Wireframing

Wireframing

by | Oct 4, 2022 | Website

Wireframing your project can be helpful to your team. What may feel like an extra step will help in the long run to communicate purpose, placement, and action.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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What is wireframing?

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How to make a wireframe?

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How to read a wireframe

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Key takeaways

What is wireframing?

A wireframe is a two-dimensional creation of a digital or print design that focuses on content, call to action, placement, spacing, and functionality. Wireframes also establish the interaction between the user and the page.

Making a wireframe is important to your project because it helps you plan ahead what your project needs to work and what it should include before you think about aesthetics, branding, and imagery. Wireframing needs no special software, just a place you can quickly think out ideas and identify your key elements of the page.

Wireframing is a tool that a team of designers, developers, and users can use as a blueprint for their project.

Wireframes include but are not limited to:

  • image placement
  • call to action button
  • location and placement of copy
  • navigation placement
  • logos
  • search field
  • breadcrumb
  • headers, including page title as the H1 and subheads H2-Hx
  • navigation systems, including global navigation and local navigation
  • 1234
  • body content
  • share buttons
  • contact information
  • footer

How to make a wireframe?

This is a hot topic with lots of suggestions on the internet for software and technology, but the only thing you need to make a wireframe is your brain. Low fidelity wireframes can be sketched out on a piece of paper. High fidelity wireframes can be more thoughtful on a digital platform, but the results are the same. Digital software allows easy collaboration and duplication, but starting with sketches may help you think through your customer’s journey. There isn’t a wrong way to make a wireframe, but below are the steps I typically take.

  1. Sketch out a low fidelity wireframe to think through the customer journey, needs, and channels.
  2. Recreate the sketch in a high fidelity wireframe using a collaborative software such as Adobe XD.
  3. Illustrate the user experience above the scroll, and connect any interactions in the prototype tab.
  4. Try making wireframes using a phone first, since this is the most typical digital use and the most challenging for accommodating information.
  5. Share the wireframe with your team or client, making sure they have a place to give feedback and adjustments.
  6. Revise and approve.

Once your wireframes are approved, start working on design and development.

How to read a wireframe?

Remember—wireframes are meant to provide just a little information, so make sure you are asking the right questions when you are looking at a wireframe. Make sure you can navigate through the customer journey and make sense of placement.

Rectangles with X often represent photos, and buttons are symbolized with a rectangle. Below are some awesome resources from Adobe that identify the symbols and uses: {Download these Free Resources from Adobe.}

Summary—Don’t be afraid of wireframes. The time they require can be intimidating at first, but the time they save in communication will be essential in later levels.

CTA—Need help planning your next project or wireframe? Let Root and Roam help you plan your next customer journey. Call today for a consultation.

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    Ensuring your website ADA compliant

    Ensuring your website ADA compliant

    by | Aug 29, 2022 | Creative Services, Website

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

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    What is ADA compliance, and why does it matter?

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    How do I make my website ADA compliant?

    What is ADA compliance, and why does it matter?

    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the United States’ most important law regarding accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities. Signed into law in 1990, the ADA prohibits discrimination against anyone based on ability or disability.

    The ADA is a broad piece of legislation covering many aspects of accessibility for people with disabilities. The part of the ADA that affects how businesses serve customers is called the “ADA Title III.” The ADA Title III covers public areas and accommodations that apply to businesses, restaurants, hotels, theaters, doctors’ offices, libraries, parks, and almost every other place of work.

    All types and sizes of businesses have to comply with ADA legislation—for their customers and employees—if there are over 15 workers. The ADA affects places of entertainment, restaurants, large enterprises, small to medium businesses, retail stores, government offices, employment agencies, and more.

    As the internet and websites have played a bigger role in how consumers interact with businesses, the way that the ADA applies to web accessibility has changed. In 2017, a clear consensus emerged that the ADA also covers the online world. Today, U.S. courts apply ADA accessibility requirements to the internet, meaning websites should comply with ADA rules.

    Ensuring your website is ADA compliant is the responsible and right thing to do. But, in recent years, ADA title III-related lawsuits have skyrocketed. There were at least 11,452 federal filings in 2021, which is a 320% increase over a short, eight-year period. And, as of 2020, 265,000 demand letters were sent to businesses that operated inaccessible websites.

    Approximately 85% of ADA lawsuits in federal and state courts during 2018 were filed against small-and medium-sized retail businesses. Since it’s almost inevitable that the court would find in favor of the plaintiff, small business owners feel that they must settle out of court. The cost of defending a lawsuit could destroy even a medium-sized business, as the average ADA website lawsuit settlement comes to $35,000.

    How do I make my website ADA compliant?

    Web accessibility is essentially a set of rules, behaviors, code standards, and design guidelines that were created by the W3C and are called the WCAG 2.1.

    The WCAG 2.1 is a massive 1,000-page guidebook that encapsulates a range of disabilities, from hindering internet use to making internet use impossible without adjustments. This spectrum comprises 20-25% of the general population, depending on if we’re going with the CDC or WHO.

    There are many disabilities covered, and the primary categories that require attention are

    • blind people using screen-readers,
    • the motor-impaired using only the keyboard to navigate,
    • epilepsy, color blindness,
    • cognitive and learning disabilities,
    • visual impairments, and more

    With a 1,000-page guidebook to follow, it is obvious that making your website accessible and compliant is no easy feat! Here’s are a few of the simpler things you can do to work towards full compliance:

    • Every page should have a single H1 title, and titles should follow a consistent hierarchy (H1, H2, H3, etc.);
    • Images should be thoroughly described in image alt tags for assistive technology;
    • Fonts should be large and legible with enough contrast between background and foreground colors;
    • The entire website should be navigable via keyboard.

    With that said, simply following the guidelines above will not make your website fully ADA compliant. The current options in the market today are either free or low-cost plugins that do not provide you more than 10-15% of the accessibility you need in order to become compliant.

    You also have manual accessibility services that do bring you up to full compliance, but they cost 20-40 thousand dollars per site, and they take several weeks or months to implement.

    Those options, as you can imagine, leave 99% of businesses without a feasible solution, making them easy targets for lawsuits and preventing them from helping people with disabilities. To solve this impossible situation, Root & Roam Integrated Marketing Agency has partnered with a leading AI accessibility tool. This interface includes both accessibility profiles and enhancement features.

    Let’s touch on a couple of the profiles first. These profiles enable users with disabilities to instantly adjust the entire website to their specific disability. For example, enabling the epilepsy safe mode immediately stops all moving objects and tunes down potential dangerous colors. Enabling the visually-impaired profile scales the content by 100%, increases the website’s saturation, and also activates a text magnifier window using mouse hover.

    In addition to the profiles’ functionality, users can choose specific enhancement features, like increasing the font sizes if they are too small. They can also emphasize titles and links and set their preferred scaling, spacing, height, and alignment. The interface also enables people with color blindness to change the website to a dark mode or monochrome mode. These are just a handful of features included.

    We know that ensuring your website is ADA Compliant can be an overwhelming task. Root & Roam Integrated Marketing Agency is here to help! Contact us if you’d like a website audit or more information.

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    Selling on Shopify: How To Set Up An ECommerce Store

    Selling on Shopify: How To Set Up An ECommerce Store

    by | Nov 24, 2021 | Analytics Reporting, Root & Roam Blog, Website

    Selling on Shopify – As the world is ever-changing, more and more people are doing their shopping online. From basic necessities to clothing and groceries, just about everything is available for purchase through the World Wide Web. Perhaps you have a brick and mortar store or you’re just getting started and seek only to sell online, but you just don’t know where to start. There are numerous ecommerce-specific platforms available, but the ecommerce experts here at Root & Roam agree that Shopify is the gold standard. 

    Shopify is a full featured, robust platform that handles the most nitty gritty of online selling. They have made it simple to process payments, create shipping labels, and design the actual look and feel of your website all in one place. Shopify has even built in various high-powered and highly effective ecommerce marketing tools. Gone are the days of confusing, clunky, hard-coded ecommerce websites. So, just how do you set up a Shopify store? Read on for our expert guide.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

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    Selling on Shopify

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    How to set up a Shopify store

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    Utilize ecommerce marketing

    HOW TO SET UP A SHOPIFY STORE

    First things first—Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, and, once your trial period has expired, Shopify offers three tiers ranging in price from $29 to $299 per month. All of these plans will get the job done. However, the higher tiers give you access to more features like advanced reporting and deeper discounts on shipping. Advanced reporting in Shopify allows you access to reports such as a live view of your website, customer statistics, information on how your customers find your website, and more. Once you have selected the plan that best fits your needs, the setup process begins and consists of the following steps:

    Choose a Shopify Theme.

    Shopify offers several free themes, as well as third party paid themes in their Shopify theme store. The free themes are definitely enough to get you started. However, if you want more styling options and features, you’ll want to browse through the paid themes. Shopify’s themes are all mobile-friendly, and you won’t have to worry about configuring for mobile devices. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can start customizing it and plugging in your content as you see fit. Don’t forget to develop your navigation, customize your checkout pages, and add legal pages like a privacy policy and terms of use.

    Create Your Products.

    Adding your products is relatively straightforward. Shopify has all of the necessary fields within their product listing sections. Be sure to complete as many fields as possible and use thorough, keyword-heavy product descriptions. Add high-resolution images that showcase different views of each product. Input pricing, skus, inventory, etc., for each product. You’ll also need to categorize each product into the appropriate “collection.” The collection a product belongs to will determine how the products are displayed on your website.

    Determine Payment Methods.

    What payment methods do you plan to accept? You’ll need to set this up in Shopify settings. Will you accept all major credit cards? What about Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, or PayPal? It is during this step that you will also need to provide your business information so that you can receive payouts.

    Configure Shipping.

    The possibilities are endless when it comes to your shipping terms. Do you plan to offer free shipping, flat rate shipping, or calculated shipping? Are you able and willing to ship internationally, or do you plan to only ship domestically? Will you use multiple carriers or stick with one tried-and-true option? It is imperative to determine your shipping structure up front and configure all options to match. If you plan to offer real-time, calculated shipping rates at checkout, you will need to shop and install a third party app from the Shopify app store.

    Don’t Forget to Collect Tax.

    Depending on the types of products you sell, where you are shipping them, and where you are physically located, you will need to configure the tax section in Shopify settings. Obviously, it is important to comply with all state and federal tax guidelines.

    Test and Retest Your Store.

    Once you have set up your Shopify store, it’s imperative that you test all aspects. Click around the front side to ensure all links are properly configured. Check to be sure your products are categorized in a way that makes sense and your product listings and individual product pages appear as you want. Add products to your cart, and walk through the checkout process, paying close attention to shipping options and the collection of taxes. Essentially, do anything and everything to try to “break” your site or the rules you’ve set in place. If everything operates as it should, you’re ready to go live!

      HOW TO UTILIZE ECOMMERCE MARKETING

      Shopify offers an assortment of ecommerce marketing tools to help you make more sales. One of the simplest ways to grow your audience is by encouraging visitors to sign up for email newsletters or SMS (text) updates, special offers, and announcements. Once you’ve gained these leads, you can build marketing campaigns to drum up site visits and increase conversions. You’ll want to use a third party service like Klaviyo, Omnisend, MailChimp, or Wishpond to create flows and push customers or potential customers through the funnel. If you choose to run SMS campaigns, be sure to meet all legal obligations in your Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy!

      Shopify Abandoned Cart Emails

      Another simple marketing tool that Shopify offers is abandoned cart emails. These emails are sent out at a specified time if a shopper places items in their cart but does not complete the checkout process. Shopify offers basic abandoned cart emails, but to really make the process more robust, it is recommended to use a third party service like Klaviyo. According to Shopify Partner Ezra Firestone, “Ecommerce customers who receive multiple abandoned shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one follow up email. And customers who receive multiple abandoned cart emails have a multiple transaction rate 44 percent higher than those who didn’t.”*

      Shopify Integrations

      Shopify integrates with several other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google to boost your efforts to the next level. You can use these integrations to build ad audiences to retarget and upsell your current customers, build like audiences that would be interested in your business based on the profiles of those who are already your customers, and re-engage users who visited your website but did not complete a purchase. Use a free Shopify app like Kit to build targeted social media ads and campaigns. (Kit is free, but you will pay social media platform fees for running ads.) 

      The ecommerce marketing options are truly endless. However, anything beyond basic needs will require the use of a third party app. When you find the one that fits all your needs, the cost is well worth it!

        Shopify Best Practices

        Now that your Shopify store is up and running, and you’ve got some ecommerce marketing campaigns in place, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Don’t get too comfortable just yet, though! Successful websites and marketing campaigns are consistently monitored, weak spots identified, and adapted to be even more effective. The World Wide Web and all of its various algorithms are constantly evolving. Thus, it is important to stay up-to-date on advancements and trends and adjust accordingly. 
        If you find yourself in need of a new ecommerce site, or you’re unable to stay atop of the constantly changing environment, give the Shopify experts at Root & Roam Integrated Marketing Agency a call. We have extensive experience in both developing and designing Shopify websites, as well as running highly successful ecommerce campaigns.

        Resources

        https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/how-to-build-an-abandoned-cart-email-sequence
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        RGB vs CMYK : What is the difference?

        RGB vs CMYK : What is the difference?

        by | Aug 20, 2021 | Branding, Creative Services, Digital Marketing, EDDM, Graphic Design, Root & Roam Blog, Website

        RGB vs CMYK – What is the difference between RGB and CMYK? Simply put, it’s just different ways of processing colors. Painters mix paint to make the perfect color palette. Digital designers also mix colors to create palettes, photography, and more. CMYK is the process of mixing 4 basic colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, to make thousands of colors and realistic images in the printing process. RGB is the process of mixing three basic colors along with light, Red, Green, and Blue. The RGB color process was invented in the digital process when we started using televisions, computers, and retina displays.

        RGB is an additive color model that uses Red, Green, Blue, and light for screens and monitors. CMYK is a subtractive color model used for printing made of four colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Black is the key color that provides the detail. That is where we get the K in CMYK.

        Check out this graphic from our friends at Visual Pro:

        rgb vs cmyk

        The RGB process has made a huge splash in the design world now that we have retina displays at our fingertips that can interpret millions of colors. The technology is changing so quickly, but it is important to know the basic concept and why.

        The timeline of RGB actually dates back before the electronic age and has roots in photography. But it made its debut with desktop computers in the 70’s displaying an amazing palette of 16 colors. RGB made its next splash with 24-bit monitors and then again with HTML with its 24bit color palette. Now our monitors and phones can interpret millions of colors with RGB.

        What is RGB?

        RGB is an acronym for Red Green Blue. Based on these three colors plus light, you can create a spectrum of colors. This color combination plus millions of tiny lights allows us to see images on digital items, such as televisions, projection systems, computers, and cell phones. RGB has advanced so rapidly with displays that we can now see millions of colors, just by applying a combination of Red, Green, and Blue.

        Why should you care? Using the wrong color settings can cause your print projects to come out too dark or your website images to appear muddy and non-vibrant. RGB and CMYK are settings in most design programs that interpret the colors for us. Designers build graphics based on the end product and adjust settings to make your project perfect. If your end goal is digital, keep it RGB, but if you are looking to get something printed, you may want to change your mode to CMYK.

        What is CMYK?

        CMYK is a combination of 4 transparent colors; (c)yan, (m)agenta, (y)ellow, and blac(k). The K stands for “Key” – This is always black ink and helps finalize the details. This process is actually pretty awesome, and if you ever get to go to a printing press that uses CMYK plates, it’s an interesting process to watch. The printing press makes 4 plates (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). Ink is then applied to each plate and paper runs through the press perfectly lining up to make a final image.

        Check out this graphic from Printing Solutions:

        cmyk or rgb for print

        It doesn’t feel possible that combining those four colors would produce such a vivid image of color, but it does. Magic… science… same thing.

        We use CMYK for the printing process. This is how the ink is distributed on our inkjet home printers and our large 4 color press printers. Same theory.

        If the final destination of your graphic is not printed, this setting can make your color look a little muddy or not as vibrant. If it is really important that the color is exact for you, you will want to have a designer with a calibrated monitor help or do some test prints from the printer.

        Hex Codes and Web Safe Color

        Since not all monitors are the same, designing for the web can be tricky. Even if I use my RGB settings, things can differ based on the display type. Monitors and displays are constantly advancing also, but Hex codes are a way to keep your colors as consistent as possible. A hex code is a code of 6 letters and numbers that basically tell the monitor how to interpret the RGB color. Choosing web safe colors is still best practice to have consistency across displays, but this rule seems to have less value lately as most of the population have modern displays.

        This is a good reference for web safe hex values.

        One thing to note – make sure the numbers or letters are the same in each segment. This formula ensures that the color is going to be web safe. Like #CCFF00 is web safe because the numbers match up, while #CF01RR will not be as consistent across all displays.

        Hex Codes still interpret color in an additive RGB format; it is simply the code telling the website how much color to display.

        Color Blindness on the Web

        Because not every person sees things the same, we have to make sure content is still visible for our color blind friends and coworkers. Making sure your background and type have enough contrast is a good rule of thumb. Also, making sure that you don’t use certain colors on top of each other like red and green. Color combos and fancy backgrounds can be fun, but don’t forget websites are still a tool to deliver information. Check out this really cool tool that will help you make sure your site is color friendly.

        The difference between RGB and CMYK

        Here are the main things to keep in mind as you prepare graphics for output. CMYK setting is for print and is made of four colors in a subtractive color model like paint. RGB is a setting that uses light and an additive color model to make vibrant colors on our digital displays.

        Thanks for stopping by. The team at Root & Roam know some things about color, so if you are having trouble on a project, let Root & Roam help!

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        What Are Heading Tags and Why You Should Use Them?

        What Are Heading Tags and Why You Should Use Them?

        by | Jun 29, 2021 | Analytics Reporting, Audit, Creative Services, Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Local SEO, SEO, SEO Strategy, Social Media, Traditional SEO, Website

        It’s hard to believe at times, but the internet has rules. There are protocols and conventions that, when followed, tend to make things easier on all of us. They also make the content we create more accessible to more people! One of the foremost jobs of a digital marketer is knowing these rules and knowing how to use them to do better work for their clients. Heading tags fall under this category. This post aims to explain what heading tags are, why they’re important, as well as how they function.

        What are HTML heading tags?

        Heading tags serve several different purposes.

        Let’s start with the content creator or the web designer, the person writing and determining each heading tag. Here, heading tags act similarly to an outline of the content being created. They establish how the information and the content surrounding that information are to be structured. 

        To search engines such as Google or Bing, heading tags act like labels or signs. They help point search engines to the specific places within web pages to quickly locate the content that people are searching for. Heading tags inform the search engine robots about the hierarchy of the information that they’re processing – a heading tag helps delineate what is the most important content and where it is located. 

        Finally, to someone visiting a website to read the information or content, heading tags are topic signifiers and points of interest – by reading the “What are HTML heading tags?” above the previous paragraph, a reader can easily determine what the overall topic being presented will be and can deduct what to expect in the post. Heading tags are also an important accessibility feature that helps accessibility software like screen readers parse and categorize the most important information on a page. 

        heading tags are also an important accessibility feature

        How are heading tags structured? How many heading tags are there?

        Heading tags are numerical, starting with H1 to denote the most important section heading. This is the heading that a search engine gives the most weight. Most HTML (the markup that most pages are built with) supports six levels of headings, with H6 denoting the heading with the least importance. Within that markup language they look like this:
        heading tags are also an important accessibility feature
        But what about the page’s title? The title tag is used to denote what your page is titled, and it’s what displays as the preview for your page in search engine results and social media snippets. The page title tag is not the same as a heading tag, but a page title tag and the H1 tag are often mirrored. This is largely because best practices have shown that Google typically gives more authority to pages that are formatted in this way because it views those pages as being more accurate.

        Prevent inaccurate article titles

        We use our crawler to scan your article pages and determine the correct headlines for your content. Follow our best practices to help us display the correct title from your content:

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        Place the title of your article in a prominent spot above the article body, such as in an <h1> tag.
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        Match the title of your article page (in the HTML <title> tag) to the title of your article (in <h1> or equivalent).

        Google HTML Rules

        Heading tags and SEO best practices

        Although using heading tags alone may not have a substantial impact on overall SEO from the standpoint of a search engine (the keywords used on each page take precedence), it does have a substantial impact on the readability of your content. When utilized properly, this impacts the time that is spent on a page and the overall webpage traffic. Both have a substantial impact on your search rankings. When correctly utilized alongside your page title, meta-description, and target keywords, your heading tags play a key role in improving search rankings for those specific keywords. A few best practices directly from Google:
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        Match the anchor text that points to your article in your section pages to your article/page title.

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        Avoid using the article title, or a substring of the title, as an active hyperlink on your article page.

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        Do not include a date or time in your article title.

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        Article titles should be at least 10 characters and between 2 and 22 words.

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        Do not include a leading number in the anchor text of the title to make sure your article title displays properly on mobile devices.

        A few more SEO specific best practices include:
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        Use only one H1 tag per page.

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        Keywords should be aligned by the rank of importance corresponding to your tag hierarchy.

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        Keep your heading tags concise and keyword specific.

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        H1 headings should be approximately twice as large as your body text.

        Why should you use heading tags?

        There’s plenty of reasons to use heading tags, and it mainly comes down to structuring your content in a way that makes it coherent and legible for every interaction with them. They are also an important part of your overall on-page SEO efforts, especially when you consider how it impacts your entire audience’s ability to find and digest the information you put out there. A quick summary of why using heading tags is important:

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        Heading tags structure your content

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        They help make your content more accessible

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        They are an important part of SEO best practices

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        They enhance readability and improve accessibility

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        They play a part in enhancing the overall user experience

        Here at Root & Roam, we have a team of passionate people with decades of experience utilizing all aspects of available technology to help communicate value to customers. Our company has experience working with all forms of media through all available channels, platforms, and mediums. Our mission is to help businesses connect with customers, and we take pride in our ability to do just that. We know we can help you grow your business, so schedule a free marketing consultation to see what we can do for you today.
        Determining how to structure your page and its headers to best benefit your business and its goals can be tricky. Root and Roam has a passionate team with experience in Content Creation and Web development to help.
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        How to Sell on Instagram: Everything you need to know about how to sell products on Instagram

        How to Sell on Instagram: Everything you need to know about how to sell products on Instagram

        by | Jun 28, 2021 | Creative Services, Digital Marketing, Graphic Design, Root & Roam Blog, SEO, Social Media, Website

        As of 2021, 1.074 billion people are on Instagram worldwide making it the perfect place to sell your products. Instagram has all of the tools you need to get your product in front of the consumer and make them remember it. Selling on Instagram takes hard work, dedication, and marketing skills. This guide will show you how to sell on Instagram.

        Set up an Instagram business account

         

        To sell on Instagram, you will first need an Instagram business account. An Instagram business account will give you access to all of the great Instagram business features, including a “contact” button, analytics, sponsored posts, and Instagram shop. Follow these steps to create your Instagram business account:
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        Begin by creating a new account that does not contain any personal information.

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        Go to your Instagram page settings, click – Account
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        Click – Switch to Professional Account
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        Follow the steps and input the necessary information.

        Voila! You are now ready to start selling on Instagram.

        Build your Instagram shop

         

        Once your Instagram business account is set up, you will need to set up your Instagram shop. To do this, you will also need a Facebook business page. Create your Facebook business page in two simple steps:

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        Connect your Instagram business account to your Facebook business page.
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        Log into Facebook, go to your ads manager, and find Commerce Manager in the hamburger menu. Follow the instructions to upload your catalog.

        Your catalog can be uploaded three different ways:

        - 1 -

        You can bulk upload your items using an excel spreadsheet. You will need to create a spreadsheet and input the item name, description, and price. Then follow the instructions to upload your spreadsheet to your shop.

        - 2 -

        You can opt to manually input each item into your Instagram shop. If you choose this option, you will need to fill in the required blanks within the shop upload form to upload each item individually.

        - 3 -

        The third option is to integrate your instagram shop with your ecommerce website. To use this option, you will need to have already set up an ecommerce shop with any of the website platforms that Facebook integrates with. Your options are Shopify, Channeladvisor, Feedonomics, Admixt, Quipt, Woo Commerce, Bigcommerce, CommerceHub, CED Commerce, Data Caciques, and Zentail. The integrate option will automatically pull the inventory listed on your ecommerce website into your Facebook and Instagram catalog.

        Once you have created your catalog, you will then need to set up the Instagram shop. Click the shops icon on the left hand side of your mobile screen. Follow the instructions to create the shop. You will be able to organize your Instagram product into categories, choose your shop colors, button styles, and fonts. When you are satisfied with your setup click – save, and publish. 

        It may take some time for Facebook and Instagram to process your shop for approval. Keep the platform’s bylaws and rules in mind when adding products to your catalog. Once your shop has been approved, your customers will be able to shop directly from your Instagram business account.

        Reach your Target Audience and Gain Shop Awareness

         

        Reaching your audience is more than just posting content. Take the time to develop a strategy that shares content that grabs your target Instagram audience’s attention, and pair it with keywords, hashtags, and timing.

        Strategically build your Instagram shop awareness and audience with Instagram’s paid and unpaid advertising options. Take advantage of various posting methods such as posting, stories, reels, IGTV, post promoting, and Instagram paid ads to get the word out about your Instagram shop. Devise a strategy for what methods you will use and how you will measure success. Continually adjust your strategy as you find what works best. 

        Reaching your audience is more than just posting content. Content that grabs the views paired with keywords, hashtags, and timing are what makes a perfect post.

        Timing is Everything

         

        Instagram’s algorithm is designed to show the most recent posts at the top of the news feed. The Instagram insights feature shows you the time and days when your audience is most active. Post your content during the most active time for a better chance of getting in front of a larger amount of your audience and bringing in new followers.

        Optimize your Instagram post with keywords

         

        Optimize your Instagram shopping posts using keywords just as you would optimize your website. Keywords are also necessary for your Instagram post to be discovered in a Google search. Research keywords relevant to your niche and use them to strategically plan your next post.

        Hashtag it

         

        Hashtagging is not just a trendy activity. It could mean the difference between reaching additional audiences who would not discover your business otherwise. When you add a hashtag to your post, your post will appear in that hashtag’s feed. This means that anyone who follows the hashtag has the potential to see your post. 

        There is quite a bit that can go into your hashtag strategy. A few dos and don’ts when using hashtags in Instagram:

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        Use just a few relevant hashtags in each post that you upload to Instagram, regardless if your post is in your Instagram feed, a story, or a reel.

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        Make sure the correct audience finds your posts by ensuring that the hashtags mean what you intend.

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        Pay attention to the amount of posts within a hashtag. When you search a hashtag on Instagram, you will see the number of posts with that hashtag. If there are a large number of posts, the likelihood that your post will be seen decreases. Instagram’s algorithm currently shows the most recent content first. When many posts are being added to a feed quickly, your post will get rotated down quicker. If you are just starting or are a small business, we recommend using smaller hashtags.

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        Do not use hashtags that are irrelevant to your post, products, or services.

        Create a shoppable Instagram feed

         

        Build a shoppable Instagram feed by tagging your catalog products in your posts. When consumers tap the image, they will be able to follow the tag directly to that product in your Instagram shop and purchase within Instagram. Creating a shoppable post only takes a few simple steps:

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        Create a new post

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        Choose your image

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        Tap Products – find the product in your shop catalog and tag it. If there are multiple products in one photo, be careful to place the tags in the correct place to avoid confusion.

        Creating a shoppable Instagram story is similar:

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        Create a new story

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        Choose your image

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        Under links, choose – product

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        Search and tag the product in the story

        Use this method every time you post product photos, and you will have created a completely shoppable Instagram feed.

        Let’s sell product on Instagram!

         

        To achieve the results that you desire, everything you do with your Instagram business page and Instagram shop should be strategically planned. Remember to always develop a strategy prior to starting any social media project. Keep your goals in mind and plan your actions accordingly. Selling on Instagram is the way of the future.

        Here at Root & Roam, we understand that even with all of the tools available, selling on Instagram can be time-consuming and quite overwhelming. If you have any questions on how to sell on Instagram, we are here to help. Contact us today for more information on our Social Media services. Let’s move your product on Instagram!

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