VE Digital

Tag: Social Media

  • 7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

     

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    Typography has a big role in design. From product packaging, website design, mobile apps, and more, the font you use plays a huge role in making your designs attractive and inviting. Today, we will be talking about the best places to get unique and free fonts to take your content and graphic designs to the next level.

    The Importance of Typography

    1. Comprehension

    A person’s process of understanding and comprehension can be highly affected by the type of font used. 

    2. Focus

    A well-formatted copy will grab the reader’s attention and will keep it on the content.

    3. Hierarchy

    Typography can help make the most important elements in a piece of content stand out. Ex. Highlight the benefits or product features by using bullet points.

    With great typography, your content will be easy to read and will be able to show what your brand is about. This will help drive traffic and increase conversions.

    Here are 7 websites you can visit to look for unique and free fonts for your brand.

    7 Websites to Look for Unique and Free Fonts for your Brand

    DaFont

    Dafont is a popular platform where you can find thousands of free fonts. The majority of the fonts here only support personal use, but there are plenty that comes with commercial licenses as well. The category system of this website makes it stand out as it lets you browse its collection of fonts based on different themes, which makes it easier for you to quickly find the fonts you need for different types of projects.

    Google Fonts

    Google fonts have a large collection of web-ready fonts. Offering more than 900 different font families, Google fonts is the place to find and customize free fonts. 

    The best thing about this site is its font preview tool. When you find the font that you like, you can type in your content and generate a preview to see what your copy looks like in that font. You can select how you want to display your content, whether in paragraph or sentence form. You can also customize the font’s pixel size. This is a recommended site to check out for high-quality resources of free fonts. 

    Creative Market

    This website puts a spin on the free fonts marketplace. They offer free fonts, but these fonts change every week. By signing up, you can download their featured fonts and graphics for the week – free of cost. About 23,000 designers are contributing to their platform, and six different freebies are offered each week, and they are wonderful.

    What’s great about Creative Market is that you can avail of these featured fonts free of charge which would normally cost a fee on normal days. Be quick, though, because when Sunday comes, the free stuff won’t be available anymore, and you’ll miss out on those great things. 

     

    fonts

    There’s a large collection of free fonts on Befonts that are submitted by professional designers all over the world. The downside is that majority of the fonts on the site are free samples of premium fonts, meaning they include fewer font weights, and you can only use the fonts on your personal projects. Despite this, the high-quality fonts on the site are worth checking out.

    FontSpace

    Fontspace has over 72,000 fonts from over 2,000 designers, and all are legally licensed and ready for you to download for free. You can use FontSpace to find plenty of beautiful, unique and free fonts for your personal and commercial projects. And what’s great here is that it is clearly stated if a font is for commercial use or personal use only. 

    If you become a member of the site, you can create a personal favorites collection to easily access your favorite fonts. You can also contact the designers and even donate to them if you like.

    1001 Fonts

    Contrary to its name, 1001 Fonts contain more than 9,000 fonts, and this site features a collection of high-quality fonts that are often updated. And many of these fonts are available for commercial use. You can browse different fonts according to style, size, and even font weight.

    Graphic Design Freebies

    This is another site that features a wide selection of freebies – including illustrations, templates, mockups, and fonts. It has a section of free fonts with hundreds of modern and stylish fonts for free. Most fonts on this site are for personal use only, but there are a few that are for commercial use as well.

    Your fonts are important and you don’t have to spend money getting great ones because there are a plethora of resources online where you can get free ones. If you are looking for unique and free fonts, definitely check out the websites listed above. 

  • 5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    5 Common Social Media Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

    Previously, we have posted an article about 9 Things You Should Never Do On Social Media. In an effort to give you updated content, we gathered the top three common social media mistakes that people make when writing for each platform and how you can avoid them.

    It does not take an expert to miss these mistakes but the ones that we are going to list are the most overlooked ones. Here we go.

     

    Not Checking The Spelling

    When it comes to social media, the writing style is more casual compared to other channels. We’ve tackled in the previous articles how you can get away with using abbreviations and breaking a few traditional grammar rules. However, nothing is worse than having confusing and funny typos in your copy to interfere with the message you are trying to relay. The unfortunate thing on social media is that if these mistakes are overlooked, these mistakes can be shared by thousands of people and you can’t have any way of taking them back.

    The easiest fix here is to have proper proofreading. Here are three top tips for proofreading your social media copy:

    • Check usernames and hashtags – these are where errors most likely occur because spellcheckers can’t check them. So before clicking that post button, click on them, check the link to whatever you’re expecting them to go, and give them a final once-over before hitting the publish button.
    • Get a second opinion – if you use a scheduling tool to plan a lot of your posts ahead of time, set up a process whereby each post is checked and signed off by another member of your team. This can be a little time-consuming but it can save you a lot of stress in the long run by avoiding typos of any kind.
    • Use Hemingway or Grammarly – for picking up good old-fashioned spelling mistakes, I recommend using either of these tools. They are both free and very easy to use. For Hemingway, you only have to open a tab on your browser and quickly copy and paste your posts in for a quick check. You can do the same for Grammarly or you can install the Grammarly Chrome Extension and give it access to your google docs or anywhere you’re writing and it will automatically check your spelling and grammar. I love the latter more and I use it for pretty much everything I write. But both are really great because they go beyond spelling as both apps also check your grammar more generally. And it gives you tips to make your writing clearer and more concise. 

    Common Social Media Mistakes

     

    Cross-Posting

    Another common social media mistake is cross-posting. This is when you share exactly the same post on different social media platforms – word for word. And it’s always tempting to do this to save time while at the same time keep all your accounts active. But this is a terrible idea. In the long run, it can potentially devalue your brand.

    From our previous copywriting articles, you’d know that there are different elements like the audience, the caption length, and the vocabulary used in every platform. When you share the exact same post on all of your platforms, you might accidentally end up inviting your followers on Facebook to ‘retweet’ you, or you could lose half of your caption or tag a handle from one platform that does not exist on another. Moreover, cross-posting is just so obvious and your followers might assume that you don’t care, or worst, your post can even look spammy.

    Always craft different variations of your posts for different platforms, and this does not need to be time-consuming. Be aware of where you are posting and clarify your message, audiences, brand voice, and call-to-action. Use the information found in our previous articles to write your Twitter posts – keeping them short and sweet. Then from this original copy, tweak your wordings that will give the same message for your other channels, taking into account the differences in captions length, hashtags, and more. In most cases, 90% of your post copy will remain the same, so you don’t really have to start from scratch.

    Emojis ????????✨????????

    They’re all over social media. I bet all of your followers are using them, and if you are too, then you’re cool! Emojis add color and fun to your posts. You smile at your customers in person, right? So why not smile at them online? For some product and services though, the usage of emojis are less appropriate. But if you’re writing them off for no good reason, you’re missing a trick. 

    Incorporating emojis can work as an extension of tweaking your language to match the more casual, informal language your audience is using. In the end, whether and how you use emojis comes down to your brand voice and consistency. As always, audience focus is key. 

     

    Now, you’ve learned practical, actionable steps. Put these things into work straight away to improve your copy and make it more concise, persuasive, attention-grabbing, and engaging. 

  • 9 Best Things You Should Never Do On Social Media

    9 Best Things You Should Never Do On Social Media

    9 Best Things You Should Never Do On Social Media

    For new businesses and marketers, social media can be a bit intimidating and overwhelming. Though it offers so much potential, it’s undeniable that it also has pitfalls. There’s no book on how to use social media the “right way”, but, unfortunately, there is a wrong way for you to use it. Whether it’s the customer’s comment or the company’s post, negativity is always present.

    Of course, when mistakes do happen, there’s always a way to make it up to your viewers. There are things you can do to rise back up. But even with the knowledge of how to manage mistakes, it’s still best to not commit any when possible.

    The best way to avoid mistakes is by knowing what not to do. Here are 9 things you should never do on social media:

    Forgetting to Edit Your Posts

    When you write a blog or any article, you wouldn’t dare publish it without editing and proofreading it, right? The same principle should be practiced on social media. Don’t tweet or publish any post without editing and proofreading it. Everything you post on your social media becomes a part of your digital footprint, even the things you delete, and miscommunication can change your customer’s perception of your brand. A single typo could sink your credibility and deplete your customer loyalty. 

    Concentrating on Only One Platform

    You might think it would be easier to just be on one platform and concentrate your brand growth there. Maybe you’d choose Facebook since it has over 2-billion active users every month. The downside of only limiting yourself on one platform is that you’ll miss out on other connections you might make on other platforms.

    Different social media platforms have different audiences, and they are designed to meet the needs of various types of people. Just like your business has a target audience, so too does Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Take for example LinkedIn – a social network for professionals and B2B marketing, that rather than followers and subscribers, you have connections and groups. 

    Other platforms, like TikTok, are far less professional and are widely used by the younger generation. If your target audience is between the ages of 14-24, you’d lose traffic and potential customers by not having an account here.

    Branch out and find out what platforms work best for your brand. You need not have accounts on all platforms, but you do need to know on which platforms your target audience hangs out.

    Marketing Without a Strategy

    Having a business plan and goals maps out your road to success. Having a strategy for social media marketing is the same. Without one, you’ll be driving around in a circle, never knowing the direction you ought to take. No matter how great your content is, if there’s no one to see and read it, your efforts will be in vain. You should include these things in your strategy:

    • The target audience for each platform in use.
    • Content schedules.
    • Communication tactics.
    • Metric tool management.
    • Time investment.

    Things You Should Never Do On Social Media

     

    Sharing and Referencing Sensitive Material

    Social media is a place of calm and relaxed atmosphere, it’s a part of its charm where people relieve their stress and get inspired. Social media lets businesses interact with their customers less formally. Aside from the casual conversation, it’s important to protect your reputation so as much as possible, avoid sharing offensive material. 

    Ignoring Negative Feedback 

    A grave mistake any marketer can make is ignoring customer feedback, especially the negative ones. Negative feedback brings light to the experience that your customer had. When a customer has an issue with your product or service, an apology should be issued. Not all companies have money-back guarantees, but all should have the common courtesy to apologize.

    Ignoring a customer complaint has an adverse effect. It’s just one person, so it might not be worth your time, but that negative feedback is visible to everyone. The way a company deals with negative feedback has a great impact on consumer opinion. Here are some tips you can do to deal with bad reviews:

    Honesty. Nobody’s perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. If the fault is yours, then be transparent about it. Your consumers will appreciate your honesty.

    Recompense if possible. Not all situations will require a refund, but when it does, offer it to the customer. Sometimes, all the customer needs is an apology, and that’s okay too.

    Be empathetic. When you can’t do anything, try to see the situation from the customer’s perspective. Empathizing helps.

    Be professional. Some negative feedback may be rude and can sometimes hit below the belt. When this is the case, it can be hard to keep your cool but don’t forget that this is not personal. Stand behind your brand and be the voice that you want your customer to remember when they see your company logo. 

    Being Too Formal and Uptight

    It’s important to always stay professional, yet social media is where businesses can be a bit laid-back and relaxed. After all, it’s where you engage with your customers. This is your opportunity to relax and have fun. This is where you show your content in a lighthearted manner so that you can show this other side of your brand to your audience. Try different types of posts that will humanize your brand, maybe some tasteful humor, personal anecdotes, or some behind-the-scenes footage. Try posting content like:

    • “Introducing the office” videos
    • Memes that poke fun at your own brand
    • Contests which include audience interaction

    Separating your Social Media and Website

    Your online presence is made up of everything you have online that your brand takes part in, this includes all the social media you have, your website, blog, press releases, etc. All the content that you can control should be connected to all platforms so your brand can be coherent.

    Separating your social media and website will mean that you’ll lose precious traffic. Make sure that your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media links to your website, and vice versa. Having your social media buttons on your website will help users share your brand with their family and friends. This will then drive more traffic, higher conversion rates, and revenue increase.

    Disregarding and Not Monitoring your Automated Tools

    It can be tempting to make things simple by automating everything and then forget about it, but this isn’t the practical way to do things. Automation tools may let you schedule posts to multiple platforms but they are not perfect. Bugs and human errors can occur and should be considered.

    Have a second set of eyes on your automation tools, this will help keep things run smoothly and mistake-free. 

    Sharing Political Posts

    Nowadays, social media is too often used as a platform for people to share their political views. While this is fine for customers to do, as a business it would be best to remain neutral.

    For example, celebrating Pride Month. This is great but there is a less aggressive way to do so. Doing a post about encouraging people to vote is a much better thing to do than pushing your personal political opinion. You won’t only have the possibility of offending people, your brand could also lose business by having a strong political opinion. This is one area that you need to separate your personal and business life.

    Social media is a great marketing tool, and like any other, it requires a plan and confidence from the people working behind it. Do your research, have regular maintenance and keep a strong sense of customer service to achieve success.

    Mistakes occur, that’s inevitable, but no matter what happens, it’s possible to come out of it and bounce back. There are ways to deal with them, and how you deal with these mistakes is what matters most. However, knowing what not to do can help you avoid these mistakes beforehand, so make sure to keep the things stated above in mind.

  • 5 Powerful Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies

    5 Powerful Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies

    5 Powerful Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies

    Facebook is still currently one of the most widely used platforms online by adults. And the vast majority who use it daily continue to provide brands and businesses an opportunity for maximum visibility when implementing Facebook ad targeting strategies. 

    One of the toughest parts is how to get started but we are here to provide help and give you five of the most powerful Facebook ad targeting strategies that you can use every day to get great results. 

    Targeting audiences on Facebook can be done by a dozen different ad formats and thousands of possible as targeting parameters. Mastering Facebook ads strategies will get you in front of specific audiences who are motivated and eager to be wowed. 

    Here are some underrated tips that you haven’t even thought of:

    Recent Purchasing Behaviour

    Back in 2013, Facebook had a partnership agreement with Epsilon, Datalogix, and Acxiom, which are data-forming companies. Acxiom alone has over 500 million active consumer data users worldwide, with an average of 1500 data points per person. 

    This means that Facebook has a lot of information about its users. If you like horror movies, like playing Candy Crush Saga or even taking prescription pills, Facebook probably knows about it. This gives the advertisers the power to reach out beyond their own CRM databases. They can take advantage of these data and target their audiences accordingly.

    And so, purchasing behavior is powerful because it taps into insights learned from shopper loyalty programs of all types and then gets matched to Facebook user profiles. Purchasing behavior has many different subcategories, and this includes buyer profiles, clothing, food & drink, health, entertainment, etc. You can be even more specific and drill down into the types of behavior. You can target foodies, DIYers, fashionistas, bookworms, and so on. 

    Facebook will show you the number of user profiles you can target in each subcategory based on the number of users in that category they’ve matched to offline purchasing data. So really, it’s not just things that people do on Facebook, but also the sort of data that transfers through from other purchasing behaviors. 

    The options here are limitless, engage in your niche in your area, and explore. Purchasing behavior is just another addition to one of your Facebook ads that you can try and run. Try it out, it’s an underrated yet a great and powerful Facebook ad targeting strategy.

    Life Events Targeting

    You should already know by now that Facebook uses life events. With life events, you can mark your timeline with the different milestones of your life, I’m pretty sure you’ve already seen a lot of your friends doing this. You can make your date of birth, when you attend a new school when you get a new job, your relationship status, and so on. These life events can be a very good targeting point to those types of businesses that are based on selling to people experiencing major life events.

    Funeral homes, for example, want to connect to people who are planning for a funeral, lost/losing a loved one, or are terminally ill. Wedding photographers target people who are engaged. Moving services want to target people who have just purchased a house or an apartment. A jewelry company may want to target those who are having their birthdays or anniversaries. 

    Facebook has a life event targeting option that you can use to run ads and get customers that way. 

    The Life Events parameter is unique in that you can target people at specific time intervals. This is a powerful trick that you can use for your Facebook ads as it supplies just another round of possibility of people buying something. As we all know, people are more inclined to buy something if it’s either for someone else as a gift or when it’s in a more predisposed setting like Christmas or birthdays. 

    Nurture Leads with Facebook Custom Audiences

    This tip is called “closing the gap”, which is focusing on customers and people that you know and have already interacted with. Facebook Custom Audiences are an advanced feature that enables you to connect on Facebook with your existing contacts. Being able to get in front of your existing customers and app users on their favorite social network reinforces your brand. It also gives you the opportunity to increase lifetime customer value, order frequency, and loyalty.

    This can work the other way around. You can increase the efficacy of your campaigns by excluding your existing customer list. One example is if you are offering a free trial to new users, there’s no reason to show it to your loyal customers.

    Custom audiences can be created using your customer phone list or email list and uploading them to Facebook. You can also create a Custom Audience based on your site visitors. And you can really be specific when you use this. You can exclude a subset or a specific list or just get down to the very basic and target existing customers.

    This tool is crazy powerful! You can target your existing customers who work in a specific field, make X amount of money per anum, and live in a certain ZIP code with a higher value product offer. You could also target those people who have visited your website with offers or free trials and product demos. These people already know who your business is and were interested enough to visit your website, but not convert. Facebook ad targeting using the Custom Audience can close that gap and get that sale. 

    The number of parameters that you can target here is huge. Marital status, net worth, living arrangement, parental status, location, interest – everything is there for you to leverage.

     

    Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies

     

    Lookalike Audiences

    Once you have the Custome Audiences strategy in place, the next logical step is Lookalike Audiences. Even if you don’t have your own email or phone list, you can still create a Lookalike Audience using a tracking pixel to mirror your Facebook fan base. Lookalikes allow you to expand beyond your reach but still target people with highly specific profiles, by creating audiences that look like your own targets. This strategy is a good way to earn new fans and followers that can potentially be new customers. 

    For example, if you know 100 people visit your website, you can create a lookalike audience of those 100 people that visited your website who might also be interested. Let’s say you have a skateboarding website where you sell skate clothing, and people who visit that are most likely into skateboarding. Of those 100 people that visited, you can create a lookalike audience that will involve similar traits and similar likes and user behaviors from those people who interacted with your website and create an ad using the audience that it will have targeted from the trades that is collected from those 100 people.

    Lookalikes allow you to expand beyond your reach but still target people with highly specific profiles, by creating audiences that look like your own targets. Once you created the audience you want to replicate, you can make it broader or more specific. Broader means Facebook is going to find you the top 10% of users in your target region who are most similar to your audience. 

    More specific means Facebook’s going to find you the top 1% of users to similar trades in your target regions. So you can really get quite specific here, and this is a great way to get new customers, a new fan base, and new followers, that are very similar to the people that are already interacting with your website.

    Layered Targeting Options

    The powerful thing about Facebook ad targeting is your ability to layer targeting options on top of the other, which will gradually make your audience more and more specific. You can use a combination of behaviors, demographics, and location data to reduce your audience to as little as one person. You can use these combinations of the different options that we’ve listed earlier to get a very specific audience and create an audience that’s just like the customers you want. 

    Let’s take a moving company, for example, that is promoting a special discount for senior citizens. They could target people who just purchased a house or apartment within the last month, layered with an age range of 60 years plus, and their specific service area location. 

    That is a great Facebook strategy because they’re literally serving the customers that they need. They have a specific promotion going on for senior citizens, and a moving company is most likely operating only a specific city or area. So that is a perfect strategy that would yield results because they’re being very specific in the audience, and they’re being very focused on who they are.

    Another example would be a retailer that focuses on baby food and can target new parents within a specific area. These are just some examples of layering where it involves a combination of these targeting options that are mentioned above and the target options that are available in Facebook ads. 

    If you can understand the intent, needs, and likelihood to respond to any given audience segment, you can layer Facebook Ads targeting options to tap into it and get in front of them.

    The Best Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies are Diversified and Comprehensive

    When choosing what strategy to use, you don’t have to pick just one from the tips given above. Check each one out and see how they might fit in your target market segments. Figure out what you really need from your audience. Facebook ads are a very tricky trial and error game. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t, you just have to try it out and figure it out for yourself. There are some general guidelines you can follow, as said previously, so make sure to internalize them all. 

    Helpful Tips to Keep in Mind:

    1. Know your audience
    2. Create a persona for your target audience
      Figure out:

      • Who are they?
      • What do they like?
      • Where would they be?

    The most important thing for having good Facebook ads is understanding your customer. If you understand your customer’s intent, their needs, and their likelihood to respond to any given audience, then you can layer your Facebook ad targeting options to tap into this audience and get very good results. Focus on your target audience, the best thing to do is create a persona around your target audience. Who are they? What did they like? What would they like and what would they dislike? Who do you want to reach? That is the most powerful strategy you can use. 

    Brainstorm on who your audience would most likely be and then reverse engineer backward into your Facebook ads. Understanding your customers is just very powerful. And if you know who your target audience is, then your Facebook ads will be extremely powerful in getting right in front of your ideal customers.

  • 5 Top Social Media Marketing Sites

    5 Top Social Media Marketing Sites

    5 Top Social Media Marketing Sites

    Social media marketing has bееn рrоvеn to bе of many uses. Some of the most common gоаlѕ оf employing this internet marketing strategy аrе tо increase web traffic, to build brand awareness, and to рrоvіdе an extra channel for communicating wіth сuѕtоmеrѕ.

    The most popular social media ѕіtеѕ оf tоdау include Facebook, Twitter, LіnkеdIn, Dіgg, StumbleUpon and even YouTube and Flicker аnd саn bе соnѕіdеrеd as social media networking sites as wеll. These wеbѕіtеѕ receive more than 5 million visitors in a dау. These sites are good avenues for promoting a business nоt оnlу bесаuѕе of the substantial number of visitors they get every dау but also because the amount of traffic thеу gеt іѕ constant.

    In any form of business, passion is never enough fоr іt to be really successful. There are many fасtоrѕ which nееd to be considered like the niche you are working оn аnd thе раrtісulаr social media network website you are fосuѕіng. Fоr a specific site, strategies would actually differ.

    5 Top Social Media Marketing Sites

    Twitter

    Twitter іѕ аmоng the largest online community we have today. It іѕ аlѕо believed to be the best to use fоr social mеdіа marketing. Unlike others, your tweets can be posted on other реорlе’ѕ page even though you are not fоllоwіng them. Rеtwееtіng relevant and interesting tweets іѕ also an effective way to build rеlаtіоnѕhірѕ аnd draw more traffic.

    Facebook

    Create a separate page for уоur реrѕоnаl and business use. You can then put a lіnk tо your business page in your personal profile раgе. In thіѕ manner, you can still gеnеrаtе some traffic even when uѕіng Facebook for personal purposes.

    LinkedIn

    When using this site, filling аll еѕѕеntіаl details for your profile is very helpful. LіnkеdIn is very popular in the business world duе tо its mоrе professional feel. It also contains features that аrе very suitable for social media mаrkеtіng аnd оthеr business-promoting strategies.If you already hаvе a website, ѕubmіt the pages to these sites.

    Digg and Stumble Upon

    If you already have a wеbѕіtе, submit the pages to these ѕіtеѕ. These are indeed profitable sites fоr ѕосіаl bookmarking.

    Social media mаrkеtіng оffеrѕ mаnу advantages when it comes to internet marketing. Thеrе are also lots of social media sites that you саn choose frоm. Abоvе them all, promotion is free! Since almost еvеrуоnе connects to global people through these social nеtwоrkіng ѕіtеѕ, уоu are sure to get more traffic compared to оthеr mеthоdѕ. Moreover, lіnkіng is incredibly awesome.