Happy New Year! It’s that time when many of us resolve to remake ourselves, even with that nagging feeling in the back of our minds that change will only last a short while.

But fear not! I’ve thought of nine resolutions for business owners that are both easy and worthwhile. These resolutions will lighten your load and make your workday just a little easier.

1. Manage your passwords

I set this as a goal for myself one New Year, and I can attest that my digital life is better since I’ve done it. Every time a data breach hits the news, I have added peace of mind because the odds that my other accounts will be compromised are a lot lower.

So if you haven’t already, download a password manager. I use LastPass. Another good one is 1Password.

A password manager means you only have to remember one master password. The app then creates a distinct alphanumeric password for all your accounts, and you can access them from any device. It’s simpler and more secure than re-using passwords and/or the Post-It note that keeps falling off your monitor.

If you own a business, insist that your employees use a password manager, too — no more sharing passwords for accounts! This is a must. You can instantly change a password or easily restrict access if a team member leaves.

2. Wrangle your notifications

Dings, buzzes, and banners drive me crazy. It’s impossible to concentrate when you’re constantly being interrupted.

Take some time over the next few days to go through your phone and desktop notifications. Turn off anything that you don’t need (I’m looking at you, Words with Friends). For the notifications that you do need or want, consider turning off the sound or only allowing an icon badge.

Here are some shortcuts to help you figure out how to turn those suckers off:

• iPhone notifications
• Facebook notifications
• Outlook notifications
• Twitter notifications

3. Change the copyright date on your website

Everyone forgets to do this. Perhaps you’ve forgotten for several years. Dust off your homepage and make sure it says 2020 in the footer.

While you’re there, look at any other things on your website that could use a polish. Need to update your imagery? Check out these stock photos. Broken code? Find a freelance developer on Fiverr. Haven’t blogged in months? (Guilty!) Hire a writer, or experiment with an algorithm-written article — it’s less than a dollar!

Finally, especially if you’re an advertiser, make sure your website has a privacy policy. You can generate one for free that is GDPR-compliant. I talk about why a privacy policy is important (as well as several other ways you can improve your landing pages) here.

4. Give your social media a tune-up

The start of the year is a good time to revisit your social media presence. If your social channels have gotten stale, plan your messaging across all networks with a service like CoSchedule or PromoRepublic. You’ll spend less time managing posts and visually map your content on a calendar.

Take care that your social media posts aren’t all about you. Think about ways for your business to add value to your audience, so that people will want to follow it.

If your business relies heavily on Instagram and Pinterest, take a look at Tailwind. I wrote a full review of the service here. Want to use Instagram more, but your audience is tiny? Think about ways to grow it. One neat service that I found is called Kicksta, which can, in a totally non-spammy way, grow your Instagram following.

5. Revisit your ad strategy and creative

Take a fresh look at your advertising. If your creative could use a facelift, consider running a design contest. This way, graphic designers from all over the world compete to win your business, and you can choose the finished work you like the best.

If you are having trouble deciding on a design, try an A/B test on Facebook or Google to see whether the creative resonates.

Finally, consider the media mix you’re using. Don’t overlook channels like LinkedIn and Microsoft Advertising. I explain why Microsoft Ads (previously Bing) might be a good fit in this article.

6. Tame your inbox

Take control of your inbox. Use Unroll.me to consolidate your promotional emails into a single daily send and to easily unsubscribe from lists you no longer want to be on. Take care, however: Unroll.me is fantastic and free, but you will be sharing information with Rakuten Intelligence.

If you don’t want to do this, there are still ways to clean up your inbox:

• Ruthlessly unsubscribe from anything you signed up for. Report spam on anything you didn’t.
• Hide any optional portions of the mail interface you don’t use, such as tabs, chat, or menu bars.
• Learn how to create rules for your inbox (below) so that certain senders, domains, or Subject Line phrases can be automatically marked as read, deleted, or organized into a folder.
  • Gmail
  • Outlook
  • Apple Mail

7. Write better emails

After you’ve tamed your inbox (Resolution #6), improve your own emails. I recommend the free Grammarly plugin for a simple grammar- and spell-checker.

If you use Gmail or Google for Business and especially if you’re a woman, I also recommend the Just Not Sorry plugin. This plugin flags words and phrases that we are prone to use to soften or hedge our statements, such as “just,” “I think,” and “I’m no expert.” As founder Tami Reiss told Slate, too many women inadvertently discredit their own opinions. “We thought: What if we changed the environment? What if we pinged someone to say, ‘Hey, you’re doing this thing that you probably don’t want to do. The response is going to be unconscious to someone else, but it’s going to have a really big impact.’” After several years of using this plugin, I agree.

8. Limit the junk mail that comes into your office and home

I hate clutter, especially clutter I never wanted in the first place. This year, find your inner Marie Kondo and limit the junk mail that you have to sort through.

First, follow these steps to remove yourself from mailing lists. Then, download the PaperKarma app. By snapping a picture of any junk mail that does come to your home or office, you can instantly unsubscribe from the senders.

9. Back up your files

If you’re not already doing this, get on it! Losing your work isn’t a problem until that one time when you lose it — and there’s never a good time for that to happen.

This is one area of my life where I don’t mind overkill. I back up my Mac and phone with Time Machine, Apple’s built-in program. All my files are archived on an external hard drive (storage is cheap these days — you can get five terabytes for about $100! I still remember when Zip disks were $50 each.) I take the added step of using Google Backup and Sync in case my hardware ever fails. And, for good measure, I’ll still email myself or save files to Dropbox or iCloud if I feel like I need to put it in one more place… just in case.

Wishing you a wonderful 2020. What are you resolving to do this year?

Today, April 22, 2019, is the sixth anniversary of my company Charles Ave Marketing.

Six years ago, I had no idea whether this whole idea would last. After losing a full-time marketing job at a tech startup, I spent almost a year freelancing. During that year, I needed to make an adjustment on my taxes, and I had no idea how to do it. After reading some Yelp reviews, I called a local accountant to see if she could help.

It was this accountant, Vicki Knight, who advised me to incorporate. And thus, Charles Ave Marketing, LLC was born.

Over the course of the next year, Vicki became my business mentor. She taught me about small business accounting, payroll, how to set up my retirement accounts, and more.

Starting a business is scary. It’s a leap of faith. But wow, to think about that moment, and all the moments in between, it’s amazing to contemplate how we got here.

Charles Ave clients are the best

It fills me with pride that two clients, Menuism and MyCorporation, have been with Charles Ave essentially since day one. And both still would be, except MyCorporation was recently acquired by Deluxe (yay, MyCorp team!). After the acquisition, Deluxe brought marketing tasks in-house, so our arrangement ended just a couple of weeks ago. But still! These long-lasting relationships are almost unheard of in the online marketing world.

I’m proud to point to other time-tested client relationships as well. Los Angeles Institute of Architecture and Design began working with Charles Ave in 2014. PickFu and American College of Education started in 2015. dotLuxury has been with us since 2016.

Best of all, proposals go out to prospective new clients all the time. In fact, Charles Ave just began working with a national finance company.

Being busy is a good problem to have

For the past two years, I’ve done something big to coincide with the company anniversary. In 2017, I unveiled a redesigned company website. In 2018, I launched my first self-published book.

This year, I barely made the time to put together this blog post. It’s a constant issue: in the process of marketing for clients, I neglect marketing myself. Since Charles Ave is a service-oriented business, time is a finite resource. And I just haven’t been good about keeping up with the company’s blog, social media, and my presence as a Forbes LA Business Council member. I am trying to be better about delegating tasks, but I haven’t slowed down enough to bring in more help.

As a business owner, I think it’s as important to acknowledge our shortcomings as it is to celebrate our accomplishments. So check back in with me in a year and see how I’ve done.

Until then, back to work!

One more thing

I would be remiss not to mention that while April 22 is one of my happiest days of the year, April 23 is one of the saddest. On April 23, 2017, one of my closest friends, Shirley Weiss, died unexpectedly at the age of 36. Her death, as well as the sudden deaths of Joe Abramo (38) and Kristina Schroeter (34) that same year, has had a profound impact on me. My beloved dog Tucker, who was instrumental in coping with the losses, died the following July at the age of 13.

Grief, depression, and suicidality have defined so much of the past few years. Again, I think it is as important to acknowledge our struggles as it is to tout our successes. As I have for the past two years, I encourage you to read my article How Companies Can Support Employees Coping with Grief and hug someone you love today. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Please note this post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission (at no cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. If my review helps you, I’d appreciate it if you used the links below. Thanks!

Many businesses are hesitant to make the leap to Instagram. But this past March, when Instagram introduced shoppable posts, it made itself a powerful driver of e-commerce sales. What does this mean for your company?

Instagram’s Shoppable Posts

]Eligible business profiles can now tag products in their Instagram posts, sending Instagram users from the feed to the add-to-cart section of your website in only three clicks.

To become eligible, you need

• to sell physical goods and comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies
• the latest version of the Instagram app
• an Instagram business profile, of which you are an admin
• a product catalog associated with a shop on Facebook or a catalog in Business Manager (if you have a Shopify store, there is an easy integration)

Once you’ve become eligible, you can tag products in your organic posts. They’ll look something like this:

Using hashtags to improve your Instagram reach

Hashtags strengthen the odds that your post will be seen by more Instagram users. Do some experimentation to see which hashtags your target customer uses to navigate the social network and discover content. Your post might even end up on Instagram’s Search and Explore tab, which could lead to huge exposure.

Researching hashtags

What’s the best way to discover Instagram hashtags? Perhaps you’ve Googled hashtags in your niche and created a manual list that you copy and paste into posts. But there’s a smarter way: Tailwind.

Using the Tailwind app, as you type your post’s caption, you get an instant list of hashtag recommendations. These hashtags are constantly updated, so unlike a manual list, it will evolve with trends and new suggestions. The hashtags are also color-coded into categories: Niche, Good, Best, and Competitive. These categories give you a sense of how much exposure you might expect (it’s best to mix up the popularity of the hashtags you use – more competitive hashtags will have more potential traffic, but in an over-crowded field, your post could get drowned out by others). When you hover over any hashtag in Tailwind’s Hashtag Finder, you’ll see how many posts have used that hashtag.

See the Tailwind Hashtag Finder in action

Saving Hashtag Lists for future use

One of the most useful features Tailwind offers is the ability to save Hashtag Lists. With up to 30 hashtags available to you on any individual post, you can create a list to be easily duplicated in future posts. Tailwind’s software also includes a Smart Scheduler so you can plan your content calendar and post at times when your followers are the most engaged.

Using Tailwind for Instagram and Pinterest

Tailwind’s newly updated Hashtag Finder is just the latest in its useful features. For example:

• Scheduling: Bulk image upload, drag-and-drop calendar, multi-board pinning on Pinterest, Smart Scheduler to tell you when the audience is most active on Pinterest and Instagram, and Browser Extensions for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox to schedule multiple posts at once
• Instagram Story scheduling: Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, so staying on top of when your Story will be active can be challenging, especially when you’re actively running a business. Story scheduling gives you the ability to time your Story posts in advance.
• Geotags: Automatically add location information about where the photo was taken to your Instagram posts. Geotags are another way to make your posts discoverable. Geotagging is especially useful for brick-and-mortar businesses to attract local patrons or starting conversations with nearby users. For national or global brands, you can customize messages for fans in a certain area.
• Analytics for Pinterest: Insights to measure what’s working (and what’s not), including repins, likes, comments, traffic, and revenue from each post
• Content curation for Pinterest: Suggested content based on what you’re sharing

Tailwind starts at only $15/month, but you can take a free trial with no time limit. Your trial enables you to schedule up to 100 pins on Pinterest and up to 30 posts on Instagram for free. No credit card is required to try it. Get started today and see how Tailwind can improve your exposure on Instagram, especially for Shoppable Posts!

Please note this post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission (at no cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. If my review helps you, I’d appreciate it if you used the links below. Thanks!

I officially incorporated Charles Ave Marketing in 2013. At the time, I was emailing invoices that I created in Pages or InDesign, and manually trying to keep track of incoming payments. As my company grew and I began working with an accountant, it soon became clear that my system wasn’t sustainable. That’s when I discovered FreshBooks.

What is FreshBooks?

FreshBooks is a cloud accounting software built for self-employed professionals. Using FreshBooks, you can send invoices, collect payments, create estimates, log expenses, and track your time, as well as track time for team members and freelancers you work with.

Me? Accounting?

Accounting is one of those disciplines I never thought I’d need to learn. I certainly never wanted to learn it. But as a business owner, knowing where your financials stand— what’s coming in and what’s going out — is crucial.

The nice thing about FreshBooks is it makes it all easy. You get a clear picture of your earnings, what’s owed to you, your expenses, and your net profit.

Probably the best-known accounting software out there is QuickBooks. The similar names make it confusing. But I realized right away that I found QuickBooks intimidating. FreshBooks had all the features I needed but a friendlier interface that was simple to use. Here’s a detailed comparison of FreshBooks vs. QuickBooks.

These are the features I love about FreshBooks:

Invoicing made easy

As a service-oriented business, I rely on invoicing. Using FreshBooks, I can customize my invoices with my logo and brand colors, and personalize my thank-you email. The software enables you to accept credit cards and ACH payments, a feature many of my clients find convenient. For my monthly retainer clients, I can even set up automatic recurring invoices – one less thing to do every month!

Clients have told me they love my invoicing system, and that reflects well on me. Using FreshBooks, clients can refer to present and past invoices, manage payments, and access records on their own. They even appreciate the automated payment reminders they get if an invoice has lingered a little too long.

Similarly, I can use FreshBooks to send estimates or project proposals to prospective clients. Once the prospect formally accepts the estimate online, I can turn that estimate into an invoice at the push of a button. It’s all ready to go out once the project is complete.

Effortless expense tracking

FreshBooks integrates with your bank accounts and credit cards, so there’s no manual entries or exporting and uploading files. Every day, FreshBooks updates itself with your most recent spending, keeping records up-to-date automatically.

FreshBooks has a mobile app which is useful for uploading receipts. You can snap a picture of the receipt and associate it with any expense. Because everything is cloud-based, your mobile and desktop versions of FreshBooks will stay in sync.

Credit Card and ACH payment options

Payments are well managed within FreshBooks. You can integrate Stripe or use FreshBooks Payments to accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express) and Apple Pay directly from your invoices. If a client uses the online payment option, the invoice is automatically marked as paid in your FreshBooks account. Then, the invoice amount minus the transaction fee is deposited straight into your bank account. Credit card transactions cost 2.9% of the invoice amount + $0.30 per transaction. If you use FreshBooks Payments, processing fees are automatically imported as expenses. The entire process from client payment to your bank account usually takes about two business days.

A new (and less expensive!) payment option just introduced for U.S. customers is ACH payments. ACH, or Automated Clearing House, is a network connecting major banks and all financial institutions in the United States. ACH payments cost 1% of the invoice amount through Freshbooks, so you’ll save fees over credit card payments. And, if your client usually pays by check, ACH is faster, more secure, and likely more convenient.

Of course, you can also enter payments manually into your FreshBooks account, so if you’re paid in other means like mailed-in checks or Bank Wire (I’ve done both), you just have to make sure you keep the records up to date.

Providing clients multiple ways to pay gives them choices, which they like, and helps you get paid faster, which you’ll like. According to FreshBooks, 80% of users that accept online payments agree that it improves client relationships. I can attest that one of my own clients loves that she can pay me using her credit card, and her payments usually come in the fastest.

There are no setup fees or additional monthly costs to offer online payment. FreshBooks makes it all fast, easy, and secure. Who doesn’t like that?

Time tracking that saves time

If you rely on hourly billing, time tracking is essential. Rather than trying to remember how much time you spent on a project and then creating a timesheet later, you and your team members can simply start a timer within FreshBooks. When you’re done, you’ll have an accurate time log ready to magically transform into an invoice.

What about tax time?

As I noted, I do work with an accountant, especially at tax time. Her name is Vicki, and she’s a godsend. I found her on Yelp and now she’s one of my business mentors (I quoted her in this article about my best advice to female entrepreneurs – that’s how much I love her).

Vicki relies on my yearly Profit & Loss report (P&L) that FreshBooks creates. When we meet, she pores over it, and it acts as the basis of our entire discussion. Because FreshBooks does such a thorough job of tracking my invoices, categorizing expenses, and calculating net profit, the P&L gives a year-long view of my business that makes filing taxes easier.

Other reports available in FreshBooks:

• Sales Tax summary
• Accounts aging
• Invoice reports (paid vs. outstanding)
• Expense reports
• Time entry reports
• Payments collected
• Trial balance
• General ledger

How much does FreshBooks cost?

FreshBooks offers monthly and yearly plans that are tiered based on the number of clients you have. It starts at only $15/month. See the latest pricing here.

Before you commit, use this link to take advantage of a free 30-day trial. 

A raving FreshBooks review

I hate math, which makes me think I might hate accounting. But FreshBooks makes it painless.

Even five years into owning my business, there’s a feeling of pride every time I send an invoice or see a payment. I’ve relied on FreshBooks in my own company, and I believe it just might help yours, too.

I encourage you to take a free trial, give FreshBooks a spin, and let me know what you think.

PPC professionals often use the term landing page and assume you know what that means. Even if you have some understanding of what a landing page is, you might ask, why are landing pages important? Why should I care about them? So let’s start at the beginning… what is a landing page?

What is a landing page?

A landing page is the page on your website where you send paid traffic, sometimes called your destination URL. It’s where visitors “land” after they click on your ad on Google, Facebook, or on a link through another channel, like email. A landing page could potentially be any part of your website, like your homepage or your services page. As a best practice, however, you should build landing pages specifically for your paid search campaigns, always keeping conversions in mind. This means that you almost never want to use your company’s homepage as your landing page.

Building landing pages that convert

Define the conversion goal

A high-converting landing page is purpose-built for a particular stream of traffic. Let’s say you’ve set up a Google Ads campaign around a valuable keyword theme. Once visitors have clicked on your ad, what do you want them to do? 

Example conversion actions:

• Downloading a file
• Watching a video
• Submitting an email address or phone number
• Making a purchase
• Signing up for a free trial
• Calling or texting your business

A strong landing page makes it dead simple for your visitor to take the conversion action you’ve defined. How?

5 features of a high-converting landing page

1. The vital stuff lives above the fold

The term above the fold originates in the newspaper industry. The paper is usually folded in half, with the most important news stories in the top half. Everything else requires a reader to open the paper up to read what’s below. On the internet, the “fold” is where the user must scroll to view the rest of the page. The most important information of your landing page should not require much scrolling.

With different monitor sizes, screen resolutions, browser setups, and sizes of phones and tablets, it is impossible to define a single fold placement for a website. However, for an average desktop placement, the fold line is at approximately 1,000 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall.

Take this example from Deluxe Logo Design. You understand immediately that you can purchase a logo package starting at $99. When you scroll below the fold, you get much more detail, including logo samples, information about the company, and customer testimonials. But the most important information (the headline, offer, and Get Started call-to-action button) all reside up top.

2. Limited navigation

Remember, you’re building a landing page for the sole purpose of getting visitors to take the conversion action you defined. Keep them focused on that task by limiting your use of links. This doesn’t mean you want to eliminate navigation altogether, however. Give your visitors the freedom to click around if they’re interested in learning more about you, but be purposeful in the links and navigation you include.

One of the links you provide should be your business’s contact information. This link might point to a contact page, your help center, or your company’s About Us page. If you create a landing page on a domain other than your main company site, include a link to your full site. This tip comes straight from the search engine. To improve landing page experience, Google writes, “Openly share information about your business and clearly state what your business does.”

Take this example from Gusto payroll services. On its landing page, you can click on Features, Pricing, and Integrations in the top left navigation, and Sign In and Free trial links over on the top right.

Meanwhile, over on Gusto’s full website, the navigation (highlighted by the red box) is more robust, with drop-down menus offering even more links. The landing page simplifies the navigation but still lets the user discover more about the company and its payroll services.

3. A valuable offer that focuses on the user’s needs

With each landing page you create, understand where the customer is in her decision cycle, and tailor your offer to meet those needs. For instance, if the campaign is targeting people early in the decision-making process, keep your offer educational and related to further research. You might offer a checklist or buying guide.

Then, create a compelling headline and craft your copy to explain what value you will deliver in exchange for the conversion action (e.g., submitting an email address). While you want to help visitors understand who you are and why your brand should be trusted, keep the focus on the customer, not on yourself. Talk to her, not at her. Address her needs, not yours.

I like this example from Barnes & Noble Press. The headline “Stunning Editions Made By You,” empowers the reader to print her own cookbook, photo album, or book. The copy further speaks to what you can do with your personalized printed books (give to family and friends, business, fans, etc). Even more compelling, further down the page, there is a nifty tool to estimate your printing cost. This personalizes the offer to the individual who’s thinking about printing a book.

4. A clear call-to-action (CTA)

Remember, your landing page should be purpose-built for what you want your visitor to do. Experiment with different buttons, text, or designs to make your CTA stand out.

Here’s an example from TaskRabbit. Even though TaskRabbit offers help for all kinds of household tasks, this landing page was built specifically for a furniture assembly campaign. The green CTA button says, “Find help now.” From there, you’re directed to fill out a form about the furniture you want to be assembled.

5. It gets the basics right

One often overlooked step in landing page creation is making sure your website is built correctly. That means your landing page is secure, mobile-friendly, includes a privacy policy, and loads quickly. Refer to my article How to Structure Your Landing Page for Better Google Ads Results for all the details, including why website structure is critical, and how it affects how Google judges your page.

How to Make a Landing Page

Oftentimes, building new landing pages within your existing website is inconvenient — especially if your full site isn’t already mobile-friendly or has universal navigation that is difficult to change. In that case, you can use software to build landing pages quickly. Some leading landing page providers include

• Leadpages
• Instapage
• GetResponse

These companies offer easy-to-use templates that make design and implementation of landing pages easy. In addition, you can set up A/B tests to experiment with different headlines or CTA buttons and see which works better.

Author’s Note: Bing Ads is now known as Microsoft Advertising.

There’s no question that Google dominates search traffic, paid and organic. As an advertiser, you might ask yourself, why use Bing Ads at all? Let’s weigh the pros and cons of whether Bing Ads is an appropriate channel for your business.

Who uses Bing?

Estimates of Bing’s share of the search market vary. Not surprisingly, Bing has been the most generous with itself. In 2017, Microsoft claimed that Bing accounts for 33% market share in the US. The claim was met with some deserved skepticism. Even if overstated, however, remember that the vast majority of new computer sales are for Windows devices that come preloaded with Bing-defaulting browsers (previously Internet Explorer, now replaced with Microsoft Edge).

If you’re fairly web-savvy, it’s hard to imagine computer users who don’t immediately download a different browser like Chrome or Firefox. But imagine it, because even if less than the 33% market share claimed, it is a sizeable chunk of web traffic. I think of it as an audience that’s less cynical than we might be. I don’t have hard numbers to back this up, but a non-cynical person who happily uses the pre-installed programs is also less hesitant to click on paid ads instead of organic results. And probably less hesitant to convert.

This tracks with Bing’s claim that its audience spends 34% more online when shopping from their desktop computers than average internet searchers.

I don’t want to box the Bing audience as a bunch of Luddites stupidly clicking around the internet and buying stuff. But it is true that they don’t suffer from browser snobbishness. And as you approach your paid search strategy, perhaps you shouldn’t, either.

Why advertise on Bing? One good reason is you need to meet your customers where they are. Even if you don’t use Bing, they might.

Where do Bing Ads appear?

Bing’s search network consists of three parts:

1. Bing Ads appear along search results on Bing.com, AOL.com, and Yahoo.com, as well as sites owned and operated by Bing, such as MSN.com.
2. Bing also operates a network of syndicated search partner sites. These third-party sites use Bing and Yahoo search results.
3. Recently, Bing introduced Microsoft Audience Ads to its search network. These non-search native ad placements are shown beside articles on sites including MSN, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Edge, and other partners. According to Bing,

We use consumer intent signals, which include search history, browse history, page content, and demographic information [to understand user interests]. These signals, combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, provide highly relevant content to users and determine which ads to display. Microsoft Audience Ads also conform to your search ads’ existing targeting and negative-keyword settings.

As an advertiser, you have the ability to set which of these three components within the Bing Ads search network your ads appear. By default, all three are included. (The Google search network is all-or-nothing, so this is an important difference between the platforms).

Are clicks on Bing Ads cheaper than Google?

Bing Ads has a reputation for lower costs-per-click than Google, in large part because of less competition. For one of my clients, the average CPC last month on Google Search was $3.96, but only $2.15 for identical keywords in Bing Ads, and Bing gave us higher ad positions. Similarly, Wordstream found that of its managed services clients, Bing CPCs were 33% lower than Google CPCs. However, depending on your keywords, you may find that Bing Ads CPCs are comparable to CPCs on Google Search. Overall costs will likely be lower simply because Bing Ads will bring you fewer clicks than Google Ads. Like I already stated, however, fewer clicks doesn’t mean worthless clicks.

To help you estimate CPC, Bing has its own Keyword Planner tool within the Bing Ads dashboard.

If you’re new to Bing Ads, you can get $100 in search advertising when you spend $25 through this link for even further savings.

Why use Bing Ads? Clicks might be cheaper than Google Ads.

How do Bing and Google differ?

Bing and Google are similar offerings. In fact, one of the best features of Bing is you can import your Google Ads campaigns and launch Bing Ads quickly. However, once your campaigns go live, the two platforms do behave differently.

For instance, you may find that the keywords that bring you the most clicks on Bing are not the same keywords that bring you the most clicks on Google. Each platform has its own algorithms to rank advertisers, so you may be surprised by what performs best.

I’ve also found that Bing is not as sophisticated with its language settings. One of my clients advertises in both English and Spanish. On Google, we see huge traffic on our Spanish keywords, but almost none from Bing.

The most important difference to note: if your traffic from Bing Ads is substantially lower than Google, a single conversion can have an outsized impact on conversion rates and performance data. I call these “onesy-twosy” conversions, and they can make it difficult to draw conclusions and make informed decisions. For instance, if you make a sale through Bing Ads and this month’s conversion numbers suddenly look amazing, you might not see that performance repeat itself next month. That one conversion was basically a fluke, and you need to be careful not to read too much into it.

Of course, the same can be said for any Google campaign that doesn’t gather a lot of data, so the disproportionate conversion issue is not unique to Bing.

As you advertise on both Bing and Google, you’ll surely find other quirks and differences between the two networks.

Why use Bing Ads? You can easily import your Google Ads campaigns so that your keywords, ad text, and targeting settings stay the same.

Should I advertise on Bing?

Bing Ads is one of those overlooked gems in an advertiser’s arsenal. Though the platform is smaller than Google, its users are often more engaged. Clicks may be less expensive on Bing than on Google. You can easily import your Google campaigns. And, by ignoring Bing, you may be missing out on customers looking for exactly what you have to offer.

If you’re new to Bing Ads, use this link to get $100 in search advertising when you spend $25.

And feel free to get in touch with Charles Ave Marketing for Bing Ads campaign management, an account audit, or PPC consulting.

Press releases are one of those topics that every marketer has an opinion about. A few years ago, press releases were SEO gold, the easiest way to earn hundreds of backlinks in an instant. But in 2013, the Google algorithm caught up to the game. The debate ever since has been whether press releases still help with SEO. So do press releases work? I asked PR companies, SEO managers, and business owners to weigh in.

Press releases and backlinks

After the 2013 Google update, press releases distributed by companies like PRWeb and 24-7 Newswire changed from dofollow links to nofollow links. What does that mean?

Google’s whole search engine is algorithmic, reading signals to figure out what a website is about and which concepts are related to other concepts. One of the signals Google uses is the linkage between different websites. These links create the worldwide “web.”

When a site that Google already ranks as important links out to a company’s website, that company becomes a little more important in Google’s eyes. The value that the first site has passed to the second is what’s known as link juice.

“Juicy” links are known as dofollow links. Nofollow links, on the other hand, are still clickable links, but they don’t pass on any link juice.

Therefore, when a press release that links to your website is distributed to other websites, the links are nofollow links, giving you less SEO value.

But does that mean there’s no value at all?

Citations vs. links

Luke Bastin, Owner Principal of SEO company PDABuzz, says that local businesses can still benefit from press releases because of how they affect Google Maps results. These map listings “typically appear above organic listings, and they attract lots of traffic,” he says.

Here’s an example of what he’s describing. I searched for “Peruvian restaurant Los Angeles,” and the Google Maps results were placed above the first organic result.

Luke explains, “One of the major factors behind maps listings is how many high-quality business citations a website has.”

A citation is an external website mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number (abbreviated NAP). Unlike links, citations do not need to be linked to your website to be credited by Google’s algorithm.

“Typically, business owners and marketers think of sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Foursquare, Superpages and so on as the main places to obtain local business citations. However, an overlooked opportunity is a good SEO press release which not only makes an announcement about the business but also includes the name, address, and phone number within the press release.”

Because of the value of citations, Luke believes distributing press releases “still works wonderfully well for local SEO and should continue to do so for some time.”

An invitation for Google to crawl

Brian Lim, founder and CEO of print clothing company Into the AM, says, “We continue to use press releases as a viable means to gain exposure and SEO value. While press releases don’t hold the same value they did years ago, there are still many advantages.”

One advantage he cites is that issuing press releases prompts Google to crawl your site more frequently. “From there,” Brian says, “Google can decide whether or not to index the content. If you’re adding some commentary or original content on top of the press release, it’s far more likely that Google will index it, because it goes beyond syndication and can provide extra value to the visitor.”

Press releases as the official company word

James Nuttall, Content and Outreach Specialist for Africa Travel, says, “For me, press releases are still a vital part of any outreach campaign.” He believes that “having a press release adds an ‘official’ stamp to your campaign: This is the story.”

Samuella Becker, a marketing strategist at TigressPR, agrees. “I still use press releases to present the factual details around a company or new product launch,” she says, “with the hopes that the journalist/blogger/TV producer who I’m sending it to will do their OWN story. I don’t expect the media outlet to pick up the press release verbatim.”

I’ve seen this principle in action as editor of the Menuism Blog, where we cover restaurant trends. It’s not always easy to get an interview with the CEO of McDonald’s or the hot Michelin-starred chef. But when your article references a new menu item or restaurant opening, you can refer to a company’s press release and include a vetted quote from the decision-makers. (I’ve used restaurant promotional photos for our articles, too, so it’s not a bad idea to syndicate those). In these cases, our site wasn’t writing specifically about the story pitch of the press release, but instead adapting press release content to suit a story we were already developing.

Could you get on Google News?

Zachary Weiner, CEO of PR firm Emerging Insider Communications believes that even though a press release’s benefits have changed, the press release is not dead.

“There is still an SEO benefit to press releases, but not for the reasons it once was,” he says. Now, “press releases can still use their title to attract certain phrase searches. While the link building aspects are no longer relevant, ‘gaming’ the title of a press release can still have numerous keyword benefits. This is especially true for Google News searches, where most companies blogs will not be sourced, but press releases will be.”

If you’re hoping to get picked up by Google News, your press release must be well-crafted. Cary Haun, an SEO specialist at Page 1 Solutions, says, “make sure the news you’re sharing is current, noteworthy, and important to your community or industry.”

He advises companies to “think about the content on the page with the backlink, rather than just the domain authority of the press release vendor and its outlets.” Use this press release template to get you going.

While Cary acknowledges that “the likelihood of a press release on a wire getting ‘picked up’ by a publication is pretty minimal,” there is still SEO value in “associating your URL and brand with quality information, rather than grasping at straws and creating low-value spam.”

Jason Simms, a PR consultant, believes that “using a press release distribution service has zero long-term SEO value.” However, he admits, when the story is timely, “having the press release posted more places may help more journalists see it in the short term. The effect is extremely short-lived, and there is no noticeable bump in traffic.”

Okay, so maybe don’t set your heart on Google News.

Press releases are a tactic, not a strategy

When trying to build your company’s reputation by earning media coverage, just writing a press release isn’t going to do it. Even a truly newsworthy pitch won’t work with a “spray and pray” approach. You’ll need to tailor your pitch to individual outlets and editors, and it will take time to build relationships with them.

Press releases are not a magic bullet for public relations or for SEO. However, press releases do still have their benefits, including signals to Google in the form of citations, content, and website crawling.

If you’re new to press release distribution, you can try it out with 10% off at PRWeb through this link. Another option is 24-7 Press Release Newswire.

Where do you fall on the “Do press releases work” question? Share your perspective and tell us about your experience in the comments. 

People don’t share ads. But they do share stories — especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The best stories are visual, and nothing captures a story quite like video. While shooting and producing video can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses, there’s an easy way to make social media videos to engage and delight your followers. It’s called Animoto.

How Animoto works

Animoto is an online video editor that easily creates shareable videos. No video editing experience is required; the software offers pre-built storyboard templates that you can customize with your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Or you can start from scratch and build your own storyboard.

Each scene (Animoto calls them blocks) can include video, still images, text, and/or voiceover. The software includes pre-built video transitions between blocks, as well as a library of stock photos from Getty and licensed music that you can use in your project at no added cost. The drag-and-drop editor easily resizes your text, changes the timing of each scene, and adjusts colors to match your brand.

Once you’ve finished editing your video, you can share it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other channels directly from your Animoto dashboard. You can also embed your video on your website, or download a full HD version to show anywhere, such as a TV display in your office.

Make social media videos with social-friendly storyboards

Animoto’s templates were designed to match the style of big brands and publishers you’ve undoubtedly seen on social media. Templates are available in both widescreen and square layouts. Recently, Animoto released three new storyboards specifically created for the real estate, travel, and wellness industries. There are also storyboards for product intros, recipes, event RSVPs, motivational quotes, step-based tutorials, and more.

I used a template called “Product Story” to create a series of explainer videos around marketing terms. Here’s the first one I made:

The software was crazy easy to use. I would even say it’s fun. The part that takes the longest to make social media videos like this one is finding the right photo and video assets. I used a combination of Animoto’s available stock photos, photos I sourced from Burst and other free stock photo sites, and free stock video from Pexels.

How much does Animoto cost?

Animoto offers a fully functional 30-day trial, so for me, it cost nothing. Once the trial is over, Animoto moves to a monthly subscription model. You can save substantially if you sign up for a year.

The lowest tier Animoto plan is called Personal, which is $16/month or $96/year. However, this plan includes Animoto branding at the end of each video, limited colors and fonts, and you can only download 720p video.

For most businesses, the Professional plan is a better option. It’s billed at $42/month or $264/year. The Professional plan enables you to download 1080p video without Animoto branding, and grants you access to more music tracks, storyboards, and unlimited colors. You also have the option to add your logo as a watermark to each video. If you need a multi-user account, the Business tier is $64/month or $408/year.

For comparison, similar software Lumen5 charges $99/month or $948/year to download 1080p video without its branding.

Duplicate videos in a snap

Once my first video was complete, I simply duplicated it to create the second and third explainer videos. I changed up the colors, assets, and text and was on my way in minutes. I also duplicated each video so I had widescreen and square versions of each. Square versions work best in feeds like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, while widescreen versions are best for YouTube, Vimeo, and your own website.

Make social media videos from scratch

After I created these first three videos from a template, I wanted to test how easy Animoto is when starting from scratch. Not surprisingly, it was super simple to make social media videos this way, too. In a little over an hour, I created the following video:

It wouldn’t have taken so long except I had some trouble getting my photo collage of the various channel logos to look the way I wanted it. Not to mention I’m infinitely picky, so I kept changing things.

There are limitations to the platform. When you make social media videos with Animoto, you don’t have a lot of control over the text; for instance, you can’t bold or italicize words. If you add a color filter, you have to add it to the entire video, not just one block (I would have liked to do this for certain blocks to increase the readability of the text). In addition, your uploaded assets are appended to a single project rather than to a centralized account library. That means that if you use your logo in every video or re-use photos or video clips, you’ll need to upload the files every time.

Still, I can’t argue with the quality of the end product. Especially at this price point. I wouldn’t make social media videos any other way.

The verdict

]I believe in the power of video. I wrote about why video is a crucial component of online marketing success. But video can be prohibitively expensive for many small business owners. With DIY software like Animoto, video becomes a much more attainable part of a marketing mix.

Templated solutions do have their limitations. But Animoto is a powerful tool that I recommend without hesitation.

Landing page optimization usually tackles content-related questions: Have I included the target keyword enough times? Is my call-to-action working? Which design layout performs better? Too often, however, advertisers jump to this phase before taking into account whether the structure of their website is ready for PPC platforms like Google Ads.

This article covers four critical questions you simply cannot overlook when optimizing your landing page. Start here before you address the content you want to test for your landing pages.

1. Is your site secure?

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a website encryption protocol. An SSL certificate provides secure communication between your website and an internet browser, making it more difficult for a hacker to tamper with traffic or spy on your site’s visitors. It’s especially important to have a valid SSL certificate if you ask customers to fill out forms or share personal information. But in truth, every website should have one.

You can tell whether your website uses secure encryption if your URL starts with http:// (not secure) or https:// (secure).

Why it’s important

In July 2018, Google Chrome began to mark all HTTP sites as not secure. This prominent “Not Secure” message likely causes higher bounce rates. Starting in October 2018, Chrome will go a step further by explicitly warning users about insecure sites with a prominent red icon.

How to fix it

If your website does not currently have an SSL certificate, you can obtain one from your website host. For instance, HostGator packages now include a free SSL certificate, as do hosting packages from Yahoo for Small Business.

Alternatively, you can obtain a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt, a non-profit organization supported by corporate sponsors, grants, and individual donors.

2. Is your site mobile-friendly?

Since 2015, Google has used mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. In 2016, it strengthened this signal, explaining that “Getting good, relevant answers when you search shouldn’t depend on what device you’re using.” This year, the search giant took it a step further with its mobile-first index.

Why it’s important

Without getting into the weeds about what all these changes mean, suffice it to say that if Google cares whether your site is mobile-friendly, then you should, too.

Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see whether your site makes the cut.

How to fix it

If your site is already built, you may need to work with your website designer to transition it to a mobile-friendly format. Make sure to choose a responsive design, which means your website automatically adapts to whatever device your visitors are using. If you don’t currently have a website designer, you can find a freelancer on sites like Fiverr or Upwork.

Does your site use content management software like WordPress, Magento, or Wix? If so, Google has created specific guides to help make your site mobile-friendly.

What if you’re starting from scratch? Most online website builders offer responsive website templates. For instance, using code WEBSITE 25, you can get 25% off a responsive Yahoo for Small Business website.

AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, is another way to create lightning-fast mobile websites. AMP pages load more quickly than traditional HTML.

For WordPress users, you can easily create AMPs by installing AMP for WordPress. This free plugin is a collaboration between WordPress, Google, and others. You already have the AMP feature enabled if your site is a WordPress.com site, or you’ll see it already installed as a plugin if you use a WordPress.com account to sign into a WordPress.org self-hosted site. (What’s the difference?)

If you have AMPs, use them in Google Ads. Enter the AMP URL into the Mobile URL field of your ads or in the Mobile URL field of your keywords. (In WordPress, the AMP URL is your normal URL with /amp/ tacked on the end) This way, when a mobile user clicks your ad, Google will send them to your AMP landing page.

3. Does your site include a privacy policy?

As I explained in my post about Quality Score, Google values sites that are “transparent.” Google wants to make sure that its advertisers handle user data responsibly.

Why it’s important

In addition to an SSL certificate, one of the ways Google judges whether your site handles data responsibly is if your landing page links to your site’s privacy policy. This privacy policy should include any cookies you use (such as Google’s remarketing cookie) and describe how you handle any data you gather from your site’s visitors. It should also include how users may opt out of your use of cookies.

How to fix it

If your site doesn’t already have a privacy policy, use a free privacy policy generator, such as Shopify’s. If you advertise in Europe, make sure your privacy policy is GDPR-compliant. Then, make sure that any URL you use as a Google Ads landing page links to the privacy policy you’ve created.

4. Does your site load quickly?

Internet users are impatient. If your page takes longer than two seconds to load, most visitors will abandon it and find somewhere else to go.

Why it’s important

Pages with longer load time have higher bounce rates, lower average time on page, and lower conversions, all of which will negatively impact your Quality Score.

How to fix it

Measure your page load time with a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, or Webpagetest. I especially like Google’s PageSpeed tool because it separates its analysis of your mobile and desktop sites.

Whatever tool you use, you will see suggestions that have to do with your website’s code. Therefore, you will likely need a professional developer to help with implementation. If you don’t have a developer on staff, you can find freelancers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr.

Moz offers this practical guide to improving site speed. Working with your developer, implement each of these suggestions.

If your site is built on WordPress (like mine), some of the suggestions can be handled simply by adding WordPress plugins. Here are two that I use:

• WP Fastest Cache for browser caching
• Smush for image compression

In addition, Cloudflare is a free CDN (content distribution network) that makes your site load faster by storing copies of your website across geographically diverse servers.

Bonus idea

One of my clients pointed out that on his website,

• using http:// instead of https:// adds 150 milliseconds of load time
• adding www. to the URL adds 900 milliseconds of load time, and
• leaving off the trailing slash ( / ) at the end of the URL adds 600 milliseconds of load time.

These fractions of seconds add up quickly! (or should I say slowly?)

As you input your landing page URLs into Google Ads, make sure to use your website’s best URL formatting. (Keep in mind, proper formatting for your website may be different than the example given. Your developer should be able to tell you your website’s proper URL structure).

Okay, done. Now what?

Once your website has an SSL certificate, is mobile-friendly, includes a privacy policy, and loads quickly, you are ready to test the content and design of your landing page.

The English language can be a tricky mistress. But when expressed well, she’s a beauty. If you’re a copywriter or blogger, I assume you already know the basics of how to make things plural (i.e., man → men, child → children, wife → wives, etc.). Instead, I created this guide on how to make things plural with five tricky writing situations in mind.

Acronyms

For some reason, when an abbreviation is written in all caps, it’s tempting to put an apostrophe after it. Don’t! When pluralizing an acronym, simply add an –s. And make that s lower case.

CEO → CEOs
SEO → SEOs
CTR → CTRs
APB → APBs
CD  → CDs

And yes, that includes acronyms that end in –s. RSS → RSSs. POS → POSs. I know, it looks a little funny. But I promise… there’s no reason to add an apostrophe. If it bothers you, reword your copy so you don’t have to use it — substitute RSS feeds or POS systems, for example. Just be sure not to be redundant: “PIN numbers” and “ATM machines” are both redundant because the last letter of the acronym stands for number and machine, respectively. To make these acronyms plural, simply write PINs or ATMs.

Hyphenated nouns and compound nouns

When dealing with a hyphenated noun or a noun that is modified by a preposition, only pluralize the noun portion. For instance:

call-to-action → calls-to-action
board of director → boards of directors
father-in-law → fathers-in-law
lady-in-waiting → ladies-in-waiting
maid of honor → maids of honor
right of way → rights of way

Some compound nouns are nouns modified by an adjective. Once again, only pluralize the noun portion. Examples:

attorney general → attorneys general
past life → past lives
six-pack → six-packs
full moon → full moons

Last Names

A few years ago, Slate put together the best guide I’ve seen for pluralizing last names in the context of sending Christmas cards. Because I don’t see a reason to reinvent the wheel, I’ll simply quote it here:

Pluralization FAQs
Q: What if my last name ends in a y?
A: Add an –s. Do not add –ies or an apostrophe. Merry Christmas from the Murphys. 
Q: What if my last name already ends in an s?
A: Add –es. Do not add an apostrophe. Season’s greetings from the Simmonses.
Q: What if the end of my last name normally functions as an irregular noun?
A: It is not irregular when it is part of a last name. Happy holidays from the Hoffmans. Warm wishes from the Wolfs. 
Q: What would adding an apostrophe do?
A: It would hurt Tiny Tim make your last name possessive.
Q: Is there ever a reason to add an apostrophe?
A: Only if you want to make your last name possessive.
Q: Why do people add apostrophes?
A: I have no idea.

Nouns that end in –o

Most nouns that end in –o are pluralized by adding an –s, such as silos. But some take –es instead:

embargo → embargoes
veto → vetoes
echo → echoes
potato → potatoes (who remembers Dan Quayle?)
hero → heroes
echo → echoes

This is also a good place to mention one of my pet peeves: Dos and Don’ts (not Do’s and Don’ts with an apostrophe on the Do). After I recently commented on a blog on Medium, the writer kindly responded,

You know, I struggled with that before I wrote the post. I wasn’t sure which was correct. I did some research and came across this post by Mignon Fogarty (aka Grammar Girl). She writes, in part, “The Chicago Manual of Style and others recommend dos and don’ts. The Associated Press and others recommend do’s and don’ts. …Unless your editor wishes otherwise, if you write books, spell it dos and don’ts; and if you write for newspapers, magazines, or the Web, spell it do’s and don’ts.”

I simply don’t agree with the AP. I don’t believe it decreases confusion; otherwise (as Mignon notes), we’d have to use Do’s and Don’t’s to keep the parallel structure. Gross.

Once and for all: Dos and Don’ts. I’m also looking at you, How-tos.

Decades

When you’re pluralizing decades, be careful. Apostrophes here are tricky because you sometimes need them. If you’re leaving off the first two digits of a four-digit era, put an apostrophe at the beginning.

the 1970s → the ’70s
the 2000s → the ’00s
1980s-era fashion → ’80s-era fashion
protests of the 1960s → protests of the ’60s

DON’T put an apostrophe before the s:

Incorrect: 1980’s, 90’s, 2000’s
Correct: 1980s, 1990s, 2000s or ’80s, ’90s, ’00s

You only use an apostrophe before an s to make it possessive, not to pluralize it. (Have you sensed a theme yet?)

Need more help with grammar in your copywriting and blogs?

If you’re interested in checking the grammar in your writing, I recommend installing Grammarly. This browser addition instantly proofreads your text (including social media posts and emails) for correct grammar and punctuation. I wrote about Grammarly and three other helpful writing apps that I use here.