Crystal Media

Marketing Clarity.

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Easy Way to Use Email Marketing to Grow Facebook Likes or Instagram Followers

I have a quick question for you. Are you using email to market your store? Can you let me know with a simple yes or no over here on this Facebook page post?

Even though email open rates have decreased over the years (an average open rate today is about 15-18%; a good rate is considered 20-24%, but this can vary depending on your industry), showing up in your customers’ email inboxes is still an effective way to drive them into your store.

I recommend sending emails at least twice a month. Ideally more.

Think about it. Big boxes send emails DAILY. I don’t think independents should send daily unless there is a daily deal or special that customers have opted-in to receive. But I know that if someone opts-in to receive your emails, they want to hear from you!

Besides using email to drive traffic into your store (or to your website), using it to build your social media following and social engagement is a smart tactic, too.

Here’s an impactful tip worth trying to build your following:

Identify the platform you’re most active on (most likely Instagram or Facebook). Send an email in your own, personal tone asking your list to Like/Follow you. Something like, “Hey ya’ll! Let’s connect on Instagram!” or “We LOVE Facebook and go Live weekly to share new products with our followers. Do you like us? 👍🏼 “

Results are typically even better if your message is partnered with a contest or giveaway;  telling your email list to Like or Follow you for their chance to win something. 

Pretty darn simple, right?

Here are some awesome retailer examples of email/social media integration aimed at growing their social following to inspire you:

#1. Anthropologie

#2. New Look

#3. Habitat

If you’re not using email to market your business, your first step is to start collecting email addresses. Try MailChimp to get your feet wet; an easy-to-use, grow-with-you email service provider.

I hope I’ve inspired you to integrate your email with social to build a bigger following. If you’ve tackled this already, please share your results with me in a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

To the future,

Crystal

P.S. My brand-new Instagram for Retailers Training Course is now available! 🎉 Click here to get it today for only $397!

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How to Schedule Instagram Posts (and Should You Schedule?)

If you’re looking for time-saving AND content consistency (ideally 4x/week to daily) benefits when posting to Instagram (IG), schedule them!

Currently, you cannot schedule posts directly through the Instagram app. However, there are a few easy-to-use scheduling tools available. My favorite is Later.

Using this tool, you can schedule your posts from the web (Later.com) or the mobile app by simply selecting a photo, writing your caption, and choosing the day and time you want your post to publish.

To have your created posts auto-publish (at a scheduled day/time) to your Instagram account, you must use a business profile. If you don’t have a business profile, you’ll receive a notification from Later when you hit “Publish”. But, I highly recommend using a business account if you’re marketing your store on Instagram.

You can efficiently time-block 30 minutes to a few hours (depending on the amount of content you create) to get your week’s or month’s content loaded. Phew. I now give you permission to be excited that you’re not winging it again this month and confident about allowing that daily Instagram-post weight on your shoulders to fall off with a thud. And what’s more, you did it all while using Later’s free version.

With the paid version, you can unlock features like analytics, scheduling to several profiles (if you have multiple store locations), scheduling videos, tagging Locations and Users (tagging your store and customers) in scheduled posts and getting Hashtag Suggestions.

As of today, you can’t fully schedule Instagram Stories, but you can get everything loaded and ready to go. Just select the time you want your story/stories to go live and you’ll receive a push notification beforehand to publish them. Hopefully soon, Later will allow you to automatically schedule stories just like you can with pictures/videos to your feed.

Want more Instagram training? I’ve got you covered! My brand-new Instagram for Retailers Training Course is now available! 🎉 Click here to get it today for only $397! 

Have a question about Instagram? Leave a comment below. I’m happy to help!

To the future,

Crystal

P.S. Are you following us on Instagram? If not, what are you waiting for?! Click here to connect.

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How to Easily Save Hashtags to Save Time Posting IG Captions (and What the Heck a Hashtag Is)

If you’re looking to save time while marketing your store on Instagram, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, I’ll share a time hack to speed up posting on IG for your business.

But before I dive into the tip, we need to get our feet wet by talking hashtags. I get SO many questions about hashtags. What the heck is a hashtag? When should I use them? Can anything be used as a hashtag? How many should I use? Where can I use them?

Have you had any of these questions? I bet you have. I created a quick, helpful video for you titled, “What the heck’s a hashtag?”. It’s a retailer’s version to better understand what a hashtag is and what kinds of hashtags you should be using. BUT BEFORE YOU WATCH…please note: I filmed this in 2013…yes, 2013!!! It all still applies and is filled with lots of hashtag tips and examples. Since recording this video, I recommend not using many hashtags on Facebook, but definitely use them on Instagram! Here’s the video:

Ok, now that you’ve watched the video and fully understand hashtags, let’s jump into the time-saving Instagram tip. 😊

As you learned, including hashtags on your posts are a must to drive users to your profile and ensure your content gets found. But creating impactful hashtags or typing in up to 30 hashtags per post for every single post can be time-consuming and daunting.

Here are two time hacks to help:

  1. Create 3-5 groups (or more if you’re really active on IG) of hashtags that you find yourself consistently using. Open up Notes on your phone, enter each of the groupings of hashtags, and the next time you’re posting to IG just open up that hashtag Note, copy the group of hashtags you want to use, and paste them into the IG caption.

  2. Another option (my preferred way) is to create a keyboard shortcut on your phone. Trust me, this is so simple to set up. Below are written instructions as well as a step-by-step video on how to easily set this up:

For iPhone:

  • Tap Settings icon, then tap General, then tap Keyboard.
  • Tap on Text Replacement, then tap the + symbol in the top right corner.
  • In the Phrase field, type in the entire phrase or groupings of hashtags you’d like to create a shortcut for.
  • In the Shortcut field, type the name of the groupings or phrase. For example “Group1” or just “1” or categorize it such as “NewProduct” or “Events”.
  • Now, let’s test. Compose a new Instagram post and type the shortcode you created in the caption. When you do, you should see your shortcut appear as a text-substitution button just above the keypad.

For Android:

  • Tap Settings, Language & input, then Personal dictionary. Tap the language option of your choice.
  • Tap the + button in the top-right corner of the screen, then type the word or text string that’ll trigger the shortcut.
  • In the next line, type in the actual phrase/groupings of hashtags you want to appear when you type the shortcut, such as “#yourlocation #typeofproduct #categoryofpost”. Unfortunately, the phrase is limited to about 50 characters.
  • Tap the Back button and you should see your shortcut appear as an entry on the Personal dictionary screen. Tap + to add another shortcut.
  • Now, let’s test. Compose a new Instagram post and type the shortcode you created in the caption. When you do, you should see your shortcut appear as a text-substitution button just above the keypad.

Don’t put this off! Spend 5-10 minutes to get your hashtag groupings stored either in Notes or as keyboard shortcuts and utilize these moving forward every time you post to your IG feed.

NOTE: You can modify the hashtags anytime if you don’t always want to use the exact same ones in your groupings, or if you want to mix up the order, and I recommend you do this. Sometimes, the groupings are a good baseline as is and other times useful to build from. Make sense?

With Instagram being one of the best retailer apps to sell products and build raving fans, it’s imperative to learn how to successfully market your store using it. And great news! My brand-new Instagram for Retailers Training Course is now available! 🎉 Click here to get it today for only $397! 

If you have any questions about Instagram or the new training course, click here to shoot my team an email. We’re happy to help.

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Get More Instagram Followers for Free with Two Proven Strategies

Want to know how to get more Instagram Followers without paying a dime?

Whether you’ve plunged into Instagram (IG) marketing years ago or you’re just about to dip your toe in the IG pool, I’ve got to share with you two proven strategies to grow your IG followers today. Let’s dive in!

  1. Follow People. Does that sound too simple? 😊 It sort of is. You don’t need to overcomplicate this. Here’s the deal. If someone starts following you, you get a notification of the new follower. Often, people click over to the new follower and check out their profile. If they like what they see, they follow back. It’s simple.

But don’t think I want you to follow EVERYONE. You just need to follow customers and potential customers. Easily find them by going to your competitors on Instagram and follow their followers.

Also, look up other local businesses (if you’re a brick-and-mortar store) or big boxes that would have the same types of customers as you and follow them. Finally, you can search for local hashtags (for ex: #Denver or #DenverCO, if your business is in Denver), click on users’ profiles that are using those hashtags and, if you think they might be someone who’d shop from you, follow them!

Does this take time? Yes. But you can make it manageable by creating a time block of 15-30 minutes a week and just get it done. In my opinion, it’s one of the best ways to build quality followers.

Not sure how to search hashtags on IG? No worries! I got you covered. Watch the short how-to video, below in this post. 

  1. Get Current Followers to Tag Their Friends. What’s the best form of marketing? Word of mouth marketing. If someone has an awesome experience with a business, they tell everyone and, in return, those people are more likely to shop from that business too.

When people tag their friends on Instagram in a comment of a business’s post, it’s similar to word of mouth marketing. Users see great content they think their friends would love, so they tag them. The friends trust their friends so they click over and engage with the post– often following the business’s profile. This is a great way to build quality likes.

Outside of posting great, share-worthy content, you can also suggest that people tag their friends on your posts when you’re announcing new products, an event or a sale. For example, “Tag your friends who you’d love to come with you to our weekend sidewalk sale!” or “Tag your friends who would LOVE these new items”.

Finally, you can run a contest asking people to follow you to enter to win. Simply suggest they tag their friends in a comment of the contest post. But note: you can’t require they tag friends to enter to win because this is against Instagram Contest Terms. See below to learn more about IG Contest Terms.

Promotion Guidelines

  1. If you use Instagram to communicate or administer a promotion (for example: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:
    • The official rules;
    • Offer terms and eligibility requirements (example: age and residency restrictions); and
    • Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (example: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)
  2. You must not inaccurately tag content or encourage users to inaccurately tag content (example: don’t encourage people to tag themselves in photos if they aren’t in the photo).
  3. Promotions on Instagram must include the following:
    • A complete release of Instagram by each entrant or participant.
    • Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.
  4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion and cannot advise you on whether consent is required for use of user content or on how to obtain any necessary consent.
  5. You agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk. Read more about Instagram Guidelines here.

Look for several strategies to build your Instagram following, covered in the Instagram for Retailers Training Course which is available now! 🎉Click here to get it today for only $397!

While you’re following potential customers, don’t forget to follow me and my team! We’re @crystalmediaco. Looking forward to “seeing” you on IG.

Never miss a tip!  Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter in which we send a social media tip every Monday.

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3 Instagram Stories Every Retailer Should Post

One of the most popular social media platforms in the world is Instagram(IG). And thankfully for you, retailers are seeing LOTS of sales from their posts and Stories. With over 1 Billion IG accounts active every month, there’s a good chance your customers are on IG. Translation: you should be too.

How often should you post? Daily. Yep, I said it. I recommend posting every…single…day on IG but not on your Feed, in Stories.

Because IG Stories disappear after 24 hours, ensure you’re showing up there with everyday posts.

The good news?

IG Stories don’t need to be super polished, professionally-designed, lifestyle-feeling posts; those which typically perform best in the IG feed.

Your Stories can (and should!) be more organic, behind the scenes and authentic to you.

Below I share 3 tips of what a retailer should post in their Stories. But first, are you using IG for your business? Are you posting to Stories – and doing so daily? I was SO surprised during my in-person social media boot camps that the attendees were NOT using Stories. In fact, out of 32 attendees, only 5 were using Stories. Insert gasp!

If you’re not using IG for your business and are not posting to Stories (daily!), you are completely missing out on using this app to drive customers into your store. Don’t wait another day to leverage IG. Start today and post to your Stories using one of the below ideas.

(Not sure how to post to IG Stories? No worries, I got you! I created a quick how-to video located at the bottom of this blog post for your convenience.)  

Three IG Stories Every Retailer Should Post:

  1. Limited Quantity Items. It’s all about F.O.M.O. – the Fear of Missing Out. If you only have one or two items left of something, create a Story to highlight the item. Share urgency that it’s the only one left, how much it costs, and tag your store location on the post. (This can be a video or photo.)
  2. Event or Sale Info. Timely stuff works well in Stories and, with events and sales, they’re timely! So invite people in the day before and the day of an event or sale using your Stories. You could create a Story-a-day for 5 days leading up to the event or sale, especially if it’s a big one (open house/annual sale/anniversary sale, for example) and share something different about the event in each Story like items that will be discounted (and the benefits of the items), guests at the events, giveaways, event tips (parking, when to arrive, what to bring), etc. If you’re posting the day of, and tomorrow the event or sale is over, make sure you list the date and time when it ends in case someone is watching the Story a few hours after the event ended.
  3. Behind the Scenes. Stories should include….stories! Share a day-in-the-life snippet of the store owner. Unbox new merchandise. Share something funny that just happened at the store. Talk about what’s going on with the owner personally in the coming days. Show pictures from your most recent vacay. Take people on a buying trip to market. The options are endless! The goal of these is to be human, be you, and show the behind-the-scenes of running your biz and, if you feel comfortable, behind the scenes of YOU. Remember, people buy from people. You can use Stories to share more about you to build stronger relationships with your IG followers.

Ok, over to you! Get out your phone (or you might be on it reading this :)), go to Instagram and post a Story. If it’s your first one, let me know in a Direct Message (DM) on IG! We’re @CrystalMediaCo or simply leave a comment on this blog post.

Never miss a tip!  Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter in which we send a social media tip every Monday.

Happy IGing!

Crystal

Oh wait! One more thing…my brand-new Instagram for Retailers Training Course is now available! 🎉Click here to get it today for only $397!