remember: Having a backlink that drives referral traffic is better than a link from a highly authoritative website.

Conclusion

If your targeted customers want to discover and engage with your website, you must build smooth pathways with big, flashing signs that lead them to your business. In the words of digital marketing, this means you need to build natural backlinks.

However, always remember that you must be persistent to achieve the desired results. As mentioned above, creating natural backlinks is a constant challenge, so do not get discouraged in your initial phase of mastering the art. Moreover, you can keep the most amazing content on your website, so there's nothing to lose.

Connecting all the dots will bring benefits in the long run. And, creating content strategically with the perspective mentioned above will definitely help you achieve quality natural backlinks overtime.

Running a digital marketing agency is strenuous, and white-label agencies are here to help! Partnering with a reputable and trusted white label marketing agency will save you from the everyday agency grind while allowing you to focus on what you do best running and scaling your business. So start today!

Content marketing has truly reached its peak, and brands can no longer attract and engage customers with only content in their campaigns. Customers are looking for more in terms of value addition, which has given rise to branded content in marketing. However, branded content is not as new as you might think. It has been around since the late 1940s, but has become more mainstream recently. If your business hasn't jumped on the branded content bandwagon yet, it is high time to do so.

Read on to know more about branded content and incorporating it into your business.

What Is Branded Content?

Before we move on to how and when to use branded content, it is critical to understand what it means. Many people confuse branded content with adding logos and images of their brand to showcase their content. However, branded content goes far beyond that. Branded content is about sharing your company's value and vision with your customers through your content.

Branded content is not simply about generating sales or revenue, but eliciting an emotional response from your customers so that they feel connected to your brand.

How Is Branded Content Different From Content Marketing?

Content marketing is using your content to achieve your marketing goals. It is created with the audience as the focus in mind. However, branded content is more about showcasing what your brand stands for to attract people who share similar ethics and values.

Branded content usually generates relatively quick and effective actions from the customer, whereas content marketing produces more gradual results.

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Why Does Your Business Need Branded Content?

If your content marketing strategies are doing well, you may wonder why you even need branded content. There are several advantages to introducing branded content to your marketing roster. The major ones include:

1. It Helps Build an Emotional Connection

Humans are emotional beings who listen to their emotions more than anything else. By creating branded content that speaks to people's emotions, you can build a solid and lasting connection with people and turn them into loyal customers. It is seen that users who feel an emotional connection to a brand spend 2x more on that brand than those who don't. Therefore, it can significantly impact your business if you build that emotional connection with your audience.

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2. It Acts as a Reminder

In this age where competition is remarkably stiff, leaving your mark is one of the most challenging things to do. Market monopoly is not something brands achieve easily, so you have to rely on standing out from the crowd to be memorable to your audience. Branded content has 59% more recall than other digital ads. It leaves an imprint on people's minds that makes you unforgettable long after a specific ad campaign is over.

3. It Helps Improve Your Branding

Today, almost everything is digital and competition is cut-throat. Hence, the customer must be aware enough of your brand so that they pick you over your competitors in a flash. Branded content helps you frame your brand identity and makes your business recognizable to people quickly. Studies show that people support brands that take a stand for social causes.

4. It Creates Engagement and Loyalty

If you are tired of making posts after posts and running campaigns after campaigns with no real attention from people, it is time to switch to branded content. 27.5% of millennials block ads, and your audience often won't even see your ad. However, branded content is created in such a way that it pushes the consumers to give a response. People are more likely to support a brand after consuming its branded content through purchases, social media promotions, and other forums.

5. It Can Go Viral

In this age of digitization, becoming ‘viral’ is one of the easiest ways to capture market and audience attention. Branded content can easily make your brand go viral on social media platforms and snowball your popularity in a short amount of time.

6. Promotes Traffic and Leads

Getting traffic and leads for your website from various sources is critical to achieving business goals. They help you generate sales and revenue for your business. Branded content, although not created to generate leads and traffic, can produce enough curiosity among people to visit your website and even convert to your customers.

How to Create Branded Content for Your Business?

There's no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to creating branded content, as no two businesses are alike. It is all about connecting with your audience at an emotional level. However, there are some specific tips you can implement to create the perfect branded content. These are:

1. Create Meaningful Content

When talking about branded content, quality will always overrule quantity. You need to focus on creating content that touches the minds of your audience so they remember you for a long time. That can only happen when you incorporate emotions, values, and knowledge into the content, no matter the format. Taking a social stance over an issue is one of the most common ways brands try to create branded content.

Here are some must-haves to create meaningful branded content:

• A unique and original concept.
• An emotional facet that connects with the audience.
• A gripping story.
• A big NO to sales pitches.
• A focus on current social and cultural issues.
• A drive to engage the audience.

2. Choose Your Platforms Correctly

Your platform also plays a vital role in establishing your brand identity. Creating excellent content isn't enough to reach your audience. You also need to find them at the right place to send your message. Be strategic about choosing your platform and ensure you have the right audience group on your chosen forum.

3. Have a Definitive Tone and Voice

When creating branded content, it is essential to set the tone of your content, as it will reflect your brand values. You need to follow a consistent style in all of your branded content, so be careful about what you want to depict and ensure that the message you're conveying is clear.

4. Have a Deeper Understanding of Your Target Audience

For your branded content strategies to work, you need a deeper understanding of your target audience's psyche. Consider their opinions on various social and intellectual issues and find out what would resonate with them the most to capture their attention.

5. Ensure the Content Has Visibility

Creating a single video or blog post on your website may not gather enough attention to achieve the desired results. You must build your branded content frequency across various platforms to ensure it receives ample visibility.

6. Diversify Your Content

Although your brand values and ideologies remain the same, giving your audience similar content will reduce its impact. You must find diversified and unique ways to send your message to your audience. Think out of the box and create innovative ideas for your content.

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7. Look Out for Your Competitors

Your competitors play a vital role in the effectiveness of your branding strategies. You must ensure that your branded content is different and better than your competition's. If all of your competitors are saying the same thing, you won't be able to capture the attention of your audience. Studying your competitors' branded content helps you determine what to do and what not to do.

8. Monitor and Measure Your Content

Like every other marketing strategy, having measurement mechanisms in place is also critical for branded content strategy. You need to determine the effectiveness of your branded content campaigns. For this, you can utilize various social media listening and other digital tools to monitor your progress.

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How to Create Branded Content for Different Platforms?

Branded Content on Instagram

Instagram is the choice of platform for many brands to showcase branded content, and not without good reasons. It is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly users!

Branded content on Instagram is often created with the help of social media influencers. These influencers have many millions of followers who place a certain amount of trust in them.

By collaborating with these influencers, you can post videos of them using your products/services to capture the attention of their follower base. The influencer can tag your brand in their posts and share links to your products/website to promote your brand.

A great example of branded content on Instagram is the #meetanowner campaign run by the high-end automobile brand Subaru. For the campaign, Subaru found a few existing customers who had an influence on Instagram and asked them to post pictures with their Subaru vehicle and hashtags of the brand. The campaign was intended to show people that Subaru vehicles are designed for adventures and are reliable partners to take on your thrilling off-road travels. The fact that the people who owned the vehicle championed it made the claims much more reliable and realistic among adventure seekers.

Branded Content on Facebook

Right behind Instagram is another social media platform that rules the branded content forum. Facebook is one of the most influential social media platforms, with over 2.934 billion active users globally.

Creating branded content on Facebook is different from Instagram. Facebook requires you to get permission to become a sponsor or creator of branded content. The influencer who uses your content or products and tags your brand must also announce their partnership with the brand before they post your branded content.

We can see one of the best examples of using Facebook for creating branded content with Nike, one of the most popular sports brands in the world. If you check out the Nike Facebook page, you’ll ‌see that there is a great balance of product launches, scientific research around their products, charitable events that they are a part of, and sports personalities who wear their brand as they cross milestones in their career. Their page shows ‌they are reliable and way ahead of time than their competitors with the efforts they put into each product, all without even directly promoting any product through over-the-top sales pitches.

Wrapping up

Branded content is one of the most prominent ways to leave a mark on your customers in today's times. It shows the customer who you are and what you believe in, creating bonds far deeper than a high-quality product shoot or an engaging sales pitch could ever do.

You can get started with simple yet effective forms of branded content “ such as videos and banner ads “ before building up toward other forms of content gradually.

Ultimately, it is all about what you want your customers to believe about you.

Whether you are a small business, startup, or a multi-national corporation, branded content is effective for all.