6 Ways to Use Advanced Twitter Search for Increased Influence

Do you want to be a recognized expert in your industry?

Looking for relevant conversations to weigh in on?

Using Twitter's Advanced Search to monitor keywords and conversations can help you connect with influencers and uncover opportunities for thought leadership.

In this article you'll discover six ways to use Twitter's Advanced Search to increase your influence in your industry.

Discover ways to use Advanced Search on Twitter for increased industry influence.

Doing a keyword search on Twitter is a quick and easy way to find out what people in your industry are talking about, identify accounts to follow, and discover new business opportunities.

With Twitter's Advanced Search, you can create complex searches with keywords that are relevant to your industry.

Twitter's Advanced Search allows you to tailor your search in a variety of ways.

To start, choose three or four keywords that are relevant to your industry and use the Boolean search operator "OR" to create a single search for all of your terms. For example, search for "digital marketing" OR "digital marketing advice."

Look at the search results to find conversations in your niche. Then join relevant discussions to offer expert advice and build meaningful connections with people in your industry.

Use the OR operator to ensure that every key phrase or search term is relevant to your mission. Keep this list updated and weed out the keywords that aren't helping you find the best results. Soon you'll have a filtered list of conversations to review on a daily basis.

You can also add keywords like "recommend" to find prospects looking for services you offer.

A digital marketer might be interested in these tweets.

You can also use a keyword search to optimize your own Twitter profile. Add keywords to your bio to help other users find you. Including key phrases (such as "public speaker" and "charity worker") may help you uncover new opportunities.

You can follow specific hashtags and keywords to discover people who are looking for thoughtful comments or quotes.

For example, the hashtag #journorequest is popular among journalists and industry writers. You can create an advanced search that pairs both #journorequest and your key industry terms ("skincare expert" or "facial expert," for example) to find opportunities for free coverage in print and online.

One simple search reveals five PR opportunities for skincare experts.

Once you've uncovered opportunities through hashtag monitoring, reach out to users to share your expert insights. This helps you get media coverage for your business and create meaningful connections.

Your influence is often measured by the network you keep. Use Twitter's Advanced Search filters to find key contacts and people to follow in your industry.

Filter Results by Account

In Twitter's search box, search for a keyword (or group of keywords). Then to filter your results, click More Options and select Accounts to see only those accounts that contain your keywords.

View a list of top accounts to follow using the keyword "social media."

Once you create a tailored list of key industry contacts, follow those users, add them to a list, or use a monitoring tool like TweetDeck to track what they're saying.

Filter Results by People You Follow

You can also limit your search to only the users you follow. To do this, enter your search term (for example, "social media data"). Then filter your results by clicking More Options and selecting From People I Follow.

Your search results will only include tweets that match your search query and are from the accounts you follow.

Filter Results by Date

You can add a date range to find conversations relevant to your topics of interest and occurring within the last few weeks from users you follow.

Filter your search results by date.

This gives you the opportunity to add comments, share your insights, and show thought leadership within your online peer group.

Filter Results by People

You can also use Twitter search to find previous conversations you've had with your contacts. This is a great way to revive relationships and build camaraderie.

To recap previous conversations, use the From These Accounts and To These Accounts filters within Twitter's Advanced Search panel.

Recap past conversations and relationships using Twitter's Advanced Search.

Use Twitter's keyword search function to stay on top of real-time trends and news. For example, create a keyword search for "Facebook" and "breaking" and "news," so you'll know immediately about updates to Facebook.

Use a keyword search to follow breaking news in your industry.

Also think about how users write about news and then do a search for those phrases. For example, for breaking news, people may use phrases like "just happened," "can't believe it," "just witnessed," etc., rather than more obvious search terms like "news" or "latest story."

Once you uncover relevant news, contribute personal insights and quotes and share articles to position yourself as someone worth listening to. If you have the resources (and time), create blog posts, memes, or images about the topic to leverage more coverage and social shares from the update.

Understanding your customers' interests and needs is important for building an engaged audience. This is where the user search operators come in handy. There are three main operators to know about.

Search for Tweets From a Specific User

Sometimes you'll want to follow tweets from a specific user. Perhaps you want to learn more about a customer or have found an excellent blog that consistently tweets useful content.

To track down their tweets, search for "from:[user]." For example, search for "from:apttherapy" to see only tweets from Apartment Therapy.

Search for tweets from a specific user.

You can use a combination of these searches to create your own curated feed of Twitter content. For example, the search "twitter from:thenextweb OR from:buffer OR from:smexaminer" would generate a great list of content.

Search for Tweets to a Specific User

Similarly, you can use the "to" operator to find tweets sent to a specific user. For example, if there are competitor tools or services that are similar to your own, you could search "to:[user]" to find out what people are tweeting to that account.

Search for tweets to a specific user.

This is a great way to learn more about your customers and find out their needs. You can then provide answers through your own content or tweets.

This search also helps you uncover tweets you may not have otherwise seen. For example, when people tweet directly to another user, the tweets are hidden within Tweets and Replies and are not always viewable within the timeline.

Search for Tweets About a Specific User

To find tweets about a specific user, search with the user's full Twitter handle. For example "@zappos" will show you a long list of tweets that mention the company's Twitter account.

Search for tweets about a specific user.

This is a great way to build your knowledge within a specific area, find new customers, and contribute to thought leadership within your industry.

To find tweets that are worth sharing or contributing to, you need to use the right combination of keywords and filters to fine-tune your results.

Here are a few of the ways you can use Twitter's Advanced Search to cut out the noise.

Exclude Retweets

When you're looking for great articles to share, you want to share the direct source or a clean tweet, rather than a retweeted share from another user.

Exclude retweets from your search results.

To ignore retweets in your Twitter searches, simply add "-RT" to your search. For example, if Buffer Blog has a new post on social media that would be interesting to share, you can search for @Buffer "social media" -RT.

This search won't exclude all shares of the article, but will ensure you don't retweet another retweet. It allows you to connect directly with the original sharer and a cleaner post.

Filter Tweets With Links

One way to develop thought leadership is to engage with other users and talk to them as you would in everyday life.

To filter your feed to show only tweets that contain thoughts or comments, exclude tweets containing links. To do this, enter the prefix "http" into the None of These Words field or simply add "-http" into your search box.

Exclude tweets containing links.

Then dig into the rich conversations and thought pieces you've discovered.

See Only the Most Popular Posts

To become a thought leader, it's important to curate high-quality posts that are already popular with users.

To find this content, use the minimum retweets advanced search. Search for "from:[account] min_retweets:10" in the Twitter search box or Advanced Search panel.

For example, a search for "from:thenextweb min_retweets:300" reveals tweets that received more than 300 retweets, which is serious traction.

Search for tweets with a high number of retweets.

You can also reverse the exclude function to include specific results. For example, if you want to find blog posts or web pages to share, include "http" in your search along with a keyword such as "marketing" or "fashion trends."

In Conclusion

Many people turn to Twitter when looking for thought leaders, recommendations, and insightful comments within their industry. By becoming a master of Twitter Advanced Search, you can hunt down leads, uncover new opportunities, and position yourself as a thought leader.

What do you think? How do you use Twitter to establish yourself as a thought leader? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

Tips on six ways you can use Twitter's Advanced Search to increase your influence.

View the original article here

Original source: 6 Ways to Use Advanced Twitter Search for Increased Influence.
http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Get Started on the Most Popular Social Media Networks

Are you starting a new social media presence?

Do you know what to share on each platform?

In this article, you'll discover tips to guide your posting on six social media networks.

Discover how to get started on six popular social networks.

People typically use Facebook to catch up on news and chat with friends. If you want to connect with your audience, you can't just copy a headline and call it a day.

Instead, ask a question or tease what makes your post interesting. Picture someone sharing the post with their friends. Encourage that with your tone.

Write a conversational caption to connect with your audience.

Your posts will get more engagement on Facebook if you include an image. Share a link and choose a bold image to catch the attention of your fans.

Include an eye-catching image along with your link.

You can upload a photo or video directly to the platform. Facebook's algorithm favors native videos uploaded directly. Keep your photos in the 1200 x 630 pixel range.

Remember, if you want to boost the post or use it as an ad, the image must include less than 20% text.

Facebook users are most active in the afternoon. A general rule is when people are bored at work, they're probably browsing Facebook. One study found that Facebook posts at 3 pm receive the most clicks. Thursday and Friday tend to be the busiest days.

Keep an eye on your Facebook analytics to see which posts get the most engagement and adjust your posting schedule accordingly.

People come to Pinterest on a mission. They want to learn a new skill, buy a new product, or find a new project. For these reasons, valuable and informative posts get the most engagement.

Pinterest favors information-rich captions, which can be up to 500 characters long. Tell your audience what inspired you about the pin, give an overview of what they'll find if they click through, and include a call to action like "Click for more" or "Comment with your thoughts."

Include a call to action in your caption.

Resize your photos to fit the vertical pin standard. The recommended size is 600 x 1200 pixels. To add more interest, you may want to combine a few photos or add a text overlay.

Use descriptive pin captions and text overlays to encourage more clicks on Pinterest.

Pinners are more active in the evening and especially on Saturday. Schedule your pins in the evening and make sure you spread them out. If you upload a group of pins at the same time, you'll likely miss out on some engagement.

People typically go to Twitter to have a conversation or follow news at a specific moment in time. It's a great place for you to share product updates and news or answer questions from your users or community.

Inform your Twitter community about product updates.

Your space and time are limited on Twitter, of course. You have 140 characters to share your take on your link or ask a question. Add one or two relevant hashtags to connect your post to a conversation or community.

Kickstarter uses short messages, hashtags, and bold images to connect with their Twitter followers.

If you add photos or other images to your tweet, you can boost your retweets by as much as 150%. Horizontal images perform best on Twitter. Keep your images around 440 x 220 pixels.

Twitter generally sees the most activity between 1 and 3 pm on weekdays. But because a tweet's half-life is just a few hours, it's good practice to share your content more than once, perhaps in prime time and in the evening or early morning.

LinkedIn is the professional social network, so people come to the platform with a work mindset. Joining the conversation on LinkedIn is like making a presentation in your office or at an industry conference.

Share your industry updates or thoughts on strategy as you would speak to peers or potential clients. This is the place to use the industry lingo you often avoid on other social networks.

Microsoft shares industry news and educational materials with photos and videos on LinkedIn.

Like other social networks, visuals will help boost engagement with your content. Horizontal images typically work best. In terms of size, keep your images around 646 x 220 pixels.

People spend the most time on LinkedIn mid-week. Post early in the morning or late in the afternoon on Tuesday or Wednesday for best results.

Users don't check in on LinkedIn as often as other networks, so you don't need to share new information every day. Find a schedule that you can keep up with, even if you post just once a week.

Tumblr is a great place to engage a younger audience because the majority of users are younger than age 35. The network is a casual environment where people are looking for entertainment. Don't be afraid to share your amusement in your words.

St. Ives often entertains their Tumblr audience with bright GIFs with Tumblr tags.

St. Ives often entertains and engages their Tumblr audience with bright GIFs.

Tumblr is a visual network, and GIFs and memes are especially popular. Don't be afraid to turn old visuals into a GIF or meme. Keep your images about 500 x 750 pixels.

Before you post, research your topic to learn what words and hashtags people use most often with that topic. Add your hashtags to the bottom of the caption to tag your image and improve discoverability.

Tumblr users are most active late in the evening. Schedule your posts after 10 pm to reach more people.

Instagram users scroll through the feed on their phone in search of inspiration, entertainment, and beauty. Increasingly, people share experiences and explore places.

To enhance a visual you've used on another social network, turn it into a simple graphic or add a behind-the-scenes photo of how it was made.

Although Instagram is about visuals first, captions are also important. Tell a story with your post, share a quote related to the image, or give a teaser to preview content connected to that photo.

The caption is a great place to include a call to action. For example, use the caption to direct your audience to the link in your profile.

Use a call to action that points to the link in your Instagram bio.

In 2015, Instagram moved beyond the square format and started allowing vertical and horizontal images, giving users many more options.

If you want to grow an Instagram following (helping you drive more traffic and engagement in the long run), I recommend choosing a standard format and sticking with it. Then attach a logo or branding element to your image to make sure you benefit from any regramming.

Attach a logo or branding element to your Instagram images.

Instagrammers are most active in the evenings after 8 pm and early mornings. Monday and Thursday tend to be active days. Try scheduling your posts for those days and see if you get more engagement.

Conclusion

Imagine walking into three different environments: your office, the local mall, and happy hour with your friends. What would the conversations be like, what would you wear, and what would your mindset be? Chances are each situation would be unique. Similarly, the conversation, style, and mindset you use for each social platform should be different.

What do you think? How does your approach differ for each social platform? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Tips on how and what to post when getting started on six social media networks.

View the original article here

Original source: How to Get Started on the Most Popular Social Media Networks.
http://www.jretechnology.com

The Beginner's Guide to Creating Shoppable Video

[Note: The author of this post is the CEO of Wideo]

Consumers today have little tolerance for video advertisements, though they have an ever-growing desire to digest quality video content. So how do marketers marry the two? The answer is shoppable video.

U.S adults consume 5.5 hours of online video daily. By making videos shoppable, marketers can take advantage of these hours spent watching videos without disrupting the content by inserting shoppable ads. With shoppable video, the products featured in the clip get more emphasis; whether your company video is an overview of your products/services, a catalog of your inventory, a tutorial video, etc. You can make your clip more useful to audiences by making it shoppable.

Check out these excellent examples to get better acquainted with the medium.

Welcome to Portland: We Make Stuff

Bally Interactive Experience

Early adopters of shoppable video have seen large increases in their view counts. According to YouTube's Director of Product Management for Ads, Diya Jolly, the number of views for product-related videos has increased by 40% over the past year since they introduced their True View Cards. Meanwhile, television channel site BravoTV.com has grown its digital audience by 91%, in large part due to the introduction of shoppable content on their site. Since it's quite clear that shoppable video has great potential for helping sell products and services, why then have marketers not fully adopted this medium?

If we had to venture a guess, it would simply be due to a fear of the unknown. As you can see in the examples above, there are many ways to approach shoppable video, and they may seem technologically advanced, but it's easier than you might think. Marketing teams may imagine the need to hire an expensive video production team all for one piece of shoppable video content. In actuality, shoppable video can be created in-house and quite easily with trackable analytics. Here's a walkthrough on some simple approaches to creating quality shoppable content.

Wideo is a platform you can use to streamline the video creation process. Wideo also offers analytics including video views, clicked links, the length of video watched, etc. to help you measure its success.

Making a shoppable video via Wideo is simple. You have the option to insert call-to-action buttons, sign-up forms, or spaces for email registry. Just connect a URL to the interactive options presented in the sidebar and manipulate the copy and color until you're satisfied. That's it; you've successfully created a simple, professional shoppable video.

If you want to make a shoppable video for Youtube, there are several options for you to choose from.

Via Wideo, you can export your content straight to Youtube option, which saves you the hassle of downloading the mp4 clip and uploading it yourself. On export from the Wideo platform, the interactive buttons you've made will cease to be clickable. Once the video is uploaded to Youtube, however, you can re-instate your buttons' interactivity through Youtube's annotations. Annotations allow you to pick a place on your video and hyperlink it to a URL. Line up the annotations with the buttons you made in Wideo, and you'll have an interactive, shoppable Wideo once again.

For those who would prefer to hide their shoppable attachments more stealthily within the video, rather than display them as part of the storyline, you have another option. A cards-based annotation system, launched in March, is now offered to all advertisers on YouTube via Google Adwords. The cards-based annotation system provides a menu in the Youtube video player which showcases an array of interactive cards that viewers can click on. The menu is hidden from view except for an icon in the upper-right corner of the video player. Viewers can choose to view the menu alongside the video or have it disappear by clicking on the icon.

Here's an example:

via GIPHY

Of course, there's much more to shoppable video than the video itself. Your shoppable video can inspire a whole new approach to how you present your offerings on your site and platforms. Burberry's elegant display of their latest menswear collection is a great example. You'll notice while watching the clip of the runway show that as each look appears, the still image directly below the clip changes to present that same look with purchase details.

This video marketing strategy shows great creativity while keeping with the brand's aesthetic. Most importantly, this strategy has streamlined the Burberry experience for prospective buyers. A fully formed video marketing campaign like this one that properly incorporates a shoppable video will only increase your chances of sales success.

Thanks to shoppable video you can direct a viewer's focus towards certain products or services more than ever before. By creating quality content, you'll engage the viewer. By making it shoppable, you'll market to them without being overly promotional.

Creating these videos in-house allows your brand to integrate the tool fully into your company's standard digital marketing strategy which will enable you to track a quantifiable return. So whether you're interested in shoppable video as a means of engagement, or as a sales driver, the format is the perfect blend for audiences today that are turning away from traditional ads.  

This article was orginally published at Wideo.co.

View the original article here

Original source: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Shoppable Video.
http://www.jretechnology.com

When the Madness Ends, Social Data Still Flows: The Final March Madness Matchup

Monday's March Madness conclusion was a game certainly worthy of its championship title. Two storied and popular teams tipped off at 9:19pm EST, and after the final horn blew, Villanova found themselves ahead by three points due to some late-game heroics. It was the ideal contest to capture the spirit of the entire tournament.

We all watched the game, and many of us posted about it as we took in every play and whistle. Below you'll see how the conversation unfolded as the players hit the hardwood.

The day of the national championship game and the ensuing reaction the day after account for around 150,000 mentions of the term "March Madness". And as we can see below, there's nothing like a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot to create a conversation spike – after Kris Jenkins made his three-pointer as time expired, mentions soared to nearly 6,900 in one minute.

When you compare the spikes in each teams' mentions within the March Madness conversation, we can see that UNC's peak occurred as Marcus Paige tied the game with his circus, three-pointer. This caused UNC mentions to top around 340 mentions in one minute, but Villanova's mentions launched shortly afterwards with Jenkins' answer.

The game's last basket sent Villanova's mentions to accumulate more than 1,100 in one minute.

To the winner goes the mentions as Villanova accumulated nearly 20,000 mentions. The University of North Carolina only received around 11,000 mentions.

Pennsylvania, Villanova's home state, accounted for more mentions than the state of North Carolina as well. Pennsylvania accounted for over 2,800 mentions, while North Carolina accounted for over 2,400 mentions.

Lastly, men controlled the majority share of this online conversation as they made up 72% of all unique authors.

It would appear that the social conversation mimicked reality with Villanova getting more mentions, and really only pulling away after they won at the buzzer. Until that point, the social discussion was relatively even.

Until next March.

Want more social data? Head over to Brandwatch React to see the latest news, trends and pop culture happenings around the social web.

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View the original article here

Original source: When the Madness Ends, Social Data Still Flows: The Final March Madness Matchup.
http://www.jretechnology.com

Social Media Algorithms and What They Mean for You

"Voodoo". "Black magic". "The death of a platform".

These are just some of the affectionate terms that people have been using to describe social media's shift towards algorithm-based feeds. Social media audiences have frequently been averse to change, even if they don't fully understand the ramifications of such updates, and this continues to be true. But as marketers, we have to rise above this aversion to change and instead embrace it. In that spirit, what do algorithm-based feeds actually mean for your marketing efforts?

Facebook using an algorithmic feed is nothing new. For a variety of reasons – including the sheer number of users on the platform – Facebook has been using an algorithm-based feed since very early on in its existence. In a post on Facebook's own blog, they explain their reasoning behind the News Feed: 

"The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don't miss the stories that are important to them. Ideally, we want News Feed to show all the posts people want to see in the order they want to read them." 

While it's well understood that Facebook's feed is governed by an algorithm, what makes it so damn tricky is it's transience. As soon as marketers feel like they've got a grasp on what makes the algorithm tick, Facebook shuffles, then reshuffles the deck.

Currently, the algorithm places importance on a few key factors:

How often you have an interacted with that type of post before, content included. (Yes, Facebook is keeping a tally of every time you "like" those cute baby goat GIF's)If/how often the post has been hidden by others.How well received (in terms of engagement) the past posts from that user have been.How well the post has performed with users who have already viewed it.The goal behind the News Feed is pretty simple: to promote the best content to the most relevant people – but what does this mean for you as a marketer?

Create the best content. Make sure your content is engaging, education, or entertaining. Most importantly, make sure that your posts are relevant to your audience. As much as you would like to think hat all your content is awesome, ultimately it's up to your audience to decide.

As others platforms look to the sustained growth in users that Facebook has seen over the years, they're beginning to adopt the network's strategies.

Twitter has recently been undergoing an identity crisis of sorts, and it's still somewhat unclear as to how they will emerge. They toyed with the idea of expanding the character limit of tweets to 10,000 characters, and that was ultimately nixed. However, the platform has rolled out an algorithm-based feed similar to that of Facebook. And when the feature was first announced, a typical tweetstorm erupted and the hashtag #RipTwitter was born as people prematurely mourned the death of the chronological feed. 

The 10 seconds where my @twitter was all out of order before I could opt out of their stupid algorithm were truly terrifying.

— Brian Daly (@briandalynj) March 10, 2016

As it turns out, the feature to view "the best tweets you may have missed" is essentially an expanded version of their previous "while you were away" feature and is easy to opt out of. As for how this update can benefit brands, the feed prioritizes content that receives above average engagement.

Since many companies have a larger base of followers, this will reward brands that produce engaging content by giving them additional organic reach within the algorithm-based feed. Another benefit of the Twitter algorithm is that now if your audience is engaging with your content there's a larger chance that the engagement is a result of the tweets being relevant, not just timely.

As for Instagram, they're not currently not facing the same user predicament that Twitter finds itself in, but they too, have indicated that an algorithmic feed is imminent. From Instagram's blog:

You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it's become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don't see the posts you might care about the most. 

Not sure about you, but I near obsessively check my Instagram feed and rarely miss a post – however, only following ~300 people makes this much easier. In any case, this statement essentially mirrors what we have heard previously from Facebook and Twitter. Feeds are simply becoming too crowded and an algorithm is the best way to cut down on the clutter.

Again, brands are being forced to fight for a share in an increasingly small amount of social real estate. It's yet to be determined exactly how the algorithm will work, but it likely won't be as detrimental for businesses as the Facebook feed proved to be. Simply due to the nature of the platform, all posts are still likely to be shown within the feed, just not not in a chronological manner. Contrast this to Facebook, where there are an unknown number of posts that will never grace your screen.

'Algorithm' might still be a scary word, and the math behind them may be even more frightening, but understanding how they work and how they can be leveraged is certainly not "voodoo" or "black magic". It all really hinges on your ability to create valuable content that will be boosted, not hindered by these feeds. Certain platforms (we're looking at you Facebook) will also require you to reevaluate your paid social strategy in order to properly maxmize your impact. 

This post originally appeared on the Likeable Local blog.

View the original article here

Original source: Social Media Algorithms and What They Mean for You.
http://www.jretechnology.com

5 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List

Want to grow your email list?

Got a blog?

New tools and placement options have made it easier than ever to create an offer that compels blog visitors to share their email address with you.

In this article you'll discover five unique ways to grow your email list from your blog readers.

Discover five creative ways you can grow your email list with your blog.

To encourage email signups, show the value of being an email subscriber on the homepage of your blog. The main focus should be on your opt-in box.

Feature an engaging sign-up box on your blog's homepage.

Place the links to other areas of your site below the fold, so readers won't see them unless they scroll down the page.

Bluewire Media collects email addresses directly from their main page. Below, they offer visitors free marketing templates in addition to news and updates delivered to their inbox.

Gather new email addresses right from your homepage.

If you don't have a custom homepage or don't have the resources to redesign your current homepage, a feature box might be a good option for you.

A well-designed feature box exchanges your lead magnet for new email addresses. You typically place the feature box above the fold of your page so it's immediately visible to users.

Unlike entry pop-ups, feature boxes don't interrupt visitors from scrolling down the page and browsing your blog content. They can either take your bonus or scroll down the page.

The feature box at DIYthemes increased the blog's subscription rate by 51.7%. Feature boxes convert well even if they're subscription-only and don't offer a lead magnet.

A feature box above the fold grabs your readers' attention, but doesn't prevent them from scrolling down the page.

Choose a good opt-in offer, such as a free email course. The Enchanting Marketing blog offers readers a free writing course in their feature box.

This feature box offers a free email course as a lead magnet.

If you're looking for a tool to create opt-in feature boxes, try the WordPress plugins PlugMatter Optin Feature Box or Thrive Leads.

Don't forget that your homepage is one of the most visited pages on your blog, so it deserves special treatment. Think about changing your homepage design to include an engaging sign-up box as the next step after a feature box.

Content upgrades are another way to grow your email list. The principle behind them is the same as for any opt-in form: You give away free material (a lead magnet) and get your visitors' email addresses in return.

Place a link to your bonus content with a call to action in your article and wrap it with an eye-catching box. When readers click the link, a pop-up box appears, asking for their email address to get the bonus material.

Michael Hyatt offers readers a list of literary agents as a bonus in the following article, which is valuable material for his readers and relevant to the topic of the article.

In your article, place an eye-catching link to your offer with a call to action.

When readers click your download link, open a pop-up box asking for their email address. After readers complete the form, redirect them to a page with the bonus.

After readers type in their name and email, they're redirected to the page where they can download the free guide.

You can use a variety of different materials in your content upgrades. Here are a few examples:

A PDF version of your articleA checklistAn instructional videoA templateA list of tools or resourcesAn infographic

Remember that you need to choose bonus content that is highly relevant to the topic of your article. That's why content upgrades are often called "content-specific bonuses."

To implement content upgrades on your blog, try a tool like LeadBoxes or the Content Upgrades PRO plugin for WordPress.

Another effective and unobtrusive way to turn readers into email subscribers is to use scroll-triggered opt-in boxes.

A scroll-triggered box doesn't cover up any content.

Unlike pop-ups, scroll-triggered boxes don't interrupt the visitor's reading and don't cover up any content. Place a scroll-triggered box at the corner of the page when readers scroll down to a certain part of your article.

By the time the box appears in front of readers, they've already read most or all of your article. They've formed an impression of you, so it's a good time to introduce your offer.

You can decide when to show the box to your readers. For example, make it appear halfway through your article or at the end.

You can place a scroll-triggered box at the end of your article.

If you want to use a scroll-triggered box on your blog, try a tool like Scroll Box by SumoMe or the Scroll Triggered Boxes plugin for WordPress. Both of these tools are free.

Although people say they hate pop-ups, studies show that pop-ups are effective for collecting email addresses, especially when they're well designed and have strong, engaging text.

A good pop-up design and call to action can be very effective.

If you're worried about potentially irritating your visitors with a pop-up, consider using an exit pop-up, which is action triggered and shown only when visitors intend to leave your page.

You don't lose anything and don't run the risk of irritating visitors when you offer them something right when they're about to leave. Keep in mind that exit pop-ups work only for visitors who have spent time on your blog.

If you're looking for a tool for pop-ups, and exit pop-ups in particular, try OptinMonster, PopUp Domination, or SumoMe's List Builder. The latter is free with an opportunity to upgrade to a pro version.

Conclusion

These are all effective ways to get people to sign up for your email list from your blog. Keep in mind that you can use more than one of these techniques at the same time.

What do you think? Do you use some of these tactics on your blog? What tips do you have for growing your email list? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Tips on five unique ways to convert blog readers to email list subscribers.

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Original source: 5 Creative Ways to Grow Your Email List.
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