Create a Perfect Practical Project Plan and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Create a Perfect Practical Project Plan and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Let’s get you started with a perfect practical project plan!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Start Selling!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about setting up your first ad campaign on Amazon. Score says Amazon selling could be huge for your business, and we are inclined to agree. After all, where else are you going to be able to buy a toothbrush, a screen door, fresh raspberries, and a tee shirt for a baby? And check out with them all in the same cart?

So if you sell a good (as opposed to a service), then this tip is all about you. 

Get Going

So our favorite part of this article, without a doubt, is how it just launches right into step by step instructions. About the only way it could possibly be any more helpful would be if there was a video. But that’s okay.

And we also loved the drum which he seem to beat an awful lot around here – measure! Because, as we have said it before, but it bears repeating. You can’t really know if you’re succeeding if you don’t measure. 

#9. And Speaking of Amazon…

The next awesome tip is about generating leads on Amazon. Side Hustle Nation writes that Amazon, at bottom, is basically another search engine.

So think like an SEO person.

This means attracting your prospects with content to start bringing them into the sales funnel.

In the case of the article writer, it was about books. So his initial bait was to offer a book for free. As in, zero dollars and zero cents.

The book is still on Amazon, and it is still free. So, how does this guy make money? Well, it may be obvious by now – the free book reels in the prospects. So those people are qualified leads by definition. So they might read the book and visit its accompanying website. Or maybe they just order one of the books you have to pay for.

Either way, the bait is working precisely as intended.

Not a writer? Then offer something else (small!) for free. Sell widgets? Then why not add a free explainer video? Or you could even price something in your Amazon storefront at $0. For fun, why not change it up on occasion? 

Free is always loved. And free always has attention paid to it. 

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! The perfect practical project plan is in reach.

#8. Reel in Your First Customers

Our following life-changing tip concerns starting up and landing your very first customers. Success Harbor tells us it might take a while to get your first customers. So their first top is perhaps a surprising one – figure out what you’re going to live off for the next six to twelve months. 

Because that will not only keep food on your table. It will also – at least, that’s the idea – keep you from being desperate. Well, at least in the beginning. Because the truth is, we have all seen desperate people. 

How often do you want to buy from them? This is not out of the goodness of your own heart or anything like that. So it’s not to help out a friend. This is more, someone who you have no connection with is trying to sell you something. Or, better yet, two people are. One is desperate, the other’s not. You’re more likely to buy from the confident seller.

It’s just like in the dating scene. So shore up your budget before you get started, and keep desperation at bay, at least for a while. Let your perfect practical project plan exude confidence.

#7. But What Are You Going to Sell Them???

For our next sensational tip, we looked at finding products to sell online. Small Biz Trends informs us that startups, of course, are up against not only each other, but also Walmart and Amazon, among others. So instead of trying to compete on that hopelessly tilted playing field, why not look for unique items?

And don’t forget about scalability. That is, prepare for success. If one product does incredibly well, you don’t want to be fine-tuning it by hand all the time. 

Hand in hand with this tip is to consider the logistics. Your rainbow widget might be incredible, but if you’re importing from a country about to go to war, you might want to think twice about using such a supplier.

Like with so many other things we talk about here, try to make things easy on yourself.

#6. Find ‘Em Online

This tip is so cool, and it works! Word Stream notes there are five great strategies for reaching your B2B audience online. While we may often think of B2B as business to business, what are companies composed of?

Anyone?

Bueller?

People!

And those people, just like you, are online. They are pinning and tweeting and Facebooking and snapping.

And they are also, probably, on LinkedIn. This social media platform often seems to be forgotten in marketing articles, but it’s truly ideal for finding a B2B audience. So then have LinkedIn find lookalikes. 

Hey, you just might get some new customers.

#5. The Perfect Practical Project Plan Can Be Yours

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Learn how to put together the perfect practical project plan! Copy Blogger says it’s best to bite into a project in small chunks. Which makes terrific sense.

Smart Resource Planning Credit SuiteA Fer-Instance

So, picture this. You bought a house from the little old lady down the street who only drove it to church on Sundays. Er, you know what I mean.

It’s a lovely house. But it’s huge! And it needs to be cleaned. So, before you say you’ll just hire someone, or you’ll put it off, let’s throw out those options. For the sake of this example, okay?

How do you clean your messy mansion?

In stages. 

How do you tackle a project?

In stages.

Wait – that’s kinda the same thing.

Yep. 

Templates and Timesavers

We really loved this tip, about essentially eliminating nagging, repetitive tasks. Do whatever it takes to stop reinventing the wheel all the time.

Create macros. Save Excel templates. Create a custom style in Word. Whatever it takes. Even when your perfect practical project plan is done and dusted, if you do whatever it takes to stop reinventing the wheel, you’ll still have those templates and macros. There’s no need to stop using them.

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! The perfect practical project plan is in reach.

#4. GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Check out this spectacular tip, all about helping your team accomplish their goals. Inc notes management can do a lot to help team members get to where they personally want to be.

Let’s Talk About the Future. That Perfect Practical Project Plan Won’t Write Itself!

What we really liked was the first tip, to essentially open up a dialog on employee goals. And to share your goals with the people who work for you.

Say what?

Yes, tell them what you’re planning for yourself, too. Because singling out the people lower on the totem pole for goal-setting and achieving means you might not see anything accomplished. You can’t have a perfect practical project plan for your employees without having one for yourself.

True StorySmart Resource Planning Credit Suite

Your intrepid blog writer, over 20 years ago had, shall we say, a difficult boss. Now, there were a lot of reasons why this person was difficult to work with and for. But one major reason was the goals were dictated. By her.

And of course no one ever saw her goals. There was, therefore, no accountability at the middle managerial level. To this day, your blog writer hasn’t got a clue whether this person’s own goals were created by her or dictated to her.

Either way, this was a recipe for rebellion. This was particularly the case because the selected goals were a lot less about employee enrichment, and a lot more about the great glory of said difficult boss.

That didn’t go over so well.

So we were particularly pleased with the idea that the dialog about goals is just that: a dialog. It is a give and take and it’s not the boss telling the employee what to do. After all, the employee gets that all the livelong day. 

At least let them make their own goals.

#3. Make/Produce/Create

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you be a more creative teammate at work. Creative Live tells us creativity does not need to be a solitary pursuit. Hoorah! The best perfect practical project plan allows for diverse voices.

Check Your Ego at the Door

This is maybe the most valuable tip to us. Creativity is just not going to happen if you continually shout down other people’s ideas. So go around the room. And listen, fer gosh sakes! Seriously, if you’re not going to listen to other people, why work in a team setting to begin with?

Walk a Mile in My Sneakers

This tip was a close second for us. The concept is, bring in as many points of view as you can. Get different perspectives, and you may find what you thought was an amazing idea is anything but to the people who will be most affected by it.

So haul in someone from sales, and another from engineering or accounting, and more. They have rather different vantage points from yours. So in that, there is strength.

#2. It Must Be True; I Saw it on TV

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on small business public relations and dealing with the media. Succeed As Your Own Boss states there is a kind of art and a science to PR.

Our fave tip was all about how ‘off the record’ is basically a unicorn. It doesn’t exist! For all of the times you’ve seen a politician yammering on a hot mic, just imagine it’s your face and your yammering.

If you don’t want some piece of information to come out – surprise! – don’t talk about it.

Or, as we said when your intrepid blog writer was a kid (which was when the dinosaurs roamed the planet), “Shut up!”

#1. Om Shanti Success!

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on 19 amazing success mantras from Zig Ziglar. Addicted 2 Success says these are words to live by.

And, holy cow, we say a lot of the same things. Coincidence? We think not!

In all seriousness, the list is just terrific. We highly recommend reading the entire article. Our favorite success mantra?

Don’t compare yourself to others.

Or, as Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” So give yourself a break, and stop thinking others are better. You’re better, too.

Talk about your perfect practical project plan!

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! The perfect practical project plan is in reach.

The post Create a Perfect Practical Project Plan and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

Profit from Amazon Prime Day Sales and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Turn a Great Profit from Amazon Prime Day Sales and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! It’s that time of year – so we’re here to help you get Amazon Prime Day sales, and even more!

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Closing Up Shop the Right Way

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about something that’s a little bit negative. That is, it covers how to close a business and remain in compliance. And while your business will succeed (we certainly hope it will, and are here to help!), you’ll undoubtedly know some entrepreneurs who aren’t quite so lucky. So maybe pass this tip along to them, okay?

Because we know you’re going to be all right.

Score.org says it’s more than just shutting your doors one last time.

Wait, There Are Forms to Fill Out?

Now, do you remember when you got a license with your Secretary of State? It’s almost the same thing in reverse. That is, any business on its way out must file articles of dissolution. This is vital, as otherwise the state still thinks you’re in business. And that means they might come after you for fees in the future.

Similar to this is the advice to file an application of withdrawal. This is only for companies doing business in a state in which they’re not based. Similar to the articles of dissolution, you take this measure to avoid future fee assessments.

Therefore, if your business is in, say, New Hampshire, then you would probably need to file an application of withdrawal in neighboring Massachusetts. You may need to do the same for Maine and Vermont, too.

Note: for online sales, ask your Secretary of State and make sure you don’t miss any forms you may need to fill out for sales out of state and maybe even around the world.

Dot those I’s and cross those T’s!

#9. Advice for Managers Just Hatched

The next awesome tip is about how first-time managers can be best prepared. Succeed As Your Own Boss notes there is a major paradigm shift that goes on when you become a manager for the first time.

First-time managers are suddenly responsible for other people. And that can be daunting at first.

Perhaps our fave tip was to get your act in gear – and clean it up. As in, you’re setting expectations from the first moment of every day. So if you’re habitually late, then the time to cut that out is yesterday.

Of course this involves all sorts of other ways to behave professionally. It means not favoring people. And it also means getting off the office gossip train. 

Get to Know Your Team

We also loved this tip. Your team is – shocking, we know! – composed of actual human-type people. This means they have ambitions and fears and weaknesses and strengths. They have histories and quirks and they just might have hidden talents. So don’t shut your door. Make sure you spend time getting to know them as more than just the people who help you get stuff done.

Amazon Prime Day 2019 Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Amazon Prime Day sales can be yours.

#8. Your Brand Has its Own Personality – What’s Yours?

Our following life-changing tip concerns how to influence buyers with the power of your brand personality. Buzz Sumo tells us it goes past brand voice. Although to our eyes, the brand voice seems to be a large part of it.

What Does it Mean for a Brand to Have a Personality?

It goes beyond how you speak and write. It also has to do with aligning your words to your deeds. And it means your brand has values. 

How so?

Have you been noticing various brands getting political? It doesn’t has to be big and in-your-face. Sometimes it’s as simple as teaching a trans son how to shave. Or it can be how REI actually closes its doors on Black Friday – because they’re all about getting people outside

This isn’t about CEOs making gaffes and turning off a big percentage of their customer base. Well, not really. It’s more about how your brand shows empathy for your customers and prospects. 

So if you own a salon, it could be about how anyone can be beautiful. Own a long haul trucking company? It could be all about love for the open road. So do a little thinking about what your brand can really mean. You might find you connect even better with your prospects and customers.

And that’s exactly what you want to be doing.

#7. Sell to the BIG Bosses

For our next sensational tip, we looked at how to sell to executives. Sales Hacker has all the details. 

Our favorite tip was shamelessly stolen from Apple. That is, keep your presentations at or under 10 minutes. Yeah, really? Apparently it’s supported by neuroscience! But no matter what, we all know we’ve got shorter attention spans these days.

You know, squirrels.

So keep it short and sweet. Your audience has very little time! So you have got to respect their time, and their schedules. If you don’t, then you’ve just shot your presentation in the foot.

Don’t do that.

#6. Reach for the Sales Stars

This tip is so cool, and it works! Success Harbor notes there are ten great sales tactics that work. So get ready to increase your sales.

Our fave tactic is to consider branching out to new and different demographic groups. How so?

Let’s say your demographic is small, or it’s shrinking. If you’ve ever sold dial-up modems or tape recorders, then you know this all too well. So as you watch your demographic shifting, you’ll need to shift, too.

But the bottom line is: this entire article is fantastic and we highly recommend reading the whole thing.

After all, you want to sell more, right? Otherwise, er, what’s the point?

#5. Time to Get Some Amazing Amazon Prime Day Sales 

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

It’s July, and you know what that means! Amazon’s annual event is just around the corner. So here’s how to get coveted Amazon Prime Day sales. Small Biz Trends says this amazing event is in its fourth year. And last year, merchants raked in a cool billion in sales! During just that one event.

So according to the source itself, Amazon Prime Day sales are on July 15 and 16,  2019. Yes, the ‘day’ is now two days long. You’ve got the chance to get twice as many Amazon Prime Day Sales!

So, what are you waiting for?

Prepare and Prepare, and then Prepare Some More – Did We Mention You Need to Prepare?

Getting ready for Amazon Prime Day sales isn’t just about tossing an ad out there. It’s about things like getting your inventory ready, and making sure you’ve got the right kind of selling account.

Our favorite tip was one we feel a lot of entrepreneurs might overlook. And that is to set aside a larger budget for keyword advertising. Price per click is bound to go up now – everyone wants in on Amazon Prime Day sales! So a bit of getting ready for Prime is just to abide by that old adage – you’ve got to spend money to make money.

And by the way, if your company doesn’t sell on Amazon, you can still take advantage of Amazon Prime Day sales as a buyer.  And be sure to use an Amazon business credit card! They report to both Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax. And we just so happen to offer them through our Business Finance Suite.

Amazon Prime Day 2019 Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Amazon Prime Day sales can be yours.

#4. When Can We See Each Other?

Check out this spectacular tip, all about scheduling software. Join Home Base tells us there are seven terrific players in this space (as of the writing of this blog post). 

Consider how your schedule is put together. Does an assistant help you? Do you do it on your own? Either way, it can be kind of time-consuming. Not to mention all the back and forth.

Tuesday? No, wait, that’s when I take the kids to soccer. Friday? Nope, it’s the sabbath. Monday? I’m booked solid.

You get the idea. So with scheduling software, the back and forth is virtually gone. Customers and prospects just choose the time and date they want and that’s that. And if they change their minds, or something comes up, no problem! With scheduling software, they can just fix the issue on their own and, for the most part, you don’t have to be a part of it at all.

Whew!

#3. Online? Make Your Home-Based Business Stand Out There, Too

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can turn your home-based business into something to be reckoned with online. The Self Employed has the details. Some of this may be familiar. But it certainly bears repeating.

A Pro Website is a MustAmazon Prime Day Sales Credit Suite

We love this tip because we tell new business owners to do this. All. The. Time.

A professional website makes a difference when it comes to credibility and sales. These days, there really is no excuse to not have a pro website. Seriously. Go to Upwork or Fiverr and get help with design and you can be up and running in no time.

And a non-professional website? It’ll cost you in sales. Would you want to do business with someone who couldn’t even be bothered to make their website user-friendly?

And don’t get us started on businesses with no online presence. Don’t. Just, don’t be that business.

#2. The Change in Your Couch Cushions Just Won’t Cut it Anymore

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on how to smartly finance your startup. Young Upstarts notes there are some great, outside-the-box ways to fund a startup company. We also recommend grants and crowdfunding. And there’s a special place in our hearts for angel investors and venture capitalists. Plus, of course we think business lines of credit and microfinance are fab.

But Forex trading? Seriously?

What an interesting idea! Foreign currency trading isn’t for everyone. And, it should go without saying, you need a reputable, licensed broker. But it can all be done online. And, once you get good at it, it can be truly help you raise the capital you need to start and run a business. 

Pretty cool, eh?

#1. Follow Up and Follow Through

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on terrific emails you can write to follow up – and get results! Sumo says there’s an art and a science to following up. And you absolutely should follow up – you can raise response rates that way!

Consider this – how busy are you? How busy are all of us these days? If you’re like your intrepid blog writer, then you barely have 2 free minutes to rub together. And you see tons of content all the time. As in, blog posts, music, newspapers, videos, heck, even billboards. Messaging is everywhere!

So things fall through the cracks. Following up gets your product or service back to the top of your prospect’s inbox. And it gives you a chance to be personable. It even gives you an opportunity to address concerns and objections.

We highly recommend checking out this article in its entirety. Yes, it’s that good.

So which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Amazon Prime Day 2019 Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Amazon Prime Day sales can be yours.

The post Profit from Amazon Prime Day Sales and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

How I Gain 1,260 Instagram Followers Per Week

Do you want to be instafamous?

Well, who doesn’t?

Over the last few months, I’ve been running numerous Instagram experiments and I’ve finally figured out how to grow my Instagram following.

My Neil Patel account has been growing by 1,260 followers per week.

follower growth

And I know what you are thinking… Neil, you are already well known, this can’t be replicated by anyone else.

Right?

Well, not only did we test this strategy out on my profile, but we also did it on 2 other profiles.

It works no matter what industry you are in. Heck, it works even better if you aren’t in B2B like me.

Just look at Dhavalilama. His likes per image have been growing by just using the heart trick, which I will explain in a bit, and he isn’t using my whole strategy. :/

So, how do you gain more Instagram followers each week without spending money?

Tip #1: Instagram wants long videos

You’ve heard everyone say that you need to upload videos. Social networks like Instagram aren’t just competing with other social networks, they are competing with traditional media and even companies like Netflix for your attention.

If you upload videos, you’ll find that you’ll get more engagement than if you just upload images.

But the key isn’t to just upload any video… it ideally needs to be engaging and long.

By long I am not talking about a 60-second video, I’m talking minutes. You’ll have to leverage IGTV for this, but that’s what they want as not enough people are using that feature.

Hence, if you use IGTV, they’ll push your video more.

That way when someone is watching a 5-minute video you just posted, they’ll be able to watch the first 60 seconds on their feed and then they’ll be pushed over to IGTV.

All you have to do is upload the video to IGTV and select the “post a preview” option.

preview

What this does is, it uploads the video to IGTV and then also promotes the video through your feed.

Just look at this video that I only posted on IGTV.

igtv

It had 236 views before writing this blog post.

When I posted that video, I had 9,078 followers, which means I had an engagement rate of 2.59%.

Now if you look at this video that I posted…

igtv

It had 2,971 views before writing this blog post.

When I posted that video I had 21,047 followers, which means I had an engagement rate of 14.11%.

What’s crazy is, that one simple change increased my video engagement by 444%.

Tip #2: Ask and you will receive

Instagram’s algorithm is simple… the more views and likes your videos and images receive, the more people will see them, which increases engagement and your follower count over time.

There’s not too much more to the algorithm.

Of course, they are looking at things like what percentage of your followers actually engage… but still, the algorithm from a conceptual standpoint is simple.

So, have you thought about asking for people to “like” your image?

Now with Instagram, people are using it via their cell phone so it’s more of a “double tap” than a like… but you get the point.

On average, when I post an image on Instagram I can generate 945.6 likes.

Here’s an example of one of those images:

neil patel quote

And as you can see from the engagement, that one did better than most of my images as it has over 1,000 likes.

Plus, the messaging resonates with a lot of people.

But here is one that is simple…

double tap

I just asked people to “double tap” if they need to improve their video skills.

It didn’t take much creativity to come up with that image and it received 1,441 likes. In other words, it produced 51.96% more engagement.

You should give it a try… I tend to use this tactic a few times a month and it works really well.

Just be careful though, if you use it every day or every week, people will get sick of it and it will stop working. Hence, I only use it a few times a month max.

Tip #3: Go live

Did I already mention that Instagram is competing with television networks and Netflix?

Because of that, what kind of content do you think they want more of?

Well, yes they want more video content, but we already talked about that.

They want more live content.

Think… reality TV.

Now the live content you produce doesn’t have to be like Keeping up with the Kardashians… they just want live content that people are looking forward to viewing.

You know how you will tune into shows like American Idol or the latest soccer or football match because it’s live and you want to see what’s happening in real time? That’s the effect Instagram is hoping for with live content.

Now, when you go live, Instagram is promoting it heavily so you’ll get more viewers. It doesn’t matter what you talk about… they just want to see more people go live.

Every time I go live, I am able to get at least 1,000 views. Just look at the live I just did…

live

In the first 6 hours, it’s already received 718 views and I did this live session on a Sunday during non-peak hours. Within the first 24 hours, it will easily surpass 1000 views.

In other words, go live! It’s a simple and quick way to grow your following count. Ideally, you should be going live on a weekly basis.

Heck, you can’t go live too much… feel free to go live daily.

Tip #4: Respond to comments

This one is simple, but no one really does it.

Social networks are supposed to be social. That means you should participate.

And no, I am not talking about just liking other images and viewing videos. I’m talking about engaging with people and talking to them.

So, when you like something that someone else posts, leave a comment.

And when someone leaves a comment on one of your posts… what do you think you should do?

You should respond to them with a comment.

Now, let’s look at some of my posts for a minute. You’ll see decent engagement, but more so, you’ll see me being very active.

comments

Just look at all of my responses.

By engaging with people, you’re more likely to build a relationship with these individuals, which makes it more likely that they will back and continually engage with your posts.

Tip #5: The heart trick

Alright, are you ready for the heart trick? You know, the one Dhavalilama has been using to boost his like count by 300%.

The concept is simple, but it will take a bit of finesse to implement.

A part of Instagram’s algorithm is how much engagement you get from other Instagram users within the first hour of you posting anything.

Now, I’ve done a lot of tests with this… if you can get Instagram users who have more followers than you to like your image or video when it first goes live you’ll find that your content is much more likely to show up on the discovery page.

From a lot of testing, here’s what seems to be the most effective:

  • Get people with larger following accounts to like your image or video within the first hour it comes out.
  • Ask them to not like anything else within that hour. We’ve found that if they like too many images or videos it doesn’t work.
  • And if they are feeling extra generous, have them leave a comment.

The heart trick isn’t that complex, but it is hard to implement because you have to convince users who are more popular than you to like your content right when you publish.

And ideally, you need 6 people who have large accounts (the bigger the better), for this to work extremely well.

Tip #6: Create multiple stories each day

What do Tai Lopez, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Grant Cardone have in common?

Well, other than the fact that they all have over a million Instagram followers…

They all post a ton of stories per day.

And when I mean a ton, sometimes they are posting over 20 stories a day… literally.

The more stories you post, the more engagement you’ll create, which will lead to more followers.

Just look at the stats from the stories I just posted:

story instagram

I can generate over 1,000 views within 8 hours of posting a story and generally in the range of 1,600 to 2,000 views within 24 hours.

The same story 23 hours later received 1870 views.

story 23 hours

Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to maximize stories:

  1. Don’t post all of your stories at once, spread them out throughout the day. This will cause people to keep coming back and engaging with your profile.
  2. Use a combination of both images and videos within your stories. Overall, you’ll find that videos create more engagement.
  3. The more stories you publish, the better off you are.
  4. Add polls to your stories, this also helps boost engagement.

polls

Tip #7: Quality matters

Have you noticed that some images get more likes than others? Or certain videos get more engagement?

Instagram is a visual social network. So the visual part is important… you want your images and videos to look great no matter what.

Now, they don’t have to be perfect, but you do want to make sure you are posting images that people enjoy.

Here’s what I mean…

When you look at my profile, you’ll see a ton of images of me that contain quotes.

instagram profile

Some of those images perform really well, while others don’t. For example, every time I post a quote using this image template…

bad template

It gets 21.4% less engagement then when I use this template…

good template

Keep track of what your followers like and don’t like. Post more of what they like and stop posting the stuff that has low engagement.

Tip #8: Test, test, test

Speaking of posting more of what your followers like and less of what they don’t, you need to constantly test.

Even though quality matters, when you are testing you shouldn’t aim for perfection. Just aim for speed.

Once you find something that people like, do more of it.

For example, I ask people to double tap as I talked about in tip number 2 because I learned it through testing.

heart tap

Here are some other things I’ve learned through testing:

  • Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – people prefer clean images that are simple.
  • Use bright colors – images that are darker, such as night photography don’t perform as well.
  • Switch things up – if you do the same thing every week you’ll find your engagement starting to drop.
  • People want to get to know you – they don’t want to get to know the Photoshop version of you. Be realistic and personal. Connect with your followers.
  • Filters don’t matter – don’t waste too much time modifying or adjusting your images. Little things like filters don’t make the biggest difference.
  • Hashtags aren’t game changing – I know everyone says you have to use hashtags and you should here and there… but they aren’t game-changing. So don’t spam and use 20 hashtags per image you post. And when you do use them, pick relevant and popular ones. You can use Ubersuggest to figure out what keywords are popular.
  • Use Instagram analytics – it tells you when your followers are online so you know when to post. If you post when they are online you’ll get much more engagement.

A good example of a test I’ve run is when I post on my feed. As you can see from my stats…

igstats

My followers are most likely to be on Instagram at 9am. So I try to post around that time, which has helped me get 8.41% more likes per image.

Every little bit adds up!

Conclusion

You don’t have to spend money on ads to grow your Instagram following. If you follow the tips above, you’ll do well and find that you can grow your weekly following count by over 1,000 net new followers each week.

Now, I know you may not want to use Instagram because it doesn’t have your “ideal” audience, but you can drive conversions from Instagram.

For example, when I went live on Instagram and I told the audience to check out my ad agency Neil Patel Digital, I was able to generate 2 leads.

Neither of the leads were ideal customers, but it is a numbers game. If I continually do it I will be able to generate clients.

In the past, I have closed 3 deals from Instagram… one paid $120,000, the other paid $1,000,000, and the last paid $300,000.

They were all consulting arrangements, so I had substantial costs associated with the revenue, but it shows that Instagram does work.

Heck, if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be back on Instagram again (this is my 3rd profile, I no longer use the other 2).

You can also use the swipe up feature to drive people to your site and this will help you generate leads and sales.

So, what do you think about Instagram? Are you using it on a daily basis?

The post How I Gain 1,260 Instagram Followers Per Week appeared first on Neil Patel.