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All previous issues are posted inside our Marketers Utopia.
Marketing Breakdown
Let me guess, (one of) your goal for 2022 is to increase sales?
And Instagram Live is definitely worth exploring and experimenting with to reach that goal– especially when you have enough followers.
Here’s how to create a flow that converts for your Insta Live sessions
#1: Choose a Topic for Your Instagram Live Stream (see below for inspo)
Your live content will have to flow with what users expect from you, give them more of what they like and create an experience around that. For instance, if you’re selling phone cases, create entertaining experiments on how sturdy they are, or focus on their look–whatever the main value position is, double down on that.
#2: Promote Your Instagram Live
Promote your Instagram live before it starts to let people know when to be there. Hype it up with teasers, graphics, giveaways, or peak their curiosity where they HAVE to tune in to find out the answer or how something ends. For example, you could publish a feed post to let your audience know and create a story that includes the countdown sticker, which allows people to tap to get a reminder about your live.
#3: Give a Short Introduction When You Go Live
Create a succinct introduction to use in your live streams. It doesn’t have to be professionally recorded, contain music, or even be edited. Instead, it can be something you recite at the beginning of each of your lives that introduces you, your business, and the topic of discussion or your reason for going live.
#4: Pin a Post and Inspire People to Share It to Their Stories
During your Instagram live, it’s helpful to have a post pinned on your profile so it’s easy to find. Then you can call on your audience and ask them to share that post to their stories.
#5: Change Your Pinned Post and CTA Mid-Stream
Sometime in the middle of your Instagram live, you may consider changing your pinned post and updating your call to action (CTA) to something that will take your audience to the next step with you. They’ve already shown up at your live, interacted with you, and followed through on one of your calls to action.
#6: Finish with Your Final CTA and Tease Your Next Instagram Live (Same Bat Channel?)
Finally, you can close out your Instagram live by offering your audience a short preview of what’s coming up on your next live. This might include letting them in on a big announcement, telling them what next week’s interview guest or topic will be, or even introducing something fun like a game or giveaway.
Need some ideas on what the topic should be about?
Not everything has be a grand production- humanising your brand to connect with your users is one of the easiest and retention boosting ways to have people connect with you.
1. Office hours / Q&A sessions
Live video is a great way to answer questions from your audience in an engaging way. It’s a perfect way to invite your audience to interact with some of your team and to show the people behind your brand. By opening up to questions in real time, you can use live video to build strong relationships with your audience.
2. Launches and announcements
Social media is a two-way street, and it works best when you’re listening to your audience as well as sharing content with them. Live video provides the opportunity to do both.
With a live video to celebrate a product launch or big announcement, you can let the world know about your big news and also interact with your audience at the same time.
3. Take people behind-the-scenes
Many brands have used Instagram stories to take users behind-the-scenes in a myriad of situations, from what’s going on in the office to the set of their latest advert. Live video adds another element to what is already some of the most engaging content shared to Instagram stories.
With Instagram live video, we’ll likely see more brands, influencers, and celebrities taking users behind-the-scenes and sharing a transparent look into their world. People like it + it’s easier to get people invested in a parallel storyline.
Marketing News
For the eCommerce stores out there, you’re most likely aware that shipping costs will be increasing in 2022 and how you can respond to them.
Here’s the overview for Canada & the U.S.
DHL Express: Prices will increase from January 1st, 2022, by an average of 5.9%
UPS: Prices will increase from December 26th, 2021, by an average of 5.9%
USPS: Price will increase from January 9th, 2022, by an average of 3.1% overall for Priority Mail Express and First Class Packages will increase from $0.50.
Canada Post: Prices will increase from January 10th, 2022, by an average of 3.8% domestically and 2.8% to the U.S. and internationally.
Here are some suggestions from Shopify on how you can tackle this.
There are 3 main approaches when it comes to shipping:
- Flat rate shipping
- Calculated shipping
- Free shipping
Here are your main options when it comes to choosing a strategy for increased shipping costs:
1. Do nothing: If you take this approach with a flat rate or free shipping, you would simply absorb the cost of the new shipping rates. For calculated shipping, the new calculations will automatically update to the 2022 costs.
2. Increase product prices: You can keep your margins the same by increasing the price of your products, but your repeat clients will notice and pit against competitors, you may have a decrease in sales.
3. Decreased product prices: This would mainly make sense if you offer calculated shipping– since calculated shipping cost will increase, the final amount for the product + shipping will still be the same for your customers. Run the numbers to make sure it is sustainable.
4. Increase flat rate shipping: Increasing flat rate shipping could yield the same result as increasing your product prices. Keep in mind that one of the largest reasons for the abandoned cart is the shipping rates, so you may, unfortunately, see this number go up.
5. Free shipping minimums: Offset the increased amount of shipping but increase the order value and transfer the shipping cost to your customers if their order falls below a threshold.
Everything You Need to Know About Hiring a VA
If you're an entrepreneur making any kind of real money, you NEED a VA.
If you don't have one, you're doing $3/hour work for your own business.
I just hired 2 new VAs. Here's exactly how you should recruit for a virtual assistant:
Recruiting Platforms
This varies based on how much you're willing to pay vs how much effort you want to put into recruiting. I've had a good experience with most platforms including OnlineJobs.ph, Facebook, & agencies but I now nearly always recruit from Upwork.
Why? The entire recruiting process is made easy without the need for spreadsheets, emails, & Google Forms. While working with your VA, you have built-in time tracking, communication, and more. It's simple and easy.
Making Your Job Post
Like hiring any kind of freelancer, you need to assess your needs before hiring. Look through the tasks you do regularly and make a list of all the ones you want outsourced. Create a list of the websites, software, and tools your VA needs to understand.
Add screener questions to the application form. They can't copy/paste these answers and they allow you to see how they would react to certain situations. Ask them how they would handle your core tasks or explain a challenge they've overcome in the past.
Initial Screening
Remove anyone with a Job Success Score below 80%. There's a range of reasons (not always bad) why JSS is low, but it's not worth the risk/effort.
Remove anyone who has earned $0. We want proven people who understand Upwork.
Now, review the screener questions. A lot of weaker VAs will just add a section of their cover letter as an answer or be very vague. If they haven't read the question and given a direct answer that gives you confidence, remove them.
Interview
You'll want to interview as many candidates as possible. This process is largely going to be guided by what tasks you need them to do. I like to do a video call interview as well because it forces the candidate to think and operate under pressure.
Training
Training starts before you even recruit. Start turning all of your tasks into SOPs. Record Loom videos of tasks as you do them and then write it up into a one-page Google doc. Share these SOPs with VAs so they can refer back to them. Give them 1-1 support as needed.
Loom will be your savior with VAs. Anytime they have a question, just show them how to do it and Loom will allow them to keep that video to refer back to on their own.
Operations
Managing your VA is pretty simple. For passwords, I like using a password manager and sharing access with them. That way, I never have to send them new passwords and there's no need to store passwords in plain text.
File sharing is inevitable so having a Google Drive setup for both of you to share files is critical. Make sure your VA knows that, unless told otherwise, any work they do should be uploaded to the drive.
You can be as fancy with communications as you want. Personally, I use Slack because so my team can hop in and talk with my VAs. If this is your first VA, WhatsApp could work just as well. Your VA should also know your email address in case they need to send anything via email.
Firing Your VA
I have a pretty clear policy on my expectations from a VA. If they don't understand a task, they can always tell me and I'll never punish them. I want them to get things right instead of trying to do something they don't understand.
If they mess up on a task, I retrain them once and that's it. If they make the same mistake twice, I fire them. I also give each VA a one-time exception for a mistake that costs me money. If they mess up a flight booking, make a mistake with a client, etc. they get one chance.
This is literally the exact framework I use to recruit. I have a library of over 100 SOPs for nearly every ecom, agency, & personal task. Hiring a VA is something that nobody ever regrets.
Hope this helps.
This post was written directly in our Marketers Utopia by https://twitter.com/ElliotPadfield
Automate Your Instagram Content Creation With Your Own AI Assistant
Here's the truth,
Instagram is a pile of cash for you and I. Everyday influencers, brands and theme page owners are providing value on the application and getting sales flowing into their lives like a waterfall.
They can do this because of 2 main elements
- High quality content
- Consistency
And honestly, it sounds so easy for us to do but when the moment comes to create the content we are sitting there with a blank face.
This is why we created Social Studio
AI is taking over the content industry and we crafted our own software to help you create your month's Instagram content and designs in minutes.
Your entire Instagram journey from
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This content revolution is here and we want you to be a part of it.
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Much love,
Wiz of Ecom
