Raise your hand if you’re glad it’s Friday! Yep, me too. Before you slip out of the office for the weekend though, take 5 or 10 minutes to review this week’s Five on Friday. This week we’re featuring Facebook and Instagram ad advice from Business2Community, recommendations from The Next Web on keeping your e-commerce site safe from hackers, marketing tips from Salesforce on engaging email subscribers, ways to keep calm in the face of stress from Ladders, and news about Walmart’s latest restructuring.

Add a Little Variety to Your Company’s Facebook Ads

Almost every subscription business has a Facebook presence, including a business page, regular posts and often times, sponsored posts or Facebook and/or Instagram ads. In a recent article, Business2Community said we sometimes get comfortable with the same ad formats. By changing things up and trying new formats though, we will have a better change of engaging our target audience. Here are some recommendations from Business2Community included in ‘The Different Facebook Ad Formats You Need to be Using.’

Facebook and Instagram video ads: Business2Community said video ads are now used almost as often as a single, still image. While mostly larger brands use this ad format, small and medium businesses can use them to get their brand’s story and personality across in 20 to 90 seconds.

Facebook and Instagram carousel ads: Ads with multiple images are referred to as carousel ads, and they include three to slides in a single ad. Each slide has an image or video and can include text and links in each image. Business2Community recommends carousel ads for featuring different products. They suggest using a video in one of the first three images and to make sure the text on each slide is unique.

Facebook canvas ads: Um, what? That’s what we said too. Canvas ads are for mobile users only, and they are intended to offer an interactive experience. Users are asked to ‘click to expand’ the call to action to see more, which might include sound, music, images and videos. These ads are not popular but they are unique and do engage users, which will help with brand recognition.

Instagram story ads: These are similar to Facebook’s canvas ads in that they are mobile-only and are an interactive, full-screen experience. Business2Community says they are most effective for brand awareness.

For more advice from Business2Community on Facebook and Instagram ads, read the original article here.

The Next Web: How to Prevent Your E-commerce Store from Getting Hacked

After Experian’s massive data breach last week, hacking is in the forefront of our minds right now. On a personal level, keeping our data safe is a top priority. For subscription businesses who transact business online, it is critical to ensure your customers’ data is protected. On Tuesday, The Next Web published ‘How to Prevent Your E-commerce Store from Getting Hacked.’ Here are a few tips from that article.

• Website security should be a key consideration when building your e-commerce store, not an afterthought.
• Hire an e-commerce security expert to help you identify and correct trouble spots, so you can be proactive rather than reactive.
• Take action immediately. If you suspect there is a problem or something doesn’t seem quite right, don’t expect the problem to go away. Act on it immediately to ensure that a hacker is not trying to gain unauthorized access to your e-commerce store. The longer you wait, the larger the damage.
• Stay up-to-date on data breaches and cyber security news. The Next Web points out that how hackers operate and how they target e-commerce sites changes over time. You will want to stay on top of the news to follow trends, along with asking your security expert to keep you informed.

For more tips and key questions to ask yourself about your e-commerce site’s security measures, read The Next Web’s complete article here.

Salesforce: 4 Marketing Tips to Keep Your Email Subscribers Engaged 

According to a Microsoft report, the average person’s attention span is a little over eight seconds right now, so it can be difficult to attract and retain a potential customer’s attention. This can make a digital marketer’s job more challenging, but Salesforce has graciously shared these marketing tips to help us engage our subscribers more quickly, before losing them to Twitter, Snapchat or the latest version of Candy Crush:

• Write a quality subject line. According to Salesforce, 33% of email recipients open your email based on the subject matter alone, so if your subject line is mediocre or downright boring, it will never get opened. 
• Personalize your email. Salesforce recommends knowing who your target audience is and then matching the content to that audience. By personalizing your emails in this way, you will see higher click-through rates and conversions. [Bonus tip: Different devices will truncate your subject line at different lengths. Plan accordingly.]
• Have a clear call to action. Include a clear call to action in your email whether it is getting the email recipient to click on a link, watch a video or share the newsletter with a friend.
• Time your email carefully. What is the best time to reach your audience or your industry? That’s the ideal time. For example, Salesforce says that a B2B audience will be most attentive during work hours. Whatever time you choose, be sure you test it until you find out what works best for your audience.

For four more tips, read ‘8 Email Marketing Tips to Combat the 8-Second Attention Span’ on Salesforce here.

5 Ways Top Performers Keep Calm and Carry On 

In an age where political landmines and natural disasters are more the norm than the exception, we all have our share of stress. For some of it is, it is self-imposed pressure to success and provide for our families; for others, it is dealing with personal family issues. Regardless of the source of your stress, you can benefit from these tips that top performers use to keep calm and carry on, offered by Travis Bradberry for Ladders.

1. Expressing gratitude can improve your mood by reducing the stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent, so take time to appreciate what you have for a few minutes each day.
2. Don’t ask ‘what if.’ You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law, right? Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. By spending time on ‘what if,’ you are creating more stress for yourself.
3. Remain positive. Yes, some days staying positive is harder than others, but having a positive attitude can help you to refocus your attention. If you are having a bad day and the stress is overwhelming, take a break to think of something positive – even if it is crazy cat videos to make you smile, because at least you’re not the cat getting attacked by the vacuum cleaner.
4. Recharge your batteries by unplugging. In this 24/7 world, we are constantly assault with a barrage of external stimuli – cell phones, social media, instant messaging, texting. We rarely get a break, but turning it all off can really help you detach and recharge yourself which helps keep stress at bay.
5. Sleep, sleep, sleep. When our bodies don’t get sufficient rest, they don’t have the fuel they need to keep working, particularly in stressful situations. Make time to get a good night’s sleep, and you’ll wake up feeling less stressed and refreshed and ready to take on any challenges that come your way.

For five more calming tips, read Ladders’ ’10 Ways Smart People Stay Calm’ here.

Walmart Restructures Its Retail Operations

Earlier this week Walmart announced it was restructuring its U.S. stores and consolidating six business divisions into four, reports Reuters. The restructuring will include a reduction of regional managers, and the process should be completed by October.

‘Our last field restructure was several years ago and our business has changed over that time,’ the company said in a statement. ‘The structure we are putting in place will help improve communication and execution, streamline decision-making and help us accelerate our pace of change.’

Just a week ago, Walmart reported that it was going to make grocery shopping for consumers easier, as it opened its 1,000^th online grocery pickup location. Walmart launched the free service in 2013. The service allows shoppers to select their groceries online from a selection of more than 40,000 products, and then pick them up at local Walmart stores without having to go in the store. This year alone Walmart added 400 of these stores.

Perhaps the restructuring and new grocery pickup locations will help Walmart compete with Amazon, which is arguably its biggest competitor. The question is will the restructuring be enough to help Walmart steer its ship fast enough to keep up with Jeff Bezos and company. 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with your feedback on this week’s column and with your ideas for future Five on Friday columns. Have a great weekend!