Instagram Shopping is a set of features that simplify selling products to potential customers on Instagram. Brands can share featured products through their organic posts, Stories, and ad campaigns. Besides, Instagram Shopping makes products discoverable in Search Explore and allows users to shop right at the moment of discovery. Instagram is a social network that focuses on visual content and allows users to communicate via direct messages, comment on posts, stream live videos, and create Stories. Since Facebook acquired it for $1 billion in 2012, Instagram has developed into a massive marketing platform. Instagram Shopping has propelled social media marketing to a new level. Today brands use Instagram to effectively attract people to their products using all content types, like image and video posts, Stories, and advertisements. In October 2020, Instagram announced the global expansion of its Shopping features across IGTV. This means that users will be able to watch a video featuring a product and proceed to checkout in just a few taps. Besides, Instagram is going to test Shopping features within its newly-presented feature, Reels, a TikTok rival. Before we jump into setting up your shop on Instagram, let’s find out how effective selling on this platform is. Statistics that Prove Instagram Is an Excellent Marketplace We’ve collected statistics to show you that Instagram is an excellent platform for product selling, shopping, and advertising. Here they are. 90% of users follow at least one business page on Instagram; 75% of Shopping mavens and 70% of Shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram monthly; 60% percent of people claim they discovered new products on Instagram; 33% of the most-viewed Instagram Stories come from business accounts. These statistics prove that brands that run their business on Instagram can reach success because people love to follow and communicate with their favorite brands. Shopping features only make it easier for customers to buy products right away. Let’s take a closer look at the features that motivate people to purchase on Instagram. Instagram Shopping Features Shops Instagram Shop Shopping Tags Product Detail Page Collections Ads with Product Tags Checkout on Instagram Shopping from Creators Product Launches Live Shopping Before going further, we have to inform you that Instagram Shopping features currently only work in some countries. If your country is listed below, you can use Instagram Shopping to your advantage. In a nutshell, Shopping features are an upgrade of Instagram’s regular features, like image and video posts, Stories, IGTV, and advertising. They allow brands to show item names, product descriptions, and prices in all content types on Instagram. With these features, companies can also share all the necessary product, shipping, and return details without making users leave the app. Let’s dive into the ten features provided by Instagram Shopping. Shops This feature allows you to organize your business profile as a customizable digital storefront. By using it, you enable consumers to shop right on your Instagram business page. @spearmintbaby shows two collections above the fold: expensive children’s clothes, and gown and hat sets. Scrolling down, users can sort and filter the products in a convenient order. Instagram Shop This is an in-app shopping destination, a marketplace that connects all businesses represented on Instagram. It makes it easier for shoppers to discover products and brands. Don’t confuse it with the Shop feature we’ve just reviewed. To visit Instagram Shop, people tap on the “Shop” tag in the “Explore” section, which redirects them to a list of “Collections,” “Brands,” and products “Suggested for You.” These recommendations are based on user interests and in-app behavior. Shopping Tags With Shopping Tags, you can highlight products from your Сatalog in your posts and stories. The U.S brands that use Instagram’s Сheckout feature can also show their products in captions and bios with product mentions. Prospects can see Shopping Tags in the bottom left-hand corner of the post. This allows them to identify a piece of content as a shoppable one. By tapping on it, users can read the item name, price, and see a “View Products” button that leads to other products in the Catalog. Product Detail Page This page highlights all the necessary details about a particular item, like a gallery of product photos, sizes available, pricing, product description, shipping, and return information. It also includes listings of related products as recommendations. When Instagram users (influencers, for example) tag a product in their posts, these images or videos are pulled to a product detail page so that prospects can have as much visual information about the item as possible. Burberry’s product detail page shows four product photos of men’s swimming shorts, allows customers to choose the size, has a CTA that leads to checkout, and offers more matching items from the summer collection. Collections With this feature at hand, businesses can customize their shop with an editorial point-of-view. Use Collections to curate your products into themes to make your shop on Instagram convenient to navigate. Collections are broken up into two pieces. Above the fold, it has a large image with title text to represent the entire collection. Below, there is a short description of the collection. By swiping up, users discover similar products organized in a specific order. Each of these products in the gallery has a photo, item name, and price. Ads with Product Tags Instagram advertisements with product tags increase your reach. You can either boost your shoppable posts as ads or create ads from scratch using Facebook’s Ad Manager. These ads can drive customers to checkout on your website or to checkout on Instagram, which is currently only available in the U.S. This ad with a product tag is based on a Maxwell Shoe shoppable post and has a “sponsored” mark below the username. Users can tap on a high-quality product photo, then tap a pop-up tag with the product name and pricing, and proceed to a product detail page. In turn, a CTA on this page redirects users to a website where they can complete their order. Checkout on Instagram The U.S. creators and businesses that comply with Instagram policies can use Checkout to sell their products directly on Instagram. Shoppers can discover and seamlessly buy products without leaving the app by using the Facebook Pay service. Businesses that can’t use Instagram Checkout yet can still connect other shopping tools, like Shopify and Wix, so that users can complete the purchase outside Instagram. Below, a customer taps on the shoppable post and proceeds to the product detail page, which leads them to checkout with Facebook Pay. They need to choose the item specifications, fill in the delivery, and credit card data to complete their order. Shopping from Creators This feature allows people to shop looks they love directly from creators, without leaving Instagram. Shopping from creators is currently available for businesses that use the Checkout feature. It enables companies to collaborate with Instagram creators and influencers, who earn commission in exchange for promoting products to their followers. Shoppable posts from creators have a “paid partnership with” mark under the username. In this case, Camila Coelho is promoting a Michael Kors’s watch. Like in all shoppable posts and ads on Instagram, users need to tap on the image, then tap on a shopping tag with an item name and pricing, and proceed to checkout. Product Launches Using this feature, brands can announce an upcoming product launch. Instagram users, in turn, can set a reminder to buy it as soon as it’s available. This feature is also only available for businesses that use the Checkout feature. Adidas announced a product launch in Stories. It has a timer to create anticipation. When the time was up, consumers could tap the timer and proceed to a product detail page. Live Shopping This new feature allows Instagram creators who use the Checkout feature to sell products right during their Instagram Live stream. With this feature, you can make an inspiring live presentation of your product and convert viewers into customers in real-time. Live Shopping looks like a regular Instagram Live stream, but it has a tappable product section, which leads to the checkout. The marketer from Ubeauty presents an $88 resurfacing compound, delivering her message to the public that engages with her in the comments section. Now that you’ve gotten acquainted with all functions of Instagram Shopping, let’s find out how to enable them for your business page. How to Setup Instagram Shopping Get Approved for Shopping on Instagram Setup Your Business Instagram Account Upload Your Product Catalog Complete Your Account Review Turn on Shopping Start Adding Tags Monitor your Shopping Insights Take these seven steps to open your shop on Instagram and gain access to Instagram Shopping features. Step 1: Get Approved for Shopping on Instagram To use Facebook Commerce features, including Instagram Shopping, you need to follow five policies. Here they are. Comply with Facebook policies. Make sure your Instagram Business profile complies with Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines. Besides, you need to comply with Merchant Agreement, Commerce Policies, Ads Policies and Pages, Groups, and Events Policies. Run your business from your verified domain. Your Instagram business account must contain product listings available for direct purchase from your website or Instagram Checkout. If you direct customers from your Instagram shop to a website or any supported market (Facebook partners), you must provide the single, non-shortened, domain from which you sell. Instagram may require you to undergo domain verification to ensure your Instagram business account is associated with your domain. Be located in a supported market. You should operate your business from one of the countries where Instagram Shopping features are available. We’ve mentioned these countries earlier in the guide, you can also find this list here. Demonstrate trustworthiness. Your Instagram business account must demonstrate an authentic, established presence and maintain a sufficient follower base. Provide accurate information and follow best practices. Ensure that product information listed on Facebook Commerce sites doesn’t mislead users in terms of pricing and availability. Display your refund and return policies and make them easy to access from your website or Instagram profile. Suppose you fail to comply with any of these policies at any time. In this case, you may lose access to Facebook Commerce surfaces, Commerce features (including Instagram Shopping), or your account may be disabled. Step 2: Setup Your Business Instagram Account Turn your existing Instagram profile into a Business account. It takes three steps: Switch to a Business Account. Go to your Settings, tap “Switch to a Business,” and tap “Continue.” Connect to your Facebook Page. Tap “Log in with Facebook,” choose the page you admin, and tap “Next.” Setup your Business Profile. Type in your business email address, phone number, and physical address to enable users to email, call, and get directions to your business from the buttons and links on your shop. Step 3: Upload Your Product Catalog Your product catalog powers Instagram Shopping. Connect a product catalog to your Instagram Business Account in one of two ways: Use Catalog Manager. This is a Facebook Business Manager feature that allows you to contain and hold information about all the items you plan to advertise or sell on Instagram and Facebook. If you don’t have a catalog yet, use this guide to create one. Use Instagram ecommerce platform partners. You can use Facebook’s integration with certified ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce. Step 4: Complete Your Account Review After you connect your catalog and add products to it, submit your account for review, which typically takes a few days. Here’s how to complete your account review: Go to your Settings. Sign up for shopping. Submit your account for review. Check your status in the “Shopping” tab in your Settings at any time. Note that Instagram may require some additional information to prove ownership of your website domain. If you receive such a notification, you need to verify your domain. Step 5: Turn on Shopping If you don’t see “Shopping” in your account settings, then your account is still under review. When your account is approved, turn on Shopping features with the following steps. Go to your Settings. Tap “Business” and then tap “Shopping.” Choose a product catalog to connect to your account. Step 6: Start Adding Tags This is necessary to make your Instagram content actionable. Thanks to Shopping Tags, users will be able to discover more about your products from the photos and videos they see in their Feed and Stories. Here’s how to tag a product in your Image post: Tap “Add photo.” Add a caption. Tap on “Tag products.” Tap on a product on your photo. Choose a product from your Catalog. Tap “Done,” and then tap “Share.” And here’s how to add a shopping sticker into your Stories post: Find the sticker icon in the top right-hand corner. Select the product sticker from the sticker tray. Choose the product from your catalog. Move the product sticker so that it looks great on your story. Customize the text color of the product sticker by tapping it. Share your story. Step 7: Monitor your Shopping Insights Find the “Insights” tab in your account to analyze how efficient your shopping posts and stories are. Insights inform you about your customers’ interests and behavior, thus allowing you to continually improve your Instagram marketing strategy. Let’s finish this guide with some actionable tips to perfect your Instagram Shopping skills. 4 Tips to Gain Success with Instagram Shopping Use High-Quality Professional Visuals Use Hashtags Incentivize Shopping Show Your Product in Action We’ve collected four best practices to help you succeed in selling your products on Instagram. Here there are. Tip 1: Use High-Quality Professional Visuals New business features evolve on Instagram, but the platform has always focused on visual content. To stand out from other businesses and creators, you need to upload quality images and videos to grab users’ attention and inspire shopping and sharing. Develop your visual identity so that people will quickly recognize your brand. The post from @shopbop is a professional photo taken within a specific aesthetic code: pastel tones, a contrast of the summer look with warm-looking knitted bra and jacket, and great accessories that complement the look. Tip 2: Use Hashtags Like with any Instagram posts, relevant hashtags will help you make your Shopping posts more discoverable. Using the right hashtags increases your chances of reaching the Explore section, where people may run into your photo or video and follow you or make a purchase. Here’s a post from @onetonecolor, a brand specialized in hair dye, that has many relevant hashtags, like #haircare, #colorcare, #hairideas, #veganhaircare, etc. They both describe the business activity and make it easier for customers to find the brand. It’s best to research what hashtags your competitors use and find out which ones are the most popular in your industry. Note that it’s best to use around ten hashtags (though thirty is allowed) and double-check their meanings. Tip 3: Incentivize Shopping Adding sales or promo code details to your Shopping post allows you to add more incentive to tap-through. There’s no such functionality yet, but you can get creative and include this information in the image before you upload it to Instagram. Here’s a video post where @thiefandbandit announced their Summer sale. It gives a promo code and tells them how big the discount is. It’s not easy to read this information because photos change fast, but the intrigue makes users watch a loop several times. Tip 4: Show Your Product in Action When you show how effective and useful your products are, it speeds up the decision making process for your customers. That’s because they know what to expect from your product, and they can realize if it fits the fast. Let’s return to @overtonecolor. They’ve uploaded a video where they show how to use their product and the results it brings. They could make a hair dyeing live video and add a product sticker to enable shopping. Congratulations, you’ve learned the basics of Instagram Shopping. Now you are good to start using these features to the benefit of your business!

Kanban is a project management framework used to monitor the progress of every task and manage it effectively. It helps you organize your work and deliver it to different teams. Kanban boards allow you efficiently manage complex tasks and projects. In this article, we’ll unveil how kanban works and how to implement it. We’ll also review the advantages, disadvantages, and principles. How does kanban work? When your company’s team decides to use kanban for their project management, the information about all work is stored within a kanban board. This board is a visualization of the tasks your company departments need to accomplish. It sets the direction of actions for your team members. With the kanban board tool, you can track the progress of each task and access them from different locales. Kanban, as a presentation of agile software development, ensures seamless collaboration between team members. Every kanban board consists of three main columns: “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” The workflow might change depending on your team. It can be modified based on your team’s size, goals, and structure. The Kanban system is necessary to complete a specific project for your company. With kanban, you can ensure that all your team members’ actions are transparent, right, and relevant. As a result, they bring you towards the achievement of your objectives. Kanban board is the source of information for different employees. They can monitor the progress, meet the deadlines, and make some alterations for project success. Kanban methodology provides teams with real-time communication. As a result, they can instantly identify problems and eliminate them. The efficiency and speed of project completion will increase. Now that you know how kanban works, it’s time to proceed to the pros and cons. This way, you’ll be aware of the benefits and drawbacks this framework can bring to your business. Advantages and Disadvantages of Kanban Like many others, this workflow management method has both advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we’ll unveil these points so that you can consider whether it’s worth implementing. Kanban helps ensure collaboration between team members; efficiently manage tasks; meet project deadlines; complete projects successfully; focus on the team efficiency; encourage adaptability; initiate improvements; eliminate problems; speed up the completion of tasks; track the project progress; improve management; ensure flexibility; reduce time cycle. However, kanban has disadvantages as well. The project management framework can’t operate autonomously; has no timeframes for each phase; doesn't fit the environment with short production processes. Now that you know the pros and cons, it’s time to explore kanban principles. Kanban Principles In this section, we’ll review four main fundamentals of this project management framework. Create a visualization of your workflow. Whether you develop a digital or physical kanban board, you should visualize all your work on it. Add cards of multiple colors to represent user stories. If you don’t plan to design a complex board, consider having two main statuses for your tasks: “To Do” and “Done.” Assign people responsible for the tasks to track their performance. After, align the cards with the columns that suit their statuses. Set a specific number of tasks with an “In Progress” status. Think of the limitations on the number of cards with a specific status. You should determine how many cards can be placed in a certain column for a given time. This way, you'll make sure that your team completes tasks one by one without complications and obstacles. You need to put all priority tasks on the “To Do” list to ensure they will be finished within a given timeframe. Pay attention to the workflow. Your workflow will be smooth if you do everything right. To figure out whether your kanban system works efficiently and moves you towards achieving your objectives, consider monitoring the key metrics, including lead time, cycle time, blockage areas, number of items not started, etc. Remember about constant improvements. After the implementation of the kanban system, you still need to work on the improvements. They can be related to efficiency, the progress of tasks, time spent, etc. You should make sure that every completion of a new task brings you closer to a perfect product. Now that you know the principles, let’s discover the difference between the two most popular project management frameworks. This section will identify the perfect one for your business goals. Kanban vs Scrum Since people often misinterpret these two frameworks, we need to explain the difference. Although both kanban and scrum have something in common, they still apply distinctive approaches. In this section, we'll review each of them in detail. Kanban is a project management framework that suits businesses that need continuous flow. Teams using kanban boards focus on a flow of tasks to be completed. Kanban helps visualize work and improve efficiency. Team members strive to finish the project’s tasks as soon as possible. They track the kanban board and try to improve their productivity. Kanban improves transparency across the company and decreases inefficiencies. Scrum is a project management framework consisting of regular fixed-length sprints (from one to four weeks). Team members deliver results in intervals of time, called sprints. This Agile methodology (project completion done by dividing the project into several phases) is created for complex projects requiring team members to adapt to constant changes. Teams don’t wait for the deadline of the project to complete the tasks because they deliver the results in stages. Once completed, the task is submitted to the system. Now that you know the difference, let’s find out how to implement a kanban system. If, after exploring all the features of this project management framework, you decide that it’s a perfect solution for your business, you should know how to bring it to life. How to implement a kanban system? If you are sure that you want to implement a kanban system, we'll show you how to do it. We’ve prepared a short step-by-step guide that covers the essential points. Map out the workflow. Whether you develop a physical or digital kanban board, you need to define and visualize your workflow. It will help you create a valuable product with all the necessary features for your customers. Divide your work into units based on the urgency of completion. Review all your tasks to ensure you include everything you need to bring an excellent product to the end consumer. Incorporate WIP constraints. WIP (work in progress) constraints are limits you put on the number of work items you focus on during a specific period of time. The constraints are necessary to limit the number of work units in one column. The number of units depends on your business and product. To proceed to the next step, you need to create some space for it. After that, the work will continue. Set up the workflow. To make your workflow operate properly, assign classes like “Standard,” “Expedite,” and “Fixed Date” to work items. Classes with a higher priority can be the first in the queue, while low priority items you can skip first. You’ll prevent high cost-of-delay items from getting stuck because of the low one. This might result in improper work or even cause a stop. Splitting the items into classes enables you to ensure a smooth workflow. Calculate cycle time. When working with a kanban board, you should always consider optimization in terms of speed and quality. You can measure it with a cycle time metric. To estimate the cycle time, you should identify the time your team spends to complete a unit of work and move towards the main goals. Make wise modifications. Before making changes to your kanban board, run an experiment first. It will help you find out whether you want to make the right decision. Make sure that it will bring specific, measurable results. Once you are sure about the modifications, make them and let your team test the changes. They will assess the effectiveness of these alterations. Now you know what kanban is and how it works. Hope that our guide will come in handy when you decide to implement this project management system.

ISP stands for Internet Service Provider, which is a company or organization that provides services for Internet access. The propriety forms of service providers include privately owned ISPs, non-profit, commercial, or community-owned ISPs. This video produced by Eazl defines ISPs, explains the way they function, and who regulates them. Services rendered by the ISPs include: Internet access and transit; domain name registration; web hosting; and colocation. The first-ever ISPs were established in 1989 in Australia and the USA. The first commercial ISP was based in the USA and served its first customer at the end of 1989. Depending on their type, ISPs use different technologies to provide Internet access to users. ISP providers are classified into the following: Access providers, which provide Internet access using telephone modems, cables, Ethernet (wireless Internet), or fiber optics. The Internet, provided wirelessly, includes mobile Internet access and satellite Internet access. Mailbox ISPs, which host both email name domains and provide storage space for their users’ email boxes. Some mailbox ISPs can also be access providers. Hosting ISPs, which provide web-hosting and cloud storage. Transit ISPs, which usually have smaller networks and, in turn, pay larger, upstream ISPs to connect to broader networks. Virtual ISPs purchase services from other Internet providers. As a rule, Virtual ISP customers use the network and the services of the provider, from which the Virtual ISP purchased the services. Free ISPs, which provide Internet access free of charge. However, just like commercial TV channels, they show adverts to their users while they stay connected. Wireless ISPs, which provide Internet access through wireless networking.

Internet marketing is the process of using online channels like pay-per-click ads, search engines, websites, email campaigns, social media networks, live chat, chatbots, and many other platforms to promote products, establish awareness and recognition, educate potential customers about products and services, and sell them. With internet marketing, companies can effectively reach their target audience and communicate relevant messages. In this article, you'll learn why internet marketing is important and how it works. You’ll also explore its benefits, 10 best internet marketing strategies for small businesses, tips, and examples. Why is internet marketing important? Let’s break down the most crucial factors with some stats: Global reach. According to Statista, 4,3 billion people use the internet, which is 56% of the world population. Internet marketing lets you find your audience in specific locations and regulates your ad outreach according to your goals. For instance, you can target your Google or Facebook ads by location to specific countries, cities, and districts. Accuracy. In addition to targeting by location, you can tailor your marketing efforts based on users’ gender, age, habits, and behavior. The technologies behind internet marketing are very powerful: it is now easy to put your products in front of people at the right time when they are most likely to purchase. Cost-effectiveness. Internet marketing is cheaper compared to traditional marketing since it doesn’t require any physical resources for its production. Its accuracy also makes it cheaper: you pay to drive interested people to your site. With traditional ads, you can only estimate how many people find it relevant, and you’d spend lots of time and money on guesswork. Customer experience. Internet marketing helps to provide your audience with a highly personalized shopping experience. For instance, you can send emails with personalized offers and content based on the data users share with you. Facebook ads, in turn, rely on users’ favorite groups and pages alongside their ad preferences, which they can manage anytime. Automation. Processes like lead generation, lead nurturing, and customer retention can be once set and work mostly independently. Automated email workflows, for example, are a good way to remove a huge amount of stress from your marketing team. Aside from that, automation helps to assist people at every stage of their buyer journey, answering FAQs instead of your customer care team. Most importantly, internet marketing offers many options, providing numerous channels to communicate with your audience. Let's look at how internet marketing works and explore the various channels you can use to your advantage. How does internet marketing work? Besides being aware of the importance, you should also know how internet marketing works. This way, you can use it wisely for your business. Internet marketing is a type of marketing that encompasses using various online channels, including social media networks, online advertising, search engines, websites, email campaigns, chatbots, and others to establish awareness, drive interest, and convert customers. After developing an internet marketing strategy, marketers use specific channels that customers prefer the most. Since the majority of people shop online, you need to come up with an effective internet marketing strategy covering the channels your potential customers use most often. These could be social media, search engine advertising, or blog posts for your website. These channels enable you to introduce your products to your target market and communicate your main message. The main benefit of online marketing is the ability to personalize your content and reach potential customers with the right messages at the right moment. Now that you know how it works, you might wonder why it’s effective. We’ll unveil some of the crucial points below for you to consider. Why is internet marketing effective? Internet marketing is a highly effective marketing approach for numerous reasons. Here are the most important ones for businesses to consider. Internet marketing helps you: reach international audiences; provide 24/7 support and assistance to customers in different time zones; create personalized content, marketing campaigns, and ads; target customers based on specific criteria, including location, age, gender, interests, browsing history, and preferences; encourage user-generated content supporting your brand and promoting it; increase visibility on social media; generate more leads; send offers based on prospects’ needs. Now that you know why internet marketing is effective, it’s time to discuss its benefits. In the next section, we’ll explore the best of them in detail. Benefits of Internet Marketing Businesses widely incorporate Internet marketing because of its pros in terms of profitability, reach, and convenience. In this section, we’ll cover the most important ones to consider. Expanded audience. Internet marketing has no boundaries for the promotion and selling of your products. With its help, you can reach international audiences and expand faster. Online marketing campaigns, email campaigns, chatbots, and ads on social media are available 24/7. This allows you to reach prospects with relevant offers in any part of the world and any timezone. You can schedule your email campaigns and use automation to deliver the necessary content, add live chat to assist around the clock, and create chatbots to manage customer inquiries in different languages. Relevant and personalized offers. With targeted advertising, you can reach your target audience with relevant and timely content based on specific criteria, including location, user behavior, items viewed, challenges, and preferences. It helps you boost engagement and conversions. Measurable results. When running online marketing campaigns, you can receive comprehensive information about their performance and user behavior using tools like Google Analytics. These services enable you to keep track of campaigns in real-time and make instant adjustments. Higher engagement. Various interactive content formats on your website, social media, and ads allow you to catch customers' eyes and encourage them to engage with your brand. Consider using videos, quizzes, and polls to drive interest. Better brand awareness. Online presence contributes to overall brand awareness and recognition. When you run ads on social media, create reels on these networks, and launch targeting campaigns, potential customers are more likely to recognize and choose your company when they need the product you offer. Content on social media is more visible and easily shareable between users. Higher conversion rates. By being highly targeted and personalized, online marketing campaigns help your business grow faster. With their help, you can provide relevant offers and encourage more purchases. Effective lead capture. Unlike traditional marketing, online channels enable you to capture leads quickly using special tools. Landing pages, websites, lead magnets, sponsored content on social media, and email opt-ins are effective and fast ways of grabbing attention and collecting contact data. More customer insights. Online marketing provides you with all the necessary information about your target audience, their behavior, preferences, location, challenges, and needs. This information is valuable for creating effective and relevant content that meets prospects' expectations and drives action. Strong relationships with customers. Providing support around the clock, delivering personalized recommendations, ensuring all the information on your website, and adding a live chat allows you to establish trusting relationships with your customers. This contributes to customer loyalty and the constant growth of your business. Multichannel marketing. Internet marketing enables you to create a comprehensive strategy by incorporating various effective channels for communication with leads. Using several online platforms, you can reach prospects with different needs and meet their requirements. In addition to understanding the benefits, it's crucial to have effective internet marketing strategies ready for implementation. Here are some of the best methods and channels to approach potential customers and achieve the best results. Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses Email marketing Search engine optimization Social media marketing Chatbot marketing Influencer marketing Content Marketing Pay Per Click Advertising Affiliate Marketing Site Optimization Online Reviews Internet marketing offers channels for businesses of any size and niche, different by the return on investment, outreach strategies, and the model of relationships you want to build with your customers. Let’s learn how email marketing, SEO, social media, chatbots, and others can enrich your strategy. Email marketing This channel allows you to build long-lasting relationships with users who opted in to receive your emails. You can build your mailing list by placing subscription forms and lead magnets on your website or blog, promising to provide highly relevant content and offers in exchange for users’ email addresses. Greet new subscribers with an automated welcome email and nurture them with regular personalized newsletters. To make them as personalized as users expect, leverage the data they share with you when subscribing or using their behavior patterns. Emails can be individual for every user, depending on their progress using the service. Below is a brilliant example of a personalized email that Grammarly sends once a week to its subscribers. To succeed in email marketing, you need to work with a reliable bulk email sender. This will take care of the technical side of things and make sending great emails to your prospects easy. LIKE.TG offers user-friendly tools for creating and sending all sorts of triggered emails, such as welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, re-engagement emails, confirmation emails, and more. Search engine optimization This channel is very useful due to the nature of modern shopping: most of us search for information to compare products and businesses before we purchase. To find that information, people use search engines like Google or Bing, fill in particular keywords, also known as search queries, and visit some websites from the search engine results page. To win over your competitors and drive a lot of organic traffic to your website, you need to create content relevant to the query. Make sure it ranks in the top 10 because 75% of Google’s clicks go from the first page of search results. To achieve this goal, follow the best practices for SEO: write content for people, not for search engines; use long-tail keywords; add video and images; use correct titles, meta descriptions, and layout; make your pages download fast; get backlinks from websites relevant to your niche. Below is an example of a page that organically ranks in the top 10 and has a featured snippet. However, SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistency and patience. If you’re looking for faster results, consider using Google Ads, a platform for running specifically targeted advertising campaigns. It will help some particular pages rank at the top of the results page in the ad section, like in the screenshot below. Social media marketing According to Broadband Search, people spend around 145 minutes on social media daily. This makes social media an ideal place to tailor your products to people, and social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc., provide vast opportunities for advertising. Facebook and Instagram are among the leaders in traffic sharing, with around two billion active users monthly. They allow you to create an ad and target a specific audience easily. Facebook made it possible due to the enormous amount of data it collects from users. Check an example of such an ad below. Similarly to search engine marketing, you can engage with your audience organically or using paid advertising. By “organically,” we mean you can create groups or pages and grow your audience step by step by sharing helpful, high-quality content. Cover the topics relevant to your field and show your expertise. Hold giveaways — give some of your products for free in exchange for following your Facebook page. That will speed up the growth of your audience. However, the combination of paid and organic approaches proved to be the most effective in social media marketing. Chatbot marketing Chatbot marketing helps automate communication with people via messengers like Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat, WhatsApp, etc. Brands create a chatbot — a sequence of pre-designed auto-replies to answer customers' questions, assist people with booking a table at a restaurant, or order directly in the chat. Only users can initiate communication with a brand’s chatbot. Once a person clicks “Get started,” the company can send messages to keep users engaged and up-to-date. Communication with a chatbot can look natural and humane, as shown in the Booking.com example below. What’s great about this method is that it relieves some pressure off the sales and customer support teams if you let the chatbot take care of their tasks. With LIKE.TG, you can create a chatbot for Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram without coding. Influencer marketing It is a practice of promoting your products and services through content created by influencers—people with thousands of followers on social media and, ideally, are experts in the field relevant to your niche. This type of internet marketing is very popular in the food and restaurant industry. An Instagram post, like the example below, aims to draw the local audience’s attention and grow demand for that particular product. To effectively incorporate influencer marketing into your marketing strategy, there’s a list of tips to follow. First, find opinion leaders in your niche who have active followers who trust the influencers they follow. These people should also share your brand values and principles. The location is also important to target potential customers in the same demographics as your company. Secondly, create compelling content for influencers to share on their social media platforms. It can be an engaging video, a genuine recommendation, or a tutorial with your products. Thirdly, consider conducting a giveaway announced through an influencer's profile, providing special discounts for first purchases, and gifting free products for new clients for higher engagement and impressions. Content Marketing Content marketing allows you to communicate effectively with customers using online communication channels. Blog posts, articles, social media posts, videos, and infographics enable you to communicate the necessary message, deliver relevant information, engage with potential customers at the right time, and encourage them to take the desired action. You can develop a blog on your website and publish consistently high-quality, relevant, and useful information. While interacting with your content, users can notice your product and choose it as the best solution among those you offer. With short videos, you can explain your product in detail, share how-to guides, and provide customer testimonials. Infographics help turn information into visually appealing content, communicating all the data easily in a short time. In the example below, you can see how Semrush educates users on using its product. They can find tutorials and case studies added consistently weekly. Pay Per Click Advertising With pay-per-click advertising, you can pay a specific fee to place your website in the top results of search engines when users search certain keywords. These ads direct potential customers to your website and let them explore your offer. The fee for the ads varies and depends on the amount of users who click on your ad. When using PPC, you can increase the visibility and recognition of your brand, contributing to its profitability. For example, if users type social media marketing tools in the search field, they will get search results with PPC, which usually appears under the “Sponsored” sign. The companies that appear at the top of SERP are more likely to be instantly noticed by users. Affiliate Marketing With affiliate marketing, you can create a program where your partners will refer new clients and get their commissions. To effectively bring new customers, you should precisely choose partners to do business with. They need to have a relevant target audience and be able to promote your products and services correctly. In turn, you should give your partners good commissions for referring new clients to your company. In the example below, you can see an affiliate program HubSpot offers partners. After becoming the company’s affiliates, they can receive plenty of perks. Site Optimization Site optimization influences user experience and customer decisions a lot. To have an optimized website, you should pay attention to your site speed, image size, quality, and call-to-action buttons. Also, make sure your website is mobile-friendly because more and more people use their smartphones to explore and purchase products. When your site is optimized, you’ll have less churn and more buys. Moreover, provide users with easy and intuitive site navigation, allowing them to find everything they need quickly and effortlessly. Benton has all the necessary elements to educate users about its products and convert them into clients. When visiting the website for the first time, potential customers can see products, their detailed descriptions with videos, price information, and visible CTAs. The website is visually appealing and easy to navigate for laptop and mobile users. Online Reviews Online reviews are a powerful way to establish credibility, a positive reputation, and trustworthiness. By encouraging you to leave positive feedback on Google, Yelp, and other relevant review sites, you can gain trust and receive more new clients. When customers shop online, they always look through the reviews and comments of previous customers. Reviews and feedback influence customer decisions a lot. That’s why it’s crucial to have them covered on your site, review services, and social media networks. You should also respond to and manage all the comments customers leave under your product cards. This way, you’ll show that you care about each of your customers, appreciate their feedback, and eliminate issues that influence their shopping experience. 12 Go Asia asks customers to share their experience with the company and the services it provides. After the order is completed, the company sends email campaigns asking customers to choose one of the stars, evaluating the quality of their experiences. In addition to a quick answer, travelers can share their opinions in an open-ended answer. Incorporating the strategies can be a real challenge when doing it all manually. That’s why it’s crucial to find a perfect solution to set up all the processes on autopilot. Let’s discover the top 5 internet marketing services that will reduce the workload and help you do everything without errors. Top 5 Internet Marketing Services LIKE.TG Mailchimp HubSpot Sprout Social Hootsuite Developing your internet marketing strategy requires using a special platform. Many services are available, yet not all have the necessary features. In this section, we’ll provide you with the top 5 internet marketing services in terms of usability, pricing, and features to consider. LIKE.TG LIKE.TG is a multipurpose marketing solution that allows you to connect with prospects and customers online through the most effective channels, including email campaigns, chatbots, live chat, landing pages, web push notifications, automation, and pop-ups. The platform will be an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. With Automation 360, you can combine all the channels you need to interact with customers and integrate them into your CRM. It lets you set the conditions and send pre-determined messages triggered by a certain date or event. For instance, when a new customer adds items to a shopping cart but forgets to check out, you can send an email reminding this person about the products in the cart. LIKE.TG’s automation allows you to add auto-replies to chatbots on various platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, and WhatsApp. This way, you have all your prospects and customers covered with no coding skills required. In the example below, you can see how to create an automation flow for a new user with the platform’s drag-and-drop builder. Pricing: The price of the plans depends on the channels you need to use. For instance, if you need to send email campaigns, you can do it for free when you don’t exceed 500 subscribers, 5,000 emails, 5 flows, 1 event, and 50 elements in Automation 360 monthly. For more subscribers and emails, you’ll need a paid plan starting at $6.40 monthly, paid annually for 500 subscribers, unlimited emails, 10 flows, 10 events, and 70 elements in Automation 360. Mailchimp Mailchimp is a good choice for those looking for email marketing services, marketing automation, social media marketing tools, or a platform for creating a professional website. It also offers content creation and AI marketing features. If you are involved in e-commerce and retail, service-based business, mobile and web apps, Mailchimp will help you automate some processes and reduce the workload on your team. When using Mailchimp’s marketing automation, you can enjoy the benefits of custom-coded and ready-to-go templates, automated customer journeys, and predictive segmentation. You can send relevant emails at the right moment based on customer behavior and actions. After performing specific actions, clients will receive product-specific emails based on the items they’ve viewed. Below, you can see how to create automated emails using Mailchimp. Pricing: The service has a free plan, but it doesn’t cover automation. The cheapest paid plan costs $11.05 monthly for 50,000 contacts, 500,000 emails, email scheduling, and a single-step automation builder. HubSpot HubSpot is a service that provides multiple essential tools for internet marketing, including marketing automation, customer service, sales, and commerce software. This solution can be a great fit for both B2B and B2C companies. When using HubSpot, you can benefit from SMS and email automation to enroll potential customers into specific campaigns by sending these messages once prospects complete specific actions. These include link clicks, replies, email opens, search history, etc. With the service, you can also remind customers about your brand using retargeting campaigns. This way, your leads and clients will remember your products and services. The platform allows you to nurture prospects with personalized AI-powered messages across numerous channels like email, WhatsApp, social media networks, and SMS. After new users subscribe to your email newsletter, you can follow up with them using automated workflows triggered by clicks, site visits, and user behavior. Below, you can see how to build a workflow from scratch in HubSpot. Pricing: You can try HubSpot’s automation for free during a 14-day trial because its free plan doesn’t cover this feature. However, you can purchase the cheapest monthly subscription, $15 per seat, if billed annually. It covers 1,000 contacts and simple marketing automation. Sprout Social Sprout Social is a social media management tool designed for companies striving to establish their online presence and boost engagement with minimum effort. The platform’s publishing, engagement, monitoring, analytics, and reporting tools enable marketers to effectively share campaigns at the right time automatically and analyze their performance. With the service’s planning and scheduling tools, you can create content relevant to your target audience and choose the right delivery time. Sprout Social AI generates caption suggestions and alt-text to provide you with some new ideas and inspiration and make your content better. After developing content, you can send it at the right time. It examines 16 weeks’ of audience data to identify the best time to share new posts with your prospects and customers. When using its social media calendar, you can schedule several social media posts across different channels at once. This will save you time and costs associated with all the manual planning and execution. Also, you can handle dozens of messages without human involvement and reduce your team’s tasks. With the help of AI, these messages look and sound human. Moreover, sentiment detection allows you to identify high-priority messages and address them immediately. Below, you can see how to schedule a post for Facebook using Sprout Social. Pricing: The platform has a 30-day free trial. After it expires, you’ll need to pay $199 per seat monthly if billed annually for 5 social profiles, an all-in-one social inbox, a social content calendar, paid promotion tools to boost Facebook posts, and more. Hootsuite Hootsuite is a social media solution that integrates all the features necessary for effective social media marketing. It covers scheduling, publishing, social listening, and engagement tools. The platform is a great fit for small businesses, real estate, healthcare, education, agencies, nonprofits, etc. With its help, you can use a single dashboard to create, plan, and share content for all the platforms seamlessly. Even more, OwlyWriter AI from Hootsuite generates captions and posts ideas after you provide it with short prompts. Once posts are ready, you can schedule dozens using the platform’s bulk social media scheduler. The service will help you create everything, including hashtags, to make your content competitive and engaging. Hootsuite gathers all the private messages and public comments into a single dashboard, making them instantly visible to your team. With its help, you can respond to users’ questions around the clock using saved replies, auto-responses, and chatbot capabilities. In the example below, you can see how to schedule posts in bulk with the service. Pricing: The platform has a 30-day free trial. To enjoy the benefits of the service after the trial ends, you’ll need to buy a paid subscription starting at $99 per user monthly for 10 social accounts, unlimited post scheduling, the best time to post recommendations, custom analytics and reports, competitive benchmarking tool, listening basics, and more. Now that you know the best services to use, it’s time to find out how to get started with internet marketing. How to get started in internet marketing? Starting from scratch can be challenging when you don’t know where to begin. We’ll help you prevent this problem by providing a short step-by-step guide serving you as a hint. Let’s dive in. Understand your target audience. Begin by researching your target market and identifying its location, interests, user behavior, and challenges. Creating a buyer persona will make it easier for you to keep all the data in mind and consider it when targeting these people with online campaigns. Buyer personas will serve you as a representation of your ideal customers with their problems, needs, preferences, motivations, and more. With their help, you can make well-informed decisions regarding your marketing campaigns. Define your key goals. Internet marketing, like any other communication channel, helps your business achieve certain goals. You need to keep them in mind when developing your strategy. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. For instance, you might need internet marketing to establish brand recognition, increase online sales by 20%, acquire new customers, etc. Objectives can be numerous and relevant only to your company. Identify the right channels. After developing a buyer persona, you should know which online platforms prospects use most often to find products and complete their purchases. These are the channels you should use to communicate with your potential clients. You might need to combine a website, Instagram, chatbot, messengers, and live chat to ensure an excellent customer experience. Outline your content. Your content is the most powerful asset your company has to educate leads, provide them with the necessary data, and encourage them to take action. That’s why you need to contribute to its quality, usefulness, and relevance for your target audience. To ensure consistency, you should develop a content plan and calendar. Consider using special tools to schedule the publish dates of your content and share it with your audience at a specific time automatically. Establish a strong online presence. Building an online presence is a difficult task, requiring you to integrate several marketing channels and keep up with prospects using all of them. Consider optimizing your website for SEO to boost organic traffic. Add keywords to blog posts, include internal links, optimize for mobile, etc. You should also be active on social media by replying to users’ comments, tracking mentions, and communicating with potential customers in groups. Keep an eye on your performance. Monitor and evaluate the performance of your online marketing campaigns to react promptly to the issues customers might experience. Stay updated with the latest trends, platforms, and best practices to improve your strategy and overall customer experience with your brand. Now that you know how to get started, it’s time to explore some effective internet marketing optimization tips to reach the best results and achieve your main business objectives. Let’s discover them in the next section. 10 Effective Internet Marketing Optimization Tips Create a user-friendly website Start with one channel Create a consistent buyer journey Gradually implement more channels Use automation whenever necessary Build backlinks Repurpose content across online channels Collaborate with opinion leaders Develop a blog Use pay-per-click ads Optimization of the different areas of your internet marketing strategy can contribute to better profitability, a strong online presence, and more customers. That’s why, in this section, you’ll find the most effective tips to improve your tactics and ensure a better customer experience. Create a user-friendly website. It is the basics for those who produce and sell products or services online. Ensure the pages load fast and the site is easy to navigate. Optimize your website to rank in Google's top pages for relevant keywords, and try to reach featured snippets. Features snippets refer to the short description of a web page users can see in the search results. Start with one channel. Analyze your audience and find out which channel best fits your goals. For instance, if you need to nurture leads, emails are a great way to educate and promote at the same time. Create a consistent buyer journey. Think of the way your customers make it from the very first touchpoint to the purchase. What obstacles may stand in their way? Dispel doubts during their buyer journey by providing information relevant to their lifecycle stage. Use time-sensitive offers to move leads forward, but avoid being too pushy. Develop the right mix for you. Gradually implement more channels. When your business and audience grow, it’s high time you create more touchpoints. Test and measure new methods to use multiple channels effectively. Maintain the same communication style throughout the channels you use. Use automation whenever necessary. Automation helps to save a lot of resources because chatbots or email workflows may perform some work instead of your staff. With automation tools, you can stay in touch with your customers on various touchpoints 24/7. You can automatically upsell, cross-sell, re-engage inactive users, and celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries. Build backlinks. To build quality backlinks, you should create guest posts for reputable companies’ websites, reach for opinion leaders, publications, and bloggers, and partner with other businesses. By producing content and including your links in these blog posts, you can establish credibility, increase authority, and gain more opportunities. Repurpose content across online channels. Consider turning your old content into new formats your potential customers prefer the most. Update your blog posts and articles with fresh information and present them in a new, engaging, and interactive way. By creating short informative videos or podcasts, you can boost excitement among your followers when a new video or podcast episode is coming out. Collaborate with opinion leaders. Since many users are inspired by the celebrity's lifestyle, they explore and often buy the products that appear on their social media profiles. This is a reason for you to consider influencer marketing, which brings good ROI. When choosing an influencer, there’s no need to focus on people having millions of followers. It’s necessary to choose those people who have the right target audience and demographics. These influencers will help you establish brand awareness, showcase the perks of your products, bring you new followers, and encourage more purchases. Develop a blog. If you don’t have a blog yet, we recommend starting one. Although you might think this method is outdated, it's still the most effective for attracting more users to your website and building recognition and leadership in your industry. Use pay-per-click ads. Consider leveraging pay-per-click advertising to reach your ideal customer. Its targeting options enable you to choose the target audience based on specific criteria, including demographics, interests, and behavior. To achieve your goals with PPC, you need to develop visually appealing and compelling ad copy that encourages potential customers to click. Keep track of your bids and adjust them when necessary to receive the highest ROI. Knowing the best practices in theory isn’t enough if you want to incorporate these tips into your strategy. To attain the best results, you should look at successful internet marketing campaigns. That’s why we invite you to explore the examples that will serve as a hint. 4Examples of Excellent Internet Marketing Campaigns UNIQLO — Omnichannel Experience Spotify — Personalized Approach The Body Shop — Loyalty Program Rewards ALS — Ice Bucket Challenge Numerous examples of online marketing campaigns exist, yet not all of them were successful. To show you the results an effective campaign can bring to your business, we’ve listed five outstanding campaigns, so let’s check them out. UNIQLO — Omnichannel Experience UNIQLO, a Japanese clothing brand, is an example of a company that successfully combined creativity and technology, resulting in a campaign encouraging buzz over it. The brand had 100 installations around Australia and videos on YouTube and Facebook encouraging people to take a picture of a code and upload it to the campaign’s page. After exploring information about the HEATTECH edition, users were provided with free t-shirts or discount codes. It resulted in 25,000 new subscribers, 35,000 new clients, and 1.3 million views. Spotify — Personalized Approach Spotify comes to its subscribers with personalization by providing them with a “Wrapped” feature. This is where listeners can find the music they prefer to listen to. This way, the company ensures that all customers are satisfied with their music and listen to songs they like without spending much time finding them on this streaming platform. The Body Shop — Loyalty Program Rewards The Body Shop, a vegan cosmetics brand, encourages customers to purchase through a loyalty program. The details are on the brand’s website, and users can join anytime to enjoy the perks. These include birthday vouchers, exclusive gifts and prizes, and early access to limited-edition products. ALS — Ice Bucket Challenge Probably everyone has heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral after three young men living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis started this challenge to raise donations. The campaign brought even better results than expected and changed the fight against the disease. By dumping ice water over their heads, 17 million people helped raise $115 million to research the disease deeper and help patients living with it. Congrats! Now you know what internet marketing is and why it’s essential for businesses. We hope our tips and examples inspire you to develop an outstanding internet marketing strategy for your brand.

An interactive email is an email that provides the functionality necessary for recipients to take actions desired by the senders. This email incorporates elements that allow subscribers to add items to their shopping cart, book a room, take a quiz, watch a video directly in their inbox. Interactive emails are a great chance to increase user engagement. AMP email is one of the alternatives. AMP email is a red-hot technology in email marketing that makes it possible to create website-like email campaigns. Why Should You Send Interactive Emails? Interactive emails are the way forward. In 2017, Martech Advisor’s report showed that videos, as well as other visual elements added in business emails, can lead to a 300% growth in click rates. The main idea of inserting interactive features is to increase email engagement because interactive content makes people want to continue communication. Aside from videos, the same organization has suggested that GIFs, images, menus, web-like navigation, and sliders have a positive impact on user participation as well. Having emails optimized for mobile phones and tablets maximizes the chances to hit record conversion rates. The biggest mistake of many modern companies is to think that they irritate their audience by sending promotional messages. That is not true (well, at least, for half of the population). Statista data for 2017 demonstrated that 49% of users don’t mind getting promo emails from companies. Moreover, they shared that they love to learn more about new products and services from the brands they love. On the whole, experts usually recall seven main reasons to involve interactive emails in your work: increased user engagement; better conversion rates; more qualified lead generation; improved sharing; customer feedback; personalization. Now that you know which benefits interactive emails may bring to your business, let’s jump into the elements you may use along with some excellent examples. Interactive Email Elements and Examples Videos and Animation Shopping Carts Gamification, Quizzes, and Polls Image Carousel Product Page Reviews Embedding interactive elements is the main thing that makes AMP emails different from traditional messages. Let’s start with the easiest method you should try. Videos and Animation Inserting videos, using special tools to make users better understand the product and engage them more efficiently, is a widespread practice. However, you should keep in mind that some email clients do not support this option. Luckily, LIKE.TG makes adding a video to your email less of a headache. With our flexible drag and drop editor, which requires no HTML knowledge, you’ll finish this task in a minute. Follow this guide. If you decide to take a risk and use this idea, make sure your video file is short, default to mute, and that this visual element adds value to your main message. Look at the TopShop email below. They have a new shoe line and used a GIF to demonstrate it in better detail via email. Subscribers may click the animation, and they will be redirected to the specified page. Shopping Carts Want users of your website to complete a transaction? You should remove any barriers that may prevent them from completing a purchase. Make the ordering process fast, simple, and convenient. It’s a good idea to provide an opportunity to complete the transaction within the email you send. Below is an example of an AMP email that allows a user to complete their order right from the email. Gamification, Quizzes, and Polls It is possible to combine all three strategies into one category because they have a lot in common. Most of us have been engaged by a fun quiz or poll at least once in our lives. When the questionnaire looks simple, it doesn’t seem like a waste of time to click several buttons and send the results. A user feels special when answering questions about their preferences and tastes. Look at the example above. This way, the company shows that they care about the needs of each customer. Gamification and quizzes are both effective methods to blow up user engagement. Image Carousel Do you have way too many goods or services to offer? Then, selecting several pictures of your top sellers or new products to combine them into a carousel is a perfect idea. You may add prices, discounts, and descriptions to them. Image carousels are a great way to inform people about things that you want to sell ASAP. Also, it is an effective method to convert your users into clients with just one click. The email below allows users to look through several hotel rooms right in the email, and select the room they like. Product Page You may attach a specific product page to your email. Often, restaurants and resorts craft this type of interactive email. For example, they make it possible for a user to zoom in on an image, select the preferred stay dates, and more. This brand allows subscribers to look through each available room, and reserve one from the email. Reviews This option might be a bit risky but is still worth trying. The idea is to send an email in which a user will see feedback from previous clients or links to expert reviews. Usually, companies with a perfect reputation choose this strategy. Do not forget to motivate the user to write a review as well. Look for more examples of AMP emails in this article on our blog. How to Send Interactive Emails with LIKE.TG Off you go, install SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for the domain name of the sender email address. Then, stick to the following points: Request validation of the sender's email address. Create HTML code for your AMP email. Add the code to your email campaign. Follow this step-by-step guide to send an AMP email with LIKE.TG. Hopefully, you already have some excellent ideas for your campaigns. If you have never developed interactive emails before, it might be a challenge for you, but do not worry. Here is a perfect solution: you can craft and send interactive emails with LIKE.TG in the blink of an eye. Find out how easy it is!

Instagram reach is the number of people who have seen your content in the Discover tab, feed, tagged posts, location, or hashtag search. These are unique views. If 100 accounts viewed your post yesterday, your reach is 100 regardless of the number of times they viewed it. In this video, a LIKE.TG marketer explains how to boost your social media reach with chatbots. In this article, you'll learn why Instagram reach matters, how to check it, how it differs from impressions, and how to increase the metric. Stay tuned! Why is Instagram reach important? This metric allows marketers to make informed decisions. They can forecast their content exposure and allocate a budget effectively. If you hire copywriters and photographers, you need to know the reach of your previous posts and stories to make sure this strategy is worth the investment. If you aim to increase brand awareness and recognition, monitoring and increasing your Instagram reach should be your everyday task. It lets you know your followers' level of engagement with your content. Building relationships with customers is essential for a brand's success, so you should know which type of content performs better with your audience and use the corresponding strategies. Instagram reach is as important metric as impressions. Sometimes, they're confused. So, let's make the difference clear. Instagram Reach vs Impressions As a marketer, you need to know how these metrics differ. Take a look below. Instagram reach enables marketers to find out the number of unique viewers. These are accounts that have seen your post or story. Impressions mean the total number of times the users viewed your content. If the impressions for the same post are higher than the reach, it means some users viewed it multiple times. Analyze this phenomenon as it shows that people prefer this particular content format which makes them engage with it again or share it with their friends. Working on increasing these metrics will help you boost awareness and brand recognition. Now that you know why tracking Instagram's reach is important, let's learn how to do it. How to check Instagram reach? You don't need to calculate anything manually because Instagram automatically counts these metrics. You need to have a Business or Creator account to learn your post reach or impressions. Instagram shares the analytics starting when you switch to a Business or Creator account. You can monitor the reach of your story, post, and profile. To view the reach of your story, swipe up on the image of the video and find "Accounts Reached."To view the reach of your post, swipe up on "Post Insights." Here you'll see the tab "Reach." Alternatively, you can find this information in Instagram Insights. Click the hamburger menu in the upper right corner and navigate to "Insights." You can view metrics for a selected preset or choose a custom time frame within the last 90 days. You can track the reach of any post, story, Reels, or video. Now you might be interested in boosting your content reach on Instagram. We'll share some strategies in the next section. How to increase Instagram reach? Follow the seven tips below you improve your exposure on Instagram. Choose the best timing. If you want more followers to see your post, you need to know when they will most likely engage. It can include Saturday and Sunday, weekday morning and evening hours while users are on their way to work/home. Or, you can stop playing the guessing game and find this data in Insights. Here you'll discover the days and time of the day when your followers are most active. Now that you know the best posting time, schedule your publications for better performance. Share user-generated content. That is the content created by your happy customers, so you can't underestimate its power. People trust other people more than brands. Repost the stories in which your brand got tagged and create posts, including user-generated content. Instagram algorithms prioritize customer relationships with a brand, so your posts and stories, including UGC, might rank higher. Besides, such content is more memorable and trusted. Go live. It's an effective track to become visible. If you go live, followers will see you at the front of the Stories feed. this feature also makes you more visible and prominent. Even if users don't watch your live, your brand awareness will increase, and they may want to look through your profile to find out more about your company. Businesses going live gain much more trust since people know the faces standing behind the accounts. Finally, brands often share some behind-the-scenes and answer followers' questions in their Live, so your warm and hot leads will have more chances to convert. Incorporate niche hashtags. Hashtags are vitally important in Instagram. They help new users find your brand organically. You can use specialized tools to discover people's hashtags. Look for niche hashtags as they may bring you high exposure. Use general, trending, and industry-specific hashtags in your posts. The more hashtags you use, the more chances you have to increase your organic reach. Use geolocation. Tagging the locations of your stories and posts will also help you increase your Instagram reach. Very often, users are interested in specific locations while traveling, for example. Engage with your audience via contests and polls. Make use of the features provided by stories. You can run polls and questionnaires and interact with your followers. People like such things as they make them believe their opinion matters. You can run giveaways and contests with branded hashtags from time to time. This way, you'll boost your reach and engagement. Work with influencers. Influencer marketing is a proven way to grow your business. Influencers reinforce building your brand identity, help increase awareness and recognition, find new audiences, and get more leads. Besides, they will produce original content for your company that people will trust. Ask them to mention your brand in their stories and posts for users to reach you quickly. As a result, you’ll boost your reach, engagement, and sales. Congrats, now you know why you should work on improving your Instagram reach and have some effective strategies at hand. Use LIKE.TG marketing instruments to accelerate sales and maintain long-lasting customer relationships!

Instagram marketing is a type of social media marketing, which involves promoting a brand on Instagram. This social media platform helps brands connect with an enormous audience, increase brand awareness, and boost sales. Lean back in your chair and check out our marketer's guide on Instagram promotion. Why is Instagram marketing important for businesses? Instagram is the perfect channel to reach an enormous audience – over 1 billion active users monthly. On average, users spend 53 minutes per day on Instagram, which makes this platform the second most visited social network after Facebook. Instagram facilitates maintaining your relationships with customers and prospects. People enjoy being connected with brands through this network – 90% of users follow at least one company on Instagram. Another point to consider is Instagram’s selling acceleration opportunities. According to Facebook research in 2019, 65% of people polled visited a brand's website or app after seeing it on Instagram. 46% of interviewees purchased from a brand online or offline. Access to a vast audience, which actively interacts with brands and wants to buy from them, is a core advantage of Instagram marketing. However, this social network has a handful of other benefits. 4 Benefits of Instagram for Business Brand strengthening Improved engagement Enlarged sales Audience growth opportunities Over the past few years, Instagram has evolved from being a place for flexing wealth or achievements to a helpful platform for business purposes. There are four ways Instagram can affect your business positively. Brand strengthening Instagram marketing works wonders for brand awareness. 83% of users confess that this social network helps them discover new products or services. Better yet, people show more trust in the brands presented on Instagram. 74% of users consider brands with Instagram accounts relevant and 78% perceive them as popular. In contrast, brands that do not have an Instagram account are likely to be avoided by potential customers. Improved engagement Social networks are one of the best channels to maintain relationships with customers. They allow you to get feedback from your audience through likes or comments, engage them with captivating content, notify them about special offers, and more. In turn, Instagram works for customer engagement even better than other social platforms. Usually, a photo on Instagram gets 23% more engagement than a post on Facebook, though the latter platform has twofold more active users. Enlarged sales We already know that the Instagram audience makes purchases willingly. This buying audience is gigantic – 11% of social media users in the US shop on Instagram. Knowing this peculiarity, Instagram lets businesses make the most of their platform. Instagram offers a robust set of tools that allow users to shop right from Instagram. Among them are links in Instagram Stories, shopping tags, ads, and more. Consider reading the full list on the Instagram website. Audience growth opportunities Instagram boosts your business’s reach by letting you define your target audience precisely. This opportunity is available on Instagram ads manager thanks to its targeting options. With them, you can pinpoint the most suitable audience according to demographic data, interests, behavior, and more. Better yet, Instagram ads manager provides you with robust retargeting options. Targeting and retargeting coupled allows you to not only drive more qualified Instagram leads but also nudge leads from other channels down the sales funnel effectively. The Instagram analytics tool allows you to measure your ad performance. You can track outreach, total campaign spending, the number of purchases, cost per purchase, conversions, and more. To sum it up, Instagram marketing strengthens your brand, brings you a willing-to-buy audience, and keeps them engaged with your business. Read on if you want to get maximum value from this channel. Instagram Marketing Strategy Set your goals Define your target audience Analyze your competitors Get a business account Design your content Build a consistent aesthetic Configure an editorial calendar Grow your follower base Turn followers into customers Every marketing channel needs a well-designed strategy to drive amazing results for your business. To build a strategy for Instagram marketing, follow our step-by-step instructions. 1. Set your goals Start crafting your Instagram marketing strategy by setting goals. Goals will underlie everything you do on Instagram, from defining your content formats to using advertisement mechanics. Popular objectives brands try to leverage through Instagram are increasing brand awareness, reputation management, building a community, sales acceleration, getting customer and market insights, and more. Your goals should correlate with your business needs. If your financial results are more or less good there is probably no need to boost sales through Instagram. Try focusing on getting customers or market insight instead. For higher efficiency, make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. They may sound like “We need to yield a 20% increase in sales through Instagram in 5 years.” 2. Define your target audience Determining your audience is an essential step; miss it, and all your efforts to achieve business goals will fall flat. A pro tip here is to craft a buyer persona. Learn who your typical customer is, their age, gender, occupation, location, income level, and so on. The better you know your customers, the better results you will get. A major mistake to avoid here is crafting a make-believe persona. Use a data-driven approach instead of guesswork. To get information about your potential customers, you can explore Instagram hashtags related to your business. For instance, if you are marketing an event agency, you can examine #eventplanner, #events, or #eventstyling. Take a closer look at profiles that use these hashtags. Then try to learn more about the people who interact with these accounts – what reactions they share, what comments they write, what they love and loathe about the profiles. To learn more about creating customer profiles and other techniques, follow our comprehensive guide. 3. Analyze your competitors To get your head around Instagram marketing, research your competitors’ profiles. Find out who they are, what kind of content they post, how they interact with their audience and other brands or influencers. You can also research your rivals’ branded hashtags to get a hint of how popular they are. Try to focus not only on successful tactics but also spot the things your competitors might be missing. This will help you come up with effective and unusual tactics for your brand promotion. Imagine that you are marketing a psychologist’s practice through Instagram. Typical doctors on Instagram publish static images with instructions on diagnosing psychological conditions. Thus, to stand out, you can entertain your audience and post videos with interesting psychological experiments. Researching competitors through Instagram is painstaking work. Luckily, you can alleviate some of it with social listening services or CRM systems. For instance, Sprout Social can compose competitor research automatically. Follow our compilation of great CRM systems for more information. 4. Get a business account Instagram offers its users two types of accounts: personal and business. The latter gives you a lot more benefits and opportunities. For instance, you can track your performance in real time, learn more about your followers' behavior, add information about your company, and more. Follow our precise step-by-step guide to switch to a business account, and then return here for some non-technical marketing tips on setting up your profile. Here they are: Create a perfect bio. Make a 150-character description of your business, focusing on why it stands out. Optimize your profile photo. It should be recognizable and reflect your business. You may opt for a logo, but remember that Instagram shows it as a 110 x 110 pixel photo. Link to your website. This is crucial for lead generation – your profile description is the only place, apart from Stories, where you can add a link. Use business options. You can add a category, contact information, and CTAs in business mode. Do not neglect this opportunity to get in touch with customers. Here is an excellent example of an Instagram bio from Beautyblender. The brand squeezes every bit of value out of this account section. 5. Design your content Content is king anywhere on social media, and especially on Instagram – users are finicky both for visual and text parts of it. So, the platform provides a wide variety of content formats and opportunities to win the audience.Start by thinking up the main theme and the message you want to deliver. You may opt for showcasing your products, focusing on your company’s culture, or entertaining your customers. The next step is to decide which content formats to use to leverage your goals. You can make use of static pictures, galleries, short videos, or longer video formats with IGTV. Bear in mind that images receive 27.55% more likes than videos, but both of them gain almost the same amounts of comments. However, it might not work for you the same way, so play around different formats and monitor engagement statistics. 6. Build a consistent aesthetic No matter what type of content you choose, keep it beautiful, eye-catching, and high-quality. To get your head around the best visual style, we’ve picked some statistics on popular Instagram images: Light tones generate 24% more likes than dark ones; Blueish images get 29% more likes than the red ones; Users like pictures with a high level of texture 79% more. Avoid using this data thoughtlessly; remember your visuals should correlate with your brand personality. You can stick to your brand colors and guidelines – it will make you recognizable from platform to platform. Another point to consider is your visual consistency. The pictures on your Instagram profile should make an impression of unity. You can achieve this by using certain Instagram filters or presets. Look how Hootsuite uses its branded style for Instagram and creates consistency with visuals. 7. Configure an editorial calendar An essential condition of your Instagram success is delivering content consistently. Your audience expects you to post updates regularly.To keep the pace without going insane, create an editorial calendar. For higher efficiency, keep your calendar in special post scheduling services. They allow you to not only be aware of what and when to post but also keep the visuals, posts, and hashtags on hand. Better yet, these tools automate your posting, provide useful insights on the posting time, help obtain in-depth analytics, and more. Read our list of scheduling and other tools for social media to get more information. 8. Grow your follower base Make time to grow your audience and keep them engaged. One organic way to do so is by following relevant influencers. For instance, if you market kitchen supplies, it’s a good idea to follow food bloggers, kitchen interior designers, and so on. Remember to engage with their content – like their posts, leave meaningful comments, share their stories. Another option is to use hashtags, which help you reach your target audience, attract followers, and boost your engagement rate. Be careful here – not all hashtags are useful for your business. The most popular ones are used in millions of posts. So, you’d better go for niche hashtags. You can find them on your followers’, competitors’, and market leaders’ accounts. Apart from that, you can make use of paid promotion options, such as influencer marketing or Instagram advertising campaigns. Here is a guide to promotional formats and mechanics Instagram offers to businesses. 9. Turn followers into customers An increase in vanity metrics, such as likes and comments, is good, but it doesn't affect your sales directly. So, take care of converting your followers into customers. Publish promotional posts, showcase your new products, run teasers, offer deals and discounts. Remember to include calls to action in your promotional posts. Although you can’t add a link to your CTA in the publication, you can always encourage subscribers to tap the link in your bio. You can create a link page for your Instagram bio with the help of LIKE.TG drag and drop landing page builder. It provides the options to create your page from scratch or use a pre-designed template and design it to your liking. You don't need any technical skills and much time— it will take your 15 minutes to create a responsive page. Add buttons, links, useful resources, subscription widgets, and integrate with a payment system to convert leads into customers. The service is completely free. Follow this step-by-step guide to get started. Use the different formats of shopping posts Instagram has created for you. They allow a user to start a sales funnel right from a specific post and move the journey towards a purchase, which leads to an increase in conversion rates. Check out Instagram’s guide on shopping formats and opportunities. Once your Instagram marketing strategy is ready, start applying it and monitor its effectiveness day by day. Keeping an eye on your performance will help you make timely changes and adopt new techniques to boost your KPIs. Let’s discuss some tricks in the next section. 5 Instagram Marketing Tips Embrace user-generated content Share your Instagram posts on Facebook Use stories and highlights Collaborate with influencers Launch an Instagram shop Applying ready-made tactics is better than reinventing the wheel; it saves you and your marketing team precious time and effort. Master the following techniques to take your Instagram marketing to the next level. Embrace user-generated content User-generated content (UGC) is a magic wand for Instagram marketing. It helps you get images and videos to post without lifting a finger. Better yet, UGC has a positive effect on Instagram promotion. It drives a 4.5% higher conversion rate, boosts engagement, improves cost-per-click metrics and click-through rates for paid advertisements. The reason is that UGC works similarly to word-of-mouth and social proof. People believe recommendations from other customers way more than paid advertising. To get UGC for your account, encourage your audience to share their photos and videos with your branded hashtag. Repost the best pieces, but avoid overusing UGC – it works better in combination with original branded content. Learn to work with user-generated content from Benefit Cosmetics. The brand encourages people to use their hashtag, #benefit, to be highlighted on the brand’s account. For better results, the company not only shares its users’ content but also adds shopping tags to the products used for creating makeup looks. Share your Instagram posts on Facebook Well, it’s not exactly Instagram marketing, but this tip will help you boost your overall social media performance. Instagram allows you to share photos and videos on your Facebook instantly. All you need is to switch on the Facebook slider in the “Also post to” section while you’re publishing your content. This feature is not only convenient and time-saving but also great for your performance. According to Buzzsumo, images posted on Facebook via Instagram get 23% more engagement. GoPro uses this trick to achieve amazing results. In the example below, the brand posted a new product teaser on Instagram and Facebook simultaneously. Thus, the company received over 1.5 million views, 13.7 thousand comments, and roughly 260 thousand likes on both channels in total. Use stories and highlights It’s easy to downplay the importance of Instagram Stories as they vanish 24 hours after publication. However, this format is too good for your marketing to leave it on the table. According to Instagram data, 62% of people said they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories. Stories are a perfect way to create emotional proximity with your customers. While your feed should be flawless, Stories are best for unpolished lifelike content, such as backstage views and behind-the-scenes content. They are also a format for posting detailed product reviews with shopping links. The cherry on top is you can keep your stories forever. All you have to do is to add them to a special section on your page, which is called Highlights. Topshop provides an excellent example of making the most of Stories and Highlights. The company uses Stories to garner interest in new items on their website. At first, the brand announces a discount on their new garments and then shows some of them. Each story contains a link to the website section with new clothing. Highlights keep a bundle of Stories divided into several categories. In Topshop’s “New in” highlight, visitors can see new items with a link to the specific website section. The “On the blog” highlight features the best publications on the company’s blog and leads viewers there. Collaborate with influencers 79% of marketers consider Instagram the most important channel for their influencer marketing campaigns. The point in it is that businesses are making $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. To create an effective influencer marketing campaign, stick to several rules: Choose the influencer whose audience resembles yours. Otherwise, your marketing efforts will fall flat – people won’t have an interest in your offer. Check the audience – there should be no bots or fake subscribers. Make sure followers are engaged with the influencers you work with. To check this, use special tools, such as trendHERO. Determine the audience’s feelings about an influencer. Some bloggers with a huge follower base provoke more hate than love. Promoting through them won’t get you new subscribers or sales, so check the comment section carefully. Dior used influencer marketing to promote their Spring/Summer 21 fashion show. The brand's choice fell on Jisoo – a Dior ambassador and blogger with over 20 million followers. Jisoo announced the show in her Stories and went live several times during the event to share her opinion on it. This tactic not only attracts an audience but also keeps them engaged with the show. Launch an Instagram shop In 2020, Instagram increased selling opportunities and launched a new format. The Instagram shop is a separate account section, which resembles a website storefront. People can get there through their feed or Stories, explore products, and make purchases without leaving Instagram. With this tool, businesses can create product catalogs, craft collections, and curate products into themes that tell their brand story. To set up your shop, follow instructions on the Instagram website. If you need a dose of inspiration for arranging your products, look at Etsy's profile. The company not only showcases some of its best products but also gathers the recently viewed items into a separate category. This move provides users with easy access to the products they liked. The tactics listed above have proven their efficiency for improving a brand’s presence on Instagram, growing a follower base, engaging audiences, and driving sales. If you're looking for more inspiration, check out this guide to Instagram marketing for eCommerce brands on Insense blog. Read on to see some interesting examples of Instagram marketing. 3 Instagram Marketing Ideas and Examples Instagram marketing is a long journey with a lot of pitfalls and rapidly changing conditions. Thus, promoting your brand through this platform requires all of your creativity. To encourage your imagination, take a sneak peek at some techniques brands successfully use on Instagram. Starbucks – promotional hashtags The coffeehouse chain Starbucks knows a little something about promotion through Instagram hashtags. The company employs user-generated content for half of its posts, and it brings amazing results. On average, such publications get 28% higher engagement compared to the company’s standard posts. To encourage UGC, Starbucks is constantly launching campaigns using a handful of branded hashtags. The latter helps the company inspire followers and promote new products. For instance, Starbucks used #icedcaramelmacchiato, #IcedCoconutMilkMochaMacchiato, and #pinkdrink to market new drinks. People added these hashtags to almost 500 thousand publications in total. IMAX – Instagram ads The entertainment company, IMAX, used a creative approach to market the The Rise of Skywalker with Instagram ads. The brand turned regular passively viewed sponsored Stories into an interactive space. For this purpose, IMAX added polling stickers to its ads; they allowed viewers to choose one of two answers. The company created three different versions of similar posts, two of which contain a poll. The polled versions asked viewers whether they would join the dark side or use the Force for an IMAX ticket. At the end of the ad, people could tap on the Book Now CTA and buy tickets to the cinema. It turned out that this version saw a 12-point higher ad recall than their stories without a polling sticker. LordTaylor – Influencer marketing Though clothing retailer, LordTaylor, went out of business, it left us with an inspirational Instagram campaign. The brand collaborated with 50 fashionistas and invited them to style the same dress in different ways. The idea behind this challenge was to make followers puzzle over why their favorite bloggers are dressed the same way. The campaign showed staggering results. The dress from photos sold out by the end of the weekend. Better yet, LordTaylor attracted interest in its Design Lab collection, which was the real purpose of the campaign. Instagram marketing can provide outstanding outcomes for your brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and lead acquisition. To amplify your ROI and nurture leads, combine Instagram promotions with email and messenger marketing, web push notifications, and SMS. Register with LIKE.TG to add these channels to your marketing strategy.

An Instagram marketing strategy is a set of methods that use Instagram as a platform to promote products and services and build relationships with an audience. Check out Instagram trends and marketing tips from a LIKE.TG marketer in the video below! Instagram is a social media platform with a sharp focus on visual content: images and videos. It allows users to communicate via direct messages, leave comments under posts, stream live videos, and create Stories. The app was operated by a team of 13, in 2012, when Facebook bought it for $1 billion. Instagram owners claim they had no other option except to sell their project because Facebook started developing a similar app called Camera. Since then, Instagram has continued its rapid growth, introducing various features, including Stories identical to Snapchat’s, and graduated into a worldwide marketing platform with all of Facebook’s marketing tools. Let’s see why it’s so important to include Instagram in your digital marketing strategy. Why does every brand need an Instagram marketing strategy? It has a global reach It has high engagement rates It offers profound tools for advertising It allows you to promote your brand organically It allows you to manage your online reputation It allows in-app shopping Instagram is one of the largest social networks today, and it’s designed for multiple purposes, including entertainment, inspiration, education, business, and marketing. It’s a place where millions of people spend much of their time online. Let’s review the six factors that make Instagram crucial for your marketing strategy. It has a global reach. According to Statista, Instagram has 1 billion active users monthly. With that massive audience, you have good chances of finding the right audience to communicate with. What’s more important is that people aged 18 to 34 make up 63% of Instagram’s audience. Young people are more likely to engage with Instagram ads and purchase on this platform. It has high engagement rates. According to BroadBandSearch, users upload 250 million stories and 95 million photos to Instagram every day. Besides, the average daily time spent on Instagram is 53 minutes. This means that Instagram is designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible, and businesses use this to their benefit. It offers profound tools for advertising. Instagram allows you to craft precisely targeted ad campaigns, controlled from the same “headquarters” as Facebook ads. You can target your ads based on your business objectives for flexible prices. Any business from a garage band to a large apparel manufacturer can effectively advertise on Instagram. It allows you to promote your brand organically. Paid advertisements are only a part of your strategy. On Instagram, you can promote your business in posts and Stories, creating a buzz around your brand and your products. You can run giveaways, quizzes, and do cross-promotions with influencers and other companies from neighboring business fields. It allows you to manage your online reputation. Since Instagram allows its users to comment on posts, react to stories, and chat in direct messages, you can use these features to provide customer support and solve your audience’s issues in front of everyone in the comment section. If you use these features wisely, you can improve your reputation and earn the reputation of a trustworthy brand. Allows in-app shopping. Instagram released an in-app shopping feature in 2019. It allows companies to add special tags to their post, which lead to product catalogs. Here customers can choose the size, color, and model of the product they want without ever leaving the app. This feature will be profitable and handy for your brand if you run a retail business. As you can see, Instagram is as good for marketing and selling as it is for communication and inspiration. Your goal is to naturally combine these aspects to provide your audience with positive experiences associated with your company. Let’s move on and discuss the elements that make up an Instagram marketing strategy. How to Create an Instagram Marketing Strategy Create Your Business Profile Edit Your Business Profile Craft Your Instagram Content Grow Your Audience Use Instagram Insights Run Ad Campaigns The following six steps are the basis of every Instagram marketing strategy. Let’s review them so you can better understand how to approach this channel. Step 1: Create Your Business Profile Firstly, you need to create a regular Instagram account. Once you create one, you need to switch it to a Business account in your settings. Tap “Settings,” then tap “Account,” and choose “Switch to Business Profile.” Facebook recommends connecting your Instagram business account to a Facebook Page associated with your business. This will make it easier for you to use all the business features provided by Facebook for both platforms. Step 2: Edit Your Business Profile Start by adding a profile photo. Keep it simple, use your business logo or a graphic symbol. It’s best to use one logo throughout your channels. Note that Instagram will automatically crop your profile photo into a circle, and it will appear as a small 150x150px icon. Now, create a username for your account. This will make it easier for your customers to find your brand on Instagram. Use your business name and keep it no longer than 30 characters. After that, add a bio. It’s a short description of your business where you can add relevant tags to make your business page more discoverable. Consider adding emojis to your bio since they help you tell your story faster and more informally. Lastly, add your website and other contact options. By providing your business email, phone number, and location details, you make it easier for customers to get in touch with you. Create a link page to put all the necessary contact information and resources in one place.With LIKE.TG, you can design a link page for your Instagram bio in 15 minutes without any technical skills and totally for free. You can either create it from scratch or edit a pre-designed template to your liking. Add buttons andlinks to your chatbots and messengers, subscription widgets, integrate a payment system, optimize your page for a search engine, and analyze its performance. In our Knowledge Base, you'll find step-by-step guides. Step 3: Craft Your Instagram Content Instagram allows you to create various types of content to engage with your audiences in different ways. According to SproutSocial, images, videos, text-based posts, and stories are the content types that users are most likely to engage with. Let’s briefly review some of these types. Images. Apparel and fashion brands invest a lot in professional photos. One photoshoot can provide your brand with content for some time. The image post below consists of three photos made at one shoot. It’s a cross-promotional post since the brand mentions the photographer and models in the description. Videos. This content type is excellent for showing activities, like concerts, manufacturing processes, event invitations, etc. The video post below is a snippet from a live concert. It provides a link to the full version and cross-promotes the concert room. Stories. This content type allows you to add images and videos, create polls, and boost your audience engagement. A verified business page with over 10K followers can add a link like “check out our new collection” in stories. The stories below actively encourage users to engage with the brand’s content. HM asks users to share their opinion about the clothes in their story with “Slide-emoji” and “Yes or No” polls. It’s best to keep a consistent content calendar so that your followers get in the habit of interacting with your brand. Schedule your posts in advance to plan your content for the following weeks and even months. Use Facebook’s Creator Studio to create quality content and accomplish your business goals. Step 4: Grow Your Audience Growing your audience on Instagram is not about quantity but quality. You need to build long-lasting, friendly relationships with your audience, deliver exciting and relevant content at the right time. Here are some practical tips to help you collect more followers to engage with: Avoid fake followers. Real followers will notice if you have thousands of followers but very little engagement. It’s irrational to spend money on gathering fake subscribers because it only discredits your business page. Use geotags to boost local discovery. Tag your city or the location where the photo or video was taken to make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable. Run giveaways. This technique will help you acquire lots of new followers, improve your brand image, and boost engagement around your products. Use trends to gather broader audiences. You can use world events, trends, and memes to better deliver your message to your future customers. Add relevant hashtags to your posts, and more people will see your business as one that keeps up to speed. Ask users to follow you. Just like vloggers ask people to subscribe to their YouTube or Twitch channels, you can ask them to follow you on Instagram as well. Learn more about lead generation on Instagram with our guide. Step 5: Use Instagram Insights Instagram Insights is a business tool that helps companies achieve their marketing goals by analyzing comprehensive data about their followers. With Instagram Insights, you can determine which types of content your followers are most interested in and monitor their behavior on your page. Here are some insights about a specific Story. The tool shows how many people viewed this content and were redirected to a website or business profile. Instagram Insights also allows you to highlight your followers’ activity within the last seven days. It shows you how many people engaged with your brand, their demographics, including age and location. Learn more about Instagram Insights here. Step 6: Run Ad Campaigns Instagram ads help you boost your brand page, or specific products and services, fast. Craft ads that look similar to image and video posts, stories, and carousels. Let’s quickly review the Instagram ad types. Image ad. It appears as a regular image post but has a “Sponsored” mark at the top right-hand corner and the CTA “Shop now” at the bottom of the post. You can create such ads from scratch or promote existing posts to boost engagement around certain topics. An image with a carrier handling a box of peaches clarifies that the brand deals with fresh fruit delivery. The name of the page, “thepeachtruck” informs prospective customers that the company specializes in bulk deliveries. Video ad. It looks like a regular video post but also has a “Sponsored” mark and a CTA. Although videos take more effort and money to create, they are best at engaging with users. Videos also allow you to share more information in a short time span. The video ad below promotes an autopilot function on a new Volvo model. The short video manages to deliver a lot of information: the autopilot activates with the driver’s touch, it recognizes pedestrians, traffic, and difficult road junctions, while staying 100% safe. Ad in Stories. This ad type appears in Instagram Stories. Such ads have a “Sponsored” mark under the page name and a CTA at the bottom. Ads in Stories can have a few parts and redirect users to specific website pages. The stories ad below consist of three slides, each showing a different set of bedclothing. Once a user swipes up, they are redirected to a specific product page. Carousel ad. This ad type allows you to show up to 10 photos of your product in one post. Users can swipe to the right and left to compare them and proceed to shop with a CTA at the bottom of the post. The carousel ad below offers seven pairs of shoes for women from the FizzyGoblet’s Summer collection. The CTA automatically adjusts to the dominant color of the photo. With the last photo in the carousel, the CTA changes from “Learn more” to “Shop now.” Gallery ad. This ad looks like an image ad, but when users tap it, they see a catalog of relevant products with names and prices. This type of ad tends to speed up shopping and redirect users to checkout. This ad allows users to browse through the AshleyHomeStore catalog and choose the pieces of furniture to their liking. Once users tap the ad, it redirects them to the specific product page. Instagram explore ad. This advertisement appears in the Explore panel, where the Instagram algorithm previews different content based on users’ interests and behavior. There is no text, only a gallery of images and video previews. In the explore section below, the user taps on one of the images, and Instagram offers a feed consisting of similar pages, in this case, confectionary brands. Users can now browse through different pages and follow or message the ones they liked. Learn to create highly effective Instagram advertisements with Facebook’s course. Let’s finish this guide with some best practices to enrich your strategy. 4 Tips to Create an Effective Instagram Strategy Connect with Influencers Verify Your Business Page Leverage UGC Build an Aesthetic for your Instagram Feed We’ve collected four killer tips to help you create a robust Instagram marketing strategy. Here they are. Tip 1: Connect with Influencers Influencers are Instagram users, usually celebrities or experts in certain fields, that can promote your product to their audience. It’s crucial to only collaborate with influencers who work in a neighboring business field. Otherwise, followers will not take their message seriously, and it will be obvious that this is just an ad. You can see such an example below. Pay attention to the comments section. Even if there’s a lack of adequate engagement with this post, a person with vast reach, like Kylie Jenner, will undoubtedly find an audience. Tip 2: Verify Your Business Page A verification mark next to a business name adds authority and credibility to your Instagram profile. It informs followers that it’s safe to deal with your brand. To have your business page verified, go to your Settings, tap “Account,” and then tap “Request Verification.” Fill out the form, tap “Send,” and Instagram moderators will review your request. Tip 3: Leverage UGC Adding user-generated content to your feed and stories shows your business is trustworthy and approved by real customers. Tag your followers and make communication even more close and friendly. Tip 4: Build an Aesthetic for your Instagram Feed It’s essential to make your business account have an appealing overall look to make the right first impression. To achieve this, create posts within a specific color palette, and use tools to preview the look of your Instagram feed, for example, PreviewApp. Check out a brilliant example of an Instagram feed. Unbirthday.co designs its feed focusing on pink, mint, and brown colors, combining their product images with user-generated content. Congratulations, you’ve learned the basics of Instagram marketing strategy, and you are ready to promote your business on Instagram!

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that uses influencers to promote a brand to a larger market. Influencers are opinion leaders with a social following base. They appear as experts or trustworthy sources of information. In the video below,Alex explains how toidentify the right influencers, craft compelling campaigns, and measure success. If you want to explore the benefits of influencer marketing, grab some useful tips, and learn from some examples, read on. In this article, we’ll also teach you how to start influencer marketing for your brand. Why is Influencer Marketing Important? Influencer marketing is closely related to social media marketing, as most opinion leaders gather their audience from social platforms. This channel gives you access to an enormous audience – half of the global population uses social networks. Better yet, influencer marketing enables you to reach people you can't attain through traditional advertising. Two-thirds of consumers use ad blockers, but the same people willingly take advice from influencers. Brands that already employ influencer marketing have proven the effectiveness of this channel. It’s no wonder 17% of companies spend over half their marketing budget on influencers. So, influencer marketing is crucial in the age of social media and ad fatigue. This channel helps build trust for your brand and drives impressive results. Now, let’s move on to the other benefits influencer marketing provides. Benefits of Influencer Marketing Brand awareness growth Content strategy enrichment Quality lead generation Cost-effectiveness Influencer marketing is an effective way to improve your marketing strategy, reach business objectives, and even cut expenses. Let’s get into details and find the benefits influencer marketing has for your brand. Brand awareness growth 40% of marketers use influencer marketing to boost brand awareness, and this strategy works great. Opinion leaders share your brand’s story, mission, and values with their follower base. It automatically expands your outreach and positioning online. Content strategy enrichment Influencer marketing is a golden opportunity to liven up your social media posts. You can repost the influencer’s content or encourage their followers to create user-generated content, as 24% of brands do. You can also use blogger’s images for other marketing channels, such as targeted advertising. To avoid problems with copyright, include it in the contract. Quality lead generation 36% of brands use influencer marketing to generate leads. 72% of them believe that this channel brings higher quality leads compared to other channels. People generally feel positive about the brands their favorite blogger advertises. Better yet, some types of content, such as reviews, attract warmer leads in the middle stages of the sales funnel. Cost-effectiveness Other marketing channels require regular influxes of cash from your budget. For instance, to promote your brand through search engine marketing, you have to top-up your account on the advertising platform. Otherwise, your ad disappears from the search engine results page. A well-thought-out influencer marketing strategy can drive better results for lower fees or even allow you to barter in the future. Another note on influencer marketing efficacy – on average, brands make $5.20 for every $1 spent on this channel. Influencer marketing can contribute to your business by helping you grow brand awareness and online presence, as well as ensuring lead generation. Depending on your objectives, you can choose different types of influencer marketing campaigns. Types of Influencer Marketing Social media takeover Affiliate marketing Sponsored content Unboxings Brand ambassador programs Since influencer marketing is around, brands and opinion leaders have developed various types of campaigns. Let’s unpack some popular tactics that you can use in your influencer marketing strategy. Social media takeover This type of influencer marketing works great for growing your follower base on social networks. However, it takes a lot of courage as the brand delegates running its account to an influencer for an agreed period of time. Most often, a brand lets an influencer manage their profile for a day. Another option is to invite an opinion leader to run a stream, as Miele did in the example below. They invited chefs Kyle Connaughton, Helena Rizzo, Gaggan Anand, and Paco Roncero to hold a series of online cooking events. Affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is a relatively cheap and effortless way to generate leads. This strategy boils down to paying an influencer for each customer who came from their website or social media account. Meanwhile, you don’t have to waste time choosing influencers and negotiating – simply publish an affiliate program on your website and wait. Here is an example of affiliate marketing from The points guy blog, owned by the influencer, Brian Kelly. The blog is dedicated to cutting travel costs, and Brian offers ways to do so using credit, travel, and hotel cards. Apart from reviews, the blogger publishes offers from partners and gains points and benefits from each purchase. Sponsored content This type of influencer marketing often appears on Instagram. Brands pay for publishing a promotional post on the influencer’s account. The opinion leader takes care of content creation and puts out a post made according to the client's guidelines. In the example below, jewelry brand Stone armory united forces with Gwen Rachel, who has over 200 thousand followers. The blogger took a picture of herself wearing Stone armory jewelry and featured the company’s account in the caption. Unboxings Brands often send gifts to influencers hoping that the social media star will open and review them. It costs next to nothing compared with the fees influencers charge for advertising. However, this strategy is quite risky. First of all, the opinion leader may not review your product at all. Another point is the influencer’s negative feedback often becomes dangerous for brands. Finally, sometimes businesses lay themselves out to please bloggers but cut corners packing orders for customers, which drives backlash. So, work around these possibilities before employing this tactic. The cosmetics brand, Too Faced, impresses influencers with breathtaking gifs for years now. Here is an example – YouTuber AleLaChula got the full collection of Too Faced products for free. The gift was so good the influencer created an unboxing video, which gained 45 thousand views. Brand ambassador programs Some people love specific brands so much that they are ready to promote them even for free. Influencers are no exception, so companies offer them brand ambassador programs. This tactic works because opinion leaders recommend their favorite brands heartily. Sportswear brand, Lululemon, works with an extensive network of ambassadors and features them on its social media accounts. In the example below, you can see a video by Charlie Dark on the company’s Instagram profile. Charlie talks about the ups and downs of 2020 and shows his friends wearing Lululemon clothing. We’ve explored five common types of influencer marketing. There are many more of them, as influencers and brands united have limitless creativity. However, setting up influencer marketing for your company boils down to a simple algorithm. You’ll learn more about it further. Influencer Marketing Strategy Define your target audience Set goals and KPIs Find the right channel Determine your campaign budget Pick the right influencers Set up the campaign It’s about time to put your influencer marketing strategy into practice. To get the ball rolling, follow the step-by-guide we’ve crafted for you. 1. Define your target audience Pinpointing your target audience is the core of every kind of promotional campaign. There are a lot of ways to find this group of potential customers. You may go for people who resemble your best clients. Survey your clientele and define what social media channels and influencers they prefer, the values they share, how they make purchase decisions, and so on. If your goal is to win new audiences, you need to explore them from scratch. Start by answering the following questions about your audience: Who are they? Define their age, social status, income, pain points, and so on. What is their stage in the marketing funnel? You can rely on different marketing tools, such as Ben Hunt’s customer awareness ladder. What are their interests? To spot them, you can study content on the platforms your prospects prefer, find online forums and media, explore social media profiles, and so on. What are their behaviors? Focus on the studies big brands and agencies publish. Opt for reports on social media, media consumption, or influencer marketing. Encapsulate this data in customer profiles to keep it on hand and address the information anytime you need. To create a buyer persona, follow our comprehensive guide. 43% of people use social networks to research products before buying them. To make use of this, apply the jobs-to-be-done approach. Define why people search for your products and in which situations they use them. It will help you address their needs with your influencer marketing campaigns. 2. Set goals and KPIs Like any other type of promotional campaign, influencer marketing can be used to pursue various goals. Your task is to form your objectives clearly, as the mechanics you’ll employ depend on it. Remember to set key performance indicators – they help you understand whether you achieved the desired outcomes or not. Here are examples of KPIs for brand awareness campaigns: total outreach; total engagement; traffic to your website (e.g., views, uniques, clicks); search interest; media mentions. If your influencer marketing campaign aims at sales or specific user actions, make them your indicator. In this case, the KPIs are the number of purchases, registrations, app downloads, email signups, and more. Avoid setting several goals for one piece of content – contradictory calls to action confuse users and decrease your conversion rate. To get the best results, follow our guide on conversion rate optimization. 3. Find the right channel Marketers believe that specific social media platforms can be more or less valuable for influencer marketing. However, Instagram won’t necessarily be the best option for you. Pick a platform by relying mainly on your audience’s interests, business goals, and the opportunities each channel provides. For instance, B2B businesses may benefit more from choosing LinkedIn. This channel accumulates 630 million professionals and 90 million senior-level influencers. Take all the statistics above with a grain of salt. Eventually, the only proven way to find the perfect channel for you is testing. Pick several platforms your audience may be present on and run low-cost effective campaigns to choose the best option. 4. Determine your campaign budget This step is essential, as total campaign outreach depends on the budget you allocate. Influencers set prices according to the size of their follower base, market rates, advertiser interests, and so on. Thus, a post on account with 1 million followers may cost you thousands of dollars. If you’re tight on budget, opinion leaders with smaller follower bases may be a better option. They can help you achieve your objectives for smaller investments. You can also test the effectiveness of influencer marketing for your brand nano- and micro-influencers. Chances are a limited budget won’t allow you to achieve all of the desired results with only an influencer marketing campaign. So, revise your goals and KPIs according to the resources you have when you get started. 5. Pick the right influencers All of the work done in the previous steps flops if you choose the wrong influencer. For a perfect match, pick an opinion leader who shares your brand’s values. Do not promote a sustainable fashion brand through shopaholic bloggers. Opt for influencers who advocate minimalism, zero waste, awareness, and so on. Another problem with influencer marketing is the risk of scams and fake followers. To reduce the odds of being fooled, check the influencer’s account carefully. Look over the number of bots or fake subscribers that are subscribed to the influencer. To measure this, use special tools, such as trendHERO. Make sure followers catch up with the influencer's updates. You can request account statistics on the engagement rate from the profile owner. Beware of account duplicates – check the name and contacts several times. Ensure that the influencer's audience is loyal. Some bloggers can gather more haters than advocates. Promoting through them won’t get you new subscribers or sales, so examine the comment section. Choosing the right influencer is arduous work. You can do it manually if you have a limited list of opinion leaders to work with. Another option is to use platforms to find and check influencers – such as Markerly or Klear. 6. Set up the campaign On average, content creation is the influencer’s job. However, you should communicate your campaign expectations and goals clearly if you want to achieve your goals. The best option is to craft a campaign brief, which includes the following points. Define the platform and profile. Many influencers own several accounts on various channels. Explain the campaign goals. Provide the opinion leader with clear-cut CTAs. List messaging points. Create a roster of fewer than four things the influencer should say about your product. The final recommendation is to develop a contract with a blogger. The document should clarify campaign details, duties of participants, the terms of content ownership, deadlines, desirable outcomes, and guarantees. Include any points you may find important or controversial and be precise about each of them. Remind the blogger to work according to FTC guidelines – federal rules that prohibit unfair or deceptive advertising. How to measure influencer marketing success Many brands struggle to measure an influencer marketing campaign’s effectiveness. The ways to evaluate it depend on the goals and KPIs you set for the campaign. If your goal is to boost brand awareness or social media visibility, track impressions, engagement rate, and outreach. The best way to do so is to request statistics from the influencer you worked with. If you want to track search interest and media mentions, do it with Google Analytics and internet monitoring software. It’s even easier to track leads and sales. You can use tracked links, which will show the source of each contact for purchase you receive. Craft them with UTM link builders, such as Tilda or Google Analytics. Remember to shorten links with special services – they will look nicer on social media. Another way to track leads is to use promo codes. You can create a unique code for each influencer or the whole campaign. This decision depends on how detailed the end data should be. This tactic has one more advantage – it provides the additional incentive to make a purchase. Use this algorithm to make sure you don’t miss something important while launching your influencer marketing campaign. To take your influencer marketing to the next level, follow the tips we’ve prepared for you. Influencer Marketing Tips Look for engagement, not followers Go for micro-influencers Build long-term partnerships Invest in video makers There is a simple business rule: everything that can go wrong will go wrong. The tips below will help you reduce the odds of making crucial mistakes. Look for engagement, not followers Number of followers used to be the primary metric for evaluating an account. However, focusing on the number of subscribers alone is the wrong tactic. Assess the engagement rate as well. To get statistics on this indicator, look at the numbers of likes, views, and especially comments. The latter provides the most useful insights – if an influencer has only emojis or one-word phrases in the comment section, it’s a red flag. Go for micro-influencers When speaking about influencer marketing, brands often mean promotion through medium and mega influencers. These are accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers. The truth is, opinion leaders with smaller follower bases can be more effective in terms of engagement. As you can see in the table below, micro-and nano-influencers have the highest engagement rates across various platforms. Thus, promoting your brand through these accounts can bring you better brand awareness and sales. Build long-term partnerships Working with several influencers is a more effective strategy than sticking to just one social media star. However, trying to embrace as many opinion leaders as possible is not the best tactic either. The best option is to make a list of bloggers and work with them repeatedly, building long-term relationships. Consistency brings the best results – the core principle for various channels, including influencer marketing. When people come across your brand once and again, they are more likely to become paying customers. Invest in video makers Video grows more and more popular every day. Even now, 4 out of 5 millennials prefer videos to other types of content. Meanwhile, traditional video advertising on YouTube does not work so well – viewers hate intrusive commercials and block them. The solution for brands is to go for influencers, who create videos. Although YouTube is the primary video platform, you can find influencers who work with video content on Instagram, Twitter, and other social networks. So, you don’t have to sacrifice your target audience preferences to support this trend. We’ve unpacked the definition of influencer marketing, its types, benefits, strategy, and some useful tips. Enough theory – it’s time for practical examples! Influencer Marketing Examples Like any other marketing strategy, influencer marketing requires offbeat tactics. Let’s explore some examples from brands that got creative and won the audience. Daniel Wellington Swedish watch brand, Daniel Wellington may be the most famous for influencer marketing. The company advertises mostly through opinion leaders across various platforms and countries. Now, the #danielwellington hashtag accounts for 2.3 million Instagram posts and thousands of YouTube videos. Daniel Wellington focuses on influencers in lifestyle and fashion niches. In the example below, you can see a promotional post from Instagram influencer, Heather Poppie. The blogger shows an alluring picture of herself wearing Daniel Wellington watches and a ring. In the caption to this post, Heather offers a unique promo code to get 15% off a purchase from the brand. Nike Nike decided to go off the beaten track with its influencer marketing campaign. The brand promoted its Air VaporMax collection on the "What's Inside?" channel on YouTube. Together, Nike and "What's Inside?" created a series of sponsored videos. It included a piece of content with Air VaporMax shoes in frame, an unboxing video, and the main video. The latter demonstrated a sliced pair of branded sneakers. This brilliant decision allowed the blogger to showcase the shoes and prove all their benefits while keeping viewers entertained. Turkish Airlines Turkish Airlines started their influencer marketing campaign unintentionally. The company just happened to be the only one flying to Somalia during the humanitarian crisis. Snapchat influencer Jerome Jarre noticed it and launched a campaign with the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia to raise money for the country. Within several days, the initiative got a lot of buzz and support from celebrities. As a result, the campaign raised one million dollars in just 24 hours. In the video below, Turkish Airlines confessed they knew nothing before seeing the hashtag trending on Twitter. However, the company sent ten planes with drinking water and food to Somalia, and agreed to aid the country over the next six months. This move increased Turkish Airlines’ brand awareness and reputation. BECCA Cosmetics BECCA Cosmetics builds its influencer marketing by collaborating with social media stars. Several years ago the brand coupled with Chrissy Teigen and launched a cosmetics collection. The announcement video generated just under 5 million views, and the brand decided to extend this practice. In 2020, BECCA Cosmetics united forces with Barbie Ferreira, who has 2.3 million followers. Together the brand and the influencer produced a cosmetics collection called Prismatica. Both sides of this collaboration cross-promoted the product on their platform repeatedly and consistently. In the example below, BECCA Cosmetics showcases the product on their account, while Barbie demonstrates the makeup looks made with the palette on her profile. Influencer marketing is an effective way to strengthen your online presence, boost brand awareness, and acquire high-quality leads. To get better outcomes, combine this channel with others – email marketing, SMS, web push notifications, and chatbots. Register with LIKE.TG and apply them to your marketing strategy.

Instagram promotion is a specific type of Instagram marketing, which implies converting regular Instagram posts and Stories into paid ones. These publications have higher outreach and engagement and work great for boosting your brand awareness and visibility. In this video, Alex shares key techniques to maximize your brand's visibility and engagement on Instagram, from leveraging hashtags to creating compelling content. Why is Instagram Good for Promotion? If you want to zero in on uplifting brand awareness, Instagram promotion is a must-have for your business. This social network accumulates over 1 billion active users every month, and 90% of them follow at least one business account. Another reason to make use of Instagram promotion is the opportunity to build close relationships with your customers. Instagram users actively engage with brands online – the average engagement rate on this social network is 1.6% per post. For comparison, on Facebook and Twitter, these rates are 0.09% and 0.048%. Better yet, Instagram promotion can stimulate sales growth. 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand if they follow it on social media — 65% buy from a brand after seeing it on Instagram. According to this data, paid promotion on Instagram is worth investing in, especially if your goal is to increase brand awareness and your engagement rate. Your brand’s sales and ROI may benefit from your Instagram presence, as well. To help you make the most of Instagram promotion, let’s explore how this feature works. How Does Instagram Promotion Work? Instagram post promotion Instagram Stories and Highlights promotion Promotions button on your profile Instagram promotion option allows you to convert regular posts, Stories, Highlights, or Stories Archives into sponsored ones. This change brings a handful of benefits, such as the opportunity to reach a broader audience, make your content more visible, and add clickable calls to action (CTA). That is why you should distinguish two types of paid content: Instagram promotion – you promote your own content. It's marked as Sponsored. In this article, we describe this type. Influencer marketing – you collaborate with influencers to create and post content in their profiles promoting your goods and services. It's marked as a Paid partnership. Read more about influencer marketing. Promoted posts get sponsored labels and CTAs. You may choose to nudge the post viewers to visit your Instagram profile, direct message you, or visit your landing page. In the latter case, Instagram lets you choose from pre-written calls to action, such as Learn More, Shop Now, Contact Us, and more. The publication may appear in the users’ newsfeeds, Stories, and Explore sections. Here is an example of a typical promoted post on Instagram. The aim of the promotion here is to encourage viewers to visit an Instagram profile. Paid promotion of Instagram content is available only for business profiles. This type of account has other advantages over personal ones: they show the real-time performance of your posts, statistics on your followers, and so on. To set up a business profile for Instagram, follow our step-by-step guide. Another point to consider is that you need Facebook Ads to launch and manage Instagram campaigns. To access it, link a Facebook account to your Instagram profile or follow Facebook’s guide on creating Instagram ads. Now we’ll delve deeper into converting organic content to sponsored content. Let’s unpack the process for regular posts, Stories, Highlights, and the Promotion button on your profile. Instagram post promotion To start a post promotion, go to your Instagram profile and choose the publication you’d like to promote. Tap the Promote button, which will open the settings of your promotional campaign. To get off the ground, choose the destination for the post viewers; it may be your profile, website, or direct messages. Base the decision on your goals. If you’d like to grow your Instagram follower base, opt for driving people to your profile. To nudge the audience down the sales funnel, go for your website or direct messages. In the second step, you need to pick an audience. If you choose the auto settings, Instagram will show your post to people similar to your current followers. To pinpoint the most promising prospects, set the criteria manually. Knowing your customer profile will come in handy to leverage better results. Follow our guide on creating a buyer persona for your business. In the final stages, Instagram lets you set up a daily budget and the duration of the promotion (from 1 to 30 days) and shows you an overview of your campaign. Here is how the whole process of setting up a promotional campaign for your post will look: Instagram Stories and Highlights promotion Setting up a promotional campaign for Stories and Highlights resembles the post promotion process, except for the initial steps. To get the ball rolling, you need to choose a Story or Highlight, tap the side menu, and opt for the Promote command. Consider that the Instagram promotion feature doesn’t support tappable elements. Thus, you can’t take advantage of polls, questions, quizzes, countdowns, and other interactive elements in Stories and Highlights. However, promoting this type of content is worthwhile – 500 million people watch Stories every day. It’s a whopping audience to reach. Promotions button on your profile This way of promoting your content on Instagram has a huge benefit compared with previous ones. It allows you to streamline the process by offering top-performing posts for promotion. This option is a way out when you are puzzled over which piece of content to promote. We’ve unveiled the mechanics and facilities of Instagram promotion. Now it’s time to learn how to implement it into your marketing strategy. Read on to learn more about the best practices, tips, and ideas to adopt. How to Promote Your Page on Instagram: Ideas, Examples, and Tips Combine paid promotion with unpaid tricks Promote your top-performing content Employ Stories and Highlights Choose content carefully Make sure your content is mobile-friendly Instagram promotion is a simple yet powerful tool that can take your social media marketing to the next level. However, allocating your budget is not enough to reach your goals with sponsored content. To make it do the trick, you need to use smart tactics. We’ve picked several tips and ideas that you can stick to and achieve your business objectives. Combine paid promotion with unpaid tricks To achieve sustainable results, promoting specific posts is not enough. Take a complex approach and employ paid and organic tactics. Start by creating an Instagram promotion plan – follow our guide on crafting an Instagram marketing strategy. Couple paid promotional activities with influencer marketing. This move will bump up your outreach, engagement, and ROI – on average, brands earn $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. Another point to consider is adding locations to your promoted posts and tag other accounts. According to Adweek, simply tagging users in your posts can boost engagement by 56%. Adding locations can drive a 79% increase for this indicator. Promote your top-performing content The number one best practice to adopt is making use of your best-performing content. You may want to bring out a completely new promotional campaign and create fresh content for it. However, reusing your current pieces of content may save you tons of time and effort. To optimize Instagram promotion, brush through the organic posts on your page, and find the most engaging ones. Paid advertising can inject new life into these publications and provide a great response from a wider audience. The non-profit United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) applied this tactic for its fundraising campaign promotion. The association posted a video with Liam Neeson and other celebrities on its account to raise money for Yemen. The post got over 11,000 views and over 1,800 likes. The organization decided to reuse this content for paid advertising. As a result, the promoted post got over 200,000 views and roughly 6,500 likes. Employ Stories and Highlights Instagram’s promotion feature allows adding calls to action to regular posts. This peculiarity can make Stories and Highlights the first thing to go out of the window as they vanish 24 hours after publication. However, it’s better to employ the power of this format. Stories are a rapidly growing type of content – they are growing 15x faster than feed-based sharing. Better yet, they work well for promoting businesses as 62% of people said they’ve become more interested in brands or products after seeing it in Stories. Choose content carefully Instagram users are fastidious when it comes to the content they consume. There are thousands of tips and tricks for promoting content on Instagram. Here are the main tactics you can stick to: Make your promoted content look organic. Ad-like creatives with huge logos or calls to action repel Instagram users. 78% of followers unfollow brands if they post too much promotional content. Posts you promote should blend perfectly with other content in a viewers' newsfeed. To express your brand personality, use recognizable traits, such as your signature color. Post faces to drive engagement. According to Georgia Tech, Instagram posts with faces get 38% more likes and 32% more comments. So, change the game and use photos with a model or brand representative. Make the most of UGC. User-generated content can work wonders for your Instagram marketing. It drives a 4.5% higher conversion rate, boosts engagement, and improves cost-per-click metrics. Play around with using UGC for your promotional posts. Remember to tag the authors – Instagram requires you to respect intellectual property rights. The high-end fashion store, Tsum, employs two of the tactics listed above. The company went for an organic-looking photograph of a glamorous woman. The image does not contain huge taglines or dazzling branding, except the logo on the eyeshadow palette in the model's hands. Make sure your content is mobile-friendly If you drive audiences from promotional posts to your website, this tip is for you. Optimizing your landing pages seems obvious, as 91% of users access social networks from mobile devices. However, websites that work incorrectly on mobile devices are common. Make sure your ad and landing page have the same design, address the same audience, use the same call to action and copywriting style. The harmonized landing page and ad lead to a 39% increase in conversion. To get even better results, follow our guide on increasing your landing page conversion rate. The tips and tactics listed above will help you make the most of your Instagram promotion. However, the main piece of advice is to remember to budget your paid promotion expenditures. Let’s try to predict the promotion cost for your business. How Much Does Instagram Promotion Cost? To start discussing your Instagram promotion budget, let’s take a once-over of the network’s terms and conditions. According to the rules, you need to choose the total sum you want to spend on post promotion. Then you set a promotion duration, and the social network automatically decides how much money it can write off every day. You can never go out of the limits of your total budget. The process is clear-cut, but you may still struggle to figure out the budget you need for leveraging your Instagram promotion goals. To clarify this issue, consider addressing the cost-per-click (CPC) indicator. According to AdEspresso, the average CPC for Instagram ads hovers between $0.50 and $1.00. For highly competitive industries, such as apparel, the cost can reach up to $3.00 per click. To broaden the perspective, take a look at the landscape photographer’s experience. The person spent $50 on promoting an Instagram post and reached over 32,500 people, and got 43 profile visits. Thus, the cost per click was a little over $1, which more or less matches the indicator provided by AdEspresso. Instagram promotion is a great way to make your brand more visible online and get new leads. To make full use of it, take care of your lead-nurturing process, and employ various marketing channels. Email marketing, chatbots, push notifications, and SMS can come in handy to convert your prospects into paying customers. Register with LIKE.TG to implement these channels into your marketing strategy at an easy rate.

An information product is a piece of knowledge you sell digitally to students, allowing them to download or access a product via the internet. Examples include online courses, templates, events, webinars, ebooks, and many more. You can successfully promote your information products with LIKE.TG’s online course builder, email service, and chatbots. Why should you create information products? Selling information products is excellent for those who want to share their knowledge and skills with others but don’t have a huge budget to bring them to life. Ebooks, webinars, online events, courses, and coaching don’t require you to have lots of resources. You can start at home using a course builder or creating a template. Afterward, you can share your product through social media channels like Instagram and Facebook, or special marketplaces like Udemy, YouTube, Teachable, or Skillshare. Setting up the process and creating your product is easier and faster than establishing a company from scratch and hiring professionals. You can do everything on your own if you have valuable knowledge that people need and are willing to pay well for it. Your main task is to show your expertise in the field and create a quality product that brings value. For instance, if you are a professional SMM manager with huge experience in the field, you can transform your knowledge into an online course. Interested people will appreciate your work and join the classes to receive useful insights. Information products allow you to share your expertise and make money while students get the knowledge they need without visiting special academies offline. Now that you have some reasons to develop an information product, let’s discover the types of products you can create. Types of Information Products We’ve already mentioned that now when the popularity of information products is rising, there are various forms. In this section, we’ll unveil the most popular so that you can decide which one will serve your purpose. Online courses. Covid-19 gave impetus to the development of online education. Teachers, experts, marketing agencies, and schools found a way to share knowledge and skills by working from home. It gave a push for online courses. These are learning programs organized into units containing different information. Students can gain the necessary knowledge in virtual space. Depending on your requirements, it might take you a week or a year to create a quality course. If you have specific knowledge in certain areas, you can share your expertise and make money without any need to meet up with students face-to-face. LIKE.TG’s online course creator enables you to design professional courses within minutes with the help of professional ready-to-go templates. Ebooks. When people become more conscious about the environment, readers switch to electronic books like Kindle. They use laptops or smartphones to explore new sources of information. That’s why many experts create ebooks. It will take several weeks to write an ebook and share it with your audience. Workbooks and templates. Online learning opened new types of businesses. When people lack skills in specific fields, they search for templates. Templates are useful both for students and workers. For example, to design a professional CV, you should know how to make it right. The process might take a lot of effort and time if you do it for the first time. However, special platforms and websites help you design eye-catching and good-looking CVs based on your job position. Probably everyone knows Canva, a graphic design company that enables you to make social media graphics and presentations with pre-written templates. Workbooks bring many advantages to students: they help keep all information in one place and recall fast, allow students to practice their skills, and make lessons more effective. Membership websites. There are many communities shaped based on people’s specific needs, desires, skills, interests, etc. If you create such a community, you can sell membership plans to your students. Choose a topic you specialize in and conduct research to find out how many people might be interested. If you find your area popular, you can establish a website and develop a membership. To gain value from the website and access your content, people will need to pay a certain amount of money. It’s your way of making money online. Webinars. A webinar is an online event you host on a specific platform for your audience to provide them with specific knowledge. With a webinar, you can reach your viewers online via the internet and share all the essential information with them during the scheduled time. It’s a convenient and cost-effective way of online teaching since it doesn’t require you to spend a lot of time and resources to create it. An average webinar lasts around 60 minutes, so you won’t need much effort to prepare one for your students. However, it will help you promote your product and encourage people to engage. Now that you know the types of information products, it’s time to find out how to create one. How to create an information product? In this section, we’ll unveil how to develop an information product step by step. Follow our guide to obtain good results and reach your business goal. Research popular information products. The first step requires you to research the market. It will help you determine which information products people prefer the most and where the competition is the lowest. This way, you’ll be able to successfully enter the market and build your audience. Discover new marketplaces for online courses like Coursera and Udemy if you focus on this type of product. With their help, you’ll be able to identify the most popular courses. Explore other sources of information to look for data about other information products. Decide on the product you want to create. Once you conduct research, choose one product you want to create. Analyze all the pros and cons to be aware of when developing your information product. You should also make sure that you and your team have all the necessary skills and knowledge to present a quality product that is valuable for your students. Create and launch. When developing an information product, make sure that it’s actionable. If you teach something, be as simple and clear as possible so that students can perceive your information well. Your product should not confuse, but rather explain everything clearly. After explaining topics in detail, provide examples and case studies. This is the best way for students to figure out how it works. After ensuring everything is ready, feel free to launch your product. When promoting your information product, select the channels your audience prefers the most, like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, and set up chatbots with LIKE.TG. Find the best ways of promotion. Use paid advertising for social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and search ads to reach your audience. Conduct research to identify where your potential clients spend most of their time and target these platforms. You can use affiliate marketing. Find partner websites, companies, or individuals to promote your information product. Establishing a community is also a great idea for attracting students. However, it might take longer than launching a paid ad on Instagram. Consider writing blog posts, hosting free events, offering a complimentary upgrade to your potential clients, and running giveaways to draw attention to your product. Use LIKE.TG’s bulk email service to spread the word about your events and offers. Evaluate the results. Once you release your product and promote it through popular platforms and search ads, it’s time for assessment. Analyze your results and find gaps. These areas should be improved for better results. Now that you know how to create an information product, you need to understand how to promote it on the internet. In the next section, you’ll find effective approaches to create buzz around your product. How to promote an information product? The channels you choose to promote your information product depend on your target audience and marketing strategy. We’ll provide you with the most appropriate scenario marketers use to promote products via the internet. Create a landing page. It will serve you as a place where people will find out all the details about your product and explore its value. Consider creating a lead magnet offering to subscribe to your yoga lessons on YouTube. With LIKE.TG, you can design your landing page based on your requirements by using templates. It will take you minutes to create a landing page that will attract people and encourage them to buy your information product. Buy paid advertising on social media. Once you develop a landing page, it’s time to think about promotion on social media. With these platforms, you’ll be able to bring prospects to your website. After purchasing space on Instagram or Facebook, you can display your ads or sponsored marketing messages on these networks and target specific audience segments. This way, you’ll be able to generate organic traffic to your website and communicate the necessary message to your potential students. Use a chatbot to communicate with your prospects. After users subscribe to your updates, you can launch a series of messages via your chatbot. This series of welcome messages will provide your potential students with all the details about the course, experts, webinars, and other events. Once your prospects explore all the peculiarities, the chatbot will offer to get a free introductory lesson or a discount for your online course. LIKE.TG empowers you to develop various scenarios of chatbots for Instagram, Facebook, and Telegram without any knowledge of the code and the help of developers. Send a video lesson to tell the details of your product. If users agree to accept your free introductory lesson, you can share specific information and invite them to explore the topic more deeply. Interest your future students with the information and skills they searched for. Ensure your lessons, tips, and best practices will be helpful. Provide a discount for your product to attract more students. Set up your chatbot to send a message with a discount to encourage prospective customers to join your courses, classes, or events. An attractive offer will always make your users consider buying the course, joining the webinar, or purchasing your templates. To stimulate the fear of missing out, consider offering a limited-time offer and encouraging you to pay immediately to keep the discount. Now that you know the best ways of promotion, it’s time to see some examples to give you some inspiration for your future product. Examples of Information Products You can find information products on the internet, and their variety impresses. More and more people depend on the internet to gain new knowledge and skills in multiform areas. Let’s explore some of the most popular types of information products from famous companies. Club Life Design — Online Academy Club Life Design is a great example of an academy with online courses. Students learn how to create quality content that attracts followers, grows their communities, and establishes income streams. The academy provides courses about building a successful account on Instagram, photo editing, posing, etc. YogaAnytime — Membership Site YogaAnytime provides you with yoga classes of different levels you can access anytime and anywhere. After signing up, you get a 15-day free trial to explore 150+ yoga shows featuring a theme, teacher, or style so that you can personalize your yoga classes based on your skills and needs. With this membership site, you can learn different types of yoga, like Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Restorative Yin, and Kundalini. Videos help you learn to meditate and chant. Center for Creative Leadership — Webinar On the website, you can find plenty of webinars that focus on leadership skills. The speaker in the pre-recorded video narrates how to become an effective leader, provides four key timeless leadership skills, and how to enhance the portfolio of leadership skills. Psychology in Your Life —eBook eBooks occupy an important part of human life. They help people gain new knowledge, get new skills, and improve themselves without harming nature. “Psychology in Your Life” is one of the examples of books popular among young people. It conveys the importance of psychology in students' everyday lives. Congrats, now you know the most popular types of information products and how to promote them. Register with LIKE.TG to create an online course, design a landing page, and launch a chatbot for better promotion.

Instagram eCommerce is a combination of marketing and selling products using this social network as a platform. Brands create their business profiles on Instagram, grow their follower bases, and promote products using various content and ad types. In this video, a LIKE.TG marketer shares tips on promoting your products on Instagram. In 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Since then, it has become a massive communication, marketing, and advertising platform. There were 25 million active business accounts active on Instagram by 2017. In 2020, Instagram launched a wide range of features designed specifically for eCommerce. These features are collectively called “Instagram Shopping,” and, in short, they allow you to do the following: create a customizable business page with online store functionality; add product tags with a name and price that will make your Instagram content shoppable; complete the entire ordering process without making users leave the app; sell your products directly from influencers’ posts; make live presentations of your products and convert customers in real time. We’ll review Instagram Shopping features later in this guide. Now, let’s check out some statistics and find out how useful Instagram is for running a business. Is Instagram good for eCommerce? We’ve collected eight facts to prove that Instagram is an efficient platform for your eCommerce brand. Check them out: 90% of users follow at least one business page on Instagram; 130 million Instagram users tap at least one shopping post monthly; 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile every day; 11% of U.S. social media users shop on Instagram; 75% of shopping mavens and 70% of shopping enthusiasts turn to Instagram monthly; 60% percent of people claim they have discovered new products on Instagram; 33% of the most-viewed Instagram Stories come from business accounts; 75% of the U.S. companies are expected to use Instagram in 2020. Nowadays, people expect their favorite brands to be present on social media. This is the main reason you should consider joining over 25 million businesses on Instagram. If you don’t know where to start, read on. How to Start Instagram eCommerce Get Approved for Shopping on Instagram Setup Your Business Instagram Account Upload Your Product Catalog Complete Your Account Review Turn on Shopping Start Adding Tags Take these six steps to open your shop on Instagram and gain access to Instagram Shopping features. Step 1: Get Approved for Shopping on Instagram Follow these requirements to use Facebook Commerce features, including Instagram Shopping. Comply with Facebook policies. Follow Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines. You also need to comply with Merchant Agreement, Commerce Policies, Ads Policies and Pages, Groups, and Events Policies. Run your business from your verified domain. Instagram may require you to undergo domain verification to ensure your Instagram business account is associated with your domain. Be located in a supported market. Operate your business from a country where Instagram Shopping features are available. You can find the list of these countries here. Demonstrate trustworthiness. Your Instagram business account must demonstrate an authentic, established presence and maintain a sufficient follower base. Provide accurate information. Only provide correct details about your product pricing and availability. Make your refund and return policies easy to access from your website or Instagram profile. If you fail to comply with any of these policies at any time, you may lose access to Facebook Commerce features (including Instagram Shopping), and even your account. Step 2: Setup Your Business Instagram Account Turn your existing Instagram profile into a Business account. It takes three steps: Switch to a Business Account. Go to your Settings, tap “Switch to a Business,” and tap “Continue.” Connect to your Facebook Page. Tap “Log in with Facebook,” choose the page you are an admin of, and tap “Next.” Setup your Business Profile. Enter your business email address, phone number, and physical address so that users can easily find and get in touch with your brand. Step 3: Upload Your Product Catalog Connect a product catalog with your Instagram Business Account in one of two ways: Use Catalog Manager. Facebook’s Catalog Manager can contain and hold information about all the items you plan to advertise or sell on Instagram and Facebook. Use this guide to create one. Use Instagram eCommerce platform partners. You can use eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce to create your product catalog. Step 4: Complete Your Account Review Once you’ve connected your catalog to your Instagram profile and added products to it, submit your account for review. Here’s how to complete your account review: Go to your Settings. Sign up for shopping. Submit your account for review. Check your status in the “Shopping” tab in your Settings at any time. Account review typically takes a few days, but Instagram may require additional information to prove that you own your website domain. If you receive such a notification, you need to verify your domain. Step 5: Turn on Shopping If you don’t see “Shopping” in your account settings, then your account is still under review. When your account is approved, turn on Shopping features with the following steps. Go to your Settings. Tap “Business” and then tap “Shopping.” Choose a product catalog to connect to your account. Step 6: Start Adding Tags This is necessary to make your Instagram content shoppable. Here’s how to tag a product in your image post: Tap “Add photo.” Add a caption. Tap on “Tag products.” Tap on a product in your photo. Choose a product from your Catalog. Tap “Done,” and then tap “Share.” And here’s how to add a shopping sticker to your Stories post: Find the sticker icon in the top right-hand corner. Select the product sticker from the sticker tray. Choose the product from your catalog. Move the product sticker so that it looks excellent in your story. Customize the text color of the product sticker by tapping it. Share your story. Now you’ve enabled Instagram Shopping features. Your next step is to collect a considerable follower base. Let’s find out how to do that. Instagram Shopping Features for eCommerce Open Your Shop Get Discovered on Instagram Shop Make Your Posts Shoppable with Shopping Tags Design Product Detail Pages Combine Product Pages into Collections Leverage Ads with Product Tags Enable Ordering via Checkout on Instagram Cooperate with Influencers and Creators Build Anticipation with Product Launches Present Your Products with Live Shopping eCommerce on Instagram heavily relies on Shopping features, which are basically an upgrade of Instagram’s regular features. Instagram Shopping helps brands make image and video posts, Stories, IGTV, and advertising shoppable. Before going further, we have to inform you that Instagram Shopping features currently only work in some countries. If your country is listed below, you can use Instagram Shopping to your advantage. Let’s see what options Instagram Shopping offers to your eCommerce brand. Step 1: Open Your Shop The “Shop” feature allows you to turn your business page into a customizable online storefront. By using it, you enable consumers to shop right on your Instagram business page. @spearmintbaby shows two collections above the fold: expensive children’s clothes, and gown and hat sets with a “Shop” CTA on each one. Scrolling down, users can sort and filter the products in a convenient order. Step 2: Get Discovered on Instagram Shop It’s an in-app shopping destination, where customers can discover products from all Instagram businesses — a kind of virtual mall. Don’t confuse Instagram Shop with the Shop feature. Instagram Shop is presented as a list of “Collections,” “Brands,” and product recommendations personalized based on user interest. To navigate there, people tap on the “Shop” tag in the “Explore” section. Step 3: Make Your Posts Shoppable with Shopping Tags Shopping tags allow you to connect products from your Product Catalog with your Instagram content and advertisements, making them shoppable. US brands that use Instagram’s Сheckout feature can also show their products in captions and bios with product mentions. Shopping Tags appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the post. This small icon allows users to quickly identify a piece of content as shoppable. Once people tap on a post, it highlights the item name and price and a “View Products” button, which leads to other products in the Catalog. Step 4: Design Product Detail Pages Such pages include a gallery of product photos, the sizes available, pricing, a product description, shipping, return details, and related product recommendations. When users tag your product in their posts, this content will display on a product detail page, providing your shoppers with additional visual information and social proof. Burberry’s product detail page displays men’s swimming shorts, seven sizes, a CTA that leads to checkout, and offers items to match this product. Step 5: Combine Product Pages into Collections These are customizable pages on your Shop to curate your products into themes. Customers can filter and sort items in your collections for better navigation. Every collection has a large image with title text to represent the entire collection, a short description of the collection, and a gallery of similar products for shoppers’ consideration. Each of these products in a gallery has a photo, item name, and price. Step 6: Leverage Ads with Product Tags You can boost your shoppable posts as ads or create ads from scratch using Facebook’s Ad Manager. These ads drive customers to checkout on your website or to checkout on Instagram. Maxwell Shoe’s shoppable ad has a “sponsored” mark below the username. When users tap on the photo in the post, they can see the product name and pricing, and proceed to a product detail page to find more information and make an order. Step 7: Enable Ordering via Checkout on Instagram This feature is currently only available for US-based creators and businesses that comply with Instagram policies. It allows you to sell products directly on Instagram so that shoppers can seamlessly buy products without leaving the app. Companies that can’t use Instagram Checkout can still use Facebook’s integration with Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, and complete orders outside Instagram. A tap on the shoppable post redirects to the product detail page and then to Checkout with Facebook Pay. To make a purchase, users only need to choose item specifications, fill in the delivery details, and add their credit card data. Step 8: Cooperate with Influencers and Creators Shopping from Creators allows people to shop directly from creators via Instagram Checkout. Companies can collaborate with Instagram creators and influencers, who earn a commission for promoting products to their followers. Camila Coelho, an Instagram Creator, created this post to promote a smartwatch in “paid partnership with” Michael Kors. Her followers need to tap on the image, then tap on a shopping tag with an item name and pricing, and proceed to checkout to purchase this product. Step 9: Build Anticipation with Product Launches This feature helps you announce upcoming product launches and enable Instagram users to set a reminder and purchase products as soon as they’re available. Instagram product launches are also only available for businesses that use the Checkout feature. Adidas announced a product launch in Stories and added a timer to create anticipation. When the time is up, interested consumers will tap the timer and proceed to a product detail page. Step 10: Present Your Products with Live Shopping With this new feature, creators, who use Instagram Checkout, can make inspiring Instagram Live presentations of their products and convert viewers into customers in real-time. Live Shopping is a regular Instagram Live stream upgraded with a tappable product section, leading to Checkout. The marketer from Ubeauty presents an $88 resurfacing compound while the public engages in the comments section. It’s time to explore what ad types you can utilize for your Instagram eCommerce strategy in addition to the ads with product tags we’ve already mentioned. 6 Instagram Ad Types for eCommerce Image Ad Video Ad Ad in Stories Carousel Ad Gallery Ad Instagram Explore Ad Instagram ads help you boost your brand’s page, specific products, and services. Let’s quickly review the types of ads available for your ecommerce on Instagram. Type 1: Image Ad It looks like a regular image post but has a “Sponsored” mark at the top right-hand corner and the CTA “Shop now” at the bottom of the post. You can create such ads from scratch or promote existing posts to boost engagement around specific topics. This ad tells us that the brand deals with fresh fruit delivery. The page name, @thepeachtruck, informs potential clients that the company delivers in bulk. Type 2: Video Ad It looks like a regular video post but also has a “Sponsored” mark and a CTA. Videos are best at engaging users, and they allow you to share more information in a shorter time. The video ad below promotes an autopilot function in a new Volvo. The short video delivers a lot of information: the autopilot activates with the driver’s touch and recognizes pedestrians, traffic, and difficult road junctions. Type 3: Ad in Stories This ad type appears in Instagram Stories. They have a “Sponsored” mark under the page name and a CTA at the bottom. Ads in Stories can consist of a few parts and redirect users to specific website pages. The ad in Stories below has three slides, each shows a different set of bed clothing. Once a user swipes up, they are redirected to the specific product page. Type 4: Carousel Ad This ad type allows you to highlight up to 10 product photos in one post. Users can swipe around, choose their favorite item, and proceed to shop with a CTA at the bottom of the post. The carousel ad from @fizzygoblet offers seven pairs of women’s shoes. The CTA automatically adjusts to the dominant color of the photo. With the last picture in the carousel, the CTA changes from “Learn more” to “Shop now.” Type 5: Gallery Ad This ad type is similar to an image ad, but a catalog of relevant products with names and prices pops up when users tap it. Gallery ads tend to speed up shopping and redirect users to checkout fast. With this ad, users can browse through pieces of furniture in the @ashleyhomestore catalog. Once users tap the ad, it redirects them to the specific product page. Type 6: Instagram Explore Ad This advertisement appears in the Explore panel, where Instagram shows a gallery of images and videos based on users’ interests and behavior. Once the user taps on one of the Explore section images, Instagram shows a personalized feed consisting of pages within a similar topic — confectionary brands. Users can browse through these pages and follow or message every page they are up to. Learn to create highly effective Instagram advertisements with Facebook’s course. Now, as you’ve learned more about Instagram Shopping features and ads, let’s find out how to attract followers to your brand. How to Find Followers on Instagram for eCommerce Avoid Collecting Fake Followers Verify Your Business Page Use Different Content Types Use Trends Use Hashtags Create a Beautiful Feed Run Giveaways It’s not that you need to find followers; instead, you need to make your brand discoverable and likable so that people willingly join your Instagram community. It goes without saying that you need to consistently create excellent content to collect interested followers, so we’ve compiled seven tips to help you out. Tip 1: Avoid Collecting Fake Followers Although you can use tools to drive thousands of bots to your page, this is a dead end because it will only waste your money and ruin your credibility. Real users will immediately notice the gap between the number of followers and engagement around your content, and refuse to follow your page. Tip 2: Verify Your Business Page Verifying your Business Page will add more credibility to your profile. Businesses verified on Instagram have a tiny blue spot with a checkmark next to their business names, like Adidas below. To have your business page verified, go to your Settings, tap “Account,” and then tap “Request Verification.” Fill out the form, tap “Send,” and Instagram moderators will review your request. Tip 3: Use Different Content Types Not all your content on Instagram must be shoppable. Regular content also allows you to engage with your audiences in different ways. According to SproutSocial, images, videos, text-based posts, and stories are the content types that users are most likely to engage with. Tip 4: Use Trends Conceptualize your posts around trends relevant to your audience to gain more credibility. @sheamoisture, like many US businesses, actively encourages people to vote. This may seem too political, but many people expect this type of attitude from their favorite brands. Tip 5: Use Hashtags Relevant hashtags make your posts, including shoppable ones, more discoverable. Using the right hashtags, you have better chances of reaching the Explore section, where many people may notice you, follow your brand, and make a purchase. @onetonecolor specializes in hair dye, so they use relevant hashtags, like #haircare, #colorcare, #hairideas, #veganhaircare, etc. It’s best to start by researching popular hashtags of your industry competitors, avoid adding more than ten hashtags (though thirty is allowed), and always double-check their meanings. Geolocation tags make your business page and content better discoverable for audiences from specific locations. Tip 6: Create a Beautiful Feed By quickly checking your feed, users judge your style and form their first impression of your brand. It’s best to build an aesthetic for your Instagram feed by crafting content within a specific color palette and using tools to preview your feed’s look, for example, PreviewApp. @unbirthday.co designs its feed focusing on pink, mint, and brown — combining their product images with user-generated content. Since it looks professional and attractive, people interested in shopping gifts will likely follow this brand. Tip 7: Run Giveaways This is a fast way to attract new followers by giving away some products from your brand. Note that giving an iPhone 12 away will bring you the followers, but they will be interested in the gadget, not your business. Here’s a @sassywoof giveaway. They offer dog harnesses, leashes, collars, and other dog ammunition in exchange for following and mentioning their friends in the comment section. Such a giveaway is interesting only for dog owners so that unengaged audiences won’t participate. You are doing great and nearly know everything about Instagram eCommerce by now! Before we finish this guide, we decided to share some extra tips to help you effectively build your Instagram eCommerce strategy. 5 Best Practices to Make a Good eCommerce Page on Instagram Connect with Influencers Incentivize Shopping Show Your Products in Action Leverage User-Generated Content Use Instagram Insights Successful eCommerce activity includes wise and active use of content techniques, advertising, and Shopping features, not to mention that you should follow Facebook and Instagram policies to stay legit. We’ve listed a few more actionable tips that we haven’t mentioned earlier to finish this guide. Here they are. Tip 1: Connect with Influencers Influencers are usually celebrities or experts in particular fields that can promote your product to their followers on Instagram. Only collaborate with influencers who work in a relevant business field, thus having followers potentially interested in your products. In this post, popular fitness blogger Jen Selter promotes @vitalproteins’ water. She holds the bottle in her hand and writes a few words about. Tip 2: Incentivize Shopping Add sales or promo code details to your posts to provide more incentive to tap-through. You can include this information right in the image before you upload it to Instagram. A video announcement from @thiefandbandit gives a promo code and informs the followers of the discount. It’s tricky to read this information because images change fast, but the intrigue makes users watch the loop several times. Tip 3: Show Your Products in Action Highlight how practical and useful your products are to inspire your customers for shopping. When they see your products in action, they check the product quality and quickly understand if it’s a good fit for their needs. @overtonecolor shares an IGTV video where they show the hair dyeing process with their product and the results it brings in focus. Dyeing is rather a long process, but a shorter presentation would look even more astonishing in a shoppable Live video with a shoppable product sticker. Tip 4: Leverage User-Generated Content Add user-generated content to your feed and Stories to add social proof from real customers and inspire new shoppers to take action. By tagging your followers, you can make communication even more friendly. Here is a piece of UGC from @gymshark. Three ladies look confident and beautiful, wearing the brand’s sports clothing in the photo. Tip 5: Use Instagram Insights Instagram Insights is a business tool that helps companies analyze data about their followers. With Instagram Insights, you can determine which types of content work best with your followers and monitor their behavior on your page. Here are some insights about a specific Story. The tool shows how many people viewed this content and were redirected to a website or business profile. Instagram Insights also allows you to highlight your followers’ activity within the last seven days. It shows you the number of engaged people, their demographics, including age and location. Learn more about Instagram Insights here. Congratulations, you’ve learned a lot about eCommerce on Instagram. We hope this guide will help you start and maintain your business activity on this platform.

In email marketing, the term “industry average” means average rates of the following markers for email campaignsin the given industry: Open rates Click-through rates Click-to-open rates Soft bounces Hard bounces Unsubscribes Why do you need to know your industry average? Knowing your industry average helps you compare your email campaign statistics with the average results in your sphere of business. When you open the statistics of your campaign, without having anything to compare it to, it may be unclear whether it was successful or if it failed. How many unsubscribes are normal? Is my open rate high enough? Is the click-through rate too low? You will get answers to these questions by looking at the average industry rates. Thus, it is possible to assess the strong and weak sides of email campaigns. Let’s see the global statistics of the email marketing industry average for 2016 According to the 2016 global statistics, email open rates, click-through rates, and click to open rates, the highest indexes are in the consumer goods, travel and transportation, and education industries. As for click to open rates, the highest indexes are in the online advertising and finance, banking and insurance, and online business industries. Knowing your email campaign statistics is essential as it helps correct the strategy, get useful insights into your work and improve the methodology. With LIKE.TG, you can track the reports right after sending the first campaign. If your mailing list has less than 500 subscribers, send 15,000 emails for free every month! Use personalization, segmentation, A/B testing, resend to unread and other instruments to improve your campaign performance. Create an email campaign

An infomercial is a long-form advertisement that acts as a standalone program and aims to teach how to use a complex product and encourage viewers to make a purchase. It includes a call to action,allows companies to reach more prospects, tell about the benefits of their goods, and convert leads into customers. In this video, you’ll get to know how to create an infomercial. In this article, we’ll review several reasons why companies use infomercials, talk about their advantages, compare infomercials and commercials, figure out how to create successful infomercials, and see several examples. Why should you use infomercials? Although many believe that television is fading into the background due to the rapid development ofinternet marketing, it’s still an effective and cost-efficient way to reach yourtarget audience, obtain conversions, and convey the value and benefits of your products and services. Businesses that know how to create eye-catching infomercials have an opportunity to obtain high sales, build brand identity, and increase brand engagement. Since a lot of people watch TV, businesses that consider infomercials to pitch their goods or services can generate more leads. Insurance companies promote their services, automobile manufacturers advertise their cars, and jewelry manufacturers publicize their unique products with the help of these television advertisements. It’s time to review the benefits of infomercials in more detail. Advantages of Infomercials There are various ways in which infomercials generate success for your company. Entrepreneurs use this way of promotion because of the following advantages: an increase in sales volume; a wider audience; improved brand awareness; higher revenue; an opportunity to convince viewers about the value that displayed products can bring; a chance to demonstrate goods and explain their features and benefits in detail; higher brand engagement; enabling customers to make a purchase via phone; endorsement by professionals, such as doctors or health and beauty specialists. Now that you know about the pros, it’s time to proceed to the next section, where we’ll find out whether infomercials work. Do infomercials work? The success rates of infomercials are modest. Goods promoted with the help of early infomercials earned about a 50% chance of success. However, you can’t exclude the fact that they are still better than commercials since they allow you to demonstrate the product in action, use real testimonials, make a special offer, and encourage your viewers to act fast. Infomercial vs. Commercial Infomercials are long-form advertisements featured live that include a toll-free telephone number for viewers to buy products. The main advantage of these advertisements is the ability to entice viewers to make immediate direct purchases. They rely on a clear call to action after providing detailed information about products or services. Professionals demonstrate these products’ features and show all their benefits to persuade customers to buy them as soon as possible. Unlike infomercials, commercials are a generic type of endorsement in the advertising industry that are from ten to sixty seconds in length. These videos are pre-recorded and involve an actor who narrates a monologue or dialogue. You can see or hear them on television, radio, and various platforms on the internet. Let’s take pre-paid ads, for example. You have definitely seen videos on YouTube that highlight various benefits of products and companies. Now when the difference is clear, let’s discover what makes a good infomercial. What makes a good infomercial? The main problem with the majority of TV commercials is that they look too fake because of scenarios with unrealistic characters. Here come infomercials, enabling viewers to explore all the product’s features and see them in action. However, creating a good and intriguing infomercial isnot an easy task sinceyou should use key components. You need to have a unique product that will attract customers. Also, be ready to show your viewers that it can solve their actual problems. Ideally, you should find a competing product to compare them. With its help, you will be able to demonstrate the advantages of your good over its alternatives. The last component is an enthusiastic host. It can be a professional who will describe your product in detail and show its value. In the next section, we’ll review several steps that will lead to a successful infomercial created for your business. How to Create a Successful Infomercial Create a sense of urgency to make your viewers purchase Establish product credibility Ask a professional to become a host Describe the best features and benefits of your goods Include a call to action If you want to lure more customers, get ready to create something unique that will concentrate all the attention on your goods or services. Although these advertisements can easily promote your products, developing something thoughtful and engaging takes several steps. Create a sense of urgency to make your viewers purchase. Remember, you have seconds to draw customers’ attention before they switch the channel. To start, you can offer your viewers bonuses, gifts, or special prices. Provide customers with time-limited offers to encourage them to make impulse decisions. Establish product credibility. The success of each company relies on credibility. Remember that the purchasing decisions are emotionally sparked but are made rationally. There are many ways to appeal to viewers, but they don’t guarantee you an increase in sales. Therefore, after reaching leadsyou need to provide them with actual value so that they trust in your goods’ quality and use. Ask a professional to become a host. The presenter also plays a significant role in sales. This person should combine specific skills and personal conviction. A spokesperson should have a good understanding of the product, be enthusiastic, and be ready to work fast and under pressure. Moreover, the host should trust and believe in your product to make others feel the same. Describe the best features and benefits of your goods. Direct-response television opens you a great chance to communicate your message to a wide audience. Outline the problems your product can solve and describe the features and benefits that bring the most value. Include a call to action.TV infomercials usually include several CTAs. Companies mention their phone numbers to enable viewers to call and order something directly. When doing this, you need to review the product before urging people to call. It’s done to evoke the same emotions when encouraging customers to buy. Let’s jump into the examples. Examples of Infomercials Infomercials can be used for different purposes and businesses. Further, we’ll see several infomercials from famous brands you might know, so let’s dive in. Total Gym Total Gym is the name for a line of bodyweight training equipment. The company has been developing the world’s most innovative fitness training equipment for over 45 years. Chuck Norris, an American actor, has endorsed these fitness products for over 30 years. Dormeo Octasmart Mattress Dormeo is a brand of mattresses from the UK. The company offers a great variety of mattresses for better sleep, and one of them is presented in an infomercial below. From this video, viewers can learn some information about the product before buying it. Gotham Steel Cookware This is a non-stick cookware brand. In this infomercial, the company promotes one of their products — a frying pan. The spokesperson shows all the features and benefits of the product. Simply put, infomercials enable businesses to promote and sell their products and services fast because of the urgency these programs create. If you know the benefits and problems your goods can solve, then infomercials are the best way to demonstrate them right.

Instagram lead generation means using Instagram to warm up users’ interest in a brand. This process aims to convert prospects into customers. Watch the video to learn how to set up targeted Facebook ads to promote your products through Instagram and run chatbot flows for users who responded to your ads. Why should you use Instagram for lead generation? Lead generation is a lifelong goal for any business since it helps brands grow and increase their income. To cope with this task, you need to know the channels preferred by your potential clients. More than 1 billion active users every month make Instagram an excellent channel for attracting new leads. Moreover, users average users spend 58 minutesa day scrolling through Instagram feeds and watching stories that provide more advertising opportunities. You can’t ignore that 90% of all users follow at least one brand on this social media channel, which means that people are interested in the behind-the-scenes of their favorite brands and consider Instagram a great place for purchasing. 80% of active Instagram users claim that this particular platform helps them with the decision-making process. Influencer marketing has contributed greatly to this since almost every user has a favorite blogger whose recommendations they follow. At least71% of US brands say that they use this platform for their business goals. It means that generating leads on Instagram is worth the effort. Read on to discover the techniques that will help you acquire an enormous number of prospects in no time. 7 Instagram Lead Generation Tactics Make use of Instagram ads Craft a perfect bio Add a call-to-action button to your profile Add a link to your Instagram story Incorporate hashtags Actively produce stories Cooperate with authoritative influencers In this section, we’ll share both organic and paid methods to generate leads on Instagram. Choose the methods that best suits your target audience and your budget. 1. Make use of Instagram ads The first method that comes to our mind when talking about acquiring leads on Instagram is using ads. This is probably the simplest technique to start with. Remember that creating ads on Instagram requires you to have a business account, which means having a Facebook profile since all the Instagram ads are created right on Facebook. So, go to the Ads Manager and click “Create.” Choose lead generation as your objective. Then, you need to design your ad, define your target audience, decide upon the duration and budget for your ad campaign. Follow this step-by-step guide to create an advertising campaign. 2. Craft a perfect bio Your bio on Instagram is kind of an elevator pitch, which helps you make the right first impression on your audience. Every potential client who considers your company would use your profile bio to judge your authority and credibility. Besides, it’s another chance for leads to get in touch with you and interact with your brand following the link. So, don’t undervalue this powerful tool and do your best to write a relevant bio. Below we shared some useful tips for you to have them at hand. Use your brand name. This is the first element people see when visiting your profile. Use your brand name as your account name so that users could easily find you. If this name is already taken, put it in the first part of your username. Add a recognizable photo. It will definitely strike your clients’ eyes. Ensure the photo is consistent via all channels your brand is present on to associate it with your company unconsciously. Take a professional photo of high quality and let it reflect your main message. Stick to up to 200*200 pixels size to display well on users’ smartphones. Select the category. It’s displayed under your name and helps you realize what your company does. This is an optional element. Although Instagram suggests only a few categories, there are thousands of them. If there’s no relevant category, start typing it and choose the appropriate one. It should best describe what you’re doing. You can update the category anytime. Write a relevant description. It’s the heart and soul of your Instagram bio. This information lets people know what your brand is unique about and what makes it stand out. You have up to 150 characters to make users familiar with your products and services. To make your description especially valuable, use keywords. Although they have no impact on Instagram search, they are handy for your target audience. They should reflect your business's essence and address your clients’ needs, problems, and values. This way, you’ll sort out the people who’re really interested in your brand. Make use of hashtags. Incorporate clickable hashtags into your Instagram bio to boost customer engagement, collect clients’ reviews and user-generated content, promote your sub-brands, sister pages, and partners. After a user clicks on your hashtag, they’re redirected to its discover feed so they can explore all the content available. This will help trust your brand and make their first purchase, and loyal clients can share brand content. Include a powerful call-to-action and link. A CTA tells customers what they should do to benefit from using your service. Don’t underestimate the real value of this button. You can change it anytime to match your current business goals. If you have a big catalog of products, you can link to your website so that every user could choose the necessary product; if you’re promoting a time-limited campaign, encourage users to check out your offer; if you’re running a content, motivate users to participate in it. You can also nudge customers to share photos and videos of using your product so that you can collect user-generated content. Check out an example of an informative bio below. Luxy Hair is a store providing hair extensions. This is clear from their description. The company explains that they help get long and full hair, which is delivered worldwide. They offer free shipping and an option “Shop now, pay later” to encourage more leads. Also, the brand uses relevant emojis to attract users’ attention. They also provide a link to a website where users can find the answers to their questions, take the quiz, read useful articles, and watch tutorials. Everything is in one place. You can create this kind of a link page for your Instagram bio in 15 minutes without any technical skills. LIKE.TG provides an easy-to-use drag and drop landing page builderfor free. You can create your page from scratch or choose a pre-designed template and edit it to your liking. Add subscription widgets, buttons, links, payment options and track your link page performance with the help of reports. Below you can see how creating a landing page in LIKE.TG looks like. You need to drag the necessary elements from the left to your layout and design them on the right. Follow this step-by-step guide to create a landing page for free. 3. Add a call-to-action button to your profile Adding a CTA to your profile makes it easier for your potential clients to take the first step. They can order food, reserve a ticket, book a beauty appointment directly from your profile. To add a button, you need to choose a website you want to connect to your business profile. First, create an account with the necessary app to integrate, for example, Acuity Scheduling, Appointy, Booksy, Fresha, GoDaddy Social, TableREquest, etc. To add a CTA button, click “Edit Profile,” then scroll down and select “Contact Options,” and click “Add an Action Button.” You’ll see the list of third-party apps, choose the necessary one. After that, enter the link of your account with this app or any link you want to redirect your customers to after clicking the action button and tap “Submit.” Congrats, now the action button is active. Below you can see an action button of Burger King. After clicking it, a user can immediately make an order. 4. Add a link to your Instagram story This is an awesome lead generation technique. Users can visit your website or any landing page you want right from your stories. You’ve definitely seen this feature used by big brands — “Swipe to view the collection” or “See more.” You won’t find this feature in your Instagram settings since it becomes available only after you get 10,000 subscribers and have a verified account. If you meet these requirements, follow the steps below. Start your Instagram story. Click the chain icon. Add a call to action and insert the link. Post your story. Popular brand Zara actively uses this technique in their Instagram marketing. They add the link to their website and encourage users to view their new collection on their site. 5. Incorporate hashtags We’ve already mentioned hashtags when talking about Instagram bio. Create your branded hashtag and share it with your customers. Motivate clients to post photos of your products using your brand hashtag and give them a discount for the next purchase. This way, your potential clients can find these reviews by entering your hashtag or checking them right from your profile. Check out an example below. Prospects can check out Levis Tagged to find more photos of their clothes. 6. Actively produce stories Instagram stories are a great chance to show how your product works, share some fun behind-the-scenes, and introduce your team. Clients are always interested in who is behind their favorite brand. Show how you start your day, how your clothes are sewn, and even minor failures — people appreciate such openness and honesty. To increase engagement via stories, you can create polls, quizzes, and ask your followers’ opinions. For example, you’re going to launch a new product line and doubt which material, fabric, or color to use. Ask your audience directly. This way, you’ll show that their opinion matters and you’ll be able to improve. The wedding dresses store below does just that. They created a poll for customers to choose their favorite back of the dress. After, they can use this data to promote the dresses preferred by their clients. 7. Cooperate with authoritative influencers Influencer marketing is an excellent technique to bring in lots of interested customers. Research and find out the most authoritative bloggers and influencers in your field. The audience of these people should match your buyer persona. If you sell vegan food, look for a devoted vegan. This person should have expertise in the field and a lot of followers. Offer them cooperation on mutually beneficial terms. You can make a significant discount or even provide your products for free for constant promotion. Also, you can create a monthly giveaway together with an influencer. Give your product for free randomly to a person who follows you and fulfills your conditions. This will help you grow your subscriber base immensely in no time and increase engagement. Now that you know so many techniques to generate leads on Instagram, don’t miss your chance to grow your audience!

Informative advertising is amarketing approach that requires using facts to highlight the benefits of a product’s features instead of appealing to customers’ emotions. In this article, we’ll consider the objectives, pros, and cons of informative advertising. We’ll also compare it to persuasive ads and provide some examples. Informative Advertising Objectives The main goal of any ad is to sell a product. The only difference is the choice of techniques. Each of them provides specific opportunities to reach a particular goal. Besides, some techniques tend to perform better in different industries. Informative advertising aims to persuade a user to make a decision by providing facts and statistics that support the value and relevance of a product. It’s vital that users can fact-check any statement. As a result, informative ads make consumers trust a company and help brands build authority. To help you realize the power of this type of advertising, we’ll shed light on its pros. Advantages of Informative Advertising Incorporating this marketing approachwill help you contribute to both sales and your brand image. Firstly, by using informative advertising, you can establish a strong brand reputation because consumers will consider you a source of reliable data. Secondly, you’ll manage to educate people. Having a great product doesn’t guarantee that customers will make the most out of it. Hence, teaching them how to get the full benefit of your brainchild will help people realize your potential and make decisions faster. Thirdly, informative ads are the best choice for building the demand for a new product. Marketers strive to increase the primary demand and focus on highlighting the benefits of a product itself rather than promoting it based on its reputation and brand identity. This way, consumers are aware of the potential benefits they may get. In addition, informative advertising helps marketers avoid potential lawsuits in the future. This is especially popular in the pharmaceutical, tobacco, and beauty industry. Consumers are warned that this or that product can’t be used during pregnancy, lactation, driving, and having diseases. This way, companies stay on the safe side. Informative advertising offers a wide range of benefits to companies. Besides, this type of advertising is pretty appealing because people tend to believe figures and stats. Conversely, persuasive advertising appeals to human emotions rather than reason. Let’s see the difference between these types of ads. Informative Advertising vs. Persuasive Advertising While informative advertising heavily relies on facts and statistics, viewing them as adriving force thatpersuades users to buy, persuasive ads appeal to customers’ emotions. Marketers prefer persuasive advertising to make consumers feel successful using their products. Let’s take companies that sell highly competitive products. For example, marketers promoting toothpaste persuade users that they will have a fresh breath for a long time after using it. A fresh breath guarantees a more pleasant experience of communication with other people, which defines success in a certain way. Luxurious products are promoted using a similar strategy. Hence, informative advertising provides people with facts that make them choose this or that product, while persuasive ads appeal to their feelings and emotions. Let’s have a look at the example to better understand how informative advertising works. Informative AdvertisingExample You’ve definitely seen some informative advertising campaigns in your everyday life, so let’s recall one of the most significant ads. After Bud Light accused Miller Lite of using corn syrup in brewing their beer, Miller Lite struck back at the brand by providing some figures that make us believe their beer is less harmful to the health. Congrats, now you know about the objections, benefits, and peculiarities of informative advertising, which means that you can make the best choice for your business!

Indirect costs are costs that can’t be directly identified within a specific product or service. Examples include rent and utilities, litigation, office equipment rental, insurance, accounting, security costs, etc. This article will unveil the difference between direct and indirect costs and cover the ways to estimate indirect costs. Why are indirect costs important? Indirect costs are essential for the proper functioning of a business. Electricity, equipment, and office rent support company operation and allow business owners to create high-quality products and provide appropriate services. Indirect costs help entrepreneurs maintain and run a business properly. Examples of indirect costs include expenses on computers, rent, smartphones, and security needed for a brand’s day-to-day activities. Their role can’t be underestimated because the existence of a company isn’t possible without them. Now that you know why indirect costs are essential for maintaining your business, it’s time to uncover the difference between direct and indirect costs. It’ll help you identify and calculate them for various projects and activities of your company. Direct Costs vs Indirect Costs Since distinctive features of direct and indirect costs are often ignored, we need to explain their differences. After reading this section, you’ll be able to identify these costs for your business. Direct costs are expenses directly tied to the manufacturing of specific products. They are usually variable costs. Examples include direct labor, materials, fuel, power consumption, wages of workers, etc. It’s easy to trace the relation of these costs to the production of products and services. Direct costs can be easily tied to a specific unit. For instance, when manufacturing cars, a company needs brakes, batteries, pistons, etc. They are necessary to produce a vehicle and are associated with this product. Indirect costs are expenses that can’t be associated with the manufacturing of a certain product, but they contribute to the operation of a business. Examples include costs for electricity, office equipment rental, gas, rent, etc. You can’t track the relation to specific goods, but a company can’t produce products without them. For example, when a brand manufactures cars, it needs experts who will control the process. A brand owner has to pay salaries to employees to do their work. Simply put, direct costs are expenses for manufacturing products or providing services, while indirect costs are expenses that help keep your company operating. Now that you know how to define indirect costs, it’s time to figure out how to calculate them. It’ll help you unveil your expenditures and estimate revenues. How to calculate indirect costs? When you have low indirect costs, your company brings high-profit margins. However, you need to learn how to calculate your indirect costs before figuring out how to reduce these expenses. In this section, we’ll show you how to do it fast. To estimate the percentage of your indirect costs, identify and list all your indirect costs for one month. When searching for such expenses, remember that they aren’t directly related to your product. Find out costs for electricity, gas, water, administrative costs, etc. These costs let your company exist. The next step is to identify monthly sales during the same period. (Indirect Costs / Monthly Sales) x 100 = Indirect Costs Percentage Let’s imagine that the indirect costs of your company are $2,000, while your monthly sales are $10,000. We’ll now calculate the percentage of the indirect costs. ($2,000 / $10,000) x 100 = 0.2 x 100 = 20% It means that 20% of sales your company spends on indirect costs. Now that you know how to estimate the measure, it’s time to walk you through the examples. They will hint at how to find indirect costs for your business. Examples of Indirect Costs You can find many examples of indirect costs in every operating business. Every company needs specific expenses to ensure its performance. In case a company has property damage and liability claims, it should have business insurance. The insurance will help cover associated costs and prevent a business owner from paying out-of-pocket. Costs a brand spends on business insurance belong to indirect costs. Administrative expenses like office supplies, consulting, utilities, building rent, and depreciation on office equipment are indirect costs. They are essential for business operations. If your company relies on using special equipment to produce your products, you’ll also need to cover the possible repair and maintenance costs of various vehicles, machinery, and equipment. Moreover, these expenses will become your responsibility when you purchase all equipment. Now that you know the examples, it’s time to figure out how you can save money by cutting indirect costs. Let’s dive in. How to reduce indirect costs? Although optimizing some expenses might seem unreal, it’s still possible if done wisely. Reducing indirect costs will help you increase your profits and save some money for business improvement. So, let’s figure out how to do it. Hire an accountant. Having a professional in your team will help you manage your resources properly and avoid unnecessary spending. Your accountant will keep an eye on your finances, costs, and revenues to identify gaps and eliminate them. This person will prevent you from having more indirect costs and financial mistakes. Find an affordable place for your office. Since working space and manufacturing place often make up a big part of indirect costs, you need to pay attention to it. Review the costs for your office space. If the place is huge and costs big money, it’s worth considering a cheaper place. Search for a smaller space, choose a less popular location, and consider remote workers. Remember, these cutting costs strategies work only if they don’t influence your brand reputation, revenues, and productivity. Rent equipment. If you want to purchase all equipment for your company, think twice because it’s a serious investment. This step will require you to allocate many resources without any guarantee that your company will succeed and prosper. You can rent equipment first to see how your business will operate and the profits it will bring. This way, you’ll avoid additional expenses on maintenance and repair costs. Revise contracts with vendors. If you aren’t new to the business and have established relationships with suppliers, consider reviewing contracts and conducting negotiations in terms of prices. You can revoke some unnecessary contracts that are no longer in use. Besides, you can ask suppliers for discounts for long-term partnerships and some special deals. Hire remote workers. The profitability of your business doesn’t depend on office workers. They can perform their tasks from home as well. That’s why you can search for people to do specific tasks and pay part-time wages. This way, you can save office supplies costs. Nevertheless, remember, you need to find experts who have experience in the field. Consider going eco-friendly. Going green is an expensive process that contributes to your long-term goals. You’ll need to invest big money to use eco-friendly alternatives. However, they will allow you to reduce utility costs. You’ll be able to save money by going paperless, using LED bulbs and saving electricity, and avoiding using plastic bags. Now that you know what indirect costs are and why they are essential, you can calculate them for your business and avoid unnecessary expenses. Although it might seem difficult to optimize your budget, you’ll contribute to the achievement of your long-term goals.

Individual branding is a brand marketing strategy where a parent brand gives a product a new identity, a unique brand name, and allows it to function independently. It helps build a unique product an image in the market, contributes to the brand's positioning over competitors, and defends its reputation. This article will dive into individual branding, its advantages and disadvantages, and the difference between branding strategies. Below, let's review the top pros and cons of individual branding, which show why it's popular among companies. Advantages and Disadvantages of Individual Branding The need for individual branding increases in times of crisis. This brand marketing strategy was created to help a parent brand tackle several problems. It was designed to protect companies from the risks a crisis could bring. Nowadays, the terms “multibranding” and “flanker brands” are very popular in the marketing realm. However, not all marketers are aware of the pros and cons of this marketing practice. Advantages of individual branding: the parent brand’s reputation won’t be affected if the product fails; opportunity to use various marketing methods; companies can use different approaches to reach customers and serve them; brands can produce lower-quality products without influencing the image of products from the parent brand; brands can be positioned differently as corporate identity is reduced; the opportunity to obtain multiple levels of customer loyalty. Disadvantages of individual branding: a higher risk of instability within the parent brand; a new brand name can require significant costs; lack or absence of regular customers; increased number of human resources; lack of acknowledgment; customers questioning the quality of the products. When you finally decide to develop individual branding, you’re acquainted with the benefits you can reap. However, before implementing it, let’s review different brand marketing strategies. Individual Branding vs Umbrella Branding There are two main branding strategies to choose from: individual branding and umbrella branding (also called family branding). Let's briefly go over these different marketing practices to see the difference. Many factors contribute to the need of companies to implement individual branding. The unique name and identity are given to a product during individual branding help promote it on the market. Additionally, in the event of a failure, the product won’t influence the corporate brand reputation. For example, imagine that a company decides to introduce the latest product to a new market segment. If the product fails to be properly accepted by clients, it won’t affect the corporate brand name. On the contrary, if the product succeeds to win customers, it can become the noted brand in the market without operating under the shadow of its parent company. On the other hand, family branding, a brand marketing strategy in which a company uses one name for all products. Some of the pros of family branding include cost-effectiveness (no need to conduct research), instant recognition, and reduced costs on ads. The core idea behind this strategy is to increase the competitiveness of products. Umbrella branding follows a concept according to which a product that carries the same brand name will include the same high-quality standards as other brands within the umbrella. Let’s imagine that a brand has four different product lines. Consumer’s trust in the brand can be applied to these four product lines too. Developing a strong umbrella brand requires a company to build core values, create the statement's intention, and be creative to stand out from the competition. Also, it involves creating good customer equity and effective coordination between each individual brand. Now that you’re acquainted with these two marketing practices' main peculiarities, it’s time to proceed to some examples. Examples of Individual Branding With an individual brand marketing strategy, companies can launch products as individual entities. This approach brings several benefits for enterprises. Let’s look at two famous corporations such as Procter Gamble and Unilever. Procter Gamble This well-known American corporation established in 1837 is home to trusted brands. P G includes 65 leading brands that are organized into ten categories. There are several product categories: Baby Care (All Good, Luvs, Pampers), Fabric Care (Ariel, Bounce, Cheer), Skin and Personal Care (Gillette, Ivory, Native, and more), etc. Unilever This British consumer goods company, established in 1929, has three divisions. Each portfolio includes the products of world-known brands. For example, in Foods Refreshment, you can find Cornetto, Magnum, Lipton, and many others. The brands are known worldwide as Unilever operates in 190 countries. With more than 400 brands, the company has the opportunity to reach different customers worldwide. To sum it up, there are two branding strategies: individual and umbrella branding. In the first scenario, products obtain individual names and identities in the market. In the second one, products are promoted under the name of a family brand. Grab some inspiration from the examples above and choose your branding strategy.

Industry, within the scope of an economy, is used to define the production of goods or rendering services in a related sphere. Several worldwide organizations suggest unified classifications of business and economic activities by the industry. Among them stands ISIC (International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities), sponsored by the UNO Statistics Division. At present, the classification of economic activities by industries, made by ISIC, is considered the most complete and well-arranged. In email marketing, the term industry means a particular sphere of business activity in which your subscribersare engaged. Referring to each subscriber to a specific sector within your mailing list will allow you to send relevant content within that industry. Conversionrates depend directly on the relevancy of the content subscribers are getting. Segmentationof subscribers by industry also allows companies to see the industry average rates of openings, click-through rates, and delivery errors(or soft bounces). It is an optimal opportunity for them to compare the results of the email campaigns they are launching with the industry average rates. Thus, companies will be able to analyze the downsides of their automated marketing campaignsand work on their mistakes. If their automated email campaigns show better results than the average of the industry, it becomes clear that the chosen email marketing strategy is working well for them and so they can stick to it.

Industrial marketing is promoting goods and services to other companies rather than to individual customers. It aims to sell raw materials and components for production needs. The simplest format of industrial marketing is B2B marketing. In the article, we explain why industrial marketing is important, describe its benefits and features, compare industrial and consumer marketing and provide ideas for industrial marketing strategies. Why is industrial marketing important? The main distinctive feature of industrial marketing is that customers are not individuals but businesses, and it changes the usual way of promoting goods and developing a marketing strategy. Below we explain why a special attitude to marketing in B2B is so important. Industrial marketing is aimed at increasing sales of wholesale products and goods for industrial purposes. It helps companies that produce raw materials expand their businesses. Industrial marketing covers two marketing aspects: The manufacturing business promotion: creating the image and developing the potential of the company, increasing the investment attractiveness and its boosting in the B2B market. Product promotion: strategic development of a product offer, building a marketing strategy, and pushing products forward on the market. A well-defined industrial marketing strategy can help your business stand out from the competitors and grow the company faster. Read more about these and other benefits of industrial marketing in the next section. Benefits of Industrial Marketing According to the Hook Agency, 77% of industrial marketers have seen an increase in their conversion rate due to successful digital marketing campaigns. It is only one in the number of benefits of using product promotion. Discover more advantages of industrial marketing below: it contributes to the development of the whole company and the variety of its business areas; it provides long-term competitive advantages in the market; it increases the effectiveness of the work inside the company due to the following common goal. As you can see, industrial marketing is a great way for companies working on the B2B market to promote their products. Discover more about its distinctive features in the next section. Industrial Marketing Features Industrial marketing is rather different from the other marketing branches. It requires a deep understanding of B2B market peculiarities and using special techniques to promote products successfully. Let’s take a look at its main features and differences. Industrial marketing often involves large orders and long-term relationships between the companies. Goods go from manufacturing industries to consuming ones and finally reach individual customers. Consequently, the process of purchase is often long and complex. When you are going to promote an industrial brand, take into account a few features. There are larger purchases volumes and fewer clients needed than in the B2C market. There is a higher buyer's risk because of the high cost of each purchase. Consequently, the process of making a decision is more complex and requires a longer purchase time. Products are more technically complex, and buyers are well versed in their features, so you need a deep understanding of the sphere to promote the goods. There is a closer relationship between the manufacturer and the customer than in B2C marketing. They can influence each other, so the selling company should reflect the demand changes immediately. Besides the fact that industrial and consumer marketing use some common metrics, such as income, LTV, CAC, etc, they are rather different. Discover their distinctive features and peculiarities in the next section. Industrial Marketing vs Consumer Marketing The main peculiarity of industrial marketing is a huge number of products businesses buy in one purchase, while consumers often deal with only one or a few products. Continue reading to discover the distinctive features of each one in this section. Needs of the customers. Clients in B2B marketing are highly-qualified in the sphere and can have certain technical requirements to the manufacturer. Consequently, businesses should work separately with every potential client and develop an industrial marketing strategy focused on the companies that already exist to cover all their specific needs. On the other hand, consumer marketing works without a niche-specific approach. It is oriented to mass-market needs, not on such specific ones. The most important part of buying. Research is the most time-consuming part of sales cycles in industrial marketing. According to the Acquity Group State of B2B Procurement Study, 94% of B2B buyers research online before purchasing. There is a lot of money and people involved in each deal, so deep research before a purchase is required. In contrast, consumers in the B2C market make decisions faster and easier. There is no such deep research before a purchase, people can buy based on product positioning, packaging, attractive content, etc. Relations between businesses and their clients. The consequence of the time-consuming research needed before a purchase is that companies do not want to repeat it again and again. They want to choose one product and buy it for years. Lead nurturing requires building trust with potential customers. If you save this trust, you will have an amazing lifetime value. LTV and brand loyalty are important in consumer marketing too, but their importance is not so significant. Understanding the difference between industrial and consumer marketing will help you build an industrial marketing strategy to boost your company. Continue reading to discover its main points in the next section. Industrial Marketing Strategy A well-defined marketing strategy is a key to success. The process of its development is similar to the development of consumer marketing strategy, but it has a few peculiarities. We provide the most important steps for building a strong industrial marketing strategy. Market analysis. First of all, you should study potential industrial buyers. Discover their specific needs, pains, and the ways their companies may develop. Determine what product will cover all their requirements. Secondly, study your competitors. Find out their strengths and weaknesses, define possible competitive advantages of your company, and the ways to highlight them in future content marketing. Product positioning. Clients are highly qualified in the sphere, so correct positioning is the key to success in the competitive B2B market. It is vital to describe all the advantages and provide detailed information about your product in one click. You should care about the customer and do everything to build trusting relations. Development of individual marketing strategies. It is what differentiates industrial marketing from consumer one. You should determine the main elements of marketing policy with every client separately. Consider product, service, and pricing policies, develop a communications strategy, and describe all the peculiarities of your future work. Building trust. You should make your relations with clients long and productive. Care about customer satisfaction and focus on the changing needs of the clients. Develop your product to be the best in the market. Focus on long-term cooperation as the way to achieve your goals. Congrats, now you know why industrial marketing is important, its benefits and features, and the difference between industrial and consumer marketing. Use this knowledge to develop an industrial marketing strategy and succeed in the market.

Impulse buying is a tendency to purchaseproducts without planning aheadthat happens thanks to a well-developedpromotional message. Impulse buyers purchase items spontaneously because they rely on sensations that urge the necessity to buy. In this article, we’ll talk aboutthe psychology of impulse buying,go over several ways to increase impulse buying online, and unveil the most popular impulse purchases. The Psychology of Impulse Buying Statistics show that the number of spontaneous purchases is increasing every year. Whether it is the influence of online stores, paid advertising, or people’s urge to feel happy and excited, the number of impulse buys just keeps growing. An average American makes around 12unplannedpurchases per month. Moreover, 62% ofbuyersaffirm that they feel happy afterthis kind of shopping, which explains why impulse buying is so widespread. The psychology of impulse purchases is quite simple— they are often caused by market-related stimuli andexternal triggers. Huge discounts and attractive offers, including the BOGO (buy one, get one free) campaigns, are the most powerful causes of unplanned purchases. Marketing strategies provokethe urge to buy andelicit positive emotions and satisfaction, as customers feel they bought some products at areduced price. This kind of shopping is the easiest way to get dopamine here and now. Since people don’tresort to rational decision-making during impulse buying, which is typical for planned purchases, discounts appeal to the emotional side of shopping.Impulse buyersare guided by emotions, unique experiences, and sensations that emergewhile shopping. Now that you know how impulse buying works, it’s time to discoverthe waysto drive impulse purchases online. 7 Ways to Increase Impulse Buying Online Consider upselling Implement time-limited offers Create engaging email campaigns Conduct a giveaway Offer free delivery Leverage social listening tools Use social media tools Discounts, upselling, excellent promotional campaigns across different channels, and social media tags are only a few of the tactics you can implement to hook your target audience and expand your reach. You can make your company attractive to impulse buyers in a number of ways. We’ll review different strategies brands use to encourage unplanned purchases. Consider upselling. You canencourageyour prospectsand existing customers to make an unplanned purchase. During the checkout, recommend relevant products that might be useful. Apart from that, offer the “Frequently bought together”discounts for product bundles. This way, you’ll be able to upsell some additional items and evoke the fear of missing out. Implement time-limited offers.Time-limited discounts, special deals, gifts, rewards, and free delivery work like a charm on users who purchase online. You need to provide customers with a reason to buy right now and drive urgency. Whena discount or special deal is bound by time, you can trigger the fear of missing out. This way, your prospects or loyal clients will definitely make a purchase. Create engaging email campaigns. Email marketing is an effective marketing channel that helps communicateyour message to subscribers. To encourage consumers to make impulse purchases, make an attractive offer. Users oftenlook for promo codes andspecial offers before making anypurchases online, which is why you need to interest your target audience with a good discount. Send an email campaign to your subscribers,tell them aboutyour sale, and mention a promo code that will reduce the price of their order. LIKE.TG’s bulk email serviceallows you to do it for free. Conduct a giveaway. A giveaway is a wonderfulstrategy for two brandsthat share similar audiences. With your giveaway partner, you’ll be able to encourage purchases not only from people who land on your site but also leadsfrom the other brand’s following. By running a giveaway and providing special offers, you can expand your reach fastand get new customers as a result. Offer free delivery. According to statistics, 94% of people are more willing to buy if the delivery is free. One in four respondents expects online brands to have free delivery, so it’s a great wayto increase impulse purchases online. You can providefree delivery if a customerspends a certain amount of money on their order. This way, people will gladly add more items to their carts to avoid paying an additional fee. Leverage social listening tools. With social listening tools and social mediasearch, you can easily find potential customers whose needs aren’t met yet. Consider using social listening platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or BuzzSumoto do it. Use social media tools.Word-of-mouth promotionworks smoothly when we talk about impulse buys. Once people hear about discounts, limited-time offers, BOGO (Buy one, get one free), and specials from bloggers, they instantlylook up the site and the products it offers. So, it’s also a great idea to use social media and its tools. You can ask an opinion leader to promote your sale andgive the link to your company website. Consider influencer marketingto make sure that more people know about your brand and discountsand make more impulse purchases. Now that you know these marketing techniques, it’s time to delve into the most popular impulse buys. 5 Most Popular Impulse Purchases Since the logic of impulse purchases thrivesonemotional decision-making and sensations, this is an effective way to sell huge quantities of products. Tryour approaches to reach out toyour target audience and hook them, expanding yoursales volume. We’ve prepared thefive most popular unplanned purchases people make— they will help you decideon the products you can promote. Apparel Clothes are at the top of our list of impulse buys— they constitute more than half of all impulse purchases. When people make unplanned visits to stores or search for specific items online, they can encounter discounts. What can be more tempting than a sweater with a 40% discount, a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt for free, or free delivery? Customers often can’t resist even when these products are noton their shopping lists. Below you can see an example from Motel Rocks. Anyone who lands on the brand’s website would surely like to explore items with an 80% discount. Food Groceries Food is essential for our living. Customers visit grocery stores every day and make many unplanned supermarket purchases, which makes food another top-selling impulse buy. The desire to buy increases when a hungry customer sees discounts and red price tags. They drive the urge to buy and satisfy customers’ needs in food or sensations. Shoes Even if customers already have shoes for all seasons, they won’t miss a chance to grab an additional pair of Nikesat a good price. That’s why shoes are among ourfive most popular impulse purchases. Sporty, elegant, comfy, and original shoeshelp people lookbetter and are often expensive, motivating consumers to look out fordiscounts. For example, Puma entices customers with Black Friday deals. Beauty Personal Care Products Beauty products are also in high demand, which is why you can encounter personal care items in impulse shoppers’ carts.Customers might be attracted by products’miraculous benefits, price, advertising, or beautiful packaging, making these purchases often. Below you can see attractive offers and discounts fromSephora, a famous retailer of beauty products. Home Decor People buy posters, pillows, bedspreads, rugs, and beautiful dishes to make their homes feel comfortable. This eagerness pushes them towards impulse purchases during big saleslikeBlack Friday, Christmas, Cyber Monday, Mother’s Day, etc. Customers can’twalk by a wonderfulsoap dish that matches their bathroom or a cup with a cute reindeer without buying it. You can see amazing offers from HM Home at affordable prices. To sum it up, impulse buys can significantly increase your customer base and revenue. If you implement these tactics right, you’ll build an effective marketing strategy that sells, making your business thrive and grow. Hope our examples inspired you to develop your own impulse buying strategy.

Indirect competition is the situation when two businesses target the same market and audience and aim to satisfy the same needs, but offer different products. Usually, indirect competitors take away a huge number of companies’ potential clients, because they provide different solutions to the same buyers’ pains. In the article, we compare direct and indirect competition and provide examples for you to understand the peculiarities of each one. Direct Competition vs Indirect Competition Some junior marketers may focus only on the direct competitors and develop brands’ strategies without paying attention to the indirect ones. However, it is vital to consider various products and services to get a holistic image of the market situation. We compare direct and indirect competition and describe their differences below. Direct competition means that two companies offer the same products to satisfy the needs of the same audience. The companies’ branding, promotion, values, and strategies may vary, but their goods are similar. Also, direct competitors work in the same market, e.g., coffee-to-go points in one city or premium car brands that sell their developments mainly in Europe. Indirect competition means that businesses produce different goods but target the same market and customer segments. For example, chocolate and cookies are both sweets and can substitute each other, so they are indirect competitors. This concept is larger, because of the huge number of such substitutions, e.g., watching various films and cartoons, going to the cafe or theater, shopping in the department store, and even traveling are all ways to spend free time, which means that they can compete with each other. It may be challenging to take into account all substitutions, but you can discover the most obvious ones by conducting keyword research and studying related topics. Also, we describe some indirect competition examples in different markets to help you understand this concept better. Examples of Indirect Competition Identifying and analyzing the indirect competitors of your company can help you develop a well-defined strategy and find strong competitive advantages. To make your analysis easier, study some examples of indirect competition below. McDonald’s vs Domino’s Pizza. These companies sell fast food and target consumers who want to eat quickly. They work worldwide and have almost similar pricing policies. Their branding and marketing are also alike. However, McDonald’s sells burgers and fries, while Domino’s serves pizza, so we can say that they are indirect competitors. Marvel comics vs Netflix movies. These two companies compete in the field of teenager and adult entertainment. Both of them work all over the world and have many fans. Marvel comics can substitute Netflix movies and vice versa, though they aren’t direct competitors because these brands create different products. Targeting vs collaborating with influencers. We can say that these two advertising mechanisms also compete with each other. You can reach the same markets and audiences either by using targeted ads or influencer promotions. The goal is also the same: to sell products of the advertised brand. However, these methods aren’t similar and have their peculiarities. We suggest combining them to reach better results for your promotional campaigns. Congrats, now you know what indirect competition is and its difference from direct competition. Also, you have studied its examples and can find indirect competitors of your company.

Inbound marketing is the promotion ofa company in blogs, podcasts, videos, e-books, SEO, social media, and other forms of content marketing. In this video, Adam Erhart considers the difference between inbound and outbound marketing strategies and emphasizes the advantages of each approach. One of the main features of inbound marketing is the absence of pressure on the consumer. The main thing is to provide the target audience with information that will be attractive to them. Interesting news, useful video, the right information attract visitors and make them loyal to the product. If the company provides useful content for free, this stimulates the potential buyer to "thank the company" with a good attitude and by buying something. Components of Successful Inbound Marketing Strategy Content SEO Social media Content. Content creation is the basis of any inbound marketing campaign. This is information or tool that attracts prospects to your website or business; SEO. Search engine optimization allows potential customers to find your content more easily. In practice, it means the ability to structure your site and create incoming links for it to maximize the ranking in the search engines in which most of your customers begin the buying process; Social media.It enhances the impact of your content. When the content is distributed and discussed in the networks of personal contacts, it becomes more authentic, acquires various shades, and is more likely to attract qualified customers to your site. Benefits of Inbound Marketing Economic efficiency Opportunity to work with narrow target audiences Increased targeting Long-term results Raising brand recognition Economic efficiency. Lower cost of use compared with traditional methods of advertising. Opportunity to work with narrow target audiences. You can take into account the detailed characteristics of your target audience and create more attractive materials for it. Increased targeting. Using inbound marketing, you only apply to those who independently confirm compliance with your criteria. If people show interest in your content, then they are more likely to be interested in your products. Long-term results. If you invest in creating quality content, then it will work for attracting visitors enough, regardless of the current costs of advertising. Raising brand recognition. Using brand constants in the design of content, you increase the recognition of your corporate style. So, the main secret of the success of inbound marketing is valuable materials for the customers.

Indirect sales are performed with the help of intermediaries. There is no personal contact between the seller and the buyer. This type of sales is a widespread practice in email marketing. Afterregisteringwith LIKE.TG, you can make use of this method absolutely for free. In this video, Hans Peter Bech provides a comparison of direct and indirect sales approaches and explains how to make the latter work in your favor. Types of Indirect Sales Distribution. Transferof rights by aproducer to sell their products to small wholesale and retail organizations. Merchandising. A competent arrangement of the goods at the shop-windows. Therefore, chewing gum, sweets, chocolates are laid out next to the cash desks: while adults waitin line, sweets lure children to ask for a product. The same is with the essential goods — they are above eye level, because, first of all, the buyer will pay attention to the goods located below. The type of product and how it is presented to the consumer depends on the sales ratio. Franchising. This is a "lease" of a well-known trademark. Buying a franchise and paying interest to the brand owner, thefranchiseereduces the number ofproblems: they haveparticular tactics of doing business andtheir clients. Bright examples of franchising are Subway, McDonald's, Lukoil. Dealership. In this case, the intermediaries of the company are special agents — dealers. Buying goods at wholesale prices, they resell it with an extra charge at retail to other firms. This differs from the distribution in smaller volumes of purchases. There is no personal contact between the seller and the buyer. Sales are carried out by third parties. Advantages of Indirect Sales Increase in the sales network (up to global); Raising the level of products distribution; The efficiency of the current work; Knowledge of the state and prospects of the markets; Expansion of the target audience; Minimum costs for the organization of jobs. Disadvantages of indirect sales Break of personal connection between the seller and the buyer; Inability to monitor and track the goods independently; Dependence of the company's reputation on the behavior of the intermediary. Indirect Sales in Email Marketing Marketers do both direct selling and indirect via email campaigns. In this article, we told how to sell directly. To sell indirectly, there should be a medium between an email and a recipient. It can be your sales representative — for example, a user-specified their birth date during the subscription. Then, call them with some warm wishes and send a birthday email with a special offer afterward. This way, if they buy from this email, the sale will be indirect. If you are a small business owner, use our free pricing plan. Send up to 15,000 emails every month to 500 or fewer subscribers. Personalize, segment, and A/B test your campaigns for better engagement. Send an email campaign.

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a comprehensive description of a business for which your product will become a perfect solution. It helps you identify the right clients, align your product with customers’ needs, and personalize your offer. In this article, we’ll discuss why you need an ideal customer profile and compare an ICP and a buyer persona. We’ll also unveil how to build this profile and use it in marketing. Why do you need an ideal customer profile? If your company focuses on sales, developing an ideal customer profile is crucial since it helps identify quality leads. This is the key reason to create a profile of an ideal customer that will be a great fit for your solution. Besides quality prospects, you can reap even more benefits. After creating an ideal customer profile, you can prevent your company from using extra resources and teams from spending their effort on unqualified leads. With the lead qualification, you can easily identify customers with a high willingness to purchase from you. You can start nurturing relationships with these prospects and turn them into long-term partnerships. Using your profile, historical sales data, and predictive learning, you can increase the speed of lead conversions. Improving the way you approach your customers enables you to encourage trust and build loyalty. If you succeed in developing a perfect ICP, you’ll be able to align your product with customers’ needs. You’ll provide personalized offers and content to your clients by ensuring collaboration between sales and marketing teams. Since your profile covers specific characteristics and patterns, consider using them to your advantage. Build a framework for outreach activities to reach your potential customers. Now that you know the reasons, it’s time to make the difference between an ideal customer profile and buyer persona clear. Ideal Customer Profile vs Buyer Persona Sometimes people use these two concepts interchangeably, yet they help attain different goals. Let’s uncover these two terms for you to consider. An ideal customer profile is a detailed description of a company for your solution. It enables you to choose the right businesses, adjust your marketing strategy, and provide personalized offers. If your company focuses on working with businesses rather than individuals, then you need to create an ICP to improve the work of your sales and marketing departments. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional reflection of your ideal customer that covers demographics, objectives, motivators, and problems. It helps your team map out the strategy and allocate resources and time. Buyer persona brings structure to your company and helps find and reach the right prospects. Now that you know the difference, it’s time to find out how to create an ICP. How to create an ideal customer profile? This section will uncover how to develop an ideal customer profile for your business. Let’s dive in. Consider applying templates. You can use the existing templates to speed up the process of creating an ICP. Find the right platforms to download and use the templates for free. This way, you’ll save time on building the profile from scratch. The only thing you’ll need to do is to fill in the blanks. Conduct short research on your future clients to insert the necessary data. Select the right software. Creating an accurate profile requires collecting all available information from your current customers. It will help you find a highly personalized approach to your prospects. Consider using your software to get data. If you use a CRM, look through customer profiles and deals to identify common patterns. If you don’t use a CRM, consider using the built-inCRM from LIKE.TG. With its help, you can store all your customer information, track all your deals within one platform, and automate your sales and communication with clients. After choosing a CRM, you also need a tool for conducting surveys. It will help you collect customer feedback about your product. You can use SurveyMonkey, GetFeedback, Zoho Survey, etc. Analyze demographics. The next step involves analyzing the external demographics of your potential clients. During this step, you should identify the market your product suits the best, the verticals your prospects operate in, annual revenue, the number of employees, and the location of these businesses. These points will help you get a better picture of your future customers. Gather feedback from your clients. Using the general information you have in your CRM isn’t enough to win deals. To establish connections with prospects, you need to research your current clients. For this purpose, you need to conduct surveys and communicate with consumers. You can do it in written or oral form with surveys or interviews. To speed up the process, consider using survey tools. They will enable you to design forms fast, send them to customers’ emails, and record their answers. Make sure to include questions about your product, things that make it stand out from the competition, and things that make it difficult to work with. Ask for comments and recommendations. With customer interviews, your company reps can talk with clients in real-time by phone or during a meeting. This way, you can directly see their reaction to your questions and read what they really like from their facial expressions. Focus on the problem. Think of the challenges your product can help solve. Identify the characteristics of businesses that need this product. Analyze your existing customers and their problems. Dive deeper into your clients’ behavior and discover how and why they use your product. Think of their pain points. Develop profiles. When developing ideal customer profiles, remember that you try to reach actual companies with their problems and needs. After finishing with the attributes for your ICPs, you need to focus on the individuals you want to reach to win the deal. Often, these are company representatives. To establish good communication and trust, you need to research companies’ decision-makers. Make sure you know their titles, age, income, reasons they need your product, role, and responsibilities. Track and evaluate. Once done with the profiles, you need to monitor your progress to identify successes and failures. It’s necessary to make improvements. Assessment is essential for obtaining new customers and taking your business to the next level. Now that you know how to build an ideal customer profile, let’s proceed to the next section to figure out how to use it in marketing. How to use an ideal customer profile in marketing? Besides creating an ICP, you also need to know how to apply the knowledge provided. This section will help you find it out. Every company needs an ideal customer profile. It empowers sales and marketing teams to define their ideal customer and target the right people. Everything starts with the development of a profile and then moves to the process of reaching prospects. A well-defined ideal customer profile enables you to reach and sell to targeted accounts. With its help, your team can determine challenges, create personalized approaches, meet customers’ needs, and align your marketing efforts. An ICP will be helpful for future alterations to your product and strategy. Use it when choosing the best marketing channels, identifying how to start communication, and encouraging to purchase. Congrats, now you know what an ICP is and why it’s crucial. Use our guide to identify the right customers for your business.