Brian Meert's Blog, page 54

Color Psychology in Marketing

Color has a major influence on people, and when it comes to marketing, the colors you use will impact the choices consumers make. In this article, we’re going to talk about the psychology of color in marketing, how it’s used by leading digital advertising agencies and experts, and what tactics you should consider for your own branding and graphics. Let’s get into it!

Is Color Psychology Real?

Yes! Colors appeal to the emotion sensors in the brain, and all sorts of outcomes are possible. A certain color, like red or yellow, can pull your attention to something specific, while other colors may be reassuring, cause a particular emotion to rise up, or remind you of something from your past.

Color psychology most often relates to how people experienced different colors during childhood, and those feelings carry over into adulthood. For example, red is associated with firetrucks and yellow may be associated with the sun or a school bus. These associations are what color psychology is built on.

It’s important to note that different cultures have different associations, so what a color means to one person may mean something else – worse or better – to someone from a different part of the world. This is especially important to keep in mind if you advertise to an international market.

How is Color Psychology Used in Marketing?

When it comes to color psychology in marketing, the hues you use can make or break the message you’re trying to send. And it’s about more than individual colors, too. The color combinations you choose and even how much of each color is included can influence consumers.

Let’s start with a brief color emotion guide to better understand the psychology of colors in marketing:

Black: Elegance, finesse, luxuryBlue: Airiness and freshness or knowledge and leadership (depending on the shade)Green: Balance, environment, harmony, nature, refreshmentOrange: Happiness, movement, playfulness, vibrancyPink: Happiness, positivityPurple: Honesty, power, religion, royalty, well-beingRed: Endurance, importance, power, protectionYellow: Creativity, liveliness, optimism, playfulness, vibrancy

White is also an important part of marketing color schemes, mainly for the negative space it creates. It’s often used as an accent or background to the rest of the design. Graphics without any white can be too bold and overwhelming; complementing a design with white (or a shade of white) can make the imagery easier for the brain to process. 

That said, the absence of white can be purposeful so that the graphic is forceful:

A24 / Instagram

Lifehacker has a great color psychology chart here .

Color Nuances

Even though certain colors often relate to a particular set of reactions, you have to take nuances into consideration. 

For example, while yellow may often represent happiness, it can take on a completely different connotation depending on how it’s used. Coupled with a scary image and huge, bold text, it may become aggressive rather than happy. In this example, the yellow is bold and powerful rather than cheerful.

Ad World Conference / Facebook

Another example involves the color red. Depending on the imagery and text you couple red with, it can be positive and exciting or negative and a warning.
Color Combinations

Each color falls into one of two categories:

Cool: Blue, green, violet.
Warm: Orange, red, yellow.

Cool colors represent clear skies, ice, nature, and water. They make everything feel big, clean, and fresh. Warm colors represent fire, heat, and sunsets. They make everything feel comfy, cozy, and inviting. To create harmony, cool and warm colors are often used in the same graphic.

Complementary cool and warm colors come from opposite sides of the color wheel. For example, red is a good complement to green, blue is a complement to orange, and yellow is a complement to violet. When using complementary colors, try to make one take up 80% of the design and the other only 20%. This balance makes the imagery easier to look at than if it were split 50-50.
Multicolored Graphics in Marketing

What happens if you combine (almost) all of the colors? You get a youthful graphic that conveys fun, and you tell consumers that your brand is spirited.

Source / Baked by Melissa

However, the purpose of a multicolored graphic could be to catch your attention. Visme isn’t nearly as fun a company as a cupcake maker, but they use various bright colors in this infographic to make it eye-catching.

Source / Visme

Why is Blue Such a Popular Color for Designs and Logos?

Blue is a common branding and marketing color because it can have all sorts of associations. Sky blue can give a refreshing, open-air feel, while navy blue is associated with knowledge and leadership. Pastel blue is often used for children’s brands.

Corporate and tech brands use blue because it’s a pleasing color that’s not polarizing and that communicates intelligence, reliability, and trust. And health organizations often use soft blue hues because they’re mild and clean.

What Are the Best Colors for Call-to-Action Buttons?

Many call-to-action (CTA) buttons are red because the color stands out, is easy to spot, and conveys a sense of importance. In the example below, the “Get the ebook” CTA button is in red.

Source / Envoy / Facebook

In general, if cool and warm colors are used in the same graphic, one or the other should be used on the CTA button. In the example above, the illustrations are in cool blue, while the CTA is in warm red.

Wrapping Up

Colors and emotions are inextricably linked. Choosing the right colors for your brand and marketing collateral is just as important as the wording you use – possibly even more important since the colors will be viewed and processed by the brain before the text. Understanding color psychology marketing can help you choose the color schemes that will positively represent your brand and make the biggest impression on consumers. 

Want to dive further into the world of marketing theory? We have six more for you to explore in this blog post!

How to Create TikTok Ads That Convert: 5 Tips and Examples

Source / Cottonbro at Pexels

Smart brands have turned to TikTok for advertising and marketing, appealing to a younger audience that loves to digest video content. If your core customers are under the age of 30, this is one social platform that you don’t want to ignore.

We’re going to explore five ways to create TikTok advertisements that convert. Then, we’ll answer a couple of FAQs to help you round out your TikTok marketing strategy.

1. Understand Why Some Native Content is So Powerful

TikTok ads look and behave much like native ads, and that’s the point – they’re supposed to blend in and be just as appealing as the other content on the platform. That said, to create a successful TikTok ad that converts, you have to understand why high-performing native content does well because you’ll use the same approach to creating your ad content.

Chipotle jumped on a popular TikTok trope with this point-of-view video, and the company made sure to keep it brand-related. The Washington Post does a phenomenal job of this as well. While they report on serious news topics, their TikTok is creative and fun, perfectly aimed at the audience that’s watching.

2. Partner With a TikTok (Micro) Influencer

Source / Laura Chouette on Unsplash

TikTok influencer marketing can be a big help when it comes to getting your content seen and making it go viral. But you don’t have to only choose influencers with massive followings and the blue-and-white “verified” checkmark. For smaller brands that are just getting started and have a limited ad budget, connecting with a micro-influencer is still plenty powerful. Instead of follower numbers, pay attention to engagement. Do their posts get a lot of interaction despite the follower count being low? Quality is more important than quantity for influencers of any size.

This post from shoe brand Vessi features a popular TikTok personality who often creates funny videos where she plays multiple roles. Vessi recognized that @kallmekris’ regular content got a ton of attention and capitalized on that to promote their brand.

3. Use Social Proof

Today, few things are as powerful as user reviews. It’s one thing for a brand to tell you about itself, but it’s another for an actual customer to provide feedback. Brands that add social proof into their advertising and marketing campaigns show that there are plenty of people who think highly of the business, which is encouraging to potential users who may be on the fence.

Postmates took the opportunity to share their customer feedback this post, which shows its Don’t Cook Book along with comments from fans. 

4. Create FOMO

If you want someone to buy your product or service ASAP, give them a dose of FOMO (fear of missing out). And make sure that they need what you sell in order to participate. 

The Sabra hummus brand does this well with its food prep and cooking videos. Their recipes and suggestions revolve around their hummus flavors, so in order to DIY at home, you’ll need to run to the grocery store to pick up a container. Since this type of conversion is hard to track, it’s a great time to create a branded hashtag ad so that those who do purchase the product will be inclined to share their creations on TikTok.

5. Call Out the Call to Action

Source / Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

One of the simplest ways to get users to take the action you want them to take is to tell them what to do via a call to action. 

This post from Vineyard Vines does exactly that, directing users to the link in the bio if they want to shop for back-to-school looks. You can make this even more visually appealing by adding the directive into the video instead of just putting it in the caption, like Messenger does in this video.

Also, limit your CTAs to just one per video. You don’t want to ask your audience to do too much. Clicking a link or downloading an app is plenty – more than one request, and you could confuse and lose your viewers, which means they won’t take any action or all.

How Can Brands Make the Most of TikTok? Marketing to an International Audience

TikTok has 800 million active users each month, and a majority of them are overseas. That makes TikTok a prime place to market products and services that can be shipped and/or used outside of the country. Plus, by putting out content for non-English speakers, you can reach a larger demographic and connect with customers you may not have attained otherwise.

Is TikTok Good for Advertising? Appealing to High-Earners

When it comes to advertising on TikTok, there’s a good opportunity to see a high ROI. Despite TikTok’s audience being on the younger side (most U.S. users are between 18 and 24), a majority of TikTok’s user base earns a lot. 37% of adult users (over 18 years old) earn $100,000 per year or more, and more than 23% earn between $60,000 and $100,000 per year. That means that higher-priced and luxury items have a chance of being marketed on TikTok effectively. If you’re not sure how to go about this, consider hiring a TikTok ad agency to get you on your way.

How to Use TikTok to Market Your Business: Final Thoughts

When you create ads on TikTok, the more engaging they are, the more likely it is that your audience will actually see it – that’s how the TikTok ads algorithm seems to work. Higher-quality ads get higher billing, which means you can’t simply pay your way to the top. But investing time and resources into TikTok ad creation is about more than just getting eyes on it. Having a compelling, interesting and perfect-for-TikTok ad means that users will watch it in its entirety and then take the next step to move through your digital marketing funnel. 

Want to learn more about how to create ads on TikTok? Check out our articles about growing your business with TikTok marketing and how to choose a TikTok advertising objective.

Amazon Holiday Deals 2021: The Smart Seller’s Guide

Have you created your Deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Amazon yet? If you haven’t, you could be missing out on a huge boost in holiday sales. Submissions for Deals this holiday season are due September 17th at 11:59 PM (PST), so now’s the perfect time to get acquainted with your options for creating Deals on Amazon this holiday season. 

But Amazon holiday selling goes beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals. That’s why this guide covers it all – from Amazon Holiday Deals options, requirements, and fees to unlocking foolproof ways any store can prepare for holiday shoppers.

The Season With Year-Round Impact

Last year, eCommerce saw a 35% increase in holiday sales, and this trend is expected to continue in 2021. For Amazon sellers, the holiday shopping season can bring equally impressive numbers. Not only are Black Friday and Cyber Monday huge events on Amazon, but the entire holiday season from November to January can set the tone for your store’s popularity and profit for years to come.

What should Amazon sellers expect from Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Even if you’re not new to selling on Amazon, there are a number of changes and challenges the holiday season can bring. The three most common are:

Increased competition. Every business both on and offline brings their A-game for the holidays. Even if your offers are competitive throughout the year, your competitive advantage can change drastically come November as stores slash prices and invest more heavily in promotional campaigns. Increased number of returns and order cancellations. Because Christmas is a gift-giving holiday, there will be more instances where people buy on a whim without doing research. This means more returns and order cancellations during the holiday shopping season than usual.Decreased profit margins. Total sales may go up, but that doesn’t always translate to more revenue. Competing during the holidays requires some sacrifice – sometimes even resulting in profit losses for select products. Proper planning can ensure that your Black Friday & Cyber Monday strategy is an overall net gain for your business. Amazon Holiday Deals: Seller Options

It’s the perfect time of year to leverage Amazon’s Deal options if you’re an FBA seller. There are two main types of Deals you can create: 

Lightning Deals

Lightning deals are exclusive, time-sensitive discounts promoted by Amazon. Amazon advertises these deals through multiple channels like e-mail, social media, and throughout Amazon.com. 

For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Lightning Deals can run for a maximum of 12 hours. Sellers are limited to one Lightning Deal submission for Black Friday & Cyber Monday, but you can submit your Deal for both weeks. Amazon determines the day that your Deal is promoted, and if you submit your Deal for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it will only run for one day throughout the entire two weeks.

Requirements

20% minimum discount. The discounted price must be the lowest price in 30 days and either match or beat the lowest price of the year.Enough quantity to last the duration of the Lightning Deal (amount varies depending on the product).3.0-star or higher product ratingImages must adhere to Amazon’s style guide (e.g., no text within the image)

Fees

Because Amazon determines when to run your Lightning Deal, you won’t be able to know the exact cost until it is scheduled. However, you will be notified by October if your Deal was selected and for what day. You can cancel it for a full refund if you aren’t satisfied with the selected date. 

Deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday: $500 per dealDeals on the week of Black Friday/Cyber Monday: $300 per deal7 Day Deals

As the name implies, 7-Day Deals run for several days throughout the week of Black Friday or Cyber Monday. These longer-term sales are featured on Amazon’s Deals Page and run for a maximum of 7 days.  

Requirements

15% minimum discount. Discounted price must be the lowest price within the past 30 days and match or beat the lowest price within the past 60 days.Enough quantity to last the maximum duration of the 7-Day Deal (varies depending on the product)3.0-star or higher product ratingImages that adhere to Amazon’s style guide (e.g. no text within the image)

Fees

$1000 per Deal

Advantages of Holiday Deals for Amazon Sellers

Better Ranking & Visibility

Amazon Deals offer merchants an easy way to gain higher rankings in Amazon’s search engine. It’s a near-guaranteed sales boost that provides a shortcut to more and better reviews, or even a Best-Seller Badge. Better yet, Amazon targets Deals using its consumer data, which allows sellers to reach the right customers for optimized engagement rates.

Creating a Halo Effect

Selling one hot item is great, but think about what happens when your store is featured as a deal offer. It’s almost like the entire catalog gets put under a halo effect – all of them benefit from increased interest and visibility due to the popularity of the promotion. This means better sales across your whole catalog thanks to increased exposure!

Moving Inventory

Even the biggest and best sellers end up buying inventory they can’t sell. It sits on their shelves for months, taking up space and costing money to store it in the meantime.

Selling inventory at a discount on Amazon is an easy way to move products that you might be desperate to get rid of. Moving inventory makes sense when you think about it – if you’re paying storage fees for items collecting dust, the costs avoided by selling them can make up for the lower profit margins. You decrease costs and gain more sales; a win-win situation that increases overall revenue.

Potential Disadvantages of Holiday Deals on Amazon

Requirements vs. Reward

Amazon Deals have an undeniable potential to boost sales, but that might not make up for discounts and investment costs in certain cases. Depending on your store, the size of your operations, and average sales, Amazon’s Holiday Deals might be more headache than help. Meeting the requirements alone can be difficult, and if you’re not already eligible for Deals, meeting them in time for the September deadline is a lot of work. 

Lack of Control

You may have noticed how vague certain aspects of Amazon’s Holiday Deals are. Lightning Deals can run for 12 hours, but they rarely do. Similarly, 7-Day Deals can run for the entire week but are more likely to run for about 4 days. That’s because your Deals are entirely in the hands of Amazon once you submit them, and optimizing deals for customers comes before promoting your deal to the fullest extent. For both Lightning Deals and 7-Day Deals, you’re charged a flat rate of $300, $500, or $1000 regardless of when Amazon cuts your promotion off. For how strict the requirements are, it can be frustrating to have no solid commitment to your investments in Deals.

Increasingly High Standards

Getting a shoutout via Amazon Holiday Deals is becoming increasingly competitive. Even if you’re following the best practices for selling on Amazon, you’re likely competing with submissions from sellers that are taking risky profit losses for more enticing offers, or from stores using extensive SEO and professional marketing for their product listings.

This leaves many Amazon sellers in a tricky position: Their deals might not meet sales expectations even if they were accepted because the seller lacked the time and resources to professionally optimize their listings, or they couldn’t afford to match steep discounts.

Preparing for the Holidays: Important To-Do’s For All Amazon Sellers

Beyond Amazon Deals, Sellers have a multitude of points to cover to prepare for the holidays. For Sellers not eligible for Amazon Deals, this is good news – you have plenty of other ways to make your products stand out! Here are the four main points to cover as Black Friday & Cyber Monday approach:

Optimize your listings. This can mean increasing prices, but it can also mean making sure titles and bullet points are well-written and keyword-optimized to encourage sales. Prioritize the items in your catalog that you anticipate being most popular over the holiday season.Prepare your inventory. Restock key items at least 2 months in advance. For FBA sellers, check your restock reports and take necessary measures to increase your chances of qualifying for one-day shipping.Offer competitive and timely delivery (if you manage your own shipping). 44% of customers regularly use same-day shipping and 79% are enticed by free delivery offers, so fast and cheap (or free) shipping is a must over the holidays. Consider increasing your product prices or temporarily decreasing profit margins to cover shipping costs – the majority of customers will choose a higher-priced product with free shipping versus a discounted product without. Plan your promotions and discounts. Increase the visibility of your store by formulating a winning Amazon marketing strategy. Create promo codes, coupons, and/or limited-time offers for select items. Take extra time and care to create high-quality Amazon ads that compete at a professional level and consider the latest trends.Wrapping Up

Amazon Holiday Deals are an excellent option for eligible FBA sellers with optimized listings. Lightning Deals and 7-Day Deals are a great way to move inventory, increase visibility, and boost sales at a flat fee. However, the requirements mean that many sellers don’t qualify. Even for eligible sellers, fierce competition and lack of control over the campaigns can make them impractical or undesirable.

Luckily, there are many other ways to take advantage of the increased traffic over the holiday season both for sellers who make Amazon Deals and those who do not. Preparing inventory, optimizing listings, and offering fast and free delivery will ensure your store is ready to reap the benefits of the holiday season and stay ahead of the competition. Sellers seeking more transparency and control over their holiday promotions can consult an Amazon advertising agency to create campaigns that prioritize their budget and goals to attract buyers and increase revenue.

 

If you want to keep up to date with the latest in digital advertising trends on Amazon and beyond, sign up for our weekly newsletter below – we’ll keep you in the loop!

The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021: What Top Results Don’t Tell You

Knowing when to post on Instagram can effortlessly boost engagement and views. You need to ensure your compelling content is popping up on your audience’s Feed, so timing matters. There’s just one problem: each research article and search result has a different answer for what the best time to post on Instagram is. 

The truth is that the algorithm has become so personalized when ranking posts, you need to find your peak posting times on Instagram. Luckily, doing so is shockingly easy. First, let’s go over how Instagram’s ranking system has changed in 2021 that has made this question so hard to answer. Then, we will lay out your winning strategy to finding the best times to post on Instagram and how to optimize your post uploads for maximum views and engagement.

When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? 

If you’ve been searching for optimal times or days to post on Instagram, you probably found some confusing results. Even the first page of Google search results conflict with each other.

No one agrees on what’s the best day to post on Instagram:

Sprout Social: TuesdayContentCal: WednesdayInfluencer Marketing Hub: Thursday

No one seems to agree on what the best times to post on Instagram are either. Here are some of the top results we got for each day of the week (in local time):

Best Times to Post on Instagram on Sunday (According to):

HubSpot: 8am – 2pmMySocialMotto: 10am – 4pmBrand Mentions: 3pm – 9pm

Best Times to Post on Instagram Monday (According to): 

HubSpot: 11am – 2pm MySocialMotto: 6am, 12pm, 10pmBrand Mentions: 11am, 9pm, 10pm

Best Times to Post on Tuesday (According to):

HubSpot: 10am – 3pm, 7pmMySocialMotto: 6am – 6pmBrand Mentions: 5pm, 8pm, 9pm

Best Times to Post on Wednesday (According to):

HubSpot: 7am – 4pmMySocialMotto: 8am, 11pmBrand Mentions: 5pm, 9pm, 10pm

Best Times to Post on Instagram Thursday (According to):

HubSpot: 10am – 2pm, 6pm – 7pmMySocialMotto: 7am, 12pm, 7amBrand Mentions: 4pm, 7pm, 10pm

Best Times to Post on Instagram Friday  (According to):

HubSpot: 9am – 2pmMySocialMotto: 9am, 4pm, 7pmBrand Mentions: 6pm, 10pm

Best Times to Post on Instagram on Saturday (According to):

Hubspot: 9am – 11amMySocialMotto: 11am, 7pm – 8pmBrand Mentions: 3pm, 6pm, 10pm

All of these answers are based on thorough research of millions of posts. So why are they so different?  

The Right Time is Different for Everyone

Most of these “best times to post” are determined by peak activity or engagement rates worldwide. However, peak hours can vary greatly depending on the time zone, age group, or industry of different audiences, and can also differ depending on what you’re posting. Though timing your Instagram posts is still important, knowing the right time requires more careful consideration of your audience and your content.

Source / Later.com

This leads to such wildly different results for each post, account, and individual user Feed regarding the best posting times on Instagram. It’s no wonder each “best” time and day to post on Instagram is so different from each other depending on the source!

Instagram’s Algorithm is Constantly Changing

Even when factoring in details like location and industry, most advice online suggests posting during peak hours of your audience’s activity. This was a fail-proof strategy back when Instagram’s ranking system favored rapid interaction; posting right when your audience was scrolling promoted the fastest rate of engagement within the first 30 minutes. But Instagram’s algorithm in 2021 is not that simple, and this strategy could actually be stifling your engagement rates. 

Recent findings from Later found that the best times to upload are becoming earlier and earlier – sometimes as early as 5 am in local time. It’s not exactly clear why this is, but it’s likely that as the algorithm continues to favor quality engagement, hours-old content with better engagement can easily outrank fresh content on the Feed. In other words, posting on time might actually be posting too late.

How To Know When to Post on Instagram: 4 Easy StepsSource / Elena Choycheva on Unsplash.com

If you want to find the best times to post on Instagram, you need to use a strategy that matches the way Instagram is also ranking your posts. You can do so by focusing on a few of the core factors Instagram uses in order to rank content and create a complete posting schedule in the process. Here are 4 easy steps to help you find the best time to post on Instagram today, tomorrow, and beyond:

1. Find Your Audience

Knowing your audience(s) will give you a better idea of when to post on Instagram than global data. If you have a business account, take advantage of Instagram Insights to evaluate your audience and engagement. Take a look at your competitors or other brand accounts in your industry and when they’re posting to fill in any gaps your own performance data may be lacking.

If you are using a personal account, take a detailed look at your followers and their accounts. In many cases, their public information is more than enough to find key insights into your target demographic like their general location, age range, and interests. Ask yourself when they’re most likely to be scrolling through their Feed based on this information. For example, if your audience is younger, you can assume that your posts will see more engagement before and after typical school hours, or during lunch breaks. 

2. Post Early and Often

As stated before, the latest research proves that Instagram no longer favors rapid interaction as much as it used to when it is ranking posts. Instead, promote quality engagement in order to be picked up by the algorithm by posting consistently throughout the week, 2-3 times per day.  

Prioritizing one of your posts of the day for the early morning. For example, if you find that your audience is most active from 9 am to 11 am, the best hour to post on Instagram would be 6 am. By arriving before most of your competitors do, your content is more likely to get quality engagement from early risers. This boosts your post up the Feed just in time for the bulk of your audience to start scrolling. 

3. Experiment with Post Tracking & Scheduling

Once you have a solid idea of who you’re trying to reach and a general idea of when is best to reach them, experiment with different posting times. After a few months of regular posting, you should be able to figure out key patterns that made some of your posts perform better than others. From there you can start creating a regular schedule for posting your content that will bring more engagement and new followers. 

4. Use Expert Insight

If all of this sounds too time-consuming for your schedule, you have plenty of outside options to find your unique best posting times. If you are looking for a simple do-it-yourself method, smart scheduling tools or third-party apps can help you create and track your posting calendar. 

If you are still struggling to make sense of your Insights or need more guidance, a knowledgeable Instagram agency can help. Their job is to constantly keep up with Instagram’s algorithms, your audiences, and trends that can help boost your Instagram engagement. Contrary to popular belief, even small brands or aspiring influencers can work with agencies to create a marketing strategy that fits within their budget and helps boost likes, views, and followers. 

How to Get Your Product on The Amazon Internet Famous Page: 3 Examples

If you’re an Amazon seller or have an online store, you might want to check out the Amazon Internet Famous section. This secret selection is home to products that have become so popular that they’ve reached ‘internet famous’ status. It’s packed with products that went viral on social media—many made famous by marketing on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.

But what makes these products so popular? 

This article dives into how some Amazon products become internet famous, pointing out several of the company’s digital marketing strategies that have contributed to the success of these products. If these successful advertising strategies can help your business go viral and increase sales, why not take a look?

Source / Amazon.com

What do ‘Internet Famous’ Products Have in Common?

The products in Amazon’s Internet Famous store all went viral for different reasons. Some are trending fashion statements; others have a particularly snappy name. But they all have one thing in common: a promotional strategy so native and fine-tuned to social media, that people couldn’t resist sharing and buying. Here are three prominent brands from Amazon’s ‘Internet Famous’ store that showcase the core components of a viral campaign. 

1) Mighty Patch by Hero Cosmetics

When Mighty Patch’s Acne patches launched on crowdfunding site Indiegogo, they had a modest goal to raise $5,000 in two months. When their crowdfunding campaign ended five months later, they had sold nearly one million patches — a massive success by any measure. 

Mighty Patch’s TikTok channel has over 2 million followers. Combined with follower counts on Facebook and Instagram, the brand reaches about 4 million people. So how does Mighty Patch do it? By producing entertaining videos full of product tips and encouraging engagement wherever possible.

Source / TikTok.com

How Mighty Patch Became #1 on the Amazon Internet Famous Store

For example, the company launched a campaign in 2019 using the hashtag #schoolsurvivalkit. This ‘Get Ready with Me’ campaign also featured morning routine videos – a popular influencer video format – that included their usage of Mighty Patches for overnight acne treatment. The cherry on top of Hero Cosmetic’s TikTok marketing campaign was a one-month giveaway of free acne patches to sign-ups with a .edu email address.

Hero Cosmetics focused on empathizing with its target audience and teens’ anxiety when going back to school after summer. It featured Mighty Patch as a part of a package of tips from trusted faces users were familiar with, making the advertisement feel native, authentic, and subtle. Lastly, the company created a campaign that encouraged user participation. This doubles as a source of quality leads and also further promotes the brand as users create and share their own content. The targeted campaign spoke directly to TikTok’s primary audience and led to an impressive 12% engagement rate, reaching over 4 million users. 

2) The Pink Stuff Cleaning Paste by Stardust

If you’re skeptical about whether a product beyond beauty and fashion can trend online, take a look at The Pink Stuff Cleaning Paste, a household cleaning product with a cult following on TikTok. 

Source / TikTok.com

The Pink Stuff is a full brand of cleaning products made by Stardust, known for its unique look and smell as well as its effectiveness. The brand is mostly known for the Pink Stuff Cleaning Paste. Stardust’s unforgettable pink paste popped up repeatedly in trending content to solve everything from shoe cleaning to grout whitening. Curious viewers bought it and shared their own videos proving its quality and presenting new ways to use it. It wasn’t long before the brand was a best seller on Amazon, proving how vital finding your niche is to sell Amazon products on TikTok.

How The Pink Stuff Went Viral on TikTok

Unlike the other products on our list, The Pink Stuff’s internet fame was accidental. The product was pre-destined for social media success due to its affordable price, versatility, and eye-catching branding. Its popularity was further aided by TikTok’s most undervalued trait – its niche communities. In this case, the “CleanTikTok” side of TikTok shared The Pink Stuff with the world. In this community, household cleaning hacks, before/after videos, and supremely organized spaces are shared and showcased. 

The Pink Stuff’s success proves that social media trends aren’t exclusive to fashion and beauty. If you have a high-quality product with visually appealing packaging or branding, there is a niche community ready to broadcast it to millions of people. In this case, Stardust was lucky that the cleaning community of TikTok found its products organically. But nothing is stopping you from exploring the niche communities thriving on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest, who will happily advertise your products for you. 

3) Olaplex Hair Products

One of Amazon’s newest stores, Olaplex Hair Products, sells products for healthier hair, including one that conditions strands after bleaching or straightening. Just six weeks after being added to Amazon’s store, Olaplex reached more than 10 million views, and its products are all over the Amazon Internet Famous store.

Source / Instagram.com

Olaplex’s Winning Social Media Advertising Strategy

Similar to The Pink Stuff, Olaplex has gained internet fame by tapping into a dedicated audience. At-home beauty and hair care tutorials have existed on Youtube, Instagram, and other platforms for the better part of a decade. Bloggers and stylists have featured Olaplex products in their content since 2016. The company developed a direct-to-consumer marketing strategy focusing on these influencers and highlighting posts and videos of satisfied buyers. 

Now that Olaplex has a good grasp of digital advertising, it has an intentional, viral-worthy campaign to follow with every new product release. Contributions from professional influencers give Olaplex a highly respected reputation in the beauty communities of major social media platforms, optimizing their organic reach. The company pairs this with a healthy amount of hashtag campaigns and paid sponsor ads highlighting videos, photos, and quotes from real people. By promoting user-generated content, Olaplex ads and posts blend perfectly into users’ social media feeds and achieved high engagement rates.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an example of how to make a product go viral, look no further than these three sellers. They all used different strategies that helped their products Amazon Internet Famous status, and they can serve as great inspiration if you want your own product to succeed on popular social media platforms.

It’s possible to make your products go viral, but it will take a lot of work and creativity. With TikTok ads becoming increasingly popular, now is the time to invest in a TikTok ad agency before it’s too late!

Make a Call to Action that Sells: Best CTA Words, Phrases, Examples

A call to action (CTA) is your chance to turn a lead into a conversion. For this reason, it is an essential aspect of your marketing and advertising strategy. Whether it’s for email marketing campaigns, advertisements, or landing pages, a CTA is crucial to success, and a lackluster call-to-action can make well-crafted content fall short. 

Writing the best call to action for your web content can be a little tricky, however. That’s why in this article, you’ll get to know more about what a call to action is. We’ll highlight some calls to action examples, how to write CTAs, and what an ideal call to action phrase looks like. 

What is a call to action?

A call to action is a marketing tactic and term that describes any design to prompt an immediate response or sale. CTAs can be graphical illustrations, phrases, signages on web content, ad campaigns, etc. It’s telling the reader of that blog post, ad copy, or ad video, “Oh, since you love this, here’s how you can partake in it.” Call to action statements guide the consumer of that content on how to buy what you are selling.

A CTA can be used in several instances, including blog posts, web pages, landing pages, copies, email marketing campaigns, online bios, etc. Recently, call to action social media posts are increasing in popularity as well. 

It’s safe to say that the idea of what a call to action should achieve is relatively uniform: sales, conversions, sign-ups, subscriptions. If your calls to action aren’t getting people to buy your product or service, sign up on your platform, or aren’t achieving your objectives, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and make a better CTA.

So the next question is: How do you go about writing a call to action?

There are a few fundamentals to start with:

Clarity: A call to action isn’t a lengthy or wordy speech; it’s just 2-10 words. Keep it short, clear, and straightforward.Call for action: Your CTA has to elicit an action from the viewer. You want your reader to do something, so your CTA should have a verb (e.g., “download,” “get,” “discover,” “talk”).Make it pop: Your call to action adverts, website call to action, or call to action button should stand out from the rest of the text, theme, or layout of your content. Where to put your call to action button or call to action advertising is solely your call, but experts have argued that putting it above the page fold is more effective. This means your page visitor does not have to scroll down to see the CTA.

By and large, an ideal approach to CTA marketing is to lace the word(s) or phrase(s) with an imperative mood like a pseudo-commanding tone, e.g. “Click to join,” or “Start now.” This essentially shakes your potential customer off the fence of indecisiveness. 

Your reader should feel like this decision is low-risk, but has high value. Therefore, writing persuasively and creating a sense of urgency or FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a compelling call-to-action marketing tactic.

Call to action examples

Let’s go through some examples of call to action formats and phrases that you can use as inspiration.

Call to Action Images

Pictures and images are worth a thousand words. That’s why a lot of companies like Square opt for this type of format:

 Source / SquareUp.com

Source / Blog.Wishpond.com

Remember when we talked about the position of your marketing call to action and the importance of keeping everything above the page fold? Above are practical examples from Square and MVMT. Everything from signing in to making a purchase can be are accessible from the homepage.

Here’s another example from Netflix:

Source / Netflix.com

Notice the imperative tone: “Get started,” “Watch anywhere.” 

Here’s another call to action example:

Source / Avg.com

AVG kept it simple. The company made its CTA pop out and kept everything above the page fold. Take a second look; it’s telling you that you can download the AVG antivirus software for “FREE” by just clicking on the green button, even though you’ll still need to part with some cash if you wish to secure additional protection for your PC. They kept their call-to-action focused on the free version of their software, which though is an option, lowers the risk factor that keeps most users away from considering paid subscriptions. 

CTAs in Graphics

Depending on your business values or ideology, you may choose to use graphic designs with more colorful illustrations to execute your marketing call to action.
 Source / Blog.Wishpond.com

Here’s Zendesk, a leading customer service software provider using a clean graphic design on their website’s home page.

Social Media/ Text CTAs

As a copywriter or social media manager, your marketing skills come in handy if you can mesmerize a potential customer with a killer ad copy and the best call to action words. 

Source / Blog.Hubspot.com

This post advertising Nemo Hornet 2P Tent has a more subtle CTA with a sense of humor. It’s a great example of how calls to action can be used more subtly on social media, boosted by the text surrounding it.

The Best Call to Action Words and Phrases

In the digital advertising space, a lot of time, effort, and money are spent on web and graphic designs, page layout, user interface, and more. Because of this, sometimes little attention is given to the CTA button. It’s more than a button or link; it’s an expression and reflection of what your ad copy is all about. Inject some dynamism and creativity and choose a phrase tailored to your ad campaign.

Looking for a list containing the best call-to-action words might be a long shot, but here are some call to action words and phrases that have proven effective. These could also pass for call to action button examples:

Get StartedSign Up FreeCreate AccountLearn MoreExploreDiscoverGet __% OffTry for FreeShop NowConclusion

To wrap things up, paying more attention to your call to action will do your marketing project a whole world of good. For most successful CTAs, the devil is in the detail. Speak according to your brand identity, be creative, be clear and concise, use action verbs, sprinkle a little bit of witty humor if need be, and viola! You’ll be good to go.

Creating a Powerful Instagram Reels Ad in 4 Steps

Source / Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Creating a Powerful Instagram Reels Ad in 4 Steps

In mid-June, Instagram introduced Reels ads, a new way to reach customers and grow your audience. It’s intended to reach users who aren’t following your account yet, instead of ads targeting people who already follow your account. Reels ads officially launched a couple of months after their April announcement that they would start testing them in Australia, Brazil, Germany, and India. According to the statement, nearly all Instagram users follow a brand on the platform, and many of them use Reels to find new businesses and creators.

Reels ads are full-screen and vertical, and they show up in between single, non-ad Reels on Instagram. However, to be shown an ad, the user has to be in watching Reels in full-screen. Like regular Reels, the short-form video ads will loop, and they can be up to 30 seconds long. Users can comment, like, save and share Reels ads, too, just as they do with other Instagram posts. And they can also skip, hide and report ads if they don’t like what they see (which is the same for all types of Instagram ads).

It’s unclear how often each user will see a Reels ad, but it will likely vary based on how much that specific user is on Instagram.

Before we talk more about making powerful Instagram Reels advertisements, let’s make sure you understand what Instagram Reels are.

What Are Instagram Reels?

Instagram Reels are relatively new – they were announced in August 2020. Reels seem to be Instagram’s version of TikTok – you can record

and edit 30-second videos (which can include multiple clips, if you want), and you can add audio and effects to them.

Reels can be shared with your followers via the feed, as opposed to Stories, which have a designated area at the top of Instagram. To indicate that content is a Reel, you’ll sometimes see this icon on the top-right:

Source / @potterybarn

Reels can also be found in the dedicated tab on Instagram’s homepage, the Explore page, and Stories. Plus, there’s a section of your profile where all of your Reels can be accessed:

Source / @instagram

How to Create an Instagram Reels Ad

Right now, Instagram doesn’t have any unique templates for creating a Reels ad, possibly because they assume that creators already know how to make Instagram Reels. Instagram Stories ads have been around for a while, after all, and TikTok has, too. For many, the medium isn’t foreign.

That said, before you jump into creating Reels for your Instagram ads campaign, you should play around with making regular, non-ad IG Reels. Instagram has an excellent overview of how to create and share Reels to get you started.

When you’re ready to create a Reels ad, do the following:

Go to your Ads Manager, which you’ll access through Facebook.Set an objective for your ad.Choose your general ad settings, like your budget and when you want them to run.Select Manual Placements, then choose Instagram and Instagram Reels.On the next page, you’ll upload your video and select a few more settings, like which Instagram account to connect the ad to.Once you’re finished, publish the ad.

Ads Manager has a ton of options, which means there’s a pretty steep learning curve. If this is your first time using the system, set your budget low as you get familiar with all of the settings and what they mean for performance and spending.

4 Tips for Creating Instagram Reels AdsHighlight a moment

Reels ads are pretty short, capping at 30 seconds. If your scope for the content is too broad, you’ll create a vague, uninteresting ad. Instead, focus your Instagram Reels advertisements on a single moment: ideally, one that has the potential to go viral. Whatever it is you’re sharing – an event, an announcement, behind-the-scenes footage – pick out the most important or outstanding part of it.

Add sound

For Instagram Reels, audio is important. This is its most defining characteristic compared to Stories content, which should function with the sound off. It is also another way that Reels are similar to TikTok, where half of the experience is the audio. When creating a Reels ad, add music that you have the license for or add original audio attributed to your brand. Also, be aware of your global audience. You may want to create different ads with their own audio to match the location where you’re promoting them in.

Research your competition

Which of your competitors are creating Reels, and what is the audience reaction to them? Pay attention to the Reels that your target audience engages with the most, then use that information to decide the type of content you should focus on. For example, throwback content may not perform very well, but bite-sized tips for getting more out of a product or service may get a lot of comments or shares.

Bonus Tip: On top of researching your competitors, you can also check out how influencers in your industry are creating Reels.

Prioritize quality over quantity

You don’t have to create a lot of Reels or Reels ads to have an impact on your audience. Just one ad can get a ton of views, so focus more on the quality of the content you put out than how many you create. You also don’t want to detract from Instagram’s other powerful content types and ads, like regular feed photos, IGTV, and Stories.

Wrapping Up

Just like TikTok content, IG Reels appeal to a younger audience. If that’s your audience – or it’s a segment you want to engage with more – adding Reels to your Instagram advertising strategy can help increase your reach and brand awareness. Remember, though: Reels are for short-form content. If your advertising on Instagram focuses on long-form content – or you’re using Reels to tease a longer video – you can use IGTV.

Want to get even more out of your platforms? Check out our article about using social media to drive customer retention.

How to Go Live on TikTok

It’s very easy to go live on TikTok. By tapping a few buttons on your screen, you can broadcast your actions to thousands of people on the go. TikTok is a powerful social media app. On TikTok, you can build a fantastic community of people. One of the best ways to engage those following you is by going live. 

Not everyone can use TikTok Live. There are requirements you must meet before going live on TikTok. Once you meet these requirements, as a TikTok user, you can engage your viewers and grow your audience. 

For first-time users, going Live may not come naturally. But in this brief guide, we’ll intimate you with the step-by-step process of the TikTok live stream. 

REQUIREMENTS TO USE TIKTOK LIVE

The requirements to go live on TikTok are pretty stringent regarding age and follower count, unlike most other social media platforms. But these policies ensure quality content sharing on the TikTok app and a safe, fun environment for the platform’s community: 

You must be at least 16 years old.You must have at least 1000 followers as a TikTok user. 

The above are the two essential features that make the TikTok Live function available to you. However, more Live features accrue to those above 18 years. For example, users between 16 and 18 cannot use the ‘gift’ feature on TikTok. 

How to Use TikTok Live

Once you get the TikTok Live feature, here is a rundown of how to do your first Live Stream and more. 

Step 1: Open the TikTok app on your phone. You most likely already have a TikTok account. Sign in. Step 2: At the bottom of your screen, click the Create (+) button. Step 3: The swipe to the Live ButtonStep 4: Pick any image and create a title for your LivestreamStep 5: When set, click on ‘Go Live’

Voila! You are Live on TikTok. If you want to make any setting change, click on the three dots at the screen’s bottom. But, before you go try out the TikTok live video feature, let’s take a look at how you can make the most of the sessions. 

Make the Most of TikTok Live & Get Followers

As with every other social media platform, the aim is to grow your following. Some persons are on TikTok for fun. However, if you need to grow your followers and get more likes, TikTok Live can help. It’s not just about clicking on the live button and doing whatever; there are tricks and tips to make the most of the feature. 

Choose the Best Time 

Many persons wonder when the best time for TikTok Live is. As the user, you need to figure this out on your own. First, though, there are general assumptions of the best time to post anything on TikTok. The most critical factor in determining time is knowing when your followers engage the most. Do your TikTok Live when you notice them be most active. You can study this over one or two weeks. 

Join a Challenge

By doing your TikTok Live in response to a hashtag, more people will likely find you. When you create a live video with a hashtag, people click on other posts and find yours in related content. When they see you and like your content, they stay. 

Show behind the Scenes

As a creator, your audience is interested in seeing the behind-the-scenes of your content creation process.. Showing behind-the-scenes clips can go a long way in building a deeper connection with your followers.  

Final Take

Going live on TikTok is easy if you meet the age and follower minimums. . Despite hitting the requirement, you have lots of work to do if your TikTok live will translate into better engagement and followers. But you’ll never know if TikTok live will work if you don’t try. So give it a shot now!

You Can Hide Likes On Instagram Now—but Should You?

One of the more controversial decisions that Instagram has made recently was allowing users to hide the number of likes they receive. The social media platform made this decision to curb the competitiveness of the app and protect the mental health of its users. However, if you use Instagram a help promote yourself and your brand, this update begs an important question:

You can hide likes on Instagram, but should you?

Does hiding likes impact Instagram’s algorithm?

Whenever we talk about Instagram strategies, we need to start with the algorithm.

If you’re not familiar, the Instagram algorithm decides what content gets seen by who. Every time you log onto Instagram, the algorithm is in charge of filling your feed with other people’s posts and determining what you see as you scroll. The algorithm works by looking at your past behavior, making a sweep of all available content, and then evaluating each post to predict how interesting it will be to you. The algorithm then shoots posts that it expects will be the most interesting to you straight to the top of your feed. 

If you’re a regular user, this just means you have a more personalized feed. If you’re a creator, brand, or influencer, though, understanding how the algorithm works ensures you’re making content it determines feed-worthy. It’s the difference between walking to your destination versus taking a high-speed train.

The Instagram algorithm ranks content based on factors like:

RelationshipInterestTimelinessFrequency of useFollowing Session time

In other words, the algorithm takes many different factors into account when deciding to show your content to others, so likes clearly aren’t everything. And if you decide to hide likes on your posts, the algorithm will still use the same factors to find high-quality, personalized content for Instagram users.

However, likes are still the easiest way for you to get a glimpse of how well your posts are performing, what kind of posts they like more than others, etc. In a way, it’s your indicator that the algorithm is picking up on a few of these more subtle factors you can’t observe on your own. By hiding likes, you’re not changing how well your posts are received or how well the algorithm picks it up; you’re merely drawing the curtain on this window into your content’s performance to avoid the impact that has on you personally.

So that being said, should you hide your likes or not?

Is it a good idea to hide your likes?

Now that hiding your likes is an option, it might be worth giving it a try for a little to see how it works. Additionally, your mental health is far more important than social media stats, no matter how influential your account is or you want it to be. So if numbers aren’t a concern to you or if your priorities need to shift to protect your emotional wellbeing, hide those likes! 

But if you’re in the latter category, consider coming back once you find yourself in a better headspace. Instagram is an app that’s all about connecting with others and building relationships, after all. As trivial as it may seem at times, seeing who is liking and connecting with other people’s content is a big part of the app’s user experience. Even if you don’t get a lot of likes on your content, it’s not anything to be ashamed of. It’s likely your page just hasn’t been around for long enough, your content needs to be improved, or you need to give it a little more time. Your focus should be on creating quality content, not likes (or trying to hide them).

Growing your Instagram following is like picking up a new hobby or skill;  starting out can be intimidating, and it’s easy to compare yourself to people who have been doing it for years. It might seem like a good idea to stop tracking your progress so that you have nothing to compare yourself to. But believe it or not, people (even strangers) enjoy watching you progress over time. It’s much better to share your growth and success with others and allow them to be a part of it than it is to try and hide your progress.

Because just like Instagram’s algorithm, your posts and following are going to continue to progress in the same way for the same reasons, even if you hide the likes that prove it.

For more tips on how you can continue to build your Instagram following, check out “How To Build A Strong Instagram In 2021 And Beyond.”

Amazon Sponsored Display Ads Are Now on Twitch

Last month, Amazon launched Sponsored Display ads on Twitch, a popular live-streaming platform. 

Amazon has been continuously expanding Sponsored Display ads to a few of its other subsidiaries, such as Kindle. Featuring Sponsored Display ads on Twitch is an exciting development for sellers that are invested or interested in Amazon advertising; the streaming platform has untapped potential for brands to reach a wide audience that is rapidly growing, and Amazon’s tools for Sponsored Display ad campaigns make it easier than ever to do.

What are Sponsored Display Ads?

Sponsored Display is an advertising tool that leverages omnichannel marketing for vendors and sellers on Amazon. It offers more flexibility and accessibility to those who might not have the budget, time, or resources to use display advertising otherwise. It can also be used in conjunction with Amazon DSP to boost their ad campaigns by reaching new audiences and/or targeting specific products.

Why Advertise on Twitch?

Twitch boasts 30 million daily visitors on average – a 19.2% increase from last quarter. Better yet, their audience is highly engaged. Last month, they watched over 1.9 billion hours of content from millions of unique streamers. The global community revolves largely around gaming, e-sports, and music. However, as Twitch continues to gain popularity, its variety of content increases accordingly; channels streaming art projects, podcasts, or even just casual conversations have gained a following in Twitch’s rapidly-growing “IRL” category.  

In other words, having Sponsored Display ads on Twitch isn’t exclusively beneficial to sellers and brands targeting young gamers. Though the majority of the platform’s users are 34 or younger, there are a variety of communities and interests that Sponsored Display ads can tap into — and they’re large enough to give sellers TV-level reach.    

Sponsor Display ads will be placed on Twitch’s Browse and Discovery pages, and will only be available to ad campaigns based in the following countries: USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 

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