Using Ubersuggest for E-Commerce: Everything You Need to Create a Killer Online Store

Despite the growth of social selling for e-commerce, SEO keyword optimization is still crucial to long-term business success. Why? Because that’s how most customers find you.

Search traffic is responsible for 65 percent of e-commerce sessions. If you’re not optimizing for keywords, buyers won’t find you among your competitors.

SEO offers many other advantages. SEO offers many other advantages. For instance, it has a fantastic ROI when done correctly. 

If you want further proof of SEO’s advantages, case study after case study shows how a few tweaks can potentially get your site to the front page of Google. 

A few words of warning before I move on: 

• Don’t expect results overnight. SEO can take time to yield results, but it’s a valuable investment that pays off long-term. 
• Don’t let SEO overwhelm you. There are numerous areas of SEO I could discuss here, but let’s just focus on keywords for now.

Why Should E-Commerce Companies Care About SEO Keywords?

With an estimated 4.2 million e-commerce businesses in North America, there’s a ton of competition. 

To stay ahead of the curve, you need to do everything possible to optimize your site, rank higher in SERPs, and increase visibility. You’ve probably guessed by now, but one of the best ways to do this is with strategically chosen keywords.

For guidance, your chosen keywords should be:

• Relevant to your product and target audience. 
• Attainable in search results.
• Lucrative in terms of driving targeted, profitable traffic to your online store.

When it comes to finding keywords, you need resources to help you along the way. This is where Ubersuggest comes in. 

Ubersuggest is a free tool that makes it easy to research keywords and identify which ones to target. 

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Let’s talk about how Ubersuggest helped our e-commerce customer, Portrait Flip, improve traffic and drive ROI. 

Portrait Flip is an online store that creates real portraits by real artists from customer photos around the world. Using Ubersuggest for its keyword research, the company increased its organic traffic by 70% in just two years and increased revenue by 32.33 percent over their goal. 

Perhaps you think that’s unattainable. However, there’s a simple reason behind the enhanced results: you drive more relevant, organic traffic to your website by optimizing your pages by targeting the right keywords.

How to Use Ubersuggest to Create a Killer Online Store

From SEO audits and competitive analysis to monitoring results and adapting your approach, plenty goes into running a successful online store. However, there’s no need to get overwhelmed. With the right tools, creating a killer e-commerce store isn’t complicated. 

Below are five steps to creating a killer online store using Ubersuggest. (link to each section)

1. Create a project from your dashboard in Ubersuggest,
2. Perform an SEO Audit.
3. Find the right keywords to target. 
4. Conduct Competitive Analysis. 
5. Create a Backlinks Plan. 
6. Track Your Progress. 

I’ll walk you through each step of the way. 

Step #1 Create a project in Ubersuggest

If you’re new to Ubersuggest, you need to start with the basics.

Begin by registering for a free account.

Once you do that, go to the dashboard and click on “Add Your First Project.” Next, add your website URL and name.

It’s also essential to connect your project to your Google Account to see how your keyword strategy is affecting your Google presence. Here’s how to do that:

• Go to the dashboard.
• Select the project you want to connect to Google Search Console. 
• Click ‘connect with Google.’
• Connect the account or select the ‘Use another account’ option.

Remember, SEO takes time, and there might be some trial and error along the way. Therefore, once you’ve set it all up, I recommend you use Ubersuggest at least once a week to: 

• Check-in on your SEO progress (you can use the different weekly alerts to help you understand where to focus your efforts).
• Work through the suggestions in your dashboard.
• See what your competitors are up to and take small steps each week to compete against them.
• Find new keywords to target on your product pages (try A/B testing product pages with different keywords to see which one ranks higher).

Portrait Flip did this and achieved significant success and savings:

“We were able to create and implement a clear SEO strategy with Ubersuggest starting in January of 2020 that helped our organic traffic take off. We’ve saved thousands of dollars on paid advertising by keeping Ubersuggest at the heart of our SEO, and we’ve watched our SEO and our revenue grow exponentially, too.”

Step #2 Perform an SEO Audit.

The Ubersuggest Site Audit is the best place to start with your Keyword Strategy. When you perform this analysis, you get a general overview of your website’s SEO standing. 

From here, you can understand where your website ranks in terms of industry-standard for optimal SEO health.

To perform a site audit:

• Go to the project dashboard.
• Find SEO explorer on the left side menu and select ‘SEO Analyzer.’
• Wait for the analyzer to create a report; your report sorts errors by difficulty and how fixing them impacts your SEO.
• Review your report. Pay careful attention to the ‘See All SEO Errors,’ on the associated tab.
• Click ‘What is this, and how do I fix it?’ on the associated tab. 
• Once you’ve reviewed the major issues, select the ‘SEO Analyzer Overview’ option. This takes you back to the site audit main page.
• Now, you’re ready to review the second part of your audit report, which details your desktop and mobile web speed. Use the orange circular toggle, to switch between Desktop and Mobile reports.
• Fix the issues, return to the ‘SEO Analyzer’ overview, and choose the ‘recrawl’ button at the top of the page.
• Finally, review the report to see if you’ve fixed the errors or if there are any fresh ones. 

Here’s how Portrait Flip used the site audit feature.

First, Portrait Flip optimized its results by focusing on the ‘Broken Link’ finder.

This helped the business understand where it was losing potential customers due to broken product links. 

At first glance, this might not seem like an important issue, but broken links negatively impact your SEO and the customer experience.

Portrait Flip also found the ‘Page Load Time’ report invaluable, as the company was keen to see if any added website code was inadvertently increasing its load times.

Again, this may not seem like a significant issue. However, speed is crucial for online shopping. Ideally, you want your e-commerce store to load within two seconds. Anything above that adds to your bounce rate and customer dissatisfaction and leads to lost sales. 

After fixing simple issues on the Portrait Flipw website, 98 percent of the revenue generated from its SEO and PPC efforts in 2021 came from organic search. 

Step #3 Research Keywords to Target

Now, this is where the fun starts. 

You can use the Ubersuggest Keyword Reports to understand which keywords to include in your content to drive relevant and lucrative traffic.

There are two main features to focus on here. 

1. Keyword Overview 

The keyword overview allows you to see how competitive a keyword is and its search volume trend over time. To narrow down your keyword choices, think of the general search terms your target audience might use when searching for a product you sell.

2. Keyword Ideas  

The keyword research feature shows you how people search for keywords related to your business and your products. It enables you to uncover valuable keywords that other competitors aren’t targeting.

How Portrait Flip uses these tools:

Content marketing is at the heart of Portrait Flip’s efforts to attract traffic to its site. For example, the business used blogging and posted regularly on its social media channels. However, these efforts weren’t driving traffic the way the company hoped. 

This is where Ubersuggest proved its worth.

• The Keyword Overview report enabled Portrait Flip to find relevant keywords to focus on and that prospects use in their searches. 
• Next, Portrait Flip optimized its blog posts and e-commerce product pages with new keywords. 
• Finally, Portrait Flip used the Keyword Idea and Content Idea reports to help them plan out their next blog topics. 

The results were exceptional.

Portrait Flip exceeded their traffic expectations in one quarter by over 27 percent—and that’s without any paid advertising. If you’re planning on using these reports, here are a couple of tips to get the most out of it them: 

Find The Most Competitive Keywords

Use the ‘SEO Difficulty’ filter to help determine which keywords are more competitive than others. Be intentional in comparing this with the ‘Paid Difficulty’ feature to help decide if you should pay for Google Ads against the keywords. 

NOTE: Keywords with high Paid Difficulty are usually lucrative. However, they are almost always more expensive.

Search by Location

If you want to attract a worldwide audience, search for global keywords on the ‘location’ tab. You can target your geographical search towards specific local traffic or by country. This can help you find unique keywords in different regions to target.

Step #4 Conduct a Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is an essential part of any effective SEO strategy. By understanding your competitors, you can learn what techniques and keywords they’re using to rank well in search engines and replicate their successes.

Ubersuggest makes this task more manageable than ever. Just use the following tools: 

• Keywords by Traffic: Go to Ubersuggest, enter the competitor domain URL, and hit “Search” to find the top keywords that the website ranks for. Note any organic keywords and monthly traffic, the domain score, and backlinks. You can also add your competitor’s URL as a project in your Ubersuggest dashboard for regular tracking. 
• Backlinks Opportunities: Discover what websites are linking to your competitors and get a detailed overview of who to reach out to request links back to your site. Here’s how: 

1. Enter your domain name or URL from your site into the Backlinks Opportunity tool. (Linked above).

2. Enter a competitor domain or a URL from their site. 

3. Click ‘search.’

You can also use the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension for keyword analysis directly in Google search results, YouTube, AND Amazon pages for further insights.

Here’s how you’ll see the data in your SERPs: 

You can also remove competitors or add them.

You’ll also see monthly search and CPC: 

Here’s how to use this feature: 

Create a Project for each Competitor: On the Dashboard, click “add a project” and add a few of your competitors to get a complete overview and consistent updates on your competitor’s ranking. You can easily remove competitors or add them. Here’s some more information on using Ubersuggest to spy on your competitors.  

How Portrait Flip used Ubersuggest’s competitive analysis tool: 

Portrait Flip monitored how its competitors were performing and what keywords they were ranking for. Specifically, the company used the Keywords by Traffic and Top Pages by Traffic reports together to get an idea of keywords they were losing out on. Using the information, Portrait Flip secured Page #1 on Google above competitors for primary keywords that drove converting traffic to their site.

Step #5 Start Tracking Your Progress

As you work on your SEO Keywords, it’s critical to be patient and track your progress over the long term. 

Although you might see results with your plan in the next few weeks, as I’ve repeatedly stressed, SEO is an ongoing process and it takes time to get results. Typically, you can expect to wait a few months, so if you’re not seeing immediate progress, don’t get discouraged. 

When you track your keywords, you can see which ones aren’t working and use some fresh ones to optimize your content. 

Then rinse and repeat! 

Keep testing and learning. A/B test different targeted keywords on product pages over time and track to see which performs best. 

You can use Ubersuggest to monitor keyword performance. Here’s how:

In your Dashboard, you can view SEO progress over a specific time. Plus, you can see your progress in keyword ranking and estimated traffic value.

How Portrait Flip did this:

As they tracked their progress, they found that most of their year-to-year growth came from organic traffic, which steadily grew once they started using Ubersuggest. 

Conclusion: Using Ubersuggest to Improve Your E-Commerce Store

One of the toughest tasks for e-commerce business owners is standing out from the competition. Gaining visibility, discovering the right keywords, identifying backlinking opportunities, and conducting competitive analysis are some of the most challenging tasks every online store owner faces.  

Fortunately, Ubersuggest offers a solution to these common problems, allowing you to enhance your e-commerce store in key areas. This allows you to increase visibility, attract targeted prospects, and enhance conversions. 

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E-commerce Optimization: 6 Steps to Boost Your Conversion Rates

For online stores, increasing conversions is the key to long-term success.

After all, if visitors don’t buy, then you’re not making any money! And with $7.31 trillion dollars projected to be spent on e-commerce retail by 2025, you want to make sure to optimize your CRO so you can receive as much of that spend as possible.

That said, optimizing your e-commerce store can be confusing.

Even if you’ve done everything right, from driving traffic to your website to running digital ads, you might still see low conversion rates. The average conversion rate for US e-commerce stores was 2.8 percent in the second quarter of 2021 (which is the most recent data available).

So what gives, and how can you push past a three percent conversion rate? E-commerce optimization is all about making it easy for your visitors to buy from you.

How do you do that? It starts with diving into your analytics to see where visitors are getting stuck. If that sounds complicated, don’t worry—I’m going to walk you through it.

First, however, let’s talk about why CRO is different for e-commerce websites.

How Is Conversion Optimization Different for E-commerce Stores?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) for e-commerce stores is different because e-commerce stores sell physical products, which can be more complex and time-consuming to purchase than, for example, a service – which has an average 9.3 conversion rate across the industry.

The difference in average conversion rates is partially because a service website might have one or two steps in the checkout process, while an e-commerce store could have five or six – meaning it’s all the more important for you to optimize your CRO.

This means e-commerce stores need to pay more attention to the purchase process, from product pages to the checkout page.

E-commerce stores have unique friction points, such as shipping and returns, which can impact purchase decisions.

Because of this, e-commerce owners need to take a holistic approach to optimizing their stores.

This might mean looking for opportunities to increase customer confidence through social proof and streamlined checkout processes.

Ultimately, e-commerce owners should focus on creating a frictionless purchase experience to boost their conversion rates.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #1: Add Recommended Products

Adding recommended products to your e-commerce store is a great way to increase conversion rates.

When someone visits a product page, they want information about the product and how it can meet their needs.

If you suggest additional products that might be of interest, you can help guide their purchase decision and increase your conversion rate.

Invespcro found that 37 percent of shoppers clicked a recommended product during their first return visit to a site.

Similarly, shoppers that click on product recommendations are four and a half times more likely to add items to the cart and complete a purchase.

Amazon, for example, recommends products based on previous purchases or items you looked at. This helps keep customers engaged with the site and increases sales.

They also use “Frequently Bought Together” prompts to show customers related items they may like.

Recommending relevant products to your customers also improves the personalization of your e-commerce store.

Website personalization and product recommendations can be further enhanced by using AI, trending data, and previous shopping experiences.

86 percent of consumers say website personalization affects their purchasing decisions. This is an e-commerce conversion rate optimization tactic you don’t want to miss out on.

You can add recommended products in several different ways. Some examples include:

• adding recommended products at the purchase stage, somewhere above or under their shopping cart
• adding recommended products in the confirmation/transaction email you send to customers when they make a purchase
• add recommended products on search results pages for similar/related products

The steps for adding recommended products will vary based on your e-commerce platform. Here are instructions for the most popular platforms:

• Shopify
• Big Commerce
• WooCommerce

E-commerce CRO Strategy #2: Make Sure Your Product Pages Shine

High-quality product pages are key to your e-commerce success.

When customers can see what they’re buying and get an idea of how it will look and function in their lives, they feel more confident about the purchase.

Since your visitors can’t touch and feel your products, you need to make sure the media you use on each product page does them justice.

Start with high-quality photos that depict the product from various angles at different levels of detail.

Make sure your photos are high enough resolution to support a zoom feature to show texture and details.

If you have the space, add a 360-degree view of the product so customers can get a complete look.

If your e-commerce store sells clothes or accessories, use models to show how the items look on various body types.

Besides images, consider using demo videos or explainer videos to show your products in action.

Remember, you don’t have to generate all the content yourself either.

Encourage customers to submit visual content or source your images and videos from social media, which perform double duty as social proof, which will help increase conversions.

Product descriptions that highlight key features are also key to getting shoppers to buy.

Be sure to include all pertinent information, such as size, color, and fabric content.

Use clear and concise language to avoid confusion and highlight the unique features of your products.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #3: Streamline Navigation

You can’t make sales if site visitors can’t find what they want.

Your site’s navigation is often the first place shoppers look if they have a specific product or category in mind.

Navigation that is confusing, too complex, or difficult to understand will cost you sales and customers. In fact, a HubSpot case study found that simplifying or removing navigation elements from middle-of-the-funnel landing pages resulted in a 16-28% increased conversion rate!

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for e-commerce website navigation. The best way to design a website menu depends on the nature of your products and how your customers like to organize information.

Here are a few steps for creating effective e-commerce website navigation:

1. Use heat maps or do user testing to find how and where users click.
2. Prominently display categories on every page.
3. Include clear labels and concise descriptions for all menu items.
4. Create intuitive and logical menus based on how your customers browse your site.
5. Avoid burying essential menu items in nested sub-menus.
6. Test different navigation structures to see what works best for your customers.

An example of great e-commerce navigation comes from Apple.

If you have a large number of products, a drop-down menu that lists everything can be overwhelming.

If Apple included all its products and services in a drop-down menu, its website would have very clunky and confusing navigation.

Not only would that work against the brand’s minimalist image, but it’d also be hard for customers to find what they need.

Instead, Apple opts for clean top navigation with no dropdown or secondary menu item:

When visitors click on a top navigation item, they’re directed to a menu page that lists options within the category:

Doing away with a complicated drop-down also helps streamline the mobile user experience, which is increasingly important.

Clear navigation also has SEO and UX benefits.

Providing a clear path to the products customers are looking for makes it easier for shoppers to find what they need on your site—which increases sales.

This can help improve your search engine ranking, as Google (and other search engines) favor sites that are easy to navigate.

If you’re unsure if your site is easy to navigate, or have seen drop-off points in your analytics, consider using a heat map tool like Crazy Egg to see where people click on your pages.

You can also use a tool like Optimizely to test different versions of your navigation and see which one leads to more conversions.

Once you’ve identified any potential drop-off points, it’s time to start making changes!

E-commerce CRO Strategy #4: Add a Wish List or Favorite Option

Wish lists and favorite options allow users to save items they might buy later.

This is a great way to increase conversions because it gives users the opportunity to “test drive” your site and come back later to buy products they love.

Creating a wish list also requires customers to create an account for your e-commerce store.

This allows you to offer relevant promotions and gather customer data to improve user experience and increase sales.

Wish lists can help you:

• alert customers about special offers available for items on their wish lists
• deliver targeted content based on items they’ve shown interest in
• identify retail trends and seasonal activities to improve demand forecasting
• understand what your customers are looking for and offer similar products

Research from Google found 40 percent of online shoppers think their experience would be better if they were offered a wish list.

In addition, make it easy for your customers to create wish lists on other platforms. For example, enable “Pin It” buttons so visitors can share your products on their Pinterest wish lists.

Or, promote the use of the “Save” feature on Instagram and Facebook.

There are many ways to make it easy for your customers to save products they are interested in.

If you use Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you have two options for adding a wish list feature: add custom code to your site, or add a wishlist app, like Wishlist Hero.

On BigCommerce, all you need to do is enable wishlists in your shop’s settings.

WooCommerce offers an extension so you can allow users to add items to their wishlist when they shop your store.

E-commerce CRO Strategy #5: Streamline the Check Out Process

According to the Baymard Institute, 69.82 percent of e-commerce carts are abandoned at checkout.

This rate increases on mobile and desktop devices, which have some of the highest cart abandonment rates.

Cart abandonment rates by device:

• desktop: 66.1 percent
• mobile: 80.6 percent

To avoid losing customers at the checkout, make the process as quick and easy as possible.

This means offering clear and concise shipping information, providing a guest checkout option, and ensuring all payment methods are available.

You should also ensure the checkout process is easy to navigate with all required information requested upfront.

Here are a few ways to streamline the checkout process:

• Use a single-page checkout: This will keep customers from going through multiple pages to check out.
• Save billing and shipping information: Customers hate having to enter their information each time they make a purchase, so make their checkout process easier by saving and auto-filling their information.
• Use a progress bar: Let customers know how far along they are in the checkout process so they don’t get impatient.
• Offer a shipping calculator: This will help customers determine how much their shipping will cost and whether or not they want to continue with the purchase.
• Personalize page to their local currency: Customers feel more comfortable when they’re making a purchase in their local currency.
• Reduce clicks: Try to make the checkout process straightforward, so customers don’t get frustrated and leave.
• Provide order confirmation: Once a customer has completed their purchase, send them an order confirmation to let them know everything went through successfully.
• Include trust symbols: Add trust symbols like security seals to reassure customers their information is safe and their purchase is legitimate.

Remember, the easier you can make it for customers to buy, the more likely they are to convert!

E-commerce CRO Strategy #6: Add More (and Better) Social Proof

Social proof is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal to boost e-commerce conversion rates.

Adding social proof elements to your site increases confidence in potential buyers and nudges them towards completing a purchase.

Some effective ways to add social proof include testimonials from happy customers, reviews from unbiased third-party, or user-generated content of your product in action.

According to Trustpilot, 89 percent of global consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.

This implies reviews are a regular part of a consumer’s purchase journey, but they can also be a deciding factor in the purchase process.

That said, reviews don’t just exist on your product pages.

Other digital channels such as social media, email marketing, and even paid search can be used to display reviews.

For example, brands that work with influencers can benefit from video and social posts that include reviews.

This can include YouTube reviews, unboxing videos, or branded TikTok promotions.

There are a few things you can do to increase your reviews, including:

• asking customers for reviews after purchase.
• making it easy for customers to leave reviews on your site
• including social media icons on your product pages that link to your profiles
• using review aggregators like Trustpilot and Bazaarvoice
• reaching out to influencers for social content creation
• promoting UGC on your social channels

Frequently Asked Questions About E-commerce CRO Strategies

How can I improve my e-commerce conversion rate?

To increase your e-commerce CRO, consider adding recommended products, making sure your product pages shine, implementing simple navigation, providing a wish list option, streamlining the checkout process, and adding social proof.

How are e-commerce conversions calculated?

E-commerce conversions are the total number of visits to your e-commerce site divided by the number of purchases.

What is a good e-commerce conversion rate?

The average e-commerce conversion rate varies depending on the type of product you sell but is typically around two percent. Some of the top e-commerce sites have conversion rates between 5 and 10 percent.

What is CRO in e-commerce?

E-commerce conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the process of making adjustments to your site with the goal of increasing the percentage of visits that result in a purchase. In e-commerce specifically, CRO is focused on optimizing the product page, checkout process, and overall user experience.

Conclusion: E-commerce Conversion Optimization

E-commerce conversion optimization is key to driving growth for your business.

While blogs and service sites rely on traffic from search engines and social media, e-commerce sites need to optimize SEO and every step of the buying process.

When starting an e-commerce conversion rate optimization strategy, start by looking into your customer data and website analytics. Use heat mapping tools to see where customers are clicking and what they scroll past.

Once you understand what is and isn’t working, start making changes to your website.

Test each change to make sure it improves conversion rates before rolling out the change to all visitors.

What CRO strategies have you used to boost e-commerce sales?

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How (and why) to post to Instagram from PC or Mac

When Instagram launched in 2010, users could only share square images from their mobile devices. Since then, the app has evolved to include features such as multi-image posting, private messaging and a broad set of editing tools that can make an amateur smartphone picture look like a professional image. In 2021, Instagram rolled out another new feature: the ability to post to the app from a PC or Mac.

Casual users may not feel compelled to post to Instagram from a PC or Mac. But for marketers, this new feature could simplify and improve Instagram management.

In this guide, we’ll explain the benefits of posting to Instagram from a desktop or laptop and explain how to do it.

Let’s get started!

Why might a business post to Instagram from a computer?

Professionals running a business account might want the option of posting to Instagram on desktop for the following reasons:

Simplify the publishing process

If you’ve ever attempted to create an Instagram post using an image that’s stored on your company server, you know the process isn’t ideal. You might’ve had to email the image to yourself, download it to your mobile phone then upload it to Instagram. Being able to post to Instagram from your PC simplifies this process.

Create flawless content

Proofreading your content and hashtags can be a challenge when you’re looking at a 6-inch smartphone screen. When posting to Instagram from your desktop, you can write your content in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, check the spelling and grammar then copy-and-paste it into your post.

A larger screen is also helpful for photographers and designers who want to see how an image will display. On a desktop, they can more easily detect any problems with aspect ratio or resolution.

Establish a work-life balance

Many marketers that manage Instagram accounts use their own phones to do so. Should you forget to toggle between accounts, you might end up posting to the wrong profile. Posting to Instagram from your company laptop or desktop prevents this misstep.

How to post on Instagram from PC

Instagram’s desktop web version lets you browse your feed, post photos and videos to your profile, view your notifications and reply to direct messages (DMs).
In this guide, we’ll show you three ways of posting to Instagram from PC or Mac:

1. How to post on Instagram from a desktop using Sprout Social
2. How to post on Instagram from computer using your browser
3. How to post on Instagram from a desktop using Creator Studio

Let’s start with Sprout Social.

1. How to post on Instagram from a desktop using Sprout Social

Using Sprout Social, you can post photos, videos, carousels and Stories to your Instagram Business Profile. You can also cross-post to other channels, view in-depth analytics and collaborate with your team.

To post to Instagram, open Compose in the Sprout desktop app and select the image(s) you want to add. You can use Sprout’s photo editor to adjust your image before posting it.

After your image is ready and you’ve selected the account you want to post to, you can schedule your first comment, along with hashtags, and tag up to 20 users. As an added bonus, you can also add internal tags to help organize your posts by topic or campaign.

Choose when you want to publish your post: immediately, on a specific day, or let Sprout Queue auto-schedule it.

2. How to post on Instagram from computer using your browser

You can post to Instagram from your web browser, whether you’re using a Mac or a PC. Instagram’s web version allows you to upload and post a photo or video like you would on the mobile app. Here’s how to post to Instagram from PC or Mac using Google Chrome, Safari or any other web browser:

Open your browser and log in to Instagram, then click the + icon to add an image. You can drag or drop the image, or select an image to upload from your computer.

Adjust the image size, if necessary, and apply filters or make edits. Then click Next. Now you can tag people, add a caption and specify your location. You can also add alt text by clicking Accessibility.

Click Share when you’re ready to post.

3. How to post on Instagram from a desktop using Creator Studio

If you have an Instagram Business or Creator account, you can use Creator Studio to post, manage, monetize and measure content across all your Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts.

Here’s how to post and schedule photos, videos and carousel posts from your desktop using Creator Studio for Instagram:

Log in to your Creator Studio dashboard using your Facebook or Instagram credentials, then click Connect Your Account.

Click Create Post, then select Instagram Feed and choose the account for your post. Write your caption. You can include up to 30 hashtags and tag up to 30 users.

Then add your image—upload a file from your computer, or choose an image from your Facebook profile. Click Publish to post your content immediately, or schedule it for later.

How to post an Instagram Story from your desktop

Although different from regular posts, you can still post an Instagram Story from your computer using the Sprout Instagram mobile publishing workflow.

Schedule your Instagram Story video in Sprout’s desktop app and then assign a Mobile Publisher—a person responsible for publishing posts to Instagram—to publish the content to your Instagram account via Sprout’s mobile app at the scheduled time.

Why Sprout Social is the best solution for posting to Instagram from PC or Mac

Now you know how to post pictures on Instagram from PC or Mac, whether using a web browser or Facebook’s Creator Studio. But if you want the best desktop experience, you’ll want to use Sprout’s desktop app.

Here’s why:

Support for all post types

Sprout lets you post all types of Instagram content—including images, carousels, videos and Stories—from your computer.

Post scheduling

Using Sprout’s Content Calendar, you can plan and schedule your Instagram content in advance. Plus, you can prepopulate the First Comment with relevant hashtags to increase your reach.

Image editing

You can use Sprout’s photo editor to adjust the image size and add filters, effects, text overlay and stickers.

Manage multiple Instagram accounts

You can connect multiple Instagram Business Accounts to Sprout Social and choose which profile to publish your content to.

Social CRM

Sprout’s social CRM lets you access conversation histories and relevant contact information so that you can personalize responses to incoming messages. You can also match social contacts with corresponding customer Salesforce data—without leaving Sprout—to give sales and marketing the complete picture.

In-depth reporting

Sprout’s Instagram reporting lets you analyze hundreds of data points, including stories, across multiple profiles so that you can track and refine your strategy.

Ready to see how Sprout Social simplifies social media management? Sign up for a 30-day free trial!

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Social media activism: This is how you start a movement

Social media is a hub for civic engagement. Whether you’re seeing celebrities take to Twitter to express their opinions on current events, brands talking about how their values relate to the issues that matter, or everyday people joining the conversation, social is a powerful platform for activism.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how social media activism works, how it can impact your relationships with your customers and some best practices for weighing in on social media movements.

What is social media activism?

Social media activism is a way for people to talk about—and organize around—the issues that matter to them. Social media activism creates opportunities for grassroots movements to take shape and go further. The Ice Bucket Challenge, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter have all been successful social media movements.

How has social become the launch pad for activism? First and foremost, social media is about conversations. Facebook facilitates catch-ups for old friends. Twitter creates global exchanges on of-the-moment topics. Reddit connects groups of people with common interests. TikTok’s stitches and duets bring video content into the chat. With all of the different ways you can have a conversation on social, it’s no surprise that platforms have become a catalyst for social media movements.

Conscious consumers want to see your values

Social media activism gives users a chance to amplify their voices, platform and talents for something bigger than themselves. And for brands, the opportunity is too big to miss out on.

Most consumers (71%) want brands to take a stand on the issues that matter most. Knowing a company aligns with a consumer’s personal values is 74% more influential on purchase decisions in 2022 than it was in 2021. But at the same time, 52% of consumers believe brands express their opinions on sensitive topics for the publicity or increased sales. As a marketer, how do you make sure your message is effective?

Some consumers want to make sure brands are following through with their publicized social impact goals—like increasing DEI or incorporating sustainable practices. Publishing both successes and failures can help consumers feel more at ease about the integrity of a brand’s commitment.

When to weigh in

Consumers want to see internal company values align with external corporate activism. Causes that are directly related to a brand’s product, values or image will always be perceived as more authentic than intermittent posts about a variety of issues.

For instance, brands catering to women might be especially vocal about gender in the workplace, while brands that relate to the outdoors might focus on sustainability. The more natural the connection is, the more authentic consumers perceive the campaign. When it’s time to take a stand, make sure it’s easy to connect the dots between your overall brand and your official position.

Virtual actions with real-world impact

Grassroots social media movements don’t have a central leader. They’re sustained by millions of people posting, commenting, liking and sharing peer-generated content. Social media democratizes activism by giving brands, political figures, influencers and everyday individuals the same platform to get their message across. There are four main types of content social media marketers should consider when they’re joining—or starting—a social media movement.

Educational

You can’t fix a problem you don’t know about. A major hurdle for social media activists is making sure their audience understands the issues and the solutions. Educational content is a great way to get the word out about a cause and get the ball rolling on a social media movement.

This content might answer user-generated questions, deep-dive into a subtopic of the larger issue, or give a historical overview of the problem. The goal of educational social activism content is to get audiences up to speed so they can start getting involved.

Transit gaps aren’t just a barrier to opportunity. They can also separate communities from their culture.

For #AAPIHeritageMonth, we’re sharing how the Chinatown Transportation Research & Improvement Project (TRIP) fought for transportation equity in San Francisco’s Chinatown.🧵 pic.twitter.com/TnH2E4sVQo

— Zipcar (@Zipcar) May 3, 2022

Zipcar’s Twitter thread is an excellent example of educational content done right. By connecting their lesson to a larger topic—Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month—they ensured that the right people would see their message. The history they highlighted also translates directly to the company mission of transportation accessibility. Zipcar used educational content to position themselves as a natural next step in the fight for equitable transportation.

Opinionated

Think of opinionated social media activism content as a miniature editorial. Not so long ago, if brands or individuals wanted to get their perspective out there, they’d have to find a publication willing to distribute it. Now, social makes it easier than ever for brands and leadership to get their opinions out quickly and efficiently. Publishing point of view-driven content is a great way to start a dialogue with your audience and differentiate your brand’s platform.

At Annie's, we believe a strong food system starts with prosperous farmers. 💪

Dig deeper on how regenerative agriculture can make an impact. 👇 https://t.co/4zTS1VgXb7

— Annie's Homegrown (@annieshomegrown) February 19, 2020

Annie’s Homegrown gets straight to the point with this Tweet. By clearly stating their belief and supporting it with an expert opinion, Annie’s Homegrown didn’t leave anything up to interpretation. Once again, farming ties directly back to their organic products, reinforcing the sincerity of their stance.

Actionable

Social media activism is sometimes criticized as being more talk than action, but many posts are centered around driving a real-world difference. Actionable posts compel audiences to do something, like sign a petition, contact a representative, give a donation or show up to a protest. These types of posts illustrate the true power of a social media movement. The connectivity of social media gives brands the ability to organize more quickly and effectively than ever before.

Did you know that the U.S. and other affluent nations are most responsible for the climate crisis? Or that the most vulnerable people are the ones hit hardest? Learn more about the inequities at the heart of the climate crisis, and what you can do to help: https://t.co/kY1YwZb98O pic.twitter.com/5tBQOeRGM7

— Seventh Generation (@SeventhGen) November 23, 2021

Seventh Generation got straight to the point with this tweet. Given their products, Seventh Generations followers are sticklers for sustainability, making an actionable post the perfect way to reach them. With a clear problem statement and CTA, the audience is primed to pitch in.

Motivational

As social media movements take off, it’s important to recognize the people who are doing the work. That’s where recognition posts come in. This strategy highlights an individual, brand or organization that’s doing the work to build a better future. These encouraging posts inspire others to take action by showing how it’s been done before while highlighting a key community member. Activism is hard work and it’s important to celebrate the wins and the people facilitating them.

Oh snap! Our customer Kiersten reduced her landfill waste so much that she was able to upgrade to this smaller kitchen trash can! To reduce her trash, she takes her compost to the farmer’s market every weekend. Go Kiersten! #compost pic.twitter.com/XFz0NkGKvh

— Imperfect Foods (@imperfect_foods) April 27, 2022

Imperfect Foods amplified the actions of one customer with this post. User-generated content is an effective way to drive all kinds of engagement, even social change. This motivating post makes everyone feel like they can make a difference. Plus, by highlighting a specific user, Imperfect Foods was able to expand their reach outside of their own followers.

Interactive

Community is arguably the most important part of social media activism. Without a community of like-minded people boosting engagement, posts get lost in the noise. Finding ways to engage the community around your content is key toward building a long-term movement. Answering audience questions, crowdsourcing ideas and responding to comments directly are all great ways to engage with a social community. Greater engagement levels means more eyes on your content, which means more potential supporters.

@unwomen

Reply to @the.sisofficial Here’s what we can all do to help prevent violence against women #endviolenceagainstwomen

♬ original sound – UN Women

UN Women takes education a step further by responding directly to user comments on social. The organization could have easily posted this as an FAQ video, but bringing the audience’s voice into the conversation is a smarter social strategy. Answering this user’s question encourages other users to post their own questions and comments, making UN Women’s feed feel more like a conversation than a lecture hall.

Movements over moments

Social media and activism go hand in hand. The same mechanisms that bring people together over the love of a team, a book or a hobby can also bring people together over social causes. When executed correctly, the impacts of social media movements can be massive.

The opportunity for brands to join these conversations can’t be overlooked. If you’re looking to hear more about how social media can be a force for good, check out this episode of our Social Creatures podcast, where we sit down with Head of Social for UN Women, Anu Hautalampi, to discuss how she uses social media to get the word out about women’s issues.

The post Social media activism: This is how you start a movement appeared first on Sprout Social.

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What's Yubo, the 'Tinder for Teens' social networking app used by the Uvalde school shooter?

You may never have heard of Yubo before. It's certainly not as big as Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. The social networking app isn't even usually listed alongside fairly new social platforms that have become extremely popular with Gen Z, such as TikTok, Twitch, or Discord.

But now, Yubo has been thrust into the mainstream. Why? The Uvalde school shooter was reportedly a user on the platform. And, according to those who interacted with him on Yubo, the gunman showed warning signs.

But, what is Yubo?

Yubo's website telling users where to access the mobile platform's apps. Credit: Yubo

Formerly known as Yellow, Yubo is a social media platform that mixes livestreaming with social networking. Based out of Paris, France and founded in 2015, it's a mobile-only platform, meaning that it requires an iOS or Android device in order to join the network. 

Yubo's user base is made up mostly of teens and young adults. According to TechCrunch, the company says 99 percent of its users are part of Gen Z and range from 13 to 25 in age. Mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates that the Yubo app has been downloaded more than 18 million times in the U.S.

For a while, Yubo earned the tagline of "Tinder for Teens." Yubo's developers first developed the app to connect Snapchat users after realizing young people were looking to make new connections on the platform. Snapchat is generally meant as a social platform for users and people they already know. Users and their posts are not publicly searchable like they would be on platforms like Twitter or Facebook.

Noticing an opening in the marketplace, the Yubo team created an app where Snapchat users could connect with strangers by swiping left or right, like on Tinder. The idea soon evolved into a platform of its own now known as Yubo.

While news that the Uvalde school shooter used the app is bringing Yubo unwanted attention, it's not the first time Yubo has been put in the spotlight. As Protocol pointed out in 2021, Yubo has generated lots of concern among parents of its target audience.  CBS's local news affiliate in Tampa Bay is among media outlets that aired a segment warning parents about the new app kids might be using in 2020. Business Insider reports that a 26-year-old adult man was arrested in 2019 after trying to meet a 12-year-old girl that he met on the app.

According to Yubo, the platform attempts to keep its underage users and adult userbase separate on the platform. The company announced new age verification techniques just one day after the shooting, before the Uvalde gunman's presence on the platform was publicly known.

Earlier this week, Yubo told Business Insider that it's consistently working on features and protocols to ensure the safety of its users, such as AI-powered moderation of livestreams and chats. The platform also doesn't display advertisements or show users algorithmically-promoted content, two features usually found on social apps that can have a negative impact on teenagers.

Tweet may have been deleted

However,  The New York Times, Washington Post, and VICE all spoke to Yubo users who had interacted with the Uvalde shooter, Salvador Ramos, on the app. One young girl said Ramos asked her to be his girlfriend on Yubo, which she described as "Tinder for kids." According to the girl, Ramos became aggressive after she turned him down.

The New York Times spoke to a 15-year-old girl in Germany whom Ramos met on Yubo. The teen girl said Ramos sent her pictures of his guns and told her about his plans on the day of the shooting. However, she did not believe him.

According to one 16-year-old boy who spoke to the Washington Post, Ramos frequently made hostile remarks on the Yubo platform. He said that the shooter frequently posted photos of dead cats and threatened girls on the app with sexual assault and rape on Yubo's text message and live group chat features. He said that Ramos' account was often reported to Yubo for his comments, but the platform failed to ever act, allowing Ramos to continue to send threats to other Yubo users.

In addition to Yubo's failure to respond to Ramos' actions on the platform, the shooter's Yubo account remained live on the platform until just Saturday, nearly 4 days after the shooting that left 21 people, including 19 students, dead.

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5 Types of Marketing Organization Structures That Will Fuel Your Growth

Successful marketing requires a focused strategy and an outstanding team to bring it all together. However, introducing an effective marketing organization structure can take your business to the next level.

With a solid marketing structure in place, your staff knows exactly what is expected of them. With everyone clear on their jobs and their roles in the company’s success, everything operates more smoothly, and it enables your team to work in unison.

However, not all business models are suitable for all companies. If you want to choose the right marketing organization structure, you need to know which type is best for your business.

How do you choose? Let’s talk about the five most common structures, how they work, and the pros and cons of each one.

What Is a Marketing Organizational Structure?

A marketing organizational structure is the setup of a company’s marketing department. It determines the leadership chain and sets out your business’s goals. It also defines employee roles, establishes employee structure, and organizes teams.

Organizational structures in marketing come in many shapes and sizes, but they all serve the same purpose: to create a system that enables the marketing department to function effectively and achieve its goals.

As Gartner’s Marketing Organization Survey 2020 notes, marketers are continuing to strive to create “more effective and responsive organizations” while minimizing disruption.

According to their research, 27 percent of marketers use functional marketing organization structures in their business.

Why a Marketing Organizational Structure Is Important

Setting up a structure benefits your company in multiple ways, empowering employers, allowing better focus, and enabling agility. Let’s look at this in more detail.

Improves Agility

Today’s businesses need to be agile. Agility is essential in fast-changing sectors, allowing your team to enhance efficiency, prioritize workloads, create relevant products, and allocate budgets more effectively. It also makes it easier to shift when technology, trends, or Google’s Algorithms change.

Agile marketing is increasing in areas like content creation and creative services, with 77 percent of businesses taking this approach.

Empowers Your Employees

If you want your business to succeed, you need the best people for the job. A functional marketing organization structure groups your team based on skills, ensuring you have the right person for each job and they have the support they need.

When employees are in positions that fit their skills and the support they need, they are empowered to succeed—which improves loyalty and your bottom line.

Improve Employee Focus

When employees have clear goals, it’s easier for them to concentrate on their tasks. When every employee on the marketing team is working with the same focus, it streamlines the process and enables collaboration.

Additionally, focus keeps team members engaged. This is crucial because, according to Gallup, engagement increases productivity by 18 percent. Further, it increases profitability by 23 percent, while decreasing absenteeism by 81 percent.

5 Types of Marketing Organizational Structures

There are several types of marketing organizational structures. Each model has its own advantages and disadvantages, which we detail in this section. Keep in mind what works well for your business may not be suitable for someone else.

A company’s structure depends on its size, products, customers, and type. Below, we’ll cover the most common systems and who should consider using them.

1. Functional Marketing Organizational Structure

A functional marketing organizational structure describes a company’s design and is built around the marketing functions it has to perform. As detailed in the intro, research by Gartner shows 27 percent of marketers use this model.

The functional structure allows for clear communication and cooperation between different departments. It also makes it easy to identify and assign specific tasks to individual employees.

It looks like this:

This type of structure allows for greater specialization and expertise within the marketing function, leading to improved efficiency and effectiveness in marketing operations.

Amazon uses this structure for its e-commerce business because it’s well-suited to the sector. Additionally, the functional marketing organization structure is favored by larger organizations and is ideal for companies with a stable environment.

Despite the positives, this structure can lead to communication breakdowns, decreased creativity, and inflexibility. Additionally, it may be difficult to move people around within a functional frame, potentially impacting the company’s ability to respond quickly to market changes.

Finally, functional structures can be difficult to manage when a business grows too large.

2. Segmented Marketing Organizational Structure

Segmented marketing organizational structures allow firms to tailor their marketing efforts to specific customer segments. For each segment of customers, a different team is responsible for understanding their needs and creating tailored marketing programs.

The structure usually works well for companies with a large customer base and a complex sales process. Businesses can ensure customers are constantly engaged, and it allows the streamlining of communication between different departments.

Additionally, organizations using this model can decide how best to segment depending on their aims and the resulting customer insights.

Advantages of this model include:

1. Improved customer engagement due to increased focus.
2. Improved communication and collaboration due to smaller, more focused teams.
3. Increased efficiency due to specialization.
4. The ability to spot new trends faster.
5. Customer trust through relationship building.

However, this structure can also be costly because it requires multiple teams with different skills and knowledge.

3. Product Marketing Organizational Structure

Product marketing teams have a multitude of tasks, including target audience research, content marketing, and analytics. Then there are co-branding partnerships to consider, with research showing 71 percent of consumers enjoy multiple brands working together to make a unique product.

With so much going on, what’s the best way to coordinate? By introducing a product marketing organization structure.

In this model, each group has its team of marketers responsible for developing and executing the marketing strategy for their specific product line. A product marketing organizational structure is the preferred model for businesses with different lines of products/services and looks like this:

This model allows organizations to respond to changing trends and meet customer needs while concentrating on targeted market sectors.

However, it can be difficult to track and measure the effectiveness of the marketing activities due to a lack of central control and duplicate roles in different divisions. To work around this challenge, businesses may consider grouping similar products together.

4. Digital Marketing Organizational Structure

A digital marketing organizational structure is essential for any company looking to create an online presence. If your business has a dedicated team to handle all digital marketing tasks, you can make and implement a cohesive strategy to reach your target audience.

The structure of a digital marketing department varies by company size but often includes a mix of people with various backgrounds and skillsets.

With a digital marketing organization structure, the company can have specialized teams that focus on different aspects of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine advertising (PPC), graphic design, and content marketing.

This specialization allows each team to become an expert in their area of focus, which leads to better results for the company.

Depending on which model you use, your structure might look like this:

You might also choose to have different organizations for paid versus organic, social versus content, and so forth.

5. Hybrid Marketing Organizational Structure

In today’s business world, companies need to adapt to the ever-changing market. One way to do this is through a hybrid or matrix marketing organizational structure. This structure allows companies to have the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of both functional and divisional systems.

Both of these structures have their advantages. For instance, a functional structure works on a centralized basis, with each department reporting to a single leader. This allows for better communication and coordination between departments.

By contrast, a divisional structure is centralized, with each department having its own head and reports to a different leader. This allows for more local decision-making but can lead to duplication of efforts and coordination problems between departments.

In practice, your hybrid/matrix marketing organizational structure might look something like this:

The flexibility of the hybrid model means it’s enormously popular among businesses, with 72 percent of employees working in matrixed teams.

A big advantage of a hybrid marketing organization is they tend to be more responsive to changes in the market. Because it is flexible, it can quickly adapt to new conditions.

However, a hybrid structure can lead to conflict between departments or divisions, and it’s sometimes hard for departments to coordinate. Gallup’s research also uncovered a lot of overwhelm with the hybrid model, with 45 percent of employees saying they spend most of their day responding to requests from coworkers.

Companies often use the hybrid model in dynamic environments which move from project to project.

More Tips to Pick an Organizational Structure

The market organizational structures listed above are among the most popular, but there are more you could choose from.

For instance, a linear organization structure is a management style where all employees and managers report to one boss.

This type of organization is common in small businesses and marketing organizations. The linear organization structure is easy to understand and can be effective when the company is small, and everyone reports to the same person.

In a marketing firm, you can use the linear form to control the flow of information from the top down. However, this can also be limiting because it does not allow for horizontal communication among employees.

Finally, projectized organization structures are organizational structures in which specific, temporary projects are given to their departments that report directly to top management. In businesses with high fluctuation in workloads, this type of structure makes it possible to quickly set up and disband project-specific teams as needed.

A typical projectized organizational structure would look something like this:

When choosing an organizational structure, think about both your current needs and your future needs. If you plan to launch several products in the next year, for example, it makes sense to create a product-based marketing structure from the start.

Marketing Organization Structures Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best marketing organizational structure for small businesses?

Each business works differently, meaning which system works well for one may not work for another. The linear structure, which has one leader, is the most common. You could choose from several types, including functional, matrix, or divisional.

What is the best marketing organizational structure for B2B businesses?

To keep things simple, consulting firm the Pedowitz Group suggests a basic structure for a B2B marketing organization structure to focus on tasks like content and digital services, digital demand generation, and reporting to a CMO. There is no “one size fits all” structure for a business: you need to begin by looking at your business’s overall aims and current strategy. To guide you, the Edward Lowe Foundation has some great tips.

What is the simplest marketing organizational structure?

The linear structure is the most basic model and the functional structure is the most common and also easy to implement.

How long does it take to set up a marketing organizational structure?

It varies depending on the size of your business, the type of structure you go with, your goals, and your current strategy. It can take weeks or months to get it right, and then you need to review your structure regularly to make sure it works for your goals.

Should I consider freelancers and contractors in my marketing organizational structure?

Yes, consider all options when structuring your team. This includes both freelancers and contractors. Freelancers can be an excellent option for short-term projects or for filling gaps in your team’s skill set. Contractors can be a good option for long-term projects.

Conclusion: Marketing Organization Structures That Fuel Growth

The structure of an organization’s marketing department can significantly impact its overall performance.

The best structure for your business will depend on the products or services you offer, the size of your company, and your geographical location.

Companies should carefully evaluate their options and select the format most likely to lead to success.

Popular choices include the foundational structure, product-based, or a divisional model. Alternatively, you might want to adopt a hybrid model to cater to today’s hybrid consumers.

Do you use a marketing organization structure? Which model works best for you?

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