Hard Facts

Have you ever thrown an event for your brand or business and thought it was more work than it was worth?

We all know what it’s like to generate ⛰️mountains of content⛰️ for our business in the hopes of engaging our audience and inspiring them to interact with us, only to find that often... individuals will only engage once or twice

Utilizing email in your marketing strategy is by no means a new idea. But, when starting out, you don’t always have the advantages available to you that an email tracking platform can offer— but you still need them! Let’s be real— even those of us who have a fancy email platform to utilize still do business out of our Gmail accounts. But then you can’t do things like…

Tired of juggling between various tools to keep your Facebook and Instagram presence alive? From creating content, to scheduling posts— there’s a lot that goes into maintaining a strong social presence online! But there’s one free tool that makes it all much easier… Creator Studio! Creator Studio is a free tool available to all Business Pages on Facebook that provides more power to YOU in how you want to organize, run and even monetize your content across Facebook and Instagram. But there’s A LOT more to this mighty tool and I want to show you how to get the absolute most out of what it offers. Check out Hard Facts now and I’ll break it down!

Feel like your content hasn't been catching eyes lately? Maybe that's because your strategy is missing one of the most engaging, memorable content types available... INFOGRAPHICS! 90% of the information we retain in our brains comes from VISUAL communication, and infographics are a great way to pack your message into an eye-catching, scroll-halting piece of creative that your audience will REMEMBER! But-- don't have a graphic designer on hand to make them for you? That's not an issue! I'm sharing some amazing tools you can utilize to make your own infographics, FOR FREE, plus I'm breaking down the various types of infographics and when to use them. That's today on Hard Facts, watch now!

If you're like me, you send HUNDREDS of emails a week and receive even more. Email is the #1 form of business communication yet few recognize the opportunities available in our emails to project professional, provide evidence of our value or ways to connect with other on other platforms or in person. Where can we provide all this info in our emails without muddying the message of why we're sending an email in the first place?

While summer comes to a close and fall rolls in

While we all spend way too much time scrolling on our phones-- it's not entirely our fault! It's not like we can easily manage our campaign strategies or ads while on the go-- the platforms we use have not made it easy to manage by mobile. So instead.. we keep on scrolling. But Pinterest is starting to change the game! Recognizing the importance of mobile management of campaigns, the visual platform has made it infinitely easier with their new Mobile Ads tool! Let me tell you all about it ;) watch Hard Facts now!

Do your competitors advertise on Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Then you're going to want to hear about the FREE tool Samantha covers this week!   Samantha reveals how to get alerted about what your competition is posting the second it goes live and what to look for to one-up them with your advertising strategy. Just don’t get stuck in the comparison vortex!   And for those of you looking to spy on your competition on LinkedIn this video will unlock all the secrets: https://www.potratzny.com/hardfacts/how-to-see-competitor-ads-on-linkedin/

In this week's Hard Facts, we're going WAYBACK! The Wayback Machine, that is. The Wayback machine is a digital archive of websites over time, documenting their updates and evolution for you to view. That means you could look at various version of your favorite websites over time! Or-- there are some great ways to utilize this tool as a business owner! 1-Pull back past content from old iterations of your website you thought you'd lost. 2-Review competitor websites' evolution to inform your next web design moves! But that's not all this web tool offers! I'm breaking down all the ways you can use the Wayback Machine in today's Hard Facts!

LinkedIn might be a bit late to the party but we're happy to have them none-the-less! While Facebook made the announcement awhile ago that they would make the ads posted by individual pages visible to anyone wanting to see-- LinkedIn is now offering a similar feature! While you might not enjoy this as an advertiser, there are SO MANY WAYS you can use this feature to your own advantage by informing your own strategy based on what your competitors are doing. Not sure how to go about this? No worries- I'm breaking it all down in today's Hard Facts. From where to find competitor ads to how to get the most from the information they provide, watch now to learn!

Is Local SEO a pillar of your marketing strategy? With nearly HALF of Google searches including some type of local intent-- it better be! Businesses that look to drive local traffic have so many opportunities to capitalize on the search queries made by those in their area. Possibly the most important opportunity comes in the form of a business's Google My Business Page. Not sure what to do or where to go when it comes to increasing your Local SEO value!? No worries-- just check out today's Hard Facts, I've got you covered.

Do you think it's better to guide a potential customer's experience with our product, or let them experience it on their own? An example of this would be if you work at a dealership, do you let clients take their own test drives, or do you like to ride shotgun? While it can be tempting to try to lead consumers to the right conclusions, getting in the way of their experience with what you're offering could ultimately hurt you. In today’s Hard Facts I’m going to be sharing some real life examples of how to navigate situations like these, as well as the ONE GOLDEN RULE you need to know when it comes to customer experience!

Frustrated by lack of success in your email marketing strategy? Between getting your provider to approve them and then getting your audience to open them, it can be extremely tough. But there's a reason email marketing is still a driving force in many marketing strategies, and it's because it drives results! In today's Hard Facts, I'm sharing the #1 hack for email subject lines that get your emails approved AND opened!

There's nothing better than getting your content in front of eyes that are in-market in your industry. One place you know you can find those people is on your website, but they're also on your competitors website AND in their store. Don't you wish you could capture those leads? Well-- in today's Hard Facts, I'm showing you how to capture the leads visiting your competitors and what do to with their information once you have it. Yes, I'm 100% serious. Don't believe me? Watch Hard Facts now to find out what tool can do this for you!

Looking to lift your brand? Your first thoughts might be to seek out new advertising platforms or increase you budget. WRONG. There's an easy way to see up to 50% brand lift and it doesn't require either of those things. Updating. Creative. Might seem like too simple of a solution, but it isn't. Your creative is what's capturing your audiences' attention and if you're feeling their eyes wander, it might be time to update your creative. Learn more in today's episode of Hard Facts!

Testimonial videos are the most cost-effective way to not only work video into your marketing strategy, but provide your audience with social proof that you have the solutions to problems they face.  Despite the marketing power they bring, so many businesses get it all wrong when it comes to creating their testimonials. How? -By asking the wrong questions -By making it all about them Check out today's Hard Facts to learn how to avoid making this fatal mistake in your testimonials and start receiving a higher return from your efforts!

Privacy isn't bad for business, despite what we might think as advertisers. DuckDuckGo, the search engine gaining in popularity, doesn't pull data on its users so more and more consumers are flocking to it! Last week we covered why you were starting to see this site in your placements reports, but I received so many great questions afterward! I wanted to spend this week on answering some of those questions, such as... -How to advertise on DuckDuckGo -How to set DuckDuckGo as your default search engine, no matter your browser -What to be looking for in your analytics & more!

Ever check the placements report on your ad campaigns to see where your ads are showing up? If so, you may have recently noticed a new site popping up over and over again-- DuckDuckGo. As a search engine, DuckDuckGo has spent its existence in the shadow of behemoth's Google, Yahoo, Bing and even others. While there's nothing actually new about the site, it's been around for a decade, there is a new wave of interest in what it's offering. What makes this site so different? The way it approaches the privacy of it's users-- a weak point of it's larger competitors. DuckDuckGo DOES NOT collect personal or search data! This is a major asset to many and as business owners and advertisers, we need to prepare for what that change in our audience traffic means. There are a few things you need to be sure to set up through DuckDuckGo and their newest partner, Apple (ever heard of 'em?), in order to ensure you're as visible as possible to your audience. I'm breaking down exactly what you need to be doing in this week's Ha

Let's be honest-- we've all had to work under poor management styles before. But what if those leaders took the time to assess your personality & working style? What if they used this information to better inform how they communicate with you? To be a strong, effective leader-- you need to understand your team inside out. You need to know how to motivate them, how they work best and what type of person they are. How can we accomplish this? A personality test! As a manager or leader of any type, this is a great place to start when trying to get a better idea about how your team works, as well as how to strategize the ideal way to manage them. I'm sharing this tip and more in today's episode of Hard Facts!