Considering how tight the competition is in the business world, businesses need to find creative ways to establish a deeper, more satisfying relationship with their audience. Creating video content will help you achieve your business goals.
The use of videos in content marketing is on the rise, with over 86% of businesses using them to reach their target audience. Videos encourage social shares and capture a wider audience. It makes it easier for people to consume the content, which is why people love it.
If you are planning to create video content, then we urge you to read this blog post. Here are some tips for creating amazing videos that people will want to watch and share.
Focus on the first few seconds
As the use of technology increases, it seems that people’s attention span is getting shorter. In fact, studies suggest that the average attention span of humans has reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. Now, what does this have to do with your videos?
You see, there is so much information available on the internet, especially on social media. If you can’t capture people’s attention within the first few seconds, they’ll leave and scroll to other content. That’s why it’s important that you captivate them right off the bat.
The first few seconds of your video should get people curious and encourage them to watch the entire video. You can start with strong hooks, thought-provoking thoughts, or inspiring quotes.
Tell a story
We understand that many of you are creating video content to promote your products, services, or your blogs. But if you want your videos to stand out and capture the attention of your target audience, we recommend that you do away with the sales speech. Remember, this video will be shown on online platforms, particularly on social media channels.
Unlike on television, people have the option to watch the video or to continue scrolling through their feed. Make sure that the video is centered on the story, not the sale. Stories can help you build a deeper relationship with your audience and make your brand more relatable. Plus, people are more likely to remember things when it is wrapped around a story.
Provide excellent content
It is important to keep your audience in mind when creating a video. Your video needs to warrant the time of your audience. Focus on topics that are of interest to them. Find out what they care about. Offer tips, information, and advice. You want to educate your audience, but make sure that you do so by providing them with exciting and inspiring videos.
Keep it short
We understand that there are a lot of things you want to tell people about your business, but you wouldn’t want to bore your audience by creating a super long video. Your video should be no longer than 2 minutes. If it’s longer than that, people may not pay attention. The less you say, the more people are going to remember.
When making video content, focus on one subject at a time. If you want to discuss a few things, then we suggest that you create a separate video for each topic.
Always include subtitles
Your videos are likely to reach people from across the globe. And there’s a good chance that some aren’t fluent in English. Subtitles can help non-native English speakers and people with hearing disabilities to easily consume your content.
Also, Google indexes subtitles on videos, so it helps you improve your SEO rankings. So if you want to make it easier for your audience to find your video content, subtitles are the way to go.
Final thoughts
Video content is quickly becoming an essential asset for growing a brand. While there is no secret formula to creating videos that get lots of engagements, there are certain things you need to consider to achieve success. Feel free to use the tips I mentioned above to start producing effective video content.
If you need help creating a more detailed social media campaign strategy that is aimed that driving engagement and brand growth, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us and we’ll help you get started.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Tips-for-Creating-Video-Content-for-Social-Media.png12602240Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2022-01-19 10:20:282022-01-14 15:12:36Tips for Creating Effective Video Content
Today, we will go through Pinterest, and we are going to do an audit on our account. So we have been working with Pinterest for a long time. We use Pinterest for many of our clients, driving traffic back to their website through a very strategic Pin strategy, posting to different boards, Tailwind communities, and different Pinterest groups, and also through promoted Pins. We were coming in to do this anyway to make sure we’re doing as we say to do. It’s one of those, “Do as we say, not as we do.” [chuckle] We want to make sure that what we’re doing with our clients, that we’re doing for ourselves as well. So as you’ll see, we are in our business Pinterest account. And when you come to your Pinterest account, you want to make sure that it is a business account. And you’ll see your home feed here. The reason why you want a business account is because of the analytics and the ads. So with a business account, there are also a few different Pins you can create. The analytics are very important because they will show you how many views you have each month on your Pinterest account. It will also show you what pins are being saved and have the most engagement, and your ads to promote those ads to drive more traffic back to your website.
Business Pinterest Account
We’re going to go to the business hub. And this is kind of the behind-the-scenes; this will tell you just a sneak peek of our analytics, which we’ll get to first. What our public profile looks like. So over here, on the right-hand side, you’ll see your logo. If this is a personal account you’ve been using, there should be an option that says “Switch to Business Account,” and that’s what you want to do. So a couple of things, you can change this header. You can have a specific header there as you have on your Facebook or your YouTube channel with your business name, what you do, your logo, things like that. We have it just set up to show our most recent Pins. So that’s more of a personal preference. This is a good space for that brand-building, we work with many different types of bloggers, so this may be a great area for your branded images with your mission or topics you cover. If you are a mom blog that works with kids ten and younger or just giving your audience a little insight into who you are, that’s a great place to have it.
Your logo or image here, your company name, and this all depends on your brand. Caitlin and I have branded Social Speak Network, so that’s our logo; that’s obviously what all of our social media is. But as a blogger, you may be branding your name, so this may be your name if you don’t have a business name for your blog. So it depends on what brand you’re using; that’s what would go here. And then your description, making sure it’s apparent what it is that you do. And then you’ll see we have only 635 followers, we’re following 129 people, but we have over 43,000 monthly views. That’s good for us. Pinterest is not a social media platform, It’s important to have followers, but you’re not banking on the number of followers you have on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. It comes down to your Pin strategy. That’s the most important piece.
So you’ll see that these are all the Pins that we have created and that we’ve put up on our account, and you’ll be able to see how many times they have been viewed, and these have just been posted this week, so there’s not a whole whole lot of views on them yet. You’ll see that the ones that we pinned a few months ago have many more views. So what I want to do is look at what the Saved button is, which will change our profile to show the boards that we have. Now, when you think you can click on All Pins, we’ve had 63,000 Pins. And there is a mixture here of what we want to do. We talk a lot about healthcare digital marketing tips. We have social media marketing for small businesses. We have SEO and blogging tips, social media management for bloggers, finding your target market, Instagram marketing tips, Facebook marketing tips.
Setting Up Pinterest Boards
Some of these boards like this one that only has 18 Pins, we have it pinned there for a while, so we can either move those Pins to another board or let that board go if we’re not utilizing it. With our SEO, you can see that we have 663 Pins there and 500 Pins in our healthcare digital marketing. So focus on the boards you’re going to be utilizing the most, and what’s important with those is that you have an SEO-friendly title, so search engine optimization. Remember, Pinterest is that search engine, so what is your audience looking for? Are they looking for how to find your target market? This is great because that is what this board says. And if you click onto the board again, we haven’t used that board a lot because we only had 16 Pins. Then the description. To describe what that board is about and what types of Pins people will be seeing on that board. And again, you want to utilize those keywords here as well.
You can add notes; if you post to a different group of Pinterest boards, they’ll have notes of those rules. That’s a great either way to utilize that Notes section. Doing your Pinterest audit, going through each of your boards, and ensuring that you have a keyword-friendly title, a description, if you click this Edit button, the pencil, this is… So here, I don’t have a description for email marketing, so email, maybe it should be, “Is email marketing dead? No. It is very much alive and works great. In this board, we will show you how to grow your email list and utilize email marketing for your business.” So email marketing tips, you can add a board cover. It’s going to pull up the Pins from that board, and you can pick which one you want, okay? Let’s see; we’ll do this one. Click done. And then if you don’t like that board cover, you can go back, click Edit, and then maybe find this one, and then that looks perfect.
You’ll have the name, the description, and then click Done, okay? So go through each of your boards and make sure that you are utilizing the space correctly. Here in our content marketing strategy, we have over 1700 Pins. But here on How to Build an authentic business brand, we only have 10 Pins. These tips can go into maybe our business tips, and we can get rid of that board. You can also have secret boards. We love using Pinterest to get ideas on what other people are pinning. So you can create a board here at the plus sign and click Board, and then this can just be Pinterest image ideas. Keep this board secret. So what this means is as you’re scrolling through Pinterest, you can save images to this board, but they will not show up on your profile, this is just for you to see as an admin, and then you can pull that board up and look at, “Oh, okay, this is what I liked about that image,” and… As you need. So, “Oh yes. Oh, I love how they did that. That’s perfect, I like that image. Oh, this is cute.”
Pinterest Images
Because you’re going to see, there are different styles to Pinterest images and different lengths, and the longer lengths work better. Here’s an infographic. This image here is slightly longer than this one, but it’s a little hard for me to read and seems a little cluttered. I may be more apt to click on this one because it’s cleaner. So look at what types of Pins you like, what images you like, and then save them to that private board so then you can get ideas when it comes time to create content, okay? So now you have these four Pins here in my super-secret board, and we are all set. So after you do the audit on your boards, you want to come over to your analytics. And I always just click on the overview. And now, with Pinterest, you also want to try different; Types of content. Images are number one. Try the square images. If you use Tailwind, you can link your Instagram to your Tailwind, and you can pin the exact images you’re putting onto Instagram on Pinterest. So that makes it easy to monitor those square images. Are they getting clicks?
If you pin them, you’ll need to change the link because they’re going to link back to your Instagram account automatically. If that’s where you want them to go, great, otherwise change the link back to your blog. As I said, the long images. And if you’re using Canva, Canva has a great tool to create Pinterest images at different sizes. So you can try different sizes, as I said but also get creative with your Pinterest templates of adding video into these templates. So that will help increase those user views because you can add your video to this image, customize the colors, add a different change of the content, and then be able to put that onto Pinterest. You would also just have animated images like this that say, “10 Great Places To Travel With Kids.” It stops the scroll on Pinterest. So as you use different types of content, you’ll want to monitor it in your analytics. Looking at your Pin’s impressions, you can look at engagements. And this is just going to be the last 30 days.
And then, and you can see okay, so on Wednesday, I had 85 engagements on our Pinterest account. That’s awesome. What about Pin clicks? We want to make sure we’re driving that website traffic to the right places. So we had 60 clicks on Monday, the 27th. Obviously, on Christmas, we still had 30 clicks, which it’s Christmas Day, and people are still on Pinterest, so Pinterest never sleeps. It keeps going and going. This is a great platform for you to be able to look at to say, “When is my audience on Pinterest, what days of the weeks?” And so that’s where you’re gonna wanna monitor your engagement, what are my top boards? Business tips and social media management for bloggers, we’ve had 5700 impressions, 56 outbound/inbound clicks, and this is no promotion, this is just organic, 31 saves, 111 pin clicks. So this is interesting to be able to see the difference between the boards, what’s working more, and what’s not. And then also here are…
Repinning Pins on Pinterest
Some of these are our original content, and many of them are curated content, meaning Repins from trusted sources, like pin, from CoSchedule, Social Media Today, Hootsuite, Buffer, etc. We look at Social Media Examiner Neil Patel, the people in our industry that we get our information from, and we’ll repin their boards, or their pins to our boards. And then many of them are, obviously, with our logo on it, this is our own. So it’s cool to see, okay, so this one here had 2500 views or impressions, but I can create an image similar to this with our branding and see if it gets even more views. So Pinterest gives you all of the data you need to be successful on Pinterest. Here we have 740, so 6.2% engagement on this pin, 2.2% engagement on that pin. So it’s good to know what people are clicking on, what images they’re finding attractive, to draw them to that, and so that’s really where we want to then focus on, okay, what about this post drew people to it, where it makes them wanna click, and keep going, because this pin was created August 27th, and this is the stats for December to this month, so it’s really cool to look at where… What’s working, and what’s not working.
Then the other part is, if you go back to your profile, you can promote some of the pins or as many pins as you want that you have put up, and this is where it helps drive that traffic to your website even more. So here’s why Pinterest is good at driving blog traffic, I clicked promote, and it’s going to bring me here: what is the destination URL you want, what is the daily budget, and how many days?
I think 84% of Pinterest is done mobile-y, so it’s important to see what it would look like computer view, but that mobile. So that’s what it would look like a computer, this is what it would look like mobile. Most people use Pinterest on their phones. So take time, go through your Pinterest account. If you need help figuring out what board names you should have, how you should be creating those pins, what that strategy looks like, let us know, we do have Pinterest management packages, and we are helping our clients with that creative process, but also more the time management process. If you’re using the right tools you can pin from anywhere from 25 times per week up to 200 times per week, if you’re utilizing the right tools, so… And that’s a mixture of organic content, pulling from your blog post, from your social media post, and then that’s also that repining, pulling from people that you know, and trust, that are like-hearted, and like-minded to your business, and being able to pin their pins to your boards as well.
If you need help, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com today, schedule a free 30-minute consultation, let’s get you pinning correctly today. Thank you so much, have a great day.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Pinterest-Audit.png7201280Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2022-01-12 16:16:082022-01-12 16:16:08How do a Pinterest Audit
Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms today, with over 1 billion monthly users worldwide.
With so many users on the platform and the ocean of posts being published every second, odds are you’re getting fewer and fewer comments and engagements on your posts. Worse, some of your posts may not be reaching your desired audience.
But with the right strategies, you can level up your Instagram comments rate and watch your notifications go wild.
If you’re not getting enough comments on your Instagram posts, keep reading. In this blog post, we listed down some tips to help you get more comments on your posts.
Create Quality Content
Instagram centers on photographs and captions. Many businesses embrace Instagram because it allows them to feature their products and services. To get the most out of your posts, you want to feature your products in the best possible light. If you own a restaurant, we recommend posting pictures of your signature item menus.
Instagram users respond to beautiful, captivating photos. If you feature delectable dishes, not only will it will garner more likes and comments, they can also drive customers to your restaurant.
Make Use of the “Videos” Properly
Instagram started out as a photo-sharing app, but eventually, they realized the power of video content. Now, Instagram offers a full suite of video options — from a standalone 60-second video to reels, live, and IGTV. The most successful brands on Instagram are the ones who capture videos, so be sure to explore each of these video formats.
If you’re running a bakeshop, you can post a video of you preparing some bread or pastries. Show them how your products are made. Consumers like it when they get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look. If you’re a plastic surgeon, you can record a video and share educational content to potential patients who might be interested in undergoing certain procedures. This will likely attract more comments.
Ask a question
Social media involves 2-way communication. While it’s a great place to promote your products, services, and upcoming events, you can also use it to get the opinion of your target audience. To earn more comments and prompt responses, ask your followers a question. You can seek their advice or simply ask them if they agree or disagree on a certain topic. Asking questions on your captions makes your audience think of a response.
Hold a contest
A fun and easy way to get more Instagram comments are to hold a contest. If you take a look at the social media accounts of different businesses, you will notice that the most liked and commented posts are all contests and giveaways. Come on, who doesn’t love giveaways?
Before you get too exciting planning your giveaway, be sure to set a goal. You can create the coolest contest in the world, but if you don’t know what you’re looking to achieve, then it won’t do you any good. Also, be sure to give away something that would be of value to your target audience. People are more likely to put some effort into your content if you have an amazing prize.
If you’re running an Instagram giveaway, this blog post might help give you some direction.
Final thoughts
Posting regularly on Instagram isn’t enough to get more comments and engagements. You’ll need to put more effort into creating comment-worthy posts.
Engagement is a great indicator of how well your posts perform. The more likes and comments your posts have, the more Instagram likes you. As a result, more people will see your posts.
If you need help creating engaging posts that will capture the attention of your target audience, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute call with us, and we’ll help you jump higher in the feed and get the attention you deserve.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Clever-Ways-to-Get-More-Comments-on-Instagram.png12602240Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2021-12-22 10:11:182021-12-29 15:08:05Clever Ways to Get More Comments on Instagram
As the holiday season sneak up and the end of the year approaches once again, most business owners are thinking of ways to connect with their audience while looking for one last push to finish the year strong.
Every business owner I know has more on their plate than usual at this time of the year. They’re focused on mapping out their holiday social media strategy and pushing out online deals that would capture their audience’s attention. After all, consumers are already at their computers, with their credit cards on standby. You don’t want to get left behind.
Use these tips to get ahead of the marketing game and stand out from the competition.
Create holiday-themed content
Did you know that 64% of consumers turn to social media platforms when looking for gift ideas for their friends and loved ones? If you haven’t already, take this opportunity to share deals and special offers on your social media pages.
Of course, you shouldn’t just focus on deals. You want to offer valuable content to your fans and followers.
Take time to fill your social media calendar with holiday-themed content. Depending on what niche you’re in, you can create some gift guides, share holiday recipes, or even share some safety tips.
Host a holiday giveaway
With the competition getting tougher every year, businesses are looking for a way to stand out. Now, the only thing that’s better than a good deal is something you can get for free. Hosting a holiday giveaway gives your audience a chance to get a free give for themselves or their loved ones.
The key to a successful giveaway is high demand. That said, you need to provide a compelling incentive — something your audience wants. For best results, you can involve your audience in the planning process. Conduct a survey and ask them what they’d like you to giveaway.
But before you start planning what to give away and what the guidelines are, it is important to determine your goal. Are you looking for ways to grow your email list? Or are you hoping to get your followers involved with your brand?
Get your ads ready to go
The holiday season is a busy time for business owners. People are already in buying mode as they’re looking for the perfect gift for their loved ones. If you want to generate more sales, you’d like to get your products in front of your audience. And running ads is one of the best ways to do so.
But here’s the thing… Ad costs usually go up this time of year since there is more competition. That means you’d have to pay a bit more than you would on a regular day.
To make the most of your ad budget, we suggest that you focus on warm audiences- those already familiar with your brand. Customers with pre-existing brand affinity are easier to convert than new, unproven audiences.
Create genuine holiday messages
2021 is nearing its end. This is the perfect opportunity for you to connect with your clients and customers in an authentic, non-salesy way. Not only will it help you build a relationship with them, but it’s also a good way to cut through the noise.
Remember that most users receive dozens of “Happy Holidays” emails from brands during the holiday season, so make sure yours stand out. So if you decide to send holiday greetings via email, we suggest that you create a powerful, personal message that honestly speaks to your audience.
A video message would be a great option if you want to increase your engagement while showing your customers how much you appreciate their support. Why? Because studies suggest that 72% of consumers prefer watching videos from businesses over other types of marketing.
Practice the art of storytelling
It’s the season of joy, giving, and gratefulness once again. Use this time to share a heartwarming story with your fans and followers and practice the art of storytelling.
With more vying for the attention of online shoppers, it becomes even more challenging to cut through the noise. A nice, touching story will capture your audience’s attention and get the readers into the holiday spirit.
There are a lot of ways to tell a story. You can write a blog, conduct an interview, or create a short video. The key is to focus on brand cohesion and a story that your audience can resonate with.
Final thoughts
The holidays is a time of joy and togetherness for many of us. But for businesses, both big and small, it’s also the biggest period for online sales. All of a sudden, you’re met with a flurry of holiday advertisements and tempting shopping deals.
If you need help capturing the festive season in your social media posts and looking to separate your brand from the competition, we encourage you to book a free 30-minute call with us. We’ll help you build your social strategy and prepare for a more profitable 2022.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Social-Media-Tips-For-The-Holiday-Season.png12602240Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2021-12-15 10:37:372021-12-14 19:05:02Social Media Tips for the Holiday Season
Can you believe we are already in the last month of 2021? It has flown by, and that brings me to my point of this video today. When to hire a digital marketing agency?
When is it time to bring in a company to help with your online marketing? This can be anything from social media to blogging, videos, your overall strategy, website help, landing pages, lead magnets, all of these components equal a big piece of your marketing, and with online marketing, there’s no way around it. You have to be online.
2020 really showed us that as business owners, there are a lot of people that had been in business for years selling some type of a product at events, and they had a very strong following. Once that went away due to the pandemic and shutdowns, they didn’t have the online component to help support them. Another example is if they were a coach, and just had the in-person meetings, and they didn’t have the systems in place to bring their patients online while being HIPAA compliant and being able to set up those different pieces that they needed to maintain their business.
Now coming to the end of 2021, we’ve learned a lot over the past almost two years. What do we need to do? As a business owner, if you don’t have employees, you most likely have independent contractors, maybe you have a bookkeeper, a graphic designer, a virtual assistant, and all of those people play a crucial role and being able to help you move forward every day, every month, and every year. When it’s time to hire a digital marketing agency, and a lot of times people think it’s just too much, I’m never gonna be able to afford that, and there are different companies with different structures, Social Speak has been in business for 14 years, and we work hand-in-hand with our clients of all different sizes, from just solopreneur up to 52, 125 employees and more.
Looking at what projects do you need help with? Having a virtual assistant is absolutely probably one of the best things you’ll be able to invest your money in because they help with those daily tasks, they’re able to make sure that you are staying accountable and that you’re getting things done that need to be done. Whether that is sending out emails, scheduling meetings, maybe even putting together social media posts, if that’s something that they’re comfortable with. When we come into play is when you need help with that overall strategy. If you are a commerce shop and now you’ve started a Shopify store online and your sales are good and you’re growing, but you need help kind of getting to that next level, what does that look like?
Here are some questions you may be asking yourself:
What does that strategy look like?
How do you implement a successful Facebook campaign for ads?
Do boosted Facebook posts work?
Do you get more out of Pinterest?
How can Pinterest drive traffic to your website?
How do you create those images?
These pieces may be outside the skill set of your VA, which is completely fine. That’s where we come in to help bridge that gap. To be able to get you from point A to point B. We like to work in phases, phase one, this is what we want to do, phase two, phase three, etc. We will be working through things together and you’re able to have that support that you need on a technical side. The behind the scenes stuff can get messy and confusing like the Shopify sites, shipping, e-commerce shops on Facebook and Google, running the right ads, creating the right drip campaigns, and even remarketing ads. How are you able to get those ads in front of more people? How are you able to do a remarketing campaign and make sure that the people that have shown interest in that ad are seeing it again? So they finally say, “Fine, I’ll buy… I’ll buy that item.” We all have seen those ads when we click on something on Amazon and then we see them on Facebook, those are remarketing ads, so how do you create campaigns like that to stay in front of your audience? Are you using the correct system for your email marketing? Are you sending out newsletters? Are you growing your email list? Those are all other pieces that where a digital marketing agency’s expertise comes in and can help you streamline your process and your systems and make sure that everything is in line and working the way that you want it to be working.
Whether you are a solopreneur, a coach, or maybe even have a small business, and you’re thinking of, “How can I… BLANK – create a free download, grow my email list, etc. This is where a digital marketing agency comes in to help you navigate this online world and be able to show the best results possible, because that is key, if you have the right processes and systems in place, your success is only gonna continue to grow and you got into the business because you hopefully love what you do.
Maybe you’re creating these products, you’re hand-making them, or you are importing them, but they are… They mean something to you, you have a mission, you have core values that you wanna share to with the world, and this is what you wanna do, but you lack knowledge on that behind the scenes technical side of things, because in online marketing, there’s something new every day, and things are changing constantly, so if you’re not staying up on top of what those changes are and how to rethink this and make sure that people that are buying your products are then into being synced automatically into an email list and that you know where they came from and you’re using the correct coupon codes, and we can go on and on, but it’s important to understand that you have options and there are resources there for you, like Social Speak Network to be able to help you get from this point to this point, and help grow your business.
If you are looking to grow your business in 2022 and being able to look at that strategy, that overall strategy, what are the things that you need to change, what are the things you need to rethink, what are new things you wanna implement. We are here to help you. Please head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com, schedule a free 30-minute consultation. Let’s go over what you have been doing, what’s been working, and some ideas of what you would like to see and how we may be able to help fulfill that strategy and digital marketing agency role for your business to take it to the next level.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/When-is-it-time-to-hire-a-digital-marketing-agency.png7201280Amber Irwinhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngAmber Irwin2021-12-08 06:00:442021-12-07 22:49:12When is it time to hire a digital marketing agency?
Holidays are undoubtedly the best time of the year to rake in the best profits. It’s that one season when consumers not only shop for themselves but for everyone else who matters to them.
People who usually don’t visit your site may suddenly be on the lookout for a gift for themselves or their family and friends. Either way, they are consumers. The only possible problem is that every brand is vying for their attention.
So how can you ensure that your e-commerce store stands out? Use these tips to boost your sales this holiday season.
Offer bundles
Every business owner shares a common goal: to generate more sales. Product bundling is a win-win for both sellers and buyers. You get to sell more products. Buyers, on the other hand, get a discount for buying multiple products. Plus, they get to save money on shipping.
This was a marketing strategy that Nintendo used years ago. They bundled their gaming consoles and video games, and the sales went up by 100,000.
The key is to find the right mix of your products for your bundled package. If you’re selling cosmetics, you can create a bundle that includes lipstick and a lip liner. They’re complementary products and would make sense for consumers to buy them as a bundle.
Highlight bestsellers
For most e-commerce stores, their best-selling items make up 80% of their sales. These are proven products your customers love. If you’re targeting a cold audience, you want to be sure you’re putting your best foot forward.
Showcasing your bestsellers and recommendations on your platform will make it easily accessible for your shoppers. It can hasten their decision-making process. You’ll be doing them a favor by guiding them on what’s best in-store.
Create gift guides
People turn to Google for gift ideas for their loved ones. By creating gift guides, you’re not just doing your audience a favor; you’re also attracting more customers and improving your search engine rankings.
Of course, you’d want to include your products on the list. Be sure to highlight the features and benefits of each product to show people why it would make a great gift.
The more specific the gift guide, the more likely will it capture people’s attention. Consider the demographic of your audience when writing gift guides. Think about their age, gender, hobbies, interests, etc.
Maximize email marketing
With an average of 24% Click Through Rate and a 6% Conversion Rate, email remains to be the most cost-effective way to speak to your buyers at a personal level. This is where you build relationships with them way before the holidays.
To make the most out of the holiday season, you need to plan ahead. Send out teasers to build excitement for your upcoming sales. So when the day comes, your subscribers will be ready to click the “buy now” button.
Make sure that you personalize your email campaigns. There’s a good chance your competitors are also sending out emails. The last thing you want is for your emails to be lost in an inbox full of similar offers.
Redesign with a festive theme
Want to capture the attention of your potential buyers? Ensure that your E-commerce site, particularly your landing page, is in line with the festive theme of the season.
Choose a theme that resonates with the mood and the spirit of your target market. Changing colors, adding graphics, adding a dedicated category for the holidays would call better attention to your online store.
Make mobile shopping easy
It’s no surprise that the global population is attached to their mobile phones. Make sure that your mobile site is easy to navigate and that checkout is a breeze.
The more user-friendly your mobile site is, the more likely shoppers would do business with you. Support thematic searches (i.e., gifts for men, gifts for her) and give leeway for misspelling for an easier search. According to research, 25% of shoppers leave their cart because navigation and checkout are too complicated. Be mindful not to do that.
Offer limited-time discounts
To encourage buyers to complete their shopping, highlight any discounts on their existing items in the cart. A scarce offer for a limited time frame may also induce a sense of urgency to complete the process. Remember that competition is tough out there. The better your offer is compared to others, the more likely that consumers will stick with you.
Automate as much as you can
Incorrect orders and delivery delays are two of the many things that can completely turn away a customer for good. With the influx of orders during the holidays, automate as much as possible to reduce errors and mistakes.
Final thoughts
The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for both retail and e-commerce business owners. But let’s face it. Increasing sales isn’t something you can achieve overnight. It requires careful planning and a robust marketing strategy.
If you need help with your holiday marketing campaign, please feel free to reach out to us. Schedule a free 30-minute call with us, and we’ll help you create a marketing strategy that will boost your conversion rates not just on the festive days but the whole year-round.
Social media has tremendous power, especially for businesses. It allows you to build a relationship with your audience and generate leads. While it provides an easy and convenient way to connect with your audience, this connectivity carries risks.
In order to ensure that your business creates a respectful, valuable, and welcomed presence on social media, it is important to adhere to the etiquette. Keep in mind that social media is a public forum. One small mistake can have a negative effect on your brand’s reputation. A careless Facebook post or tweet can spiral into a full-blown crisis.
Here is some basic social media etiquette for businesses to help you get started.
Build a positive social media image
Social media provides the perfect platform for you to get maximum exposure and strengthen your brand image.
Building a positive social media image means building a reputation. The best way to do this is to build a relationship with your audience. Create content that would get people talking. Make sure to respond to messages and comments to keep the conversation going.
Spread positivity by sharing uplifting content and inspirational news. Celebrate your wins and spotlight your employees on social media. This puts your company or organization in a good light by showing your audience that you care about your people.
Avoid over-sharing
Consistency is the key to social media success. You need to have a posting schedule and stick to it. Your audience will forget that you exist if you don’t post regularly. However, posting too often can annoy your fans and followers.
According to studies, one or two posts a day is enough to maintain an active presence on social media. This will help keep you relevant without becoming a nuisance. You are likely to see a 50% drop in engagement per post if you post 3 times or more per day.
Be self-centered in small doses
Most businesses use social media to provide their audience with updates about their business. Often, they use it to advertise their products and services. Although it’s fine to use social to promote your business, make sure that you encourage two-way communication. Don’t just bombard people with promotions, updates, and advertisements, communicate with them.
Use social media to engage your audience. If you want people to buy your products or use your services, you need to gain their trust. To do that, you first need to build a relationship with them. Strike a balance between entertaining, informative, and promotional to keep your audience engaged. Also, encourage people to comment on your posts and join in on the discussion. Ask questions, respond to their comments, share user-generated content.
Creating a social media calendar will not only help you plan and visualize your social media content but will also prevent you from publishing poorly written content.
Tame your hashtags
Hashtags can be quite beneficial to your social media marketing plan. They can help put your content in front of people and expand your reach. They can be advantageous as long as you don’t go overboard. But if you use too much of them, they can be distracting. It can also make you look desperate.
Just because you can use 30 hashtags on Instagram, it doesn’t mean you should Use hashtags wisely. To make sure that you get more engagement, choose hashtags that are relevant to your business. For best results, create a unique hashtag for your business.
Don’t badmouth your competition
Some businesses badmouth their competitors in the hopes of discrediting them. However, this can do more harm than good to your business. You probably already hate your competitors, but bashing them makes you look silly and childish.
Focus on the great things about your business and keep the conversations positive. As the old adage goes, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”
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In today’s social media era, engagement is like a form of currency. The more likes, comments, and shares you get, the better your online visibility is.
Instagram engagement isn’t just about the number of followers. It’s more about how your audience interacts with your brand. The good news is that boosting your engagement isn’t rocket science.
Wondering how to improve your Instagram engagement? These six tips are all you need.
Have a visually consistent Instagram feed
A visually consistent gallery is a great way to make an impression and earn yourself a follow. When creating social media posts, don’t forget to spare a thought for building your overall visual brand.
You might want to start by deciding on a color palette or selecting 2-3 filters you can maintain throughout all your posts. For instance, you can create a visual feed that features some light colors. Or you can go all black and white.
Of course, you want your Instagram feed to look appealing to your audience. But you also want to make sure that it’s in tune with your brand.
Write engaging captions
While high-quality images are necessary, they aren’t enough to capture the attention of your audience. You should also include interesting and engaging captions.
There is no such thing as a perfect caption. But people are more likely to like and comment if they find your posts helpful or if they can relate to them.
You want to create captions that evoke emotions, highlight the value of your products and services, or something people will find valuable. You can share a story your audience can relate to, provide actionable tips, or share something informative.
Embrace Instagram stories
More than Instagram posts, Instagram stories pique immediate interest and engagement for most users. They sit at the top of the screen. They’re displayed with a colored ring and only take a few seconds to watch.
A simple yet clever way to increase your story’s engagement is to use stickers. They’re fun and will make your stories more interactive. You can use the poll stickers to encourage your audience to provide feedback or get in on their preferences. Question stickers are a great way to connect with your audience or answer questions about your products or services.
Add geolocation to your posts.
Most businesses encourage their customers and clients to check in on their location. However, many fail to realize the benefits of adding geolocation to their posts.
Make geotagging a key part of your social media strategy if you have a physical location. Adding a place to your posts can expand the reach of your posts and make it easier for users to find you. Instagram users will be able to see where your business is located on a map and how far it is from their location. They can even see recent posts from this location.
Activate Instagram Reels
Are you already using Instagram reels? If you haven’t already, now is the best time to get started.
Instagram reels are short-form videos that allow you to express your creativity and bring your brand to life. It will enable you to play with creative tools and add effects and music to make your videos pop. It is an excellent way to share sneak peeks of your products and services or show what goes on behind the scenes.
Time your posts for maximum effect
Instagram’s algorithm loves posts that generate more engagements in a short period. In fact, the more engagement your posts get, the more likely will it appear in users’ feeds.
You can limit your engagement when you post at the wrong time. This is why it’s essential to discover your best time to post. This can help you reach more people, increase your engagement, and grow your brand.
Every Instagram account has different followers with different time zones. Spend time tracking and monitoring your Instagram analytics to find out when your audience is most active.
Final thoughts
Amplifying your Instagram engagement is no longer just about posting high-quality photos. It’s also important to get to know your audience, interact with them regularly, and double down on creating content that will keep them coming back for more.
If you need help developing a concrete strategy to increase your Instagram engagement, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation call, and we’ll help you build your brand and cultivate an audience online.
In the last decade, social media became the most influential marketing tool. Every business, big and small, has incorporated social media into its marketing campaign.
While the practice of social media marketing has evolved over the years, there are still a lot of myths and misconceptions around it. Worse, a lot of people are still holding on to them simply because they find it hard to stay up-to-date on what’s really going on with social media.
To help you separate facts from fiction, we listed down some of the most common social media myths you need to leave behind in 2021. Believing these myths will only cripple your marketing campaign.
Social media is only for young people
Some people think that social media is just for millennials and the younger generation. That’s not really an accurate picture of social media users today. In fact, studies suggest that a huge majority of the U.S. adult population is on Facebook. 52% of adults aged 55-64 have a social media account.
Almost everybody is on social media. Having a business account will help you reach your target audience. If you don’t already have one for your business, then you’re losing a lot of great opportunities.
Set up an account in every social media channel to maximize reach
We all know that social media makes it easier for businesses to connect with their audience. But that doesn’t mean that you should set up and maintain an account on every platform. If you do, you’ll only be wasting your time.
In order to yield great results, you need to know which platform your audience frequently uses and then focus your marketing efforts there. Maintaining a presence across different platforms can help your business, but if it isn’t helping you out, just cut it loose.
You need a lot of followers to succeed
Most people think that more is always better. Sure, having millions of followers is great. It means that people are familiar with your brand. But more than the number of followers, what’s more important is the type of followers you have.
Let’s say you have 100,000 followers. Sure, that’s a great thing. But it won’t benefit your business if the majority of these people are not reading or responding to your posts. What you need to focus on is interaction. It doesn’t matter if you only have 1,500 followers, just as long as these people are actually interested in what you’re selling. Having lots of likes is only valuable if you have the right people following you.
It’s okay to use the same posts on all social media platforms
Most businesses publish the same content on all their social media platforms to save time. That’s understandable. However, you also need to understand that different platforms cater to different types of audiences.
LinkedIn, for instance, is a professional platform. The majority of LinkedIn users are business owners, executives, and professionals. That said, your posts should be tailored to appeal to this group.
Instagram, on the other hand, caters to younger audiences. Since it’s a visual platform, you need high-quality images and a strong brand message to succeed on this platform.
Ignoring and deleting negative comments is the best way to get rid of them
Social media is an open platform where your target audience can give you direct feedback after using your products and services. Whether you like it or not, you’ll receive some negative feedback at some point.
It might be tempting to just delete the negative comment, but this will only make the situation worse. Instead, contact the person directly and deal with the problem. It will show your audience that you care about them.
Talking about your business all the time
Social media is a great place to connect with your target audience. But that doesn’t mean you should bombard them with posts about your business.
Social media’s main purpose is to engage with your followers. Talking about your business all the time won’t do you any good. Post content that your audience will find valuable and interesting to capture the attention of your audience.
Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when creating social media posts. That means 80% of your posts should informative and entertaining, while only 20% should be about the products or service you’re offering.
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Increasing sales is undeniably the primary goal of many businesses, small and large. But the biggest challenge business owners face is how to increase traffic to their e-commerce store. Once you’ve accomplished that, your goal is to turn those visitors into paying customers.
Here are 4 simple things you can do to boost your online sales.
Post fresh content
Just because you have a website, doesn’t mean that you can relax and just wait for potential clients to visit your site. You also need to post fresh content to encourage visitors to return to your site. Having well-written content and product descriptions are important. The more they return, the more likely are they to buy your products and services.
Be honest in your sales copy
Honesty is crucial, not only in building trust in your brand; but also in improving your business’ reputation. Your goal is to show people that you are the best person to provide the products that will help solve their problems. But in order to do that, you need to add credibility to your copy. Be honest in your sales copy and include customer testimonials in your sales letter. It is through this process that people will come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. The golden rule – Know, Like, Trust.
Go social
Social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, sales, and customer satisfaction. Actively engage with prospective customers via social media. Talk to them. Answer their questions as quickly and as honestly as you can. Studies show that customers are more likely to purchase products if they receive fast and honest answers from the company.
Don’t forget about your customers once you get them to purchase your products. Send them an email, offer discounts or free shipping on their next purchase. The more attention you pay to them after they have bought something, the more likely are they to turn into repeat customers. Think relationships, not sales.
Offer fewer products
Most businesses create an extensive list of products and services, thinking they’ll get more sales if they have a little something for everyone. But the problem is that prospects will have a hard time deciding whether to buy or not when you have an exhaustive product list. Instead of trying to please everyone, you might want to streamline your products and offer one set of related products. Then, describe those products as best you can.
Also, buyers need to see the benefits of purchasing your products. Try to answer all doubts and questions your visitors may have about your products and really focus on one key set of benefits.
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