From Vrushali’s desk…..

The Selection

Like all first year B-school students, I sent my internship application via campus recruitments. I gave many interviews but nothing clicked as such. While searching for internship opportunities outside, then a very interesting opportunity by PayU grabbed my eyes. I know this company, I have heard of it. Suddenly I recollect – It’s the company which processes online payments and I have used it, while booking movie, air or bus tickets and my favorite shopping website too! I was all game for it.

“How was your first year in college?” The interviewer kickstarted the interview

This was the first interview which lasted for exactly 1.25 hours! The interviewer and I spoke about everything – marketing, beliefs, processes, strategies, college, internship experiences, work profile so far and more. PayU’s Khar office in Mumbai is very creative, lively and attractive and that was my eureka moment — I want to work here!

Voilà! Next day, the HR called to say:

“Congratulations Vrushali, you are selected!”  

The Induction

I remember this day clearly like it just happened yesterday! Nervousness began to creep in on my first working day when, the IT representative handed me my own laptop and asked me to wait for my mentor to guide me further. Soon, my co-intern and I joined my mentor in a meeting room. In a matter of just minutes, the glass board was filled with payment gateway flow. This was new to me. I never made any efforts to figure out how a payment gateway works. I was in awe with all the information download in system. Our mentor sailed us through: 

• All about PayU
• How it functions
• Various segments of PayU with their target markets
• Future goals
• Work hierarchy
• Role we were going to play in the picture
• Expectations from the internship

 ‘Every second should be productive’ is the moto. 

The Project

As the induction downed to an end, I was introduced to the team was going to work with for the next two months  and got briefed about my project:

The main crux of my internship revolved around inbound marketing and further grinding into content creation, distribution, repurposing and strategizing from scratch. I got an amazing opportunity to pour in my ideas and thoughts with the team, while brainstorming strategies for a new product launch. This experience gave me insights into:

• How an organization approaches a product launch 
• Different ways to create marketing strategies  (for real)
• Making work easy by breaking tasks into action-ables for smooth execution

Creating concise and creative powerpoint presentations was my primary task. I really liked the idea to convert long form content (blogs) into short and relevant content (ppts, videos)  in order to feed readers with desired content. All the presentations I created were published on public platforms like Slideshare, Quora and many more.

I never knew simple presentations could have their own breathing space! 

Through my stint with PayU, I created over 20 presentations and proudly roped in PayUmoney’s slideshare account completely under my wings. Do have a look at my work, 35K+ views it till date and most of them loved it too!

What I really like about inbound marketing (online) is it provides: instant gratification in the form of numbers. Apart from repurposing content, my contribution as an intern flared to writing PayUmoney’s Bolt Checkout demo page copy,  app descriptions, PayUmoney YouTube video copies, being active on Quora, learning basics of SEO, Google Analytics and also drafting “How-To guides”.

I wrote my first professional blog: Expert’s Guide to Instagram Content Strategy 

The blog got me laurels of appreciation and today it is ranking on the first page of the leading search engine. It also made a super quick entry into the top 10 PayUmoney blogs.

Creating, distributing, tracking and optimizing is my key takeaway. 

The Team 

PayU’s Khar office has one of the coolest office vibes to work in and an amazing, talent nurturing work culture.  The key highlight is that one meeting when I got a chance to interact with the CEO PayU India. That day I realized, with great power comes responsibility and humility as well! 

I had a great time with my colleagues who made work fun and play. “Creatively zenzoned” is a term we coined and used when we have outgrown our innate creative juices. As the saying goes; if the roots are strong, the tree lives long. Those are the strong values, PayU exudes throughout its organization and to its employees.  Overall my experience as an intern at PayU was exceptional and helped me optimize my talent, skills and passion to another level all together.

Beholding these beautiful memories of a lifetime, Vrushali signs off from her desk to prep up for a golden career in digital marketing.  However as the show must go on..with all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all-in-one payment solution in place as well. Now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

The post PayU Super Intern Diaries: Vrushali Avhad appeared first on PayU Blog.

A good Instagram content strategy gets the attention of readers, however, a great content strategy keeps them engaged for long. Having such a strategy is particularly essential in the beginning to tap readers, fans, followers and eventually, customers for your business. Once you discover an arrangement that works for you, you just have to follow the lead. Let’s get started on this journey to discover your Instagram Content Strategy.

Key Pointers To Instagram Content Strategy

Are you looking out for content strategies that will bring you, new followers? Or to keep your audiences engaged? Or for more? Use these amazing tips to get them anchored to your profile for good!

1. Posting Creative Photos Or Videos

Understand the objective of your business and what defines your brand. Conceptualize how you would like to present these objectives in your Instagram content, be it photos, videos, posts, stories, hashtags, etc. For example, PayUmoney uses similar visuals like colors, fonts, and dedicated logo to stand out as a distinct brand to the audience.

Using consistent visuals, helps you build your visual brand voice and create your version of the brand story. Keep your content creative and colorful, featuring your products and services to the best.

In addition to that, use Instagram stories! Instagram Stories are gaining popularity day by day. This new feature by Instagram lets you publish photos, videos for 24 hours after which they disappear. These stories have some amazing features such as adding stickers, hashtags, location, polls, gifs etc. that make them attractive and interactive. Not only this, but they also provide the “Swipe Up” outbound link feature on sponsored stories (available to Instagram accounts with more than 10,000 followers).

Here’s how to use Instagram Stories:

• Be creative, be spontaneous, and keep buzzing.
• Post behind-the-scenes, live videos, Q&A, new product launch glimpses, campaign promotion posters, etc. on these stories.
• Direct viewers to various landing pages using ‘Swipe Up’ and thus increase revenues.
• Make the content easily readable and viewable making it appropriate for better understanding.
• Keep the best of your stories for longer with ‘Story Highlights’

This will provide the opportunity for more people to see and engage. However, be careful not to deviate from your brand voice.

2. Creating Perfect Post

Captions are one of the most important parts of your post, and also, often the overlooked ones. Though there is a limit of 2200 characters for the caption, brands must put in efforts to make it worth reading.

They are part of your brand story and contribute massively to generate customer connection and hence interaction. Viewers don’t just read ‘description’, they look out for a story which is interesting, builds a mood, showcases an experience and inspires them for action.

Here’s how to write Instagram Captions:

• Place the key information of your message in the first few lines of your message. Ideally, it should not be more than 2-3 lines.
• Ensure the language used is not bombarded with jargons, but is simple, creative, user-friendly and most essentially, relatable to your brand context.
• Induce a User Generated Content in your caption like asking questions, asking to share an opinion or feedback etc.

This will encourage your customers to come on board for communication with your brand and give them the feel of belongingness. However, do not get personal. You are given this feature for a reason, make most of it!

3. Using Apt Hashtags(#)

Hashtags make you They help you connect with new viewers and followers. Hence, research appropriately to understand the popular ones for your audience and use relevant ones in your post. For example, your business is related to Fashion, type #fashion and you will get the search results (as shown below) along with a number of public posts for the hashtags.

If you wish to create a hashtag of your own i.e., branded hashtags, keep them relevant and easy to remember. Promote them on all your social media platforms like Facebook Page/ Groups, Instagram Page, Twitter Page etc. This will ensure discoverability, increased engagement, and better recall.

Pro Tip: For better results, use a mix of popular hashtags (to drive traffic) and branded hashtags (to promote the brand); at least in your initial Instagram journey.

For example, PayUmoney uses its branded hashtag: #PayUmoney with popular hashtags like #BusinessTips, #TuesdayThoughts for their Tuesday post campaign

Geolocations: Geolocation or location tagging allows users to search, tag, comment and engage with your content associated with the particular location. Organizations promoting travel and events can particularly leverage this feature for user involvement. The physical stores may also create a location for their store through a Facebook check-in and use it on their Instagram account.

It is recommended to use this location in every applicable post for audience engagement. Also, you may use the geo-tagging sticker in your Instagram stories to promote your store and thus, the brand.

Instagram Insights For Your Business

Use and find out what makes your audience interact with you. Note the posts that drive maximum engagement, refurbish your content accordingly and keep optimizing. Be regular in posting your content as it creates a routine for followers to check updates on your different products and services on that specific day or a specific time. Hence, you make the customers come to you on the exact day and time you want.

Content will always be the foundation of your Instagram Business Profile and distributing it, is the next stage. The beauty of Instagram is, it allows you to directly connect to your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, providing you opportunities to cross-promote your content across various other channels. So gear up and formulate that winning Instagram content strategy which captivates your audience!

With all your marketing efforts for your business in place, it’s a good idea to have an all-in-one payment solution in place as well. Now to enjoy the best payment gateway experience and grow your business effortlessly!

Recommended Reads

How To Promote Business On Instagram & Drive Sales

3 Successful Instagram Marketing Strategies For Businesses

The post Expert’s Guide To Instagram Content Strategy appeared first on PayU Blog.