Month: December 2020

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How To Guides Tips & Tricks Uncategorized

10 Instagram Hacks You Should Know About Going Into 2021

With more than a billion users, Instagram has grown into a social media platform that marketers can’t ignore. Instagram marketing offers some of the best opportunities for building your brand, raising awareness and it is one of the best platforms for engaging with your customers.

You probably already know about Influencer marketing and affiliate campaigns. Part of what makes Instagram so valuable for marketing is that it has a range of features that work well for reaching different goals. In this post, we would like to take a closer look at the ten most important features for Instagram marketing.

1. Instagram Hashtags

Using Instagram hashtags will be vital to the success of your marketing efforts on the platform. When you include hashtags with your posts, it means the post will be added to the page for the hashtag. Additionally, it will make your content easier to find when people search for related content on Instagram. This makes hashtags useful for expanding your reach and making your content more discoverable.

Instagram allows for up to 30 hashtags per post. With that said, you should try to avoid using too many and you don’t want to add a bunch just to get more on the post. Try to stick with hashtags that are relevant to the post and your brand. Consider hashtags that fit in with your niche or industry. Seasonal hashtags can also work well. You should also consider creating branded hashtags that are unique to your company.

2. Live Video

This feature gives you the ability to broadcast live video on Instagram. The value of live video can be considerable if you use it well. One of the best reasons to use live video is that it is one of the best ways to connect with your customers. It is a little more informal and you can treat your viewers like friends. You can also see their reactions in real-time, so it offers a nice opportunity for two-way interaction.

The key to live video is to try to come across as authentic. You should also encourage and respond to comments from viewers. If you are looking for ways to use Instagram live video, you could consider a behind the scenes video or a Q&A. 

3. Instagram Geotag

This feature offers the ability to tag a physical location to an Instagram post. This is another opportunity to expand your reach and engage with customers. You can create new Instagram locations from Facebook and when people click on locations, they can see posts that have the location tagged.

If you have physical business locations, you should create a geotag customers can use. If you encourage customers to post from the location, it can expand your reach to people in their network. You should also try to find opportunities to post from popular locations so you can use the geotags. 

4. Instagram Ads

While the platform does have a lot to offer at no cost, paid Instagram advertising can take your marketing efforts to the next level. The paid advertisements have a lot to offer when it comes to increasing your reach and building brand awareness. Beyond that, they can also help with goals like increasing website traffic and boosting sales.

Since Instagram is a visual platform, you need to focus on creating high-quality images and videos for your ads. You should also be willing to experiment. Try different types of ads and do split testing to compare things like images, text and CTAs.

5. Instagram Stories

This feature allows users to capture images or videos and share them to the story section for 24 hours. After the 24 hours, the posts disappear. This offers nice opportunities to experiment, but they also do well as it concerns user engagement. You can add hashtags, locations and stickers to the story as well.

Use this feature to try new things. You could also create content that offers urgency. Since the content is only up for 24 hours, you could use it to promote a one-day sale. You can also use Instagram stories to run a poll. This can be good for creating engaging content and collecting consumer insights. This is a crucial step for turning followers into customers.

6. Instagram Shopping

With this feature, you can create the shoppable posts. The benefit of shoppable posts is that it makes it possible for users to make purchases without having to leave the app. You just tag items in your posts and when users click on them, it takes them to a product page for the item. The obvious benefit is that it makes it easier for customers to complete a purchase.

This is a useful feature, but you want to use it carefully. Only use it on posts that are very engaging. You also want to make sure the post represents the product well. You don’t want customers to click through and feel like the post was not entirely honest.

7. Instagram TV

IGTV is a function that allows users to post longer videos. Instead of being stuck with the standard short videos, you can post content that runs up to an hour long. Users can find these videos by seeing previews in their feed or by checking the IGTV tab in Explore.

This feature can be good for providing more options for video content on Instagram. You could use it to provide a video tutorial for your products. It can also be good for creating longer videos that allow you to explain the features of a product. To get the most from the feature, you will need to make sure to create the previews for your videos.

8. Image and Video Editing

One of the things that have helped to make this platform so popular is that it makes it easy to edit videos and images. This can be valuable for brands that do not have access to professional photographers. 

Use Luminar Neo for editing your images and an Insta video editor for your videos, this will help you to make your visual content more appealing and compelling. Create posts with multiple images to show different angles or to tell a story. Experiment with different filters and tools to see how they can be used to create better content.

Motionbox is a great choice for editing GIFs and animated text from the many online video editors available. With its simplicity and ease of use, creating more than GIFs is an advantage it offers, thanks to its wide range of editing tools. Motionbox made a sweet GIF collection template for Valentine’s Day such as the ‘Love GIF’ and the ‘I Love You GIF’ templates that will help you express passion and love to someone in an innovative and creative way. Just click to copy the template for free and gain access to it with its easy-to-use-video creation tools. 

9. Creator Studio

Creator accounts offer more options for people and businesses posting to Instagram. You can get access to more post formats and it also offers the ability to see insights concerning stats like engagement and user demographics. Along with that, it also offers the ability to schedule posts. With the Creator Studio, you get tools that will help you create better, more engaging content.

10. Instagram Analytics

This is one of the most important features for brands that are using Instagram for marketing. With the data from Instagram Analytics, you can gather insights that will help you improve your Instagram marketing. You can find out about the types of users that are engaging with your content and the types of actions they take in response. You can also find insights about the effectiveness of your content. This includes stats for things like reach, impressions and clicks. 

The key to analytics is using the data to refine your marketing efforts. Learn about your ideal user and start crafting content that connects with them. Analyze the success of different posts to find the content that offers the best results. As you learn more about your audience and the ways they respond to your content, you should be able to increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Use Luminar Neo for editing your images and an Insta video editor for your videos, this will help you to make your visual content more appealing and compelling. Create posts with multiple images to show different angles or to tell a story. Experiment with different filters and tools to see how they can be used to create better content.

Motionbox is a great choice for editing GIFs and animated text from the many online video editors available. With its simplicity and ease of use, creating more than GIFs is an advantage it offers, thanks to its wide range of editing tools. Motionbox made a sweet GIF collection template for Valentine’s Day such as the ‘Love GIF’ and the ‘I Love You GIF’ templates that will help you express passion and love to someone in an innovative and creative way. Just click to copy the template for free and gain access to it with its easy-to-use-video creation tools. 

9. Creator Studio

Creator accounts offer more options for people and businesses posting to Instagram. You can get access to more post formats and it also offers the ability to see insights concerning stats like engagement and user demographics. Along with that, it also offers the ability to schedule posts. With the Creator Studio, you get tools that will help you create better, more engaging content.

10. Instagram Analytics

This is one of the most important features for brands that are using Instagram for marketing. With the data from Instagram Analytics, you can gather insights that will help you improve your Instagram marketing. You can find out about the types of users that are engaging with your content and the types of actions they take in response. You can also find insights about the effectiveness of your content. This includes stats for things like reach, impressions and clicks. 

The key to analytics is using the data to refine your marketing efforts. Learn about your ideal user and start crafting content that connects with them. Analyze the success of different posts to find the content that offers the best results. As you learn more about your audience and the ways they respond to your content, you should be able to increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.

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How To Guides

4 Best Ways to Advertise on Pinterest

Pinterest has sort of flown under the radar as a valuable channel for social media marketing. With so much focus on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the opportunities on Pinterest are often overlooked. This isn’t to say that effective Facebook advertising isn’t important – it’s just that there are unique possibilities on Pinterest that can help you reach your goals in other ways.

Part of what makes Pinterest advertising so unique is that the style of engagement is different on other platforms. Users come to Pinterest looking for content that can teach them new things, inspire them or introduce them to new products. This allows you to make a much deeper impression with Pinterest marketing.

Whether you are looking to raise brand awareness, drive traffic to your site or increase sales, the following tips can make your Pinterest advertising more effective.

Try Different Ads

A lot of advertisers get caught up in just using one type of ad on Pinterest. For most brands, it is the standard promoted pins. These ads can be effective and they should be a part of your strategy. With that said, you have a lot of options for reaching customers on the Pinterest app or website.

Beyond promoted pins, you should definitely check out the promoted carousels and video ads. Great video ads can be very engaging. They can also stand out since they start playing automatically when they are on the screen. Carousel ads can be good for campaigns that focus on more than one product. With this type of ad, you can use multiple pictures for users to flip through and each picture can have its own link to a landing page.

Install the Pinterest Tag

Installing the Pinterest Tag can offer a lot of value for your ad campaigns. To start, it will help you track data to see which pins and strategies offer the most value. You can then use this data to enhance your Pinterest marketing strategy. 

The Pinterest Tag can also track user interactions to unlock more options for running ad campaigns on the platform. Once you are tracking different events on your website, you can then use the tag to build new audiences based on interactions with your site. This could be something as simple as people who have visited your site to people who have viewed specific pages or bought different products.

Target Customer Lists

Just like with other social media platforms, the success of your campaigns can hinge on the quality of your audience. Targeting audiences based on things like keywords or interests can be effective, but audiences based customer lists can offer a significant value. With this option, you can build audiences based on email lists and phone numbers.

As another powerful option, you can use the option to create Actalike audiences. With this option, you can take an existing audience and Pinterest will create a new audience based on the common interests and behaviors of the source audience. This can be the perfect option for expanding your reach with Pinterest marketing.

Get Ahead of Events

Planning ahead is one of the keys to success with Pinterest advertising. You need to start by taking the time to develop a content marketing strategy. Try to find your topics and develop posts in advance. You also need to consider the timing of posts on Pinterest.

On most platforms, the strategy is all about the moment. You are looking for engagement and interactions that day or within the next few days. With Pinterest, audiences have longer attention spans and they often look to events that are further into the future. If the campaign is tied to an event or time of year, try to get ahead of it by rolling the content out at least a few weeks in advance.

Pinterest marketing can offer a lot of value, but you can’t treat it like other social media platforms. Users engage with this platform in a different way and you need to develop your campaigns to account for this difference. Once you find that balance, Pinterest can be one of the most effective tools in your marketing toolbox.

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How To Guides

Boost Customer Retention With These Ecommerce Tips

You’ve put a lot of time and money into acquiring new customers, but that is only going to take you so far if you are not making a serious effort to retain them. Loyal customers are much more valuable than those that just come for a single purchase. Along with that, by going after lifetime value, you increase the return on investment from the money you spent on customer acquisition.

Even if you have the best products, you can’t rely on customers coming back just to enjoy the same product again. You have to make an effort to reconnect and market to your existing customers. In this post, we are going to cover some of the most effective tips for increasing customer retention for ecommerce businesses.

 

Connect on Social Media

Using ecommerce social media strategies is one of the best ways to connect with new and existing customers. Your ability to post and engage regularly can be a great way to build a relationship with customers. Post about new products and sales. Contribute to conversations that involve your brand or topics that are relevant to your products. 

Beyond just posting, social media platforms offer some of the best paid advertising options for customer retention. You can use customer email addresses or phone numbers to market directly to people who have shopped with you in the past. You can even make a list of customers who have not shopped with you in a while and create a campaign designed to win them back with targeted messaging.

Build Your Email List

Too many ecommerce businesses treat email marketing as an afterthought. Sure, it isn’t new and exciting like some of the other options that are out there, but it offers one of the best ROIs in your marketing toolkit. According to one report, email marketing had an ROI of $42 for every dollar spent in 2019. 

A strong email list can be one of the most valuable resources for your customer retention efforts. One of the simplest ways to build your email list is to have a pop-up with an opt-in form on your website. You should also consider offering a small discount to entice customers to opt in. It doesn’t have to be anything too extravagant and it can be a good way to increase the conversion rate of the opt-in form.

Follow-up When Customers Opt in

Once you have a strategy for collecting emails, you should develop a plan for following up when people opt-in. To start, the act of opting in should be automatically followed with a welcome email. This email just says hello and welcomes the person to the mailing list. If you did make an offer to get people to opt in, you should make sure the welcome email provides the information customers need to collect on the offer.

Beyond the initial welcome email, you can plan a sequence that follows opting in. Maybe a few days or a week later, you can send an email that highlights some of your top products. If the customer has already made a purchase, you could follow up with an email that recommends products based on what they already bought.

Incentivize Referrals

Loyal customers can be your best brand advocates. If your customers truly love your products, they will do some of the work naturally, but you can help the process along by offering incentives for referrals. This not only rewards your loyal customer, but it is also a low-cost strategy for acquiring new customers.

Set up a referral program to get customers to recommend your business to their friends and family. Offer a discount or a voucher for every new customer that makes a qualifying purchase. Another great strategy is to increase referrals by giving existing customers a voucher they can pass on to a friend. Most people will want to be able to pass savings on to their friends, so it can be an effective way to increase referrals.

Start a Loyalty Program

Ecommerce businesses can benefit a lot from starting a loyalty program. Along with being a great way to encourage more purchasing and loyalty, it is also a good way to make your customers feel appreciated.

Most businesses just stick with offering points for every purchase. This is a good strategy, but you can get more from your loyalty program by using it to incentivize things like posting on social media. One simple way to do this is to offer bonus points for posting about a recent purchase or creating an unboxing video.

Enhance the Unboxing Experience

Unboxing a new delivery is an exciting experience for the consumer. An ecommerce business can get more from the unboxing of their products by taking steps to make it special. Something as simple as adding a thank you note can go a long way toward building loyalty. 

If you really want to go the extra yard, you could include pamphlets that give the customer tips about using the product. You could also consider adding small branded gifts with the product. It doesn’t even have to be anything expensive. Something like a keychain or a small pouch for carrying the product will be enough to set your unboxing experience apart.

Add Value With Informative Content

Informative content should be a part of your social media marketing. This content isn’t intended to push for the hard sell. Instead, you create content like how-to videos and explainers to provide your customers with information they will value. 

Creating informative content can work well for customer retention because it will make your social media followers value their connection to your brand even more. When tutorials and explainer videos feature your products, it can also highlight the value of your product and inspire customers to find new ways to use your products.

customer is always right cbc GIF by Kim's Convenience

(Image: https://giphy.com/gifs/kimsconvenience-cbc-kc-kims-convenience-fnKknfAt3kzIkynQNd )