Apart from the most obvious way- paid advertisements, there are also other ways that can help you grow your business through Instagram. Of course, firstly you need to create an Instagram profile for your business. Once you’ve done that, you are ready to start the journey.

1. Work on your aesthetics

Instagram is all about aesthetics. Make sure that you put a lot of thought on how are you going to present your business. There are a lot of options you can do.

For example, you can choose a color scheme that you would like.

Once you do that, all of your Instagram posts should align with the colors that you’ve chosen. Make your visuals distinctive, they should represent you and your business. This is how successful branding works. If people can recognize your business just from your pictures, it means you’ve done a good job.

Of course, it should be done in a visually appealing way. Instagram pages that tend to eyes of the audience always have better success than those that ignore this note.

2. Be relatable

To market your business the right way, don’t focus only on your products/services. Rather than that, offer solutions to your customers. That will make them feel like you understand them and their needs, which will make you more relatable.

You can share ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage to share some candid moments with your audience. Sharing such moments creates a bond which is something you want to do. It shows your audience that you are more than just a company and that there is the human factor behind all these posts.

3. Be smart with hashtags

How to work with hashtags? Well, there is a winning recipe. Expand your reach by using the right hashtags. Always have a hashtag with your company’s name, so users can filter content that is linked to your business. It’s best practice to use between three to five hashtags, despite the fact that the maximum you can add is 30 per Instagram post.

Combine hashtags that are about your business along with hashtags that are trending and can be incorporated into your post. This is a great way to make yourself visible to others that don’t know about your business yet. This allows them to discover your company. With the right combination of hashtags, you can gain new followers, and therefore, new customers. For example, try adding hashtags like #instagood (used is 300 million posts), or #tbt (Throwback Thursday), and don’t forget about industry-specific ones. If you are in IT, the hashtag #IT or #tech will do just fine.

4. Collaborations

Collaborating with others is a great way to make yourself known to a wider audience. Sharing your customer’s stories is also a great way to expand your audience engagement. Acknowledging your customers will make them feel appreciated, which is a winning recipe for a loyal customer.

You can make a collaboration with someone who will promote you on their page, and you do it on yours. The old “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” can be applied in this situation. Of course, if you do decide to do it-be wise about it. Never partner up with someone who stands against the values and policies that your business represents.

5. Offer your Instagram followers exclusivity

Instagram is a great way of promoting your products/services. You can tease and announce a novelty on your business page. Let your followers be the first ones to find out about new things, reward them for their loyalty. Think of fun ways to let them know that you have something new and interesting for them. That will help in building anticipation around the novelty that you’re about to introduce.

The fact that you offered them exclusive content on your Instagram page will increase its importance. Your page can be a strong marketing tool if used appropriately, so make sure you utilize it in a smart way.

6. Take a step back

Of course, it is wise to do your research beforehand. Work on your posting strategy, your aesthetics, and gaining followers, etc. But your work doesn’t stop there. Make time to take a step back and analyze everything that you’ve done. There are a lot of assumptions about e.g. best time to post, or something third. However, it won’t necessarily work for you. That’s why it’s crucial to go over everything you’ve done and what are the results.

You will see it through likes, comments, conversions and other engagements parameters (depending on your business). Make use of social media management tools. You can schedule your posts, or use social media analytics to measure their success. It’s never too late to improve your strategy and adjust it to your audience/customers.

Instagram is a great way to promote your business because it is so fun and carefree. People won’t be feeling like you are actively trying to sell them something because you are showing them that there are more sides to you and your business, which makes you likable and relatable. Of course, it is not smart to just wing it. Make a detailed strategy that will guide you along the way. Analyze your success and make the necessary changes. Use hashtags to your advantage, as they can help a new audience to find you. Collaborating with others will also give you a platform on their profiles, and it also gives you credibility.

Keep in mind that Instagram is filled with countless profiles, so you need to find your own style that will make you stand out. Your audience will recognize that and reward you for it. It goes without saying, growing your page will take some time before you see the fruits of your hard work. Be consistent and be patient, because Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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What’s the difference between a customer-centric and customer-focused approach?

So let’s dig deeper to understand the differences better. The easiest explanation would be that customer-centric is focused on customer’s needs, while customer-focused is about the customer’s wants.

Being customer-centric requires more knowledge about the customer. You are required to get into the customer’s perspective and know what is it that they need. The customer-focused approach consists of surveys that depend on customer’s feedback and service agent’s when things go wrong. Their starting point is the product, and what’s the best way to make it desirable for the customer.

Customer-focused companies offer a pleasant experience for their customers. They are listening to their desires and fulfilling them the best of their ability. Their customers are mostly satisfied and they would probably consider doing business with them again.

Customer-centric companies create loyal customers

They are always one step ahead. Their in-depth knowledge of the customer gives them an insight into their needs. The focal point is the solution to the customer’s problem, rather than explaining why is it that their product/service could be useful.

Rather than thinking “How much product can I sell to one customer?”, the main question is “What can I do to help the customer’s needs”? A customer will always opt for something they need, rather than something they want. It is the principle of priority. But if they feel like their needs are being understood and met, that’s what will make them loyal to you.

To achieve that, you need to give in order to receive. Make each customer feel like it is all about them, that you care about them and you understand them. You will be receiving a customer that is going to stay loyal to your brand.

Of course, as this process is somewhat intricate, it requires more time and dedication. 

You won’t be able to guess what are your customer’s needs right off the bat. You will need to do your research to find that out because, at the end of the day, you are trying the see the world from a customer’s point of view.

Let’s study that on some examples.

Best Buy- recognizing their customers’ needs

Best Buy is a perfect example of changing their approach from being customer-focused to customer-centric. They noticed that a lot of women (busy moms) were leaving their stores without making a purchase.

Instead of focusing on how many of them left the store without buying anything, they wondered WHY did they leave the store empty-handed?

They found out that the moms “wanted to look at complete solutions such as wanting to buy a digital camera that would allow them to share photos with family members. But the sales team were immediately diving into questions about the number of pixels the shopper wanted.”

Busy moms weren’t interested in the technical specifications of the products. That will interest someone who already has some knowledge of these products in general. But busy moms just wanted, for example, just a camera that will take nice pictures. The discovery sparked the change in stores’ layouts, aesthetics, and their employees changed their approach based on their customers’ needs.

Today, Best Buy even introduced the Geek Squad that helps customers dealing with installation or similar processes they found confusing.

By recognizing their customers’ needs, they managed to stay on top of their game. Many competitors had to close their stores, but Best Buy is still super successful.

Ryanair- needs rather than wants

Ryanair is an Irish airline company that is famous for its cheap flights. In the 2017 survey by the Which, they have not been ranked very generously.

And why is that?

They don’t have premium service, great food, free additions and so on. So how are they still making so much profit? They are still one of the busiest airline companies. Well, what they do offer are really inexpensive and frequent flights, with a large number of destinations.

Would it be nice to have premium food and service? Yes, of course. However, that costs more. And Ryanair knows what its customers need: cheap and frequent flights. Needs over wants. They know their customers well, and this is the key to a successful business.

In conclusion, what should you do to be customer-centric?

What you want to achieve is thinking like a customer. To do that, you need to do your research. Once you know your customers, deal with their needs, not wants. Rather than focusing on the products, focus on solutions. People react differently if you shove your product in their face and if you target a certain problem and offer them a solution (with the product/service being the solution). To have faithful customers, you need to treat them as your lifelong partners. That means being there for the long run. Focus on their lifetime values and they will be loyal to you. If you make it meaningful, your customers will be the first ones to recognize it. Instead of being reactive, you should be proactive. Know your customers and continuously work on new solutions, don’t wait for them to ask you for it.

As Peter Fader, author of Customer Centricity said:

“Customer centricity is a strategy to fundamentally align a company’s products and services with the wants and needs of its most valuable customers.”

The post How Can Customer-Centric Approach Help Your Business More Than Being Customer-Focused? appeared first on Iseto.

How to do it properly and avoid branding mistakes?

Even some of the big names in the industry with established brands have made some big mistakes along the way. So what are the branding mistakes that could hurt your business?

1. Unclear identity

Brand identity is one of the most crucial parts of the equation. To be able to launch yourself on the market, you need to figure out what your company’s about. What are the core values that your company represents, what are your visuals going to be like, what is going to be your tagline?

Think about everything that makes your company unique. Think about how you want to present that to the world. Once you do that, be consistent. You can’t claim to stand for one thing, then for something completely else the following month. Sending an unclear message to your audience always ends up poorly. If you plan on redesigning, always bear in mind that the core of your visual identity needs to stay unchanged. For example, Gap had a big flop with its attempt to redesign its logo in 2010.

They tried to change it into something entirely else, and the public hated it. Unfortunately, Gap’s efforts to try something new and fresh fell through. They changed their logo back to the original in a matter of days.

2. Being too similar to your competition

They say to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Even though your competition isn’t necessarily your enemy, you should always study what they are doing. It’s a great way to learn from their mistakes, but also to get some new ideas inspired by something they are doing. However, studying your competition doesn’t mean copying what they are doing.

For example, Starbucks is a giant that is famous for its coffee. When they opened their first  South Korean store back in 1999, the competition was ready. That same year, South Korean company Elpreya started selling its coffee named Starpreya. However, the similarity in the name is not the only similarity that these two brands share. Elpreya was under a lawsuit by Starbucks because their logo was too similar to Starbuck’s.

The similarity is unquestionable. Even though Starbucks didn’t win the lawsuit, the public was not fooled. They recognized the lack of originality in Elpreya’s branding. Regardless if you’re copying the visuals, campaigns, name, or something else, you can’t fool the public. They will always notice your lack of efforts to create something original. Not to mention that copying your competition deducts your credibility while looking lazy and sloppy.

3. Trying too hard to stay ‘trendy’

Of course, you need to keep up with trends to stay relevant. For example, not many businesses had a Facebook page back in 2006. But ten years after, every company has its page on Facebook. After Facebook, we got Instagram. It is important to stay updated. However, you should not follow every trend that comes along.

There will always be something that is trending, but does it go well with your brand image? This is one of the branding mistakes that are the easiest to fall into. The tempo of our lives has gotten pretty fast, and we are consuming news and trends even quicker. It’s important to differentiate between temporary pop-culture whims and staying up-to-date. Be mindful of what you spend on your time, money, and efforts. Think of your long term goals and if this trend is really something that is going to help you achieve it? If not, is it possible that it will be forgotten the next day?

Mind the image that goes with your brand. Never go with something trendy that doesn’t compliment your brand’s image. Your customers will recognize that as ‘trying too hard,’ and that will undermine your brand.

4. Not doing the research

It goes without saying that you would research the market before launching any brand. You need to know who your audience is and plan your strategy accordingly. Of course, you can’t just wing it. You have to do actual research on who are the people that would use your product, what are their interests, etc.

However, your research never ends. Listen to the public and what they have to say about your product. This is a great way to obtain some new ideas and fix potential mistakes. Rejecting to hear what your customers have to say is a terrible mistake. Always make sure to research what you’re doing right, what could be improved, etc.

5. Not being prepared for a foreign market

Even if your brand is locally oriented, you can never know its scale potential. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with starting small. Sometimes it is the safest option, but never underestimate the potential of your growth. That means don’t overuse local vocabulary or symbols. If your hopes for the future include going global, think of going with a language that is widely spoken.

If you are taking on a foreign market, hiring a qualified translator is a must. There are countless examples of campaigns gone wrong because of a bad translation (or a complete lack of it).

One of the most famous examples is Schweppes with its campaign that fell through. While trying to run a campaign in Italy that was about tonic water, it translated into the toilet water. There is much more to launching your campaign in a different country than just finding the equivalent word in a foreign language. Some things are appropriate in one culture, while completely inappropriate in another. So, if you are thinking about spreading your business into a foreign market-make sure you are well prepared.

In conclusion

Everything we talked about seems pretty sensible, right? To avoid making cardinal branding mistakes you should work out the idea of your brand’s identity, don’t copy the competition, don’t jump on every bandwagon, mind your customers’ opinion and do your homework if you’re spreading beyond borders. However, it isn’t that obvious when you’re in deep. If it was, giants like Gap and Schweppes probably wouldn’t be guilty of their faux passes. But that’s a good thing because you can always learn from their mistakes, right?

However, if you make some of these mistakes, don’t beat yourself up. If you think you’re guilty of some of these branding mistakes, don’t worry. You can always recover from it, just own up your mistakes and work on a strategy to fix them.

The post 5 Branding Mistakes That Hurt Your Business appeared first on Iseto.

If you don’t know how to present yourself to the world, it doesn’t matter how good your product is.

You probably picked up what I’m trying to say. Marketing is important. Some companies figured out how to do it on their own, and they do it successfully. However, sometimes you need help. Money is often a big concern when making a decision to hire a marketing agency. Nonetheless, the aspect of saving money is often overlooked.

Hiring a sole graphic designer for your company, and that could cost you around $53,000 a year, and a marketing manager that would average around $73,000 a year (before benefits). Hiring a marketing agency where you would get an entire team of experts can be around $50,000 a year. So what seems more sensible?

Agency’s job is to help you scale your business growth.

You are getting a specialized team that’s working on different ideas on how to help you grow your business. Their team will help you get an outside perspective and an insight into new aspects you may have not been aware of.

Are you following the latest trends?

Do you know the latest trends when it comes to social media management? Technology and internet trends? They do because that’s their job, and they know how to use it in your advance. For example, 84% of people expect brands to create content. Many marketing agencies offer a service of writing blog posts and managing your social media accounts and creating enticing content for your audience.

Covering a whole variety of tasks

Let’s say you own a company that makes wooden tables. How do you reach the audience that is interested in buying wooden tables? And how to spark an in interest in other people that are not yet even thinking about buying a wooden table? From the attractive visual all the way to funnels that will filter the potential customers, agencies cover it all.

Creativity

Most agencies are successful because they can think outside of the box. To stand out, you need to be creative and think of innovative ways of making an audience notice you. In today’s world where we are constantly bombarded with so much information, it’s an agency’s job to grab people’s attention with something different.

Communication is the key

However, if you are thinking about hiring a marketing agency, know that communication is the most important part of your business relationship. You need to clearly state what is your mission and what you’re comfortable with. You want your business to be represented in the best way possible, which is why you need to communicate what this means for you. Once they have a clear vision of what is it that you’re about, it will be much easier for them to help you achieve your goals.

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