Hi everyone! Sales CRM tools are here to stay and with good reason. They offer a wide range of benefits, such as data centralization, process automation, and above all else, they can reach ROI up to $45 for each $1 spent. Perhaps now you wish to jump on this CRM train, or you already did. However, in a sea full of CRM software, how would you know which one is the best for you? That’s why in this article, we will cover what the best CRM software are, why they are the best, who they are for, and how you can integrate them with other tools. Enjoy! 10 Best CRM Software For Sales On The Market submitted by /u/Kristina-Sky [link] [comments]
Author: Franz Malten Buemann
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Generation C
We’ve been naming generations for a long time. Demographers use it to begin a conversation about the changes around us. While a birth range doesn’t guarantee an outlook, the demographics and cultural shifts that a group shares tell us a lot about how they might see the world. And the name is a shortcut to remind us that not everyone sees the world the way we do.
Baby boomersGen XGen YGen ZMillenials
The last four are pretty unimaginative if you ask me, but I also know that a baby boomer is probably thinking of the world differently than a millennial is right now. These are inexact labels, but helpful nonetheless.
So what to call the next generation?
My co-authors Bruce Clark and Paige NeJame have coined the term “Generation C.” It’s so well-suited, I believe it’s going to stick.
C is for Covid, C is for Carbon, C is for Climate.
The combination of years of school spent at home, in a mask, combined with the significant revolution (economic, political and social) that our industrialism has led us to means that this generation will be different than the ones before. Every decision and investment and interaction is going to be filtered through the lens of carbon and remediation and resilience.
And yet, if we combine this with the c of connection, of a cohort of people who are finding solace and possibility in community, there’s a chance for all of us. Generation C didn’t ask for any of this, but I’m hopeful that they’re up for leading the change.
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10 Email Segmentation Strategies to Hone Your Marketing Message & Make More Sales
Social media services like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are now a fundamental part of daily online life. But, you might be surprised to learn that email marketing has maintained high importance in digital communication while also growing in popularity. According to statistics, the total number of global email users equates to 4 billion in 2020…
The post 10 Email Segmentation Strategies to Hone Your Marketing Message & Make More Sales appeared first on Benchmark Email. -
Wisdom’s digital customer experience series – Saudi Arabia edition coming in May
CXM, media partner of Wisdom, is happy to report that Wisdom announced the Saudi Arabia edition of its much-applauded Digital Customer Experience Series which will focus on evolving market dynamics in the Middle Eastern region. The Digital Customer Experience Series – Saudi Arabia edition, to be held virtually on 30 and 31 May 2022. The…
The post Wisdom’s digital customer experience series – Saudi Arabia edition coming in May appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
Empowering the business with UX metrics starts with good habits
Our latest State of UX survey asked 100 UX, design and product development professionals working in the software industry to share their approaches and attitudes to the user experience. The results confirmed what we suspected; while most executives and leadership teams across an organization recognize the value of UX (81%), too few can effectively measure…
The post Empowering the business with UX metrics starts with good habits appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
Any Data Enrichment Tools, like Zoominfo Enrichment, that pairs well with LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Hi guys, I have a question, do any of you have any recommendations for a data enrichment tool that pairs well with LinkedIn Sales Navigator? I primarily handle inbound leads and I’m trying to find some software or tool that makes prospecting easier like auto-populating an inbound leads profile with key details. Any suggestions and thank you advance! submitted by /u/AnxApe [link] [comments]
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Display Last Activity Date on Object Record Detail Page
Big Idea or Enduring Question: How to keep track of the last activity date and show it on the object detail page? Objectives: After reading this blog, you’ll be able to: Understand the differences between Last Activity and LastModified Dates Understand how Salesforce calculates the LastActivity Date Create a formula field to
The post Display Last Activity Date on Object Record Detail Page appeared first on Automation Champion. -
Onboarding: Is It Better To Have Teammates Start Together Or Stagger Their Onboarding?
We’ve done a lot of hiring over the years and one of the questions we’ve asked ourselves has been: is is better to have new Buffer teammates who will be on the same team start at the same time or to stagger their start dates? We’re a relatively small team and since we’ve been actively hiring for multiple roles over the last year and a half we’ve wondered what’s best for both teammates and hiring managers. Recently, a new hiring manager asked a few other managers their experience with having teammates start on the same day versus teammates starting a few days a part. In this piece, I’ll go over exactly what three hiring managers at Buffer shared, along with some of the advice, conversations, and best practices we hold onto for onboarding in a remote, distributed team. When you should stagger teammate start datesIn 2021, we hired 26 individuals in nine months, which was a lot for our team of less than 90. Some of these new hires were concentrated on the Engineering, Advocacy, and Product teams. This put an extra burden on some specific teammates (and hiring managers!) to do the bulk of the new onboarding. We don’t request that new hires start on specific days: we encourage new hires to decide what start date is best for them, their previous employer, and their family. Thus, we sometimes have teammates start on the same day, or a few weeks apart. Remote onboarding generally requires a lot of preparation and guidance. We prepare a centralized document for all new hires that clearly outline expectations for the first 30-60-90 days and also assign both a role buddy for job-specific help and a culture buddy to assist with values and culture questions. Involving three teammates for each new hire asks a lot of the team overall, but has been a proven means of supporting new hires (especially in a remote and global team). Learning from one experience to the next Our Advocacy team lead, Darcy Peters, added two new teammates to her team at the end of 2021, with each teammate starting three weeks apart. Darcy said she found it very useful to have them start at different times, mostly from the perspective of learning what to do better for the next round of onboarding. “I was able to learn from the first experience. Did I wish I had asked another question to buddies at the 30-day mark? Would I organize the 60-day celebration sync with the team member differently? ” – Darcy PetersLessening the impact on the overall team Another advocacy lead, Ross Parmly, weighed in as well, citing that the staggered start dates were a bit easier for the overall team to adapt and didn’t impact area goals in quite the same way.“The first few weeks tends to pull an Advocate’s Role Buddy away from the inbox a bit, so having that time staggered is quite useful. This may not apply as directly to other teams, but it could be useful to consider the role buddy component of onboarding and whether spacing things out will create a smoother experience where too many teammates aren’t pulled away from other tasks at the same time.” – Ross ParmlyWhen you should align teammates’ start datesHailley (who you see here often, as she runs our content and communications), had two new hires start within the same week.Group training and milestones when you can“It felt quite smooth to have had two new teammates start the same week. I had their onboarding ready at the same time rather than staggered, they were also joining in the same role, so they have been able to support each other and learn tools and processes at the same time.” – Hailley GriffisWe also aim to celebrate and share actionable feedback on 30, 60, and 90-day markers. With multiple teammates starting at the same time, there can be extra work on hiring managers, but also larger group celebrations when new teammates reach 90 days.“Starting at the same time could help you sync up milestones and you could batch those together rather than having to revisit them a bit apart.” – Ross ParmlyMake time on your calendar for new hires“Having two new folks at exactly the same time did mean I needed to block off a lot of my calendar for those first two weeks to make sure I was available for support more than what is usual since it was two folks, but overall, especially since these two teammates are in the same role, I think this was the best way to get started. “ – Hailley GriffisCreating bonds for new teammates in a remote environmentRegardless of the specific start date, creating a community and bonding space for new hires is helpful for virtual teams. We invited our 2021 new hires into a Slack channel for them to chat amongst one another and also support each other as new Bufferoos. “This could be the case even if [my new teammates] started together, but I found that they were great supports for one another. Fern was able to feel empowered immediately, as he had a little experience at Buffer and was able to support Lexi in a small way. Later, they found that they were each strong in different areas of support (likely due to their buddies’ areas of expertise), and they were able to support learning for one another. Additionally, even though they were two weeks apart, they were able to do some calls with one another — one with Joel and then several mini-training calls with different Advocates.” – Darcy PetersThe work put into onboarding new teammates pays off in great ways throughout your teammate’s tenure. Provide clear lines of support and identify who teammates can ask for backup. New hires generally form deep bonds with their role buddies, culture buddies, and also: start date buddies. Whether it’s weeks or days apart, this is a great opportunity for new hires to connect to their coworkers. Over to youWhat is your experience with joining a new company, large or small? Do you relate to other new hires and form a connection with a hiring cohort? What would you prefer as a hiring manager? Send us a tweet and let us know!
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The Ultimate Guide to Building a Website Redesign Strategy
So, you want to start a website redesign. Maybe you just finished a brand overhaul or your product was recently updated. Whatever your reason, a redesign can be a huge success — or not. It can also be a long and tedious undertaking, which is why every redesign needs to start with a clear vision and/or problem to solve.
The better you are at defining that vision at the very beginning, the more successful your redesign will be — and the smoother the entire process will be as well.Whether you’re working with an agency, redesigning your site in-house, or proposing a redesign to company stakeholders, this guide has tips to help you strategize your website redesign and ensure it turns out to be a huge success — not a flop.
Many organizations opt to redesign their website to welcome more traffic as their business grows. Others invest in a website redesign as part of a larger rebranding initiative. Regardless of why your company is interested in a website redesign plan, the project itself is a massive undertaking, not to mention an important one to get right considering the critical role your website plays in your marketing and brand image.
In fact, new research has found that 50% of consumers think website design is crucial to a business’s overall brand. To many visitors, the website you publish is just as important as the products you sell.
How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?
According to Business 2 Community, the average lifespan for a website is 1.5 to 2.5 years. Because design trends change and technology advances, this is the average amount of time that a redesign will feel “fresh” and competitive. However, that timeframe is only a benchmark, so you will need to determine what works best for your unique organization.
The following factors can determine how often you should redesign your website:How often your brand or goals change. When you’re itching for a new site, first ask yourself, “Does this website still represent who we are as a company?”
How much budget you allot to design and development. Ask yourself, “Can a site design wait, or do I have reasons to use the budget on our site now?”
How long your website stays functional and fast. Step into your customers’ shoes and see if you can navigate the site well and find everything you want to find without encountering errors or long page load times. Almost 50% of websites get between four and six page views per visit — all that browsing means that your site’s navigation and speed really do matter.
The performance of your website. Ask yourself, “Is this site converting a reasonable amount of traffic? Do people stay on the page for a reasonable amount of time, or do they bounce?”
Changes in the industry. For example, when Google announced that it would be changing to mobile-first indexing, it necessitated that websites be mobile-friendly, or they’d lose organic traffic from Google.Your website is where visitors and customers go when they want to ask questions, read content, or purchase products or services. For that reason, it’s best to be extra prepared when committing to a website redesign.
You may spend more time building your website redesign plan than you will on the redesign itself. If you’re wondering what should go into your website redesign strategy, start with the steps below.Let’s unpack eight critical website redesign tips to think about when planning and completing your redesign.
1. Benchmark your current performance metrics.
Before you begin planning your website redesign, document your current performance metrics. This will give you a good idea of where your current website stands and what metrics you can improve upon through your redesign.
Analyze your existing website’s monthly performance in the following areas. The importance and relevance of each may vary depending on your website redesign goals, but it’s helpful to pull each metric before you dive into your redesign.Number of visits, visitors, and unique visitors
Bounce rate
Time on site
Top-performing keywords in terms of rank, traffic, and lead generation
Number of inbound linking domains
Total new leads and form submissions
Total sales generated (in dollars)
Total pages indexed
Total pages that receive trafficIf you don’t have access to this information, I recommend tools like Google Analytics and HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics for better tracking and visibility into your website’s performance.
Furthermore, make note of which tools you used to measure each of these benchmarks in the past. Ideally, you’ll want to use those same tools when collecting your post-redesign metrics. Otherwise, you’ll be comparing apples to oranges.
2. Determine your website redesign goals.
What’s the “why” behind your website redesign? When considering a redesign, there should always be a good reason behind it.
If you’re answering with “well, it’s been a while since we’ve done one” or “my competitor just did a redesign,” those reasons aren’t good enough on their own.
Remember: It’s not just about how your site looks, but rather how it works. Be crystal clear about why you’re doing a website redesign, and tie those goals to measurable results. Then, communicate your goals with your team, designer, or agency.
Consider the following data-driven objectives for your own website:To increase the number of visits and visitors (both are important as one visitor could visit more than once)
To reduce bounce rate
To increase time on site
To improve domain authority
To increase the total new leads and form submissions
To increase the total sales generated
To enhance current SEO rankings for important keywordsMany of these goals are dependent on one another. For example, in order to generate more conversions, you may also need to increase traffic while decreasing your site’s bounce rate.
Also, take a look at the metrics you pulled out in the previous step. Are there any metrics you can improve upon with your new website? Perhaps you use your old website metrics to inspire new goals, too.
3. Define your branding and messaging.
Before crafting your new website design and content, be crystal clear about your desired branding, messaging, and unique value proposition. Doing so will ensure consistency across your entire website.
Anyone who visits your website for the first time should immediately understand what you do, how it may benefit them, and why they should stay onyour site, so they don’t flee to competitors.
Take our homepage as an example: It’s immediately clear what we do, what we offer, and how any visitor can get started.
Think about whether you plan to change your branding and/or messaging, or if it will stay the same. If you plan to change it, what needs to change? Keep these changes top-of-mind as you redesign your website.
Download this free workbook for guidance and templates to simplify your next website redesign project.
As you develop your messaging, use clear, concise language. Avoid industry jargon that may alienate parts of your audience and make you sound more like a business-babbling robot than a human.
Consider the following example of how we could describe HubSpot in a “gobbledygook” way:
HubSpot helps companies across multiple countries reduce churn by backfilling the sales pipeline with highly qualified traffic that generates leads that convert into customers with high lifetime value. We achieve this by providing leading-edge software that integrates all marketing channels for a synergistic view of the data that determines and prioritizes high-value marketing activities.
Say what? Let’s translate that into the way people actually speak:
HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing software helps over 100,000 businesses in more than120 countries attract leads and convert them into customers. A pioneer in inbound marketing, HubSpot aims to help its customers make marketing that people actually love.
Much clearer!
Additionally, as you develop your company branding, consider what visual aspects of your website need to be redesigned and what can stay the same. Have you created a new logo, style guide, or color palette? Make sure these are applied to your new website so it remains consistent with other parts of your brand.
For some more inspiration, check out our roundup of our favorite B2B website examples:
4. Define your buyer persona(s).
Your website is not just about you. Actually, it’s hardly about you.
When your visitors land on your website, they’re asking themselves, “What’s in it for me? How could this help me?”
Speak to your visitors in their language by crafting your website design and content around your buyer personas.
For instance, if you’re a marketing manager at a hotel looking to bring in new business, you might target five different buyer personas: an independent business traveler, a corporate travel manager, an event planner, a vacationing family, and a couple planning their wedding reception.Make sure you clearly identify your buyer personas so you can shape your website redesign strategy around the website visitors that matter most to you.
Check out our handy buyer persona builder to help you create detailed buyer personas.
Is your target audience changing as part of your website redesign? Do your branding and content align with this audience? Answer these questions as you’re strategizing your website redesign.
5. Protect your search engine optimized pages.
Getting discovered online is also essential to improving your website’s metrics. If no one is able to find and visit your site, how can you increase new leads, conversions, or sales? Here are some tips for designing your new website with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind:
Document your most search-valued pages.
Use your marketing analytics to figure out which pages receive the most traffic and inbound links, convert the most leads, and ultimately cover the most influential topics in your industry. If you plan to move any of these highly valuable pages, make sure you create the proper 301 redirects.
Create a 301 redirect strategy.
Speaking of 301 redirects, these are extremely important in terms of retaining the traffic and link value associated with a given page. Create a spreadsheet to record and map out your 301 redirects (old URLs vs. new URLs). Then hand this document over to someone technical for proper implementation.
Do your keyword research.
For every page on your newly designed website, pick one keyword/topic each page will focus on. Once you determine the keyword(s), use on-page SEO best practices to optimize your website pages. Furthermore, consider adding new content and pages to your website that address those particular keywords and topics that may be neglected on your current site.
Save time and rank higher on Google with our free on-page SEO template.
6. Analyze the competition.
While we don’t recommend obsessing over your competitors, it can help to know how you compare. First, run your website through HubSpot’s free Website Grader tool to generate a report card of how well your website is performing. You can also use this diagnostic tool to evaluate your competitors’ websites, so you’re aware of their strengths and weaknesses.Next, take a look at your competitors’ websites, and take note of what you like — and what you don’t. This process is to help you realize what you can do better on your website. Once you conduct your competitive analysis, put together a list of action items highlighting some areas for improvement and how you can set yourself apart from your competitors.
7. Take inventory of your high-performing content.
While a redesign is a great way to improve the performance of your website, there are unfortunately countless ways in which it can hurt you. Your existing website likely contains many high-performing content assets that you’ve already built up, and losing their effectiveness because of a redesign can severely damage your marketing results.
For instance, such assets might include your:Most-shared or viewed content
High-traffic pages
Best performing or ranking keywords and associated pages
Number of inbound links to individual pagesFor example, if you end up removing a page from your site that has accumulated a high number of inbound links, you could potentially lose a lot of SEO credit, which would make it increasingly difficult for you to get found on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Keep in mind that many web designers don’t consider this step because they are neither marketers nor SEO specialists. Don’t hesitate to remind them about this, and help them along by auditing your site and providing them with a list for maintaining or updating critical pages on your site.
8. Choose the right software.
The final (but arguably most important) step of the website redesign process is choosing the right software with which to create and host your website. This software is typically called a content management system (CMS), and it’s used to develop, design, and publish your website for the world to see.
CMS software is beneficial for a few reasons. Whether you’re a novice digital marketer or a master web developer, a CMS can easily help you create a gorgeous, functional website. Choosing the right CMS depends on your business, such as what CMSs you’re already familiar with and what features your website redesign requires.
There are hundreds of CMSs to choose from, including CMS Hub — the only combined CMS and CRM. Or you can review some of the best CMS platforms to learn about your options.
Get Started on Your Website Redesign Today
Whew! Now you’re ready to plan, design, build, optimize, launch, and analyze your new website. Apply these seven steps to redesign a website that attracts more consumers, wows more visitors, and converts more customers.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. -
How to Build Your Brand With Instagram: 11 Tried-and-True Strategies
Instagram has demonstrated tremendous growth, with its community reaching over 2 billion monthly users in 2021.
Despite its impressive reach, many business owners are still overlooking its marketing potential. As a result, they’re leaving high levels of engagement, brand awareness, and even profit on the table. But why?In just 12 months, we used Instagram to gain 400,000 followers for Foundr — which translated to over 70,000 email subscribers. At the end of that period, we were averaging 30,000 call-to-action clicks per month from Instagram, and converting 30% of the users who landed on our website from our Instagram page into email subscribers.
We’ve seen it work, now it’s time for you to get in on the action. In this article, we’ll show you how to build your brand with Instagram. (If you’re looking for more marketing tools and resources for your new business, check out our comprehensive guide on how to start a business.)1. Build an Instagram strategy.
We listed this as the first step because it is the most crucial step in building a brand on Instagram.
If you lack a clear strategy, you’ll end up with low-performing content and a scattered feed as you struggle to brainstorm new ideas.
To build your Instagram strategy, you’ll need to do four things:Determine your goals.
Narrow down your target audience.
Research your competition.
Develop your content plan.2. Experiment with the platform’s features.
Instagram is constantly evolving. In fact, every week, the Head of Instagram shares a video discussing new features and product updates on the platform.
In one of his latest videos, he announced that they were testing a subscription feature that would allow people to subscribe to their favorite creators and get access to exclusive Lives and Stories.
In addition to all the new features the social platform tests, there are a lot of established tools, such as Live Rooms, shoppable posts, scheduled Lives, and hashtags – just to name a few.
Our advice is to choose one to two features to test out every month. This will prevent you from getting overwhelmed and allow you to measure the impact of each feature.
For instance, hashtags can help you reach users who don’t follow you but could be interested in your products and services.
Don’t know how many to use? Data from our latest Instagram Engagement Report suggests brands should only use one hashtag per post.Another reason to test Instagram features is that it can help you reach more users. The platform has admitted to prioritizing accounts that use features the brand wants to highlight, such as Reels.
It’s a win all around: You stay ahead of the curve, discover which features work for you, and you can expand your reach in the process.
3. Jump on trends.
On social media, all it takes is one person’s video or sound to go viral for the rest of the world to join in with their own version.
Most of these trends are fun and harmless with a lifespan of about three weeks or less.
Why should you join in? Well, it’s an opportunity to connect with your audience in a creative and fun way. If you jump in as the trend is rising, it can also give you a quick boost in engagement and reach.When considering joining any trend, there are two things you want to ask:
How can I bring this back to my business and/or industry to make it relatable to my audience?
What is the origin of this trend and could it go against our company values?4. Invest in high-quality creative assets.
A great Instagram post can be boiled down to a formula and requires two elements: beautiful imagery and engaging text.
Beautiful Imagery
Choose images that tell a story or elicit emotion. This image we shared is not only compelling and interesting, but it also elicits emotion and therefore drives engagement from our followers.
What this will look like for your business will depend on your industry, but think outside of posting images of your own products and services.
Posting about yourself repeatedly on social media is like being that person at a party who talks constantly about themselves. Also, beware of copyright issues.
If the image is not your own, request permission to use it or source non-attribution-required photos. (Check out this awesome list of royalty-free stock photos here.)
Engaging Copy
While you don’t have to add text to your Instagram posts, doing so packs a punch that just an image won’t provide.Think of your caption as an additional way to reel in your followers and keep them engaged. It’s a place to add context, share more information, ask a question, and invite comments.
5. Leverage strategic partnerships.
One of the biggest frustrations for most marketers delving into Instagram is that they don’t know how to build a following. After all, without a large number of followers, how can it possibly be an effective marketing channel?
There’s one tactic in particular that we used to quickly grow our Instagram following to 10,000 in just a couple of weeks: partnering with other Instagram accounts.
Are we talking about co-marketing or influencer marketing? Both because they lead to the same result: Expanding your reach.
In addition, both require you to:Conduct research to see if their audience aligns with yours.
Review your business goals and determine the KPIs for the partnership.
Collaborate on a content strategy.For example. HubSpot recently teamed up with @ntwrkto celebrate Women’s History Month and promote the Grow Better mission.
Image Source
Now that Instagram allows the same post to be shared by two profiles, brands can co-market easily on the platform. Followers from both accounts will view the post, increasing each one’s reach and engagement.
6. Foster a community of highly engaged followers.
Engagement on Instagram comes in many forms, including followers sharing your content, liking and commenting, tagging their friends, and clicking on your calls to action. In this section, we’ll go over some of our tactics for fostering a community.
Post When Your Followers Will Actually See Your Content
Have you ever posted something to social media that you think will do really well, only to be met with crickets? Low likes, low shares, and the only comments you landed were from spambots.
While it’s easy to assume you miscalculated the potential of the post, it could just be that you posted the update at the wrong time.
The easiest way to know when your followers will be active on the app is to head over to your insights dashboard. If you have a business account (you should), you can learn valuable insights about your audience’s demographics and behavior on the app, including location, age, gender, and activity.From there, you can schedule your posts based on your audience’s most active days and times.
Invite the Engagement
A lot of brands will start Instagram accounts and become frustrated when people aren’t engaging with their content.
It seems so obvious and simple, but sometimes actually asking for your audience to engage makes all the difference. You can either include the action you want your followers to take as part of the image itself, or include it in the caption.
Take a look at this example from clothing brand Grass Fields.Image Source
In their post, they share design images and ask their followers to name their favorites in the comments. Not only do they get real-time feedback on their product, but they also get great engagement on the post.
7. Post regularly.
When a user is scrolling on the app, you are competing for their attention along with millions of other brands.
Because of this, visibility is key. With so many ways to share content, from Reels to Stories to Lives, there are a lot of opportunities to reach your audience – each demanding a different level of effort and preparation.
This is good news for brands, especially small ones. While it’s recommended that you share on the platform every day, you can choose how you share based on your bandwidth and which methods are offering the beinstst ROI.
For instance, an in-feed post likely requires more work than a Story since it will live on your profile.
With a Story, you can quickly engage your audience through a quick poll, a question, a reshared post knowing that it will disappear after 24 hours.
A good rule of thumb: Publish an in-feed post three to four times a week and share on Stories every day.
8. Review your data and optimize your approach.
If you’re already following all the tips we’ve outlined above and you’re still struggling to get meaningful traction on the app, the answer could be in your data.
Too often, brands get stuck in one approach and don’t review their data to see if it’s actually working.
Your Instagram Insights dashboard offers a wealth of information on how each post performed, including impressions, accounts reached, content interactions, and profile activity.For instance, say you’ve been posting images for the past month, then you post one video and it outperforms 60% of your previous posts. That’s an indication that your audience may respond better to video content. It’s worth experimenting with more videos.
If you don’t analyze your performance and look for optimization opportunities, there’s a good chance you’ll reach a plateau with no idea how to get out of it.
9. Share your Instagram profile on other channels.
As you work to grow your following on Instagram, you can also drive traffic to your profile externally.
One way to entice users to follow your page on that platform is by hosting a giveaway or sharing exclusive content.
In addition, don’t be afraid to promote your Instagram on other social platforms. For instance, your website could include a section with your Instagram feed along with a call-to-action to follow your page. You can also include a link to your Instagram profile in your email marketing campaigns.
Wherever you have an online presence, be sure to share the link to your profile so that your audience knows where to find you.
10. Convert your followers into subscribers.
As you know, email marketing is crucial to a thriving business.
Instagram has been an important driver of email subscribers for Foundr, converting around 15,000–30,000 followers into subscribers each month, depending on our promotions.
If you’re familiar with Instagram’s limitations, you may be wondering how this is possible. After all, Instagram doesn’t allow links in photo descriptions.
That’s where a well-crafted bio comes into play.
Many businesses find it difficult to get followers to click the links in their bios because the tendency is to overload bios with … well, junk. Break that pattern by writing your bio like you’d write a Tweet: short, useful, and packed with intention.
Here’s what we’ve chosen as our bio:In your bio, you can include a URL that takes users to a link tree or a direct link to your subscription landing page.
Once you’ve put the systems into place, start driving followers to your bio by including calls-to-action in your content.
11. Optimize your bio.
When it comes to Instagram, many overlook the bios and focus on having great content. But your bio is a key point of discoverability so it’s essential you give it some love too.
Say someone is looking for something specific on the platform, with an optimized bio, you’ll make sure your profile shows up in the search results. This means including a business category, a short description of your brand, and a few keywords related to your brand or industry.
How many followers do you need to build a brand on Instagram?
The beauty of social media is that there’s no minimum requirement to get started. This means that you don’t need any followers to get started building your brand.
In fact, that’s how most brands start. Unless you’re launching a sub-brand or using your personal brand to promote your new brand, you will have to organically grow your followers by using the strategies outlined above.
The key to success is consistency. Nothing will work if you do it for a month and give up. By remaining consistent, you increase your chances of reaching your audience and building a community.
Best Way to Build a Brand on Instagram
Instagram is a social platform with tremendous potential for businesses in almost any industry.
All it takes is a robust strategy, high-quality content, and the ability to pivot when needed.
It won’t happen overnight, but as long as you stay consistent, you’ll start to see your following grow and your community building.
This can have a significant impact on your reach, brand awareness, and ultimately the revenue of your company.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in Dec 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.