As technology continues to progress and gain importance, modern businesses adapt to a variety of marketing and advertising strategies to reach potential customers and increase sales.  In part, this is due to the effectiveness of marketing and advertising strategies in driving success for companies of all sizes.

Marketing and advertising are often confused, but there are actually many differences between the two. Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and deciding how to best meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the process of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. To put it another way, advertising is part of marketing. However, the differences do not conclude there.

What Is Marketing and Why Is It Important?

Marketing is the process of identifying, predicting, and meeting the needs of customers. Businesses can maximize revenue by using effective marketing strategies to determine how to best serve their client base. Marketers direct their marketing efforts toward consumers in business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing focuses on marketing to other businesses.

When developing a marketing strategy, B2C and B2B marketers should consider a number of important factors. In particular, savvy marketers will evaluate:

• Orientation — Marketing orientation refers to the guiding principles of a business, often referred to as corporate philosophy or corporate culture. Organizations often choose to focus on product development, sales, production, or marketing. 
• Mix — As a guide for companies’ marketing strategies, the marketing mix serves as a decision-making tool. Modern marketing mix usually revolves around the four Cs: client/customer, cost, convenience, and communication. 
• Environment — Marketing environment refers to everything that can have an impact on the execution or decision-making of a marketing strategy. Therefore, companies should also consider their internal environment. External factors—such as macro and micro environments—must also be taken into account. 
• Market — An organization’s target market refers to the characteristics of its ideal client. The research and segmentation efforts of a company can help identify the geographical and demographic factors that will help it market and sell its products or services.

Analyzing the orientation, mix, environment, and market allows one to assess the costs and benefits of various marketing strategies. Marketing efforts can be carried out in many ways, so this part of the planning process is crucial.

What Are Several Common Types of Marketing?

Marketing efforts traditionally used four channels to connect with customers: print, mail, TV, and telephone. These four channels can be utilized by companies to enhance branding efforts and deliver corporate messaging.

The dominant marketing approach throughout the 20th century revolved around print and broadcast media, combined with effective messaging and advertising.

As the world turned to the 21st century, marketing strategies have evolved to accommodate the rise of the internet and e-commerce. Digital marketing has transformed the way businesses communicate with their clients since the transition to the internet. Messaging platforms, such as social media, allow businesses and clients to communicate in two ways. From a marketing perspective, specifically, modern technology has made it much easier to gather information on customer behaviors, needs, wants, etc.

Several types of marketing are common today, including:

• Digital Marketing — The term “digital marketing” refers to marketing strategies applied to electronic communication devices such as computers and smartphones. Often, digital marketing strategies rely on search engines, email, websites, blogs, and other techniques to reach customers.
• Social Media Marketing — Digital marketing includes social media marketing, in which social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are used to reach potential clients. Through this style of marketing, companies are able to use earned media from people outside of their organization. Influencer marketing is part of social media marketing where popular users are compensated for promoting a company’s products. 
• Global Marketing — The internet and globalization have enabled some of the world’s largest companies to become global brands. Therefore, global marketing allows these companies to employ a unified approach to reach their customers on a local, regional, national and international level at the same time. 
• Relationship Marketing — Relationship marketing eschews invasive tactics such as commercials and advertisements, instead focusing on customer happiness. In order to establish a long-term and loyal client base, relationship marketing relies on strategies that help retain and satisfy clients. 
• Brand Management — Brand management involves creating a bond between a company’s brand and its customers. This requires evaluating a company’s products or services as well as its logo, design, packaging, and other aspects. Additionally, brand management considers aspects of the target market, direct competition, and current relationships with customers. 
• Product Development — Developing a product or service from a business opportunity is known as product development. Both existing and new products may be developed. Developing a successful product involves many marketing concepts, including identifying client needs as well as conducting market research and analysis. 

Despite not being as common as the methods above, it is important to mention societal marketing in our discussion. The concept of societal marketing goes beyond the traditional boundaries of identifying, predicting, and satisfying customer needs.

A company’s culture, brand and operations should incorporate the greater needs of society and the world. Triple bottom line reporting is common in societally oriented businesses to track and measure progress. These include social and environmental impacts as well as financial performance.

Advertising: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

The practice of advertising involves a company paying to place its message or brand in a particular location. Companies use advertising to promote their products and services for sale as well as establish corporate culture and branding. When used properly and strategically, advertising can drive customer acquisition and increase sales.

Advertising creates a one-way communication channel, where companies can broadcast non-personal messages to a general audience. Unlike other types of marketing or even public relations, advertising is completely under the control of companies. Whenever a company pays to place an ad, it has full control over how the content is promoted.

A successful advertising campaign has countless benefits. Businesses can use advertising to:

• Educate customers about the nature of the product or service
• Sell superior products or services to customers
• Enhance customer perception of a brand or culture
• Create a need or desire for products or services among customers
• Demonstrate new applications for products or services
• Promote new products or services to potential customers
• Sell new products and services to new customers
• Retain your existing customer base

As a whole, companies that dedicate resources to advertising can reap many benefits. Many businesses use one, or several, of the common types of advertising described below in order to achieve those benefits.

What Are Some Common Types of Advertising?

In the 21st century, advertising has evolved significantly, too. Digital advertising has opened up new avenues for companies to advertise, from search engines to social media and websites of all types. As a result of this new reality, businesses can achieve advertising goals and reach potential customers virtually anywhere, particularly with the prevalence of smartphones.

Many businesses prioritize any or all of the following methods in the realm of common advertising techniques:

• Traditional Advertising — Advertisements are placed in traditional print and broadcast media. Newspaper ads, TV commercials, and radio infomercials are all examples of traditional advertising. 
• Retail Advertising — Retail advertising refers to placement and advertising within retail stores to maximize sales. Product placement in stores, ads on shopping carts, and product display are examples of retail advertising. 
• Online Advertising — Ad placement on the web refers to the placement of ads in media and other websites. The most common types of online advertising include contextual ads in search engines, banner ads on websites, promotional videos, and sponsored content. 
• Mobile Advertising — Mobile advertising refers to the placement of ads on mobile phones and smartphones. Mobile advertising examples include automated dialers, banners to download apps, and click-to-call ads. 
• Outdoor Advertising — Included offline and online billboards, posters, banners, LED screens, lamp poles, vehicles and more intended to attract the attention of mass audiences that use specific areas or roads for commute. Placement of ads on outside structures is generally in heavily trafficked areas to attract the most attention. 
• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising — It refers to the placement of online advertisements designed to drive traffic to a company’s website. These ads provide companies with extensive information about their customers, and they only pay when users click the links.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

One of the major differences between these two business practices is that advertising is a part of marketing. The most successful marketing strategies allocate resources to advertising at multiple levels, leveraging different types of media in corporate marketing communications.

It would be helpful to review the differences between paid, owned and earned media in order to better understand this question:

• Paid Media — Media of this type involves a company paying a publisher to place marketing communications. Billboards, broadcast and print ads, search engine ads, social media ads, and direct mail and email are examples of paid media. 
• Owned Media — The company uses its own channels to place marketing communications in this type of media. Owned media includes retail merchandising, websites and business blogs, brochures, corporate social media accounts, and press releases. 
• Earned Media — This media type involves external communications about a company from third parties. Among the types of earned media are online reviews, newspaper articles, social media endorsements, customer demonstrations, and other forms of publicity. 

Advertisements are typically limited to paid media, as described above. This is inherent in the nature of advertising as a business practice – placement of messaging or branding in exchange for compensation. When a business advertises, it usually comes with a price tag.

Alternatively, effective marketing strategies can influence paid, owned, and earned media. Marketing manages paid media advertising by identifying customer wants and needs, and determining the best way to satisfy them. A company’s marketing also determines how it communicates through owned media and how it interacts with others via earned media.

Which is more valuable, marketing or advertising?

Many successful businesses include a variety of advertising strategies in their overall marketing plan. Marketing strategy and advertising placement for global companies must take into consideration customers around the globe. Even so, it is also applicable to small and medium businesses, especially now that digital advertising is affordable through search engines and social media.

Despite this, there is a situation when marketing is more valuable than advertising. The priority for startups and other new businesses should be developing a marketing plan. Spending too much money on advertising at the beginning without a marketing strategy can be disastrous for these organizations.

Identifying the wants and needs of customers is paramount at the beginning of a company’s existence. Thus, any future marketing or advertising efforts will have a defined approach and a better chance of success.

There is no way to ignore digital marketing, regardless of your industry, business, or location. However, there isn’t just one option – there are infinite possibilities. If you’ve got a small budget and are looking for something incredibly cost-efficient to launch a new startup, or if you’re a big brand with a really big budget trying to make some noise, there are many channels, platforms, and types of digital marketing you’ll be able to use for your marketing strategy.

It’s important to understand why digital marketing is so exciting, and why you should be interested in the vast world of digital marketing before getting started. So what makes digital marketing so exciting?

1. It’s affordable. Paid digital marketing is quite cost-effective, and allows you to spend your marketing budget more strategically. While the costs of each digital marketing platform can differ, there’s something for everyone. You can distribute your content for free through your own digital marketing channels if you are not utilizing digital marketing for paid (e.g. content marketing – we’ll get to that later).
2. It’s targeted. Speaking of targeting, digital platforms are able to identify who is online and show them specific content. Traditionally, marketing involved hoping your message reached your target audience, but digital gives us the confidence to know.
3. It’s full of data. Have you ever seen a television advertising report? There aren’t many reliable or actionable data points. Digital platforms give you the ability to see who’s seeing your content in real time, whether you’re running a paid campaign on Google Display Network or checking your website statistics through Google Analytics.
4. You’re where the people are. Our lives are increasingly surrounded by technology (the average internet user spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online every day – eek! ), so it makes sense that we should focus our efforts on reaching people where they spend so much time.

Below are 11 types of digital marketing you should consider when trying to reach your target audience.

1. SEO
2. Content marketing
3. Social media marketing
4. Paid search
5. Display advertising
6. Email marketing
7. Messenger marketing
8. Affiliate marketing
9. Influencer marketing
10. Video advertising
11. Audio advertising

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important tools in digital marketing – but what is it? It optimizes your online content so that it appears higher in search engine result pages (SERP), and it’s free. With SEO tactics, you can increase your organic search position on sites like Google and Bing, and get the most out of one of the best qualities about search: incredibly high intent. 

In terms of intent, there aren’t many traditional marketing channels or digital marketing channels that allow you to get in front of customers who have such high conversion intent (we’re talking way down the funnel). Search engine optimization helps your business provide exactly what your customers are looking for at that moment, and your customers are telling you what they need.

An introduction to SEO. Search engines rank results based on three main factors: quality, relevance, and authority. As long as we create relevant content, provide users with a quality experience, and build authority throughout, shouldn’t that be easy? Content-related and technical organic search engine optimization are two types of organic search engine optimization, both of which are of utmost importance for your digital marketing strategy and for gaining free traffic to your website. If you implement an organic SEO strategy for your blog posts or on-page website copy, you will not only increase your website traffic but you will also support your search engine marketing efforts.

2. CONTENT MARKETING

Social media, blogs, videos, and emails, to name a few, are all part of content marketing. However, content marketing is what most people refer to when looking at jobs in this field, or building out a digital marketing strategy for their business. If you think about content marketing, it’s giving information and solving problems with high-quality and useful content; whether that’s a blog post like this one, or a quiz explaining what type of bread you are (maybe not so useful), all of that falls under content marketing.

Content marketing is typically used as a “top of funnel” marketing strategy to establish your authority and influence user behavior later in the buyer’s journey. It is also used in other digital marketing tactics, such as blog posts for SEO (did someone say authority building?). Have you heard the phrase “content is king”? That’s for a reason. You’ll find better results across the board if you start with your content first. Good content is the foundation of almost all types of digital marketing.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Although social media isn’t new (you’ve probably read plenty of content about social media marketing), there are constantly new platforms entering the market, new formats, and new ways to make the most of one of the most popular platforms out there (more than half of the world’s population is on social media!). Digital marketing campaigns have two options: where to play and how to play.

Let’s start with the where. There are so many social media marketing platforms available today, choosing the right one depends on your digital marketing strategy and where your typical customers hang out. Are they a younger, more savvy audience who scrolls through TikTok all the time, or are they avid Twitter users? Knowing who your customers are will help you decide where to focus your efforts. What are the top social media platforms? We’ve got you:

1. Facebook 
2. Instagram
3. Twitter 
4. Snapchat
5. TikTok
6. LinkedIn 
7. Pinterest

Secondly, the how. With social, you have two options: organic (publishing regularly on social media for free) or paying for ads to target specific audiences.  Social media helps to build brands’ community, keep their audiences updated, and humanize the brand (for a level up, read about social listening as a business tool). Paid social advertising allows brands to reach a very specific audience in a social context, and to push them to complete the desired action. For any business or aspiring digital marketer who wants to up their digital advertising, social media marketing is one of the most sought-after skills in digital marketing.

4. PAID SEARCH

Paid search operates on the same principle as SEO. Paid search is used for immediate results when you don’t have time to invest in a long-term digital marketing strategy, like SEO. It involves paying to appear in front of people when they search for specific terms related to your business. Most of the time, this is a PPC (pay per click) solution, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your search listing. It sounds great, right? It definitely is. Due to the high level of user intent, there is fierce competition for the top spot, which can often mean high prices depending on the terms you are bidding on. You’ll have to consider things like quality score (yep, Google is judging you) and landing pages in order to keep your costs low.

Confused? If I want my business to appear when someone searches for “digital marketing services,” I’ll bid on the opportunity to be seen for that keyword and tell the search engine how much I’m willing to spend to get someone to click, which will be cheaper if I have a quality website. Imagine it as an almost instantaneous auction between advertisers that happens every time someone searches.

5. DISPLAY ADVERTISING

Know those banners you see on websites encouraging you to take notice of whatever they’re selling? That’s display advertising! Using any type of visual – images, videos, GIFs, and text – to advertise your business on publisher websites can be one of the most effective forms of digital marketing for reaching the masses. Do you want to show your banner to a business-savvy female audience? Advertise on women’s networking websites!

The most common way to advertise through display is through a network like Google Display Network, which boasts a variety of publishers and websites you can advertise across, or through a publisher that matches the audience, you want to reach. You can use it for brand awareness, and it’s a type of digital marketing that’s always evolving.

6. EMAIL MARKETING

Often described as “more valuable than gold,” an email list is the holy grail of any business. You can reach a qualified audience every day for free if you build a strong email list. How do you make the most of your email list and what do you do with it? This is where email marketing comes into play.

Your subscribers can be updated with useful and relevant content through email marketing – new collections, sales, and sharing your blogs each week, for example, are all great ways to help you find success on the platform. The biggest rule to remember? You need to use email marketing strategically to avoid spamming your audience while promoting your products and services. Begin with newsletters and updates and progress to creating powerful automated and segmented email series for purposes like onboarding or winning back lapsed customers.

7. MESSENGER MARKETING

There is a lot of talk about 1:1 marketing and how digital platforms help brands target their audiences more effectively. Messenger marketing is a whole new level of targeting. Conversations have grown in popularity over the past few years as brands seek to build personal relationships with their customers in a comfortable environment, helping push them to convert or answer questions that might influence their decision.

Using messenger marketing is something that can either be done manually or in combination with chatbots to automate much of the conversational workflow. Due to the proliferation of messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat as well as the fact that most social media platforms offer their own direct messaging features, many brands are now using messenger marketing as a way to qualify leads or provide 24/7 customer support without needing to hire additional staff. Over 2.6 billion people use messenger apps worldwide, so it’s important to think about how you can use the medium to connect with your customers.

8. AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing may fall under influencer marketing, content marketing, or both, and involves paying commissions to content producers for conversions that are attributable to the content. Imagine that we ask a publisher to write an article for our business with a link to our product. By offering the publisher 10% off all sales that come through their site, they become an affiliate for us.

This may have happened through tracking links (e.g. long URL strings that help businesses track where their sales come from) or a special discount code. Affiliate marketing networks are many, some of them general and some specific to a niche, like fashion or tech. Another option is to start your own affiliate network, which is a bit more work but can cut out the fees associated with signing up with a pre-existing network.

Affiliate marketing is loved by digital marketers regardless of how you do it. Publishing companies and content creators are encouraged to create original content for your brand, and you only have to pay if a sale is made. Do you agree?

9. INFLUENCER MARKETING

It is well known that the Kardashians earn millions of dollars per post. How does influencer marketing fit into the digital marketing landscape? Influencers typically help brands with social proof and brand awareness, almost like a paid version of word-of-mouth. We hope that if an influencer recommends a product or service to their loyal audience, the audience will trust the recommendation. The digital marketing world has found a number of uses for influencers, whether it’s the common payment for posting, a collaboration on a product, or a guest post. Influencer marketing is the use of someone’s credibility and audience to promote a product.

Consider who influences your audience when selecting influencers. Who do they listen to or rely on for advice? Find someone who shares your passions and values – this is where the magic happens. Looking for ways to make the most of influencer marketing? To further build social proof for your brand, include your influencers in your paid advertising.

10. VIDEO ADVERTISING

Have you ever fallen into the YouTube black hole? You’re not alone. There are over 2 billion people scrolling with you every month. Utilizing video as part of your marketing is an easy way to reach people not only when they’re looking for content to watch (#dogvideos anyone? ), but also when they’re looking for reviews, how-to guides, and product information. Using video is similar to how people search!

There are two types of digital marketing platforms: paid and organic. Our organic approach to video is similar to how we approach our website and social media – keeping people up to date, as well as sharing useful, relevant content. In paid advertising, we take advantage of contextual moments to deliver relevant video content. Let’s say I am a new health food company and I want to target people who watch workout videos with a relevant message.

11. AUDIO ADVERTISING

With podcasts on the rise and music listening habits changing thanks to services like Spotify and Apple Music, we now have a new medium to play in and for reaching new audiences.

 Branded podcasts can also be considered content marketing. There are more basic options like audio ads within podcasts relevant to your business, as well as more advanced options like audio ads tailored to specific demographics, interests, or contextual moments on Spotify. The world of digital audio advertising is only just beginning. Even though we’re still exploring ways to track listens that lead to purchases and sign-ups, audio advertising offers a unique creative way of thinking and reaches audiences at key times.

CONCLUSION

The world of digital marketing is endless, with new platforms, ideas, and new types of digital marketing appearing daily. Although it’s always difficult to know where to begin, we recommend starting with you, your business, and your customers. How do you know who to talk to, where do they spend their time, and what makes sense for your business? There are plenty of opportunities out there, and now is the right time to get started!

In the past few years, the digital marketing world has seen social media gain increasing traction as a tool that can give maximum exposure and greater marketing mileage for any brand, product, or service. The platform has evolved from being a mere fad, or just another platform for publishing content – and has become one of the most effective marketing and advertising tools and strategies available.

Online users in the United States are spending more time on social media channels than anywhere else on the Internet, according to Small Biz Trends. As a result, 86% of marketers acknowledge that social media provides maximum exposure for their businesses. It was reported in another report published by HubSpot that companies have at least one dedicated social media person or a social media team.

However, the Small Biz Trends report also indicated that 88% of businesses using social media admitted that they have a lot more to learn about social tactics. Specifically, they are interested in learning more about strategies that would be effective to engage targeted audiences and increase brand awareness. Listed below are 10 amazing social media marketing strategies that deliver more and better-targeted results for your business.

Increase online visibility on more social media networks

Even though it seems like yesterday, social media giant Facebook turns 10 this year. Facebook is still the dominant force in social media with 757 million Daily Active Users (equivalent to 1.23 billion Monthly Active Users according to official Facebook reports). While the platform is the primary arena for social media marketing activities, it should not be your only social media outlet.

Many other social networks are also gaining ground, with many focusing on graphics, pictures, and videos as their main content. Pinterest, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat are examples of social media sites that target specific user categories and demographics. In order to gain maximum exposure for your business, you should develop a strong social media presence not just on Facebook and Twitter, but also on other upcoming and highly dynamic social media networks.

Tailor Your Content to Specific Social Media Platforms

Businesses and digital marketers often make the mistake of posting the same type of content on all of their social networks. By doing so, businesses fail to provide social media users with the unique experience they want from each platform. Every social network caters to a certain demographic and social user category, so broadcasting the same type of content to all will not produce the desired results.

Pinterest and Instagram users are more likely to be interested in content with a visual nature and more likely to click on really high-quality images and graphics telling your story. In this regard, the key to success is tailor-fitting your content to the various social media platforms and checking which format will work best.

Instead of selling stuff, tell stories

While social media is still a digital marketing tool, using it to sell your products directly to consumers will do more harm than good to your brand or business. Social media networks are full of stories and people go to them to read stories, be amazed by interesting features, and learn new things from uploads and shares. In order to use social media effectively, you need to learn how to tell a story before you can sell anything.

Your brand will get more attention if you tell stories. As a result, they would want to know more about you and read, view, or watch more stories, photos, and videos about you. As their level of interest grows, they will be able to show an interest in your business, in what you do, and in what you sell – and this will be the right time for profits to roll in.

Share more pictures, graphics, and videos

As soon as Facebook introduced a new feature that allowed Instagram videos to be uploaded, the social network experienced up to 5 million video uploads within the first 24 hours of the launch. That is the power of video and other visual elements, and learning how to use these tools and elements can give you maximum exposure for your business. Now, micro-video is gaining ground, providing another form of content that will revolutionize social media.

As the Internet becomes more accessible to smartphones and other Internet-enabled mobile devices, Snapchat, Twitter’s Vine, and the new micro-video sharing feature on Instagram will certainly gain in popularity. Pinterest is fast evolving, shedding its “women’s only network” tagline to gain more subscribers from more and more online users regardless of gender or demographics. As well as Mobli, Path, Slideshare, and Tumblr, other networks with a visual content focus are gaining traction.

Organize contests and promotional activities

Getting your targeted audiences directly involved in activities is one of the most effective strategies for social media in general. The best way to drive their interest and solicit their participation is by conducting contests and other promotional activities. You can be as creative as you like when it comes to the type of contests you can run, but using the sharing features and other viral components provided by your social network can bring your brand or business even more exposure, as more and more online users participate.

Provide more educational content

According to Social Media B2B research, businesses that use social media strategies for content marketing, such as maintaining blogs, generate 67% more leads than companies that do not. Using social media marketing, they can gain more of their target audiences’ trust, and to do so they have to create educational content that their readers will find very useful for whatever purposes or needs they have.

Using and sharing educational content is a very effective strategy if you want to gain more exposure for your business and build a bigger and more diverse audience, according to a recent HubSpot study. Through the use of educational content that your targeted customers find relevant and interesting, you can extend the reach and coverage of your brand and business.

Make mobile social media marketing a priority

Facebook announced that there were an average of 556 million Mobile Daily Active Users, a 49% increase over last year. This translates into 945 million Mobile Monthly Active Users, a 39% increase year-over-year. These numbers illustrate the power of mobile social media marketing, which should encourage digital marketers to create more content and location-based advertising targeted at mobile social media users.

Response to ALL Comments, Suggestions, Inquiries, and Complaints

Social media users comment, suggest, inquire, or even complain about business pages and social profiles. In return, they expect a response or acknowledgment from you or your social media manager. Approximately 42 percent of social media users expect to receive a response within 60 minutes according to a study by Convince and Convert.

Users expect some form of interaction from business owners and digital marketers through social media. Businesses and digital marketers who respond to these comments and inquiries will be at an advantage over those who do not. Also, you should know how to handle or address complaints in a way that will satisfy online users. Don’t delete complaints, otherwise, you’ll be removed from their lists.

Also, show your gratitude for the time spent by online users reading, liking, and sharing your content. It will put you in their favor and there will be more opportunities for them to come back, read more of your content, and even tell others about you and your brand.

One of the most dynamic and fastest-growing digital marketing channels is social media marketing. These social networks are maturing to their full potential, and digital marketers need to learn how to utilize them so that they can deliver better brand awareness and maximum exposure for their business. You can start with a tweet, an upload, or a post – and let it grow from there.

The omnichannel marketing approach is easier to understand once we divide it into different segments, so let’s start. Firstly, the meaning of ‘omni’, which means combining all things together, and by adding the ‘channel’ to omnichannel, we are now referring to the concept of using all channels to create a single, unified customer experience. Omnichannel can include both online and offline channels – websites, email, physical stores, digital platforms, etc – as well as all devices from desktop to mobile and everything in between.

An omnichannel marketing strategy, on the other hand, combines the use of digital and traditional marketing channels in order to provide a consistent message and experience. The experience adapts to customers based on their journey and is consistent regardless of where the customer engages.

Omnichannel marketing requires a holistic approach to customer journeys and all the places where customers interact with your brand. When you grasp where customers engage, you will also be able to collect unified customer data and design your communication channels to work in concert – instead of in opposition – to one another.

How do ‘multichannel’ and ‘omnichannel’ marketing differ?

There is a significant difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing in the way in which systems work together to engage customers. Even though both approaches aim to engage customers on various channels, omnichannel marketing focuses on the integrated and consistent nature of engagement across these channels while multichannel marketing is less connected and is more concerned with distribution through different channels.

Unlike multichannel marketing, where the decision of how to engage is left to the customer, omnichannel marketing ensures that the message is seamless and consistent no matter what channel they choose.

Omnichannel marketing: what are the benefits?

There are several benefits to omnichannel marketing that justify the effort and planning involved. The most important benefit is customer satisfaction. As omnichannel marketing focuses on delivering seamless information and experiences, brands deliver exceptional customer experiences – which is the deciding factor for consumers when evaluating and choosing a brand.

In addition to customer satisfaction, revenue and business success are also impacted by customer satisfaction. Increasing customer satisfaction can result in increased customer retention and loyalty, which can have a significant effect on revenue. According to some studies, a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to profit increases between 25% and 95%.

In addition to customer satisfaction, brands also gain the following benefits from omnichannel marketing:

• 360-degree customer view
  Omnichannel marketing allows you to collect customer data from disparate sources, as well as unify them by combining cookie data, point of sale data, loyalty program data, and more. In this way, the creation of a full customer profile is made possible, which leads to stronger personalization efforts, better campaign design, and more, thereby contributing to high conversion rates.
• Teamwork and synergy
  A key component of omnichannel marketing is integration, not just from the end-user perspective, but also from the internal process perspective. As a result of omnichannel marketing, teams will need to work together to coordinate campaigns, messaging, and distribution, while also sharing customer data – thus increasing collaboration as teams aim for the same goal.
• Cost-effective marketing
  As a result of omnichannel marketing, we’ll be able to determine what’s working and what’s not. As a result of this data, brands can tailor strategies more effectively as they will gain a deeper understanding of what channels and methods are delivering higher ROI.

How does headless marketing enable omnichannel marketing?

Content teams and marketers can create content once and display it across all devices and channels by using a headless content management system (CMS). In order for omnichannel marketing to thrive, teams need an effective way to distribute content across channels and collect data from these interfaces to produce a 360-degree view of the customer. A headless CMS serves both those purposes and helps teams distribute content efficiently and effectively across channels while also collecting customer data.

How can omnichannel marketing benefit business?

Businesses that are trying to grab the attention of consumers in an age where customer experience is a key influencer in decision-making should have an omnichannel marketing strategy in place. As a result, it is important to ensure that you have a strategy and tools in place first to ensure that your experience executing omnichannel marketing is as seamless as the one you aim to deliver to your customers. 

For assistance with your omnichannel strategy connect with Blupord team today at [email protected]

Since many customers are active online, marketers need to come up with ways to attract prospects, convert them into leads, and turn them into buyers. There are many obstacles preventing the implementation of these strategies, including increased competition, customer reviews on social media, and the evolution of customer behaviors when interacting with ads.

Here are five tips to help you generate quality leads:

Place CTAs strategically

It is best to keep CTAs (Call To Action) above the fold and directly in front of customers, across all screen sizes, and have one CTA per page. By placing your call to action above the fold and in plain sight, you will generate a higher conversion rate, since all of your visitors are able to directly see the offer. When visitors are required to scroll down the page before seeing the offer, or add another layer to discover the offer, then your conversion rates will be low.

You should not hide your CTAs at the end of long-form content, since this will reduce the number of people who see the offer and they might also lose the interest if they have to read a lot until they get to the actual point they are interested in. Ensure your customers won’t miss your offer regardless of whether they’re viewing on a desktop monitor or a small mobile screen.

Stay active on social media

Social media is the go-to medium for customer service questions today. Businesses must provide customer service via social media and provide fast answers to questions from customers.

Monitor your social media accounts actively and answer all questions; this will help you build solid relationships with your customers, which in turn will make them trust you. More prospects will convert to leads if they feel comfortable asking for more information about the products or services you offer.

Design landing pages that encourage social sharing

Sharing is underestimated by many marketers when it comes to lead generation. While most social shares are focused on blog posts, you can use this to drive more traffic to your landing page and generate more leads.

You can leverage social sharing to drive more traffic to your offers by being creative. Create compelling rewards and watch your landing pages get more traffic and leads.

Highlight Social Proof

Your conversion rate will increase when you display social proof next to your CTAs. Getting approval opinions from third parties improves conversions since customers seek each other’s opinions.

You can convert visitors to leads by placing reviews, testimonials, and even awards and recognition near your CTAs. It builds an additional layer of trust.

Create video content

Content that is video-based is one of the most effective forms. Customers love it because they can consume it on the go and it’s easy to use. Marketers love it because they can publish it at little or no cost and promote it through multiple channels.

Create videos that explain and entertain at the same time, and keep a unique angle in mind to get results. Try out different video angles and content concepts on social media to see what your audience responds to.

If you structure your sales funnel correctly, you can put your business on autopilot and convert leads into customers consistently. Depending on each platform, consumers also spend on some video views a longer period of time, while on others a lesser period of time – keep this in mind when you structure your content.

Choose the right digital marketing agency for guidance and assistance with your lead generation requirement and get it right from the start.

Contact us on [email protected]

Marketing with email can be an extremely powerful tool for any business if it’s used accurately.

As a customer’s inbox is a distraction-free zone, you have the opportunity to capture their attention with more high-targeted offers than through any other digital channel.

With this in mind it is no surprise that the effectiveness and ROI of email marketing can be highly desirable for any business. E-mail is 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. With email marketing, every dollar spent produces a return of $44.

However, email marketing isn’t enough on its own. A good email marketing strategy will involve automation. The right email at the right time will help you grow a loyal customer base of people who will spread the word about your business.

Automating the following 3 emails can increase sales, as well as upsells and profits.

The Welcome Email

We are given only one chance to make a good first impression. Any future follow-ups can be challenging if your introduction to a new subscriber is not impressive.

The welcome email generates three times more revenue and transaction per email than other promotional emails.

In the process of signing up for your newsletter, visitors agree to receive future emails from you, but they also give you access to their inbox. Don’t take it for granted. Be thoughtful of how you approach their expectations.

Greeting new subscribers with fun and friendly emails is a great way to welcome them. For example, you can offer them unique discounts or a first time offer. This will lead to sales among prospects who recently committed to engaging further with your business.

The Cart Abandonment Email

It’s true that people get distracted. When they go online to make a purchase, something can easily divert their attention causing them to leave their cart without a second thought.

A report from Baymard Institute states 69% of visitors abandon their shopping carts as a result of high shipping costs.

By addressing shipping costs in follow-up emails, you can convert cart abandoners into customers.

Can you tell the lifetime value of your customers? How many of them become regular customers after trying your service? If they are, offer them a “risky” discount so they can afford to lose money on the front end. Ask for feedback if your shipping rates are too thin to compete.

Although you may not always convert abandoned cart shoppers, you should reach out to them to find out why they did not complete their purchase. Use their feedback to make the checkout process better.

New Product Teaser

A tempting and irresistible email campaign teasing a new product can build anticipation for your product. It will increase your chance of success and help you reach your project goals.

Are you releasing a new product soon? Make your subscribers aware of your upcoming launch through a teaser campaign. As a result, they’ll be notified about more updates, and they’ll be more likely to buy the product once it’s available.

You only need to spark curiosity in your recipients’ minds with a teaser email if you want them to remain interested.

Writing and managing your email content correctly will simplify your life and increase your business growth.

In the near future, social media will become more important than ever as a way for people to get instant connections, uncover new trends, and get informed on events and such.

To thrive in an unexpectedly rapid digital transformation, businesses had to pivot, and social marketers had to avoid burnout as the volume of social interactions increased with increasing numbers of users.

Considering this, it’s not surprising that our review of the best times to post on Facebook in 2021 uncovered many significant changes, including increased engagement across platforms. Both businesses and their customers were constantly changing how they operate online, resulting in new ways of engagement. As we continue to unravel and refine future strategies,  this data assists marketers obtain new perspectives on the ever changing social landscape.

Today you will read more about the best times to post on each platform and suggestions on the times and days to avoid. Besides this information we recommend to conduct your own analysis and draw on the  inspiration for scheduling your publishing schedule.

The best times to post on Facebook

• Best times: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
• Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
• Day to avoid: Saturday

It is not surprising that there was virtually 24/7 engagement on Facebook given that it is the world’s most popular social network.

Reviewing the past year of Facebook data, there were few completely ‘off’ periods. It was more common for businesses to get higher engagement on their content during the weekend, late at night, and early in the morning.

The top times shown above are recorded in US Central Time, so the high engagement in the early morning as well as the more traditional US workday also reflects Facebook’s worldwide reach. It is therefore an ideal platform for brands with an international or multi-location strategy.

The best times to post on Instagram

• Best times: Tuesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday through Friday 11 a.m.
• Best day: Tuesday
• Day to avoid: Sunday

In 2020, Instagram continued to roll out new features such as Reels, enhance Stories, and push discovery on the Explore page. The platform was thus ideal for social media audiences struggling with lockdown measures to find and share hobbies – sometimes brands can use social listening to keep up to date as these trends emerge.

On weekdays, engagement became even denser with top times spanning 11 a.m.–2 p.m., and weekends and evenings offered increased engagement options.

Using Instagram to promote your brand content is a great way to reinforce your brand’s visual identity: demonstrate your graphic design skills by showcasing infographics and data reports. The popularity of Instagram Live, like the popularity of Facebook Live, exploded in 2020 as a way to stay connected in an immediate and less curated way. The reels also allow you to make shorter and more viral-ready content that can be used with your feed. 

The best times to post on Twitter

• Best times: Wednesday 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 9–11 a.m.
• Best day: Wednesday
• Day to avoid: Saturday

In 2020, many social media users used Twitter to stay updated on developing stories, such as COVID-19 and the US Presidential Election. With this in mind, the platform placed a heavy emphasis on informative and accurate news, with specific trending topics discovery tabs devoted to these stories.

Peak engagement times on Twitter were consistently high through all of the weekdays in 2020, with more high engagement taking place in the evenings. Possibly, this is due to the platform’s continuous focus on news and updates, as well as its role as a hub for entertainment via viral Tweets and memes.

Tweets, while continuing to be an important resource for up-to-date news, also give customers a way to connect directly with brands through conversations and mentions. This means that having a strong customer care strategy in place is particularly valuable because it will enable them to move beyond responding to issues and focus on proactively improving the overall customer experience through social listening and analyzing voice of customer data.

Best times to post on LinkedIn

• Best times: Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m.–noon
• Best days: Tuesday and Wednesday
• Day to avoid: Sunday

Engaging with LinkedIn has become extremely consistent during the US work week, which isn’t surprising considering LinkedIn is a professional-focused social network. We found that LinkedIn engagement drops more on the weekend than other social networks we reviewed, making this the worst day to post on the network.

Due to the focus of LinkedIn content on professional thought leadership and career growth, it’s no surprise that the majority of audiences are getting the most value from this content in their working day.

Aside from being an important platform for employee advocacy campaigns and recruiting, LinkedIn has also become a leading platform for creating a variety of content.

LinkedIn is clearly a platform that matches B2B strategies, but any brand can make use of LinkedIn marketing best practices and highlight accomplishments as a business or organization. In addition to employee advocacy, it provides employees with the opportunity to advance their personal brand or professional development by publishing content to their own profiles.

Posting times according to Industry

The research also showed how different industries’ engagement varies across networks and over time throughout the week in addition to reviewing when is a good time to post across all social accounts. This data can be used similarly to our global engagement findings to gain more specific insights into how audiences engage with different types of brands.

Based on our findings, we analyzed data from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where there was enough information available to provide an accurate and useful overview of engagement by industry.

Ideal time to post on social media for Healthcare

The healthcare system was faced with an overwhelming challenge in 2020 to adapt to global audiences that were constantly adjusting to new information and living under quarantine restrictions.

Despite some networks, such as Instagram, receiving infrequent engagement in this industry in our 2019 data, in 2020 we saw much more consistent engagement as at-home audiences relied on online sources to stay current and find answers to their questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. For a successful healthcare social media strategy, educating and informing audiences effectively will likely remain a key priority.

Best times to post on Facebook for Healthcare

• Best times: Monday through Friday at 11 a.m.
• Best day: Tuesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Healthcare

• Best times: Sunday 8–9 a.m., Tuesday 8 a.m.–noon and 5–8 p.m.
• Best day: Monday, Tuesday
• Worst day: Saturday

Best times to post on Twitter for Healthcare

• Best times: Monday 9 a.m.–noon, Tuesday 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
• Best day: Tuesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Ideal time to post on social media for Media

When it comes to engagement in the media industry, Twitter and Instagram were extremely consistent.

 Global news and entertainment media have around-the-clock engagement (relative to US central time) due to the relatively large audience globally.

In addition to Facebook’s large global audience, engagement on media industry accounts was especially high in the US morning, perhaps reflecting a tendency for audiences to habitually check in for a longer, single period of time during the day versus quick visits throughout.

Due to the continued scrutiny social platforms undergo as a source of immediate updates and a potential risk for misinformation, it is more important than ever to balance timely reporting with accurate information. Social media journalists and media brands should be aware of their best practices and cultivate overall digital literacy in order to serve their audiences effectively.

Best times to post on Facebook for Media

• Best times: Friday 7 a.m., Tuesday 6–9 a.m.
• Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
• Worst day: Saturday

Best times to post on Instagram for Media

• Best times: Tuesday 1–5 p.m. , Wednesday 11 a.m. Thursday 8–9 a.m.
• Best day: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Media

• Best times: Monday 6 a.m. & 9 a.m., Tuesday 7 a.m.
• Best day: Monday, Tuesday
• Worst day: Saturday

Ideal time to post on social media for Education

Throughout the day and into the evening, Twitter and Facebook provided significant opportunities for engagement for education. The use of Instagram seemed to be sporadic, but universities and educational institutions shouldn’t overlook the opportunity to showcase their visual identity and show off student life through video content.

Developing a social marketing strategy for education must serve multiple functions, from attracting prospective students to keeping current students and alumni informed. To meet these needs and effectively target these distinct audiences at the right times, many schools will have to manage multiple social media accounts per platform.

Best times to post on Facebook for Education

• Best times: Wednesday and Thursday at 10 a.m.
• Best day: Tuesday, Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Education

• Best times: Friday 4–5 a.m., Thursday 2 p.m.
• Best day: Friday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Education

• Best times: Monday 6– 9 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m.
• Best day: Monday
• Worst day: Sunday

Ideal time to post on social media for Nonprofits

We examined three social media platforms for nonprofit accounts and found that each of them had strong engagement during the typical US workday. Finding distinct peak times within the relatively solid block of engagement occurring from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. was almost impossible.

The consistent audience engagement in this space offers a unique opportunity to narrow down your accounts’ individual data even further and find the best time for your specific organization to reach its target audience and achieve its goals.

Plus, since engagement is very similar across all platforms, it makes sense to vary content across them by playing to their unique strengths. Make sure you know what to post on each social network to effectively send your message and encourage your audience to follow you throughout your entire social presence.

Best times to post on Facebook for Nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Saturday (minor difference)

Best times to post on Instagram for Nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Nonprofit

• Best times: Wednesday 10–11 a.m, 2–4 p.m.
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Ideal time to post on social media for Restaurants

With the demand for takeout and delivery increasing in 2020, restaurants need to inform their customers about changes to service and menus, plus provide social media-ready dine-in experiences.

Instagram is still highly active for the restaurant space despite these changes, with active periods ranging from morning to night.

 There are plenty of ways to use Instagram to creatively showcase your menu and delivery offerings, as well as behind-the-scenes shots from your kitchens, even if customers don’t typically take photos of their dining experiences.

Facebook and Twitter engagement varied more erratically over the weekdays, but these platforms still offer opportunities to connect with different audiences. Keep potential customers interested in your restaurant by offering unique promotions and updates tailored to each platform.

Best times to post on Facebook for Restaurants

• Best times: Monday noon, Friday 1–2 p.m.
• Best day: Friday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Restaurants

• Best times: Monday 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
• Best day: Monday
• Worst day: Saturday

Best times to post on Twitter for Restaurants

• Best times: Wednesday noon–2 p.m., Thursday 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
• Best day: Thursday
• Worst day: Saturday

 Ideal time to post on social media for Tech

You might be surprised to learn that Instagram had the highest number of peak posting times for the tech industry. Tech companies such as B2B brands however, can easily showcase both company culture as well as creative visual content such as infographics and reports, which can be employed to highlight both employee advocacy and creative visual content.

B2B buyers also increasingly use social media to do research before making purchasing decisions, similar to B2C customers. Social platforms are also an excellent way for brands to stay in touch with current customers, creating a sense of community around their products and offering meaningful customer support. A strong social media presence can directly impact the bottom line and customer experience for tech brands.

Best times to post on Facebook for Tech

• Best times: Thursday 3–4 p.m.
• Best day: Tuesday, Thursday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Tech

• Best times: Monday 10–11 a.m., 2–5 p.m., 8 p.m., Tuesday 10 a.m.–1 p.m., Thursday noon, Friday 11 a.m.
• Best day: Monday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Tech

• Best times: Monday 11 a.m., Tuesday & Wednesday 9 a.m., Tuesday 2 p.m.
• Best day: Tuesday
• Worst day: Sunday

 

Ideal time to post on social media for Travel and Tourism

Travel restrictions and travel lockdown limited the traditional ways audiences engaged with the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries on social media throughout 2020, so these industries were forced to innovate and create digital experiences.

We have data showing that social media audiences have responded positively to these efforts, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. 

The efforts of tourism brands to share experiences from afar and inspire while using traditional travel photos didn’t fail to hit their target and opened up new opportunities for social marketers in these professions to remain creative and flexible with their strategies.

Best times to post on Facebook for Travel & Tourism

• Best times: Tuesday and Wednesday 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.–noon
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Travel & Tourism

• Best times: Thursday 7 a.m., Monday 11 a.m.–3 p.m.
• Best day: Thursday
• Worst days: Saturday, Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism

• Best times: Monday 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Wednesday 8–9 a.m.
• Best day: Monday, Tuesday
• Worst day: Saturday

Ideal time to post on social media for Finance

In order to get an accurate picture of peak engagement times, we focused on Twitter and Facebook, as these platforms are available and provide accurate data about social engagement with financial institutions.

The following does not mean that Instagram should be excluded from social media strategies for banks and financial institutions. The finance industry needs to carefully evaluate the best ways to stay connected with customers on social media while remaining compliant with important regulations.

Twitter had highly varied top times, perhaps reflecting global audiences’ ready engagement with short updates on industry news and markets. Facebook’s weekday activity followed a more typical pattern.

Best times to post on Facebook for Finance

• Best times: Wednesday 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Monday 5 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.
• Best day: Wednesday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Finance

• Best times: Monday and Tuesday 1–3 a.m., Friday noon–3 p.m.
• Best day: Monday, Tuesday
• Worst day: Saturday

Ideal time to post on social media for Hospitality

The hospitality industry also faced unexpected challenges to completely revamp their social media content and marketing approach in 2020, similar to the tourism industry. As travel restrictions and limitations changed throughout the year, hospitality brands, many of which manage multiple accounts for multiple locations, had to align on messaging and stay in touch with customers.

The industry’s strong customer service focus was reflected in peak engagement periods, which coincided with US working days and hours, as well as some additional high engagement times in the evening.

The hospitality industry’s overall social strategy must include a holistic approach to reputation management and review management as customers begin planning for travel in 2021 and beyond.

Best times to post on Facebook for Hospitality

• Best times: Monday 11 a.m., Friday 8–11 a.m., Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 4 p.m.
• Best day: Friday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Instagram for Hospitality

• Best times: Wednesday noon, Thursday 3–4 p.m., Friday 8 a.m.–noon
• Best day: Friday
• Worst day: Sunday

Best times to post on Twitter for Hospitality

• Best times: Wednesday 3–5 p.m., Thursday 10–11 a.m.
• Best day: Thursday
• Worst day: Sunday

Every so often, we get asked: “Do I really need to use Stories to grow on Instagram?” It’s common: Camera shyness can be a real issue, but it doesn’t have to stand in the way of growing your influence, especially if you’re looking to enhance your content! In this digital age, it’s one of the best tools that you can use to grow, so why not use it to your advantage? Here are a few reasons why Instagram Stories are so important.

Growing Stories

Since its debut in 2016, Instagram Stories has grown exponentially. Approximately 500MM Instagram Stories users are active every day, according to TechCrunch (half of Instagram’s 1 billion users). Adding to the power that Stories has, Instagram has seen a 100MM user increase in just six months since reaching 400MM daily users in June 2018. To make that number even bigger, Stories were only used every day by 250MM people in 2017! It’s safe to say that most of your audience is on Instagram Stories and they can’t wait to learn more about you and your brand on Instagram Stories.

Watch-Time Is Increasing

Besides growing the user base, watch time on Instagram Stories has been rising at a rapid pace over the past year. As reported by TechCrunch, Instagram video watch time has increased 80 percent year-over-year, and the number of videos shared has increased fourfold. Users, as well as brands, have been increasing their stories usage to create more dynamic and engaging content, resulting in much more watch time. It may seem like you have more Stories to compete with, but it also means that you can get creative and see what other profiles do to engage their audiences. Take this as a chance to improve your content!

Ad Dollars on Instagram

Almost one in three brands invest their ad dollars on Instagram, which represents 23% of their ad budgets, mostly due to Instagram Stories. More brands are realizing the value of investing their ad spend on social media, but most importantly in Instagram and Instagram Stories ads, according to a recent Merkle study. While Instagram sponsored posts and ads do not allow you to create dynamic ads while users are watching Stories, Instagram Stories allows you to create an impact that will cause them to watch your ad and convert.

Increase Engagement with Stories

Instagram Stories can help you elevate your visual content strategy; the tools available in the application allow you to get to know and understand your audience 10x better. With Instagram Stories, you can learn more about your audience than just reading their comments on your posts. Using the Poll, Question, and Emoji Slider stickers on Stories, you can allow them to further engage in your brand conversation by allowing them to vote, rate, and express their opinions and thoughts. You can take advantage of these features to help you develop a content strategy based on audience responses and feedback.

Utilizing the See More Feature

With Instagram Stories, you can go beyond your bio link and drive more traffic to your website with the ‘See More’ option. In addition to engaging with your audience and displaying your brand’s personality, you can drive traffic to your site beyond just the link in your bio. Through the ‘See More’ Feature, you can take your brand beyond social and convert more followers back to your site if you have over 10K followers or are “verified” on Instagram. In addition, if you have a visually impactful Story with a clear call to action to drive followers back to your site, you will see your conversion rates increase over time.

Boosting Sales with Shoppable Stories

You can not only drive more views to your content but also increase sales with ‘Shoppable Stories’. For example, if your business sells products, then by creating Stories that visually market the products and illustrate how it’s used, your audience will be more likely to purchase. You don’t need to restrict yourself to one swipe-up link if you’re showcasing multiple products. As long as your Instagram account has ‘Shoppable Stories’ capabilities, you can tag the products from your product catalog just like you do when you tag another Instagram account and let your followers purchase directly from your Story.

To lean more connect with us today [email protected]

For some time now, Instagram engagement has been declining overall, but it isn’t for all the bad reasons. One of the major reasons behind this is due to Instagram’s commitment to removing bots, spam, and comment pods in order to ensure that your followers and engagement are real.

It took Instagram roughly four years to reach its first 300 million users. The number of monthly active users reached 500 million in June 2016. Almost a year later, the same number of people joined. At the end of September 2017, there were 800 million active monthly users on the platform. In 2021, there are 1.074 billion Instagram users which is a 22.9% increase from 2020. While Instagram was meant to be only a photo-sharing platform popular with teens, it has grown to become one of the most popular social media sites in the world.

However, this kind of rapid growth leads to saturation. The saturation of feeds leads to greater competition for users’ attention, which means decrease in engagement. 

Let’s explore the reasons for this downward spiral:

1. Poor quality audience

Lack of quality followers is one of the biggest factors affecting engagement, and it is generally a good thing to have many followers, unless they are inactive or fake followers. Having fake followers will decrease the overall engagement rate, regardless of whether it was intentional or not.

Instagram’s algorithm evaluates engagement in the following way:

• Initially, only a small percentage of your followers will see your new post.
• This feature measures likes and comments on your latest post and compares them to engagement on older posts.
• The new post will be shown to your remaining audience if it is getting a higher engagement rate.
• In contrast, less engagement indicates you may have fake followers, and this might contribute to a lesser chance of having your post seen by the rest of your audience.

If your audience is fake and inactive accounts, they almost never interact with your posts which in the end will lead to a decline in your engagement rates.

2. Shadow bans and hashtag restrictions

As a result of a recent change in Instagram’s algorithm, users have started using comment pods as a way to bypass the algorithm. Engagement can be improved by using comment pods, but they are inauthentic. Furthermore, Instagram bans users they believe are part of an abusive comment pod.

Another reason users are seeing a decrease in engagement is restricted hashtags. Platforms classify them as either NSFW or spammy (like #beautyblogger or #follow4follow) and reduce post visibility. As soon as an account is flagged, it is checked for suspicious activity and you could be shadowbanned. 

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t ever release a list of banned hashtags, so it’s difficult to know or check on a regular basis. However, if you think your hashtag is banned, we recommend you search the hashtag and see what comes up. If there are “posts hidden” messages, you should know that the hashtag is banned, and it’s best to stop using it. 

3. Robots and automation

Several automation websites, such as MassPlanner and Instagress, have been shut down by Instagram. These apps help users gain followers and engagement by creating bots. These are like mini robot clones with the same interests and preferences as the original user. These are not necessarily fake accounts, but they artificially boost engagement as they just like and comment on other people’s posts. It does not matter if you use automated tools yourself, you will be affected if your followers used them. Since they don’t like everyone’s post in their feed, engagement can decline.

4. Suppression of hashtags for business accounts

The new algorithm acts differently depending on the account type, and posts related to a hashtag can only be seen by people who follow the pages associated with that hashtag unless it is a top post.

Business accounts are subject to this rule,  and this means that accounts that follow specific algorithmic rules will have a harder time getting featured for some hashtags.

5. Saturation

Overall, Instagram post interactions have decreased by a whole 33% in the past year. A 27% drop was seen in likes and comments, and 39% drop in comments and likes on videos. The primary cause of all of this is Instagram saturation.

There is an increase in both the user base and posting frequency. More content is showing up in users’ feeds since they follow more accounts than before. There’s a ton of content to keep up with, and it’s a bit overwhelming. In the end, this increased competition for engagement has resulted in a decline in engagement.

In light of all of this, what is the solution to the decreasing Instagram engagement?

1. Using #hashtags strategically

When used correctly, hashtags can be used to gain popularity among target audiences. They enable other users to find, follow, and interact with your Instagram account. However, you won’t achieve anything by using and abusing random hashtags.

You can get featured in feeds by using relevant hashtags that are popular with your target audience. It is also recommended to use creative hashtags with your posts, as the narrower their scope, the more engaging they are to users.

2. Calls-to-Action

Get your posts seen by your followers by adding a captivating caption. Adding a call-to-action to the caption of your posts is the easiest way to get them to interact. According to the Instagram algorithm, posts with higher engagement are more likely to appear in user feeds.

For Example, engage your audience by providing a question, for instance, how they feel about a product or asking them to leave a reply in the comment section. 

3. The best time to post

Another way to improve your engagement is by posting during peak hours, when your target audience is most likely to be online. This way you can reach the greatest number of people with your posts.

Obviously, peak times will vary depending on the kind of target audience and time zone. You can use Instagram Insights to discover when your followers are using the app if you have a business account. Posting at different times can also be an experiment to determine the best time to post.

4. High-quality content

Here is a recommendation that comes right from the source: Last year Instagram for Business responded to users experiencing issues with its new hashtag search policy.

Instagram wants people to put more emphasis on quality content to increase engagement. Rather than focusing on hashtags, they suggest focusing on a proper growth strategy for their target audiences. This shows their commitment to encouraging and promoting authentic engagements.

This also means, businesses are encouraged to allocate appropriate budgets for their Instagram growth, as organic growth is going to be a slow option. Allocating budgets for the business account growth also means building your target audience which will result in higher and quality engagement which is beneficial in the long run.

5. Instagram Stories

More than 80% of consumers prefer brands to post live content on social media. This is exactly why you should take advantage of Instagram Stories. Use relevant hashtags in your Stories to reach more people and catch their attention, along with other options such as location tag.

Engage your followers by posting behind-the-scenes photographs and bloopers, make it fun and engaging. Another trick is to share stories from live events. The Instagram Stories feature is a great way to gain more likes and comments in real-time, which improves your engagement rate.

Conclusion

Instagram is constantly changing and improving its algorithm to provide a better experience for users. There is no doubt that engagement has declined over the past few months, but shortcuts like bots and comment pods won’t last. All they can do is create a false sense of security.

We recommend to focus on the tips shared here because they are timeless and will not change with time or algorithm changes. You will be on the right track.

Load speed can either help your website perform or make your website fall!!

Loading time is not just a matter of preference – it does have a huge impact on a site’s success.

The longer a website takes to load the higher the bounce rate it will have. This high bounce rate informs the search engine that the users do not find this website informative and hence affecting its ranking.

Why is Website Speed Important?

A website that loads within two seconds might have a bounce rate of 9% while pages that load in five seconds see their bounce rates skyrocket to 38%.

Even a second in difference can cause a huge impact on website performance.

So, accordingly, what is the ideal loading time of a website?

Your website load should be within three seconds, or two seconds if it’s an ecommerce site.

How does mobile compare to desktop browsing?

In a 2018 study of US web traffic, mobile devices accounted for 58% of site visits and 42.3% of total time spent online. People use mobiles more than desktops.

How do user expectations differ on mobile vs desktop?

85% of mobile users expect that the page will load faster than they do on desktop.

What are the most common problems on mobile?

60% of mobile internet users say they’ve encountered at least one problem while browsing within the last 12 months…

• Was it too slow to load? 73%
• Crashed, froze, or received an error? 51%
• Had formatting that was difficult to read? 48%
• Didn’t function as expected? 45%
• Simply wasn’t available? 38%

Here are the steps which can be taken in order to solve these issues…..

Some site owners turn to Accelerate Mobile Pages, or AMP.

How Web Speed Impacts Business?

Speed of a website can impact everything from sales to search engine performance.

How web speed impacts sales?

Any website which has lower web loading speed can have much more bounce rate than any other normal website. Even just 1 second delay will…..

• Reduce page views by 11%
• Decrease customer satisfaction by 16%
• Reduce conversions by 7%

If you’re into ecommerce, the revenue losses resulting from slow speed will be pretty destructive. But check out how much improvement you can make by increasing site speed by just 0.1 seconds:

How web speed impacts customer loyalty?

Speed also impacts how your business will fare against the opposition. 79% of online customers who have a disappointing experience are less likely to buy from the same site again, while 64% would just buy from an alternate online store.

How Web Speed Impacts SEO?

Content and relevance still reign supreme if you want to rise up the SERPs, but website load time is also a confirmed ranking sign by Google, so it’s important to speed up your pages for a better shot at SEO success.

But why is site speed a ranking signal?

Because to Google, the user comes first – and as we’ve seen, slow load times mean dissatisfied clients. Google’s research showed that the possibility of the chance of bounce increased by 32% when a page load time went from 1 to 5 seconds. If a site takes up to 10 seconds to load, then the chance of a bounce rises to 123%.

Users spend more time on a website when its pages load much faster. In fact, users visit 8.9 pages when load time is two seconds, versus just 3.3 pages when load time is 8 seconds.

Ecommerce Case Studies:

No business is invulnerable with the impacts of slow loading times. Indeed, just a single percent of e-retailers in the UK had mobile page load speeds that got an amazing Google rating in 2018 – and that is a two percent drop from 2017. Furthermore, it’s not just small-to-midsize businesses that are vulnerable:

What Factors Affect Website Load Time?

Some variables, similar to a client’s internet connection, are out of your control as a website owner. Yet, most issues affecting load time are factors that can be fixed on your end.

Web hosting-

A web hosting organization gives the server that your site will be hosted on, and you can pick between various kinds of servers. Shared, VPS, and dedicated servers are the most widely recognized alternatives.

Web hosting and uptime-

Different hosting companies have different uptime guarantees, which address the amount of time the web server is available without any issues. You’ll want to pick a provider with an assurance of at least 99.90% uptime. Tenths of a percentage may seem trivial, but the distinction between 99.90% uptime and 99.95% uptime comes out to 4 hours and 23 minutes less downtime each year.

Web hosting and server types-

Once you have your hosting company selected, you’ll need to pick the right plan. Shared servers are the least expensive choice, but your site will then have to “share” resources with other sites on the same server. This is fine for small-to-medium-sized sites, but bigger sites will struggle keeping up with satisfactory speed.

VPS and dedicated servers are the more advanced options, and massive organizations and online business retailers actually need various devoted servers to guarantee that their sites run as quickly as possible.

VPS and dedicated servers offer more resources, including bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of information that your site can move to your guests in a specific amount of time. Assuming your site has high traffic volume, you’ll need more bandwidth to accommodate it.

It’s possible for websites to begin on a shared server, and afterward run out of storage space for their growing number of files, or start receiving more traffic than the shared server can accommodate. When that happens, you can undoubtedly upgrade from a shared to a VPS or dedicated server.

Images, Videos, and Files-

The bigger your file sizes are, and the more files you have on a page, the more it will take for the page to load – which implies it’s important to optimize your images as much as you can.

Plugins-

WordPress plugins are great for adding advanced functionality to a site. However, it pays to be specific about the quantity of plugins you use, on the grounds that too many at once will overwhelm your server. 

Browsers-

The browser you use can also affect normal page load times, on the grounds browsers may be incompatible with newer assets and code on your pages. The convenient solution for this is to check that you’re using the latest version of your chosen browser. You can also set your browser to update automatically to guarantee that you’re generally up to speed.

Cache clearance-

The cache on your PC stores data from the sites you visit to your hard drive, with the goal that you can access things more quickly. At the point when you return to a site, its information is already stored, which permits it to load faster.

This means that if you clear your cache, you’ll probably notice your frequently visited websites loading more slowly.

How to Improve Website Speed?

First, test your website speed-

There are tools you can use from your own PC to learn more about your site’s loading speed.

Know what users expect-

You’re almost prepared to start making some speed-savvy tweaks to your site. Above all, it’s important to keep in mind the kind of experience your users will be expecting.

These components are key to providing a great client experience on your site, which will in turn affect conversions and client dependability.

Take action-

Finally, there are a couple of actions you can take to start improving your site speed immediately. Make sure to be picky with plugins and hosting providers, as well!

Optimize images-

On average, pictures make up 21% of a total webpage’s weight, so ensure that they’re not getting in the way of page speed. Optimizing images is a balancing act of finding the lowest file size and the most acceptable quality, but it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

Optimize code-

Minifying your code, or compressing it to the smallest size without affecting its operation, can massively impact page speed. Google recommends a few different tools to help you do this:

1. To minify HTML, try HTMLMinifier.
2. To minify CSS, try CSSNano and csso.
3. To minify JavaScript, try UglifyJS.

Optimize databases-

If you’re using a CMS like WordPress,then all of your site’s text based and encrypted data (like posts, remarks, and pages) is stored in one database. However, after some time, this database can become busy with some information that you you don’t need, like:

• Unapproved or spam comments
• Post drafts and revisions
• Trashed posts and pages