Stay on Top of Your Insta-game with These New Features

Instagram Marketing

Nearly ten years ago, a new social media platform entered the scene, entirely geared towards the fast-scrolling, low attention span browsing we’ve all become accustomed to. Ten years later, Instagram is beginning to revolutionize the way people shop online. Giving birth to “Social Influencers” and sponsored ad content, Instagram is an increasingly useful tool for businesses. Instagram, which is now owned by Facebook, is now rolling out new features to help eCommerce shops realize their full potential.

Ensure that your business stays current with these new trends and features rolling out to Instagram in 2019.

Instagram Shopping Carts

What was almost certainly inevitable is the leap from browsing to buying. What was once a delicate process of enticing potential buyers and then directing them off of Instagram and into your shopping cart is now becoming a straightforward process. Slowly rolling out with a few accounts, Instagram is beginning to allow users to complete the check out process within the app itself. In-app purchasing has enormous potential to revolutionize the way influencers sell to their customers. Now instead of having to direct customers to their bios or links in the comments, they can instantly sell to their followers right there in the app. Expect the availability of Shopping Carts on Instagram to expand rapidly in the next year.

Shoppable Tags

On Instagram, there are Creators or Influencers whom brands use to push their products through various sponsorships. These Creators have previously been pigeonholed into linking click-through sites in comments and bio descriptions. Now, Instagram is rolling out Shoppable Tags. Creators can now tag a product in a photo or post and have that tag link directly to the website for purchasing information. Pushing viewers directly through to the site will exponentially decrease purchasing time and increase conversion rates from Instagram.

Share Posts in Stories

Finally, the feature everyone has been asking for: You are now able to share posts on Instagram in your Story. No more screenshots! This new feature is perfect for businesses owners with an eCom store. Now you can share users posting about your products directly to your Story. All you have to do is select the “Create a story with the post” option from the dropdown menu within the airplane button. And that’s it! Viewers can now tap on your shared post story and be linked directly back to the original user’s post. Your users get publicity, and you get free referrals!

Polling in Stories

Now creating a user poll is easier than ever. With built-in quiz stickers, you can now add multiple choice options to your stories for instant customer feedback. You will now be able to A/B test your customers in real time and see just what their opinions of your products are. Interactivity is endless with this feature. Imagine you’re a boutique which is going to buy clothes at a trade show. You can now instantly poll your customers and see which styles they would prefer.

Donations

With crowdfunding and cause-based marketing becoming more and more popular, Instagram is adding a way to raise money directly in the app. With Donation stickers for stories, you can create a button that directly links viewers to donate. These donations will go right to the designated nonprofit you have selected. There is also the option of viewing how many donations users have given.

Creator Profile

Instagram is now getting into the business page game with Creator Profiles. These profile pages will give analytics on engagement, demographics, and viewing stats allowing businesses to know exactly how their influencer sponsorships are being utilized. Ultimately, this new feature may be the most important in a long time as it will allow businesses to shop for their best CPC advertising dollars when looking into influencers. It will also enable top influencers to charge more accurately with the statistics to back it up. One of the more useful features for Creators will be the DM (or direct message) filtering, which automatically sorts by relevance. Now you will be able to see who is contacting you for what reason without having to sift through unwanted messages.

Hiding Likes

Perhaps the most controversial and game-changing feature is the ability to now hide the number of likes a picture has gotten. The owner can see the running total, but viewers cannot. Hiding likes is all in an attempt to decrease the competitive nature and give way to a more authentic service. The goal is to diminish viewer judgment of photos based on their amount of likes and more on the content of the post.

Whether these changes will dramatically impact the future of Instagram and online marketing remains to be seen. Some of the new features are in beta testing and only on select accounts with 10k+ followers. In the coming months, we will see them be rolled out more widely or adapted as feedback from Creators rolls in. For all the latest Social Media Marketing and for advice in running your campaigns, contact Lafayette LA Website Design at 337-223-3305.

Things to Know Before Launching a Successfully Monetized Website

Flower shop business owner working service

One of the most exciting steps for any new business owner is when their website finally goes live. Having an effective website can make or break your business. Launching the website is only half the battle, turning it into a successful part of your business is another animal. Perhaps the most crucial part of a new site is having a solid content strategy to build your brand authority. These are some of the most critical steps you can take before launching to monetize your website.

Choosing the right Web Developer and Hosting to give you the freedom to modify your website.

At Lafayette Louisiana Website Design, we pride ourselves on giving our clients the tools to succeed. No one knows your business as well as you do. By building websites using WordPress, it allows clients to easily edit and create webpages and blog posts on their own without having to rely on external help. Of course, having a helping hand when you get stuck on the technical side is always important. It’s so user-friendly that over 30% of the internet uses WordPress as their websites content management system (CMS).

We supply you with the tools and methodologies to make changes to your website, but we also make sure everything is to code and won’t penalize you on Google. Some clients don’t want to bother with the technical details of their website. For those clients, we can create pages for you and even have industry-leading content developers for solving your writer’s block.

What is your company’s purpose?

Defining your purpose is the first step in creating a clear marketing plan that is clearly defined. Your marketing strategy should strengthen your company’s brand, and authentically relates to customers’ needs. Through sharing your experiences and beliefs as a company, you establish a personal connection with your audience that shares similar experiences.

Defining your brand is a critical step in developing your Mission Statement, and will make developing a marketing strategy ten times easier. Your brand builds trust with your viewers and will ultimately drive them to become customers. Conveying your purpose through your Mission Statement is the best way to set your company apart from the competition. How does your business affect the lives of your customers? How are you achieving your company’s purpose? These are all things to consider when writing a Mission Statement.

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to begin monetizing your site.

Wouldn’t it be great to have your website make money for you without having to sell your actual products or services? Well, that’s the beauty of Affiliate marketing! The most common way to begin affiliate marketing is to write about the services and products that you enjoy. If readers of your blog then purchase the services or products through an affiliate link, you get a commission.

The best part? It doesn’t cost anything to get started! Businesses everywhere want you to write about and recommend their products. It’s a genuine and low effort way for them to advertise. Some companies are willing to pay big money for those endorsements. We spoke about your company’s purpose. Keep in mind the purpose of the company you are affiliating with to align with their brand values.

Affiliate marketing income can be earned without having to work hard to make the sale. All you need is to have a decent following and convince them of why a product is worth buying. As you grow your audience, so will the income you earn on the purchases they make. Just be sure to keep reliable records of your click-throughs and viewer numbers.

Email Marketing is a delicate balancing act, but getting it right can yield great results.

Typically, email marketing is a way for businesses to turn their viewers into frequent returning customers. It’s the perfect way to launch a new product or promote sales to drive more customers to your website. Before email marketing can work for you, you have to build up a subscriber list. There are numerous ways to begin building your list. You could advertise with a newsletter link in the footer of your website, a popup when they first view your blog, promotional giveaways and free giveaways upon signup.

Giving your subscribers useful and relevant information is the best way to build your brand loyalty. You will slowly begin to convert casual readers into loyal followers who trust your expertise.

Startups have to have a growth model if they want to level up to monetizing their site. With these critical factors in mind, you can develop a strategy to earn money through the content you write. Have an end goal in mind. Prepare for your inevitable following by being ready to implement the conversion methods mentioned above. These steps will ultimately lead to success in reaching your long term monetization goals.

Why Planning Out the Intent of Your Text Impacts Your SEO

Ceo Writing Business Emails On Laptop In Office

When writing content for your website, it’s essential to think about plenty of factors. Style, length, keywords, and emotion are key components to consider. However, one often overlooked, and a necessary part of the content writing process is the intent of your copy. Without defining the goal of your content, your website will lack focus and potentially miss the mark when it comes to customer acquisition. What is the main purpose behind your text? What do you want your readers to know? Finding the answer to these questions before you start writing can not only improve the quality of your work but will help you understand what to write and where to begin.

Typically, all content revolves around three primary intents: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The informative text is used as an educational tool for your audience. Persuasive copy is used to convince your readers to buy a product or service, or to achieve a particular goal. Entertainment copy is used to evoke emotion out of your viewers. It’s possible for your content to have elements of all three intentions.

What are your long term goals in writing content?

Think about what you would like for your content. What is your motivation behind writing for your business? Consider these long-term goals before you begin writing anything. It’s important not to lose sight of your goals as you continue writing. Blogging is an ongoing process, and it’s easy to lose focus months or even a year after starting to blog.

Let’s take, for example, this blog. At Lafayette Louisiana Website Design, we blog to keep our readers informed and ultimately to drive new traffic and business to our website. We are building trust with our readers. As a source of knowledge, we want our clients to know that we can be trusted and we are up-to-date on all the latest website trends. We hope that with enough trust, we will eventually convert readers into clients.

Why Search Engines are Taking Search Intent Seriously

One of the most significant new ranking factors is the user’s search intent. The intent is if your content is relevant to what they meant to look up, not necessarily what they did look up. It’s important that the user that finds your page is reading what they intended to search. Otherwise, they will not stay around your website very long. You want the right readers for the correct articles with the right intent.

If you’re looking to build your online reputation and links to improve your search ranking, the intent of your copy is essential. To entice other sites to link to your content, it should be informative and entertaining more than persuasive. The shareability of informative or entertainment content is nearly double that of persuasive copy.

Informative Content

Consider what you know the most about your business. Your area of expertise is the perfect source of knowledge to share with your readers. It’s that kind of insider information that will build trust between yourself and your viewers. Even with a wealth of knowledge, it’s essential to do your research before writing an informative text. This research will help you when deciding what to write and give you sources to fall back on should you need help.

Persuasive Content

Often the most challenging copy to write, you need to walk a fine line between selling your services and authentically appealing to your readers. Sometimes your viewers aren’t even in the market to buy the product you are trying to sell. That makes persuasive text especially tricky to write. Many methods produce good results. Focus on using emotion and some information to aid in your goal of selling. Use positive language as well as personalizing your copy to appeal directly to your customers.

Entertaining Content

Typically entertaining content is either funny or sad. Be it a cute story about one of your clients, or a viral video that is making the rounds. It takes practice to write entertaining content effectively. It’s an entirely different writing style to informative or persuasive speech. It’s informal, and it can be challenging for the humor to translate. Use exaggerations and over the top expressions to help lighten your text. Sarcasm and witty humor can also be useful when writing entertaining copy.

Stay Focused!

With these tips in mind, it should be a lot easier to begin writing for a blog or webpage. Focus on your readers intent, your business’s goals, and the style of writing, and you are already ahead of the game. For blog management and content writing, contact Lafayette Louisiana Website Design today! 337 223 3305