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Many businesses are hesitant to make the leap to Instagram. But this past March, when Instagram introduced shoppable posts, it made itself a powerful driver of e-commerce sales. What does this mean for your company?

Instagram’s Shoppable Posts

]Eligible business profiles can now tag products in their Instagram posts, sending Instagram users from the feed to the add-to-cart section of your website in only three clicks.

To become eligible, you need

• to sell physical goods and comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies
• the latest version of the Instagram app
• an Instagram business profile, of which you are an admin
• a product catalog associated with a shop on Facebook or a catalog in Business Manager (if you have a Shopify store, there is an easy integration)

Once you’ve become eligible, you can tag products in your organic posts. They’ll look something like this:

Using hashtags to improve your Instagram reach

Hashtags strengthen the odds that your post will be seen by more Instagram users. Do some experimentation to see which hashtags your target customer uses to navigate the social network and discover content. Your post might even end up on Instagram’s Search and Explore tab, which could lead to huge exposure.

Researching hashtags

What’s the best way to discover Instagram hashtags? Perhaps you’ve Googled hashtags in your niche and created a manual list that you copy and paste into posts. But there’s a smarter way: Tailwind.

Using the Tailwind app, as you type your post’s caption, you get an instant list of hashtag recommendations. These hashtags are constantly updated, so unlike a manual list, it will evolve with trends and new suggestions. The hashtags are also color-coded into categories: Niche, Good, Best, and Competitive. These categories give you a sense of how much exposure you might expect (it’s best to mix up the popularity of the hashtags you use – more competitive hashtags will have more potential traffic, but in an over-crowded field, your post could get drowned out by others). When you hover over any hashtag in Tailwind’s Hashtag Finder, you’ll see how many posts have used that hashtag.

See the Tailwind Hashtag Finder in action

Saving Hashtag Lists for future use

One of the most useful features Tailwind offers is the ability to save Hashtag Lists. With up to 30 hashtags available to you on any individual post, you can create a list to be easily duplicated in future posts. Tailwind’s software also includes a Smart Scheduler so you can plan your content calendar and post at times when your followers are the most engaged.

Using Tailwind for Instagram and Pinterest

Tailwind’s newly updated Hashtag Finder is just the latest in its useful features. For example:

• Scheduling: Bulk image upload, drag-and-drop calendar, multi-board pinning on Pinterest, Smart Scheduler to tell you when the audience is most active on Pinterest and Instagram, and Browser Extensions for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox to schedule multiple posts at once
• Instagram Story scheduling: Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, so staying on top of when your Story will be active can be challenging, especially when you’re actively running a business. Story scheduling gives you the ability to time your Story posts in advance.
• Geotags: Automatically add location information about where the photo was taken to your Instagram posts. Geotags are another way to make your posts discoverable. Geotagging is especially useful for brick-and-mortar businesses to attract local patrons or starting conversations with nearby users. For national or global brands, you can customize messages for fans in a certain area.
• Analytics for Pinterest: Insights to measure what’s working (and what’s not), including repins, likes, comments, traffic, and revenue from each post
• Content curation for Pinterest: Suggested content based on what you’re sharing

Tailwind starts at only $15/month, but you can take a free trial with no time limit. Your trial enables you to schedule up to 100 pins on Pinterest and up to 30 posts on Instagram for free. No credit card is required to try it. Get started today and see how Tailwind can improve your exposure on Instagram, especially for Shoppable Posts!

People don’t share ads. But they do share stories — especially on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The best stories are visual, and nothing captures a story quite like video. While shooting and producing video can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses, there’s an easy way to make social media videos to engage and delight your followers. It’s called Animoto.

How Animoto works

Animoto is an online video editor that easily creates shareable videos. No video editing experience is required; the software offers pre-built storyboard templates that you can customize with your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Or you can start from scratch and build your own storyboard.

Each scene (Animoto calls them blocks) can include video, still images, text, and/or voiceover. The software includes pre-built video transitions between blocks, as well as a library of stock photos from Getty and licensed music that you can use in your project at no added cost. The drag-and-drop editor easily resizes your text, changes the timing of each scene, and adjusts colors to match your brand.

Once you’ve finished editing your video, you can share it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other channels directly from your Animoto dashboard. You can also embed your video on your website, or download a full HD version to show anywhere, such as a TV display in your office.

Make social media videos with social-friendly storyboards

Animoto’s templates were designed to match the style of big brands and publishers you’ve undoubtedly seen on social media. Templates are available in both widescreen and square layouts. Recently, Animoto released three new storyboards specifically created for the real estate, travel, and wellness industries. There are also storyboards for product intros, recipes, event RSVPs, motivational quotes, step-based tutorials, and more.

I used a template called “Product Story” to create a series of explainer videos around marketing terms. Here’s the first one I made:

The software was crazy easy to use. I would even say it’s fun. The part that takes the longest to make social media videos like this one is finding the right photo and video assets. I used a combination of Animoto’s available stock photos, photos I sourced from Burst and other free stock photo sites, and free stock video from Pexels.

How much does Animoto cost?

Animoto offers a fully functional 30-day trial, so for me, it cost nothing. Once the trial is over, Animoto moves to a monthly subscription model. You can save substantially if you sign up for a year.

The lowest tier Animoto plan is called Personal, which is $16/month or $96/year. However, this plan includes Animoto branding at the end of each video, limited colors and fonts, and you can only download 720p video.

For most businesses, the Professional plan is a better option. It’s billed at $42/month or $264/year. The Professional plan enables you to download 1080p video without Animoto branding, and grants you access to more music tracks, storyboards, and unlimited colors. You also have the option to add your logo as a watermark to each video. If you need a multi-user account, the Business tier is $64/month or $408/year.

For comparison, similar software Lumen5 charges $99/month or $948/year to download 1080p video without its branding.

Duplicate videos in a snap

Once my first video was complete, I simply duplicated it to create the second and third explainer videos. I changed up the colors, assets, and text and was on my way in minutes. I also duplicated each video so I had widescreen and square versions of each. Square versions work best in feeds like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, while widescreen versions are best for YouTube, Vimeo, and your own website.

Make social media videos from scratch

After I created these first three videos from a template, I wanted to test how easy Animoto is when starting from scratch. Not surprisingly, it was super simple to make social media videos this way, too. In a little over an hour, I created the following video:

It wouldn’t have taken so long except I had some trouble getting my photo collage of the various channel logos to look the way I wanted it. Not to mention I’m infinitely picky, so I kept changing things.

There are limitations to the platform. When you make social media videos with Animoto, you don’t have a lot of control over the text; for instance, you can’t bold or italicize words. If you add a color filter, you have to add it to the entire video, not just one block (I would have liked to do this for certain blocks to increase the readability of the text). In addition, your uploaded assets are appended to a single project rather than to a centralized account library. That means that if you use your logo in every video or re-use photos or video clips, you’ll need to upload the files every time.

Still, I can’t argue with the quality of the end product. Especially at this price point. I wouldn’t make social media videos any other way.

The verdict

]I believe in the power of video. I wrote about why video is a crucial component of online marketing success. But video can be prohibitively expensive for many small business owners. With DIY software like Animoto, video becomes a much more attainable part of a marketing mix.

Templated solutions do have their limitations. But Animoto is a powerful tool that I recommend without hesitation.

Is Yelp advertising worth it? For many local business owners, Yelp is an essential marketing tool to connect with potential customers. A 2016 Nielsen study commissioned by Yelp shows that 74% of consumers searching online for a local business turn to a review site at least monthly. The consumers who used online review sites ranked Yelp as the most trusted, most influential, and most useful.

I am one of these consumers. While best known for restaurant reviews, Yelp has helped me personally discover my business accountant, my landscaper, and my moving company.

Should your business advertise on Yelp? I asked several business owners to share their experience to understand whether advertising on Yelp is worth it. Let’s delve into what’s good, what’s bad, what’s ugly about Yelp Ads.

What Yelp Ads look like

Advertising with Yelp vs. free Yelp listings

Any business owner can create or claim a listing on Yelp for free. A free business listing on Yelp enables the page owner to

• update your information, such as business hours, phone number, and website URL
• upload photos to your listing
• add categories and service offerings
• respond to reviews via direct message or public comment
• respond to requests for appointments or quotes
• create a Yelp Deal (similar to a Groupon voucher, shown) or check-in offer (example, “Check in on Yelp for a free soda”)
• access the Yelp for Business Owners dashboard or mobile app, which shows statistics such as pageviews of your Yelp listing, number of phone calls generated from your listing, and clicks to your website from your Yelp listing

In addition, Yelp offers paid page upgrades (called a Yelp Enhanced Profile) that enable you to

• add a call-to-action button on your listing (shown)
• remove competitor listings from your Yelp page
• create and customize a photo slideshow
• access Yelp customer support

Finally, Yelp offers a self-service pay-per-click (PPC) platform, by which you can

• create and manage PPC campaigns on Yelp
• customize your Yelp ads with photos and text (shown)

There’s almost no downside to claiming your free business listing (except for the solicitation, which we’ll discuss), so this article pertains specifically to Yelp’s paid offerings.

Free Yelp Ads: Yelp’s $300 advertising credit

Often, business owners experiment with Yelp upon being offered $300 in free Yelp Ads.

This offer may come from Yelp’s sales team, which has a reputation for being aggressive. Kathlena Rails, publicly known as The Allergy Chef and owner of Free and Friendly Foods bakery in San Bruno, CA, calls Yelp’s sales efforts “borderline harassment.” Still, she does occasionally use Yelp’s advertising platform, but only, she says, “when it [is] discounted or when they send an email with a promo code.”

The $300 of free Yelp Ads is a smart way to see whether the platform is right for your business. But if your intention is not to continue after the credit is exhausted, do not forget to cancel, or you will be charged.

Yelp Ads: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The good

Yelp Ads can be effective

Zach Hendrix, co-founder of GreenPal, says that his company has “tested Facebook Ads, Google AdWords [now called Google Ads], Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram Ads. However, we have found that our best return on investment has been with our Yelp page sponsorships.”

As a self-funded startup, he says, “we have to be very cautious with where we allocate money for paid customer acquisition. We find the traffic we get from Yelp page ads converts 67% of the time into a paying customer, and we simply cannot top this on any other paid channels.”

Is Yelp advertising worth it? For GreenPal, absolutely. “Traffic we get from Yelp is solely people at the bottom of the purchase-making process,” Zach says. “They have read your reviews, they have read about your business, and they are qualified and ready to buy.”

Kathlena agrees, but only to some extent. “For the right type of business,” she says, “Yelp Ads are great. If you need a boost in local foot traffic, and your products cater to the Yelp user base, it’s fantastic.” She reported a dramatic increase in her bakery’s customers, especially those seeking vegan and gluten-free foods.

Yelp Ads is easy to manage

In addition, Kathlena says, “I found [the platform] to be rather easy. In a few clicks, the ad was live.”

You set your own daily budget

Like other PPC platforms, Yelp Ads enable you to control your budget. You can advertise on Yelp with as little as $5/day.

The bad

Yelp Ads can be expensive

Even though Kathlena reported a spike in her bakery’s foot traffic, “we don’t feel it’s worth it for us… Our cost of goods is quite high. For us to keep up with Yelp Ads, it would eat up most of our profits.” She recommends Yelp Ads only for companies with the profit margin to support it.

Yelp’s targeting options are limited

Earl White, co-founder of House Heroes LLC, experimented with Yelp in 2017. “I signed up for a yearly plan at $1,000 a month,” he says. “I was drawn in by the feature that my ads would show on competitor Yelp listings.”

Ultimately, however, Earl discontinued advertising on Yelp. He describes his business as a “fix and flip” company that targets property owners who want to sell. The problem with Yelp Ads, he says, is that “anyone searching about real estate services would see my advertisement and contact me — often about real estate services I don’t provide.”

“If your business has general services,” he says, “it’s probably not a problem, as a broad array of industry-related search terms can yield business.” However, he cautions, “if your business has a narrow focus, Yelp’s general approach to search terms may not be the right fit.”

Managing the effort takes time

Nick Leffler, owner of Exprance, has tested Yelp advertising for his own business, as well as for clients his agency manages. Is Yelp advertising worth it? For his own business, Nick says, “I received one paying customer that barely paid back the initial investment. With all the time involved, it ended up not being worth it.”

The ugly

Yelp’s reporting is questionable

Geoffrey Radcliffe, CEO of PostLaunch, manages online marketing for companies, often including Yelp Ads. He finds Yelp’s reporting to be inflated and unsubstantiated. Yelp’s analytics, he says, “can’t be validated by any other tracking software (Google Analytics or Host account analytics).”

He offers this example: “I have a dentist client that was paying almost $3K per month for Yelp Ads.” Yelp’s reporting showed 40-50 calls generated per month, “but the reports from the phone company couldn’t even validate this.” In addition, “Yelp was reporting 1,700-ish click-throughs to that client’s website,” he says, “but total traffic was less than 300 monthly.” 

Yelp’s sales team is aggressive, and its support team less than helpful

Business owners report numerous solicitation calls from Yelp’s sales team. Nick describes Yelp’s support as “extremely responsive when they’re trying to get you to spend money.” However, “After you are with them, then they become significantly harder to get a hold of and get answers.”

So, is Yelp advertising worth it?

Like so many answers in PPC, the best answer is “it depends.”

As the business owners interviewed here show, Yelp Ads can work but don’t always. In Nick’s experience with his agency clients, Yelp Ads “has worked well for some businesses, while others pay dearly and get little return.”

Is Yelp advertising worth it? The TLDR conclusion:

Yelp Ads may work if your business

• has an adequate budget to support it
• offers general vs. specialized services
• is willing to invest some time in managing the effort

Yelp Ads may not work if your business

• does not have the profit margin to afford it
• requires specific customer targeting rather than general search terms

The best way to know is to experiment for yourself. Claim your business page with Yelp and get $300 in free Yelp Ads, then see whether it’s a good fit.

This article contains some affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you). All opinions are always 100% mine and I don’t work with any product or company that I don’t use and love. 

If I were to ask you to name the world’s largest search engine, you’d probably know immediately that it’s Google. But were I to ask you to name the world’s second-largest search engine, what would your answer be? (Hint: It’s not Bing.)

It’s YouTube. 

That’s right. YouTube, with 1.5 billion logged-in users per month, isn’t just a repository of cat videos and viral memes. It’s a go-to resource for answers to questions, with viewers watching an aggregate of 1 billion hours of YouTube a day. In fact, a Cisco study projects that video will represent 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. 

How can your business take advantage of the huge volume of search traffic on YouTube? Create videos that engage your customers and potential buyers. To get started, consider these four ideas:

Video marketing idea #1: Help solve problems

Video is an effective platform for answering industry FAQs. Think about questions your customers commonly pose to you or that they might be too embarrassed to ask. For instance, a restaurant might upload a video on tipping etiquette. A jewelry designer might share a tutorial on how to change a watch battery. A flooring contractor might explain how to measure a room’s square footage. These how-to videos don’t need to be overt sales pitches, but instead seek to position your company as an approachable, knowledgeable and helpful resource.

Idea #2: Delineate differences

Another way to use video is to explain differences between products. Talk about situations where a certain product is especially beneficial. Help customers choose between your various product offerings by going through the pros and cons of each one in detail.

Video marketing idea #3: Create a buying guide

The kinds of products that people research on YouTube are likely to be somewhat intricate. Create a video to discuss the factors buyers should consider before purchasing, such as key features, price and customer use cases. Include smart questions that consumers should ask as they make their choice.

Idea #4: Demonstrate your products

Showing your product in action can impact whether a customer buys it or moves on to another corner of the web. Video can be an effective way to show how easy your product is to set up or install, for instance. For physical products, give a sense of scale by showing hands using the product or how it fits in a setting such as a kitchen or a garage. Your product demonstrations should highlight the main features of your product as well as any features that may not be obvious, such as keyboard shortcuts on an app or hidden pockets in a garment.

By incorporating video into your overall marketing strategy, your business can start to capture a piece of YouTube’s enormous search traffic. Think through the various stages of your customer funnel, and create video content to address viewers at each stage. Once you’ve got a few videos under your belt, start driving traffic to them to grow your network of viewers and subscribers. Keep creating videos to answer new questions from the community and to provide product updates. Optimize each video listing by including a clear call to action, writing a concise video description and creating a video thumbnail that encapsulates your content. 

Meet your customers where they are, and remember that — increasingly — where they are is on YouTube.

This column originally appeared on Forbes.