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It’s National Donut Day, Reader! Jam-filled, cake, or sugared… they’re all delicious. You could have one.

In today’s edition:

• Today's Tip of the Day is for lead generation

• How to improve your marketing operations

• LinkedIn announces new offerings for B2B marketers

• X prepares to launch video-only feed

• Additional industry news from Instagram and Reddit

Do you market a service-based business? Looking for an effective way to capture hot leads?

Combine Lead Forms With Video

First, use a lead form to deliver a video sales letter.

Properly scripted, an effective video asset only has to be a few minutes long to make your case. Make sure your video hits these key points:

• Explain why the viewer should listen to you; be clear about the promise your business is making.

• Present case studies, testimonials, and customer quotes to prove you can deliver on that promise. 

• Explain how you deliver on that promise.

• Identify the challenges customers will face if they try to DIY the solution. Discuss potential risks or losses, the tools they’ll need, and the time and labor they’ll invest.

• Finally, offer to solve their problem by doing all of the work for them!

The Magic: Use the video sales letter to drive traffic to a second lead form, this time framed as an application form that asks for more detailed information. If the lead pre-qualifies based on their answers, automate the booking process for a sales call.

Today's tip is inspired by Ravi Abuvala, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

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How to Onboard Your Marketing Team to New Tools

Choosing the right tools can significantly impact your marketing team's productivity and your company's line. The right tools can streamline your workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and give you valuable insights into your agency's performance.

Before you start looking at tools, closely examine your team's workflows. What tasks do you and your team spend the most time on? What information do you need to track and monitor? 

Do you need to track time spent on different product lines, campaigns, and content creation? Do you need a project management tool that allows real-time collaboration?

By getting specific about your needs and making a detailed list, you'll have a much better idea of what features and capabilities to look for in your tools.

Set Up New Tools in Phases

Implementing new tools can be overwhelming, especially if your team is already stretched thin. Setting up your tools in phases will make the process more manageable:

Start with the basics. In the first phase, focus on setting up the tool's core functionality. This might include creating projects, assigning tasks, and setting up your team members. Make sure everyone knows how to find their tasks and understands the basic workflow.

Once your team is comfortable with the basics, add more advanced features like dashboards and reporting. Dashboards give you a high-level view of your projects and teams so you can quickly see what's on track and what needs attention. Setting up reports can help you track important metrics like time spent on tasks, project profitability, and team utilization.

Finally, look for ways to automate repetitive tasks using your tool's workflow or automation features. For example, you might set up an automation that assigns a due date to a task whenever it's assigned to a specific team member. Or you might create a workflow that automatically moves a task to the next stage when particular criteria are met.

By breaking the process down into manageable steps, you can help your team adapt to the new tools without added stress. Be sure to provide plenty of training and support along the way, and be open to feedback from your team about what's working and what's not.

Use-Case Example: Time-Tracking Tools

For example, one of the most important things your tools can do for your team is to help you track time. The data from these tools can give you valuable insights into how your team spends their time, which projects are taking up the most resources, and where the return on your team's efforts should be questioned.

To get the most out of your time-tracking tool, follow these steps:

• Make Sure Everyone is Tracking Time Consistently: Set clear expectations for how and when time should be tracked, and hold team members accountable.
• Use Descriptive Categories and Tags: Make sure your time-tracking categories are granular enough to give you meaningful data. For example, instead of just tracking time under "social media," break it down by specific product and platform.

Once in place, set aside time each week or month to review your time-tracking data. Look for patterns or red flags, such as projects taking longer than expected or team members consistently overbooked.

Then, use your time-tracking data to make informed decisions about budgets, project scoping, and resource allocation. If you notice that certain types of projects consistently yield low returns, consider ceasing them. If certain team members are overloaded while others have capacity, consider redistributing work or hiring additional staff.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Melissa Morris, a featured guest on the Marketing Agency Show.

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Instagram Tests Text Overlays on Carousel Posts: Instagram is currently testing a new feature that allows creators to add text overlays to individual images within Carousel posts. Users who have access to this feature can now include captions directly on the carousel images through the text option in the carousel composer. Source: Social Media Today

Instagram’s New Features for Broadcast Channels: Instagram is introducing new features for creators to personalize their Broadcast Channels. These updates include the ability to go live exclusively with channel members. Creators can now recognize their most loyal fans by giving shoutouts and granting exclusive access. Additionally, Instagram allows creators to customize their channel's theme by uploading an image of their choice. Creators can also choose which emojis their community can use to react within the channel, hiding any that don't align with their community or brand. Lastly, creators can leverage IRL (in real life) events to grow their channel by sharing a QR code that directs fans directly to their Broadcast Channel. Source: Instagram

LinkedIn’s New B2B Offerings: LinkedIn has introduced new offerings for B2B marketers. Currently being tested with a limited number of publishers, the Wire Program allows marketers to promote in-stream video ads alongside trusted publisher content. LinkedIn is also expanding the capabilities of Accelerate, their AI-powered campaign creation tool, by integrating Microsoft Designer for creating and customizing ad creatives, enabling targeting refinements through data exclusions, and providing conversational assistance via an AI marketing assistant. Source: LinkedIn

Reddit’s Partnership With Sprinklr: Reddit has expanded its partnership with Sprinklr, a leading customer experience management platform, to connect enterprise customers with Redditors. The partnership includes the Reddit Data API integration, allowing Sprinklr customers to access and analyze public conversations on Reddit in near real-time, and the Reddit Ads API integration. The expansion also marks the public launch of the Reddit Ads API, now available to developers and advertisers. Source: Reddit

X’s Video-Only Feed: X is preparing to launch a new video feature that will compete directly with TikTok and Instagram Reels, according to sources. The feature will provide users with a stream of short- and long-form videos based on their interests, and it is expected to be available in beta to a select group of users later this summer. Source: New York Post

Did You Know?

In 2015, Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a visually impaired craftsman from Denmark, created Be My Eyes, an app that connects visually impaired individuals with helpful sighted volunteers via video calls.