Category: Trends

WP Assistant Plugin Review

WP Assistant Plugin

WP Assistant is a brand new way to work with Wordpress, making it much simpler and faster for beginners, intermediate users and even experts to get things done. You can quickly access posts, pages, media, comments, forms, portfolio items etc, without having to go in to the admin area, or just from the front end. Assistant shows you tips and methods to do things as you are editing, to shorten the time. You can view file paths, urls, post & page ids etc which are normally hard to find in the normal admin panel, so making life a lot faster and easier to get things done.

 

Assistant

Check out the WP Assistant Video Below!

You can find for example a page you might have been working on earlier in the day, and make quick changes to titles, slugs, metas, descriptions, and of course the actual content. Its always available from whatever page you are on, and you can easily and quickly create new posts and pages from within it, again without having to go to the backend.

There are a ton of options available, so I did a few screenshots to show how it looks at the front end and some of the tabs.

 

Assistan

Images Tab

Assistant

 

General Dashboard Tab

Assistant

Posts and Pages Tab 1

Assistant

Apps Tab

Assistant

Posts and Pages Tab 2

All these are editable directly from the front end without having to go in to the admin at the back, and the tab panel can be left or right.

WP Assistant is an open source project so can be found on github and subversion and is from the guys behind Beaver Builder so has got a decent pedigree. Currently its the preview version and a full 1.0 release is coming later this year.

Grab it from here and take a look for yourself!

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Filed under: eCommerce, Innovation, Trends, WordpressTagged with: , ,

Instagram Shopping To Increase Your Revenue

Instagram

Ramp Up Your Instagram Strategy

If you run an eCommerce store and are looking for a way of promoting and increasing sales, then it might be a good idea to look at Instagram. Here we look at doing it without drama and  excess cost.

Instagram is a superb social media tool that has more than 500 million daily active users.

People follow other people’s accounts, like photos, create stories and try to provide their products or services on the platform.

And so do we!

Along with Instagram shoutouts, you can also use Instagram shopping ads, which are getting to be a really effective marketing tool.

So today, I’ll tell you how to set up Instagram shopping ads and get the most out of them.

What are Instagram Shopping Ads?

In simple terms, Instagram allows you to create a mobile storefront and turn any of your posts into the opportunity to shop.

Here is how it works.

You post a photo and tag your products in it. People see your picture and like it, for example. Once they tap a picture, they will see the price and the short description of your products.

If people click on the product again, they will see a richer product description, additional photos and the “Shop Now” or “View on Website” button.

Once they click it, they will be redirected directly to your store, where they will be able to make a purchase.

That’s it

You can tag lots of products in the picture, but we advise you to limit yourself to 2-3 products. Otherwise, your picture will be a bit messy.

Benefits of shopping on Instagram

Instagram is a super effective tool for businesses which is truly worth your time and efforts.

And here are some reasons why.

  • Instagram has a more engaged audience than Facebook

According to statistics, this social media has 58 (!) times more engagement per follower than Facebook. What’s more, Instagrammers usually don’t ignore advertisements as much as Facebook users do.

  • Instagram welcomes creativity

Instagram users like colorful, bright and beautiful pictures, and adore experiments with them. They track the newest trends and easily make them go viral.

Besides that, it’s no secret that the Instagram audience is mostly young. That’s why Instagrammers are very loyal to any changes and positively respond to innovations.

  • Instagramers often buy products online

The statistics indicate that 75% of Instagram users take actions such as clicking the “Shop Now” button or visiting a website after looking at shopping ads.

  • Instagram offers lots of opportunities for businesses

An Instagram business account opens a great world of features which can help you successfully promote your business. Call-to-action buttons, Instagram insights, stories or Instagram shopping ads will help you get the most out of your marketing campaign!

How to set up shopping on Instagram

Make sure that your Instagram account meets all the requirements

Shopping on Instagram is not for everyone, however, There are many requirements which your business should follow.

First of all, you need to check if your business is located in a supported market. Unfortunately, Instagram has a limited list of countries which residents can create Instagram shopping ads and run this marketing campaign. Thus, if you don’t see your country in this list, the access to this service is denied for you ?

Secondly, you should read Instagram commerce policies very carefully and make sure that your eCommerce business fully complies with them.

In short, you have to sell legal physical goods which meet all Instagram requirements. For example, it’s forbidden to sell ammunition, animals, no commercial intent and third-party infringement (counterfeits, replicas of branded goods, etc).

If you’re ok with all the previous steps, make sure that you switched your Instagram account to the business one and connected it to your Facebook page. Before doing it, we advise you to go through our article where we explain the whole process in detail.

That’s it! Your Instagram account is ready to use. Go to the next step.

Create a Facebook product catalogue

As you have probably noticed, Facebook and Instagram usually go hand in hand. If you want to create a successful marketing campaign, you need both Facebook and Instagram business accounts.

To make your first Instagram shopping ad, it’s necessary to create a Facebook catalogue. It will contain all products you can promote on your Facebook or Instagram pages.

There are some ways to create a product catalogue. Let’s look at them.

Do-it-yourself

The first one is the so-called DIY method. You create a catalogue and add all the products, photos and descriptions manually.

As you can see, there are many fields that need to be filled in. As for me, I spend about 7-10 minutes per product to enter all the necessary information into these fields.

To better understand how much it is, let’s do some calculations.

For example, I have 100 products in my store and I want to add all these products to my Facebook product catalogue. I usually spend 10 minutes to enter all the necessary information into the fields. To add all my products I need 1000 minutes or more than 16 hours!

And what if you want to promote more than 100 products? How much time will it take you to do this?

Thus, choosing this method is a bad idea if you have lots of products in your store. It will be just a huge waste of time.

Facebook Business add-on

Another way to create a product catalogue (with the AliDropship Plugin) is using their Facebook Business add-on. It helps you upload all products from your store to your Facebook catalogue in a few clicks.

Let’s look at how exactly it works.

Here are your steps.

  • Install the Facebook Business add-on on your WP website and activate it.
  • Choose the “Categories” tab and click the “Add new” button.

Add all the categories you’re going to promote through Instagram Shopping Ads

Add an appropriate Google category to each category of your website.

This aspect is very important! The name of your product category may significantly vary from the name of the categories used by Google.

For example, you sell soft toys and one of your product categories is called “Funny Bunny”. You understand what it means, but Google or Instagram don’t. Without categorizing your product categories it’ll be difficult to show your ads to the right people.

  • Go to the “Product Feed” section, enable it and click Save. Select categories you want to include in the feed and choose the appropriate currency.
  • Click Generate XML and wait until the progress bar reaches 100%. Now you can download XML file or copy URL with your product data feed.

So now you have created a list of your products, which you just need to upload to your Facebook catalogue.

Upload your product data feed to Facebook

Once your product list is ready, it’s time to upload it to your Facebook business page.

Go to Facebook Business Manager account and find the “Catalogues” menu. Then click Create Catalog and select your catalog type.

As you have an online store, we recommend you to click the “e-commerce” button.

Find the “Upload Product Info” option, give your catalogue a unique name and upload the product list that you have created with your Facebook Business address.

Add Products To Fb Catalogue

Choose Use Data Feeds as an Import method and click Next.

If you have generated an XML file, just upload it. If you’ve chosen the way of copying a data feed URL, enter it into the special field.

Besides that, we advise you to choose the “Set a Schedule” option, so that your product list could be updated regularly. This option helps you forget about any troubles related to your products.

If everything is ok, you’ll see the following window. Click Done and go to the next step.

Note: if you have any mistakes when creating a product catalogue, check this article to learn more about how to fix them.

Choose Instagram Shopping options

After your Facebook catalogue is created you will be asked about the way you want to use it.

 

As we try to create an Instagram Shopping ad, it’s obvious that we should choose the first option. Click it.

Once your products are added, you will see a green tick near the “add your products” field.

After that, you should connect your Instagram business profile to your Facebook catalogue. Click the button, select your page and enter all the necessary information.

Well done!

Wait for Instagram approval

Once your catalogue is set up, Instagram will automatically review it to make sure that everything is ok and you don’t break any rules.

As a rule, this process takes several days, so be patient and focus on other things.

Create your first Instagram shopping ad

Once everything has been approved, you can start adding product tags and stickers to your Instagram photos or stories.

Instagram allows you to tag up to 5 products per image and up 20 products on multi-image posts. Besides that, you can add shopping tags to your old posts on your business profile.

Instagram shopping ad

Instagram shopping ad

As for Instagram stories, you can add one product sticker per story.

Instagram shopping ad stories

Analyze your results with the help of Shopping Insights

You should analyze every marketing campaign you do to see how it is performing.

Instagram has a great tool which is called Shopping Insights. It’ll help you learn more about your target audience and what posts and stories your followers engage with the most.

To view Shopping Insights, you should visit your business profile, find the corresponding tab and click it.

Here you can track impressions, interactions and other statistics which are important for evaluating the success of your Instagram Shopping Ad campaign.

There are also third party services which can help, for example Foursixty

Foursixty

Or another is Pixlee

Pixlee

So here are a number of options to get your Instagram shopping up to speed for your business.

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Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, TrendsTagged with: ,

Denzilla High Quality Furniture & Interior Design

Custom Built Branded Business, Built Site and Domain For Sale

eCommerece Dropshipping stores are becoming a good way for people to get in to the online selling industry, however, many people struggle with a lot of the aspects of setting one up. Things like finding a niches, finding suppliers, setting up social media accounts, setting up the store, paying monthly fees, and quite a few other things mean that it can be a non starter for many.

Fortunately, I have a couple of examples which are available for shrewd entrepreneurs, and here is one of them.

Its called Denzilla, and it comes with all the rights to the .com domain name, the business name, any logo which is produced for it, the social media accounts already set up with user name “denzillarama” and quite a lot more.

Denzilla

We’ve got verified suppliers for high quality furnishings including leather sofas, fabric sofas, chairs, wardrobes, dining tables, kitchen furniture and a whole lot more. These are verified and high quality people who will dropship the items and take care of the insurance etc, and they are not Ali Express. Currently UK and Europe, with a USA option available aswell. So a great possibility to build a global brand which is highly recognisable across all major social media channels and also offers a dual revenue opportunity with the option for service based interior design work. The current design is a sample and in fact we can build any theme or original design for the site as required and all will be custom built and extremely well engineered.

There is an example site at Denzilla.com, and this can be built according to taste, as above, with any design if necessary and high quality hosting and maintenance. Also any integrations and CRMs, custom plugins etc including the potential to be one of the first furniture outlets to use Matterport 3D for Virtual Display of certain products if necessary. This niche has high profit margins, and is mid to high ticket, with turnover being easily 500K upwards PA, so if you want to get in to and build a recognisable brand this is a great opportunity for budding furniture moguls and/or interior designers to start at relatively low costs and build up a great brand name get in touch at [email protected] for more information and a chat on how we go about it.

In fact you might kick yourself if you miss this one!

Get in touch at +1 (646) 224 2225

If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on using Instagram Shopping to increase your store revenue!

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Filed under: eCommerce, Marketing, Trends, WordpressTagged with: ,

Omnisend Marketing Platform Review

Omnisend

Omnisend, formerly called Soundest

is an all-in-one multifunctional ecommerce marketing automation platform that helps you sell more by converting your visitors and retaining your customers. You can reach your customers with personalised messages using the powerful automation workflows and boost your sales. Grow your subscriber list with wide variety of signup forms and send converting newsletters created with an easy-to-use editor. Omnisend works with all ecommerce platforms including Shopify, Bigcommerce, Magento, WooCommerce and others and it’s automation and ability to send series of emails to catch customers eyes is top notch and extremely valuable. It also integrates with Zapier for use with other third party applications, so is pretty versatile for use with these.

Omnisend integrates very easily with Shopify and is very easy email software to use. If email marketing is not your strong point, Omnisend makes it much easier and less time consuming. The best thing about creating emails with Omnisend is that you can easily and quickly add your products directly from Shopify or for example Woocommerce into the emails. If you are using Woocommerce, then just go and install  the plugin for Woocommerce.

Analytics are pretty competent, and you can view live stats to see where the traffic is coming from on your store and also their actions on the store, the pop ups are excellent and customiseable which helps a lot to get customers emails, and the ease of use is on a par with the best out there.

Feature Omnisend Smart Segmentation

Automation, signup forms, reports, popups, newsletters, boosting features are all in place, additionally you don’t need additional platforms for such features as for example a wheel of fortune.

Omnisend offers the ability to effortlessly create e-mail list segments based on factors such as country, or how many orders the user has placed. This means you can better target your customers without the tedium of manual data entry. This is especially effective when creating tiered VIP lists or special offers to specific customers. It is a one stop solution for all of your marketing needs, as everything can be automated related to your various promotions. You can get a lot of good open rates and lots of clicks from Omnisend and I can definitely see with the reports that we’re making quite more than before and it’s been growing steadily. So good price, great ROI and of course fantastic customer support. I have to say that they really know how to make an “easy to use” product.

Watch the Omnisend video!

[fvplayer id=”6″]In my opinion, Omnisend is truly a versatile tool for any kind of user and it also comes in different language versions, and you can generate more sales with their automation. So go and make money with Omnisend, possibly the one and only tool for marketing automation.

There is a free tier with basic Email and SMS features, which you can try to start with, I’d highly recommend giving it a try, so check it at the Omnisend Website, I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Social Media Channels!

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Running a Facebook Nationwide Sweepstakes

Facebook

Sweepstakes are a highly effective method of introducing and promoting a new product on the market. It is also a good way of introducing an existing product to a whole new customer base and engaging loyal customers as well. These activities encourage people to spread the word about a product while participating in the sweepstake with the hope of winning a price. The National Sweepstakes Company can provide you with the requirements of running one. Here are 5 tips to running an effective Facebook nationwide sweepstakes.

Get to Know Facebook Sweepstakes Rules

Facebook has very strict guidelines for the various activities carried out on this platform. Before you even think of carrying out a contest on Facebook, make sure you have taken time to read and understand these guidelines. Failing to follow the guidelines can have your contest disqualified or muted hence wasting your time and money. Ensure to always check the guidelines each time you want to run a campaign as Facebook keeps revising and changing them.

Set Your Goals and Objectives

The point here is not simply to conceive an idea of running a sweepstakes and getting on with it. It is a matter of trying to reach a target or a goal and to create as much awareness as possible. Setting a target gives you a clear guideline of what you should do and at what point instead of just running blind. The set objectives will give you an indication as to when you begin achieving your targets.

 Set Clear Rules and Guidelines

People participating in your event will want to know the requirements of the campaign. It is important that you formulate and set clear rules and guidelines that participants are to follow. Some of the most important guidelines include how individuals or parties are to enter the competition, the mode of operation, when the campaign starts and ends, restricted locations and age, whether people can have multiple entries and the category of prices based on participation among others. It is also important to have participants know how the winner or winners will be announced. You can seek professional help to formulate the terms and conditions.

Make it Mobile Friendly and Easy to Enter

A majority of Facebook users use their mobile phones to access their profiles. This means that you will get more audience and widely market your products if you create a mobile friendly campaign. Most people like using their phones during their idle time to keep them busy. It is this time that you should completely capitalize on. The campaign should also be easy to enter and participate to encourage more people to participate.

Use Adverts to Boost the Campaign

Do not just start the campaign and then sit back waiting for a ripple effect. If you do not participate actively in letting people know about it, it will quickly fizzle out as there are many other contests going on and competing for the same space. Actively use Facebook ads to promote the campaign. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on becoming a Social Business!

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Build Brand Credibility on Social Media

Brand

If you are a Wordpress site or business owner, you want to be that brand people rave about to their friends, remember first when they need your product and patronize no matter how other brands convince them to do otherwise. You want to be that brand consumers trust so much they wouldn’t mind spending more knowing that they’ll get their money’s worth. You want to be that brand so credible stores would fight for your product to be on their shelves. But the question is: how will you make that happen?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the power that social media has to the consumers of today. 90% of marketers said social media has increased business exposure and 75% said it drove more traffic to their website, which is no surprise considering that there are 3.196 billion social media users around the world in 2018. That’s almost half of the world’s population. To get started with your social media efforts in building brand credibility, here are a few takeaways that you could use:

Before you go viral for the wrong reasons, fix any business glitches first

If you want to go viral on social media, it has to be for the right reasons. So before someone digs up your flaws and tarnish your credibility online, make sure to fix any glitches within your business first. Be like Erik Gordon, so they say, where he used consistency to defend himself against accusations thrown at him and continue to be successful in his career as an investor, philanthropist, and film and television producer. You will make mistakes at some point, whether in your personal life or business, but being transparent about it and finding the right solutions to address those problems is a good way to establish your credibility before you start your social media marketing efforts.

If you haven’t done it yet, start a website or blog

Blogging Image

A blog or website is not only a great starting point for you to build credibility, but it is also an incredible platform to show the more human side of your business. But setting up one just wouldn’t do the job. You also need to create consistent, refreshing content that people will love enough to share on social media platforms, articles that are useful for your audience and compelling enough to push them to take action. A lot of entrepreneurs still write their own blog posts because it gives them the opportunity to connect with their consumers, which is a great way to build that trust in them.

Be the brand that offers value and nothing but

Blendtec

Blendtec, an appliance manufacturer selling blenders went from being nobody to becoming a global brand by using YouTube videos featuring its products blending everything from CDs to an iPhone 4. Their videos became so viral that Steve Jobs even made a guest appearance when they blended the iPhone 4.

Now, this is a classic example of social media marketing done right. In a sea of useless promotional videos, you need to be that brand that offers value to your consumers by showing them exactly what your product can do. This gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with consumers before making a sale, which is very important for retention.

Practice a habit of consistency in all your social media platforms

According to research, 51% of social media users unfollow brands that post irritating promotional content or those who don’t post anything at all. Now the key to a successful social media marketing campaign is consistency. Consumers nowadays look to social media for product information to help them make purchasing decisions, so it’s the perfect opportunity to put your brand forward by providing consistent content on your social media platforms.

Brand

Finally, always make your social media campaigns about your consumers and not about you. Simply put, give them what they want to hear. For instance, if you’re selling a gadget for the elderly, you can’t expect them to want to hear you talking about all the technical features of your product because really, all they want to know is how they can use your product and how it will benefit them. Also, it’s a good strategy to come up with several problems and show your audience how your product can help address them.

Building brand credibility doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes time because if you want your relationship with consumers to last, you can’t force them to like your product immediately. It has to come from a sense of trust that will eventually give them more confidence to your brand that they’ll be more than happy to share it with others.   

Filed under: Marketing, Strategy, Trends, WordpressTagged with: ,

How Marketers Can Avoid the Mainstream Media Crash

In late 2016, Virginia Hale reported that more than 50% of Swedes no longer trust the mainstream media. In 2017, TechCrunch said, “Don’t worry, the MSM isn’t dead yet.” But their only evidence was a Google search ranking for the term “mainstream media is dead,” and we all know that Google ranks are at least 50% artificial. Whether one likes the result of the 2016 presidential election or hates it, the divergence between the projections and the result show one thing clear as crystal- the MSM does not have its finger on the pulse of the people.

So what does that mean for marketers and branding professionals? It means that anyone who is placing all of their advertising eggs in a mainstream basket- is making a big mistake. In case after case, we’ve seen brands fall into obscurity simply because they failed to forge a significant online presence.

This is not to say that advertising on mainstream media is useless. For large and well-established brands, it makes all the sense in the world. But the fact is, unless a brand already has massive recognition and huge coffers, they will simply get outbid and drowned out in their efforts to garner a mainstream audience. MSM, advertising empowers the already empowered. It has more than enough patronage to replace any brand that doesn’t suit a given agenda or rubs other bigger advertisers the wrong way. Those who don’t utilize social media must become an unmovable force, or get washed away in the immense tidal forces of the mainstream outlets.

With that in mind, here are some major marketing mistakes branding professionals looking to branch out should avoid.

Failure to strategize

Just getting on social media isn’t enough. Brands need to pump out regular content in a consistent and thematically consonant manner.

Failure to target a relevant audience

Much like failing to have a plan, failing to target an audience is a sure way for a marketing campaign to sink into irrelevance. Knowing what buyers want means knowing who they are. That takes some research and some insight.

Failure to cope with negative feedback

This is a big one. According to Informeo, roughly 50% of all the negative feedback on social media branding pages is being ignored. There’s a lot of negative energy out on the world wide web. But here’s a tip: that negativity has always been there. Now, there’s just nothing to stop people from letting merchants know when they don’t like what they see. The key is to not let the negativity suck the energy out of a branding campaign. The best way to deal with negative feedback is to ban those who are unreasonably negative and to answer the questions and concerns of those who are reasonable.

For those who are short on time, focus first and foremost on dealing with reasonable concerns. Do not leave reasonable concerns unaddressed. Not only does it let down people who might be paying customers, but it communicates to others that their concerns will also go unaddressed.

If you are selling a digital product, and looking for alternative ways of getting sales, then check out this article at Codester.com, which runs through a few ways of doing that. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Using Instagram for your business!

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Filed under: eCommerce, Trends, WordpressTagged with: ,

Content Or Data, Which Is King In Content Marketing?

SRMO_Reasearch_Map

The Content Versus Data Mini Debate

In the modern media era of TV and Internet, there has always been a fundamental tension between content and distribution. Is it better to own the content, or is it better to own the platforms and distribution mechanisms to get that content to the customer? For now, content is king, but is there a new contender to the throne: data?

Of course, data in its raw form is useless. It’s just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s. But when you are able to analyze that data, it can become very powerful. That’s especially true since we are moving from an era of “structured” data to an era of “unstructured” data.From a marketing perspective, the easiest way to think about the difference between “structured” data and “unstructured” data is by thinking of the typical customer survey that you might send out after someone has purchased a product or visited your store. Most of the questions will be simple “yes/no” questions. Or they will ask customers to rate you on a scale of 1-10. All of that is “structured” data. It’s easy to put into a database and then analyze for insights. You can perform all kinds of statistical calculations very easily.

But then comes all the “unstructured” data. And this is where organizations are really stepping up their game. For example, that same customer survey might ask a question like, “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us that’s not included here?” That prompts a customer to write an open-ended response. Just a few years ago, that would have required a human to analyze it. Now, thanks to the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence, it’s possible to have a computer analyze it and add it to a growing database.

And the type of “unstructured” data that’s available today is growing at a prodigious pace, primarily thanks to all the digital devices out there. Your mobile phone is a potential treasure trove of data that grows by the minute. What company wouldn’t want to know the precise GPS location of every place you’ve visited during the day?

The rise of artificial intelligence

Moreover, the type of analysis that’s possible today is becoming quite impressive. There’s a whole new field called “predictive analytics,” which essentially promises to predict future customer behavior based on known data. You can literally predict how a marketing campaign will do, based on what you know about certain types of customers. Companies like Salesforce are coming up with AI-powered marketing solutions that promise to help companies find the proverbial needle in the haystack.

So it’s no surprise that so many companies have jumped aboard the Big Data bandwagon. It promises to streamline just about every part of a company and create new revenue opportunities. As the analytical tools become more and more powerful, it’s leading to real excitement about the potential ability of AI to transform organizations.

Is Data the new oil?

Data Science Vs Big Data Vs

 

Within the mainstream media, in fact, it’s now fashionable to compare the role of data in the digital economy to the role of oil in the analog economy. Back in 2014, WIRED magazine breathlessly proclaimed that, “Data is the new oil of the digital economy.” Earlier this year, The Economist remarked that, “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”

If you follow this analogy to its logical end, it would seem to imply that companies best able to harness and extract this data will become the most valuable in the world. Just as oil companies like Exxon Mobil became the most valuable and powerful in the world until the rise of Silicon Valley’s Internet champions, it’s plausible that new artificial intelligence (AI) companies will become the most valuable in the world, once they’ve truly figured out how to harness the remarkable power of data. However, seeming reasonable or probable does not necessarily make it a certainty, and this is where the human element holds sway, people generally recognise the value of a well written piece from the personal perspective of the author, something which can probably never be replicated by a machine, at least not to the degree that it becomes untraceable.

Wordup to core values

Wordup

 

Anyone reading thus far and wondering what the punch line or relevance to their Wordpress site or enterprise is, then its pretty straightforward.

The people who analyse your content generally, typically the likes of Google, who employ rocket scientists to do it, are well known to value relevant content written by real people with real opinion and information to get across to the audience. They are also pretty expert at weeding out artificial or bot created content to the point of penalising sites which use it. So you’ve still got to create content, and you might need some help with that. We provide a full content strategy for Wordpress sites which are built by us, and so do others.

Wordup, the content marketing people, who specialize in content marketing and copywriting services with a considerable degree of success are also well worth a look if you need high end copywriting or content marketing services. Working with brands like Tag Heur, Wavemaker, Jacobs, Mindshare and Munity, they seem to have done a pretty stellar job of elevating the presence of those, and seemingly without any AI or a bot in sight. So I guess for now and the forseeable future, content may still be king, and especially high quality and empirical or personal statistical content written by genuine people with a valid and valuable insight to get across. So get in touch if you need any help with your Wordpress site content, and you can also see if Wordup may be able to help. Just make sure you have already had a burger!
If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Wordpress Dynamic Content!

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Why People Buy Instagram Followers

instagram-1474231_1920

Popular Instagram Strategies

Instagram is a popular social media platform. You can share pictures and other content easily on Instagram. People buy Instagram followers for various reasons. For business, this will enhance their brand visibility hence open up more markets. For celebrities, it is a simpler way of gaining popularity. Individuals also buy Instagram followers for fame and social media interactions.  You can gain more followers on Instagram through various ways including buying them online.

Here are the top 3 reasons why people buy Instagram followers:

  1.   Online visibility

Your online presence is dependent on views and shares that your content receives. This enhances your influencer capability. Social media marketers use popular pages in online marketing. This can be an additional source of income from paid ads and lead generation. Through such avenues, you can reach a wider audience and this may generate income through more sales or payment packs from relevant online businesses. Through reposts, comments and discussion points from followers; your level of engagement with the online audience is increased. This helps to market your brand and increase your market presence.

  1.   Reputation

People love celebrities and like being associated with them. Research shows that posts or pictures of celebrities get many comments and likes. Having many followers helps to build your reputation. You also become influential, such that any post on your page gets many views. As long as you have many followers, your posts will have many comments and likes. This influences other people to also visit your page, and follow your posts building your reputation. It also becomes possible to get many chain reactions hence more engagement. To maintain good repute on social media, you must ensure that your followers are getting high-quality content. This will help you to build loyalty among your followers.

  1.   Internet marketing

Your products and content will reach a wider market niche if you have many followers on Instagram and other social media platforms. If you have many Instagram followers, you may link your account to all other social media platforms. This way, you can spread the content, and reach a wider market niche. Potential clients who visit your site may also check reviews and feedback from your online followers. This helps to give credibility to your business. Conversion rate increases due to more leads which can be converted into sales. Search engine ratings increase when you have many followers. With a higher ranking in Google and other search engines, more traffic will be directed to your site. Another important tip is to link your website to your Instagram and other social media accounts. This is a cost-free effective marketing technique that helps to grow your business.

If you do not have many followers, you are missing out on business. Through various online resources, techniques, and tips, your Instagram account will get more exposure. Before you buy Instagram followers, you should do a little research to identify the best sources. It is also advisable to generate organic followers. As much as possible, you should avoid bot generated followers as they do not engage potential customers.
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10 Places to Get Website Images

A website without images will look plain and boring!

Think about it for a moment: When was the last time you visited a website that didn’t have any photos? If you actually encountered this rarity, you probably left the site fairly quickly for fear of spam, phishing, or malware. Simply put, barren sites without any visual content can appear shady and untrustworthy.

Not having images hurts your site, and having images helps. They’re appealing. Photos in your blog posts will break up the text and make it easier for people to read and scan through your content. Detailed product photos show prospective customers exactly what they are purchasing. The perfect position of an image can help you design a homepage that converts.

Studies show that three days later people only remember 10% of the information they hear. When that information is paired with a relevant photo, 65% of it gets retained.

Bottom line: You should be using photos and other visual content on every single page of your website.

Sure, you might recognize the fact that you need images on your website. You might even have some images that you want to use. But are you legally allowed to use them? Do you have to pay?

This is a common problem among website owners. They don’t know where to get images. So, they’re hesitant add visual content to their site for fear of copyright infringement or hefty legal fines. Not to worry.

In this guide, we’ve identified the top nine places to find images for your website. Some of these resources offer images that are completely free; others you’ll have to pay for.

Whether your website is new and still in the early stages of design and development, or old and needs some fresh visual content, you’ll find what you’re looking for on this list.

1. Unsplash

Unsplash started as 10 free photos every week. They were leftovers from a photoshoot that would have otherwise died in a folder somewhere. Today, there are 792,198 images and every single one of them is free for commercial or noncommercial use. They’re generously uploaded by creators and all follow the same do-what-you-want license.

The most notable thing about Unsplash: the images are gorgeous. They’re well done and have a point-of-view, and every week they’re organized into easy-to-browse collections.

If you use any photos from Unsplash, you don’t have to give credit but you can if you want. It’s as simple as adding a line like: Photo by Photographer on Unsplash

2. Pexels

There are 504,828 images uploaded in the Pexels library and every single one of them is free for commercial use without attribution. They all have the same super simple license.

The entire library is also available on the mobile app, which makes it even easier to find and upload images to your brand’s social media. (You can also search for images by keyword or emoji.)

Pexels free stock photos workplace

They also feature photos from nappy, a stock library created by the influencer mgmt agency SHADE for black and brown creators, after they saw that sites like Unsplash and Pexels were fixing the corny stock image problem, but were still lacking in diversity.

3. Flickr

Flickr is a top option to consider for free website images. The platform encourages users to upload, share, edit, and organize their photos from any device.

Not everything hosted on here is free for commercial purposes. So double check the image rights for content before you add it to your company’s website. You can do this by searching for images with licenses that say “Commercial use allowed.” For most of these images, you can use them on your site as long as you include attribution in the form of a reference link back to where the image came from on Flickr. Every image will have a link to the license that’ll tell you the requirements in simple sentences.

flickr license free stock photos

One of the best parts of Flickr is the trending tab.

flickr homepage free stock

You’ll be able to see categories trending in real-time, trending weekly, as well as trending all-time. So you can go with images that are popular, or stay clear from them in an effort to be more unique. Either way, these options are great if you’re looking for common themes for your entire website.

4. iStock

iStock has millions of images available that are royalty free, so it’s one of the first places you should start your image search.

iStock free stock photos search bar

One of the parts about iStock is the way it’s organized. It’s easy to search for images in specific categories. If you see something you like, you can save it to your board and refer to it later.

There’s no way to download or search for free images on iStock, though they do send one free photo, illustration, and video each week if you sign up for their newsletter. They sell photos based on a credit system. The more credits you buy, the cheaper each one is:

  • $12 for 1 credit ($12 each)
  • $60 for 6 credits ($10 each)
  • $325 for 36 credits ($9 each)
  • $2,400 for 300 credits ($8 each)

iStock also offers subscription pricing as well, which gives you access to a specified number of images per month.

In addition to photos and stock images, iStock also offers illustrations, vectors, videos, and audio files as well. All of these can be used to improve your website.

5. Openphoto.net

The Open Photo sharing platform has been around for 20 years. Everyone contributing to this resource offers photos for free under the Creative Commons licensing. Like Flickr, it’s really easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for on Open Photo. They also keep track of trending photos and categories. You can see popular images from today, yesterday, and all-time.

Open Photo always highlights a photo of the day on its homepage and gives credit to the photographer who uploaded it. If you see a photo of the day that you really like, it’s a good idea to check out other images that were uploaded by that photographer.

Even if the content of the images isn’t always the same, photographers tend to have a certain style. So if you like the way someone approaches their photography, you may want to use images from them throughout your entire website.

6. Pixabay

Pixabay is another resource that offers images shared by members of its community. There are more than 1.6 million photos and videos offered royalty-free for commercial purposes. You don’t have to ask for credit or give credit to the artist.

Pixabay free stock photos

Pixabay has a powerful search with filters like:

  • orientation
  • size
  • color

So if you’re looking for a blue, horizontal photo, that’s 4000 px X 3000 px, simply add those parameters to the search menu, and it’ll only display results that fit your needs. There’s also a safe search function as well that filters out any content that might be perceived as not safe for work.

Another reason why Pixabay is a top choice to consider is because they have a mobile app that’s available on both iOS and Android devices. Perfect for doing work on the go when it’s not convenient to take your computer out.

7. Rgbstock

There are over 100,000 free stock photos available from Rgbstock.com. You can find photos by searching for categories or keywords. They also let you browse photos from the collections of specific photographers that you like.

In order to access any of the content on this platform, you’ll need to register and create an account. But like everything else on here, it’s completely free. For those of you who want to share your own photos with the Rgbstock community, you can easily create your own photo gallery in just a few minutes.

8. Realistic Shots

Realistic Shots is a bit different from some of the other website image platforms we’ve looked at so far on our list. They don’t prioritize quantity. Only seven new photos are added to the site each week. But the quality of those seven photos is extremely high.

Realistic Shots free stock photos

That’s pretty astonishing considering the fact that there are more than 1.8 billion images uploaded online every day. So to pick just seven each week means the quality needs to be superior in order to be featured. Realistic Shots puts emphasis on creativity for their most popular categories.

  • nature
  • travel
  • architecture
  • technology
  • people

It’s worth coming to this site once a week to see the newest uploads. Everything hosted here is free for both personal and commercial use.

9. Fotolia

Fotolia is run by Adobe Stock. To access premium image content through this platform, you’ll need to pay. Similar to other options we’ve seen, you can buy credits or sign up for a subscription.

The great part about their subscriptions is that they have plenty of choices based on how often you’ll need stock images. Here is the monthly pricing for the annual memberships.

  • 10 images for $29.99 per month
  • 40 images for $79.99 per month
  • 350 images for $169.99 per month
  • 750 images for $199.99 per month

If you’re signing up for the first time, you can get one month free with any of these plans. They offer month-to-month pricing rates as well if you’re not ready for an annual commitment. To purchase one or two images, your best bet is to buy credits individually.

One of the standout features of this software is the ability to use photos you have on hand to search for images you’re looking for. Just drag and drop an image from an online resource or from your computer into the search bar to find similar content.

Look at the search results for the image of this puppy.

Fotolia image search similar photos

The software displays images that are similar and even from the same photoshoot. It’s a great tool that you can take advantage of.

10. Reshot

Reshot has uniquely free photos, handpicked with a lot of variety and are available in packs, such as lifestyle, diversity, technology etc.

Reshot

Conclusion

Your site needs images. Visual elements will add credibility to your website, and make it more appealing for visitors.

There are thousands of places to find images online but start with the resources outlined on this list. It’s a mix of completely free sources, paid options, and some platforms that offer both free and paid images, and get your site kicked off with a bang! If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Website Planning!

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Using Instagram to Grow Your Small Business

Every business needs an active social media presence. This statement holds true whether you have a small, medium, or large company. In fact, it’s more important for smaller businesses than large ones.

Big brands like Apple and Nike are already household names. If they stop using social media right now, they’ll probably still generate sales.

But you can’t make a sale to people who don’t know who you are yet. Just like you can’t rely only on foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store, if you operate online, you can’t rely solely on people navigating to your website.

That’s why you need Instagram as a marketing tool

Honestly, if you’re not currently using Instagram, you’re behind: 71% of businesses are already using Instagram as a marketing channel. But it’s not too late to get started. That’s the inspiration for this guide.

According to Instagram’s user data, 80% of accounts follow a business. It’s obvious that people are willing to follow and engage with brands on Instagram. The key for you as a small business marketer is to figure out how to take advantage of this opportunity to drive growth for your company. This article explains some beginner strategies to stimulate business growth on Instagram and teach you ways to convert your followers into customers. If you’ve created an Instagram profile, but it isn’t active or effective, you can benefit from this information too.

Promote your profile with your existing customers

When you start your account, it’ll come with zero followers. It can be a little discouraging to start from zero, but you don’t have to start from scratch. Rather than trying to get random followers who don’t know who you are and don’t know anything about your brand, turn to your existing customers.

Start with your email subscribers. Check out how MeUndies signs off its marketing emails.

MeUndies marketing email Instagram hashtag

The CTA here is to follow MeUndies on Instagram.

Your email list isn’t the only place to recruit current customers to Instagram. You can promote your profile on your other marketing channels as well:

  • YouTube videos
  • website
  • blog posts
  • other social media profiles
  • purchase receipts
  • in-store signs

Take a look at how Shady Rays uses its website to get more followers on Instagram.

Shady Rays Instagram

The social media feed showcases their most recent Instagram uploads. If you click on any of the photos here, it will bring you to that image on Instagram. There’s also a direct link and a CTA to follow Shady Rays on Instagram.

Showcase your products

Now that you’ve got followers, let’s take a look a the reason they’re following your profile. Coupons? Sales? Let’s look at the top reasons why people follow brands on social media.

Why people follow brands on social media

The number one reason people follow brands is because they’re interested in that brand’s products and services. That reason ranks higher than promotions and incentives. So while it’s not a bad idea to give people an incentive to follow your profile with an exclusive discount or another offer like that, research shows that more people follow a brand out of interest alone.

That means it’s definitely OK to show them your products. In fact, 65% of the top performing posts on Instagram featured a product. (This is a great chance for you to generate sales for a new product release.)

But, you don’t want to oversell on Instagram: 58% of users think it’s annoying when brands post too many promotions. So, showcase your products, but do so sparingly.

Take advantage of shoppable posts

It’s one thing to show products to your consumers. But Instagram gives businesses the opportunity to sell products directly through their platform. Shoppable posts take our last strategy one step further.

60% of people use Instagram to find new products and 75% of those take action after viewing a post. Those actions can lead to conversions, especially if you use shoppable posts.

Here’s an example from Western Rise of a shoppable post.

Shoppable Instagram Post from Western Rise

It’s just a regular photo. But the promoted product is tagged. The tag includes the name of the product and the price. When a user clicks on the link, they are directed to a product page where they can buy that product.

This is far more efficient than what businesses had to do before this feature: In the past, brands would have to post about a product and then say things like, “find this on our website,” or “link in bio.” Way too many steps. Plus, if you had to use the one link in your bio, you couldn’t promote more than one item at the same time. Shoppable posts have way less friction and increase your chances of driving conversions.

You can also run shoppable stories. It’s the same approach: simply tag products in your story instead of your profile.

If you haven’t used this tactic before and need some help setting them shoppable posts, refer to our complete guide on how to increase ecommerce sales with shoppable posts on Instagram.

Tag a purposeful location

Next up, location tags. If you haven’t been using location tags, you aren’t maximizing your potential engagement. Just look at the effect that a simple location tag can have on your metrics.

Location tagging increase engagement Instagram

Posts with location tags have more engagement

There are a few reasons for this. First, tagging the location can make your post more visible on the popular page for people in that area. Second, people who are viewing that specific location on Instagram have a better chance of seeing your post.

The great part about location tagging is that you don’t actually need to be in that area you’re tagging to tag it. Let’s say you run a Boston-based company that sells bathing suits. You’re probably not going to be selling bathing suits to many locals in that area during the winter months. And you’re probably not going to increase your engagement all that much by tagging a bathing suit picture in Harvard Square. Instead, you can upload photos of your products on Instagram and tag warmer locations, like Miami or San Diego. This will lead to higher engagement rates, which will increase your social following, brand awareness, and chances that people will buy your products.

Add photos with faces

Let’s continue talking about engagement. Photos of products alone don’t perform as well as photos with faces. In fact, photos with faces generate 38% more likes than posts without a face. Furthermore, posts with faces get 32% more comments. The more people engage with your posts, the greater your chance of driving conversions that will ultimately help your small business grow.

Here’s another example of a shoppable post from PX Clothing that includes a face in the photo.

PX Clothing face in shoppable Instagram

This is more effective than posting the duffle bag by itself without a face in the photo.

Partner with social influencers

When it comes to influencer marketing, Instagram leads the way for brand collaboration.

78% of influencers use Instagram

Your competitors might already be using this strategy. Now is your chance to jump on board to keep up with them. If you’ve never done this before and you don’t know where to get started, you can use our guide on the top platforms for effectively managing social influencers.

You’ll want to find influencers that have a strong following within a specific niche that speaks to your target audience. For example, let’s say you’re targeting women in New York City between the ages of 24 and 35. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be looking for influencers who fit that profile. Instead, you’ll want to find an influencer who has lots of followers that fit your target market. These resources will help you get connected with influencers in the right industry that will reach your target audience.

Run ads to generate leads and sales

Depending on your marketing budget, Instagram ads can be a suitable strategy for you to consider. If you’ve run Facebook ads in the past, you’re already familiar with how this works — Facebook owns Instagram and the two platforms use the same ad manager. You can choose your target audience, location, and budget.

The great part about advertising on Instagram is that you can have ads run in multiple formats.

  • photo ads
  • video ads
  • carousel ads
  • collection ads
  • story ads

If you run story ads on Instagram, you’ll want to leverage the “swipe up” feature. Here’s an example from Olivers Apparel of what that looks like:

Swipe up to see ad Instagram Sponsored content

The “shop now” CTA at the bottom of this sponsored story takes users directly to a landing page where they can purchase the pants being advertised. This can definitely help increase conversion rates because it eliminates additional steps in the purchase process.

Encourage UGC

Another way to grow your business on Instagram is with user-generated content.

82% of consumers say that user-generated content is valuable to them during the purchase process. 48% of people say they discover new brands and products as a result of UGC. When customers get exposed to UGC, brand engagement increases by 28%.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is with contests

This is one of our favorite strategies for several reasons. First, it helps you get more followers. For one of your followers to enter a contest, they’ll need to upload a photo to their own profile and tag your brand. In doing this, it increases the exposure to all of their followers, who may not currently know your brand or follow your profile. This added exposure will entice more people to follow you on Instagram. That’s because UGC is memorable and trusted.

UGC is memorable and trusted

People who see a user-generated photo on Instagram have a 4.5% greater chance of converting. If they interact with the post, such as liking it or commenting on it, they are 9.6% more likely to convert.

Engage your followers

It’s important for you to connect with your Instagram following. Now that you’ve found so many new ways to get followers, likes, and comments. You don’t want to lose those relationships.

Reply to their comments. Answer direct messages. If you don’t do this, you’re not providing the appropriate customer service needed to drive business growth. On the other hand, using Instagram to improve your customer service will definitely help your business grow.

Here’s what will happen if you ignore customers on social media.

The Cost of ignoring customers on social media

People expect brands to respond within four hours after they reach out on social media. The average response time is ten hours. 35% of consumers say that social media is their top choice for customer care, yet 89% of social media messages are ignored by brands.

Don’t let this happen to you. If you’re having trouble managing all of your Instagram messages with other social media comments, this instagram marketing tool can help.

Conclusion

As a small business owner, you need to establish an active presence on Instagram to grow your company. If you’re starting from scratch or don’t have many followers right now, turn to your existing customers to build a following on your profile.

Use Instagram to showcase your products

Drive sales directly with shoppable posts & find ways to increase your engagement, such as tagging your location, uploading photos with faces, and leveraging relationships with social influencers.

You can also run ads to generate brand awareness, increase your followers, and drive sales.

Create campaigns that encourage user-generated content, which will increase your reach in a trusted and memorable way.

Don’t ignore customers when they reach out to your brand with comments and direct messages. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this post on buying Instagram followers!

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