, , ,

The Top Instagram Marketing Hacks

instagram-marketing-hacks
instagram-marketing-hacks

entrepreneur.com

We all know Instagram is imperative to growing – and maintaining – a business. But some business owners aren’t as savvy when it comes to Instagram marketing. So, we’ve rounded up some of the best marketing hacks to help you grow your business using Instagram!

Hashtags are KEY

Chances are, you’ve seen hashtags on an Instagram post. But how many are you supposed to use? Which ones are the most effective? Hashtags are used in addition to your caption in order for those not already following you to find your page. Users search for relevant, industry-related hashtags and you want to make sure your posts show up.

When choosing and using hashtags, use a mix of both popular hashtags and less popular hashtag, yet extremely relevant hashtags. With this mix, you’ll attract those searching for popular hashtags while also attracting those who are interested in your specific industry.

Try to use at least one hashtag per post. You can even put them in a separate comment if you don’t want to clutter your caption.

Join the Instagram Community

Like any other social network, Instagram is most effective when you use it as a way to form relationships with other users. It’s not just a platform to post snapshots of your own life, it’s a way to form a community with others.

To build lasting relationships, use the appropriate hashtags as well as like and comment on other users photos. It’ll show that you are supportive of other people and put you in front of people who may not have otherwise found your page.

Keep Images & Profile on Brand

A super important Instagram marketing hack is to keep your images on brand. That means ensuring your images are cohesive and closely related to your brand. For example, if your brand is bright and colorful, don’t post dull, lifeless photos. Make sure you keep fonts consistent (or at least in the same font family), too.

Furthermore, optimizing your profile as a whole will ensure you stay on brand. Include a backlink to your website in your bio – it doesn’t have to be static, you can change it if you are running a promotion or campaign.

Use your logo – typically as your profile picture – so users know it’s your brand and include your physical location (or at least city and state), especially if you have a physical location. Use your bio to articulate exactly what your brand is to help users know exactly who you are.

Post Efficiently

While it is ultimately up to you how many times you want to post on Instagram, there is some research behind optimal posting frequency. According to one study, out of 55 brands, most post 1.5 times per day. Interestingly enough, they found that brands who most more than 1.5 times per day didn’t have decreased engagement.

So, don’t be afraid to post more than once or twice a day. Begin with one per day and if that works, try experimenting with two to three and go from there!

Enlist the Help of Apps

While you don’t necessarily need an outside app to be a successful Instagram marketer, it certainly helps. Iconosquare, for example, allows you to access your Instagram account from your computer.

There are also a number of apps that allow you schedule out posts as well as some that help you connect with the right audience and find engaging posts to share.

Use Instagram Ads

If you’re really looking to really rev up your business, consider Instagram ads. Similar to Facebook or Google ads, Instagram ads allows you promote a specific service or product using an advertisement. You can do an Instagram photo ad, video ad, carousel ad, or Instagram stories ad.

You need to have a Facebook page in order to run an Instagram ad but it’s fairly easy! Then, you can choose the type of ad you’d like and set your budget and choose how long you’d like to run it for. Try different types of ads to see which one works best for your business.

Grow Your Following

The best – and most loyal – followers are those that genuinely care about your brand. Sure there are ways to buy followers, but growing your audience organically will have a lasting effect.

One way to organically grow your audience is to post regularly and consistently, use quality photos and content, include relevant captions and hashtags, and engage with your followers!

Use these tips and you’ll be a pro Instagram marketer in no time! And if you’re looking for a little extra help when it comes to content marketing, let Retaliate1st help you! We offer services in social media, performance marketing, content marketing, and search engine optimization to help you take your business to the next level. Learn more about our services here.

/by
, , ,

How To Utilize Micro-Moments & Increase Your Content Campaign

micro-moments-one
micro-moments-one

huffingtonpost.com

Where’s your phone? If you’re like most people, it’s probably already in your hand or sitting right next to you. Now more than ever, people rely on their smartphone for just about everything – from checking social sites to asking Google where the nearest gas station is. And Google has a name for those moments: “micro-moments.”

Micro-moments are “split seconds of time where consumers use their devices to act on a need.”

And these moments can be huge for your brand.

Seventy percent of mobile searches lead to instant action. If you make sure your content is easily found, relevant, and accessible, your brand can capitalize immensely on the micro-moments. Here are four ways to do so.

Understand The Customer

As with any content campaign, you have to really understand who your customer is – what do they like to do? What do they look like? What are their habits? Getting a good sense of who your customer is will help you attract the right ones.

What types of questions are they asking before purchasing a service or product? By creating content with the answers to those questions, consumers are more likely to turn to you during those micro-moments.

Make Sure You’re Relevant

Although following best search-engine optimization practices will help your brand stay relevant, content is still king when it comes to relevancy. Your brand not only needs to answer the right questions through your content, it also needs to be easily readable and digestible. Consumers shouldn’t have to go searching for answers. Making sure your content is educational and not overly promotional will also help.

If you can’t provide the answers our customers are looking for, they’ll have no problem turning to another brand. Fifty-one percent of smartphone users actually purchased from a different brand or company they intended to because the competitor’s information was more relevant and useful.

Distribution is also important when it comes to content. You could create the most beautiful piece of content but if no one can find it, it’s utterly useless. Make sure you share your content on all the appropriate channels.

Anticipate The Micro-Moments

Companies that anticipate micro-moments have a higher ROI in mobile and marketing investment. To be micro-moment-ready, understand the when, where, and why of the moments and how your brand fits into that.

The anticipation correlates to the questions consumers ask prior to making a purchase. If a customer is searching for the best sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, sushi restaurants located in that area need to be ready to make sure customers choose their restaurant.

Create An Experience

Creating relevant and useful content is, of course, necessary but creating an experience is just as important. Focus on creating and implementing a positive experience with your brand to ensure the customer keeps coming back to you – even after those micro-moments.

Eliminate any unnecessary steps or filler to help make the experience as smooth as possible. If they have to fill out long forms to get what they want, they’ll lose interest pretty quickly and move right over to your competitor.

With a little preparation and some killer content, you’ll be micro-moment ready in no time.

If you’re looking for help creating an effective content campaign, let Retaliate 1st help you. We offer everything from help with content marketing to social media to business strategy. Learn more about our services here.

/by
, , ,

3 Tips To Increase Your Email Open Rates

Email is still the number one channel for driving sales for e-commerce business. For many years marketers have touted the decline of the channel, but it is still here. It is still getting strong. With new tools such as AppBoy, Marketo and HubSpot, the abilities for customizing and refining campaigns is endless. However, the original principals of email marketing still hold true. Retaliate1st list their guide to increasing your open rates.

How To Increase Your Email Open Rates

  1. Don’t Send Unnecessary Mail

As business owners and growth hackers, we subscribe to a ton of mailing lists. We consume info at an amazing rate. Some of the lists are better than others, and though we love to learn, we all know that there are those businesses that send garbage email blasts. It annoys us, but we stay subscribed. Then they do it again. We unsubscribe.

They lost a warm lead.

email-3

Don’t be like them. Keep your mail marketing messages to the most important. Do not simply send out blasts because you think you should.

New product, really exciting news, a big re-cap of the latest info, discounts, sales, or free stuff? Send it.

Short emails pushing half-hearted promotions because you either feel you haven’t emailed enough, or you want to generate a few extra sales? Don’t send it.

  1. Personalize Your mail

Yes, we all know that it’s auto-generated, and most customers realize that at this point.

However, seeing our names in the subject is a powerful attention grabber.

email-4

Dear Customer, or Hey Business Pro are horrible ways to start an email. Hi Jennifer or Good Morning Darryl are going to get your email opened, and will get your first few lines read.

  • You can further increase your open rate by adding “Re:” before the personalization, even if it’s the first email in the chain. This can be used in your personal and intra-office communications as well, though over-doing it will diminish it’s power.

Personalization and Targeting

You should also personalize your “From.” Use your name or Name + Business. Jim at WidgetCo or Domenica from SalesBooster gives your list a warmer feeling than an email from SalesBooster.

  1. Write Powerful Headlines

We’re talking about email marketing. Remember that every word you write for your business is marketing. And, email subject lines are pure copywriting.

Weak subjects don’t get opened.

If you are doing a lot of email, it can be fatiguing to come up with killer headlines consistently. The way around this is to split test subject lines, and parse your list so that you can use variations of the same subject for multiple parts of your audience.

  • The words Free, Incredible, Sale, Deal, and Discount are always powerful
  • Name + benefit is still a great lead
  • Re: Name + benefit is even better (save this for your most important email)

emails

While it can be tempting to write “weird” subjects to get higher open rates, please remember that they have to relate to the content of your email, your product, and your brand. For example, one large personal training and fitness related business was famous for sending out emails with salacious subject lines that had zero to do with their product:

“Weed, whores, and whiskey”

“Re: A duffle bag full of guns”

“Re: Are you in the mafia?”

They’re now out of business.

/by
, , , ,

How To Use Instagram For Lead Generation

Instagram is still considered by many in the pay-per-click marketing word, to be the new kid on the block. With newness comes a bit of fear, so many small and medium businesses have been hesitant to stray from using only Google and Facebook PPC.

instagram

But, it can be a huge lead booster if utilized properly. Here’s why?

Using Instagram To Create Leads For Your Business

  1. Visual Marketing is a Dominant Force

Content marketing rules, and will continue to be the most useful form of marketing for years to come. As the internet becomes more available in non-PC forms, phones, tablets, watches, etc., the need to turn to non-text content will be essential.

You can do this with visual content, and Instagram is the perfect place to put your best visuals to work.

Simply, visual attractiveness in an ad or in any piece of content that has the goal of increasing conversions, leads to more opt-ins, engagement, leads, and sales.

instagram-2

It will also get you more shares, and that increases each campaign’s reach exponentially at no cost to you.

Using high-quality, bright pictures, you draw the attention of your followers, and can help lead them on the path to purchase.

Instagram Videos

Now with videos in the Instagram feed, you can really skyrocket your leads and sales through the social media site. Video content on Instagram gets more views, shares, and likes. It stops scrollers in their path. Once you become known for putting out good video, you’ll be well on your wall to dominating your market online.

  1. Young, Money-Spending Graphics

In Television, for years the most coveted demographic was 18 – 54 year old males.

Now, it’s men and women 18 – 34 (with 18 – 54 being not far behind). Instagram is custom made, literally, for those in that demographic. Build a strong Instagram following, and you’ll be tapping into the most lucrative market in the world.

  1. Build Brand Awareness

Instagram allows you to use visual content to reach more customers. Facebook is similar in this respect, but Instagram actually gets more shares.

Post a good video or picture, and promote it. Your target audience sees the cool content, wants to show their friends, so they like and share it. Now, for the price to reach your target audience, you’ve reached them plus the friends they’ve shared with. It extends the life of your ads, exposes your products, services, and your brand to a large, warm-audience. This is key for growing your business, especially if you don’t have an unlimited ad-buy budget.

/by
, , , , ,

How To Optimize Your Thank You Pages to Increase Sales

Every page of your business website counts. Don’t waste one of the most important pages, the ‘Thank You’ page. Many businesses do this by leading buyers to a simple, near-blank page with little more than “Thank you for your order, check your email for the receipt.” If developed properly, the Thank You page can help you increase sales. It can also help gain social media followers, and build brand awareness. Wouldn’t you do anything to increase sales, so check out the Retaliate1st guide to increase sales.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Thank You Pages to Increase Sales

  1. Link to Your Strongest Content

Adding links to blogs and articles related to their purchase is a great way to keep your customers on your site while they’re in a buying state of mind.

increase-sales-2

If your content is informative, but pulls them toward a sale, you will increase your sales just by driving “hot” traffic to these pages.
Plus, the extra views on these pages will help with Google’s rankings, so you win even if your customer doesn’t make a second purchase.

  1. Show Off Your Testimonials

Listing your best reviews and testimonials on your thank you page helps in two ways:

  • It helps reassure your customer that they’ve made a safe purchase, so it decreases buyer’s remorse
  • It shows your customer that you’re a great company, and gets them excited to do business with you again

If you link to strong content (as in number 1) under your testimonials, you should see a spike in both page views and sales.

New Product Debut

  1. Debut a New Product

Have something new that’s not on your site yet, or hasn’t been promoted heavily? Are you thinking of coming out with a new product or service? Show it to your customers while they’re still in a buyer’s mindset. If your product or service isn’t ready for sale, this is a great opportunity to encourage customers to sign up for a special mailing list. It’s a basic pre-sell, but it plays well on your Thank You pages because you can demonstrate value to someone who’s already convinced that you’re worthy of buying from.

increase-sales

  1. Make New Friends

Thank you pages are excellent places to add members to your social media tribes. List your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, and other social media accounts and encourage buyers to follow you. If you can give a discount or something free for following, you’ll dramatically increase engagement.

  1. Discounts

Upselling on a thank you page is increased when you offer a “special” discount for customers. Tie it into your other products, specifically, and you’ll see an increase in sales.

/by
, , , , ,

3 Tips to Improve Your Instagram Photos

When it comes to marketing on Instagram, you can subscribe to a lot of theories on what works, but the one common thread among all marketers, and the research, is that your Instagram campaigns live and die with the quality of your Instagram photos.

Better Instagram photos = more views, more likes, more engagement and more sales.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 3 ways to improve your marketing on Instagram, through better Instagram photos:

How To Improve Your Instagram Photos

  1. Use Your Phone’s Native Camera App

Using your phone’s camera is a better option than using Instagram’s camera. This is especially true if you have a newer version of the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, both of which come with powerful cameras.

instagram-photos-2

Why is your phone’s camera better than Instagram’s?

  • You can take photos without filters
  • You can edit photos much more easily, and much more quickly, in your phone’s native camera app and editing software
  • You can set your phone’s cam to take pics that are 640 x 640, making them perfect for Instagram without having to crop
  • Most phones have more powerful zoom, clearer pictures, and better lighting
  • The free, or near-free, photo editing apps on smart phones are actually pretty powerful, and can help you enhance lighting, focus, remove red-eye, and make your IG pictures clear and eye-catching

Interesting Instagram Photos Excel

  1. Take Pictures of Interesting Things

This should be obvious, but we’ve all unfollowed a brand (or person) that insists on posting boring photos.
No matter what your product or service, there are opportunities to post photos of really dynamic content that will engage your followers.

instagram-photos-3

  • Before and after pics work well for weight loss products, home improvements, design, graphics, and clothing stores.
  • Photos of your product being modeled are always a safe bet. Research shows that including a human face in a picture of a product increase views (and sales). Have great clothes you’re selling? Put it on a model that is a slightly idealized version of your customer and do a photo shoot. One shoot can give you a strong catalogue of content.
  • Cool places – if you are an adventure traveler, restaurant, or you sell lifestyle, pictures of nature, especially breathtaking views, always perform well on Instagram
  • Food – we all love to look at pictures of food. If the pictures are bright, clear, and the food is colorful. This should be a no-brainer for restaurants. But, next time you’re on Instagram, check out how many clothing and watch dealers use food in their photo shoots. Elegant coffee displays are the focus of a picture, but the watch on the wrist of the woman with her hand poised on the cup is the real draw.

Instagram Photos Of People Are Most Liked

  1. Use Instagram Photos of People

This can be applied to using models, or taking pictures of your staff having fun, working, or doing interesting things.

instagram-photos

Remember, Instagram is simply another marketing channel. No matter where you’re selling, people want to buy from people, not faceless corporations. This is why product images featuring faces do so well. It’s also why any marketer worth a damn will tell you to include pictures of your staff on your website’s About page. Put a face on your Instagram and your brand identification (and sales) will grow.

/by
, , ,

Increase Sales and Leads Using Instagram

Instagram has become the go to platform for millennial and Generation’s Z and Alpha. As the younger generations become the dominant spenders and marketing shifts towards them, platforms such as Instagram will increase their advertising revenue. This makes it a must for growth hackers to master. Retaliate1st have built multiple Instagram accounts into the millions of users and here we list our 5 ways to increase leads and sales using Instagram.

5 Ways to Increase Leads and Sales Using Instagram

  1. Picture Quality is Number 1

No matter what your business or service is, remember that picture quality is to Instagram marketing what headline strength is to print advertising.

You are competing with some high-quality photos on Instagram. Your business needs to stand out. Bright pictures out-pull darker hued shots.

Pictures with blue and light blue as the dominant color pulled 37% more likes than those set in other tones.

  1. Tell Your Story First, Market Second

Instagram marketing is still relatively new. Users and advertisers alike are blazing new territory. But, one rule that’s accepted by everyone is: no one likes in-your-face marketing in their feed.

It’s been said that Google ads are like a carnival barker, Facebook ads are like having a conversation on your front porch and anyone who walks by and is interested by the conversation is welcome to wander up and join in. Well, Instagram is more like telling a few friends about these gorgeous new shoes you bought, whipping out your phone, and showing them pics. They love them, and want to know where you got them.

Mastering the Instagram Feed

You can do this in your feed and with your ads. Simply tell your story through your visual content (pictures and video) and your captions. Most products will sell themselves if the pictures are of the highest quality. Now you just need to give followers a reason to click (free, sale, exclusive content, etc.)

  1. Track Traffic with Short Links

Measuring ROI on social media can be difficult at times. Measuring traffic from Instagram to your site shouldn’t be hard.

instagram

Full links are harder to track than shortened ones, so consider services like bit.ly or TinyURL when posting links in your feed. They’re easier to track, and easier to read for your customers.

  1. Don’t Blow the Bio

Your bio page will get picked up on Google for searches you’re not even thinking about. Instagram is a huge site with a lot of traffic. Load your bio with useful information, and how it can benefit your customer, then link it to a landing page that captures user info. You won’t build a business overnight with this method, but over the long term you’ll attract a lot of leads that would’ve otherwise been lost.

instagram-2

  1. Use Video – But Not Exclusively

Video, if done well, will capture more attention than pictures. It also allows you to bring your copywriting to life, giving your visitor a visual and auditory tour of your product or service.

But, don’t rely on video alone. Despite what cell phone companies’ commercials tell you, not everyone is walking around with an infinite supply of 4G service. Video can be slow to load, eat into data, and simply not work when your user is low on bars.

Don’t lose a customer because they became frustrated with a feed full of videos that they can’t watch.

Mix in pictures with the same message so you attract those who couldn’t connect with you in your video content.

 

/by
, , , ,

5 Best Tools for Tracking Your Website’s Performance

In 2016, we have to track everything and that includes your website’s performance. The performance of your website is critical to measuring your business success. We have to be able to see how it is converting your customers. Is your website driving them to your store, or convincing them to be buying online.

  1. Heatmaps

Heatmaps like those on CrazyEgg or Tableau, help you understand the way your customers are seeing your website.

You’ll get readouts on where their cursor lands, where they’re clicking (or trying to click), how long they’re viewing various parts of your website, and where they head for the door.

This is key because we all develop our business site’s with our knowledge of the products or service. Sure, we may try to introduce the connect to the new client, but having a true “beginner’s mind” is difficult.

Heat maps help us see what our customers see, where they go, and what they want, then adjust our business site to fit those needs. You’ll learn where to place your best content, which images are drawing attention, and which elements need to get the boot.

Analytics To Track Performance

You can also measure which elements on your site is distracting your visitors, pulling them from your main message. This is impossible to know without testing, so heatmaps provide real-time tracking that can increase your leads and sales.

  1. Google Analytics

Nothing new here, but Google’s tracking is still number one. While it’s not 100% accurate, no tracking system is. But, you’re getting data from the biggest search engine on Earth, so the numbers are reliable.

performance-3

Understating how to get the most out of Google Analytics is a science unto itself. If you have the budget for it, hire someone who can break down the numbers program in your goals (conversions, sales, etc.). and navigate the more intricate areas of the system. It will pay off with more traffic, more leads, and more sales.

Note: if you have an SEO frim running your site, they probably know analytics pretty well. However, make sure they know that your goal is to make money and grow your business, not perseverate over a .003% decrease in top exit page numbers (everyone has an exit page).

  1. Site Meter

A lesser version of Google Analytics, but allows for easy print out of 3-D graphics. This can be useful when presenting numbers to investors and bosses, and cuts out the leg work of taking Google’s stats and turning them into charts, graphs, and other visuals.

  1. Google Alerts/Social Mentions

If you are looking to track your brand building, invest some time in Google Alerts and Social Mentions. Both will let you know when your site, business, or brand has been mentioned in articles, blogs, or on social media.

performance-2

Marketing Analytics for Measuring Performance

For small businesses, especially those involved with content marketing, this is also a great way to easily monitor the web for those who scrape your site and repost your content. Rather than you taking the duplicate content penalty, you’ll know where it is and how to get your stuff taken down.

  1. Marketing Grader

Hubspot’s tool isn’t a true analytics tool, but it can help monitor your overall digital marketing and website efforts.

It will track progress on social media integration, SEO, blogging, and lead generation. The system scans your site and gives you a grade.

Checking in with this tool every quarter is a good way to measure overall progress, and can give you a glimpse into what the competition is doing.

/by
, , , ,

How to Use Facebook Ads to Target Your Audience

If you’ve tried Facebook ads before, but got very little results, you’re not alone. The early versions of Facebooks pay per click platform was stiff, counter-intuitive, and downright maddening. But, the improvements that’ve made has turned the once-frustrating marketing platform into a gold mine for business owners.

  1. Learn to Use Both Ads and Boosted Posts

If you are a small to medium sized business owner, don’t overlook the power of boosted posts. While pay per click ads are still more popular, the changes to the “boost” platform has made it a powerful way to reach potential customers.

  • Boosted posts allow you to promote content on your site, other social media accounts, or on your Facebook page
  • Boosted posts reach a large, very specific audience, instantly
  • Boosting posts is a great way to promote sales and events quickly, without wasting money

    Facebook 2

  1. Define Your Audience

Google’s PPC platform is enormous, much larger than Facebook’s. However, Facebook blows away Google when it comes to the ability to create hyper-targeted ads.

If Google is throwing a huge net into the sea, pulling in any fish that swim by, Facebook ads are like putting your lines in specific sections of the water, with a specific bait, catching just the right fish to satisfy your hunger.

With Facebook you can target:

  • Gender, age, education, income level, location, family status, language, ethnicity, home ownership status, and much more
  • Interests, hobbies, recreational activities, where your customers shop, which brand of credit cards they hold, as well as where they shop, which gyms they go to, and their political leanings
  • Connections: those that have already liked your page and their friends, those who like pages or businesses similar to yours, those who attend events related to your business, and more

Facebook

Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Facebook also allows you to develop, and market to, “lookalike audiences.” You take your current customer information from your database, then upload it to Facebook, which will help filter it further (using a third-party data broker), delivering you a new subset of audience based on those who’ve purchased from you previously. This method is a bit advanced, and is best viewed as a way to extend your best audience, giving your ads extra mileage. But, save this for after you’ve become a fantastic Facebook ad creator and can craft killer boosted posts.

/by

Contact

Get in touch

This contact form is deactivated because you refused to accept Google reCaptcha service which is necessary to validate any messages sent by the form.

Address

Retaliate First LLC
1412 Broadway, 21st Floor
10018 New York

Get in touch

hi@retaliate1st.com
+1 (917) 733-0978

Sitemap:

Our Services
Blog
Clients
Our Team

© 2019 Retaliate First LLC / Privacy / Terms of Use