WHY USING HASHTAGS ON INSTAGRAM IS SO IMPORTANT

WHY USING HASHTAGS ON INSTAGRAM IS SO IMPORTANT

Business, Marketing, Social Media

A picture is worth a thousand words – it surely is on Instagram!

This likeable social media platform continues keeping its strong position and, not surprisingly, is one of the most popular ones among creative entrepreneurs, including myself.

The idea of creating this post arrived when a dear friend of mine recently asked me about the idea of using hashtags for Instagram posts. Well, everyone is using them, they are all over the social platforms but why and how users can take advantage of this popular feature?

For most business owners this might be a simple question, but if you have just started your business and put your first business steps on Instagram, this might not be so obvious.

What are hashtags (#)

 

Hashtag (#) orpound sign, is a symbol (or code) placed in front of the word or connected word and it might look as follows: #female entrepreneur, #business, #creative. It helps turning words in to metadata tags and by doing so, helps people to find your posts.

This is truly an excellent and powerful marketing tool, sometimes underestimated by some entrepreneurs.

Using tags is a great way to get more followers and connect with users who show similar interests to yours. It often helps to establish long-term relationships with your ideal clients and, once used properly, gives you an amazing opportunity to show your work, brand and bring traffic to your website. Do you organize or promote events or campaigns on Instagram? Look no further than using the hashtags.

A few tips how to increase your marketing efforts

 

If you are using pound signs # on Instagram, here are some quick tips you can implement that can increase your marketing efforts:

  • try to create only specific hashtags for your business related to your industry or niche and which your potential customers most likely use
  • find out which tags work for you and which don’t
  • try to incorporate less common tags to be sure that your posts will have ‘prolonged life’
  • mix popular and less popular hashtags together
  • keep it simple
  • never use spaces or punctuation in the words following #symbol
  • every now and then you can delete a comment with your tags and paste it in the new comment again
  • don’t forget to set up your Instagram privacy settings from Private to Public

Making tags invisible

 

If for some reason you don’t want to show your hashtags at the first sight but still want to use this feature, you can hide them and it will look as follows: […].

Here are the steps on how to do it:

  1. Use Notes in IOS, text editor or whatever app you prefer, to save the favourite hashtags you want to use (all in one paragraph)
  2. In the beginning of the text, before saved hashtags, add 5 dots, each of them needs to be on a separate line
  3. Once it’s created, add all the previously saved hashtags below the last dot (5th one)
  4. Once ready, copy and paste everything in the comment below your posted picture. Never post it in the caption as your caption should be mostly for writing before posting the photo.

Mistakes to avoid

 

When it comes to mistakes, and let’s face it, we all make them sometimes, try to avoid these most common ones: using too many #symbols and using some totally irrelevant ones. Especially the last one might be considered as social media spamming and might hurt your brand authority. Although some marketers say that it’s best to use up to 5 hashtags per post in order not to come across as desperate for attention, it’s good to know that the highest conversion gets posts with more than 11#.

Conclusion

The power of social media is incredible. By implementing the hashtags in your marketing strategy in a smart and effective way, you not only increase brand’s loyalty and visibility, but it’s one of the best ways to bring you closer to your ideal audience and potential clients.

Do you know any other tips for using hashtags? Let me know in the comment below.

With love,

Anna

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WHAT ARE THE SECRETS OF A WELL EXECUTED SALES PAGE

WHAT ARE THE SECRETS OF A WELL EXECUTED SALES PAGE

Business, Marketing, Sales

sales_pages_that_convert

 

In online marketing highly converting sales and landing pages play a crucial role when it comes to selling your products or services and are a very important tool for your online marketing success. Their main purpose is to bring you leads, sales and to convince your ideal clients that the services or digital products you’re selling are them are irresistible.

There are a few types of sales pages, as well as landing pages, but I would like to focus only on sales pages that main purpose is to make your customers buy a service or a product from you.

By a ‘sales page’ I mean pages that your customers have no other chance, but to say: ‘Yes, I want it!’ to your offerings, whether it’s a course you’re selling, packages of your excellent service or simply you want your customer to make a certain decision.

During my years of experience as a successful sales person in a highly demanding scientific and commercial environment for one the leading publishers in the world, I learned that you need not only an excellent offer, but most importantly you need to get to the customer’s heart. At the end of the day, you sell experience, solution and you answer the burning problem of your customer.  They buy from you if they know, trust and like you. To get to your customer’s heart you need a good combination of persuasion and communication with your clients. A well written sales page will help you to achieve it.

Before you even start creating your seductive sales page, you will need to start with the most important ingredients of all: to know your niche and ideal customer thoroughly. Don’t really focus on what this ideal person looks like. I know, everyone wants you to have an avatar of your ideal client, but instead what you really need to focus on, is their beliefs, desires, pains. Only when you know it, you can start writing a GREAT sales page. Let’s take a look now at some tips that will help you to craft a highly converted sales page.

 

Tips on how to write a seductive sales page

 

1. Headline. Start with an irresistible headline that will catch the attention and imagination of your reader. This first impression might be your ‘make it or break it’ point.

2. Testimonials. Use testimonials throughout your copy. By using them you not only giving a sales pitch, but also prove your credibility. It shows your potential buyers that your service or product is trustworthy and shows benefits of your offer. If possible, choose the notes from your clients that show your audience that your product could really make a difference in their lives.

3. Bonuses. Give some bonuses on the top of your products. We all love bonuses, right? So no brainer here.

4. Include your own experience. Stories from your own experience help you to build interest in your offer and give your reader a special credibility.

5. Include some images that break up your story. Images, graphics and video help you to provide the connection with your clients. We are all visual in the end. If you show your product, the customer might imagine that is already having it in her hand and has emotional attachment to it.

6. Offer a guarantee to your customers. A strong guarantee that your offer brings results to the problem you are offering to solve in the end of your sales page. Think here about providing money back guarantee if someone is not satisfied with your service or product, or need to cancel it due to some lifetime circumstances, for example. Always include some guidelines so both yourself and the clients are informed.

7. Finish your sales page with a clear ‘Call to action’ button. Clear call to action (CTA button) at the end of your sales page so that your potential customers know exactly what action you want them to take and finalize the sale.

 

AIDA model – a system in your sale process

 

Based on the above points, follow a proven AIDA model. It shows you the events that should happen when targeting your market. This proven system stands for gaining customer’s ATTENTION, maintaining an INTEREST, creating a DESIRE to purchase the product or service, and finally creating an urgency for immediate ACTION (it can be a bonus available for a short time or special offer).

 

model-aida

 

Technical aspects of creating a sales page

 

A sales page should be a page with no header where there is no other action to be taken but only to click on your call to action. Some websites have already an option to create sales page (landing page template) so if you need to make one please check if it’s possible. If your website doesn’t have this option, you can use external software that specialises in sales pages, or add a certain plugin that will help you to execute it. You can also create a separate page without a header using Wix or Squarespace. It all depends on your budget and requirements.

 

Summary

 

To write good sales copy is a difficult task to do and most of the time you need an experienced person to help you with it or to do it for you. Starting from technical aspects to copywriting the sales page itself. One of the challenges most people experience when it comes to writing great sales copy is that your customers might want it in a different way. Some like it shorter, some longer. Some are visual, some analitical and some are problem-orientated. You cannot please everyone, but knowing your ideal customer from the heart is what makes you know how to get to their heart. You know your worth and you strongly believe in your products. Let your customers believe in you as well.

If you have any further questions, need quidance or a professional to write a sales page for you, please feel free to contact me here.

With love & elegance,

Anna

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