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Crystal Media

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3 Easy Ways To Increase Your Customer Engagement 👍

If you’re like most retailers, chances are that one of your favorite things about being a business owner is your customers. Helping them find just the right item. Sharing with them new items you know they’ll love. Appreciating their interest in your store and experience. Building relationships in your community. Sound about right?

Thankfully, as COVID restrictions start to loosen up, we’ll start to see an increase in those welcome, smiling faces walking through our doors again. But, as we know, how we do business going forward has forever been changed and online shopping trends will only get stronger. How will you stay connected with your customers?

Here are 3 simple tips to keep your customers engaged when writing copy:

1️⃣ Ask questions. Seems easy enough, right? You’d be doing this naturally if your customer was standing in front of you in your store. Transfer that interaction to writing with any customer communication or social media posts. Not only will creating dialog keep you top of mind with customers, but it shows that you’re still attentive to their needs and interests whether they do business with you in person or from their phone. 😊 (Bonus engagement tip: Make sure your responses to customer questions are timely.)

2️⃣ Employ a CTA (Call To Action). Tell your customers what you want them to do. “Buy today for a can’t-miss gift with purchase”, “Click here for your free download”, and “Sign up today to join our monthly newsletter” are just a few examples of CTA copy that begin with the all-important verb. Ask yourself what action you want your reader to take, then tell them what to do. (Psst… it’s OK to be direct.)

3️⃣ Insert emojis. You know ‘em, you love ‘em. But you wonder if using them is unprofessional. Answer: Not anymore. Much of today’s copy is more conversational and informal than in the past. Being relatable to your customer is key. And your customers use emojis. Not only do they inject personality into an otherwise sea of words, but they evoke emotion and reaction from the reader. 🎉👍💯

Hoping these ideas will help keep your customer connections strong!

Robin

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3 Facebook Ad Tips to Make You Stand Out from Your Competition

As we move into Q4 (Holiday!) you should be asking yourself “How am I going to stand out?”, “What am I doing that’s different, and better, than my competition?”, and “How can I go up against the big box stores?” We always recommend running Facebook ads and, in that spirit, here are 3 tips to make your ads stand out from your competition:

1. Humanize and personalize. As a small business, your relationship with your customers is an incredible asset. Be sure that is showcased in your ads! Use images, video and copy that features your customers, your team, your mission, your neighborhood, your storefront and in-store displays. Small businesses have a huge advantage over big box retailers because they are such an ingrained part of their community. Pro tip: In-store video tours, with you or another employee on camera, are one of the best creative options for ads.

2. Use Custom Audiences. Audiences are one of the best features of Facebook’s Ads Manager and there are a bunch of ways to find your warm audiences (people who already know you) through Custom Audiences. Depending on your goals, and the content of the ads, there are many options for Custom Audiences including: people who have been to your website, who are on your Email list, engage with your Instagram page or people who have been to your Events. Ads with warm audiences tend to have lower costs and higher Engagement. Pro Tip: Turn your Custom Audiences into Lookalike audiences. Even though they’re cold audiences, Facebook has done the work of finding people that look like your warm audiences which makes them one step closer to becoming a customer.

3. Run a Most Recent ad. You’re already putting effort into creating your organic content, make sure more people see it! Currently, your Fans only see 1-6% of your content, even though they follow you. A Most Recent ad, which we run for all our clients, is under the Post Engagement objective and is a way to have your content seen more often. You swap out your posts every day so they all get promoted. Pro Tip: in addition to targeting your Fans, also target a Lookalike of your Fans. 

Facebook ads are a great marketing option, especially with the buying season upon us. Running ads that reflect how awesome your store is, and running them to the right audiences, will make you stand out in the commerce crowd. ✨

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3 Strategies to Find the Right Hashtags For Your Store

If you have an Instagram account for your store, then you know the struggle of picking out the perfect hashtags to help get your post discovered by more potential customers and viewers. Worry no more, as we have created a few tips to help you create hashtags that will benefit your content and bring engagement to your posts. 😁

When choosing hashtags for your posts, try to be strategic with targeting your ideal customers. You shouldn’t be commenting on your post with the same old 10 hashtags you use every time, stringing them on as an afterthought. This is an easy way to get discovered by your PCG’s.

  1. Let’s start by avoiding hashtags that have a large amount of posts associated with them. You can use up to 30 hashtags on one post and up to 10 hashtags on one story. Try not to tag your post using more than 1 or 2 hashtags with over a million posts because your content will get lost very fast. While we are on the subject of popularity of a hashtag, it’s good to use a variety of tags with a varying amount of posts associated. Some with a small number of posts that have used that hashtag, some with a medium amount, and some with a large amount (large being over 100,000 posts). #️⃣
  1. Next, try to use hashtags that relate to your store. Use a combination of hashtags including the city your store is located in, the state/province your store is located in, and the category of your store. Here are some examples for a pet store 🐶 that is located in Atlanta:
    City + Category = #AtlantaPetStore , #PetStoreAtlana , #PetSuppliesAtlanta , #DogBedsAtlanta , #AtlantaDogSupplies #PetStoreinAtlanta #AtlantaGeorgiaPetStore
  1. Use trending hashtags. Seek out hashtags that are relevant to your content, and keep an eye out for tags that are being followed by accounts. This means people are interested in seeing what content is being posted in this category. Check in on some of your top customers and see if they are following any hashtags (you can find this under the “Following” button on their profile). You can start using these same hashtags on your content to try to reach new customers that are similar to your top clients! Be sure to only use the hashtag if it’s relevant to the photo you are posting, and not just because it’s popular. You don’t want to deceive potential customers, you want them to find you and fall in love! 🥰

Let us know if you’re using any of these strategies!

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Instagram Reels

Instagram has rolled out a new feature called Reels. This new feature allows users to create a 15-second long video using fun features including Instagram’s story filters, music soundtracks, special effects, GIFS, and text.

So far, we know that Reels is very similar to TikTok and can be used in the same way. As a retailer, we suggest you use Reels to tour your store, create short tutorials using your products, showcase new arrivals or collections, share styling tips, and participate in “TikTok” trends like dancing or transitions using your products.

Crystal suggests including lots of clips including people because Reels is another great opportunity to humanize your brand and to build a digital personality. People love watching people!

Always keep in mind that Instagram rewards content that uses its features. For Reels, this would mean creating your new content right inside of the Reels app and building the video using all the features available to you: filming in the app, text tool, music soundtracks, stickers, and filters. This is likely to be rewarded in the algorithm instead of just uploading a previously created TikTok because Instagram wants to promote its new features to other accounts.

Lastly, we have been noticing a significantly higher engagement and view count on Reel videos compared to other Instagram content, like a post or an IGTV. If one of your goals is to grow your social media following, be sure you are heading over to Instagram Reels and testing the waters!

To learn more, check out my recent IGTV explaining Instagram Reels, including a quick tour with examples. We can’t wait to see the content you’ll create using this new and fun feature!

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Does Your Copy Connect with Your Customers? 📝

Connection. There are many ways to achieve this with your customers through social media, but did you realize that the copy your customers read is one of the most underrated ways? Your copy (think post captions, product descriptions, customer communication, etc.) can transform a post, image or product from falling flat to taking flight.

There’s a difference between selling to your customers and connecting with them through the words you choose and HOW you choose to say them. So, keep these 3 tips in mind when tapping away on that keyboard to convey a message that lands.   

  1. Write with your customers’ best interest in mind. Ask yourself: What are their needs? How can you impact their lives in this moment? Determine what matters to them and ensure your content addresses that.
  1. Don’t tell, SHOW through your words. Yes, a picture’s worth a thousand words but your words are worth a heck of a lot too! Think about the sensory experience of what you’re writing about (the look, smell, touch, sound of something) as well as how YOU feel about it (excited? proud? nostalgic? etc.). Customers can always pick up on the energy your words put out. And psst… this is one of my secret weapons:  https://www.thesaurus.com/
  1. Be succinct. We’re all on a limited budget with time and attention span these days. Be choosy with your words. You can still deliver an impactful message without being verbose.

Remember, connecting with customers builds trust and customers LOVE buying from businesses they trust. Make sure your copy is helping you achieve that.

Any copy that has worked well for connecting with your customers? Let us know in the comments below!