That’s the conclusion of Sprout Social’s new report on the state of social media marketing.

Sprout surveyed over 1,800 social media users, and 900 marketers to create an important report with some surprising revelations. 

As expected, more people than ever are using social media. More and more of them are using it to engage with brands.

There are a lot of insights in the report, but 2 CRUCIAL things that users want to see from brands are MORE original content on trending topics and more same-day responses from brands to customer comments.

To learn more about the latest social media trends, strategies, and how to track performance, check out the report (email sign-up required).

Here’s the rundown for today…

• TikTok Ads Might Be Undervalued - TikTok Makes Its Case

• New AI Tool For Video Ads - Helps Improve Performance

• Meta Talks Data Privacy Rules - How Marketers Can Adapt

• Facebook Messenger Secrets - How Businesses Can Take Advantage

• Get More Engagement From Emails - 3 Key Strategies

Lurn Bytes: Your Daily News Download

Are TikTok Ads Undervalued? - TikTok says that traditional ways of measuring ad success don't show how effective TikTok ads really are. They found that most methods miss up to 73% of the sales driven by TikTok…

Google Adds New AI Tool to Improve Video Ad Performance - Google has launched a new AI tool called "Creative Guidance" in its Google Ads platform. Its purpose is to help improve the performance of your video ads. The tool gives you feedback and specific suggestions to help you make your ads better…

Meta Releases Report On How Marketers Can Prepare For Data Privacy Rules - Meta conducted a research report to find out how marketers are getting ready for a world with less consumer data for ads. Check out the report to discover their 5 key recommendations…

Start Using Facebook Messenger For Your Business

Facebook Messenger is the instant message feature in Facebook. It’s used by businesses all around the world to connect with prospects and customers.

It could be useful to your business as well. We wanted to share this guide on how to use it…

TLDR - An Actionable Intro to Facebook Messenger for Business

With Facebook Messenger, you can use chatbots and automation to talk to many people personally, which is great for your business.

Over a BILLION people, including 188 million in the United States, use Messenger each month.

Messenger isn't just for texting; you can also make voice and video calls and personalize your chats with themes and stickers. Many people use it to connect with brands for customer support, so it's crucial for businesses to be there.

Using Messenger can help you stay connected with your audience, offer customer support, handle transactions, and build trust. It helps make your company more ACCESSIBLE and RELIABLE.

To set up Messenger for your business, go to your Facebook Page settings and turn on the messaging option. You can also use Messenger AUTOMATIONS like instant replies, away messages, and frequently asked questions to make your customer service more efficient.

Automation is essential; you can even create chatbots to handle various tasks. However, remember to be HUMAN and PERSONAL in your responses. Respond quickly because fast responses earn trust and help you get the "Very Responsive" badge on your Facebook page.

You can also use Messenger ads to engage with customers and add a Messenger button to your website, making it easy for people to chat with you.

The article has even more strategies, including step by step instructions. Check it out!

Daily Hack - Get More Engagement From Your Emails

Let’s get one thing straight – your email list is as good as its level of engagement.

What’s the use of a big email list if no one cares? If people don’t open your emails, read what you have to say, or click, then your list is useless.

Engagement not only helps you build relationships with subscribers and make sales, but it also helps with deliverability. The more people who open and bookmark your emails, the more you solidify your credibility in the eyes of email providers like Gmail.

Engagement is not a straightforward term, so we’ll use three metrics to measure and break it down.

1. Open Rate

2. CTR (Clickthrough Rate)

3. Email Replies

The open rate is the best indicator of engagement.

Generally speaking, a 50% open rate means your audience is highly engaged. 20% is decent, but anything below 10% is a red flag. If your open rates are below 10%, you need to make some changes.

These aren’t hard and fast rules though. The benchmarks for open rates vary with the volume of subscribers you have and your industry.

For example, it’s normal for a brand with 50,000 subscribers to have a lower opening rate than a smaller brand with 1,000 subscribers.

In industries where companies are aggressive with their marketing, lower open rates are expected too.

The frequency of emailing matters a lot here.

If you email customers daily, lower open rates shouldn’t be a big deal. But a business that sends a bi-weekly newsletter should expect to have higher open rates.

After the open rate, the other important factor is the Clickthrough Rate (CTR).

To get your CTR:

1. Take the number of people that clicked

2. Divide that by the number of emails delivered

3. Multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage

For example, If 100 emails were delivered, and ten people clicked to open their email, the CTR is 10%.

A CTR between 1-3% is considered average. If it’s above 3%, that’s really good. If your CTR is under 1%, it means that your audience is not engaged with your emails.

Just like open rates, the CTR varies with the number of subscribers and type of industry.

Another factor for measuring engagement is using email responses.

The idea here is that people who are engaged are more likely to respond to an email. It’s just natural.

But email responses have one issue – they’re hard to track with automated means. Either way, the more responses you get, the more your subscribers are engaged.

If you have a smaller email list, you can even invite responses to boost engagement. This not only helps with engagement but also builds relationships with your subscribers.

So that was engagement 101. Now, let’s find out how you can improve it.

Getting Your Engagement Up

Here’s the thing about increasing engagement – there are many ways of doing it. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Different businesses use different approaches.

In our experience, here’s what works best:

Great Subject Lines

Well-written subject lines are known to boost engagement.

The subject line is the first part of an email people see. So if it’s not effective, no one opens the email.

Great subject lines spark curiosity, create excitement, and are not misleading.

Take as much time coming up with your subject line as you do writing your email. You want to catch people’s attention and get them curious enough to open the email.

Name & Reputation

These are also important. From the very start, make your ‘from name’ clear and identifiable for your audience. Do everything it takes to make your name liked and trusted.

If your subscribers agree that every email you send is packed with value, they will immediately know what to expect when they see this name in their inbox. They’ll commit to opening and reading the email just based on who it’s from.

That’s your goal. To make your ‘from name’ so credible that people open your email just by seeing who it's from.

Give Your Audience Value

We need to remember that in email marketing, the sender is the giver. We don’t send emails to ask for value; we are the ones that give the value.

As we speak, millions of people are being exposed to promotional materials. Companies are asking people to buy stuff left, right, and center.

The noise of marketing promotion is overwhelming to consumers. If you join the crowd, your subscribers will just tune you out. So how do you stand out?

Give people content that they care about.

You can and should have promotions in your emails, but when all you do is sell, people get bored with you and they stop paying attention. And yet, people have needs.

Think about the problems and challenges your audience faces daily. Create topics around these concerns and send them helpful content.

You can do this with content in the email itself or by linking to relevant content, such as blog posts or YouTube videos.

Email Marketing Is a Two-Way Relationship

As you send your content, remember that this is part of a LONG-TERM relationship.

Long-term relationships are the key to engaging your potential and current customers.

Like every relationship, maintain honesty, patience, trust, and communication between your brand and audience.

The stronger the relationship you build, the more people become comfortable with taking action and buying from you.

ICYMI - The Biggest Stories You May Have Missed

Meta Publishes New Guide to Using AI in Marketing for Holiday Campaigns - Meta has released a 16-page guide to help marketers use its AI tools for holiday advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The guide includes statistics, creative automation tips, and strategies to maximize the impact of holiday campaigns…

TikTok Tests New In-Stream Shopping Push in the US - TikTok is testing a new "Shop" tab for some users in the United States, where they can browse and buy products right in the app. This feature has worked well in China, but people in the U.S. have been slow to shop on social media apps like TikTok. The new shopping tab could be risky for TikTok, especially if the products are low-quality or fake, as that would make users lose trust in the platform…

ChatGPT Is Still Bleeding Users - ChatGPT has seen a decrease in active users for the third month in a row, but some experts think the back-to-school season might boost numbers. Factors like increased competition, reduced accuracy, and students being on summer break could have contributed to the decline…

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