How To Create Squeeze Page Headlines That Boost Your Opt In Rates (+10 Headline Ideas You Can Steal)

 Is your opt-in page getting you the leads you want for your affiliate marketing offers?

Are you giving something away for free but still unable to capture your audience's attention?

Well, your headline might be the problem. 

You don't need me to tell you that a web user has a very limited attention span.

Even if you are giving something away for free on your website, a powerful, catchy headline that stands out is super important. Without it, you're unlikely to capture their attention -- and without their attention, you're not going to convert any leads.

When it comes to your squeeze page or form, if you get the headline right, you immediately boost the effectiveness of your offer. But, when you get it wrong, you can say goodbye to your leads. 

What Makes a Good Headline for Opt-Ins?

Fact: A good headline should grab the user's attention.

This is true for all headlines, but even more so in the case of opt-in pages or lead generation forms, because without your user's attention, you won't be able to convince them to convert. 

So how do you create a headline that grabs attention? There are a lot of great formulas for headline writing: for web content, for blogs, for email subject lines, for social media, etc. While many of the principles are the same, the advice below is specific to writing an optimized headline for opt-in/squeeze pages and forms.

Your headline should:

• Solve a problem.
• Be very specific.
• Appeal to the user's emotion.
• Be useful.
• Be formatted to stand out from other text on the page.

Of course, no headline can be all of the above. But if you aim to factor in at least one or two of these, your headline is definitely going to be more powerful. 

How to Create an Attention-Grabbing Headline 

1. Focus on One Thing Only

It's time to really think about what it is you're offering your audience. 

Think about it and then narrow it down to be really specific. The information you provide in your headline should tell your audience whether or not your offer is of value or interest to them. 

If your headline is vague and lacking any real focus about what your audience will gain from your offer, you're unlikely to get the results you want from your opt-in box.   

Jon Loomer's opt-in form is highly specific in nature. It invites users to sign up for a free workshop about a specific type of Facebook advertising copy. There's no confusion about expectations or what the offer actually includes. It's direct and focused. 

2. Offer Value

If you can clearly identify your audience's problem and sell the solution in your headline, you have a winner!

Get inside your audience's head and think about what it is that they really, really want. 

Your headline must immediately convey the usefulness and benefits of your offer to your audience. Otherwise, they are unlikely to continue reading. 

The headline on Quick Sprout's page, for example, immediately addresses an audience concern: getting traffic. Quick Sprout takes this concern, frames it into a question and then offers to send the user tips to make this traffic happen (in exchange for their email address). It's simple, it's specific, and it's definitely clear about what value it offers to its audience.

3. Use Proper Formatting

The way you format your headline has a huge impact on how it is received and how it performs with your audience. 

Needless to say, your headline should be formatted so it stands out from the rest of the text on the page. You can do this by making the text bigger, by making it bolder, or even by using a different type face. A different color also often does the trick. 

If your headline needs to be lengthier than usual, break it up with visual cues (e.g., punctuation) such as em-dashes or even ellipses. 

This opt-in form from Unbounce makes sure the headline stands out not only by making it bigger and bolder, but by placing it on a black background. It's definitely the first thing that catches your eye. 

4. Keep It Simple

A headline that works doesn't actually need to be something ground-breaking at all. In fact, when you keep it short and simple, you are more likely to succeed with it. Often, the real message gets lost in cleverness. 

Also, the length of the headline is also a factor worth considering. A shorter headline, one you can read at a glance, is usually more effective than a long-winded sentence. Most people scan online content, so a simpler, shorter headline will make sure your message is communicated more effectively. 

You don't always have to be creative or clever when straightforward will do just fine. 

Bidsketch's opt-in headline is incredibly simple. It conveys what the product does (creating proposals), while at the same time highlighting the simplicity of the process ("in minutes"). Without trying too hard, it offers a solution simply by talking about the usefulness of the product. There's nothing gimmicky about it. The simplicity is what works. 

 

5. Pair It With a Powerful Sub-Heading 

A good sub-heading can sometimes be just as powerful as your headline. Combine them to really pack a punch with your message.

Sub-headings work by backing up the interest that your headline piques. You can't possible say everything in a headline. Use the sub-heading to continue the though process and provide a bit more information (such as further benefits) about your offer.  

For example, Chris Ducker's pop-up opt-in box does a great job using the sub-heading to further explain his business bootcamp offer.

10 Headline Ideas to Get You Started

Stuck for ideas and not even sure where to start? 

Here are 10 headline suggestions to help get your creative juices flowing. 

You can reword these ideas to generate your own headlines for your opt-in boxes. Or, you can use them as inspiration when writing your own from scratch.

Simply replace the X's with the words of your choice to create a headline appropriate for your offer. I've got a few examples under each idea to give you an idea of how it would work. 

1. A Simple X-Step Strategy to Reduce XXXX 

Some examples headlines you could create: 

• A simple 4-step strategy to reduce your blood pressure.
• A simple 5-step strategy to reduce your refund rate.
• A simple 3-step strategy to reduce your weight. 

2. Free Report Reveals: What You Must ALWAYS Do to XXXX (Don't Do This and XXXX)

Some examples headlines you could create: 

• Free Report Reveals: What you must ALWAYS do to ensure men call you back after the first date (Don't do this and you'll always be left wondering "why didn't he call?")
• Free Report Reveals: What you must ALWAYS do to gain muscle mass quicker. (Don't do this and you'll be spending all your time at the gym with no results)
• Free Report Reveals:  What you must ALWAYS do for better conversion rates. (Don't do this and you'll be wasting your advertising dollars)

3. Can You be Sure that XXXX? Take Our X-Minute XXXX Test Right Now to Discover the Truth!

Some examples headlines you could create:

• Can you be sure that your partner loves you as much as you love them? Take our 3-minute love-meter test right now to discover the truth!
• Can you be sure that you made the right career choice? Take our 5-minute career counselor test right now to discover the truth! 
• Can you be sure your website is search engine-friendly? Take our 6-minute website SEO health test right now to discover the truth! 

4. NEWSFLASH: Free Report Uncovers a Cunning Trick to XXXX

Some examples headlines you could create:

• NEWSFLASH: Free report uncovers a cunning trick to stopping dog obedience problems for good!
• NEWSFLASH: Free report uncovers a cunning trick to curing your insomnia and helping you sleep better!
• NEWSFLASH: Free report uncovers a cunning trick to solving your child's attention issues for good!

5. Free Report Reveals: X Strange But True Secrets to XXXX

Some examples headlines you could create:

• Free Report Reveals: 9 strange but true secrets to increasing your vocal range.
• Free Report Reveals: 15 strange but true secrets to a happier marriage.
• Free Report Reveals: 3 strange but true secrets to getting rid of your fear of heights. 

6. A Brand New Way to Learn XXXX

Some examples headlines you could create: 

• A brand new way to learn to play your favorite songs on the guitar.
• A brand new way to learn how to knit your first sweater. 
• A brand new way to learn to code. 

7. X Sneaky But Legal Ways that You Can XXXX

Some examples headlines you could create: 

• 12 sneaky but legal ways that you can save money on your taxes.
• 15 sneaky but legal ways that you can increase your click-through rates.
• 3 sneaky but legal ways that you can make an income on eBay. 

8. X-Minute Video Reveals Exactly What to do When XXXX

Some examples headlines you could create:

• 5-minute video reveals exactly what to do when you want to win back the love of your ex.
• 7-minute video reveals exactly what to do when you have a panic attack.
• 4-minute video reveals exactly what to when you have to do your makeup in a hurry. 

9. Free X-Part Mini Course Reveals: The Astonishing Secrets of How to XXXX (Apply These Methods and XXXX)

Some examples headlines you could create:

• Free 6-part mini course reveals: The astonishing secrets of how to plan a blockbuster wedding on a shoestring budget (apply these methods and your friends will swear you hired a professional wedding planner!)
• Free 10-part mini course reveals: The astonishing secrets of how to save $20,000 in less than a year (apply these methods and you'll never have to worry about money again!)
• Free 6-part mini course reveals: The astonishing secrets of how to pick up girls, anywhere (apply these methods and you'll always have a date on Saturday night!)

10. If You are Struggling to XXXX, Watch this X-Minute Video on XXXX Right Now!

<>Some examples headlines you could create:

• If you are struggling to reduce stubborn belly fat, watch this 5-minute video on how to lose weight -- even if you have a slow metabolism -- right now!
• If you are struggling to make ends meet, watch this 6-minute video on how to save money without sacrificing your lifestyle, right now! 
• If you are struggling with disciplining your kids, watch this 4-minute video on how to punish your kids without being a meanie right now! 

Before you get started, it's important to remember that not all of these are going to work for your site. Different headlines work for different sites and demographics. Some of the above headlines are quite long, so you can, and should, break them up as a headline and a sub-headline so they work better. 

The key is to write, test, see what works, and do it all over again. Keep testing till you can settle on a formula that works for your audience.

There you go, now that you have some tips and headline ideas - are you ready to write/ rewrite the headlines for your opt in pages?

Do you have a headline suggestion we missed? Got more questions about writing headlines for opt in forms? Leave us a comment! We'd love to hear from you. 

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11 Reasons Why Every Affiliate Marketer Should Learn SEO

 As an affiliate marketer, you probably spend a LOT of time thinking of ways to drive traffic to your site.

After all, no traffic = no affiliate sales.

The two main sources of traffic for most websites are usually:

1. Organic Search

2. Paid Advertising

Social media and other sources will also bring visitors to your site, but these are usually your two best bets for consistent, ongoing traffic.

Why Should You Care About Organic Search? 

Of these two main sources of traffic, search always comes out on top. In fact, a recent study by Experian Marketing Services found that on average, 87% of a website’s traffic comes from organic sources. This percentage of course, varies by industry. However it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of traffic in almost every industry comes from people typing their queries into Google or another search engine and clicking on the links in the results. 

This means if your website is not optimized for search, you are potentially losing out on large amounts of traffic. 

But what do I mean by "optimized for search"? I mean, your website should be created and maintained according to several widely accepted best practices for search engine optimization. You should also implement your other marketing efforts (especially content marketing and social media marketing) keeping your SEO goals in mind.

Why Should You Learn SEO?

OK, so we know SEO is important. But, there are thousands of SEO experts in the world. Wouldn’t it just be easier to hire someone to do your SEO instead of trying to understand it all?

Yes, of course. I definitely think it’s a good idea to hire someone with SEO expertise to help you out. However, if you develop an understanding of how search engine optimization works, your affiliate marketing efforts will ultimately benefit from it. In fact, by understanding what your SEO provider does, you may be able to get more out of the services they provide. 

But if you're still not convinced the additional SEO knowledge will do you any good, here are 11 reasons why every affiliate marketer should learn SEO. 

(By the way, our free lesson, Introduction to Affiliate Marketing SEO, is a great place to get started with your SEO learning.)

1. Understand Search Engines

You get that search traffic is important, but do you understand what it takes for your website to do well on a search engine? How do Google, Bing and Yahoo even work?

When you learn SEO, you don't just learn a new marketing skill. You actually start to understand how search engines work. This is hugely useful when you're in the business of driving traffic to your site.

Search engines consistently crawl the web for new content (links) and index them so when a person performs an online search, Google/Bing/Yahoo can deliver the most relevant results for their search query. The results are ranked so the most popular link for a search term (or the one most likely to give an answer) appears at the top (number 1 position). 

But how does a search engine determine the most popular and relevant site for a search term? 

Well, we don't actually know. Search engines rely on secret algorithms to decide what pages to show. SEO experts make educated guesses about what goes into those algorithms based on common factors in high-ranking websites. And Google occasionally drops little hints about what's important, too. These have led to best practices and general guidelines for SEO that make it possible for website owners like yourself to build sites specifically to get found by the search engines.  

I recommend checking out Google's website on How Search Works to get a deeper understanding of what really goes on behind the scenes of the number one search engine. 

If you're interested in learning more about best-practice recommendations for ranking on the major search engines, check these out: 

• Google webmaster guidelines
• Bing webmaster guidelines
• Yahoo search ranking guidelines

By developing a more thorough understanding of search engines and terms like crawling and indexing, page rank and more, you will become more aware of what it takes to optimize your website and benefit from increased search traffic.

2. Improve Your Website's Design

Once you begin to understand how search engines work, you will see that a good website is not just about a pretty design and some clever content. While the focus of modern SEO is to make websites human-friendly, it's important to remember that how you and I see a website is different from how search engines view it. 

For your website to be truly search engine friendly, it must follow some pretty technical specifications for design and development.

Learning SEO will help you grasp the importance of aspects of website creation, such as:

• Creating quality content.
• Making your content indexable. 
• Organizing your website into a proper structure.
• The proper use of keywords in your site content.
• Having quality inbound and outbound links for your website

Here's some advice from Google on how to create a Google-friendly site.

An understanding of SEO will ensure you don't waste your time making website changes that don't deliver results. Plus, for any new websites you launch, you will also know how to structure your site and optimize it right from the start.

3. Optimize Your Content

You don't need me to tell you this, but... content is king.

On your site, on your blog, on social media... everywhere you look, the web is overflowing with millions of pieces of content.

But, how much of it is actually good quality?

In the early days of the web, it took very little to get your website to do well on a search engine. In 2015, that has completely changed. The major search engines are heavily focused on the quality of your website now, and your content has a lot to do with it. 

Quality content is not just about creating a great blog post or a fun infographic. It's about building an entire website that delivers that same quality. For search engines, good content is a sign of a site that is considerate of its visitors; one that tries to anticipate and answer questions. It's all about a good user experience.

Check out this really helpful e-book by SEO.com on 11 Types of Content You Should Be Creating For SEO Right Now.

Here are some guidelines from the major search engines on how to create quality content for your site:

1. Google guidelines on valuable content

2. Yahoo content quality guidelines

3. Bing on how to build quality content

If you're hiring people to do your content, it's important that they create something that won't get you penalized by search engines. When you learn SEO, you also learn what makes for good content so you can guide your writers, designers, bloggers and other content creators in the right direction. Or, if you're doing it all yourself, you'll know how to produce content that will impress your site visitors and search engines.

4. Figure Out What to Do with Keywords

Most people, even if they don't quite get SEO, understand that keywords play a big role in the world of search engines. This is true.

Keywords are fundamental to the search process. It's how users communicate what they're searching for. The search engines deliver results based on these keywords. 

Search engines measure how keywords are used within your website. This helps them determine how relevant your website is for particular search queries. So, it's essential that you use specific, highly relevant keywords to maximize your opportunities for appearing in search results.

But, be careful of keyword abuse. In the early days of the web, stuffing as many keywords as possible onto a page was a common practice. This no longer works and in fact, will count as keyword abuse and will probably get you penalized. Now, it's more important to use your keywords in a relevant, natural way.

Don't be this person! Write naturally so your visitors feel you're having a real conversation. 

Understanding how keywords work will be very helpful for you because:

• You can identify which keywords are relevant for you.
• When you do keyword research, you now know what to look for.
• If you hire a writer for your web content, you can guide them on proper keyword usage.
• You will understand where keywords need to be used, e.g., on page content, in title tags, in meta descriptions, etc. 

5. Understand How Link-Building Works

Links are another big part of the SEO puzzle. 

Search engines use links to analyze a website's popularity, trustworthiness, authority, and much more.  However, not all links are made equal. A trustworthy site is likely to link to another trustworthy site — not to spammy sites. This often helps a search engine determine the quality of links.

The more popular and trustworthy a site, the more significant it is to have a link from them. 

So, to make the most of your link-building efforts, you need to make sure you're acquiring links from other relevant, popular and trustworthy sites. These will be helpful for your website's SEO. Paying for 1,000 irrelevant links will do you no good.

Link-building is an important task for SEO. Whether you're doing your own link building or hiring someone else to do it, you need to understand how it works to make sure you're only building quality links. 

6. Build Your Online Reputation

When you learn SEO and do it right, your site will start to show up in more search results, thus boosting your brand's online visibility. 

How does a boost in your visibility help you? When you start to show up in the results for all the relevant search terms for your industry, your audience and customers will start to think of you as a leader in the industry.

I'm not making this up. People trust organic search engine results more than paid ads.

On average, people believe organic results are more likely to be current and relevant. They want the most authoritative sources. In short, they believe they are getting the best information via search engine results. 

So when you understand SEO, you can figure out how to optimize your site to appear in the results for more queries that are relevant for your customers. The more they see you, the more they will start to trust your site. 

7. Get More Traffic to Your Website

A website optimized for search engines is definitely going to start getting you more traffic.

An eConsultancy study found that an overwhelming 94% of clicks are for organic search results. 

Another experiment also found that 60% of "direct traffic" reported in your data may actually be attributed to organic search.

With people more likely to click on search results than paid ads, it's only natural that if your website is more visible online, you will start to see more people visiting your site. 

Search engines are the first point of contact for most people looking for information. SEO helps you understand how to make your site more visible to the right audience, which in turn results in more traffic to your site.

8. Make More Money

Say your website currently gets a 100 visitors a day. Let's also say that 2% of your visitors click through to your ads and this makes you $2 a day. 

Now, your website is getting a 1,000 visitors a day thanks to solid SEO. You have the same 2% click-through rate. This means you're now making $20 a day!

If you experience a jump in traffic thanks to your SEO efforts, this is eventually going to boil down to increased revenue from your website — especially if your website is optimized to make your traffic convert to sales. Who doesn't like more money?

But to make this extra money, you really have to develop an understanding of what SEO is, how it works and how you can make it work for you.

9. Market Yourself for Free

SEO is free marketing.

Pay-per-click advertising requires you to set daily/monthly budgets that you are willing to spend to buy advertising space on search engines. Each click on an ad will cost you money, and if you're in a particularly competitive industry, clicks can sometimes cost $40-50! 

Clicks on organic results don't cost you any money. All you have to do is maintain your position in the rankings, and the traffic you get is completely free.

Of course, you will be spending time and energy optimizing your site in the first place. It's going to cost you some hours, even if it costs you no money. You can also hire someone else to do the initial work, which will put a dent in your budget. But then you can save money by doing your ongoing SEO maintenance yourself — because you'll understand how SEO works! 

10. Protect Yourself From Sketchy SEO Practices

If you're working with an SEO expert, it's doubly important to at least have an idea of what they're going to do for your site. 

There are thousands of SEO providers out there, and while a lot of them are very good, some will engage in sketchy practices. Their aim is to show you results right away, but there's a few problems with that:

1. These results will be short term.
2. Your site could end up with a penalty. 
3. Google could de-index you for spammy SEO practices.

By learning a bit about search engine optimization, you'll learn the difference between what is good (white hat SEO) and what is bad (black hat SEO). Avoid black hat tactics, and if your SEO provider tries to suggest anything sketchy that falls into this category, you know to send them packing straightaway. SEO takes time, so don't be frustrated if you don't jump in the search rankings overnight!  

11. Become a Better Affiliate Marketer 

Your end goal is not to become better at SEO, but to become better at affiliate marketing...right?

By gaining an understanding of SEO, you will:

• Make better, more SEO-friendly websites, right from the beginning. 
• Get better at driving traffic to your website.
• Create better, more relevant content for your site.
• Build high quality links to your site. 
• Improve your website's authority in the industry. 
• Outdo the competition (especially if they're not doing SEO).
• Spot more opportunities for growing your site and business.

Nobody knows your business better than you, and SEO will only help to enhance that. 

Does this make you want to learn SEO to improve your affiliate marketing efforts? 

If you already do SEO for yourself, what do you think has been the number one benefit of learning SEO for affiliate marketing?

P.S. If you're looking for a tool that shows you whether your SEO efforts are getting you anywhere, we have something for you: AffiloTools automatically tracks your rankings in great detail and in multiple search engines so you can see real results.

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15 Free Productivity Tools for Savvy Social Media Marketers

Note: This post was first published on July 5, 2017 and has since been updated with new tools.

Social media marketing can be overwhelming, for amateurs and professionals alike. The best social media marketers are excellent at multitasking and can work very well under pressure, but even they need assistance from time to time to complete their demanding routines.

That’s why companies invest in social media management tools, to reduce manual work and lessen the burden of multitasking.

There are social media tools for scheduling posts in advance, monitoring keywords and designing graphics, and then there are those that help you get organized, streamline your tasks and save invaluable time. This is a list of 13 social media productivity apps to get more done in less time.

1. DrumUp

DrumUp is a social media management tool that combines powerful scheduling features with easy content storage and organic content amplification on social.

Here’s how you can save time on social using DrumUp –

• Store your evergreen content, best posts, inspirational quotes, etc. in separate DrumUp libraries and set them on auto-post at a frequency of your choice.
• Schedule posts for clients or your brand weeks in advance, and use the social account groups feature to do this easily.
• Set up keywords and RSS feeds to curate fresh content related to your industry. 1-click schedule keyword based suggestions, and set your blog’s RSS feed on auto-post for effortless promotions.

Within 10 minutes, you could upload all of your content on DrumUp and set up a powerful social media marketing schedule for your brand.

Note: If you need help with the setup, write to support@drumup.io.

2. FAQFox

FAQFox is a real-time cross-web keyword search tool that focusses on finding questions that include the keyword that you wish to monitor.

Here’s how you can use FAQFox to boost your social media marketing productivity –

• Use FAQFox to find questions across specific websites or social media platforms and answer those questions using your blog or social media posts. By doing this, you can identify commonly asked questions, which can enable you to drive a serious source of traffic back to your web pages.
• Use FAQFox’s questions to create your product guides and FAQs. Sometimes, the questions you assume that people are asking are not in fact the ones that they are asking. By using a research tool, you eliminate the error caused by your bias.

 3. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a Twitter management tool that can help you manage messages and mentions better.

Here’s how you can use TweetDeck to save time and boost your productivity while marketing on Twitter –

• TweetDeck allows you to create keyword monitoring streams. You can set up streams that concern important elements in your niche. The tweets that show up in this stream are gateways to more exposure and possibly sales.
• You can use TweetDeck to monitor your brand on Twitter and manage your mentions. Since the streams are real-time, you can even participate in Twitter chats and ongoing conversations using this tool.

4. Trello

Trello is a project management app that lets you set deadlines, keep track of team members and freelancers and communicate with them easily to get work done.

Here’s how you can save time on social using Trello –

• Add social media managers, copywriters, graphic designers, social ad specialists and social analysts to your Trello board.
• Create cards for each of these people, and list the details of their projects. Set deadlines for each project and add concerned parties to the cards.
• Graphic designers and copywriters can upload files to cards for social media managers’ review. Social analysts can upload sheets with data. Reviewed files can be moved to a separate column.

Within 10 minutes, you can create a board for easy approval of social media content and ideas. An additional 10-15 minutes is necessary to update project details and set deadlines. Once you have, you can monitor projects easily, even from your smartphone when on the go.

5. Evernote

Evernote is a strategist’s best friend. It’s a classic mobile notebook that lets you save quick notes, to-do lists, images and set reminders, share notes with other users and more.

Here’s how you can save time on social using Evernote –

• Save random epiphanies and content ideas quickly on text notes, webcam notes or audio notes, and share them with your social media team. Save screenshots or images of visuals that you intend to incorporate on future posts to refer to during discussions.
• Create to-do lists and share them with team members, and encourage team members to do the same. When tasks are updated on one list, they are automatically updated on everyone’s copies.
• Use IFTTT to automatically turn notes on Evernote into Trello cards.

Instead of spending hours trying to recall lost ideas, save them on any device and share them or look back at them when needed.

6. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time tracking tool to help track employee productivity. It lets you access data of tracked time based on your company’s work schedules and habits and analyzes them for actionable insights.

Here’s how you can use Time Doctor t improve general productivity –

• Time yourself and employees by logging tasks through the day.
• Access analytical data to assess your productivity and find leg room for improvement.
• Apply insights to significantly boost your productivity and results, in the process.

Since social media marketers are required to manage multiple, diverse tasks, Time Doctor can prove to be a useful tool in maximizing your productivity and managing capacity.

7. Cyfe

Cyfe is an analytics dashboard that you can use to monitor important metrics in one place. Social media marketers need to monitor progress on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and track their effect on website traffic and activity. That’s where Cyfe comes in.

Here’s how you can use Cyfe to save time on social –

• Set up widgets side by side, for Google Analytics, and the social media platforms that you are using, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Check likes, views, clicks on social posts and the resulting traffic using the same dashboard.
• Take subsequent measures to improve engagement and traffic, based on the results of your current social media tactics.

As things shift quickly in the social media world, you need a swift means of keeping an eye on your activity and its effects, so you can make quick decisions to change tracks when needed.

8. Social Mention

Social Mention is a real-time social media search and analysis tool. It lets you search keywords by their strength, sentiment, reach and passion.

Here’s how you can use Social Mention to save time you spend on social media marketing –

• Use Social Mention for any type of social media research. If you are looking for mentions of your brand, or want to assess conversations surrounding a topic, or want to see the footprint that someone (an influencer or blogger) has on social media, you can do it faster with this tool.
• Refer to the tool’s metrics like strength, passion, sentiment and reach to analyze each keyword. Use that data to make decisions. For instance, if you want to work with a certain influencer, use the strength, reach and sentiment data to understand the extent of their influence.
• Set up the tool on an RSS reader for instant alerts, or subscribe to have mentions sent to your email.

Manually scouting social networks is an impossible task. Using this tool, you can find the footprint of your brand, important keywords and influencers in under a second.

9. SumoMe

SumoMe is a web audience building tool that helps you grow your social media following and turn website visitors into leads. An essential part of marketing on social is making the most of the traffic it drives, and that’s where SumoMe comes into play.

Here’s how you can save time on social using SumoMe –

• Set up SumoMe’s social media share plugins on your blog. Website visitors are more likely to share content when it’s convenient for them to, leading to added exposure and reach for your brand.
• The tool’s social share plugins also have counters, and people are more likely to share posts when they know that others before them have (Social validation). The more people share your content, the lesser the burden is on you to promote it yourself.
• Use SumoMe’s lead capture form to build your email list. Your social media follow and share plugins on the newsletters you send to leads, so you can grow your social media following.

Social media referrals are the result of hard work. Letting them leave your website without activity is a waste of that effort. By installing a lead capture form and social share plugins, you can get your website visitors to promote your content or turn into leads.

10. Canva

Canva is a graphic design tool that helps amateur designers create professional-looking visuals for multiple purposes. Brilliantly designed graphics can help you stand out on social media, crowded as it is right now.

Here’s how you can save time on social using Canva –

• Instead of resizing your graphics to fit each social media platform, create them using Canva’s wide range of social media canvases. The canvases are already sized to fit posts and covers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
• Work with Canva’s preexisting templates to simplify the graphic designing process.
• Share directly to Facebook and Twitter from Canva. When you don’t want to share them right away, you can schedule graphics using a social media management tool.

Creating great graphics is a tough task, if you don’t have a background in design. Using Canva, you can do it quickly and effortlessly and save yourself a lot of time. Canva also has templates for infographics and ads to be shared on social media.

11. Todoist

Todoist is an app to manage to-do lists in an organized and effortless manner. The gamification aspect of the app makes it a great motivator for multitaskers like social media marketers.

Here’s how you can save time on social media using Todoist –

• Create daily to-do lists using the app. Cross off tasks as they are completed, 
• On your smartphone. If you have a daily routine, you can copy the same template for everyday use.
• Build to-do lists for team members and assign tasks to them. Gamification will encourage them to be more productive and complete tasks more efficiently.
• Lists created for team members can be monitored from your smartphone.

If you want an app that solely focuses on tasks and tracking them, Todoist is a great option.

12. Pomodoro Time

Pomodoro Time is a tool to help users focus for specific periods of time. It prompts users to work for short, intense intervals of time (25 mins followed by a break of 5 mins) to maximize productivity.

Here’s how you can use Pomodoro Time to boost social media productivity –

• Pair Pomodoro time with a to-do list on an app like Evernote or Todoist. Split your day’s activities into 25-minute blocks that you can complete using Pomodoro Time.
• Check off tasks on your to-do list on completing focus periods on Pomodoro Time.
• Invite teammates to use Pomodoro time together, so your entire team’s productivity is enhanced.

Focusing on tasks is hard when you’re multitasking or constantly switching between different completely tasks like supervising content creation and social media scheduling. You can use Pomodoro Time to focus on one task at a time and complete them efficiently.

13. Dropbox

Dropbox is an essential app for file storage and sharing. Copywriters and graphic designers tend to work with a lot of files, that when haphazardly stored on random devices can be lost or difficult to search. That’s where Dropbox can play the hero.

Here’s how to use Dropbox to save time on social –

• Create shared folders of social media posts, research material, guidelines and other resources for your team to add to and access when necessary.
• Use Dropbox to securely share select files with freelancers, new team members or external social media agencies for collaborative working.
• Save material for inspiration to Dropbox, so you never run out of content ideas for your social media pages.

The free version of Dropbox offers users up to 2 GB storage. You can store almost everything related to your work comfortably and access it in seconds using the tool.

14. Google Docs

Google Docs is the best tool you can use to create online documents for easy and controlled sharing. As a social media marketer, you need to manage your social media marketing plan, templates, guidelines and brand related documents that need to be shared with your teammates, freelancers and external agencies. Google Docs makes it effortless.

Here’s how to use Google Docs to save time on social –

• Create a set of basic documents to manage your social media marketing. For instance, your social media marketing calendar (can be created on Google Sheets), guidelines for freelancers and goals are necessary to ensure consistency and quality of content created.
• Encourage copywriters and graphic designers to use Docs and Slides respectively, so they can share the link with concerned editors/reviewers to simplify the review process.
• Keep all content created on Google Docs for future reference and inspiration.

Google Docs offers users a lot of space and works well with Google Drive, so you can easily create, store and retrieve content without hassles.

15. Hemingway App

Hemingway App is a writing tool that will help you hone your skills. Content is a critical part of social media marketing, and Hemingway App helps writers ace content. Here’s how to save time on social using Hemingway App –

• Check your blog posts, social media posts, emails and copy on Hemingway app. It highlights passages that are complex, long-winding or grammatically erroneous.
• Identify passive voice sentences, complex sentence structures and unclear ideas, so you can step-up your style of writing.
• Clear basic grammar checks on all of your content.

The clearer and more precise your writing is, the better you will fare at social media marketing. Hemingway App can help you correct basic language errors in minutes.

Wrap

The more organized and efficient your social media marketing, the better your results will be because it is all about the hustle. With the help of productivity tools, you can get tasks done quicker and make room for other activities.

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