The Marketer’s Guide to Instagram Stories: Building Your Brand and Generating Sales

Out of all of the different facets of digital marketing, social media tends to change with the most immediate and drastic results.

There is always a new platform emerging for marketers to look into and master to stay ahead of the trends.

And with algorithms on big platforms like Facebook always evolving, you have to stay on your toes as you figure out how to engage on them.

However, through all the change, there is one thing that remains consistent:

Users want to engage with brands in a personal way.

For this purpose, Instagram stands apart from all other platforms. It’s one of the best places for you to promote brand engagement with your users.

It’s grown by 1,400% in just the last five years. With growth like that, it’s a no-brainer for marketers to implement Instagram into their social strategies.

In particular, Instagram Stories makes easy for marketers to engage with users, humanize their brands, create leads, and generate customers on the platform.

They’re a great tool for showing potential customers (and existing ones) why your brand is relatable or interesting.

So, how do you get the most out of Instagram Stories?

That’s what this guide is here to help with. It will give you ways to use Instagram Stories to build your brand and convert leads and sales.

1. Show what makes your brand fun and relatable

All marketers know that social media engagement is important. It’s one of the best ways to develop trust from prospects.

And the more they trust you, the more likely they are to become loyal customers.

While all social media platforms are great avenues for driving audience engagement and ultimately sales, Instagram is on a whole different level.

Of the 700 million users on Instagram, 500 million users are active on a daily basis.

Instagram also excels in terms of engagement. 68% of users regularly engage with brands on Instagram while only 32% of users regularly engage with brands on Facebook.

Why? Because features like Instagram Stories make it easy for brands to show themselves in a fun and interesting light. It’s easier than ever to humanize a brand.

Tarte Cosmetics does this well. The brand regularly travels to exotic places for photo shoots of new products or company bonding trips. And when they travel, they bring their followers along on the adventure.

From showing products that they’ve staged for shoots in Bora Bora to showing team members on a mother/daughter retreat in Hawaii, Tarte uses Instagram Stories to give followers insight into what it means to be a “Tartlet.”

Lululemon is another great example. Being a popular fitness clothing brand, the Instagram team at lululemon regularly takes followers through their own personal fitness journeys using Stories.

From live yoga practices to cooking healthy meals, the brand gives great insight into how employees are working toward the same goals as their followers.

Just recently, lululemon took viewers on one employee’s daily run through Austin, Texas.

You experience the route she took, the music she was listening to, and the trials she had along the way. Instagram Stories like this make it very easy to relate to a brand.

2. Take advantage of Instagram Stories features to interact with your audience

Instagram Stories give marketers a variety of ways to facilitate easy interaction with users.

With features like geographical location tagging, hashtags, polls, gifs, stickers, and more, growing your following and facilitating brand engagement is simple. You just need a little creativity.

Features like hashtags and geotagging make it easy for users to find you based on location and interest.

If you’re a local business, geotagging is vital when it comes to your interaction on Instagram Stories.

Each time you enter a city, Instagram aggregates Stories that other users have geotagged in your location.

This is a great opportunity for small businesses and city tourism brands as they can utilize geotagging to show Instagram users exciting things taking place around them.

Carrigan Farms, which is in the small town of Mooresville, North Carolina, takes advantage of geotagging to show users in the area the fun activities visitors can take part in at the farm.

With a huge water quarry on the property, Carrigan Farms visitors can jump off of cliffs into the deep, clean water.

Capturing and sharing videos of these activities on the farm’s Story with geotagging brings awareness to others in the area of the fun they could have on the farm.

Hashtags make it easy for users to find your content based on topic.

Many brands or celebrities will have a hashtag that they use across social media so that anyone looking for content about the brand or person can easily find it.

For instance, Justin Timberlake just recently canceled shows up north due to the massive snow storms.

In addition to his publicity team notifying showgoers of the cancellation via email and his website, he posted to his Instagram Story.

Using hashtag #MOTWTOUR, he added another way to notify his fans who have been following along with his tour on social media about the cancellation.

Items like gifs and stickers enable brands to add to images and videos that they share on Instagram Stories.

Lake Norman Surf Co., which is on Lake Norman in North Carolina, offers wakesurfing lessons. The brand regularly uses stickers and gifs to demonstrate their light attitude.

Just recently, Lake Norman Surf Co. shared a video of the lake water and used a sticker to show the temperature. They did this to remind their followers that wakesurfing season is coming.

The poll feature, which Instagram recently rolled out, is a creative way to create easy interactions with followers.

As a marketer, you always want feedback from our prospects and customers.

Polls on Instagram Stories provide a way for you to get that feedback from fans while making your audience feel like your brand is empowering them.

Companies can utilize polls to ask fans anything!

Ask about their opinions on new products, how often they’d like to receive brand emails, their favorite kinds of sales, what kind of content they’d like to see from your brand on social media, and so on.

Perhaps you’re a clothing company, and you’re wondering if your fans are ready to see summer transitional pieces or if they are still looking for winter/spring clothing. In that case, use a poll.

Or maybe you’re an outdoor adventure gear company, and you’re wondering if your fans prefer to see behind-the-scenes stories from product shoots of if they prefer to just see the new products.

Ask them in a poll.

For instance, HomeGoods and Kurgo will often show items in their shops and ask followers which color they prefer.

This is an interactive way to get followers interested in new product rollouts. They might come in and purchase the color of the item that they chose from the poll.

Some sports teams and leagues will even use polls that ask fans who they think will win the big game.

These are fun ways for followers to engage with a brand and feel important.

3. Host Instagram takeovers with Instagram influencers

Adding Instagram influencers to your social media marketing strategy is an invaluable way to both increase your follower base and drive sales.

You can classify Instagram influencers in the micro (1,000 to 100,000 followers) level or the macro (100,000+ followers) level.

There are many types of influencers. You can find celebrities, TV stars, bloggers, and even animals!

There are two ways that an Instagram Takeover can work: An influencer can take over your account for a day, or your brand can take over their account for the day.

Leading up to a takeover, both the influencer and the brand regularly remind followers when it will be taking place.

This builds the hype and reminds users where to tune in. Here’s an example from Kurgo.

Another dog brand that regularly hosts Instagram Takeovers is BarkBox.

The popular dog box subscription brand will allow major dog accounts on Instagram to take over the account for the day.

During the takeover, you get a hilarious inside look at a day in the life of that pup.

Throughout the day, they add plugs for BarkBox products from the BarkShop that users can purchase, and they typically offer a coupon for followers to subscribe with a free starter box.

4. Increase your lead generation and sales by adding links

At the end of the day, we’re digital marketers. If our efforts aren’t generating leads and sales, we’re not impacting the company’s bottom line.

So how do all of these visual storytelling and humanizing tactics impact lead generation and sales conversion?

Well, storytelling boosts conversions by 30% when you use it to answer customer questions.

If you’re not telling good stories, you need to get on board. As many as 78% of enterprise marketers believe that their team is very or extremely effective when it comes to storytelling.

With the new “Swipe Up” link feature on Stories, Instagram has revolutionized the way brands can convert users through social media.

The “Swipe Up” feature allows brands to add links to pictures and videos that they share on Instagram Stories.

This makes it simple to move a prospect through the sales funnel directly from Instagram. All that a user has to do is swipe up with their finger.

Here are three ways to generate leads and sales using this feature.

1. Share your web content to generate leads and sales.

By now, it’s old news that content is king.

And generating remarkable content is important for SEO, lead generation, lead nurturing, customer retention, and lots more.

Instagram gives marketers another great way to get their content in front of new prospects, existing leads, and customers. How?

Brands can share a relevant photo or video with Instagram Stories and link to any piece of content – a blog, a page on the site, a YouTube video, an e-book, and more!

This lets a brand bring users back to their website to interact with the company on a deeper level. And it works.

During March of 2017, over 120 million Instagram users visited a website, got directions, or contacted a business to learn more about them from Instagram. That’s a lot of interaction with businesses in one month!

Explore Canada does an excellent job of using links in Instagram Stories to drive users to its blogs.

The tourism company partners with many country-wide travel groups and implements links on Instagram Stories to share travel guides.

The example below uses links in Stories to bring users to a blog post that offers tips for planning a trip to the Great White North. At the end of the blog, they give the reader an opportunity to reach out to a travel agent, thus securing the lead.

These types of tactics are great for getting users to engage with your website and convert to a lead.

You can also use Stories to promote an immediate sale from Instagram.

In fact, at least 30% of Instagram users have purchased a product that they first discovered on Instagram.

Why is that?

Because 62% of consumers use social media when deciding whether or not they want to purchase a product or service.

This makes sense since photos influence purchase decisions even more than videos do.

One of the most valuable features that Instagram Stories gives marketers is the ability to include a link that brings users directly to the purchase page of a product.

This feature eliminates the need to visit a company’s website, find the item you saw on Instagram, and then make a purchase.

Instead, it facilitates the impulse buy. It puts the product right in front of a user with the swipe of a finger.

Pottery Barn regularly uses Instagram Stories to drive users to its products.

In this example, Pottery Barn uses Stories to show beautiful pictures of new products from the collection with Jamie Durie, HGTV’s beloved Australian landscape artist.

After enticing users with a few behind-the-scenes pictures of the collection, they invite users to ‘See More’ by clicking the link to browse products.

Target also uses Instagram Stories to promote impulse buys.

Across the brand’s two platforms, Target and Target Style, the company shows products that designers have staged. Followers can to swipe up and purchase.

2. Utilize Instagram influencer and brand ambassador endorsements.

Let’s come back to Instagram influencers. Right now, 95% of influencers report Instagram as their favorite social media platform to work on.

So, how does influencer marketing on Instagram work?

In a nutshell, brands build relationships with Instagram influencers and brand ambassadors by offering them a free or discounted product to promote with Instagram Stories and in their feed.

They also give the influencer a coupon code so that their followers can shop at a discount.

It’s relatively easy to attach a dollar amount to enlisting an Instagram influencer, too. You can use digital marketing tactics like custom URLs or give influencers tracking URLs to use in their Stories.

While enlisting Instagram influencers is common throughout all industries, marketers especially use them within the beauty, fashion, and fitness communities.

Past Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise contestant Jen Saviano is constantly promoting brands as an Instagram influencer through her stories.

Jen has a whopping 203,000 followers on Instagram.

And according to SocialBlade, that number is only going to increase.

She uses her feed and stories to promote a variety of products that range from clothing to makeup, jewelry, vitamins, furniture, food subscription boxes, and more.

She posts a product she loves with a coupon code and a link to shop in her Instagram Story daily.

Fashion blogger Katy Harrell is another example. With 187,000 followers, she is constantly modeling for clothing boutiques, offering clothing reviews, sale updates, and coupon codes.

Boutiques nationwide work with mumuandmacaroons to have her share updates on her Instagram Stories about their businesses and products.

With her Southern drawl and honest reviews, it works.

Plus, rather than seeking out Instagram influencers to promote products and sing praises, some brands hold casting calls for brand ambassadors.

MVMT, the popular jewelry and watch brand, recently held a casting call for brand ambassadors.

In addition to reviewing a candidate’s Instagram’s influence, the company essentially has an application and interview process.

Since most Instagram influencers rely on companies using them to grow their individual brands, they are always looking for businesses to work with.

3. Implement ads on Instagram Stories.

As the number of users on Instagram continues to grow, so does the number of ads on the platform. In 2017, the number of ads grew by 28% in just six months.

In a year, the number of ad posts doubled. And it’s easy to understand why:

They work.

Instagram uses Facebook’s advertising system, which has unparalleled targeting ability.

You can target ads based on an audience’s interests, behaviors, demographics, language, location, and more.

And since Instagram and Facebook share the same ad platform, brands can choose whether they want their ad to run on Instagram Stories, in the Instagram feed, or on Facebook.

When ads run on Stories, users often don’t even realize that they’re seeing them. The ads flow smoothly as the user transitions from one story to the next.

La Mer, a high-end skin care line uses Instagram ads to reach users of a certain age who have shown interest in similar brands.

The brand uses a short film to express the type of woman who uses La Mer.

The ad includes a link at the bottom that allows viewers to swipe up and shop the skin care line.

4. To implement Instagram Stories well, be prepared to respond to direct messages.

In order to implement Instagram Stories to build your brand and convert more leads and sales, companies have to be prepared to respond to a heightened influx of direct messages (or DMs).

A direct message is a message that a user privately sends to your business account on Instagram.

At the bottom of each Instagram Story that does not include a link, users will see a message bar. This tool enables a viewer to easily DM the brand.

While this is feature is an excellent way to narrow the gap between brands and followers on Instagram, it can be detrimental to a brand if they aren’t diligent about responding.

Everything on Instagram is at the touch of a finger for users. It’s easy for them to get the content and information they crave on this social platform.

So, if a brand isn’t quick to respond to a DM, the user who sent it will go elsewhere to find the answer.

That’s why it’s important for marketers to be aware of their customer response times on Instagram.

As you begin actively using Instagram Stories, you need to put a strategy in place for responding to direct messages from followers.

Conclusion

Understanding how Instagram Stories works and the benefits marketers can gain from it is half the battle. Now, what you do with the information is what matters.

With its unique visual storytelling ability and strong conversion methods, marketers in any industry and any consumer base can use Instagram Stories.

It’s a weapon you need to have in your social media arsenal.

Take advantage of the ease of engaging with fans by using Instagram Stories to build your brand.

Show what makes your brand fun and relatable. Implement the features within Stories to easily engage with your audience and help people find your brand on the platform.

Build relationships with Instagram influencers to expand your brand and gain the stamp of approval from a trusted source on the platform.

Then, grow your leads and sales using the link feature.

Put your web content and products at the fingertips of your prospects and buyers on Instagram Stories.

Utilize relationships with brand ambassadors and Instagram influencers to have them promote your products and services and encourage fans to shop.

Test the waters within Instagram Ads to discover the ROI of putting some of your marketing budget toward Stories.

Don’t forget to have quality response times as your brand’s Instagram becomes a regular gateway for consumer conversation.

And as you go forth building out your social strategy on Instagram Stories, keep in mind that no marketing action is worth taking if you can’t measure the results.

Be sure to utilize tracking URLs, custom coupon codes, and lead/customer sourcing to determine how your use of Instagram Stories is impacting your overall marketing strategy and goals.

How will you use Instagram Stories to grow your brand and increase your leads and sales?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/the-marketers-guide-to-instagram-stories-building-your-brand-and-generating-sales/

Solo Ads Traffic Mega PLR Review

Solo Ads Traffic Mege PLR – what is it? Solo Ads Traffic is a new PLR product that has just been launched, you will learn how to use solo ads correctly to build your business. The best part, you can learn from it and then earn from it by selling it to others who are looking for this information.

Solo ads are underestimated. 90% of people who use solo ads fail in using them correctly the first time, not giving them that incentive to continue. The biggest problem is people use solo ads incorrectly by trying to entice people to buy something. However, it’s best to use solo ads to lead them to an opt-in page where you can capture them on your own list.

Solo Ads Traffic Mega PLR is a fully packed PLR product that contains everything you’ll be needing to learn from it or to sell it. This product has been created and writing in English by professionals in this field and then edited by a team of professional proofreaders from the USA, UK, and Australia.

Not only you’ll learn a lot from this package itself, but you will also get a full course that focuses on a hot niche topic that’s in demand that contains…

• Module 1: High-Quality Ebook – Written by English professionals, unique and not copied or rehashed.
• Module 2: Checklist – A full checklist outlining all the key topics within the main guide, so you can check off what you’ve learned.
• Module 3: Resource Cheat Sheet – A full resource cheat guide outlining all the best websites and tools. Very useful in saving you time.
• Module 4: Mindmap – A great way to give your buyers a visual overview about this training course and pinpointing the main focal points.
• Module 5: Ready-To-Go Sales Letter, Thank You Page & Legal Pages – A complete 5-page minisite that is fully responsive and all ready-to-go.
• Module 6: High Converting Promo Email Swipes – 5 already done for you promotional email swipes that are ready-to-go.
• Module 7: Fully Professional Source Graphic Files – Full source graphic files professionally designed. Easy to modify.
• Module 8: HQ Advertising Banners – Professionally designed web banners. Use as is or edit to your needs.
• Module 9: 10 HQ PLR Articles – 10 High-quality professional written PLR articles that will help you drive even more sales.
• Module 10: Promotional Sale Videos – Get a hypnotic sales videos to entice your visitors and boost conversions.
• Module 11: 10 Unique Top Quality eCovers – A set of 10 high-quality unique ecovers that can be re-branded
• Module 12: 10 Social Media Posters – A collection of 10 social media posts, great for social media marketing.
• Module 13: License Package – A set of four licenses for your customers and you (PLR, MRR, RR and PU).

The following blog post was first seen on Solo Ads Traffic Mega PLR Review

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/solo-ads-traffic-mega-plr-review/

Vidmonial Review | Huge Bonus + Vidmonial Demo

You can watch the video on Youtube here : https://youtu.be/saSPsuK9t6I

Via Review And Bonus Channel

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/vidmonial-review-huge-bonus-vidmonial-demo/

Vidmonial Review : Bonus + Demo

Vidmonial – what is it? Vidmonial is revolutionary cloud-based platform integrated with new video technology that fully automates the processes of capturing and displaying authentic video testimonials. Video testimonials are the most powerful selling tool today and you can fully eliminate the painstaking process of getting them for you or your clients with this groundbreaking cloud tool.

Imagine if you had a new video tool that could instantly create trust, triple conversions, and even drive traffic to you or your client’s sites with no work needed on your part. Sounds too good to be true right? Well, think again because that’s exactly what Vidmonial does!

Finally, you can fully automate the process of capturing, embedding, and sharing authentic video testimonials for you or your clients as a service. With Vidmonial you can :

• 10x Conversions and Trust – Increase sales conversions by leveraging the most important asset toward building trust and authenticity today.
• Drive “Warmed-Up” Traffic – Syndicate the testimonials to YouTube & FB for easy traffic + download to use in ads campaigns
• Sell Commercially and Profit – Every business needs more video testimonials no matter the size, so this is an exciting (and very profitable) opportunity to quickly profit from.

It’s common sense now that if you don’t have reviews for your products and services, your sales will suffer immensely. But, even pages loaded with glowing five star reviews aren’t enough to guarantee trust and conversion anymore if their just plain text testimonials.

In today’s more transparent internet, visitors need to hear feedback from your customer’s mouth directly in the form of a video testimonial. Next to a solid product, positive video testimonials are maybe the single most important aspect of your business when it comes to building trust and selling.

Not only are video testimonials proven to significantly boost conversions, but video testimonials are now the best pieces of marketing material for getting traffic especially when used in Facebook ads campaigns today!

The following article was first seen on Vidmonial Review : Bonus + Demo

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/vidmonial-review-bonus-demo/

8 Need-to-Know E-Commerce Image Optimization Hacks

Ever wonder why your product image doesn’t show up when you do a Google search for your product?

Wonder if that big product image on your new landing page might cause slower loading speeds for your customers?

What about conversions? Are your web conversions suffering because you haven’t optimized your images?

Images that aren’t optimized can negatively affect site performance, and therefore, conversions.

And what about customer retention?

Boosting customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 95%.

And it’s 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one!

Most marketers aren’t coders or designers. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand the basics of the tech that plays such a huge role in your conversions and retention.

This means you should absolutely know how to optimize an image.

Here’s why understanding image optimization is so important:

Because images account for more bytes than any other part of a website, especially e-commerce sites, their size and complexity can make or break your web performance.

And that impacts your customer retention and conversions.

This is why optimizing images is one of the best ways to improve website performance and SERP rankings.

Take a look at the graph below from HTTP archive. As of March 2018, images make up 50% of website content.

As you can see, image optimization should be a top priority for any marketer, particularly marketers looking to convert visitors to buyers on their website.

In this article, I’m going to teach you the top eight ways to optimize your images. These optimization hacks will improve your conversions, SEO rankings, customer retention, and more.

1. Get familiar with different file types

You can’t make a decision on which file type to use if you don’t understand what the file type is, right?

PNG, JPEG, GIFs.

Marketers know these file types exist. And we all love a good GIF.

But again, marketers often aren’t developers or design experts. And the more tech-driven marketing becomes, the more critical it is to get familiar with some of the basics.

The goal with these file types is to understand which ones will give you more bang for less space.

Since it’s all about decreasing load time for your customers, you need to know which file types will work best for the images on your site.

Let’s look at some pros and cons of the three main file types.

JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEGs are often the file type of choice for photos and images because they mix blue, red, and green light – allowing for the display of millions of colors.

Other file types often don’t allow all colors to show in an image.

Another huge benefit of a JPEG file is that you can adjust the file size.

When you adjust the file size of a JPEG, you’re also adjusting the quality. Higher quality equals higher file size. But, you can often find a nice balance of image quality to size.

It’s vital that file sizes are not too big. This causes slow loading times, sending your customers away and increasing your bounce rate.

When should you use a JPEG?

• Most likely on all your product images
• Photography images
• Images with many colors

Like these product pictures from Zappos:

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)

A couple of years back when Apple and Android incorporated GIFs into phone keyboards, the tiny videos became everyone’s favorite way to express themselves.

But GIFs are more than just fun little videos — they’re compressed versions of photographs or videos. These little, compressed videos only allow 256 colors to show in the image.

A high-quality image might contain thousands of colors.

This means that GIFs aren’t the best choice for images with lots of color variation. But, GIFs are the only choice for animation as they allow for animation without the huge file size.

When should you use a GIF?

• For all animation
• Small images (like thumbnails or icons)
• An image with only a couple of colors (like your logo)

Like this one for Google:

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

PNGs are newer than JPEGs and GIFs. They’re typically larger in file size than JPEGs but better in quality. They also allow for some flexibility because they have two different file types:

1. PNG-8: A smaller file which allows for the same 256 colors that GIFs do.
2. PNG-24: This type allows for millions of colors. This is also the best format for images where quality is more important than file size.

When should you use PNG files?

• When image quality is more important than file size

Like these photographs from Zena Holloway’s website:

Pro tip: Use JPEG for colorful and robust images, use PNG for simple images. Use GIF when something must be animated.

E-commerce marketers should almost always use JPEGs for product photos. Just take a look at the file type comparison below.

JPEG offers a solid balance between the file size and quality.

2. Get the image file size right to increase conversions

There’s a huge difference between “image size” and “file size.”

When we say, “image size” we’re referring to the dimensions of the image, like 852 x 852.

When we say file size, we’re talking about the amount of space required to store the image on your server.

The larger the file size, the longer it takes the image to load.

An image can have large dimensions and still be 2MB or less.

File size is a big deal. It can make or break the performance of your site because every single image must download each time your site is visited.

Your goal is to keep your images at 1 to 2 MB in size. The smaller your image size, the faster your load speeds, meaning a lower bounce rate and more happy customers.

How to resize an image file so that it’s optimized for web performance:

If you don’t have photoshop, no worries. Pixlr is a quick way to resize an image file.

First, go to PIXLR and click on the editor:

Then launch either the Pixlr Editor or Pixlr Express. If you’re just doing a quick resize, Pixlr Express works great.

Next, upload your image to the editor.

Finally, adjust the size by saving the image. As you toggle the image-quality bar, notice that the file size also increases or decreases depending on the quality you choose.

When it comes to finding the right file size for the quality you need, you might have to play around with it for a bit.

Try several sizes on, and go with the smallest file size that still looks good.

Once you’ve got that size-to-quality ratio figured out, then you can apply it to similar images in your store.

It might be a good idea to write this ratio down somewhere.

3. Name your files correctly to improve SEO

What you name your images matters to search engine web crawlers.

Many marketers don’t change the name of a picture from the random number or code assigned by our computers or phones.

It’s important to name your image in a descriptive, to-the-point manner so that search bots can understand what the image is showing.

For example, the puppy image on the left has a much better name than the one on the right:

Nothing against image 89374504, but it doesn’t tell us, or Googlebots, what the image is.

A great image name is descriptive, contains the keyword of your image (like corgis for adoption in NYC.

If you’re selling blue suede shoes, then blue suede shoes should be in the image name.

Keep it straightforward and descriptive to get the best SEO results from your images.

4. Keep your site accessible to all customers with alt tags

Alt tags are descriptions given to an image that exists within your website’s code. This essentially means that what’s in the image is written into the code of your website.

Alt tags help in 3 key ways:

• Visually impaired people using screen readers know what the image is because of an alt attribute. When they hold their cursor over the image, the screen reader can literally read the alt attribute description to them.
• It’s a line of code that tells the browser what’s supposed to be there if an image can’t load properly. This comes in handy if your site’s having loading issues.
• SEO crawlers read them which helps improve your SEO.

For example, the alt text for this limited edition Golden Citrus Foaming Hand Wash is “foaming hand wash.”

The main goal with alt attributes is to make sure they are descriptive, simple, and to-the-point. Much like the file name.

Setting An Alt Text In WordPress

When you upload an image into a website hosted on WordPress, you’ll have the option to give it both a title and an alt attribute.

If you don’t create your own alt tag, then WordPress will automatically make the alt tag the same as the title.

This might be good or bad, depending on what you might need to convey to a visually-impaired customer.

For example, if your image name is blue-boots, you may want to add a few more details to the alt attribute. Like, blue-hiking-boots-mens-size-10.

If you want to change or add an alt attribute, then simply navigate to the image settings and rename the attribute.

Alternate attributes are a must for anyone looking to fully optimize their website. They improve user experience and also help with SEO.

5. Use sitemaps to get your images noticed by Google

Does your e-commerce store contain image galleries? What about pop-ups like a call-to-action or email signup?

These days, consumers love infographics, memes, and videos. Guess what? You should add those to your sitemap too.

A sitemap allows you to optimize these images and videos for Google’s algorithms.

So what’s a Sitemap? To quote Google:

“A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content.”

It allows search engine web crawlers, like Googlebot, to crawl your site intelligently.

In other words, it’s a file that contains a map of all of your site’s content.

Here’s an example of a sitemap:

For video entries you should include:

• Title
• Description
• Play page URL (location)
• Thumbnail URL
• Raw video file URL and/or the video player URL

For image entries you should include:

• Location (Location, or the URL where the image is located is mandatory. All other bullets are optional but recommended)
• Title
• Description
• Caption
• License

Below is a sample video sitemap from Zappos:

If you have tons of images and videos, then you may want to create separate sitemaps for each type of content.

Sitemaps are essential, and you should absolutely add your images, videos, etc. if you’re looking to get your content noticed by Googlebots, Bingbots, and other search engine crawlers.

If your site is hosted on WordPress, you can use Yoast SEO which will automatically add your content (images, videos, etc.) to a sitemap.

If you don’t have Yoast SEO already, it’s easy to install.

Then to have Yoast SEO add your content to a sitemap, just make sure the enable button is on and save changes:

6. Optimize your thumbnails to drive upsells

Remember when you bought that awesome cell phone case just after you upgraded?

You probably found that case at the bottom of the purchase confirmation page just after your payment went through.

That thumbnail image upsold you! These images are a great way to advertise other products to your customers either once they’ve made a purchase or while they’re browsing other products.

Check out how Amazon uses thumbnails at the top to entice customers to click on similar or related products.

An upsell is an add-on, upgrade, or additional product that a seller introduces to you after an initial purchase.

Thumbnail images are often displayed, many at a time, at the bottom of a page. Like these displayed at the bottom of a J.Crew shirt product page.

The goal is usually an upsell. You should absolutely display related products below or above the cart or purchase page and entice your customers to click.

But, if those thumbnail images don’t load, you’re missing out on a ton of potential business.

Once a customer has arrived at your site, through say, a Google ad, you’ve already paid to get them there. So, the more they buy, the lower your customer acquisition cost.

So, just because they’re tiny, don’t disregard your thumbnail images as less important to your business profitability.

They need to be super small in file size. Less than 70 KB is ideal.

They’re best as JPEG or GIF files. Use Pixlr if you need to resize your files.

And don’t forget to name your thumbnail images. They need solid names and alt attributes just like your product pics.

Getting these thumbnail images optimized will help you improve SEO and hopefully increase the amount of profit you generate from each web conversion.

7. Capture both the technical and aesthetic aspects of images

It’s important to understand both the technical and aesthetic aspects of images on an e-commerce site.

1. Technical images: These are the images where you want to focus on image size, file type, resolution, etc. Something like this:

You want your product images to be quality JPEGs that aren’t too large in file size (like we discussed above).

2. Aesthetic images: These are the images where you should focus on product styling, background color, etc. Take this image, for example:

Just take a look at the shadow effect and clean grey background.

8. A/B test images to improve conversions and retention

Marketers love a good A/B test, right? Well, your images should be no exception to the rule.

Too many images, too slow of a load time, or the wrong image angles can lose sales for your company.

Here are some best practices for testing images:

• Quantity: Test between many and a few images per product, per category, per page, etc. You can even test how many thumbnails to feature below each product.

Testing quantities will allow you to determine what’s best for your customers.

• File size vs. quality: You can test if higher quality and slower loading times effect conversions for your site.

For example, if you have a more expensive product, like designer handbags, your customers may be happy to wait for a higher-quality image to load.

That way they can zoom in and out and see every detail of it before purchasing.

• Test which images your customers like: Maybe your customers prefer to see both the top and side of your newest shoes.

Or, perhaps they convert more often when they’ve got fewer angles to study. You’ll never know until you test.

Remember, when you’re A/B testing that it’s important to test only one variable at a time.

For example, if you’re going to test the quantity of images you have on a category page, then don’t test image quality at the same time.

If you test more than one variable at once, you’ll never know which variable resulted in higher or lower conversions.

Check out this article for a more thorough guide to A/B testing.

Here are a few of my favorite image optimization tools

With all of these new image optimization hacks, you’re going to need some tools to help you accomplish your goals.

Here’s a list of my favorite tools to help you along your journey.

Image size and quality

Pixlr: As I mentioned above, can use this free tool to edit images, and to increase or decrease JPEG file size or quality.

ImageOptim: Decrease file size by compressing your images without losing quality with this tool. (Mac only)

Kraken: Upload your images in bulk, compress them all at once, and download as a zip file to save time.

WordPress Plugins

Yoast SEO: Optimize your image SEO and site accessibility by automatically assigning an alt attribute.

ShortPixel: Optimize your image size within WordPress

EWWW Image Optimizer: Automatically optimize images when they’re uploaded to your site.

Conclusion

It’s easy to see why there are tons of tools out there for image optimization. It can have a huge impact on your business.

E-commerce businesses, in particular, need to pay attention to their image size and file names.

This is because e-commerce sites typically have more images than other business types and also rely on their images to earn a conversion.

Start with a descriptive image name and alt attribute that will keep your images crawlable by Googlebots and also improve site accessibility.

Then implement a sitemap to give search engine crawlers even easier access.

Keep your images at the smallest size possible without sacrificing quality to improve load time and help convert more of your traffic.

Optimize your thumbnails and use them to upsell your customers.

Finally, A/B test to improve conversions and customer retention. But be sure to only test one image variable at a time so you know which changes are making an impact.

Implement these eight image optimization hacks, and you’re sure to see improvements in your rankings and revenue.

What image optimization hacks work best for your business?

About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/8-need-to-know-e-commerce-image-optimization-hacks/