How to Harness the Power of Instagram for Your Ecommerce Site

With competition in the e-commerce sector getting even stiffer, there is an urgent need for entrepreneurs to innovate. While the internet marketplace has brought about myriad opportunities, especially for smaller brands, the vicious competition on this platform makes it crucial to keep adapting. If you are still sticking to your old website as the only avenue for marketing, you are driving your business to oblivion.

The e-commerce industry is growing rapidly and if the challenges you are facing today are driving you to the wall, you just have to consider the opportunities you are losing. According to a study by eMarketer, retail e-commerce sales will shoot up to $4.058 trillion in 2020.  

A similar study by Big Commerce says that over 51% of Americans today prefer shopping online, with over 96% of all consumers already having completed a purchase online. The same study says e-commerce is growing 23% year-over-year, which highlights the opportunity that every business can enjoy if they have the best marketing strategy.  

There are over 3.7 billion internet users according to Internet Live Stats and you have to position yourself strategically to leverage the opportunities available. The best way to do this today is by riding the crest of the Instagram wave. The days of Facebook dominance seem to be over with its reach reducing and Instagram now gives the innovative marketer an opportunity to thrive. In fact, Instagram has been labeled the world’s most powerful marketing tool and for many good reasons.

 

 

The Power of Instagram Marketing

With Facebook’s decline in business marketing, it was only a matter of time before another platform came up. This time, Instagram, a photo and video sharing platform started by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010, has come in to provide the much-needed solution. With over 700 million monthly active users (MAUs) and 500 million daily active users (DAUs), this is one of the most powerful social media networks today.

Close to 50% of brands in the U.S are already using Instagram for marketing purposes and according to eMarketer, the number is expected to go up to 71% by the end of 2017. A recent Forrester Research tagged Instagram as one of the most effective social marketing tools.

All these numbers highlight the power of Instagram for your marketing campaign. If you are struggling to leverage the growing numbers of internet users, it is time you learnt how to build your Instagram followers, but first things first.

Harnessing the Power of Instagram for Ecommerce

While it is very easy to set up an IG account, it is more difficult to start getting followers on Instagram and achieve your business objectives. In fact, this is the reason why most brands say social media offers no returns. In the rush to build an IG account, most business owners miss out on the bigger picture and they find it hard to get any results from their campaign.

If you want to leverage the power of IG, consider the following:

 

• Create an Instagram Strategy

 

Like with any other business campaign, you have to create a roadmap to get you to the desired objectives. There are many objectives of taking your brand to Instagram and it is advisable to first assess what you want to achieve before even opening your account. For example, do you want to increase your e-commerce website’s visibility on social media or do you want to drive sales?

Are you more after brand awareness or do you want more mentions of your products? Whatever the idea you have, make sure you set it down as this will guide the rest of the campaign. You should also consider the type of content you will be posting, schedule of posting, and the person tasked with posting content among other factors.

 

• Optimize Your Bio

 

The cardinal rule when creating a profile for your e-commerce website is to use a public account and use the new business tools to give your profile a professional touch. More importantly, you need to optimize your bio by giving detailed information about your business and more importantly adding a link to your landing page.

This is the only chance to direct traffic to your e-commerce site and it is surprising that most marketers overlook it. While at it, make sure you have optimized the landing page to make it easier for shoppers to compare the products available and make a purchase in a few steps.

 

• Integrate IG Photos into E-commerce

 

The easiest way to use Instagram for conversion is by integrating IG photos into your e-commerce website. You can use a feed or a widget on your landing page with your IG posts to showcase your products. For instance, if you are selling eyewear, why not share posts from your IG account by customers who are wearing the same? This instantly creates a sense of authenticity in your products and you will witness better sales conversions. There are many 3rd party Instagram tools which you can now use to embed Instagram photos onto your website.

 

• Show Your Best Products

 

The power of visuals drives Instagram and this is also the reason why it has become one of the most powerful marketing tools over the last few years. It is now possible to showcase your best products in the best way possible. With IG photos, you have an opportunity to call attention to your products.

The platform has the amazing photo and video editing features to give your images an edge. These amazing photos will attract visitors to your store and from there it gets easier to close a purchase.

 

• Contests Galore

 

If you want to engage users on social platforms, start with a contest. The same applies on Instagram and it is easy to get started; you just need to choose a prize, pick a contest-specific hashtag, create a contest “theme” and finally aggregate and display the photos online.

 

• Use the Full Power of Hashtags

 

Now that there are no links, you have to leverage hashtags which allow connection of your Instagram followers with the larger marketing strategy. Start by getting a small number of real Instagram followers using popular hashtags. To get the best out of your hashtags, use a mixture of broad and specific terms. However, avoid overusing hashtags or using irrelevant ones.

Using Instagram for your e-commerce site is a learning process and these tips will help you get started.

This is a guest contribution by Scott Harris.

Author Bio

Harris is a leading blog writer and content marketing professional with thousands of real Instagram followers for his postings.

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Have You Considered Custom Developed Apps?

We all use so many web based apps like Gmail and Google Docs to be more productive, but did you know many businesses are developing their own custom apps to get an edge over competitors these days?

Here at Creativ Digital, we develop many types of custom apps and software for both web and mobile devices. These help in solving problems in various industries like finance, transport, not for profits, to improve efficiency or make a better experience for customers.

Here are some reasons why you may need our help to develop custom applications.

 

One Software Doesn’t Fit All

Surely, productivity software apps such as Google Docs, Asana, Trello, and even CRMs like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Pipedrive do help in providing a more systematic way of streamlining business processes. However, your business process is very much different from that of another even if it falls within the same industry.

These traditional and generic apps may partially address what your business process requires, but it will still lack in catering to exactly what your business needs. For example, a retail A company with more than one brick and mortar location should be able to properly track inventory, sales, and customer relationship management, whereas, the same process applied to retail B company with only one store location may need a different way of handling their sales and tracking process.

 

Scalability Is Key

Another plus point of custom database applications is its scalability in line with what your business needs. Using different apps and systems will not give you the proper insight and analysis that you need to improve your business and keep it sustainable for long term.

Given that a custom developed app perfectly matches the size and requirements of your business, it would be better in providing you with accurate measurements with precise reports and analysis. Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management, have said, “What gets measured gets improved.” Suffice it to say, accurate scalability thanks to custom developed apps will help you in measuring performance and productivity of your team, which would prove to be vital in continuous improvement for your business.

 

Increased Productivity Equals Efficiency

Having your company use a customized app does not only provide exactly what you need, but it also eliminates what you don’t need. It’s about doing more of what is right and needed, and reducing unnecessary and inefficient tasks and errors.

All of these create a powerful impact on how your business run and its long-term sustainability. And in this day and age where businesses have a 50-50 chance of succeeding and failing, you’ll need a reliable system as part of your business’ foundation in order to ensure success.

 

A custom developed app is one investment that your business will surely reward from. There’s really no time to delay in having one done for your company. And with the help of our team of specialists in web development Sydney here at Creativ Digital, you can be rest assured that you’ll be securing the overall efficiency and future success of your business.

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5 Tips to Help You Come Up With Creative Headlines

The title or headline of your blog content shouldn’t be treated as a mere afterthought. A lot of thought, creativity, and succinctness has to go into it in order to instantly appeal to readers.

Think of it as creating a first impression–how would you want your article to be perceived as at first glance?

If you’re in need of some help on coming up with catchy headlines that would surely engage your readers, here are a five simple tips to get you started.

1. Use the Five Ws and the One H

We’re talking about the “what, when, where, why, who, and how.” These trigger words are best used to arouse curiosity from your reader at first glance.

Asking or stating “how” or “why,” for example, creates an air of mystery that would make the reader want to continue reading to know more.

 

2. Trigger Emotion

Whether it’s curiosity, mystery, satisfaction, bravado, or what have you, rousing any kind of emotion from your readers at first glance helps in pulling your readers in. Any strong emotion felt on their end pushes them to the point that they can’t help but click on that link or continue on reading the rest of the article no matter how long it may be.

Of course, do make sure that your article delivers on satisfying that emotion instead of just opting for the usual clickbait.

 

 

3. Rationalize and Simplify

What exactly is your article about? Gone are the days when vagueness works with a title or a headline. Readers are so much smarter now and the last thing they want is to waste their time reading an article they know nothing about.

Rationalize and simplify your headline by adding in the detail of what you’re talking about. Of course, just make sure it’s unique and interesting. For example, if you’re doing a list article, avoid using “things” or “stuff.” You can go for “tricks,” “facts,” “ideas,” “ways,” and so on.

 

 

4. Go for Numbers

One thing that copywriters almost always do, is including numbers in their headlines. It’s still widely used to this day for one simple reason: it works.

But while there’s no distinct rule when it comes to what range of numbers would work best for articles, the challenge is in creating substantial information that your audience would find very educational and helpful to their interests–and not just a lot of listed items just for the sake of having it.

 

 

5. Get Creative, But Be Clear and Honest

Steer clear from clichés and make sure to be as clear and honest as you can be, all while getting creative with your headline.

People nowadays don’t want to be tricked into reading anything boring or something that proves to be a waste of their time. Better be straight to the point, as opposed to shady or too over the top with your headline.

 

 

Coming up with a catchy headline is definitely important in grabbing your readers’ attention, but do make sure to follow through with an article that’s just as exciting and informative. The key is to pull them in with a well researched and planned headline, and then making it worth their while as they go to the trouble of reading the body of the post until the very end.

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How to Leverage Google Analytics Data in Your Database

The internet marketplace offers many opportunities for any type of business to compete. However, there are also challenges that your business has to overcome, top of these being increased competition.  Your online business is competing at a global level, meaning you have to contend with competition from major players in your niche. To stay ahead of the pack, you need to optimize your website for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) must be at the core of your marketing strategy.

Importance of Google Analytics

While there are many SEO tools you can leverage to boost your business, Google Analytics stands out due to its relevance in contemporary times. This is a free tool from Google which helps you track information about potential leads and also gather invaluable customer insight. When used together with a powerful database, the information gathered here can propel your business to the highest heights.

This tool helps in the collection, processing, and analysis of data arising from your online processes. The importance of data in modern business cannot be overemphasized. The information collected by Google Analytics is crucial in helping you understand and optimize your company’s website usage. The insight gathered is crucial in helping shape your business strategy. In summary, Google Analytics helps in:

1. Identifying the source of traffic – You can easily tell where your site’s visitors are coming from. It is easy to determine whether traffic is flowing from referral links, paid advertisements, search engines or other sources.
2. Determine page popularity – You can determine specific page popularity in order to determine which content is valuable to the site.
3. Bounce rates – High bounce rates for s specific webpage highlight some problem in keyword use, relevancy of content, quality of content or other issues.
4. Traffic flow data – This is a crucial factor in determining the success of your marketing campaign. The numbers you get about website visitors will help in building your future strategy. You will also learn which devices your website visitors are using.

Google Analytics offers many other advantages including the chance to review historical data, understand the type of visitors who frequent your site, identify the most clicked pages and links, identifying other keywords your visitors use to find your website and many more aspects. Using this information, you can now fine-tune your website in terms of speed, content quality, web redesign and many other ways.

Using Google Analytics with Database

There are many reasons to use a powerful database for your website, the main one being the capacity to process all data coming to your website. Google Analytics provides crucial data that can easily help build a stronger website strategy. It is now possible to load your Google Analytics data without the need for coding.

By integrating Google Analytics into your database, you will be enhancing your DBA processes and this is where DBA service by Remote DBA.comcomes in handy. Your DBA has the expertise to extract any data sets you need from Google Analytics into your business.

Author Bio

Sujain Thomas is one of the world’s most renowned DBAs with over 26 years’ experience in the industry. She is an expert in DBA service by Remote DBA.com and reviews the same regularly. Sujain lives in Miami with her family.

 

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How Content Marketing Proves its Worth yet Again in 2017

In recent years, content marketing is growing beyond our wildest imagination. Content is an integral part of any digital marketing strategy and you could even say that we are witnessing its golden age. It is consumed like never before, on devices of all shapes and sizes.  The game is constantly changing, though, and the competition is rising at a rapid pace, which means that success does not come easy.

The next level

Like it or not, to ignore content marketing today is to risk falling behind the competition. Believe it or not, the tech giant Apple is planning to invest around $1 billion. Google is purchasing content from brand and media companies, while Facebook ramps up original video production.

But, many startups and small business are also making leaps and bounds in the field of content marketing, propelled by much smaller funds. According to a recent study, more and more businesses (40%) are using a strategic approach to content marketing. What does this all tell us?

Well, that content marketing is huge, but also that it shows no signs of cooling down. Moreover, in the light of the efforts of big corporations as well as Google algorithm changes, the consistent, attention-arresting, and unique content has come into the spotlight.

Reaping benefits

There is hardly a better way than offering great content to stand out and spark the attention of the large audience. It gives you an invaluable chance to earn people’s trust and build a loyal audience.

Unlike traditional advertising, content marketing establishes meaningful relationships, ones that stand the test of time. For business organizations, this enables something that every entrepreneur dreams of: Repeat purchases and steady revenue streams.

Of course, there is no direct causality between investment and profit, but the correlation is strong. Also, there are many steps you can take in order to make the most of the content marketing and monetize your efforts. Likewise, it has never been easier to measure the content marketing ROI and ensure that you get the most bang for your buck.

Winds of change

The dynamic content ecosystem brings forth many exciting trends. First off, rich, visual-heavy content seems to be the new king. We are talking about videos, infographics, HTML5 and responsive web. It is clear that user preferences are leaning towards interactive and immersive experience, which is infused with programmatic flow and logic.

Furthermore, websites are still the cornerstone of content marketing. Social media hubs accommodate much of the content discovery, consumption, and production, but that is already old news. At the same time, new pillars arise as well because marketers are figuring out new ways of attracting the audience.

One of the prominent trends is the production of interactive marketing apps, such as capability graders. Namely, modern software platforms are capable of gathering immense amounts of data and even uncovering the user intent, which is the obsession of search engines as well.

Along the similar lines, we are witnessing the surge in the area of personalization tools that recommend content. That way, consumers are offered only the relevant content tailored to their wants and needs, one that is also served in “edible” chunks.

Optimum performance

SEO is still the key to achieving higher visibility and volume of traffic. However, this is not to say that content should be over-stuffed with links and keywords. On the contrary: Only delivering real quality and original value cuts it.

After all, Google is determined to squash manipulative practices and its algorithms are getting more sophisticated and suited for that task. So, find a suitable SEO tool to evaluate how your pages hold up and see where the room for improvement is.

Finally, bear in mind that mobile consumer use continues to grow, which means that optimizing content to smaller screen sizes poses a top priority. Nowadays, more traffic comes from mobile devices than from desktops, while the aforementioned apps capture an increasing number of users.

Hence, it is highly advisable to run a full-fledged audit to see how well your company is communicating with the mobile audience.

The list does not end here, but we leave it to you to dive deeper into content strategies and make strides towards you goals.

Ahead of the pack

As content marketing evolves and becomes more successful, it also requires more budget dollars and other resources. Thus, it is high time to step up and delight the users with stellar content production. Come up with a sound strategy, and fill out your editorial plan. Strive to stay on top of emerging and you should be able to tap into one of the most important growth channels of today.

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Link Building Updates You Cannot Ignore! Some Tips for Today’s SEO Professionals

Link building is considered to be the most important skill of SEO marketing. There are so many different strategies when it comes to digital marketing, and when you can master them well, you can ensure that you have a successful marketing campaign to look forward to. Since the internet and the technologies associated with it are evolving with time, it is essential that you have a link building strategy to look forward to and can employ it for the benefit of your website. There are different skills that you need to master to use the digital marketing method to your advantage, and link building is just one of them and is a crucial part indeed. It can be rightly said that if you want more search engine related traffic, the link building campaign is the sure shot way to get them.

Link building methods

The methods of link building are changing from time to time, and the latest updates have to be employed for your website to make sure that your site is at par with the latest technologies and work smoothly on any device and interface that operate on the latest technologies. It is important to have a thorough understanding of the link building campaigns and the benefits that you can get from them. When a website has many backlinks from various sources, it is considered to be a quality site with quality content and hence would rank higher up in the Google ranking. Google now also focuses on the link quality and not just the quantity. That is why you must keep in mind some of the latest link building updates for 2017 when you are creating your own link building strategies.

The page you link back to

There are different kinds of links on the internet, and they can have a different impact on your website ranking. When you are linked back from a relevant web page which has a PageRank powerhouse, it can influence your Google ranking to a large extent. It has been observed from years of research that the authority of the page that is linking to your website has a huge impact on your ranking and is one of the most important factors which must be taken into consideration. The main reason behind this is that the authoritative pages would be able to pass more authority which is also called PageRank to your site, unlike a website which does not have as much exposure or audience online. There are applications like the Ahrefs to check the proxy indicator of the PageRank for a site to determine whether it is powerful enough and would help you at all with your ranking.

Try and get in touch with a website or a blog with is relevant to your site and get a link back to them than getting many link backs from no-name bloggers.

The relevancy of the site

It is important to take note of the relevance of the website which you are linking with to ensure that it does not look like you are trying to manipulate the Google algorithms for increasing your ranking. Further, when you link with a website randomly, it affects the quality of the content that your site has. If your audiences are looking for certain information from your site but end up being redirected to another website which has an entirely different topic of interest on their reading list, the audience would feel betrayed and that their time is being wasted which would have an adverse impact on our traffic and audience psyche. With the help of the SEO keyword research template, you can easily manage this issue of relevancy. You can look up the relevant keywords which are suitable for the links and the content on your website and at the same time make sure that these keywords are taken care of such that you get a better ranking.

When you have the relevant link backs from another website with similar topics and the link is suitable for the context of the content, then it is considered to be a good link building campaign.

The position of the link on the page

When you are publishing an article that has anchor texts that are part of your link building campaign, it is essential to take note of the position of the anchor text on the page. If the anchor text is in the first couple of paragraphs and is the beginning of a sentence, it can send out a negative impression to the audiences. Further, it can look like a manipulation of the Google bots and the Google algorithm and hence a violation of the Google webmaster guidelines. If this is so, the ranking would be negatively impacted for your website. In case the link is further down the article, it may go unnoticed by the audience if they choose not to read through the entire article.

It is always safe and better to use the link back related anchor text in the middle of the content such that it is relevant to the things that you are writing there. One must make sure that the anchor text which is being used for the link building is relevant to the content and whatever you are talking about in the middle of the article.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that when you take note of some of the latest methods of link building you can reap the maximum output from the website. There are various methods of link building that are available to you, and you can come up with prosperous link building strategies when you take note of them.

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Why Is SEO Expensive?

A lot of businesses, particularly those who have just started getting into the whole digital marketing experience, still think twice about employing an SEO company to help them grow their site and online presence.

One of their main dilemmas is the cost attached to the services of a good and reputable SEO company, which leads us to ask: “Why is SEO so expensive?” While there isn’t a one off answer to that question, we can go into justifying hiring a reputable SEO company over a cheap one.

 

Dealing With Google and Their Algorithms

For starters, Google has made several updates on their algorithms (e.g. Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, etc.) by which you have to adjust your site structure and content accordingly. This is not an easy task and does require more technical knowledge and creativity, especially in creating content–and not just any kind of content, but good and high quality content that can engage audiences.

Is your site’s content relevant enough to appeal to readers or even translate to sales? Is your site’s structure well planned complete with relevant cross and back linking? These are just some of the questions that you ought to ask yourself and questions that a dependable SEO company should be able to have solutions for.

 

Proper Site Maintenance & Update

Maintaining a site, especially an e-commerce site, also takes hard work and needs to be done on a monthly basis. Your SEO partner should be able to identify key points that they should revise, update, or maintain to ensure that you stay high up on rankings and keep it that way. These key points may refer to your web pages, cross-linking, blog content, and so on.

Also remember that site updates are not done on a one-time, big-time basis and any company that works on your site just once and leaves it be should definitely not be trusted at all.

 

Utilizing Effective White Hat SEO Strategies

Getting high up on first page rankings entails continuous progressive work using all the right (white hat) SEO strategies. If you go for a cheaper one, who knows what black hat SEO tactics may be done on your site and this is something you want to avoid, so as not to get penalized by Google.

A reputable SEO company would only use white hat SEO strategies such as proper backlinking to all relevant and non-spammy sites, as well as providing quality content that makes sense and that which your target market would actually find useful and important. Having a good SEO partner on your side relieves you from all the potential headache that one may encounter in trying to figure out the whole SEO game and how to keep up with Google’s algorithmic updates.

 

But how do you know if a certain SEO company is a good one? There are many ways in which you can determine that, starting with going through their line of clientele and previous work, as well as getting their list and terms of services. And while expensive doesn’t always mean quality work, in this case, a reliable SEO company that delivers on effective SEO strategies may be worth the higher price tag.

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