Category: Small Business Marketing

7 Secrets For Entrepreneurs to Get The Most Out of Instagram Stories

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

Once you get the hang of it, Instagram Stories is an easy (and fun!) feature to help grow your business – but are you getting the most out of your Instagram Stories? We’ve rounded up 9 Instagram Story secrets that every entrepreneur should be aware of to give your Instagram Stories a design boost, increase social media reach and ultimately drive more sales. Keep reading to learn all about the latest Instagram Story updates, secret social media tips, engaging content ideas and more.

1. Check Out The New Font Options
If you’ve ever wished Instagram Stories had a few more design options you are in luck! They’ve recently rolled out several new, beautiful font options. Make sure you’ve downloaded the latest Instagram app update to see the new Instagram fonts and give your Instagram Stories a design boost. If your Instagram account has access to the new fonts, you’ll see ten font options at the bottom once you’ve started typing your text. Not sure where to start with fonts? Here’s ‘5 Ways to Make Your Instagram Stories Stand Out’.

2. Use Fun Elements Like Music
Possibly the easiest way to give your Instagram Stories an immediate boost of personality is to use fun features like music! Instagram offers a huge selection of songs to perfectly fit with all of your Instagram Stories. Tip: If the original audio isn’t great quality in a Story, simply turn ‘sound off’  and add in music to instantly improve your Instagram Stories. Need some more cool Instagram Story content ideas? Check out this article ‘50 Engaging Instagram Story Ideas for Your Brand’.

3. Promote Your Own Content Often
Want to drive more sales for your business? Start promoting yourself more! Every time you post on Instagram, share your own post to your Instagram Stories and encourage your followers to check out your latest post and engage with your content. Tip: You can also re-share old posts you’ve posted in your timeline that are still relevant. This will help boost your engagement rates and help you re-purpose high-quality content. Want to revamp your Instagram content? You’ll want to check out our ‘21 Ideas to Revamp Your Social Media for 2021’.

4. Repost Customer Content
Not only should you be posting your own Instagram posts to your Stories… you should also be featuring your followers’ content as well! Any customer sharing a photo or review of your product or services should get a shout-out. Reposting your followers’ content lets them know you see their posts and tells them you appreciate their support. Also, when your followers see how often you repost their shout-outs, odds are you’ll start to see a lot more posts about your business! Tip: Want to increase DM’s from your customers to drive sales? Here’s ‘8 Easy Ways to Get More Instagram DMs From Customers’.

5. Add Cute GIFs
Okay so you might already be using GIFs in your Instagram Stories but have you discovered the secret to finding the best ones yet? Yes, there is a little trick the most savvy entrepreneurs use to give their social media a quick upgrade. Instead of searching by a term like ‘happy’ or ‘funny’ to find a GIF, try searching the name of a designer who creates GIFs to find all of their best ones. Check out this blog post for tips to find cute GIFs and this blog post to find unique GIFs on Instagram Stories. 

6. Create Story Highlights
Okay, so you might be sick of hearing how important it is to use Instagram Story Highlights but we’re including this Instagram strategy again because it’s one of the best ways to ensure you are getting the most out of Instagram Stories for your business. Instagram Story Highlights offers your business a prime location to feature all of your most important and best quality content for your followers to easily access. Read next: ‘How to Use Instagram Story Highlights Strategically as a Small Business Owner’.

7. Use Hidden Hashtags
We all know how important it is to use hashtags on Instagram posts to increase the reach of your posts but did you know this strategy also applies to Stories? We saved our very favorite Instagram Story secret for entrepreneurs for very last. You can use all of the same hashtags you would use on your Instagram posts on Stories without anyone knowing. Insert hidden hashtags into all of your Instagram Stories by typing out your hashtags, reducing the font size then make the font the same color as the background OR simply hide them behind a GIF or photo.

Instagram Stories can already be a powerful tool to help entrepreneurs grow their business. However, with these secret tips, content ideas and growth strategies in hand, we know your business will get even more out of Instagram Stories than ever before!

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

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IGTV vs. YouTube

Which is Better for Your Business and Influencer Marketing?

Everywhere you look in 2020, video is taking over the web. From six-second TikToks to YouTube channels with over 100 million subscribers, people just want video. According to a recently updated survey of over 3,000 consumers by HubSpot, 54% of consumers want more video content from the brands they love. You just can’t beat video for engagement, conversions, and brand awareness!

But where should you be sharing your videos? IGTV or YouTube? With all the social media available these days and all of them following the consumer trends, you have several choices when it comes to posting your video content. We’ll take a look at the pros and cons between two of the top video platforms, YouTube vs. IGTV, to help you make your choice. 

Video Length

Your second consideration should be the length of your videos. (We’ll talk about your first consideration in a moment.) IGTV limits your videos to 10 minutes, so if you’re going for a lengthy instructional type or a feature-length entertainment piece, you’re going to want to go with YouTube.

If your account is verified, you can post videos that are up to 12 hours long (Upload Videos Longer Than 15 Minutes). However, if your aim is to fish followers and leads with fun and informative shorts, IGTV might be your best bet. 

Sharing Capability

You’ve probably seen YouTube videos scattered all over the web, shared on social media and embedded in blog posts. Google isn’t worried about losing its position as the world’s biggest video platform, so they’ll let you share your videos all over the place.

IGTV, on the other hand, isn’t as interested in losing control of the content. They also don’t allow you to share YouTube videos to their platform. When it comes to sharing, Google FTW!

Searchability

Because Google owns YouTube, YouTube videos more frequently appear on the first page of search results and it’s easy to search YouTube itself for practically anything. You’ll never see any Instagram TV on Google’s search results, but that’s actually not because of Google!

IGTV only allows their content to be accessed on Instagram, so you can only be discovered or find new content when searching on Instagram itself. This makes searching IGTV for content more difficult than searching YouTube. You can’t just type in keywords or topics. You have to search specific users or hashtags to find related videos. 

Analytics

When it comes to analytics, it’s another no-brainer. Google has entire products dedicated to providing accurate analytics to help you adjust and improve your marketing.

The same goes for YouTube. They show you the in-depth engagement stats you can use to tailor your campaigns. IGTV provides enough analytics to show trends, but they don’t go much deeper. Depending on how much insight you need, either one could work for you. 

Audience

Your first consideration should be your audience. Where are they? What do they do? Who is your target audience? The other factors don’t matter nearly as much as making sure your content gets to the people you need to see it. Before you make any decisions, find your niche audience and build a home there. It’s always possible to branch out in the future.

All of these together will help you understand which video marketing tool is best for you and for your business! Check them all out now!

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Nine of the Fastest-Growing TikTok Accounts

TikTok is taking the world by storm in 2020, growing faster than even Facebook and Instagram. It has skyrocketed to become the 6th most popular social media platform. TikTok has made its parent company Bytedance into the most valuable startup in the world at $78 billion. The site averages eight visits PER USER per day, with over 90% of users visiting more than once a day.

Even with the controversy surrounding their data practices, you can hardly afford to sleep on 800 million active users per month. Brands who invest in TikTok marketing can follow a few simple growth hacks that the top 40 creators (10 million+ followers) use every day. 

Here are 9 of the fastest-growing TikTok accounts, as well as the engagement strategies they use to build their followings.

Art and Talent

Regardless of TikTok’s relatively young user base and sometimes unfavorable reputation (as you’ll find with most new social media platforms), it still rings true that the most successful creators are the ones who display real talent or provide quality entertainment. Unique skills are always a great tool for establishing a solid audience and keeping them engaged with your brand.

1. Jason Coffee

Jason Coffee (@jasoncoffee) is one of the most successful influencers on the platform with 20.4 million followers.

Jason uses his TikTok channel to share family-friendly comedy with his audience, often featuring his son and daughter, who are in the most common TikTok user age group. Considering the young age of the majority of users, it’s no wonder his wholesome style has developed a strong fan base.

@jasoncoffee

i can’t believe she go that.. 😳

♬ original sound – jasoncoffee

Engagement Strategies

  • Comedy
  • Family-friendly content
  • Audience targeting

2. Zach King

Zach King (@zachking) is topping influencer charts with 48.9 million TikTok followers, and it’s not hard to see why.

Like Jason and most other creators, he incorporates comedy into a lot of his videos, but his content stands out with incredible video editing and optical illusions. While maintaining a fun and family-friendly brand that relates to his audience, Zach performs digital magic that you just have to keep watching.

@zachking

Safety first 👍 #lifeguard #swimming

♬ original sound – zachking

Engagement Strategies

  • Illusionism
  • Video quality/editing
  • Family-friendly content
  • Audience targeting

Relentless Entertainment

The fastest-growing TikTok channels in 2020 are largely sports and entertainment giants like the NBA, Ellen DeGeneres and Netflix. Only 15% of TikTok users are over the age of 35, which supports the idea that entertainment is effective as a marketing tactic on a platform where your target audience is the minority.

Something these big-time entertainers have in common is that they post quality content relentlessly, some up to six times a day. The minimum for the fastest-growing channels this year seems to be one video every other day, but most of these top performers are posting more than once a day. 

3. NBA

The NBA’s TikTok channel (@nba) blew up with over 2.7 million new users in under one month this year, bringing their total to 11.7 million followers.

The NBA channel posts between five and six times every day, racking up more than 150 videos in a single month. Their content is mostly made up of sports highlights, funny moments, and some player-submitted content.

@nba

He’s got the Monday Moves 😊😃 #dancemoves #wholesome #fancam @houstonrockets

♬ 1812 Overture trap remix – phortissimo

Engagement Strategies

  • Entertainment
  • Frequent posting
  • High-quality video
  • Star power

4. ESPN

Similar to the NBA channel, ESPN’s TikTok account (@ESPN) saw a dramatic increase of 1.3 million followers in a single month for a total of more than 11.1 million followers as of August 2020. 

ESPN posts slightly more than the NBA, but still averages five or six videos per day. There is a dramatic difference in their content, however. ESPN’s videos are all about the audience, comprising user-generated content, as well as professional content that features audience highlights and athlete interactions with the audience. 

@espn

This prank never gets old. 😂 (via @tampabayrowdies)

♬ original sound – espn

Engagement Strategies

  • Entertainment
  • Frequent posting
  • User-generated content
  • Audience targeting
  • Star power

5. Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen (@ellendegeneres) jumped up 1.2 million viewers in a single month this year, bringing the beloved philanthropist talk show host’s total number of followers to more than 6.5 million.

Ellen’s TikTok captures the heart of The Ellen Show, featuring clips of interviews and performances by guests on the show, as well as some fantastic behind-the-scenes footage. Ellen’s page posts almost every day, coming in at about 26 videos in a month.

@ellendegeneres

This #scare was a lot of fun. #scarepranks #funny

♬ original sound – ellendegeneres

Engagement Strategies

  • User-generated content
  • Entertainment
  • Frequent posting
  • Star power

6. WWE

Coming in at 7.4 million followers, the World Wrestling Entertainment TikTok page (@WWE) saw a jump of over 700K in one month this year.

The WWE page posts clips from their performances and old throwback fan favorites daily, keeping their audience engaged without giving everything away, which is a great way to bring your audience from a social media platform to your business.

@wwe

@randyorton’s never faced anyone like Keith Lee. Will The Viper have an answer for Lee’s agility and power at #wwepayback ? #wwe #foryou #fyp

♬ original sound – wwe

Engagement Strategies

  • Entertainment
  • Frequent posting
  • Teaser videos

7. Netflix

The revolutionary home movie giant itself has taken to TikTok (@netflix) and saw growth of more than 600K in one month, bringing their following to 9M million as of August 2020.

For the most part, Netflix’ posts are promotional videos for the movies you can find and watch on the streaming platform, but they’ve gotten pretty creative with how they promote movies, including user-generated content, behind-the-scenes, and star power. Netflix has the lowest posting rate on our list today at only one post every other day.

@netflix

nish kumar’s making monopoly a bit more realistic 😂 #nishkumar #netflix

♬ original sound – netflix

Engagement Strategy

  • Star power
  • Entertainment
  • User-generated content
  • Frequent posting

Hashtag Challenges

Hashtag challenges are a huge hit on TikTok, giving creators and audiences a chance to connect and have fun doing something that’s usually harmless, funny, charitable, or otherwise positive. Over 16% of all TikTok videos are related to hashtag challenges, and just like any other popular thing, marketing experts are taking advantage. For more insights, our full guide on TikTok hashtags can be found here. 

8. Guess

By running a branded hashtag challenge, Guess (@guess) made a big splash on the platform with their #InMyDenim challenge. The hashtag entries currently have 52.1M views on TikTok.

Guess was the first American brand to launch a marketing campaign as an official TikTok partner with TikTok. TikTokers were encouraged to show off their best Guess denim styles, using the hashtag #InMyDenim. This campaign inspired a huge wave of high-quality user-generated content, including content from TikTok influencers who in turn inspired more videos.

@ourfire

Don’t you wish getting ready was this easy? 😂❤️🔥 #inmydenim #sponsored @guess

♬ #inmydenim I’m a Mess – Bebe Rexha

Engagement Strategies

  • High-quality user-generated content
  • Hashtag challenge
  • Audience targeting

9. Kind

Healthy snack company Kind (@kindsnacks) gained an impressive 60 million views in less than 24 hours with their hashtag challenge, #kindsimplecrunchcontest.

The challenge was to make a video that featured the “crunch” of Kind’s “most crunchiest bar yet,” and the user whose video was played the most won a trip to New York and a year’s supply of the featured snack bar. Kind partnered with influencers Zach King (above), Kombucha Girl, Oven Mom, and Rachel Ryle to promote the challenge. Kind also provided soundtracks users could include in their UGC.

@zachking

Even art gets hungry sometimes. Check out the @kindsnacks #KINDSimpleCrunchContest #ad

♬ original sound – zachking

Engagement Strategies

  • High-quality UGC
  • Hashtag challenge
  • Star power
  • Free giveaway

If you’re looking to grow your brand on TikTok, check out our helpful guides here: 

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5 Ways to Make Your Instagram Stories Stand Out

With more and more brands joining Instagram and posting Stories on your followers’ feeds, it’s becoming more of a challenge to keep your followers from swiping through your Stories. How do you make your Stories stand out and inspire your followers to stick with them?

Here’s a trade secret: there are so many creative ways you can use the Stories features and format that most users aren’t taking advantage of.

In this post we’ll introduce you to some of the lesser-known tricks that will impress and engage your followers.

1. Get creative with fonts and text effects

Adding text to a Story is pretty straightforward: you just open your Stories camera, add or record your Story, and then tap the text icon. Instagram recently expanded their font options from 4 to 9:

When you scroll through the font color selection, you’ll see 27 color options. You can actually choose any color you want when drawing in Instagram Stories. Simply tap and hold a color — and a whole color palette will appear on your screen! Slide the pin around to select any shade you like.

instagram stories color select

Did you know that you can select different letters or words in the same text and change their color separately? You can even create a rainbow or gradient effect by selecting the whole word, then tapping and holding a color with your right thumb, then sliding your left thumb to the right to deselect the word as you slide your right thumb to the left to move through the color palette. Here’s a quick TikTok tutorial on how to achieve this effect from social media pro @annaarends2:

@annaarends2

🌈 RAINBOW 🌈 IG FONT TUTORIAL #natureathome #fyp #insta #instagram #instastoryinspo #tutorial #instagramstoryhack #storyhack

♬ Buttercup – Jack Stauber

The background effects look different for the newer fonts, too, so be sure to scroll through those and see what inspires you.

Another fun effect you can create using the text features on Stories is to spell out a word with individual letters and stagger them or arrange them however you like to look like scattered tiles. Or, create a shadow effect by creating identical texts in different colors and setting one just overlapping the other. There’s so much room for creativity here!

2. Use the doodle and erase features to highlight or hide parts of an image

Another under-appreciated feature is the doodle feature. Yes, it lets you add little drawings and arrows to your Stories… but there’s so much more it can do.

First of all, the pen tool can create a solid background. A super easy way to create a solid background is to select any image for your Story, then tap the doodle feature, pick the color you’d like for your background, and tap and hold on the screen.

But that’s not all: the highlighter tool can create a transparent overlay. This is super useful for adding text and other images over an image with lots of colors and details without making it look too “busy.” You add the transparent overlay the same way you add the solid background with the pen feature – just select the highlighter tool, pick your color, and tap and hold on the screen:

Now, the eraser is where you can really take this up a level. You can start out with an image, create a solid background over it, and then use the eraser to reveal just one element from the image that’s hiding underneath. This is a fantastic way to highlight a particular subject or object in an image. You can do the same thing with a transparent overlay — it’ll really make your subject pop!

You can also use the eraser feature to doodle through a background or overlay for an interesting “negative space” effect.

3. Use animated GIF stickers

Nothing catches the eye like an animation, and the variety of GIFs available in Instagram is staggering. Invest some time in poking around and looking for GIFs that fit your Story in terms of theme, mood, and color scheme. A strategically placed GIF can really pull a Story together.

You can also create a full screen GIF using Create Mode. Simply head to Create Mode and swipe left on the menu that appears above it to select GIF. Tap “Search GIPHY” and enter your keywords to search for the GIF you want. Create Mode GIFs look like this:

Check out our guide here for full insights on Instagram Story GIFs.

4. Create video Stories with templates

Especially if you’re short on time, a video maker app like Boosted can be a lifesaver. The app provides stunning and stylish templates, stock footage, music, and other effects that make it a cinch to pull together an impressive-looking video Story in just a few minutes.

Templates are fantastic for Stories because they create a visually cohesive video that’s smooth, easy on the eyes, and looks very professional, without the hours and hours of working with design apps (not to mention a great deal of skill and talent) it takes to create something similar on your own.

Here’s a video created with Boosted that we recently shared to @boosted_social‘s Story:

5. Take advantage of sequencing

There’s a reason Stories are called Stories: each slide leads to the next, and taking advantage of that format can really help you pull your Stories together and keep your followers engaged.

Some very simple ways to do this involve using the same background image, but adding or removing an element from each slide in sequence. For example, creating a list and adding just one item to each slide, or creating a sequence of slides that slowly reveal a key element of your image. You can do this right in the Stories camera by creating your first slide, saving the Story as an image (click the “download” icon at the top center of the screen), then altering the Story to create another slide and saving that one, and so on. Once you have all your images, upload them together in the proper sequence:

insta story sequencing

There’s no end to the creative ways you can use the features and format of Stories to create compelling content your followers will love. Invest some time in getting to know the existing features and keep an eye out to see how people are using them to give you more ideas! For more Story inspiration, check out 50 Engaging Instagram Story Ideas for Your Brand.

Action Items:

  • Play around with different ways to use text and fonts to make interesting effects.
  • Use the doodle tools to bring out specific elements in your image.
  • Find an animated GIF that fits your Story perfectly and place it strategically on the image.
  • Try out Boosted to create some quick, professional-looking video Stories.
  • Keep sequencing in mind and try to create a whole experience for your followers using multiple slides.
Instagram Story Ideas
Instag

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Guest Blog | Conquer Your Expenses – A Guide for SMEs

We know our customers are agile, growth-focused businesses. You love to be out there winning and delivering new business, wooing customers and bringing new products and services to market. But the sad fact is that many businesses fail because they don’t pay enough attention to outgoings. SMEs often lack the systems and processes they need to properly to manage expenditure.

Research from CB Insights revealed that running out of cash was the second most common reason businesses gave for failure – 29% of CEOs blamed insufficient funds for the collapse of their business. With figures like these, we thought it was important to investigate and see how we can help SMEs master their expenditure. What visibility do they have of routine and ad-hoc expenditure? What systems and processes do they have in place and what support do they get from their banks? What more could they do?

Revolut for Business surveyed 602 owners, managers and financial directors in SME business in the UK, France and Poland in November 2019 to find out how they could better take control of their finances and master their cash flow for good.

Our key findings:

– 35% of businesses surveyed still use paper or Excel forms for expenses

– 69% of businesses surveyed reconcile all payments to a single account monthly

– 71% of businesses surveyed want faster access to funds paid into accounts

Virtual accounts for visibility and control

As noted, we found the majority of SMEs (69%) rely on a monthly reconciliation to a single bank account to manage all their payments. But, about one in five of our survey respondents use individual accounts to manage specific projects. For example, they set up dedicated accounts for tax, salaries and supplier payments. Although this provides much enhanced visibility, even among larger businesses only 30% of 51-100 person businesses and 24% of those with 101-250 employees manage multiple accounts in this way.

Virtual accounts, used by around 10% of the sample, provide the most flexible solution. They allow dedicated accounts to be created instantly but still managed through a common dashboard. They provide visibility across all your finances, but let you manage, budget and forecast for specific projects separately.

Larger SMEs (101-250 employees) are most likely to use these (22%) although smaller businesses that lack dedicated finance teams may find this approach most useful; only 3.5% of those with under 25 staff are currently doing so.

Our research highlights a further issue impacting cash-flow. Seventy-one per cent of SMEs would like to be able to spend received funds as soon as they are in their accounts, but one in six complain that their bank is too slow in clearing them. Of these 37% in the UK are made to wait between 36 hours and three days before they can use funds in their accounts.

For fast moving businesses and at busy times, this creates a very narrow window in which payments can be made to avoid the additional interest charges, holds on stock deliveries, and damage to credit facilities and business reputation than can result from missed payments.

Our quickstart guide

Keep your cash flowing and your finances healthy with these simple steps:

– Create an expenses policy (and stick to it) – Establish clear and enforceable routines for claiming expenses

– Issue employees with payment cards – Establish dedicated expenses budgets. Track expenses in real time

– Use expense management solutions – Integrated with your accounting software. Use dedicated apps and integrated solutions

– Organise multiple accounts and pockets – Use automated payments and specific permissions to retain control

– Keep an eye on things – Set up alerts and reminders to keep on top of outgoings

Download the full whitepaper here.

Get started with Revolut Business

Revolut Business is a borderless account built for growth. Created to give you an advantage over your time, day and the competition. With the built-in speed and ease, plus the security and transparency you rely on.

It’s designed to work for you. Powerful, personalised tools all in one place, giving you ultimate control over your business finances.

Join the 400,000 businesses already on Revolut Business. No more juggling, no more guesswork. Focus your valuable time on what’s important. Focus on what’s next.

Get started with Revolut Business today.

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9 Great Small Business Video Examples

While the SMB promo videos of yesteryear may not have been outstanding, new technologies make it easier and more affordable than ever for small businesses to create stunning, inventive videos for social media, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

Though not all of these small business videos achieved millions of views, we think they are original, professional, and serve as great examples for any SMB looking to just into video marketing. If you are looking to create your own awesome SMB video, check out our corporate video maker to create an SMB video in under 3 minutes!

Below are our picks for 9 great promotional videos for small business:

1. Effortless Showcasing: Mollydooker Wines

In the world of wines, Australia’s family-owned Mollydooker Wines is known for their quirky design and flavorful vintages. Their “Visit Our Cellar Door” video is clearly shot by an amateur, and the editing isn’t 100% either.

However, all of this adds to the video’s charm, which shows people of all ages roaming the grounds and enjoying MollyDooker wine and produce. In a sense, the video’s lack of polish actually adds to the small business’ authenticity and community-friendly reputation.

2. Clear, concise, fun: ThinkGeek

ThinkGeek is an ecommerce store that sells sci-fi, fantasy and tech-related apparel and merchandise.

Their “Welcome to ThinkGeek” promo shot blends a friendly voiceover with shots of people having fun with the site’s products.

In just 42 seconds and no overcomplicated camera-work, the company does a great job of highlighting their specialized wares and inviting viewers to join their geek community.

3. Making the News their Own: The Cow and the Curd

Nothing says small business like local food trucks, and one Philedalphia food truck really nailed their promotional video.

At just 1:35 seconds long, the video is mostly a collage of local news crews interviewing the owner and sampling the truck’s deep-fried cheese curds, interspersed with locals queuing for and praising the food.

In a video that could easily have been made with simple editing tools and a smartphone, The Cow and the Curd quickly establishes who they are, how good they are, and provides a compelling sensory prompt to check out them out.

4. What Are The Features and Differences Between Bosch Dishwashers? Yale Appliance

Yale Appliance is a small business who kept their video marketing plan quite simple, but effective.

They produced a number of very basic and easy to digest explainer videos, which reviewed the pros and cons of many appliances which they sell.

Their videos are relatively easy for any other small business owner to edit and produce and hopefully increase their online visibility.

And if you’re inspired by what you’ve seen here, then you too can get started with professional video creation: Boosted is an easy to use video maker app which can help you produce stunning, professional videos for your small biz.

5. IZIL – Inspiration

Drawing on its heritage and authenticity, leading UAE beauty brand ‘IZIL’ has an interesting story to tell. It’s Moroccan born founder (Mouna Abbassay) features in the promotional video, showing a fusion of Moroccan meets Middle-Eastern influence.

Distilling the process down to their daily rituals, this simple video shows the providence of its key ingredients; rose water, oils and natural botanicas.

Using slowed down footage and lingering shots, gives the appearance of a larger budget than you might expect. Together it creates a soothing, elegant promotional film, that’s as absorbing as its beauty range!

As a nice touch, there’s a call to action at the end of the film, inviting you to follow them on social media.

6. My HR Tool Kit: HR Software for SMEs

With the rise in Saas products, gaining cut-through in a competitive market is a challenge. This is where a promotional video can help you stand out and convey your brand message.

Even on a limited budget, there’s lots of ways to get creative, as HRtoolkit demonstrates. If you can’t afford film crews, locations and actors, then an animation is a viable and affordable option.

Using a free soundtrack and simple graphics, the 2 minute 30 second video is loaded with ‘reasons to’ use their service.

It covers all the essentials when it comes go good marketing too, including:

  • Outlining the problem and how they solve it
  • Explaining what the product does
  • Highlighting its five key features
  • How to get in touch (call to action)

The video may be simple, but it’s on point when it comes to ticking the right boxes.

7. Ten Membership – Travel with Ten

When you’re a personal concierge company with a host of services on offer, how do you share this with members in an aspirational way? Through the medium of video of course.

Nothing brings travel to life better than lingering shots of far-flung beaches, private jets and luxury villas hanging off clifftops. Tick, tick, tick – each of these appear in Ten’s travel video.

Footage of desirable destinations flash up for a few seconds, overlaid with buzzwords like ‘embrace’, ‘enrich’ or ‘escape’. This purposely gives the impression of quick living for the jet-set elite.

It’s likely that footage is bought from a library, with title graphics and an upbeat soundtrack to bring it all together. It’s a neat idea, for a premium finish.

8. Wonderbly – Kingdom of You

Tapping in to the customized gift market, Wonderbly is a start-up that creates personalized books for children.

Their promotional launch video, perfectly brings this to life, using great illustrations and interesting text, to create a story of its own.

It shows endless options for creating your own magical tale, accompanied by a playful soundtrack.

Even though the video lasts less than a minute, it gets its message across clearly in  fun way. If you take anything from this, let it be the simplicity of a clear and unclutterd message.

9. The Botanist – Wild. Foraged. Distilled.

The distillation process is a labour of love – at least that’s what the folk at The Botanist Gin want you to believe.

Their slow pace video shows whimsical shots of the team foraging and sourcing fresh ingredients. Perhaps it lingers a bit longer than attention spans do, but then maybe that’s the point?!

Filming is a little amateur, but can easily be passed off as ‘raw’, in keeping with the spirit of the film. There’s no voice over or fancy graphics either. It goes to show that even on a shoestring budget, and with a very vague storyline, you can still create something watchable.

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Facebook’s Small Business Report on COVID-19: What Business Owners Need to Know

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdowns to prevent its spread have had wide-reaching, devastating economic effects – with the small businesses community being especially hard-hit.

Facebook recently released a survey that they conducted in partnership with Small Business Roundtable to understand how small businesses in the U.S have been impacted by the crisis. A key conclusion from the survey is that a significant majority of business owners are optimistic and hopeful that their businesses will survive and thrive. 

Facebook surveyed 86,000 people who owned, managed, or worked for small and medium-sized businesses, 9,000 of whom operate “personal businesses:” self-employed individuals providing goods or services who didn’t label themselves as owners or managers. By looking at the data and examining how these individuals are coping with the crisis, you can gain some valuable insights that may help you and your business weather the situation better.

The challenges small businesses are facing

Let’s get the tough news out of the way: small businesses, the survey reports, face an uncertain future. 31% of owners and managers reported that their businesses were not operating because of COVID-19. For personal businesses, that number rises to 52%.

In the majority of cases — 62% — these businesses said that they had closed to comply with orders by their local governments or health authorities. Others said that it was due to the financial difficulties (9%) or lack of demand (7%).

The report highlighted several challenges small business owners are facing due to the current conditions. The most significant were cash flow (28%) and lack of demand (20%). To continue operating, business owners must keep paying their fixed costs such as rent and utility bills, but the lack of sales has made it difficult or impossible just to cover those costs. Even business owners who are able to continue operating as normal may be struggling to get paid by their clients — who are, themselves, experiencing financial difficulties.

Disrupted home/work balance

Aside from the financial strain, small business owners are struggling to balance running their businesses with managing their households.

The shelter-in-place orders have forced the majority of business owners to stay at home with their families. Those who are able to continue working from home must balance this with managing household tasks. 62% of small business owners report spending 1-4 hours a day on domestic and household care activities. 10% of owners and managers surveyed were also caring for dependents such as children or elderly family members, and it’s not surprising that 47% of them reported feeling burned out trying to balance it all. 

These issues affect women disproportionately. 55% of personal business owners surveyed were women, and as mentioned above, these businesses are shutting down at much higher rates than small or medium-sized businesses. 33% of women owners and managers reported that household responsibilities were making it significantly harder for them to focus on work, as opposed to 25% of men.

How businesses are coping

Now for the good news. The best news is that small business owners are resilient and hopeful. 57% report that they are optimistic or extremely optimistic about the future of their businesses, and only 11% said they were expecting their business to fail within the next 3 months if the situation doesn’t change.

What is making these business owners so optimistic? It could be that they’re hopeful that the crisis will pass quickly, but the survey shows that even while the pandemic has raged, business owners have been thinking outside the box and looking for new ways to serve their customers.

79% of businesses said they’ve changed their operations to accommodate clients and customers. 23% began offering curbside delivery, and 24% began offering home delivery. The internet has played a significant role in these adaptations: 51% of businesses said they have increased online interactions with their clients and 35% expanded the use of digital payments. 36% of the businesses that use online tools said they’ve been conducting sales online.

What’s more, business owners don’t feel helpless. Many have been turning to other sources of finances to help them get through this challenging time. 41% reported that they could draw from their personal savings to make ends meet. 11% said they could get help from family and friends, 7% from community donations, and 4% from gift cards for clients.

What all of this means for you

If your small business is among the many that have been struggling during the pandemic, the first takeaway from the survey is that you are not alone. This is an unprecedented situation that the entire world was unprepared for. So don’t be hard on yourself, and take heart in that we’re all in this together.

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook states that despite all the current challenges, “…business owners and managers are optimistic about their future. They’re resilient, finding new ways to reach their customers online, making adjustments to how and when they do business, and working hard to meet their family obligations at the same time.”

Here are some additional, actionable takeaways from the report:

  • Think outside the box: Small business owners are often celebrated for their creativity and adaptability. Sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm: how can your business model change to better accommodate the current conditions and meet the needs of your clients? What services can you add? What ongoing costs can you trim? What are some creative ways to reach your customers?
  • Embrace the internet: We are so fortunate that this is happening in the age of high-speed internet, smartphones, Zoom, and easy-to-use digital payment platforms. Take full advantage of all these tools. Provide online classes, seminars, and events. Spruce up your social media accounts and get more active online. (You can find lots of great tips for building your social media platform on our blog.) Set up a Facebook Shop. Find a digital payment platform that works for your business. Read up on what other businesses have been doing and find the tools that work for you.
  • Reach out for help: Don’t forget that there are people out there eager to support you and your business. Don’t be too shy or proud to ask them for help. That doesn’t necessarily mean requesting donations: some businesses have been offering gift cards or coupons that customers can purchase now and use in the future. This can help mitigate issues with cash flow. You’ve put so much effort into building your community of clients, providing them with goods and services they value. You may be surprised to learn how happily they’ll rise to the occasion. People can be incredibly generous, and hopefully, you’ll have an opportunity to pay it forward in the future.

This has not been an easy time for anyone, but Facebook’s State of Small Business Report concludes that your fellow small business owners are overwhelmingly optimistic and hopeful about the future — and especially if you learn from them and do what you can to adapt, you have plenty of reason to be, too.

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

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5 Instagram Myths Small Businesses Need to Stop Believing

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

There are so many Instagram myths out there – but some of these myths might actually be hurting your small business’ social media results. If you have ever thought ‘I’ll never be able to grow my Instagram account if I don’t post every single day’ or ‘maybe I should just buy some followers to grow faster!’ you could be hurting your small business’ chance of success on Instagram.

Here are 5 Instagram myths that small business owners shouldn’t fall for – plus a few helpful tips and takeaways.

Myth #1: Switching to a Business Account Will Hurt My Engagement Results

One of the most common Instagram myths many small business owners may have heard is that Instagram accounts that switch over to a Business Account experience a drop in engagement results. This rumor started back in 2016 after Instagram first launched Business Accounts – many people believed Instagram would de-prioritize content posted from a Business Account therefore lowering engagement rates. Luckily this is false!

Instagram does not ‘shadow ban’ Business Accounts – in fact 1/3 of the most viewed stories are from businesses. On the flip side, not switching to a Business Account could be hurting your results on social media because you would be missing out on all of the amazing features available with a Business Account!

Takeaway: Switch to an Instagram Business Account ASAP! A Business Account will help your small business thrive on Instagram thanks to significantly better Instagram analytics (called Instagram Insights), shop now integrations and the ability to set up important details like business hours, location and phone number.

Myth #2: You Have to Post to Instagram Everyday

Have you heard the advice that you have to post on Instagram every single day in order to grow your account? This advice can make busy small business owners feel overwhelmed at the idea of adding one more thing to their long list of daily tasks. Luckily this myth is totally false – Instagram rewards consistent high-quality content.

So yes, in order to grow on Instagram you will have to post high-quality content on a consistent basis but this doesn’t mean posting every single day. In fact, businesses that try to post every single day will likely rush to find content to post for and if this isn’t content that aligns with your brand, it might just be better to post nothing at all.

Takeaway: Stop trying to post every single day! Instead, set up a consistent, yet manageable schedule for your small business to post on Instagram, such as 3 times a week. As a small business owner it will be much easier to post content every other day or every two days. This will also leave you more time to create higher quality content that your customers are more likely to engage with. Pro tip: use an Instagram scheduler to plan out your content in advance and save even more time.

Myth #3: Likes Are The Most Important Type of Engagement

While this myth might have been more relevant a few years ago, some small businesses are still preoccupied with getting as many likes as possible. Likes used to be a decent way to gauge how well your Instagram account was doing but as Instagram has evolved, Likes aren’t quite as important as they used to be. In fact, Instagram has tested removing the Like count in many countries around the world and it seems like it will stick:

For most accounts now, the total number of Likes are hidden and not available to the public. So if likes aren’t the most important type of engagement on Instagram, what is? We believe that one of the most important engagements to monitor now is Instagram Story views – over 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day, so it is key that your small business leverages this feature.

Takeaway: Stop worrying about Likes! As a small business owner, there are many more important types of engagement to focus on growing, such as link clicks in your bio, comments, saves, shares and reach. If you want to use metrics to measure how successful your social media strategy is, take a look at views, including: content views, profile views and story views for an idea of how many people your content reaches on average. 

Myth #4: People Are Sick Of Seeing Businesses On Instagram

Some small businesses might believe that they should avoid being active on Instagram because people have gotten sick of seeing businesses their feeds. Not being active on Instagram will definitely hurt your small business’ results! If all of your posts are overly promotional, people might get tired of following your Instagram Business Account, but if you are creating quality content worth viewing, your followers will enjoy and engage with it. In fact, over 200 million Instagram users visit at least one Business Profile daily.

Takeaway: Your customers want to see your small business on Instagram! 60% of people say they discover new products on Instagram and 41% of people even said they like to use a business’s Instagram content to research a product or service.

Myth #5: You Should Buy Likes & Followers to Grow Your Account Quicker

By now, most people know that it isn’t a good idea to buy Instagram followers. In case you are still considering it, here’s why it’s one of the biggest mistakes a small business can make on Instagram: if your account has 20,000 Instagram followers but your posts are only getting a few likes and comments, at a quick glance the average person will know your followers are all fake. This makes your brand look less trustworthy which is definitely not good for your small business.

Additionally, there is no value in having this many “followers” since they are probably all fake bot accounts that aren’t providing any engagement with your content. Also, Instagram periodically “cleans up” the platform by deleting fake bot accounts so if you bought followers you might notice a drastic drop in followers every few months.

Takeaway: Focus on growing organically! It takes time to grow your small business’ Instagram followers, but if you focus on posting quality content and actively engaging with potential customers, your account will grow. Check out our guide here for 3 daily Insta habits you can implement to increase your follower count.

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.

Instagram Business Myths

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7 New Instagram Features that Will Boost Your Business During COVID-19

With mandatory closures and social distancing safety measures in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19, there are a lot of unknowns for small business owners right now.

One of the questions we often see business owners asking is ‘should we still be posting on social media?’ and the answer is yes, definitely! Many people are finding themselves scrolling Instagram more often now that they are spending more at home in quarantine so it’s the perfect time for small businesses to be active on Instagram and connect with customers.

Instagram has recently launched several new features in an effort to help promote the most helpful and relevant information during this public health emergency. Keep reading to learn more about 7 of Instagram’s newest features and how small businesses can implement these updates into their social media strategies during COVID-19.

1. “Support Small Business” Sticker

The “Support Small Business” sticker for Stories will be directly valuable for your business. When the sticker is added to a photo or video and then shared to Stories, a preview of the small business’ Instagram account will appear. All Stories that include this sticker are automatically added to a shared Instagram story, which can increase visibility for your brand even more.

This sticker makes it easy for users to give a shoutout to their favorite small businesses, in only a few taps.

2. “Stay Home” Sticker

You’ve likely seen Instagram’s new “Stay Home” sticker while viewing Instagram Stories. This sticker is part of Instagram’s initiative to prioritize safety during COVID-19 and any stories that include the “Stay Home” sticker in their Instagram stories will be included in a shared Instagram story. Small businesses should include the “Stay Home” sticker in their Instagram stories to have their posts included in the shared story while providing social distancing tips or business updates to their local communities.

3. Instagram Ads

If your small business can afford it, you should still be advertising on social media during COVID-19. Some businesses have decreased their ad spend these next few months while customers are spending more time than usual on social media. This means small businesses might actually be able to see better results than usual with their social media ads without increasing their budgets.

However, if your small business plans to advertise on Instagram during COVD-19, be cautious about the products and messaging being used in your ads. Instagram has recently put several new advertising policies in place. For example, Instagram ads cannot mention COVID-19 as a way to create a sense of urgency or make a claim that products can help prevent people from contracting the virus. Instagram has also temporarily banned ads and branded content promoting medical supplies, like face masks.

4. Thank You Hour

We know it can be hard to stay positive right now which is why we love Instagram’s new ‘Thank You Hour’ where users are encouraged to use the ‘Thank You’ sticker to share something they are grateful for during the pandemic. Users can share anything they are feeling appreciative for right now then Instagram will include stories using the ‘Thank You’ sticker in a shared story at 7 p.m.

‘Thank You Hour’ is the perfect opportunity for small business owners to say thank you to their customers and the local communities supporting their businesses and helping them survive COVID-19 closures. Not only is it a good reminder to say thank you but having your Instagram story being included in the shared story will help place your business in front of more people.

5. Gift Cards, Food Orders & Fundraisers

Instagram knows that every sale can help small businesses right now which is why they’ve recently launched several features to enable customers to support their favorite local businesses such as gift card stickers.

If you have a business Instagram account, you can now share the gift card, food order and fundraiser stickers on both your Instagram Stories and Profiles. These stickers will make it easier for customers to simply tap the sticker and support your small business. SMBs in the US and Canada can now ask for support directly through Instagram by using the gift card or food order stickers and should keep an eye out for Instagram to roll out the fundraiser sticker soon as well.

6. Instagram Direct Messages on Desktop

Instagram has also recently made it possible to send direct messages through desktop computers and web browsers. Traditionally, the ability to send a Direct Message was only possible via Instagram’s mobile app but Instagram is finally rolling out the ability to read and send messages, share photos and react to responses through desktop.

While this feature is not part of their COVID-19 response, this new feature can really help small businesses. Now it is easier than ever for small business owners to respond to customer questions and engage with customers through DMs.

7. Co-Watching

Finally, the final yet very exciting feature Instagram has launched is Co-Watching. This feature allows users to “hang out” with a friend on video chat and scroll through Instagram posts that one person has liked or saved. At first glance, this might not seem like a feature a small business could utilize but this is actually a great way for teams to brainstorm social media content together while employees are all working remotely from home.

We know small business owners have a lot on their plates right now but with social distancing measures in place your customers are craving virtual social connections now more than ever. We hope these new Instagram updates can help your small business continue to stay connected with your customers while we are all quarantined.

Check out these blogs for additional guidance for your business during this difficult time:

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