Internet Marketing

9 Lead Generation Tools You Won’t Want To Miss

If you’re looking for lead generation tools, there are 9 lead generation tools you won’t want to miss. These tools are easy to implement, and you won’t need anything expensive to implement them into your workday.

If you’re unfamiliar with lead generation you’ll want to learn how to do it so that you can grow your business. These 9 Lead Generation Tools will go far in helping you to grow your business. Some of these work better than others and some may work better at one time over another but they all work so let’s get started.

1. SEO Or Search Engine Optimization

One of the best marketing tools to implement for lead generation is Search Engine Optimization. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a means of implementing keywords into your website so that you’ll be found by keyword searches and the search engines. The key here is to have your website be on the first page of any search engine results for your niche.

If you plug in a keyword and you’re not on the first page of search engine results, it’s time to do some updating on your SEO. At the very least, your keywords should be in the title of your website, the first sentence of the first paragraph, and interspersed with the rest of the pages. You should also use LSI or latent keywords to utilize it to the best of your advantages. This way you’re not overusing your keywords.

2. Marketing Automation

What is this? It’s utilizing software that will automate many of your tasks. You can even set it up to post a blog post at a later date so that you only spend a few hours on blog posts weekly. The blog posts can be posted as you direct and that will mean you have more time for other tasks.

There are many other tasks that you can automate and save both time and money on. From newsletters to emails to more you can find a lot of great ways to automate. It will give you a lot of benefits and you’ll find that the more you can automate the easier things go for your lead generation.

3. Personalization

This is huge. You can gather information and details regarding leads, what interests them and utilize this for your marketing benefit. You can then utilize this information by marketing what will interest those leads. This form of personalization works wonders and many businesses use it to gain more customers.

Not everyone is going to want this information, some will use it and some will not. However, keep in mind that allowing them to opt out will be a huge step in keeping your customers happy and giving them the opportunity to be in charge of what they do and don’t receive. Always invite potential customers to sign up assuring them that they can opt out at any time. It works wonders.

4. Pay-Per-Click Or PPC

In PPC, you’ll pay Google to display information at the top of the search engines. When someone plugs in one of your keywords Google will then put your pages at the top of the search engine results.

Once you’ve set this out, you’ll activate it on Google and reap the rewards. As an added bonus, you’ll find that you’re only charged when someone actually clicks on the link so it gives you paid advertising. You can set it up for multiple keywords and phrases to best utilize your account.

5. Inbound Content

Leverage your inbound content and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. Write blog articles on why your products are good, use backlinks and take advantage of inbound links to ensure that you’re reaching all of your audience. Don’t hesitate to invite your potential customers to share what they’ve found with someone who may be interested in the information. It’s amazing how people will pass things along to someone else and sometimes, that may be a huge customer.

Don’t oversell the product in your article, however, make sure that you’re plugging the products. You want to achieve branding without overdoing it. You want potential customers to think of your product whenever such products are mentioned even if your name isn’t mentioned alongside the product.

6. Social Media

Take the time to build up your social media presence. This will help give you some lead generation, give the potential customers some information and they’ll want to share what they’ve just read so you’ll reach a wider range of potential customers.

This is also a great way to share discounts, savings, and reach more people. Make it easy for visitors to your website or blog to share by adding in the appropriate social media buttons on your pages so that they can easily click on these and share to their walls. This will go far in helping you to gain some advertising.

7. Utilize Web Pop-Ups

This strategy works by automation. As someone clicks on something, the pop-up pops up your website to lead them to the product. This is also an ideal means to show discounts, sales, and valuable tips and details of your product.

It may be the perfect incentive to help keep them on your website or attract them to your website and it may help to bring back former customers who may have forgotten about you or been waiting for a sale.

8. Add To Your Email List

Offer discounts in exchange for email addresses. This is a great way to give people incentive to go to your website, stay on your page and to focus on what you have to offer. Offer them a ten or twenty percent discount.

You could also offer them a newsletter that comes out monthly in exchange. In your newsletter, you could include discounts and sales as well as other incentives. Remember, the longer they stay on your page, the more likely they are to buy something.

9. Score Some Leads

Use high-value web pages on your site to encourage people to open your pages. Utilizing your automation you can find out who visits your page the most and target those higher profile visitors by sending them out target specific emails and discounts.

This will eventually lead to more sales and better conversion rates and a higher yield on your return on invested or ROI. It’s going to take time, it won’t be an overnight conversion rate but, you’ll eventually see results and when you do, you’ll know that you’ve reached your goal.

Using these 9 lead generation tools will go far in helping you to improve your conversion rates, gain more leads, and improve your Return On Investment or ROI. Keep in mind that it takes time and presence on the Internet to accomplish all of these.

What works well one day may not work at all on another day. There are going to be days with more trial and error than others, however, once you get the hang of it you’re going to see more and more leads and be well on your way to success.

Lead generation takes time and effort but once you’ve implemented it you’ll be doing great and free yourself up for bigger and better things. Many businesses hire someone to do this and then automate it so that they can run it themselves.

Lead generation should be an ongoing process that is constantly generating more leads and focusing on helping to gain more business. These 9 lead generation tools will go far in helping you to gain more business.

WordPress vs Wix Which Is Best

What You Should Know Before You Create Your Site

Before you can start building a website, you’ll have to choose a content management system. WordPress and Wix are both popular options. They’re user friendly website builders that anyone can work with. It’s smart to look closely at WordPress vs Wix so that you can find a platform that works for you.

Comparing Costs

Creating a website costs money. You’ll want to look at the costs of starting a Wix site and compare those to the costs of launching a WordPress site. Find an option that is affordable to you.

It’s possible to create a Wix site for free. Wix offers a free plan that is a good match for personal sites. Most users, however, will want to purchase one of Wix’s premium plans. These plans start at $5 a month and can cost as much as $30 a month. Discounts are available if you agree to purchase a one or two-year plan.

One of the biggest advantages of working with Wix is that the right plan can provide everything you need. Higher-cost premium plans include hosting, domain names, and more.

If you choose to work with WordPress, you’ll be covering many of your own costs. You’ll have to pay for your hosting, and you’ll have to purchase your own domain name as well. That said, if you already own a hosting package and a domain name, you can launch a WordPress site for free.

Wix is the best choice for users that want everything they need in a single package. WordPress is the right choice for users that want a little more flexibility. You should think about what you need, then look at what it would cost to get these things from WordPress and Wix.

Ease Of Use

If you don’t have a lot of experience building sites, you’ll want to look for a site builder that is easy to use. WordPress definitely has a steeper learning curve than Wix does. Because WordPress is designed to be heavily customizable, it can be challenging to use.

In contrast, Wix is very user-friendly. It doesn’t require you to modify code or make any complex changes. It’s specifically designed for people that aren’t web developers.

If you do have some coding experience, you’ll probably want to choose WordPress. Since WordPress is designed to be flexible, you’ll be able to customize your site as much as you need to. With the right tutorials, you’ll easily be able to alter your site.

If you aren’t comfortable coding, Wix is the safest option for you. With Wix, what you see i what you get. Although Wix does have limits, you should be able to learn how to build a site in no time at all.

Plug-Ins

If you want to add new features to your site, you’ll definitely be pleased with the huge range of plug-ins available for WordPress. WordPress is open source, which means anyone can create plug-ins for the platform.

Currently, there are approximately 45,000 WordPress plug-ins available to download. Many of these plug-ins can be downloaded for free. There’s a plug-in for just about everything.

Because Wix isn’t open source, it doesn’t offer as many options as WordPress does. However, they do have an apps market. In recent months, Wix has been working to expand their apps market so that they can offer more options to their users.

Since Wix apps are specifically designed to be used with Wix, they are less likely to be buggy. Wix also provides support for their plug-ins.

You should take a look at the app market and the plug-ins that are available for WordPress. Look at WordPress vs Wix and see which platform has the kinds of apps you’re looking for.

Support

It’s inevitable that you’re going to have problem with your site at one point or another. If you are having issues with your site, you’re going to want to make sure you’ll be able to get the support that you need.

WordPress has an active and dedicated community. If you’re having problems with your site, you can check the WordPress forums to see if anyone else has had an issue like yours in the past. You can also create a thread so that you can get direct support from people in the community.

Wix doesn’t have the massive community that WordPress does, but it does have a dedicated support team. You can get the support you need in no time at all.

Whether you choose to use Wix or WordPress, you shouldn’t have to struggle to get support. From tutorial to direct support, you should be able to get plenty of assistance. Because both platforms provide plenty of support, you’ll be able to minimize the amount of downtime your site experiences.

Site Design

Site design is an important part of building a site. You’ll want to create a site that looks clean and professional. You’ll also want to make sure your site is easy to navigate. You should consider design when you look at WordPress vs Wix.

Wix currently offers over 500 designs and templates. Every one of these designs is responsive; and most of these designs can be customized in some way. There are designs for all kinds of sites, from e-commerce sites to designs for personal blogs. Unfortunately, once you’ve chosen a design for your site, you won’t be able to change it.

There are thousands of templates available for WordPress, and new templates are being created every day. There are a number of free templates, and there are also a number of premium templates. The cost of premium templates can vary. WordPress themes can be changed with the click of a button.

If you look at a few WordPress and Wix sites, you’ll get an idea of what these sites tend to look like. Both site builders offer a lot of customization, which means you should be able to create a site with the right look and feel.

E-Commerce Capabilities

If you’re interested in running a store, you’ll want to look for a site platform that has plenty of e-commerce capabilities. As mentioned above, Wix offers designs that were created with e-commerce in mind. E-commerce is included in many of Wix’s premium plans. However, Wix places limitations on the types of payment options you can offer.

When it comes to e-commerce on WordPress, your best options are going to be apps. There are WordPress e-commerce apps that come with their own dedicated themes. You’ll have complete control over how your site is designed. You’ll be able to choose a payment option that makes sense to you.

Maintaining Your Site

Your work won’t end once your site has been built. You’re going to want to make sure you maintain your site and keep it running smoothly. WordPress regularly issues security updates for their site. If you do use a WordPress site, you’ll have to be prepared to update your site when a new update comes out.

Wix doesn’t require users to install their own websites. Instead, updates are handled by their technical team. This means that you will have less control, but it also means you’ll have less to worry about. When you work with Wix, you can leave maintenance in the hands of their team members.

Take the time to look at WordPress vs Wix. Make sure you’re aware of the advantages and disadvantages that each platform offers. If you compare these site builders closely, you’ll be able to find the right builder to use for your site. Once you’ve chosen a content management system, you can start working on your site.

Top SEO Agency in Belgium

If you run your own business you are likely very well aware of how important SEO is to your success. In fact, whether you have a large international company, a Belgium business or are a local trader, it’s never been more important to put a focus on your marketing strategies.

Indeed, we live in the digital era. It seems that the days of newspaper adverts, notes in shop windows and relying solely on word of mouth are fast dying out. We live in a world where people barely know their neighbors, newspapers are only read when on vacation and shops don’t see the point in allowing people to place adverts in their windows as everyone who comes in is too busy to read them!

Belgium SEO Agency Tech expert Rod Davies

Indeed, it seems that the facts Are pointing us in one very clear and strong direction; we need to address our digital marketing needs if we want to stay in business. How are you getting on with your marketing requirements? If you are trying to care for them yourself you have likely already realized that it feels like a mission impossible. You already have a million and one things to do within your own business, without having to start thinking about fulfilling the marketing needs too, right?

It is perhaps for this reason that you find yourself looking for the best SEO agency within your budget. You have likely realized that the professionals can care for your digital marketing needs in a more efficient, cost-effective and successful way than you could ever dream of doing.

However, while you may be resolved to delegate your SEO needs to an agency, deciding on which agency to use can be quite the challenge. It may seem like there are so many agencies available, all of whom seem to promise the earth and then some, that it can be hard to know which one is going to be right for your needs.

Don’t worry, while it may initially seem like a difficult venture, truth be known, it doesn’t need to be all that much of a challenge. All you need to do is follow the tips we have outlined above. By knowing what to look for in an SEO agency you are well on your way to making a choice that will be of significant benefit to you and your business.

Choose Passion

SEO is not for everyone. In fact, for most people, it seems like a complete bore. However to an SEO agency it should be anything but boring! An amazing SEO agency will be passionate about SEO. They will eat, breathe and sleep it. This means they have an insatiable appetite for everything that is new in the world of SEO (and trust us, it is constantly changing) and love nothing more than being in the SEO world all day long.

We know you may find it strange to have such a passion, but that is exactly what a great SEO agency has; they can’t get enough of SEO! So as you start to analyze the choice available, look out for how passionate each agency is about what they do. How can you gauge the passion?

Your first step is to carefully analyze their official website. Does it have a boring, generic feel to it? Is it hard to see what their overall message is? If this seems to be the case you should strike them off your list at once!

However, if the website is colorful and engaging, draws you into their world and even makes you start to think that SEO could be a rather exciting field, you could be on to a winner. You literally want to feel the passion jumping off the screen at you, then you know that you have found yourself the makings of the best SEO agency.

As well as analyzing their website it is important that you speak to a real, breathing human being. Depending on where the agency is located you may be able to meet someone in person or at least chat over the phone or via a video call. Remeber, if you don’t feel the same sense of passion when talking with the representative from the agency, you may want to consider your other options.

Choose Experience

Of course, passion is not the only thing that is required to be the best SEO agency. Having experience is another vital element that will make the best stand out from the rest. Why does a great SEO agency need to have experience?

The world of SEO is competitive, complex and constantly changing. For an agency that does not have experience in the field, it is all too easy to create something that is inefficient and lacks the potential to really succeed. It is only with the gaining of experience that an agency starts to learn to adapt, change and create a plan that reaches for the stars.

Choose Good Communication

Especially at the start, you will be having a rather significant amount of communication with your chosen SEO agency. They will need to be able to fully understand your needs if they are to really help you to reach your goals. This means that you must choose an agency that gets an A star on the communication front. How can you really tell how well anegency communicates?

Firstly, consider their speed of communication. When you send out an initial inquiry take note of how long it takes for them to respond to you. Of course, you cannot realistically expect an immediate response, however, if it seems to take an excessive amount of time for them to reply you may want to strike them off the list.

It is also important to consider their way of communication. Your business is unique. It has its own needs, requirements and goals. This means that when it comes to SEO, your needs will be different to other companies, even those that are in the same industry as you.

A great SEO agency in Belgium understands this and wants to find out exactly what you do and what you need going forward. They should ask you plenty of questions and probe where necessary to truly grasp how they can best help you. If you are looking for the best SEO agency you need to find one that asks you lots of questions.

Having a good rapport with the agency is also of importance. You need to feel that you can comfortably contact them with concerns and that your worries will be addressed respectfully and in a timely manner. All of these aspects when combined contribute to an SEO agency being a good choice.

Indeed, if you are running a business, small or large, you know all about the need for successful marketing. While it is possible for businesses to care for some of the marketing needs themselves, in general, hiring an expert can go along way in helping your business to see the potential that it deserves.

Of course, we know that choosing the right SEO agency can seem like a difficult venture at the start. However, it is often just a matter of knowing what to look for. Remember, you should look out for an agency that is passionate about what they do, they should inject you with excitement from the word go. In addition, choose a company that has enough experience to really make a difference and has already developed exceptional skills as communicators. In this way, you are setting yourself up, not only for a successful marketing campaign but also for a long and successful life in business.

7 App Marketing Secrets To Make Your App Successful

These 7 app marketing secrets are going to help you become a lot more successful with what you’ve made. It’s always a good idea to take your time with things like this. There are so many apps on the market that you will only make it if yours stands out and is good. You can’t predict if it will go viral or have a ton of success right away, but you can at least use these tips to help you get it into the public eye.

1. Market To Your Target Audience

It’s never a good use of time to try and market to those that won’t even want to use your app. If you’re going to create an app for weight loss, it wouldn’t make sense to try marketing it to small kids. There are tons of app types and you need to think about who is likely to use it so you don’t spend your money and time on marketing to those that are not going to even use the app.

2. Make Sure Your App Works Perfectly

If you want your app to do well, you can’t put out something that has problems. If people find that they spent money on something that doesn’t work, it could cause you a lot of problems. You need to treat people well when it comes to them using your app, so if something is the matter with it, you shouldn’t release it. When people do notice problems, you should do what you can as soon as possible to fix the issue and if it cost people money in any way you have to find a way to pay them back.

3. Ask People To Leave Reviews

One of the best of the 7 app marketing secrets is for you to make sure you try to get some reviews built up. There are quite a few people out there that won’t try anything until they know others have tested it first. If you’re a new company or haven’t had a popular app yet, not many people will download it without seeing some kind of review and ratings that people have given it. That’s why you may want to hand it out for free to a certain amount of people in return for reviews.

4. Build A Social Media Profile

A social media account can put you in touch with millions of people potentially, or at least those that you can market to that will enjoy your app. You need to find out where people hang out that are likely to enjoy the app you have so that you’re not stuck with a site that doesn’t get you results. Pinterest, for instance, would be a great place to show photos of an app where you add filters to photos because it’s a site that is only about sharing photos that people collect.

5. Watch Your Statistics Closely

A site is going to have to have statistics attached to it if you want to make sure that you’re moving in the right direction. The good thing about Google Analytics and other tools is that you can watch over your stats when you put out an ad and see whether or not it’s going to benefit you or if it’s something that you need to change a little before you release it again. Don’t just take shots in the dark if you don’t have to since there are many ways to see how things are going if you look carefully into them.

6. Update Frequently

An update must be sent out to those that bought your app regularly if it’s something you can make changes to that make it work better. A good idea is to make something that you know that you can update at a later time to add more levels to a game or to add more features to a program that people are going to use to help you make people feel like they are getting more for their money. Don’t build an app with locked features that you unlock slowly with updates, because some people can look through programs and find out if that’s happening which customers really dislike.

7. Market Through Similar Apps

An app that you can find that is similar to yours may be a good place to try advertising to others. You can sometimes pay app makers to work with you and then you are able to reach out to their customer base even if you are competing with them. It’s all fair when they let you use their app to target those that are going to be likely to enjoy the app that is in your niche, so don’t be scared of giving this a try.

By using these 7 app marketing secrets it shouldn’t be too tough to succeed. You just have to have something that can make people have fun or enhance their lives. Keep adjusting your plans with this and when all is said and done it’s not that difficult to come out ahead. It’s easiest to make a success if you are willing to work hard at making it easy for people to find and use. Then it’s just a matter of time after you market it when you will start to see it taking off and getting a good number of downloads.

7 Instagram Marketing Secrets That Actually Work

A company that has made a significant impact in social media is a business called Instagram. Although this company is relatively new, it is one of the most popular social media platforms in existence today. It allows people to communicate through video sharing and mobile photo sharing, a platform that has actually made some people famous online. You can share this information privately or publicly, and also through other social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook.

This mobile app is distinctive in that it initially cropped photos into a square shape, very similar to old Polaroid cameras. Today, you can post photos in a multitude of different aspect ratios, and also apply their very distinctive digital filters, something that Instagram is known for. What most people do not know, however, is how useful this social networking service is when it comes to marketing products online. Here are seven ways that you can use Instagram to start generating more traffic to your website.

Initial Steps To Take

Before you implement any of the strategies, you need to become familiar with Instagram and how the platform works. It is recommended that you take a few photos, get a few followers, and test how the system works. This will allow you to become comfortable with this platform as you begin to disseminate images related to your business, as well as videos that you are going to share. You will then be able to see the power of this platform, especially how it integrates with the largest social media networks, and how this can drive a substantial amount of traffic.

Create A Facebook Business Page

Once you have become used to Instagram, you will want to create a Facebook business page. This is simply a page that you can create that will be dedicated to all things related to your business, allowing you to brand yourself and your company. Although creating images can help your business grow through this connection to Facebook, it is the creation of the 15 second videos that you can make with Instagram, whether they are straight through or stop motion videos, that can help you make the most of money. Videos have become a very powerful tool for businesses online because of their popularity. Not only are they popular, but people love to share videos, and this is how you can begin to utilize the power of Instagram.

Creating Instagram Videos

There are two specific reasons why you will want to create videos on Instagram when you start to do your promotions. First of all, statistics have shown that videos get up to 100% more engagement than images or text based posts, which means they will be shared with hundreds or thousands of people. You can also now embed Instagram videos on your website or blog, allowing you to create a video blog that people can visit to learn more about the products that you sell. Once you have created a format for your videos to showcase your products, preferably with an intro, outro, and a call to action at the end of the video, you need to learn how to properly use hashtags.

Using The Right Hashtags

Hashtags are used by virtually all social media platforms. This is how people search for new posts and photos that come out. By using the same hashtag at the end of your photos, people will be able to see the new ones that come out by searching for them on a regular basis. Make sure that the hashtags for your business photos are completely different than for your photos that you are sharing with friends and family. Finally, limit the number of hashtags that you are using on your new photos as this can become very confusing for people, and you want them to simply focus on your business promotions. Now that you understand how to operate Instagram, creating both photos and videos, and also how to use hashtags, it’s time to move into one of the easiest ways to promote your business which is by running a photo contest.

Running A Photo Contest On Instagram

The first Instagram marketing strategy that you will use is to run a photo contest. This is how you can begin to build your audience. You simply post a photo and ask people to vote on it, using a specific hashtag, and this will get more people to follow you which can become potential customers. They will also share your photo, if it is good, with people that are following them, and the viral effect will begin. The next strategy involves following other social media accounts, and here is how you can do that with Instagram.

Follow Major Instagram Accounts

The second strategy is to start following as many large Instagram accounts as you can, specifically those that are selling or promoting similar products. If people are following these accounts, they will likely be interested in what you are selling on yours. This puts you in contact with thousands of potential followers that may begin following you. However, you need to take this a step further which involves following these other people.

Follow Other Followers

The third strategy is to actually follow other Instagram followers on these larger accounts. As mentioned before, if they are following this other person or company, since you are selling or promoting similar things, they may also be interested in what you have to offer. You simply follow a user by clicking through to their Instagram and now they will be notified every time that you make a post. This is a great way of building your followers quickly, but it’s even better when you like a photo.

Like Photos Of Instagram Users

The fourth strategy is to look at photos that have been posted by users and like the photo that they have posted. By doing so, they will be able to see who you are and potentially also follow you. Since thousands of photos are posted on a regular basis, if you are following enormous Instagram accounts, you can easily build hundreds of followers to your account every day. This works very well, but the next strategy is even better.

Comment On A Photo

The fifth strategy to use is going far beyond simply liking a photo. You want to comment on a photo that someone has posted. When you do, they will see a link directly to your Instagram account along with all of the other comments, and based upon the quality of your comment, they may click through to see what you have to offer. These are individuals that have already shown an interest in the topics that you are presenting, and more than likely the products that you are selling. This is the fastest way to build a quick list of followers that will actually be interested in what you have to offer.

Send A Direct Message

The sixth strategy to use is to actually send a direct message to Instagram followers on these major accounts. You can simply introduce yourself, or even better, simply state that you really enjoyed a photo that they have recently posted. People love compliments, and the law of reciprocity will definitely kick in, prompting them to follow you. By doing so, they realize that you are a real person, something that is very valuable when you are interacting on social media platforms.

Rinse And Repeat

The final step of the process is to simply repeat all of the steps that you have already done, doing this with new large Instagram accounts every day. You could end up attracting thousands of additional followers, and by posting videos and images on your account daily, these can be shared with their followers, causing your following to grow even more.

This simple seven step process for using Instagram to generate a massive following, one that will eventually lead to consistent sales, is what most people are doing either on their own, or they are outsourcing with companies that will do this for them. It is an organic way to build your Instagram account up very quickly, and you will know that all of your followers will actually be interested in the topics and products that you are presenting. If you start using this today, at the end of 30 days, you could have a very successful business using nothing but Instagram to help you out.

11 Tips For Building 10K New Instagram Followers

Instagram currently has over 300 million active monthly users globally and is the top photo-sharing community worldwide. If approached correctly, Instagram can be a very powerful marketing tool for businesses.

Studies show that most people are visual learners. This implies that whatever images you post to Instagram, whether they are product promotions, funny, etc., will be understood and retained by most people viewing them.

Instagram provides a wonderful platform for organizations, businesses, and individual marketers to build relationships, interact with clients, and increase revenue through product promotions.

As with any marketing platform, the money is always in the list and Instagram is no exception. Read on to learn more about the top 11 tips for building 10k new Instagram followers.

1. Hitting Your Base

The easiest and probably the quickest way to build 10k new Instagram followers is by simply announcing it to the base of friends or followers you have on other social media platforms. You can consider announcing it on Twitter, Facebook, blog/website, email list, YouTube, LinkedIn, and posters/signs. Immediately upon announcing it, you can expect to gain a small follower base that grow with time.

2. Liking It Up

If you are operating on a shoestring budget, liking it up is the quickest way to build additional followers. You can build thousands of followers in just a matter of weeks by simply doing this. It is exactly as easy as it may sound. All you have to do is like relevant images to your niche and sit back and watch your follower base grow.

You can search hashtags to find relevant listings and then like each image up until the current day under every hashtag. The reason why this method works so well is that you are connecting with like-minded people. Once individuals see brands liking their images, they will usually view their profile, like the images, and follow them. This in turn helps to boost traffic especially if you have an effective website link and profile text.

3. Hashtags Reign Supreme

If you haven’t figured it out already, hashtags are the best thing on Instagram as well as Twitter. Hashtags help you find and connect with like-minded individuals and brands. They also help others to find you, which is ultimately your goal. Any time that you post an image, ensure that the hashtag associated with it pertains to what you and the image are about.

For instance, if you own an SEO company in Los Angeles, it is a good idea to tag things such as #SEO, #SEOLosAngeles, #SEOServicesLosAngeles, and #SEOExpertsLosAngeles, etc. These hashtags will immediately put your image under each hashtag category and expand additional avenues to followers.

4. Posting Quality, Engaging Content

When posting to Instagram or any other social media platform for purposes of interaction, it is good to post quality, engaging content. Nobody will ever follow people or brands that fill up their feed with tons of barely acceptable images. People have been known to go on an unfollowing spree for any brand or person that posts too many pictures every day.

When posting images on Instagram, ensure that it is relevant to whatever you do and represent and ensure that it is something that people will enjoy interacting with.

5. Quality Commenting

On Instagram, likes largely outnumber comments. This means that comments are more highly appreciated than likes. Therefore, if you can just take the time and leave a positive comment on another person or brands picture, chances are high that you will gain a new follower.

6. Following At Will

Even though it is perfectly fine to have 10k followers while following only 100, it is always a good idea to follow the people that are relevant to your industry. You must always keep in mind that social media is a two-way street. Since people interact with your brand or yourself, it is advisable to do the same.

Through interaction, you are able to expand your circle of influence by following people. For instance, if you are following 100 people and have 10k followers, you are only allowing yourself to keep up with the 100 you are following. However, if you are following 500 people and have 10k followers, you will be opening doors to relationships and interactions with 500 as opposed to 100 previously. In the end, you will get more interaction on your posts and increase the likelihood of people sharing your posts.

7. Be A Pro Hash-Tagger

This will take some time. You must first learn about the common hashtags used in your niche. The next thing is to find out about the ones that are effective and the ones that are not. The easiest way to do this is finding out what the pros in your niche are tagging. Find out the hashtags they use to gain thousands of likes and apply the same ones that are applicable to you.

8. Tagging People

This is probably one of the most effective ways of getting your post shared at once. You need to tag every brand and every individual that is relevant to your post but ensure that you obviously do it with their consent. Once you do this, it will show up on their pages and they will probably repost it and tag you in it. In the end, your promotion will gain quicker traction.

9. Geo-Tagging

Instagram has an amazing feature of geo-tagging that people love. Fans always love to see where you are at. Once you geo-tag the location of your photo, it helps people keep up with where you are currently and enables you to create a better and more personalized relationship with your followers.

In case you want your location or store to appear on Instagram maps, you will have to register it on Foursquare, which is totally free.

Creating a photo map is important since it creates another dimension to your brands story. Bands have used this feature successfully for sharing photos from the road. With photo maps, the fans of these bands can view photo collections arranged by location.

10. Posting At The Appropriate Times

After you have the perfect photos, the next important thing is to ensure that you post at the appropriate time. When it comes to social media, timing is critical and this also applies to Instagram. However, posting times are not set in stone and it will be up to you to determine the best posting times for maximum engagement with followers. It is basically something that you have to do by yourself but will pay great dividends once you get the information you need.

11. Using Filters

Instagram has this amazing feature known as filters. Filters are important since they help you turn regular pictures into works of art that are more appealing and engaging to your followers. Some of the top filters for Instagram are Valencia, Hudson, Hefe, Lo-fi, Amaro, Earlybird, Normal, X-Proll, Rise, and Brannan.

Conclusion

Instagram is the top photo-sharing community in the world with over 300 million active monthly users globally. If you would like a share of these users and gain 10k new followers all you have to do is follow the tips discussed in this article. Please understand that since you are not Halle Berry, it will be impossible to gain 10k Instagram followers overnight. Gaining such a huge number of followers takes much work, time, and dedication. However, in the end it will all be worth it. If you have not included Instagram to be part of your social media marketing methods, use the tips discussed above to gain 10k+ new followers and build your brand.

Sell More Online With AMP

What Are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Indeed tablets and smartphones have revolutionized the way people access information. These days people consume a remarkable number of information or news through their portable devices. Moreover, publishers all over the world have optimized their websites to support different mobile devices are they are browsing through. However, the experience can often leave a lot to be desired.

What does this mean? It simply means that anytime a web page takes too long to load, they lose a reader and their opportunity to grow readers/web-users or convert potential customers. This intern limits their opportunity to earn revenue through subscription or advertising. Well, the reason being that an advertiser on such a website will have a hard time getting users to pay attention to their advertisements because the page is loading slowly. This will make people and advertisers, in general, to abandon the page entirely.

Last October, Google announced a new open source initiative known as Accelerated Mobile Pages that is said to improve the performance of a mobile website dramatically. What are accelerated mobile pages exactly? Well, the aim of AMP is to give web pages with rich contents such as graphics, animation, and videos to work alongside smart ads and load instantly. This code is intended to work across multiple devices and platforms so that content can appear everywhere in a second. Therefore, it does not matter the kind of tablet, phone, or portable device your customers shall be using.

What Are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Accelerated Mobile Pages (abbreviated as AMP) is a well though and innovative version of a mobile website. It runs on a new version of HTML code that is used to create a mobile web page. This new version of HTML (otherwise known as AMP HTML) removes elements that may cause a web page to load slower on mobile such as third-party Scripts as well as JavaScript.

Google has mentioned that pages created with Accelerate Mobile Page HTML can load anywhere from 15% to 85% faster compared the Non-AMP version of that page. They have also gone ahead to make everything easy for publishers to get started in Accelerated Mobile Pages through tutorials, which walk you through the creation of an AMP page.

Well, the fact is that all this has a good tune to it. However, by looking at it in a whole new perspective, Google has removed all infrastructure marketers, and advertisers currently rely on, to deliver impactful brand messages to users.

But do not lose hope just yet! There are many things to know.

even though some parts of accelerated mobile pages will need a new approach to advertising on mobiles, there are few other reasons you should register with AMP.

What makes AMP Fast?

Google said that this code is like a diet HTML. It is a fact that certain tags of HTML you cannot simply use. These are things such as Forms that are not out yet, which will force you to use a streamlined version of CSS. At the same time, you can use most of CSS; however, some parts will fall under best practice and they are not allowed to be used. Third party JavaScript are basically not allowed. This means that marketers will not be able to use shelf JavaScript libraries, which you are provided with. All these factors and codes will make a website load slowly.

Because of this, this platform has been designed purely for readability and pure speed; things like Images not loading until they are scrolled into view. This is just but a taste of this new platform.

How Does It Work?

As we have come to learn, this is essentially a framework for creating mobile web pages. Accelerated mobile pages consist of three main parts:

1. AMP Content Delivery Network (CDN)

It comes with an optional CDN, which will use enabled web pages; then it is heavily cached. This automatically improves performance.

2. AMP JavaScript (JS)

It also comes with a JavaScript framework for mobile pages. It mainly manages information or content as well as asynchronous loading. What does this mean? It simply means that it will load few items such as images and videos only after you have scrolled.

NOTE: third-party JavaScripts are not acceptable with AMP.

3. AMP HTML

It’s HTML is the backbone of this platform. It is the language that has some custom tags, properties, and many restrictions. However, if you are familiar with regular HTML, then you should not have any difficulties adapting existing pages to AMP HTML. For more information about the details on how these codes differ from basic HTML, refer to Google’s Project List.

How To AMP Your Website?

First, a publisher is required to retain at least 2 types of content they are delivering. The first should be the original version and should be on the article page. This is the page that users will see. The AMP version of that page. AMP does not permit thing like; form element as well as third-party JavaScript. This means that you will likely not have on-page comments, lead forms, and other features marketers are used to, in a conventional implementation.

There are chances that you will have to rewrite your website’s template to include the terms. For instance, CSS in this platform must follow its guidelines and not exceed 50KB. However, because loading-intensiveness, all customs fonts must be loaded with AMP-font extension. This way, a user will have better loading.

All multimedia should be dealt with specially. What does this mean? Images must use the AMP-img extension. It must also have correct height and width. Well, the truth of the matter is that when converting a standard web page to an AMP template, it will indeed be a pain to you; Especially if the size is not applied correctly. Moreover, if you have animated images (GIFs), you will be required to use a separate extension known as AMP-anim.

Just like Images, there is also a custom tag that must be used to activate locally hosted videos through HTML5. This extension is known as AMP-video. For embedded videos, such as YouTube, there is a separate extension known as AMP-YouTube one should use.

As you learn more about what are accelerated mobile pages, it is important to know that this platform does support other features such as slideshows. This is made possible through AMP-carousel. Image lite boxes are made possible through the AMP-image light box. It is also possible to embed social media platform such as Pinterest, Vine, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter through their own extensions.

These are just but a few things this new platform has to offer. Hopefully, the above information has answered your question on what are accelerated mobile pages.

Category: Internet Marketing