Tips to improve your Instagram marketing strategy
No social media strategy is complete without Instagram marketing. If your business is not active on Instagram or other social media platforms then your competitors definitely are.
The thing is, having an Instagram profile does not necessarily translate to sales you need to have a strategy to help you get the best out of it. Instagram marketing in Kenya can help your increase your brand awareness, increase sales and build a community.
These tips will help you improve your Instagram marketing strategy today.
Optimize your profile
First impression matters. When someone visits your Instagram account what is the first thing they see?
Your profile should communicate who you are and what you do from your bio, profile picture to your recent posts.
Consider using your logo as your profile picture because its is more recognizable than a picture of your products. You can as well include your website URL on your bio for people to visit your website because you can’t link your website on your posts.
Post regularly
Your Instagram account needs to be updated regularly. You just can’t be posting once a month and expect to grow your account.
You might consider having a content calendar that will help you in coming up with content and scheduling them in advance using free scheduling tools like Hootsuite.
You might consider posting one post per day if you want your brand to be fresh in the minds of your followers. Also if you have lots of content that you want to share each day, it’s better to add it to your Instagram story than flooding your followers feed which might be perceived as annoying.
Don’t be too ‘salesy’
The aim of your Instagram account is to ultimately drive sales but that doesn’t mean all your posts should be product promotion.
As we have always said, people don’t want to be sold to all the time, therefore mix up your content. Throw in some funny images, educate people on your products, motivate your followers, have some giveaways so long as it doesn’t stray too far from your brand image.
46% of users say they will unfollow a brand on social media if it posts promotions too frequently. Keep your posts short and to the point and keep off from using all caps in your posts if not necessary.
Use Insta Story
You can add videos and images to your Insta stories. You can add multiple images or videos a day without having to populate the timeline of your followers. If you have an Instagram shop you can even tag a product and people can view it on your shop.
Go Live
Instagram has a live broadcast and users love it.
As a business take this to your advantage and use it to connect with your audience in real-time. Don’t forget to comment on your followers’ comments while you are at it this will help you increase your engagement metrics.
You could use a live stream to introduce a new product, demonstrate the usage of a product, introduce your team or even have a QnA segment.
Partner with influencers
We know that 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations made by micro-influencers. And 94% of consumers believe these influencers are highly knowledgeable.
Influencers can help you promote your products, brand and services in an effective way. Influencers are a good way of helping with brand awareness and also getting you more sales. Most Influencers charge less compared to celebrities.
In Kenya, some influencers charge from as low as Ksh 1,000 to advertise on their Insta stories or their posts.
You can as well send them free products and then they can mention you on their videos.
Captions and Hashtags
Imagine if you post a product image without a caption, what do you want people to do?
Captions are as important as the images and videos in your posts and hashtags are definitely necessary.
You can use a branded hashtag or a popular hashtag to give you more reach.
Invest in Ads
The easiest way to reach people who don’t know you or follow your account is through the use of paid ads.
You can use ads to reach more people through Instagram targeting by age, location, interest among others. This can help you increase your brand awareness and get you more sales. You can run ads with as low as ksh.200 per day. Though it won’t get you as much results it will still be something.
Run Contests and giveaways
Contest and giveaways are the most effective ways of getting more people to follow your page as well as get more engagement. The tweak is that you need to know how to do it to effectively get a good response and also what you are giving away.
From the contest, you can make more than what you gave away. You can as well ask your followers to upload a picture and tag your brand this will expose your company to the people who follow the user’s account.
From this contest, the page will get more traction as well as more followers. It’s the easiest way of increasing brand following and brand awareness within a short period of time.
Shoppable posts
If you’re an e-commerce brand then you need to take advantage of this feature. You can sell your products directly through Instagram and you tag the products on your stories and posts. From the post, you can tag a product from which people will see the product name, price and a link to purchase.
Repost your products
If you post a product just once and never post it again, chances are people might have missed it or forgotten about it.
The first time they see your product, they may not have a reason to buy it. But if they see it more than once, it may start to pique their interest.
According to a study from Sprout Social, more than 60% of people need to see something on social media between two and four times before they buy it.
Don’t use the same image four times, have a strategy around it from the first post. You can use images as well as videos.
Remember posting the same product multiple times can increase the chances of people buying it.
Respond to comments and messages
In this day and time, you need to respond to people’s comments and messages no matter how tedious and time-consuming it is otherwise it will boil down to negative reviews.
People appreciate when they ask a question and they get a response. Responding to comments shows users that you value customer services. Even if it’s negative feedback, respond to it in a courteous and professional manner without defending yourself. Customer’s reviews can build or break your business and you need to tread carefully.
If you can’t respond to the comments or messages hire someone to do it for you otherwise it may tamper with your brand reputation.
Hopefully, these tips can help you with your Instagram marketing in Kenya and help you get more sales.
Also Read: The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide in 2021
How to Convert Website Visitors to Paying Customers
First things first, why are your website visitors not converting into buyers?
The key primary goal of your website is to generate sales for your business and if it doesn’t, then you need to figure out why..
Below are the top 5 main reasons why your website is not converting visitors into paying customers:
- They can’t find what they need. Nearly 80% of website visitors leave your website because they cannot find what they are looking for.
- They can’t contact you. If your website readers can’t find an easy way of contacting you, then they will go elsewhere. Add a live chat on your website to make sure you respond to your website visitors queries in real-time.
- They can’t get answers. If your content on the website does not answer their questions and there’s no faster way of asking you the question, then they will definitely leave your website.
- They don’t trust you. Trust is key for people to convert. If people do not have enough confidence in your products then they won’t buy it. Add customer reviews and testimonials on your website.
- They can’t test it. People always have the fear of spending money on something that they have never tried before. Therefore, offer free trials for people to know exactly what they are buying.
How to Convert Website Visitors to Paying Customers
Make your website fast
A recent survey revealed that 46% of visitors expected a web page to load in two seconds or less. A mere three seconds delay can result in a 15% reduction in conversions.
This is the first thing you should check on your website. Slow loading speed will definitely and immediately make people leave your website. No one wants to wait for a website to load for more than a few seconds.
Find tools that can help you improve your websites speed and install them on your website. Most of the web design companies in Kenya can help you.
Working on your websites speed helps you with google rankings, increases your page views, improves user experience and increases your conversions.
Use First Time Offers to Convert New Customers.
Competition is fierce in today’s online world with consumers having too much choice, therefore give offers that will make the website visitor leap from the considering stage to actually making an action or buy. This offer might be a free sample, a one-off purchase of your product with a heavy discount or a month’s free subscription. This becomes easier to sell to the person a second time, a third time and even a fourth time. if you find that your offers are not converting, consult with digital marketing companies in Kenya who can help you come up with better offers
Have a Strong Call to Action
What do you want your website visitor to do when they come to your website? Make it clear for them, if you want them to download a document then ask them to and show the button, if you want them to Buy then ask them and show the button. Remember to make it as simple as possible. The call to actions are like “call now,” “learn more,”, “Download Now” and many more.
Show Numbers
You have probably seen the “Join more than 1o million who use X service “
Why do they use that? To show social proof and also give people confidence that they can work with you. I mean if more than 10 million people have used your service or product then it is worth trying.
Use Testimonials
Most people cannot buy a product before they read testimonials. They build trust and increase conversion rate. I mean before you buy anything online you must always see what other previous buyers have said about the product.
How do you get testimonials or reviews, ask your customers to give their reviews or testimonials? How do you ask for reviews exactly? Ask them what benefits they received from the product, how they found doing business with you and what convinced them to buy the product. Most of the web design companies in Kenya can help you add this at the initial stage of building your website.
Use landing page
A Landing page is very crucial in lead generation. A landing page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at, it has a form and exists to only capture visitor’s information through the form.
Create an appealing form with a catchy headline that will lead people to sign up and giving you their details. To get your customers to take action you will need to add value to them by giving them solutions to their pain points.
You need to understand that it is difficult for your customers to give you their details without you giving something of value in return. Therefore let your headline capture their attention. Your lead magnet should be Valuable, useful and easy for your customers to read.
Add a Live Chat to Your Site
A live chat allows the visitor to ask questions and get answers in real-time. This makes it easy for you to guide and answer your customer’s questions making it easier for them to convert. With the competitive market in web design in Kenya, you might find some varying charges for the live chatbot while others even offer it for free in their web design packages.
Use remarketing
Remarketing helps you connect with your visitors or leads from your website that may not have made an immediate purchase or inquiry.
With remarketing, you can create targeted ads to get in front of these people so that they can take action. It also acts as a way of reminding them and eventually they will convert.
Use high-converting elements
These elements are things that can help you convert your website visitors into customers. This can be through the use of Logos of companies that have trusted you, testimonials, social shares, case studies and guarantee seals.
Conclusion
I hope this information will give you a lift on converting your website visitors to customers. There are more ways of improving the information that I have given you, but it is enough as a starting point.
Web design companies in Kenya, as well as the general web design in Kenya, has revolutionalised and most of them can help you install some tools that can help you in your marketing.
Also, some digital marketing companies in Kenya can help you and advise you on the best tools that you can use for you to succeed in digital marketing.
54% of Employers Have Eliminated a Candidate Based on Social Media
Employers are now looking at your social media accounts
Can your social media get you a job or get you disqualified?
Who are you, really?
That’s a question most employers want to know beyond your cover letter and CV. They want to know if you are respectful, responsible, trustworthy and if you will follow through on promises.
During interviews, people are on their best behaviours making it hard for employers to tell if a candidate is right for the position. Which leads them to google to get your information.
In particular, they browse through your social media accounts Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media profiles you have publicly available.
70 per cent of employers use social media to screen candidates before hiring according to a survey done by CareerBuilder.
54 per cent of employers surveyed said they chose not to hire a candidate because of the content found on their social media profile(s).
Some of the reasons given as to why the hiring, managers or employers chose not to hire a candidate because of their social media were:
- Posted provocative or inappropriate photos, videos or information (39%)
- Bad-mouthed previous company or fellow employee (30%)
- Posted information about drinking or using drugs (38%)
- Made discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion (32%)
- Shared confidential information from previous employers: (23%)
- Lied about qualifications (27%)
- Had poor communication skills: (27%)
- Been linked to criminal behaviour: (26%)
- Had an unprofessional screen name: (22%)
- Lied about an absence: (17%)
Good news is what you post on social media can actually get you employed.
44 per cent of hiring managers and employers have discovered content on a candidate’s social media profile that caused them to hire that person.
The main reasons for this:
- Candidate’s background information supported their professional qualifications (38%)
- Candidate showed a professional image (36%)
- Candidate demonstrated great communication skills (37%)
- Candidate showed creativity (35%)
Don’t go deleting your social media yet!
57 per cent of employers said they were far less likely to hire someone in if that person was an online “ghost” or rather is not online
So don’t delete your Social media account, Clean it!
What Should you Do?
1. Google yourself
Type your name in google and search, you need to know what is out there and where?
2. Consider making certain social media profiles private
Sometimes it’s valid to have an outlet where you can share some information which sometimes is social media. In the case of this, choose a social media platform that you can make your account private like Instagram. So that only the people you follow will see your posts.
If you choose this, don’t accept friend requests from your old bosses.
You can also update your Facebook privacy settings so that not everything is fully public.
3. Review your profiles as if you were an employer
Go through your social media through the eyes of someone looking to hire you. Make your bios up to date as well as having a description that reflects who you are now. How is your profile picture? Is it professional?
Go through your posts paying key attention to your latest posts, don’t ignore your old posts as well.
Got any questionable memes? Take them down. How about inappropriate pictures of yourself, or ones in which you’re tagged? This can be one of the most important (and challenging) parts of the process. Un-tag yourself liberally if necessary.
4. Post some meaningful content
Remember 44 per cent employers have found content on a candidate’s social media that caused them to hire that person–so your social media accounts aren’t just a liability have background information that supports your professional qualifications.
With the intense job hunting in Kenya, hiring firms in Kenya are now turning to social media to check candidates profiles to ensure they hire the right candidates among the many candidates who show up for the interview.
Therefore don’t think that employers don’t check a candidate’s social media in Kenya, because they do.
