An E-Commerce Guide to Instagram Checkout
Would you actually purchase something through the Instagram app? In March 2019, Instagram launched the checkout feature, which lets users checkout within the app. Instagram has opened a whole new revenue stream for e-commerce sites. Instead of directing your followers to your website with “link in bio”, they can complete the purchase as soon as something catches their eye. The checkout system is built into the app, which means that users can store their payment information. If a product is checkout-enabled, then an Instagram user will see the option to “checkout on Instagram”. If they tap to view more details and fill out their contact, shipping and payment information, the user can order through the app as well as check the status of their delivery within the app. The information that a user will see includes the estimated delivery date, tracking number, cancel order, initiate a return or request support from the brand. Currently, only select e-commerce platforms have the feature. Some brands who are using it include Nike and cosmetic companies. The company is currently only selecting companies from America to try out the feature, so the rest of us will have to wait until there is a wider roll out. Instagram has positioned the checkout feature as follows: “Checkout enhances the shopping experience by making the purchase simple, convenient and secure. People no longer have to navigate to the browser when they want to buy. And with their protected payment information in one place, they can shop their favorite brands without needing to log in and enter their information multiple times.” This will undoubtedly change the way e-commerce companies market their products online. For more information about giving your digital marketing strategy an overhaul, contact WSI OMS...
read more
Drop the Pitch: How to Use Vulnerability and Honesty to Sell Your Brand
Make no mistake: your customers are an extremely savvy lot. People are trying to sell them something almost every minute of every day. They know the methods, they know the angles, they know the difference between a conversation and a sales pitch – no matter how well you try to disguise the one as the other. Even the best copywriting usually comes in the form of a carefully worded pitch aimed at casting a brand in the best possible light and manipulating the way that brand is perceived. We work very hard on crafting the right topics, keywords, slogans and headlines, sluglines and taglines to make sure that the public gets the right message about our brands. We spin stories and polish the perfect turns of phrase. The aim is to project one specific aspect of our brand, to keep all eyes on “Oz the Great and Terrible”, while diverting attention from the man behind the curtain. Customers are used to this game and, thus, accept it for the most part, especially when you are selling them something they genuinely want. With all of this content sleight of hand assaulting the public’s senses the majority of the time, nothing is more refreshing to cut through the clutter, than a dose of simple, straightforward honesty – and indeed, vulnerability. Don’t try to come across as perfect. Even your biggest fans know you’re not. Don’t act as if your products are developed in some problem-free vacuum and come out right first time, every time. Why not discuss your failures? Draw attention to the sweating that goes on behind the scenes to bring your products to the public. Have a few candid admissions about your humble origin story and the moments when the whole enterprise nearly went belly up. This will only make your customers appreciate your products even more. Human beings are hardwired to relate to vulnerability. We are so used to people and brands trying to present themselves in the best light that an honest admission of so-called weakness can be very disarming and endearing. So, don’t be afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve about some of the struggles of your business – provided you have the confidence that there is a killer, must-have product at the end of your story, of course! WSI OMS can help you to create excellent, SEO-beating, high-converting content. Contact us for help with your website copy, blogs, social media and...
read moreSignposts on the Buyer’s Journey: Using Content to Sell
As a content marketer, you have a dual purpose. Yes, of course! You want to create original, attention-grabbing, well-written, quality content! But, you also want that content to serve the aims of your business. Your content needs to sell. That sounds simple enough. But, how well is your content serving your sales really? How well have you strategised it towards that end? One way to guide your hand, and to ensure that content is geared towards sales, is to work to match content to the buyer’s journey. Let the content speak to the journey at all its stages. Let’s make this clearer by taking you through the journey and briefly looking at how your content can move with the customer. • First Signpost: Offering Solutions for Specific Problems At this stage, potential customers are aware they have a need or a problem, and they need fulfilment or a solution. Perhaps they Google something like “affordable water purifiers,” for example. You, as a producer of competitively priced water purifiers, match them up with content that provides an answer to that need. You’ve met them at the first stage, you have their click, now you need to move them to the next stage. • Second Signpost: Why Your Solution? Now the customer has found your water purifiers, but he/she wants to know why yours is better than anyone else’s. Your content should be filled with ready answers to that question so that, whether they follow internal links on your website or search Google for comparisons, you can provide the information they need to assess your value offering. • Third Signpost: Sealing the Deal Your first and second signposts should have answered the initial questions satisfactorily. The customer knows that you are a better choice compared to your competitors. They’re ready to buy. All you have to do is make sure that your content, design and UX all guide them easily towards that final checkout. • Fourth Signpost: Following Up Start off with an email confirming the purchase and thanking the customer. Then follow up with whatever is necessary to add even more value. Do you offer free delivery? Are there products that can be added on to your water purifier? How can customers contact you for after-sale service? All of this information needs to go in your website copy and/or in your emails. WSI OMS can help you to create excellent, SEO-beating, high-converting content. Contact us for help with your website copy, blogs, social media and more....
read moreDoes Quality Content Really Make a Difference to Your Traffic?
It’s very easy to lose sight of the importance of content when you become too focused on search rankings and traffic numbers. With this focus comes the perception that all that is needed to drive traffic, is a high quantity of content that pushes all the right buttons for SEO. While it is important to keep your content quantities high, as well as to check all the SEO boxes (keywords, etc.), you should never do so at the expense of quality. Don’t take our word for it either. Google’s guidelines make it very clear that the search engine assesses content quality when calculating search rankings. It makes use of a series of fairly complicated algorithms to do so. But, to put it as simply as possible, Google measures your content in the light of the purported purpose of your website, as well as the audience’s reactions to it. Readers who are after certain content will find and return to websites that they find really useful, and Google will register that. Google also measures what it calls your E-A-T rankings. In other words, how your website performs in terms of expertise, authority and trust. Google will rank your website higher if the content is demonstrably created by someone who is a proven expert in their field, if the website is endorsed by another recognised authority on the subject as well as when the site has established a high level of trust among readers on the basis of ratings and reviews. So, it should be obvious why it is important to put a lot of energy into the quality of your content. Remember that, no matter how much content you serve to your users, they will soon lose interest and look elsewhere if that content is not useful and authoritative. Create content with your user in mind first – and the rest will follow. WSI OMS can help you to create excellent, SEO-beating content. Contact us for help with your website copy, blogs, social media and...
read moreHow to Create a Successful Viral Campaign
Viral marketing is undoubtedly hit-and-miss and, therefore, we would never claim to have found a foolproof formula. It’s extremely gratifying and good for business when you do hit on a campaign that spreads like wildfire. But, there are no guarantees. So, there shouldn’t be too much disappointment when your efforts don’t go quite as planned. The next time you start working on a potential viral campaign, try to make the following points part of your approach: • Don’t Leave it to Chance – Know Your Audience If your campaign has any chance of going viral, it needs to be targeted. And, you need to know everything about your audience. What is the best time to launch for maximum impact? What does your audience want and need? How and why should they respond to your campaign? Make sure you’ve answered these questions thoroughly before you get going. • Keep the Message Simple All it takes is a single image or one simple meme to go viral. You need to focus on minimal information and maximum impact. Devise something that can be consumed, understood and interpreted at a glance, and that can inspire a reshare or retweet in a second. Don’t make your reader have to think about it for too long. • Focus on Visuals As a corollary to the previous point, in order to make your campaign as simple as possible, you should focus on powerful images and minimal text. Less really is more in this instance, and the old adage that a picture paints a thousand words is absolutely true. A single image that catches the eye and sums up the message will do a lot more than a paragraph of even the best copy. • Let it Happen, Don’t Push It Remember that most things that go viral do so completely organically – and often by accident. You can’t force it. You need to put your message out, having done all the necessary prep work, and then let it attract an audience naturally. There will be times when it won’t work and you’ll need to go back to the drawing board, but don’t let that worry you. As long as you’ve done your homework regarding your audience, you are more than likely to hit the target eventually. Your chances of doing so will increase each time you try, so keep at it! WSI OMS can help you with your viral campaigns. Contact us to find out how....
read moreSocial Media Marketing Tips for Law Firms
Most law firms have at some time thought of implementing a digital marketing strategy. Many times, we see lawyers write blog posts and share them on social media, thinking that this constitutes a social media marketing strategy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. The old method of social media marketing for lawyers was to write a blog post on their website, promote the post on Facebook, hope somebody reads it and needs their help. They keep writing blogs, creating Facebook posts, boosting the post and hoping somebody calls, but it doesn’t work very well. Another option that many law firms use is Facebook ads, which usually read like something along the following lines: “If you have questions about your custody, visitation or child support case, I have the answers. Let’s talk.” The problem with this type of post is that people don’t go to Facebook to look at ads; they’re there to look at pictures of their friends and family. The drawback with this approach is that it doesn’t align with how a lawyer’s leads flow in your world. All you’re doing is getting people to click on your ad, potentially read your blog post, then leave your website and forget about you. The ‘three-point marketing’ approach basically means that a person needs three touchpoints with your brand before they trust you enough to ask you for help. With the internet, the number of touchpoints that are needed has been upped to over 20! The chances of someone seeing your ad and needing your legal services in that particular moment is very low, which is why this approach to social media likely hasn’t yielded any results in the past. When you take a more holistic approach to your social media marketing, the process is slightly different. For instance, say someone clicks on your Facebook ad, they get added to your Facebook audience and get prompted to download your free eBook. Upon downloading the eBook, they get added to your email list, and start receiving well-thought-out emails. They also see remarketing ads. So, as you can see, you’re following up with them over and over and over again and you’re staying top of mind. If you need help to create a holistic, impactful social media marketing strategy for your law firm, contact WSI OMS...
read moreThe Best Ways to Make Behavioural Marketing Work for You
Behavioural marketing can take a bit of research and legwork, but it’s well worth the effort. Below, we discuss just three of the many ways in which investigating the behaviour of your audience and altering your marketing accordingly can be extremely good for your business! 1. You Can Up-Sell Through Remarketing This is possibly the easiest form of behavioural marketing! And, everyone from Amazon to your local online shoe retailer does it. Simply put, algorithms enable you to sell more to returning customers on the basis of their previous searches, views and purchases. The more they visit, the more you can refine your marketing communications, the easier their buying experience gets, and the more likely you are to make more sales. 2. Segmented Content = Marketing Precision The more you get to know about your target audience, the more you can sharpen and refine your marketing approaches to each segment. In turn, these approaches are likely to be more effective and lead to more conversions because of the narrower scope. How you segment your market depends on the specifics of your business. Consider the case of Orbitz, an online travel website that experimented with serving different content to its users on the basis of whether they were working from a Mac or PC. Mac users were served more expensive accommodation options in their searches, compared to the PC users. This was reportedly on the basis of research that showed that Mac users were, by and large, more affluent and tended to spend about 30% more on travel. Controversial though this case may be, it presents some very interesting ideas as to how you can divide up your market. It could be along the lines of income or perhaps gender or location – the exact methodology depends on you. 3.Direct Resources into Audiences That Are More Likely to Convert Segmenting your audience on behavioural lines can also help you to focus your marketing budget on those sections that are more likely to convert to a sale. Once you get an idea of which part of your audience is most likely to spend, you can then, for example, place higher bids on pop-up ads directed at them specifically, while downplaying or eliminating ad spend that targets other, less lucrative segments. This may lead to slightly higher outlay, to begin with. But, with the increase in ROI would be worth it. WSI OMS can advise you on all aspects of your online marketing operations. Contact us to find out...
read more3 Tips to Keep You Inspired as a Writer
We’ve all had those moments when the inspiration starts to dry up just as the deadline looms. We also all come through it – in one way or another. Here are three things you can try to stop you from getting stuck and keep the inspiration flowing: 1.Remind Yourself That Writing Is Something You Want to Do There is any number of jobs you could be doing, from cleaning toilets to selling insurance to balancing corporate books. However, you chose to be a writer, and here you are; doing what you chose to do. That, in itself. is a blessing few people have. So, next time you’re struggling with a tricky topic or client, just remind yourself of your fortunate position. As soon as anything becomes something you want to do, rather than have to do, it gets a whole lot easier. 2. Find the Balance Between What Your Client Needs and What You Like As a writer, you need to write about what fires you up, about things that you find interesting, written in your own inimitable style. You may well say: “Yes, but that’s easier said than done when you’re filling a copywriting brief.” The trick is to be inventive and find a way to join the brief to your interests and style. When you do so, it makes your job more fun. There is also a certain gratification in mining for and unearthing the connections between client demands and your own sensibilities. 3. Don’t Try to be Original If you’re writing a lot of technical or sales-driven content, you may start to feel like there isn’t much space for your voice. “How can I make this original?” you ask yourself, leading to a lot of time wasted in staring at the screen, drafting and deleting whole paragraphs, and needless self-criticism. Just remember that you can’t help but be original. No matter how many times a topic has been approached by other writers, none of them see it or write it exactly as you can. Just put your fingers to the keys – and there you are. WSI OMS specialises in great copywriting and all other aspects of online marketing. Let us help you refine your digital marketing...
read moreHow your B2B and B2C social media strategies should differ
It’s old news that B2B and B2C marketing are very different animals, and to be approached in distinctly differing ways. What is less known is how exactly this translates into social media marketing. Most marketers already alter their approaches to each intuitively, but it helps to set down some broad guidelines. Here are some general guidelines to keeping your marketing strategies distinct and targeted for each sector. Content: keeping it professional vs. making it personal The rules of content creation for B2B vs. B2C, are largely the same as on other marketing platforms, namely: With B2B content, you want to come across as professional and authoritative, with reference to industry best practice and facts and figures. Link to case studies, white papers, infographics and similar documents, as these prove to readers that you are well versed in the intricacies of the industry in question. Let your promotional material speak (without appearing to sell) to these facts and figures. On the other hand, consumers want to know what your product can do for them – simple as that. How will it increase their comfort, status, ability to carry out a particular task, etc. Tell them in an easy, straightforward manner, as if talking to a friend. Platforms: targeted baiting vs. a wide net When targeting clients in the business world, particularly in one specific trade, you need to narrow your platform. LinkedIn is the ‘go-to’ place to find groups within your niche. Join groups and start connecting with your potential clients, colleagues, alumni and everyone you do business with. With B2C, you want to reach as wide an audience as possible, so hit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, making sure to modify your content to suit each channel and its audience. With B2C, you’re fishing in a smaller pond with very specific fish in mind. With B2B, you’re casting a much wider net. KPIs: generating leads vs. going viral B2B marketing is about generating convertible leads. So the first thing you measure is the amount of web traffic being generated from your social media posts. Then you measure how many of these are actually being converted into sales/ subscriptions, etc. Likes and follows are your currency with B2C, although you also want these to convert to something monetisable. So count your likes and follows, measure your web traffic and tally the sales that have arisen from them. As a rule of thumb, it appears that B2B is more targeted while B2C is more general. It is actually a little more complicated than that though. Targeted strategies are needed even if you’re casting your net wide. At the same time, refined strategies should never be so exclusive as to miss out on potential leads. The overall rules stand, however, and you can best decide how they apply to your campaigns. WSI can help you tailor sharp, effective social media marketing strategies. Contact...
read more6 Ways to Keep Your Marketing Emails out of the Spam Folder
Emails can be a very effective form of targeted marketing. They have acquired a terrible reputation, however, as many marketers have misused them. Here are 6 tips to avoid the most common pitfalls of email marketing. 1. Get Permission, Get Whitelisted It’s tempting to try to cast your net wide and expand your mailing list with addresses harvested off the web or bought from brokers. In reality, though, this is a terrible idea. Sending mails to random addresses will only get you consigned to the spam folder and blacklisted. Get permission from all potential recipients. With your permission button, include a request for them to whitelist you, ensuring that you always make it into their Inbox. 2. Make Sure Your Content Is Relevant Never send any content just for the sake of it. Rather, prioritise quality over quantity, send fewer emails and make sure they include quality content that your recipients will want to read. If you don’t, then they will flag you as a spammer without much hesitation. 3. Deliver on What You Promise When people click your ‘Subscribe’ button, they do so because you are offering them something from which they expect to receive some kind of value. If they then don’t receive that or you end up giving them something different, they will label you as spam. Always give recipients what you have promised them. 4.Control the Number of Emails You Send Throwing several emails a day at your mailing list is not a good marketing strategy. You will just annoy recipients to the point that they either unsubscribe, send you to spam or ignore you completely. These are wasted emails. Rather, limit the amount of mail you send, and rather, focus on creating strong content. 5. Keep a Good Text-to-Image Ratio Try not to send image-heavy emails. Use images sparingly and make sure that each is accompanied by at least a couple of lines of text. Mailchimp’s guideline is to maintain a ratio of 20% image, 80% text. 6. Check Your Authentication Set-Up ISPs will direct emails according to your authentication records. Make sure that your email server supports the necessary protocols (DKIM, SPF, Sender ID), and run a test to see if they’re all set up properly so that your email goes to the right places. WSI offers effective email marketing services. Contact us to discuss your marketing strategy and...
read more