Bringing these two aspects together isn’t always easy, but you can learn how in this article. You aim to please both your readers and Google. Find a good balance between the two, watch your content rank higher, and rake in more website visits.

There’s a sort of formula used to achieve this. A cheat sheet if you will. Let’s dive in and examine how to get the most out of your writing.

Important Pointer: Keyword Research

Keywords are the reason for your writing. Okay, your audience is, but you must adapt your content to what your audience looks for online. That’s the first way to ensure someone will read your blog posts. 

Keyword research will tell you what topics to focus on and the keywords to include in your writing. Choose wisely what you focus on! It will guide where the meat of your text goes and should be as extensive as possible.

So now you know what to write about and should get to the actual writing. Let’s see. What should it look like?

Here are 9 steps to an SEO-friendly blog post.

9 Tips on How to Write an SEO-Friendly Blog Post

Here you’ll learn how to churn out great content.

1. Think It Through

Stop! Don’t just dive in without direction!

What do you want to say? What angle would you like your post to take? Maybe there’s a question you would like to answer? Is there something specific you would like your readers to have achieved after reading your post? 

Some writers want their audience to complete a certain action at the end, so the writing must be compelling and convincing. 

Use your search terms or keywords to find the best possible direction for this. You can look at it as letting your readers guide you.

2. Structure Your Post

Order is essential in a blog post. A basic structure comprises:

• the introduction, where you introduce your topic and give a little teaser to your readers
• the body, where the main story goes
• The conclusion, where you draw a conclusion or give a short post recap.

Figure out what you want to say in every part and write it down briefly. It’ll help guide your train of thought along the way. You want your ideas to flow naturally into each other so your audience can easily follow.

3. Break It Down

Have you ever looked at prose that has no breaks? Or the opposite: content that is in single sentences like a kindergarten storybook. It can be annoying and tiring to read.

Paragraphs help to organize content neatly. Use a different paragraph for every idea, and always summarize your point. Lengthy paragraphs are quite the eyesore and could make your reader skim over your work instead of properly reading it.

Headings add to the structure of an article and will guide readers on what to expect next. Subheadings also add to your SEO ranking. Throw in a keyword in one or two, and it gets even better.

4. Utilize Related Keywords

Utilizing semantic keywords is the best tip on how to write an SEO-friendly blog post. Keywords are great, but using them too many times in a single post makes your work look unnatural. It’s known as keyword stuffing and could make your rankings tank. 

Instead, use synonyms and alternative related words. Google will analyze your content for these, thus understanding your subject matter better. It’s getting smarter and wants readers to enjoy their reading.   

5. Use Transitional Words and Phrases

These show a relationship between different sentences and paragraphs. Phrases like ‘read on’ tell them there’s more to expect. ‘In short’ or ‘in a nutshell’ tells the reader a conclusion is coming. 

Transitional words will help your audience scan through your content since they add structure.

6. Add Links To Existing Content

Have you written on the subject on your website before? Let people know by linking to those other posts. 

You want your audience to focus on you and your work. It makes you look like an authority on the subject and improves rankings. Link to other authority sites, but be sure not to link to your competition.

7. Mind the Length

Google prefers you do lengthy articles, but what do your readers think? Depending on your subject of choice, writing skills, and audience, try to make your posts at least 300 words.

Whether long or short, remember to ensure it’s an SEO-friendly blog post.

8. Utilize SEO Tools

SEO analysis can be tricky but is necessary for this domain. You want your content to have a high chance of ranking well for your chosen keywords.

This is where SEO tools and plugins come in. What difference will they make?

• SEO tools suggest related key phrases. 
• These tools tell you how many times you should add your keywords and where to add them.
• They check your text for readability.
• You can check for both internal and external links in your content.
• They tell you whether you’ve used the keyword on another page so that you don’t compete with yourself for ranking.

All these aspects improve the quality of content you’re putting out. Isn’t that what you’re ultimately aiming for?

9. Put Fresh Eyes on It

Sometimes we write and some mistakes make it past. If you have someone who can look at your work before publishing it, that’s a great asset. They may notice something you missed and improve the whole article. Getting an expert on the subject matter is a plus since they can help refine the content.

Communicating your message to your audience is a necessity in this business. Otherwise, why would you write? Look for opinions on readability and whether the message hits home.

Conclusion

Now you have what you need to create amazing articles for your website. Go ahead and publish as often as possible so that Google knows your website is alive and should rank you higher. Take it a notch higher and use it for business! 

The post How To Write An SEO-Friendly Blog Post  appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Based on the Agora Model, clients move from social sites to blogs. Then they may download a valuable resource to become a qualified lead.

This means you have to focus on marketing your blog to social sites! Yes, that’s how to grow to the first 1K visits a month.

Blog Traffic Killers

You know that the cheapest way to increase traffic to a website is to use free social channels. Here are some blog traffic killers.

Fewer Views on YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. And in fact, Video marketing outperforms text, audio, and slides by far. So, you need a small community on YouTube. If you publish the content customers want consistently, you will soon refer YouTube traffic to your blog.

Low Engagement on Facebook

Facebook is still a good marketing channel for B2C and D2C businesses. Consumer businesses like eCommerce, Amazon FBA, Dropshipping, and some coaching programs ought to produce valuable videos for their community. You can create a Facebook group, which serves the interests of your target clients. To keep users engaged and make emotional rather than logical posts.

Low Twitter Engagement

Omni-channel marketers should also have a Twitter account. First, for omnipresence, and secondly, for listening to consumer feedback. A good Twitter marketing plan can make your product trend for specific hashtags and locations. To get engagement, get followers manually and create valuable Twitter threads. If you ever want to boost responses, you’ll also need influencer marketing as your Twitter marketing plan.

Hidden Gems on Homepage

Most businesses have case studies, irrevocable proof, and success stories of their product. Others have utility tools, eBooks, calculators, and white papers, posted on their blog page. It’s common sense to bring focus to this valuable content on your homepage so it sends traffic to your blog. But very few people do it. If you have a video tutorial, for example, place it on the hero section, rather than near the CTA.

Weak Value Proposition

If you’re an AWS partner, you know the main problems customers want to be solved are reducing cloud costs and improving security. These keywords will bring you the most traffic compared to getting compliant. Use tools like AnswerThePublic to get main keywords and related keywords for your blog. These will be more meritorious than a press release of a recent hire who is ‘supposed to grow your blog.

Blog Traffic Boosters

The cheapest way to drive quality traffic to a website is to use one of these traffic boosters.

Boost Your Domain Authority to 40 and Outrank Competition

Begin by identifying SEO Competitors you’d want to outrank. Check their domain authority using the Moz SEO tool. If you’re in a specialized niche, chances are most or all of your competitor page authorities will be below 40. This could mean they have a low number of backlinks from highly authoritative sites. You can use freelance content writers to help with blog outreach and link building. In 6-12 months, you’ll start to see your articles’ rankings. And as they rank, your blog traffic will increase.

Increase Page Speed on Mobile

Take the Google Page speed insights test. You may notice that your website loads faster on desktop than mobile. However, more traffic is now on mobile. Optimize for mobile using the AMP plugin for WordPress. Also, minimize code and image sizes.

While doing your content optimization efforts, ensure you do not affect User Experience. Indeed, SEO is all about writing for humans. As you write for humans, you optimize for search engines.

If your article goes live, ensure that all share buttons, links, and images are working on both mobile and desktop. Don’t hit publish.

How to Get Quality Traffic to Your Website

Increasing conversion rates is the hardest part. Getting traffic is the easiest part. There are a lot of job seekers and active Internet surfers. At a cheap price, you can use tools and bots to spam your article on almost every social media platform. This will get you temporary spikes as well. However, it’s what’s called weak traffic.

To get quality traffic, you have to do thorough research about your customers. You have to write about what your customers want. Also, you have to solve real problems, and even get permission to share the article. Your article has to be unique, based on real-life experience, not something found on typical Internet advice.

Everyone is looking for the cheapest way to drive traffic. And that’s the process we use. It almost always yields traffic with high intent. Certainly, some people ask: “Is Facebook good for B2B Marketing?” Even on Facebook, you can get traffic that’s likely to reap your recurring revenue for years.

The post How To Get Quality Traffic To Your Website in 90 Days or Less appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you stick with us, we are about to show you some useful advertising tips that you can start implementing right away. And guess what: the ones we will cover here today are free, and if not completely free, then budget-friendly. 

Let’s start with the tools you can use to advertise your business.

Cost-free Tools

In a nutshell, the common denominator for the majority of cost-free tools is content. You’ve probably heard the expression: “ Content is the king”. Good content is an absolute necessity. Why? Well, it helps you stand out among your competitors and it emphasizes your value proposition even more. Also, it makes you more visible.

Engage on Social Media

Speaking of free advertising, what better than social media. The major mistake people make is that they don’t engage with their audience or with other potential partners or influencers. Speak up, share your opinion on relevant matters and draw attention when starting a company. 

Promote your blogs, follow other influential people, take part in online conferences, and create polls. Regularly posting quality content, content that your audience will benefit from, is one of the best advertising strategies you can do. And it’s free. In reality, you can hardly make a mistake here. The only mistake you can make is being dormant and just lingering on social media without providing value for your business.

Email Campaigns

Although some people may complain that there are too many emails nowadays, the fact remains that most business communications come from emails themselves. With the help of email automation tools (many of them, like AWeber offer automation in their free plans), you can really keep your clients engaged by creating welcome emails, thank you emails, email newsletters. You just schedule them according to your business priorities and they pretty much do the work for you. They are a great time saver.

Blogging

The power of words, be it spoken or written is undeniable. It’s the strongest “weapon” because it hits directly into the heart. What better way to advertise starting a company than to write blogs? Use your expertise and make a blog easy to read. Make it entertaining while shedding some light on the hottest topics from your industry. 

Blogs are a great way to show your knowledge, engage with your audience and also do some networking. You can present your business, show what sets you apart from your competitors and where your value lies. There are educational platforms for entrepreneurs that post blogs and other educational material. These platforms could be a great place to share your wisdom and attract new customers or build powerful business relationships. 

Word-of-Mouth Advertising

It goes without saying that we live in a digital age, but word-of-mouth advertising should definitely not be underestimated. Why? The answer is very simple: people buy from companies they trust. You know yourself that trust is one of the most difficult things to build because it takes lots of time and patience. 

However, with word-of-mouth advertising that process goes much faster. Your loyal customers will spread the word to their friends, families, and colleagues. Those people would be more inclined to buy from you because someone they trust recommended you. You don’t need to go through hoops to earn their trust. 

You already got yourself a nice foundation on which you can continue to build your business relations. And although it isn’t directly linked to advertising, don’t forget to reward your loyal customers. Show them how much you appreciate them.

Partnership and Branding

When you are a small business, partnering with other respectable brands can make you more visible and attract more leads. At the same time, don’t forget about your own brand. Your brand is your ambassador. Thus, it needs to be in line with your business mission and value proposition. The key is consistency so that people can start connecting the brand with you. Consistency in this case equals trust and a sense of security. 

Moreover, it makes your business more memorable. In order to achieve consistency, make sure to use the same “voice,” the same visual branding across all social media channels. Emphasize your (key) value proposition so that the next time somebody sees your logo, for example, they immediately recognize it and know what to expect.

Internal Communication

All the advertising tools that we presented in the lines above are there to help you grow your business and connect more with your target audience. However, you should bear in mind that all these tools can’t compensate for the lack of internal communication in your company/team. It is essential that you nurture this type of communication in order to really create a high-quality working environment. 

This environment will further impact the work processes, and ultimately, the way you deliver your product. To think that the relations within the company/team don’t affect the relations with your customers would be a huge mistake. 

The statistics clearly show how important this aspect is and how often we neglect it. If you are unsure where to start from, check these internal communication examples from companies like Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks, etc. You can also check the statistics while you are at it. It will give you a great(er) insight into the importance of internal communication.

Try implementing some of these advertising tips for small businesses. They can set you apart from the competition without blowing your budget or your time.

The post Starting a Company: Tools for Advertising and Communication appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But not all small businesses can afford to hire these specialists.

The good news is, that you can easily increase the conversion rates of your campaigns without spending any extra money on specialists.

The facts are, that there are many factors that make a potential customer take an action. If you tweak any of these factors, chances are, you’ll increase conversion rates.

What does ‘increase conversion rate’ mean?

In internet marketing, increasing conversion rates involves optimizing a page for higher response. If you run Facebook Ads, you want more clicks. Entrepreneurs using landing pages want more sales. You may want more subscribers to your email list, more clicks for your emails, or maybe even more sales for your Shopify store.

If you have low conversion rates, you have erratic sales and if you have erratic sales, you have no business. For startups, increasing conversion rates should be the main business.

Web traffic is a vanity metric, while conversion rates are a true metric directly tied to sales. Unless you’re a mainstream publication relying on sponsored ads for revenue, your focus should be on getting conversions.

How do you boost conversions on low-traffic websites?

The best way to increase conversion rates on new sites is to write a sales page around specific long-tail transactional keywords.

I consult with small tech businesses a lot because my goal is to apply the skills I’ve learned, from leading marketing agencies to small startups.

Most small businesses have good products. Some run ads and get significant traffic, but no sales. They often think they need more traffic so they can get more paid customers.

Not so. The truth is if you can’t get one out of 100 people to take an action, you can’t get 10 out of 1,000 people to take action.

For this reason, most startups misfire their marketing efforts. They get little to no results, end up discouraged and finally give up.

But with good conversion rates, even a low-traffic website is a goldmine.

As a freelancer, I can honestly say that 8 people out of 100 people who visited my site downloaded my free eBook.

Eight is a low number for a free eBook download. But in comparison with other B2B sites that get 0.01% conversion rates, I’m 800 times ahead. It may not bring a direct income since the eBook is free, but the conversion rate acts as a vote of confidence to scale my marketing efforts with a larger budget.

Because small businesses often rely on social media, you have to increase conversion rates at all stages of your funnel.

• If you increase conversion rates on your Ads by 1.4X (40% more), and on your landing page by 1.10X (10% more) — that’s a 1.51X increase in conversion rate and sales.

Checklist: Increase your conversion rate by 1.4X on Google Ads.

Whether you run ads on Google, Instagram, or YouTube, chances are, your ad will be ignored. Why? Well, customers are actually looking for information and people, not ads.

So the best use of search engines such as Google is to make your ad mimic an informational piece, a.k.a. an advertorial. For YouTube, use infomercials and influencer partnerships. This is known as social search. For Facebook, use infomercials and viral-type ads. And if you’re advertising in an official-like trade publication, use a corporate style.

The secret is to blend with the platform so you get their attention. You are there to seek attention, you should not be ignored.

The small business product for this demo is CRM software.

• Did I use an advertorial style…instead of typical ads?
• Does my headline appeal to self-interest rather than general appeals?
  • Can you be a better email marketer rather than the best CRM software for email marketers?
• Do I add some curiosity to my headline?
  • Lessons from Hilary Clinton: Use emails to make you a better email marketer.
  • Look to Quora headlines to get a sense of curiosity.
• For social ads, do my ads invite a conversation?
  • The goal is to engage. Filter top posts on Reddit or any platform…that’s how your advertorial should look.
• Do you push your ads organically?
  • If you have the best product, you will want to do everything to ensure it reaches everyone.
• Is your product unique?
  • This “wow factor” causes products to trend (and even go viral).
• Did you add some urgency?
  • Why should people click now? Limited availability, limited editions?

Checklist: Designing websites that convert.

So which methods can you use to increase conversion rates on low-traffic and new sites?

• Messaging: Does my landing page stick to the principle of copy focus…or are ideas all over the place?
• Do my hero area and headline solve an urgent problem, call out a target customer, and continue the conversation from the advertorial?
• Does my product/service have credibility and proof elements, education, statistics, examples, case studies, track record, and demonstrations to back up my claims?
• Do I make a big, believable, unique promise?
  • This is the only way to move a saturated market.
• Do I have a clear call to action, and an irresistible offer someone would be dumb to ignore? A.K.A. “value.”

You’d be surprised at how many websites fail at each of these.

eCommerce: How to Increase Your Conversion Rates

Unlike B2B businesses, eCommerce drop shippers could be D2C and B2C businesses. As a result, their product pages require less copy and should be more graphic-rich. The aim of every graphic is to increase sales.

• Do I use direct response design tips?
• Do my images show the fulfillment of the promise rather than a problem, i.e. show glowing radiant skin rather than acne skin?
• UX: Is my website loading fast, with 99% uptime, with 1-3 clicks to checkout?
• Do I practice up-selling — recommending higher-priced packages, down-selling for abandoned carts, and cross-selling — recommending similar packages?
• Does my ordering system use notifications?
• Do I use countdown timers and scarcity plugins?
• Do I use customization? Am I calling visitors by name, location, using gamification techniques?

Unlike SEO, conversion rate optimization doesn’t change. These timeless principles remain evergreen.

People buy because they have a problem. All you have to do is to present a solution, like a caring friend, with utmost trust and clarity.

The post Looking to Increase Conversion Rate 1.51X? Use a Credibility Checklist. appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Before we go further, it’s essential to highlight two distinct types of direct mail solutions: solo mail and shared mail. Shared mail involves advertisers coming together in a single piece of mail to reach the same audience. In contrast, solo mail represents a single business entity.

High Return on Investment (ROI)

You probably don’t believe that direct emails can yield a higher ROI than online display and paid search ads. As far-fetched as it may sound, it is true. Statistics indicate that direct mails are almost as effective as social media marketing, with the latter being only a single percentage ahead. This means that a business that uses direct mail alongside other marketing strategies will likely achieve high conversions. One study found that most donations received by non-profit organizations come from direct mails. Research has also established that over 80 percent of millennials love receiving mails and are more likely to respond to direct mails than other generations. Millennials are said to favor physical media over other media channels.

Cost-effectiveness

For-profit businesses are always looking to improve their profit margins by reducing operational costs. Some marketing methods can be very costly. Direct mail is a cost-friendly way of reaching customers. It does not need investment in terms of money, digital infrastructure, and technical knowledge compared to other methods such as paid search. You only need a good copywriter and designer to help craft your emails. Some organizations resort to shared direct mail marketing over solo direct mail marketing to save on costs. This is because the difference between shared and solo mail marketing lies within the costs involved.

Versatility

Direct mails can be sent in different formats. Depending on what you desire to communicate to your customers, you can send direct mails in various forms such as newsletters, magazines, postcards, catalogs, and brochures, among others. It means you have a range of options to choose from for various purposes. For instance, if you want to inform your customers of your new line of products, you can use a brochure to provide your audience with the product specifications. Direct mails in the form of company newsletters effectively establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers and improve their loyalty. Direct mails can also collect vital information from customers through questionnaires and surveys sent to them. The results can be analyzed and measured against targets and goals. Direct mails are perfect for newly set-up businesses hoping to generate quick revenue and capture customers.

Personalization

Personalization is critical in marketing because it boosts customers’ experience. Research shows that customers are more likely to be associated with businesses that provide personalized experiences. Experts also suggest that personalized recommendations attract more conversions than non-personalized offers. Direct-to-consumer mails offer an opportunity for business owners to personalize the messages they send to customers. A well-personalized marketing campaign is likely to spark interest among customers who become more receptive when they feel valued and respected. As a business owner or manager, you must segment your audience and understand each segment to know what content attracts them.

Targeting

Customers have different characteristics. Hence, their needs, expectations, and demands also vary. With direct mail marketing, you can target your audience based on their past purchases, demographics, such as age, income levels, level of education, etc., or psychographics, such as interest, hobbies, and consumption patterns. Good practice within an organization is to keep a list of customers who share some characteristics. It is also crucial to keep a list of customers who have previously responded to marketing messages, such as those who have filled our warranty cards or requested more information. Readers can be targeted through direct mails with messages tailored towards their needs, behavior, and expectations. Because customers have demonstrated willingness to buy products or be associated with your brand, they should be prioritized with direct mails.

Stealth Marketing

As opposed to methods of marketing, direct mail marketing allows business owners to build campaigns without drawing the attention of competitors. Other online marketing methods have loopholes that rivals can ‘spy’ on you, but direct mail is impossible. In contrast, They cannot know the scale of your campaigns, how often you market to customers and the strategies you use. They will not know what your conversions are, so they cannot copy your strategy. This way, you stay ahead of the game in keeping your existing customers and acquiring new ones.

Scalability

You can quickly scale your business through direct mails. This is possible when you continuously test additional lists of prospective customers. Out of these, you find responsive lists to build marketing strategies to grow your business. Hence, as a business owner, you must actively seek new ways to target your prospective lists.

Final Thoughts

The above benefits achieved through direct mail can result in higher leads and sales. The method is quick, easy, cost-effective, and offers a high return on investment. It begins from identifying your audience, strategizing on the process, and hiring a good marketer who understands customer experience dynamics. It is also essential to put in place a system for tracking and measuring the performance of your marketing efforts. In the post-pandemic era, many customers spend more time at home and equally have more time for your direct mails. This is the time to get it right with your direct mail tools. Efforts should be geared towards finding new innovative ways to keep customers engaged and more interested. The goal is to win. In contrast, their loyalty.

The post Why Direct Mail Remains an Effective Way to Reach Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Literally millions of businesses are all working to attract consumer attention. They hope to get people to visit their websites and convert them into paying customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) managers are also busy ensuring websites are optimized for search engines. They hope to boost their rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) and increase site traffic.

What exactly is website traffic?

By definition, website traffic boils down to the number of people who visit a website. Traffic has historically been measured by the number of unique visits. Today, however, many additional parameters are measured. These include the length of a session — one visitor’s time spent viewing the site — and how many visitors stuck around long enough to make a purchase. Businesses also evaluate how much the organization spent to convert a single visitor into a customer.

Why is website traffic relevant to your business?

The more visitors you have accessing your website, the wider the awareness. This may seem obvious, but keep in mind that not all traffic is “good” traffic. What’s essential to your business is to get high-quality website traffic.

It’s possible to get what’s known as “organic” visitors via standard searches that make use of specific keywords. However, most people visiting your site will show up as a result of marketing campaigns. You can gauge the effectiveness of the time and money you spent on marketing and advertising by using specialized URLs, tracking software, and other tools.

Spending to make customers aware of your website is fine, but you won’t know how to tweak future campaigns unless you track your return on investment (ROI). You’ll want to convert those website visitors into customers at some point. Otherwise, you’re wasting time and effort that could easily be better spent elsewhere.

How relevant is website traffic as you seek to improve your business?

While all traffic might be appreciated, qualified website traffic will lead to conversion. Conversion means that your website visitors became sufficiently interested in what you offer to take action. They might have chosen to submit an inquiry, sign up for a newsletter, or even make a purchase. You’ll ultimately wind up with more sales if your website generates more conversions.

So…how do you get website traffic?

Despite what you may have been told, increasing website traffic isn’t nearly as complicated as rocket science. There are three things anyone — even the tech-averse — can do to boost website visits.

1. Start by improving your website’s SEO as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Once you’ve optimized your website to focus on industry-specific terms and keyphrases, you can begin increasing traffic to your site using a range of options. Your overall strategy can include paid advertising, such as from Google AdWords or ads on specific social media channels. You can also use pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Of course, you should continue refining your SEO efforts and thereby improve your organic search results.

2. It’s vital to provide high-quality content for marketing purposes.

Blogs, when consistently updated, can be an excellent source of referrals and links. When you regularly provide content relevant to your industry, business, and products, you become known as an expert. Over time, you establish yourself as a trustworthy source of information. This alone will increase visits to your sites.

3. Create specialized content for selected social media platforms.

When diving into social media, it’s critical to pick platforms that appeal to your target audience. Make sure that you provide complete contact information along with links to your website. Pick specific web pages you want to promote. Leverage different content formats including short video snippets, stories, high-quality images, and product-related activities and event videos. Social media is one of the fastest ways to disseminate information, whether you pay for the announcement or get it for free.

Increasing website traffic to improve your business bottom line is an ongoing process. However, if you don’t have a dedicated team able to handle it, you can work with a third-party provider specializing in online marketing services. With their experience and expertise, they can respond to your organization’s needs quickly and in the most effective and relevant ways.

The post Why You Need Website Traffic to Improve Your Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Staying competitive and relevant now requires small businesses to maintain a reliable and strong online presence. IT-savvy leaders across an increasing number of smaller businesses are investing significant resources in the latest content management system (CMS) technology. The CMS you select will have a huge impact on your digital experiences and business outcomes.

The ideal CMS ties all the tools together in one tech stack. For instance, a popular CMS such as WordPress offers user engagement tools such as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing with drag-and-drop, the ability to create blogs and RSS feeds, forms, KPI reporting, and much more. An API-first CMS is also a great asset when it comes to avoiding/reducing data silos. Such a CMS offers marketers and developers structured data that’s ready to be presented through the framework or language chosen. Your content team needs little support from IT staff to keep the site running smoothly.

If your enterprise considers online channels to be central to business strategy you should consider investing in a suitable CMS.

But how do you decide which one is best for your business? Each of the popular content management systems available today — WordPress, Webflow, Joomla, and Drupal among others — offer useful features. New and smaller businesses often find it challenging to make this decision as they are crunched on budget and have limited resources and skills to manage the platform. Listed below are the top nine features every small business should look for when investing in a CMS.

1. User-Friendliness

Most small businesses lack the technical skills needed to work with open-source platforms. People with little experience with HTML, CSS, or PHP need a platform that helps them easily navigate the backend.

User-friendliness is one of the primary must-have CMS features to be considered. WordPress tops the list when it comes to this feature. The admin interface of this CMS is incredibly user-friendly, even for novices. This makes WordPress a great platform whether it’s for internal use or pitching to enterprise clients.

Though they offer several features, Drupal and Joomla are not as user-friendly as WordPress. For instance, developers often find it challenging to locate extensions and templates from Joomla’s admin area. No wonder most small businesses switch from Joomla or Drupal to WordPress for the latter’s quick editing and plugin compatibility.

Whether you are building a new business website or migrating to another CMS, make sure the platform you opt for is easy to use, accessible to multiple plugins, customizable to your business needs, intuitive, and secure.

2. Scalability

All small businesses and startups need a CMS that can scale with an increase in demand. In other words, another must-have CMS feature is the ability to grow with and support the expansion of your business.

Imagine where your business will be five years from now. Will you be adding multiple product lines? Are there any features or software to integrate? Making a list of all such must-haves will help you choose a suitable platform for your business website.

Your CMS should be built with core web technologies for handling the sudden burst of traffic all SMBs hope to experience. The ideal CMS will be able to manage this spurt without taking your website down.

Whether it’s database tuning, web server optimization, or advanced caching strategies, your CMS should be capable of achieving all of it without you having to reinvent the wheel when operating at an enterprise level.

3. SEO Tools

If you want to improve your brand visibility and generate leads for your business, SEO tools are a must-have CMS feature. Search engine optimization brings qualified leads to your website that can be nurtured and converted into loyal customers.

But SEO isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you lack the resources in the form of a full-fledged team of search professionals. That being the case, small businesses must typically invest in a CMS that makes on-page SEO easy.

For instance, WordPress’s Yoast SEO plugin makes optimization easy, enabling small business websites to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Ask these questions to help you make an informed decision.

• Does the CMS automatically create SEO-friendly URLs?
• Does it add meta descriptions and alt tags?
• What are the advanced SEO features it offers?
• Does it offer recommendations for improving online performance?
• If these features aren’t built-in, is it compatible with SEO plugins?

4. Multisite and Multilingual Functionality

Choosing a CMS that supports multisite and multilingual functionality means your team will spend less time and resources in managing complex requirements, enabling them to focus on other profit-generating tasks.

The CMS you select should allow you to enable multilingual solutions. With this feature, your team can effortlessly manage every aspect of translating and deploying content. If you do business in other countries, this capability needs to be one of your must-have CMS features.

5. A Wide Selection of Add-Ons and Plugins

A CMS should have plenty of available add-ons and plugins. When you have a plethora of such add-ons at your disposal, it’s much easier to customize your website to your business needs.

Plugins and add-ons help expand the core functionality of the framework, allowing you to create a flexible and awesome website. Choose a platform that offers a robust selection of relevant plugins.

6. Responsive Themes

We live in a world that’s well above the mobile tipping point. Native support for a responsive website design is a must.

Very few content management systems offer a wide variety of responsive themes as WordPress does. The platform’s admin and default themes allow front-end developers to either base their design on these themes or roll their solutions. Be sure to choose a CMS that allows you to apply responsive themes to your website with a few clicks.

Without getting into the technical “nitty gritty,” it’s helpful to know that many developers are now moving over to the PHP 8 programming language, which was officially launched at the end of 2020. PHP 8 is proving to be 18.47% faster than PHP 7.4 and will handle 50% more page requests than its predecessor.

This new iteration is finding praise primarily for its Just-in-time (JIT) compiler, which allows CPU-intensive processes to run much faster, so it would be helpful to choose a CMS that is programmed in PHP 8. Early tests in WordPress, for example, show that JIT-run processes boost overall calculation speed.

7. Social Media Integration

With more than half of the world’s population on social media, no business, small or big, can afford to ignore social channels. Social media is more than a platform for boosting awareness. It helps SMBs connect with and engage their audience.

A CMS with social media integration can empower you to leverage the power of social and know the pulse of your audience. It also ensures that your website and social page work together to create a cohesive experience for all.

When deciding on a CMS, make sure you ask the following questions. This will allow you to check whether the CMS has social media integration.

• Is the platform optimized for various social channels?
• Does the CMS allow you to add social media sharing buttons throughout the website?
• Are you able to schedule social media posts?
• Does it include social media analytics on the dashboard?
• If the CMS doesn’t have these features built-in, does it allow you to use a relevant add-on or plugin?

8. Robust Security

The Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report reveals that 28% of all data breaches in 2020 involved small businesses. Small businesses are often a prime target for hackers as their website or CMS lacks sophisticated cybersecurity. This allows hackers to easily get their hands on sensitive data or financial resources.

As a part of your firm’s security strategy, opt for a CMS that’s equipped with the ability to safeguard your sensitive information. Look for features such as Web Application Firewall, automatic updates, SSL certificate, and content delivery network (CDN). These help in keeping customer data safe and ensure that the website runs smoothly.

9. Customer Support

Finally, an ideal CMS should offer adequate customer support. A few free CMS platforms rely on their huge community for resolving issues. They typically have a huge forum that addresses FAQs and share easy tutorials that answer day-to-day issues.

Though this type of support is a nice-to-have feature, it’s a must-have CMS feature to have an efficient customer support team that can guide you through an emergency like a website crash. Most small businesses do not have a robust in-house IT team. You may not want to wait around for a helpful response from a free support mechanism, either. Pick a CMS that offers live support.

Look Before You Leap: Don’t Compromise on CMS Must-Have Features

An effective CMS enables businesses with little or no coding expertise to create, manage, and edit the content on their website. But with a sea of options available today, choosing a suitable CMS isn’t an easy task. Use the list of must-have features to compare the top platforms and choose a CMS that best suits your business needs and gives you maximum returns.

The post 9 Must-Have CMS Features Your Small Business Website Needs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

More than half of websites worldwide use Google Analytics to collect and analyze their traffic data, but how many of them actually make the most out of this tool?

If you feel like you could do more with Google Analytics, this post is for you. Here are 6 tips for improving your Google Analytics data analysis.

Save Your Time with Custom Alerts

Who likes to stare at a bunch of numbers on their screen?

Nobody, but in GA, you simply have to deal with numbers. 

If you don’t have time to dig through your dashboard every time you want to extract specific data, you can set up custom alerts every time a specific goal is triggered. Basically, this feature allows you to receive an email every time there’s an event that you want to be notified about (like a sudden drop in organic visits, 404 page errors, etc.)

Choose the Right View

Certain Google Analytics metrics may be easier to analyze if displayed in different views. Luckily, GA offers tables, pie charts, and more, so you can pick what works for you at the moment. Some of the available views are:

• Tables (the default view with your data shown in a table)
• Pie charts (your data displayed in percentages)
• Horizontal charts (good for analyzing a metric’s performance over time)
• Comparison charts, and more

Include Site Search in Your Google Analytics Reports

You may know what pages your users have visited, but what exactly were they looking for?

If you remember to track site search too, that can provide you with lots of useful information about what your visitors need. If your website has a search bar, tracking site search is a must – because it’s a simple way to find out, for example, what topics you should write about more.

Set Goals

When you have a correctly configured goal with goal values, it’s easier to understand how the metrics you’re measuring affect your business. You can measure different types of goals in Google Analytics:

• Duration – how much time a user spent on a page
• Destination – what pages a user has loaded
• Pages per session – how many pages a user has loaded in one session
• Event – an action that a user has taken (video views, “Get Quotes” for comparison shopping, lead magnet download, etc.)

Segment Your Data

If you only track your traffic volume, you can’t learn where it comes from. You won’t be sure what adjustments you should make on your website or in your marketing strategy to improve your site’s performance.

By segmenting your data by different dimensions, devices, traffic sources, etc. you can identify opportunities for successful campaigns or fix any existing problems more easily.

Use Annotations

Have you ever gone back to a spike in user activity on your website, but you had no idea why it happened?

Yes, it’s easy to forget such things, especially if you have to deal with lots of data every day.

But the fix is simple: set up annotations and you’ll exactly know what happened next time you, for example, see a sudden spike in organic traffic.

Simple Steps for Excellent Results

Are you ready to apply these six tips to your data analysis?

If you use Google Analytics, make sure you uncover its full potential by exploring all your options. Simple steps like adding notes, changing the view, or setting goals can have a huge impact on how successfully you interpret your data.

And when you interpret your data accurately, you’ll be able to boost your website’s performance in no time.

About the author: Sara Routhier is an SEO manager with AutoInsurance.org. Her team uses Google Analytics to determine the pages they should target for backlinks.  

The post 6 Proven Ways to Improve Your Google Analytics Data Analysis appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

However, Facebook is also one of the biggest advertising opportunities for businesses today. More than 1 billion of its users log in daily, making Facebook too big for businesses to ignore. And as organic reach — posting updates on a group/page — reaches its success limit, more and more businesses are turning to Facebook ads to increase their exposure and traffic.

But are Facebook ads the right investment for you? Here are some benefits to advertising on the world’s biggest social media platform.

1. Your audience is on Facebook

As mentioned, more than 2 billion people actively use Facebook. Using Facebook ads allows you to not only reach current customers, but new customers whose interests or beliefs align closely with your brand.

The audience present on Facebook also spans across many demographics. Users aged 18-34 take up a bulk of the audience, at 56%. However, older audiences are quickly increasing with almost half (46%) of 65+ year olds using the platform. No matter who your target audience is, you should be able to find them on Facebook.

2. Access to fine-tuned targeting tools

Facebook ads use a variety of advanced targeting tools to reach your audience. They factor in the basics, such as age, gender, and location, but they also look at lifestyle characteristics such as interests, hobbies, and even recent buying behavior to expand your potential customers. Such targeted forms of advertising are hugely beneficial to any business.

One tool that Facebook provides is the ability to reach Lookalike Audiences: people similar to those that already engage with your company. This tool is just one of many that can increase your reach, and ultimately, your brand success. Facebook shows your ads to the people who are most likely to buy, providing the best results for your campaign. 

 3. Budget-friendly advertising 

A big budget isn’t necessary for a big outcome. Using Facebook ads is one of the cheapest methods of advertising in today’s marketplace. 

Other forms of advertising that were more popular in the past, such as radio ads, commercials, and billboards, are far more costly than Facebook Ads, and the same desired results are achievable.

Less than $10 in Facebook ads can easily lead to a reach of 1000+ people if you strategize and plan well.  And you can even set daily or lifetime budget limits — that you can change at any time — to ensure that you’re only spending as much as you want or can on your advertising. 

4. Ease of use

You don’t need to be an expert to figure out how to use Facebook advertising to your business’ benefit. With easily customizable ads that allow you to choose your type of ad, your target audience, and your budget, Facebook ads are for any business owner — tech-wizard or not.

Marketing goals are also easily factored in. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Post engagement? Likes or clicks on your page? Reach a wider audience? From sponsored stories to video ads to carousel ads, Facebook ads will have a way to get the results you want for your company.

5. Free analytics 

Building on its budget-friendly rep, Facebook ads also provide free analytics for your campaign. You’ll get real-time results to see what is and isn’t working. This allows you to easily adjust your ads to increase their performance.

Facebook provides reports with metrics such as weekly reach, page likes, and engagement. You can easily see which posts are effective and which aren’t doing so well, then fine-tune your ads in a way that makes them more successful. Such flexibility isn’t possible with forms of traditional marketing. 

With an ad such as a tv commercial, it’s difficult to measure effectiveness while the commercial is still being run. Usually, a business has to wait for reactions from the public, or movement towards or against their marketing goals to gauge the success of the commercial. Facebook, on the other hand, provides reports for your campaign as soon as possible, giving you the best results for your investment.

6. Remarketing

Remarketing is an advertising approach that Facebook makes easy. Say someone visits your website but does not make a purchase. Facebook is able to track this visitor and show them an ad for your company at a future time, while they’re scrolling through their feed. Re-engaging customers this way can lead to more website visits and better conversions.

This tactic can also be used to drive repeat business: purchases by customers who have bought from you in the past. You can directly import past customer emails into your Facebook ad campaign. This means your ads will be shown to people who are already engaged and are willing to buy.

7. Referrals

When you advertise on Facebook, your audience can help you expand your reach. Customers that are already engaged with your brand can easily tag their own friends and family on your ads. And because they have a connection with the people they are tagging, those people are more likely to trust the quality of your product or service.

Plus, there’s always the potential to go viral on a social media platform. Take Squatty Potty for example. They posted a video ad in 2015 that went viral with over 1 million shares and thousands of comments. Users tagged friends and family with comments like “You need this!”. One ad led to a massive increase in brand awareness, website visits, and sales. 

8. Facebook is mobile 

Almost 80% of Facebook users only view the platform on their phone. During their work breaks, while traveling to and from work, or when bored, people are likely to use their phone and browse through Facebook. Using Facebook ads allows you to catch these people during their down time, when they may be more likely to buy.

9. Facebook is fast

Facebook gives you the option to add a call-to-action (CTA) to your ad. This is a button that gives the customer a direct action. It might be downloading your app, subscribing to your emails, or booking an appointment. This provides a sense of urgency for the ad viewer and encourages them to click on your ad. With this method, you’ll reach your marketing goals fast.

Using Facebook ads has countless benefits for any brand. Strategizing, knowing your audience and recognizing your company’s goals are all you need to get started. For more information on advertising with Facebook, you can also check out their Business Centre.

The post Why You Should Be Using Facebook To Advertise appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Guest Post for Others

One of the best ways to build your audience and increase engagement on Facebook is to partner with a complementary brand. Find a noncompeting brand that has an existing audience that overlaps with your ideal target demographic and vice versa. Both brands can mutually benefit from an occasional guest post on each other’s Facebook pages. – Duran Inci, Optimum7

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Reddit is a social news and content rating site which receives an incredible 542 million monthly views and is the 6th most visited website in the world (according to alexa.com). One of the Silicon Valley Unicorns, Reddit has a valuation of $1.8 billion and boasts an array of notable investors including Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape), Peter Thiel (first investor of Facebook) and oh, of course, Snoop Dogg!

Founded by college roommates Steve Huffman (CEO) and Alexis Ohanian, Reddit has been proclaimed as the internets “front page” and boast 70+ million content submissions from science, to video games, to fitness business, to books, well … to just about anything you can think of!

How Reddit Works?

Reddit is a very simple concept where it’s users (Redditors) submit content, which could be anything from an image to a blog post and the community of Reddit vote it up or down. The more upvotes, the higher the content appears. Posts that get a lot of upvotes move to the “Hot” page. Reddit is further broken down into “subreddits” which are subsidiary categories and threads within the site.

Ways in which Reddit can be used in your content marketing strategy?

Firstly, why use Reddit in your content marketing strategy?

1. So 500+ million monthly views to a content platform is kind of a big deal – so as a content marketer Reddit needs to be taken seriously given it is the most influential social news aggregator on the planet.

2. It’s not Google or Facebook – As Google and Facebook continue to grow their advertising revenues, as a marketer, competition goes up and so does cost. As businesses look to control acquisition costs, diversification of platforms can play a big part.

How to use Reddit in your content marketing strategy?

Content marketers typically will use Reddit for one of two purposes. One is to direct traffic to your own site, and the other is to get eyeballs on your content within the hosted Reddit site. Baring this in mind there are two types of posts on Reddit, links that direct users to another site (i.e. yours) and the other is a text post on Reddit itself.

Then comes the actual content you post. Firstly, you need to know your audience. Luckily with the use of Subreddits, you can pretty quickly identify a super targeted audience or demographic. So if your prospective audience is interested in video games, dating, or playing video games during dates, you will pretty quickly find a strong audience.

Some considerations about your audience is that almost two-thirds of the Reddit users are male and over half the audience is between the ages of 18 and 29.  If that’s not your target audience, don’t let that put you off. Due to the niche topics and vast quantities of users, even if your target audience is not that of the average you will still be amazed at the number of users that do fit your niche.

The number of submissions that Reddit receives daily is massive. Whilst this is a testament to its value proposition this can make your content hard to stand out from the crowd. Because of this, like any good content marketer will know, you need to keep your content unique, relevant and engaging.

And if you’d rather beat off the competition by flexing your financial muscles you can, of course, ensure your posts prominence with the use of Reddit advertising.

What to watch out for?

It is very easy to get banned on Reddit, and they hold no prisoners when there is suspected spam.

Some tips to avoid getting banned

• Ensure you read and follow the Redditquette https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette
• Don’t post too many links (especially to your own site)
• Don’t create fake accounts to manipulate your posts performance
• Keep your comments on posts on topic and relevant
• Don’t ask for upvotes.

Lastly, its important like with many things, that without the investment of time and effort you are not going to get the rewards you are looking for and there are no easy options here. Unless you are going to become a legitimate member of the Reddit community you should really think twice about using Reddit as part of your content strategy. But if you are prepared to do the graft, the potential results are there for the taking.

Authored By:

James Craigmillar writes for Inspiring Interns, which specializes in finding candidates their perfect graduate jobs. To browse our internships London listings, visit our website.

The post Using Reddit In Your Content Strategy appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Announced today, Google is making it even easier for smaller businesses to create and serve ads on it’s network with Smart Campaigns.

Supporting much of the content we view for free is advertising.

When you search for something online, most likely using Google or YouTube, you’re going to find an advertisement bought for by a large brand, such as a restaurant like Chick-fil-A, a clothier like Charles Tyrwhitt or any number of other larger brands.

You’re also going to find an advertisement purchased by a local (or regional) business, independently owned – a small business.

Many of these smaller businesses rely on Google Adwords, now called Googld Ads, to put their advertising message in front of the right audience, at the right time, on the right device at the right price.

While for some creating an ad is relatively easy, there’s still a bit of complexity to it. With Smart Campaigns, Google aims to make it even easier for business owners and small agencies to create, purchase and serve ads across Google’s digital platform.

But even before you advertise on Google or anywhere else, CLAIM your free listing on Google with Google with Business

The power of Google, as I discussed with Kim Spalding, General Manager & Product Lead, Small Business Ads, is that Google helps businesses connect with their customers at the moment of intent.

Listen to the full interview with Kim here:

See this video about Smart Campaigns results with some independent business owners.

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While it’s not always easy being the “little guy,” it does have its advantages. Everyone loves an underdog, and as impossible as it may seem sometimes, the truth is small business owners can play to their strengths and gain the advantage over their larger competitors. With big budgets, glitzy websites, and established names, large retailers seem to have it all. But what they don’t have is the dedication, personal touch, and ingenuity that today’s entrepreneurs and small business owners exemplify.

That said, retail competition is as fierce as ever, and small business owners have to be ready to adopt new technologies and tools to level the playing field. Following are some things small business owners can do to compete with and even gain an edge over their larger ecommerce counterparts.

The Tools Are There – Use Them

If you haven’t already, you should establish an online presence. Having a website that highlights what’s currently in the store, special promotions, events, collaborations and classes will go far in helping bring customers to your store. A website is often a customer’s first point of contact with your business, so be sure to build a website that showcases what you and your brand are all about.

So many of today’s consumers are using their smartphones to search and shop – whether while just killing time or when searching for a desperately needed product or service. Without an online presence, potential customers will not know about your store, let alone be able to find it. And if they do know about your store but can’t find you online, their impression may be that you lack credibility.

In today’s world, you don’t need to learn coding or spend a fortune to set up a website. Research and explore “website builder” tools online, which can get you started for free and make setting up a basic website easy. As you create your website, make sure to include keywords such as the city and zip code where you are based, along with the products and services you offer. Your store and website should also be listed in the local online business pages to help search engines find and list your store in search results.

Once your basic website is established, you can make the decision to go the extra step and sell your products online. This, too, may not be as complicated as you think. Research your web builder for ecommerce tools, and check with your merchant services provider for ways to accept payments online.

Socialize

As you embark on the journey of owning and operating a website, the next step is to engage. One way to do this is through social media, which can help build your presence online. With pages on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, small business owners can involve customers in their decisions and interact with them in a more personal way. For example, taking an Instagram poll is a fun way to involve customers. Managing and posting updates to your social pages shouldn’t take a lot of time – simply share what’s new in the store, behind-the-scenes, and any other information your customers may find interesting.

Another good way to interact with customers is through online review sites. Thanks to Amazon, the online review has become one of the biggest influencing factors for consumers – shoppers have even been known to step out of the checkout line after reading bad reviews about a product. Using local review sites such as Yelp and Google Reviews will go a long way toward building your store’s success. Be sure to monitor and address any less-than-flattering reviews, doing so with positivity and invitations to reconnect. When a customer compliments your service, products, or store, encourage them to leave a positive review online – doing so will have a great impact on future customers.

It’s All About the Experience These Days

So all your efforts of building an online presence are paying off and more people are visiting your store. Now what? Getting customers into your store is just the beginning. Consumers want to feel like they are getting something of value by coming into your store versus ordering online. Give it to them by having a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can provide excellent service and personal attention. Your staff should not only have a good understanding of the products they are selling, but they should also be able to connect with customers and anticipate their needs.

Beyond your staff, there are lots of ways you can go above and beyond to make your store a more appealing place. For example, have an area for kids to play or offer a lounge section if space permits. Offer free samples, and of course offer free Wi-Fi. Consider hosting events related to the products or services you provide – cooking classes, yoga, interior decorating, writing workshop, painting, landscaping, personal style, etc. Think outside the box.

The store itself should also be inviting and reflect the feeling you want customers to have when they visit. Make sure customers can easily find what they are looking for, keep the shelves and surface areas organized, and have signs displayed with prices and additional information. Often, soft music or scents from candles and diffusers are good ways to make customers feel at ease. Offer ways for them to experience your products and experience what your store is all about, whether it be through a behind-the-scenes look of how the product is made, tasting a fresh recipe, or trying a shade of lip gloss. Finally, customers love to know where their purchases are coming from, and, when it applies, who is making the product. Providing this kind of detail is a nice touch to personalizing your store.

Closing the Deal and Looking Forward

Considering the level of modern technology available, the checkout process should be the smoothest and easiest part of the customer’s experience. Ensure a fast, secure and hassle-free checkout for customers by accepting all the ways they may want to pay, including EMV credit cards and NFC payments like Apple Pay.

As you look for ways to further your engagement with customers, consider creating a customer loyalty program. Your POS software may already be set up to run a loyalty program. Using customer information and tracking purchases, you can tailor a program that rewards people for coming back to your store. Some POS systems will also send messages to customer smartphones when they are near your store, alerting them of special promotions for insiders.

What it all boils down to is this: embrace your roots and be the best small business you can be, but don’t ignore important online tools that will enable you to level the playing field and meet all of your customers’ distinct needs.  Don’t be intimidated, and remember that there are plenty of simple, inexpensive tools that can get you started on the ecommerce journey. Couple a great online presence with the personalized customer knowledge that only a small business has, and you will have a winning combination that increases customer engagement and interaction, all while maintaining your small, local, underdog identity.

Authored by:

Mark Boeder has more than 20 years of marketing leadership experience, including work for a retail marketing agency serving both big box and independent retailers. He is the current Director of Marketing Strategy for

The post Play to Your Strengths and Gain the Advantage Over Competitors appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Advancements in Big Data – or the analysis of customer behaviors online and off – and automation technology are making it easier than ever before for marketers to connect and engage with their audiences. By following the customer journey more closely, and in real-time, marketers can deliver better options that are personalized and relevant. Understand the basics of a customer profile is just the starting point; marketers must understand the nuances of that customer during the buying journey.

To accomplish this, marketing teams need to leverage a variety of technology solutions along with streamlined workflow management. Speed is the name of the game and the strategies below will help you get there.

Chatbots

Offering Insurance Carrier Automation Solutions to customers is important but often costly when it comes to manpower. Using chatbot technology, though, cuts costs while helping customers find quick answers.

Chatbot technology analyzes patterns and word choices of consumers to help find immediate solutions. Chatbots can provide links, give answers to frequently asked questions and even file support tickets if more action is needed. Instead of consumers searching for an email address, then waiting a day or two for a response, chatbots can give immediate answers to common questions.

Consumers like transparency, so when chatbots are implemented, it’s best to let people know that they are interacting with an automated system right off the bat. Chatbot software like SecondEgo communicates with website visitors in real-time. The software uses artificial intelligence to get smarter over time based on data you provide and how people interact with it.

Real-Time Decision Making

Marketers are always looking for ways to speed up the data analysis time so decisions can be made quickly. Data analysis is only part of the picture. Streamlining communication and automating workflows free up team members to focus on optimizing campaigns. The faster marketing teams can make adjustments to campaigns the more revenue they can generate with lower expenses.

Project management solutions like Wrike allow marketing teams to create systematic workflows that speed up communications between team members on specific tasks and create a shared knowledge base for quickly accessing information. Wrike even uses artificial intelligence to automate repeatable tasks that intelligently suggest next steps and notify managers if there’s a possible project delay.

Suggested Items

Having brands suggest items you may like is nothing new – consider the “you may also like” product suggestions that Amazon has been offering post-sale for over a decade. What’s changing is the ability to suggest items across several sites and channels through secure computer software platforms. The right tracking and AI platform can follow customers from one online location to another, and remind them of what they liked on your brand’s site or social media platform. This type of tracking and marketing can also tell you what people are doing after they leave your site, like heading to competitor sites or looking up reviews on your brand.

When marketers better understand consumer behavior, they can better deliver personalized messaging that results in higher return. Big Data and AI benefit both brands and customers by providing custom information.

The post How Big Data and Automation are Giving Marketers Real-Time Solutions appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Direct Contact Search Tools 

The post Want to Reach New Customers? Try These Inexpensive Tech Hacks appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Use Online Incentives

If you’re operating an e-commerce business, this is the smartest way to bridge the gap. If brick-and-mortar shoppers know that they can get a bigger discount of some sort by purchasing your products or services online, they’ll do it!- Codie Sanchez, www.CodieSanchez.com

2. Look for Tactics That Work in Both Areas

Identify marketing tactics that involve both channels so you can create content that works in both places or that encourages your audience to visit the other channel. This could be adding social channels to your offline marketing information or hosting an event and asking visitors to share it or check in online.– Drew Hendricks, Buttercup

3. Make Sure Your Messaging Is in Alignment

Making sure your messaging is consistent across your offline and online marketing is extremely important. Your offline and online marketing should be closely aligned in language, target customer, and (as much as possible) call to action. Reaching different customers in different realms will lead to a confusing customer picture and a sales pipeline that is difficult to manage.- Kevin Bretthauer, FuelCloud. If you are looking for new marketing strategies, then consider using a Wide format signage. 

4. Use Ad Tracking Software

Aside from making sure you maintain brand continuity across your ads, you can also implement analytics tracking measures into your offline ads. Radio ads can have promo codes, brochures can have call tracking numbers on them and depending on your market, you can utilize QR codes, too.- Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

5. Let Customers Do the Work

One of the quickest and easiest ways to merge the offline with the online is to host a competition. A good example is to ask customers to take selfies that promote your brand by having them upload their images to your social media accounts using a particular phrase or a unique hashtag. The details about the competition should be outlined on your offline marketing materials, including any products you sell.- Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

6. Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is important for both offline and online marketing strategies. Ask your offline customers for their email address in exchange for a coupon, and ask your online customers using opt-in forms on your website. Make sure to keep the email addresses on two separate lists, so you know where the lead came from.- Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

7. Make Your Brand Searchable

These days, new businesses focus too heavily on marketing edgy brand names that are hard to pronounce and spell. When you use a brand name or tagline that is memorable in your offline marketing campaigns, you’ll see a surge in organic search traffic for those terms as customers rediscover your business online.- Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep

8. Use Branded Merchandise

Branded merchandise feels like a forgotten strategy of the marketing world. Whether it’s a customized water bottle or T-shirt, these items serve as a walking advertisement of your products, increasing brand recall and word-of-mouth advertising. Encourage people to show off their flair online through social media. You can even offer free merchandise in exchange for signing up for an email list.- Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

9. Connect Your Leads List

Although you found your lead while out on the street, you should still follow up digitally. And vice versa. Because you found your lead online, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them a call. In any case, going old school and making a call is a great way to break the ice instantly.- Andrew Namminga, Andesign

10. Use Augmented Reality

One of the interesting features of augmented reality is the way it blurs the boundary between offline and online. AR inserts representations of digital entities into the world. Companies like Heineken, Ikea and Visa are using augmented reality to inject digital marketing experiences into the physical environment of users and attracting attention through the innovative use of a new technology.- Justin Blanchard, ServerMania Inc.

11. Get Microinfluencers Shopping Offline

One new advertising model we have is allowing microinfluencers within our community to take a $100-$500 coupon and go shop at the advertiser’s brick-and-mortar store. Microinfluencers interested in the vertical of that advertiser get to spend time at the store, take pictures while shopping and then write an online article about the product, the shopping experience, display and potentially other products.- Tolga Tanriseven, GirlsAskGuys

The post 11 Strategies to Combine Your Offline and Online Marketing Efforts appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Executive Branding

Executive branding is crucial. That means your personal image on social media as an executive or a professional. It becomes a currency anywhere you go. High-profile marketing accounts are more attractive to employers. It’s only going to become more important. – Derek Broman, Discount Enterprises LLC deguns.net

2. Partner Marketing

Many B2B marketers overlook the power of leveraging partners to drive new business. Partnerships can be forged with other businesses who sell to similar customer personas, and it is a great way to drive brand awareness and increase leads from a core customer demographic. – Jeff Epstein, Ambassador

3. Mobile Optimization

B2B marketers should abandon the idea that most business owners conduct research on desktop devices. Business owners are busy and use mobile devices to find solutions anywhere, anytime. To ensure customers have a streamlined process on any device they use, content must be mobile optimized. – Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

4. Structured Data

Google will be expanding its focus on structured data, featured snippets, the Knowledge Graph and answering voice searches. You should implement structured data wherever you can today so you’re prepared, but also listen closely for any new updates, so you can get there before your competitors. – Francois de Lame, Policygenius Inc.

5. Education Marketing

Use education marketing that positions your company as a helpful resource, especially if you’re in an industry (like the legal services industry) that is riddled with unscrupulous vendors. Creating great educational content and sharing it without pushing for the sell positions our company as a partner. – Todd Richheimer, Lawfty, LLC.

6. Social Network Adoption

Most B2B marketers are focusing on channels such as webinars and events, but the focus needs to be more toward the social networks, because they are equally as powerful when it comes to generating market-qualified leads. If more B2B focus on channels that humanize them, they will be able to win big. Plus social proof is going to be everything — if people don’t know about you online, your business is dead. – Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing

7. Micro to Macro

Micro moments, where customers turn to their devices to look for information, are set to reshape the online B2B marketplace. This is because an increasing number of people now make purchasing decisions after interacting with brands through multiple touch points. B2B marketers will need to anticipate probable points of contact and produce content accordingly. – Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns

8. ABM Targeting

B2B marketers need to learn how to target their prospects on the same platforms as B2C marketers. B2B marketing is targeting humans, the key is to find those needles in the digital haystack. To get the targeting right and eliminate waste, they’ll need to leverage first- and third-party data to ensure their ads and content are hyper-targeted to B2B buyers. – Dan Golden, BFO (Be Found Online)

9. Artificial Intelligence

You’ve got to look at AI. Artificial intelligence is still infiltrating business, so it becomes critical to leverage it in your marketing. Understanding customer behavior, proclivities and what have you, allows marketers to streamline their efforts. Moreover, it allows decision makers to close the gap between insight and execution. – Philip Michael, New York Equity Group (NYEG)

10. 24/7 Live Chat

Live chat is no longer a nice-to-have for B2B businesses, it is a must-have. In this highly competitive world, you’ll stand out if you communicate with customers the way that they want to chat. It could be the difference between them purchasing your product or going with the competitor. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

11. Intelligent Analytics

It’s important to understand intelligent analytics and what it can do for the marketing campaigns that a B2B marketer may develop in 2018. It’s there to improve what analytics was trying to do. – Peter Daisyme, Calendar

12. Enhanced B2B Marketing Precision

The idea that marketing needs to be targeted and backed by solid data is already popular in B2B marketing, but this is also important. Rather than simply reaching out to businesses in your industry, it’s important to get more precise and seek out the companies (and specific individuals in each company) who are the best prospects for your message. – Shawn Porat, Scorely

13. Focus on a Single Vertical

When we started our B2B marketing, we were just reaching out to everyone in the local area, and we did not get very positive results. We realized that customers were looking for industry-specific capabilities, even though we were local. So we changed it this year based upon industry. Showing our customers that we have experience in their industry is providing better results. – Piyush Jain, SIMpalm

14. Amazon Entering Your Space

One of the top objectives Amazon had in 2017 was to begin expanding into the B2B space. In 2018 we will start seeing Amazon make some significant strides in reaching companies, and those of us who currently sell B2B should start taking notice. Amazon is not currently a threat to our businesses, but in 2018 they will begin to inch into our markets and we must choose to fight or join them. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

The post 14 Trends B2B Marketers Need to Become Familiar With in 2018 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What technology trend should small businesses watch for at the start of 2018?

The post 12 Tech Trends That Can Drive Small Business Success in 2018 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

However, marketers are having difficulty integrating their social media and email marketing campaigns. Polls have found that 95 percent of marketers recognize the importance of multi-channel marketing, but 51 percent admit they lack the tools and expertise to set up these campaigns.

If you need direction on combining social media and email marketing, you should follow these tips.

Use influencer marketing to earn trust

Email subscriber rates have collapsed in recent years. The biggest reason is that unscrupulous marketers have abused email to spam potential customers. They are very cautious about subscribing to email lists of brands that they do not trust.

Many black hat marketers use spam tactics to try building their email lists with social media. This has hurt the credibility of legitimate marketers trying to earn email subscribers. You need to earn their trust before driving them to your opt-in page.

One of the best ways to gain the trust of potential subscribers is by using social media influencers. Find social media users in your niche that people trust. People will be far more likely to join your email list if you have the endorsement of one of these experts.

Intertwine all channels

The primary focus of many marketers is to use their social media traffic to promote their email lists. Don’t limit yourself this way. Social media doesn’t lose its value as soon as your followers subscribe to your mailing list.

You should also try promoting your social media platforms with your email campaigns. Fruit of the Loom incorporates their major social media profiles into most of their emails, which has helped them expand their reach on social media.

Test both similar and custom opt in pages with your social media traffic

Facebook and other social media platforms offer a wide range of targeting options to reach new audiences. Many marketers have trouble figuring out how do you build their campaign funnels around different audiences.

Should you target eight different types of customers and reach them with the same ads and landing pages? Or should you build custom funnels for each of them? Both approaches have their merits, so you may need to improvise for each campaign.

In some verticals, different demographics respond very differently to certain marketing messages. Marketers in other industries find that there is a little distinction with the demographics that actually convert. Testing different ads and landing pages to optimize your results.

For example, you can create multiple landing pages for each demographic group you are advertising to and A/B test them to find what works best. Landing page software, like Wishpond, makes creating and testing landing pages simple while also integrating with third party email platforms.

Once a social media visitor is converted into a subscriber, use email marketing platforms like Campaign Monitor to create personalized email content based on the landing page message that got them to convert. If the landing page offered an ebook about a specific topic then your email copy should offer additional value on the same topic.

Use multimedia content and pinned posts to reach potential subscribers on Twitter

For many marketers, the term “social media marketing” is synonymous with “Facebook marketing.” Too many marketers overlook the potential of other social media platforms, such as Twitter.

Twitter can be an excellent site to build your email list. However, you need to work hard to make sure that your tweets stand out from all of the noise.

Kajabi has a lot of experience promoting campaigns on Twitter. They have found that using multimedia content and pinned tweet is a great way to build an email list.

Use social data to estimate demand for various lead magnets

Using a lead magnet is one of the most effective ways to build your email list. However, it is easy to invest a lot of time and resources building a lead magnet that appeals to a very small group of people. You must measure interest before investing in it.

You can use social media to identify lead magnet angles that appeal to a large base of potential subscribers. Try tweaking the targeting options with Facebook ads to see the size of different audiences. You probably don’t want to create a product that will resonate with 5000 people on the network.

Twitter doesn’t have the same audience estimates that Facebook does, but there are ways to test engagement for different ideas. Try running sponsored tweets for blog post that will be similar to your lead magnet page. You can use the number of retreats, likes and clicks to gauge interest in a particular topic.

The post Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing to 10X Results appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEChas also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Find the Right Influencers 

Utilizing social influencers and bloggers can be a cost-effective PR solution. Influencers can be found for nearly any industry. The key is finding the right influencer with a following that aligns with your target market at the best price. Don’t forget to negotiate payment options. Some influencers will even work with you in exchange for some merchandise. – Duran Inci, Optimum7

2. Subscribe to HARO

Sign up for Help a Reporter (HARO), a free service where journalists and bloggers source ideas and quotes for upcoming stories. You can respond to inquiries relevant to your business, and it’s also a great way to get a handle on what themes and topics are interesting to the media. – Emily Bernard, PlacePass

3. Cultivate Thought Leadership Through Your Personal Brand

Small businesses live and die by their owners and their reputation. By amplifying the personal brand of the business owner, they can capture more valuable leads by higher-ranking people in the industry. This grants them opportunities for speaking engagements and draws eyeballs back to their business’s website. It’s an inexpensive strategy to augment other PR efforts. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

4. Create Engagement and Distribute Value at Events

Use events to engage with all audiences in your community: employees, recruits, clients, press etc. Creating an event that people want to attend, where they will organically learn about your business, is an authentic and fun way to bring in interest. Relationships progress from there, and getting PR is all about connecting with journalists and showing them that there is a story to share. – Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

5. Collaborate with Like-Minded Brands

Your business can partner with non-competing brands in your category to form an alliance in which you share PR contacts and resources. That way, you leverage the connections they’ve developed with journalists and bloggers for free. The only cost is reciprocation whenever you find media opportunities they can benefit from, too. – Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep

6. Donate To or Volunteer In a Space Relevant to Your Market

Whether it’s pro-bono work, volunteering or donations, take a look at your target market and identify organizations or groups of people that could use a helping hand. You’ll already have some relevant knowledge and experience, so your contribution will go even further, and you’ll get some authentic exposure in a way that feels natural and is low-cost. – Roger Lee, Captain401

7. Focus on Campaigns That Generate an Emotional Response

When I look at how to create a PR campaign that has any chance of going viral, I make sure it creates a strong emotional response, even if that emotion is negative. Somebody hating your pitch distributes your message just as well as if they loved it. – Liam Martin, TimeDoctor.com

8. Become an Authority in Your Industry

Become the ultimate reference for your industry. Scour the industry statistics and trends specific to your business and publish those in a way that beats anything else available. Make the content useful to others in the industry and your customers. The cost is the time spent to research and put the content together, but in addition to building great references, you become more knowledgeable. – Shawn Schulze, AffAction

9. Pitch Freelance Writers Instead of Staff Journalists

Instead of pitching staff writers, try seeking out freelance writers. Often times, freelancers don’t have as many deadlines and stories to meet as staff writers, so it’s easier to get a story to run. You can find freelancers in your industry on LinkedIn or the contributor section of a website or magazine. – Kristin Marquet, Creative Development Agency, LLC

10. Take Advantage of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the hottest social media network right now, and for good reason. If you make a habit of pushing quality, mobile-optimized content on LinkedIn on a consistent basis, you can build a brand for yourself and your company that gets noticed. From that foundation, it’s easier to get press coverage because the outlets see you on LinkedIn, which makes them feel safe writing about you. – Ben Lee, Neon Roots

11. Write Guest Posts

Find other companies in your industry that compliment your business and guest post on each other’s blogs. You can also self-publish on platforms such as Medium and LinkedIn, and apply to contribute to others like HuffingtonPost and Entrepreneur. – Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

12. Promote Others First

It’s amazing how willing people and companies are to help you when you’re helping them. Rather than focusing on maximizing your own PR first, figure out ways that you can promote others that get them excited to promote you along the way. Reviewing other platforms, writing how-to articles of other tech products, and interviewing other founders are all great ways to create co-promotional content. – Ross Beyeler, Growth Spark

13. Join Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are incredible resources to spread your message. Find ones that relate to your business and join them. Then become a regular contributor. Once you have gained credibility, you can start posting your business material, as long as it’s not a straight sales pitch. You will get more traffic from Facebook than any other platform out there, so start using it now. – Scott Kacmarski, Reps Direct

The post 13 Effective PR Exposure Strategies That Won’t Break the Bank appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you’re like most, you probably said something along the lines of building an effective and well-maintained email list. And it’s true – an email list can easily become your best friend when it comes to conversions.

It’s an avenue that allows frequent and direct communication to keep you top of mind and it can be one of the best ways to direct traffic to new content. In fact, email automation platform Campaign Monitor conducted an annual report for 2016 that shows for every dollar spent on email marketing, you’ll typically earn back $44. That’s some impressive ROI!

But that kind of return is only possible if you’re using your email list wisely. The five tactics outlined below will help you not only grow your email list, but also turn it into a customer converting machine.

1. Strategically Located Opt-Ins

An email list without opt-in forms is like a flower without roots – it won’t last long and it makes you wonder how it came to be in the first place. But it’s where you place these opt-ins that really drives conversions.

In classic newspaper form, above the fold placement on your page is essential. It’s all about being able to spot the opt-in quickly and easily. Draw the eye with some colors and make it especially visually appealing to bring in more subscribers and grow your list a breakneck pace.

2. Take Advantage of Lightbox Popups

The sight of an opt-in may be enough to scare off some prospective leads. That’s why you should also incorporate a different tactic – lightboxes. Think of these as mobile opt-in forms, ones that are activated once a prospect reads a certain post or scrolls through your page enough.

Technically considered popups (which if you’re completely opposed to then checkout tip #5), these nifty features have a clear call to action, catch the eye, and trigger strategically, among their many other benefits.

3. Split Test Like Crazy

This should be a major priority already but just in case it isn’t, split testing is absolutely essential in the marketing game. Color psychology, word connotation, length, and structure all come into play when someone decides whether or not to engage with content.

Thankfully, most email platforms have this capability built right in. Beyond that, there are a host of other software options out there to help you along the way. Happy testing!

4. Encourage Forwarding

Depending on the platform you use, asking your users to forward your emails along to others can be a great way to grow your list without having to put in nearly any time at all.

You’ve heard of the power of asking followers to retweet on Twitter (which can boost these numbers by 23x)? Well the same principle applies to email.

But be sure to check the terms and conditions of your platform first as some may outlaw this technique specifically.

And as with almost any other marketing tactic, be sure to keep the pushiness down to a reasonable level.

5. Forget About Popups

Popups may be the go-to for a lot of marketers these days but for others, they’re the bane of their existence. And while the efficacy of such tactics can certainly be backed up by some impressive numbers, some people are moving away from popups entirely.

Luckily, though, there are a number of other ways you can still drive growth for your email lists without the help of these intrusive ads.

The Best Ways to Grow Your Email Lists

Emails are by far one of the most effective methods for making a connection, staying top of mind, and ushering prospects through your expertly crafted sales funnel. In fact, many marketers turn to email campaigns as their primary source of new customers.

And when you use the tactics above, you can be sure that your list will grow faster than ever!

The post 5 Ways to Grow an Email List that Actually Converts appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

But there’s also a growing concern among new business owners who are interested in leveraging paid search. This problem that potentially hinders the success of their online campaigns is click fraud.

What Is Click Fraud and Why Is It a Problem?

Click fraud is a bad practice where anonymous webmasters or competitors intentionally inflate the number of clicks on a business’ pay per click ad. Most often than not, these unscrupulous parties use automated robots to perform these clicks.

The result is that advertisers will be shelling out and burning thousands of marketing dollars for clicks that were never sent by real customers. Click fraud as a pressing problem negatively affects a business’ budget.

In fact, recent figures suggest that click fraud is costing advertisers about $16.4 billion in a year. While this continues to be on the rise, you can take several steps to help you approach the problem effectively. That way, you’ll be able to safeguard your business from being put in a bad financial situation and losing customers.

Keep track of patterns in your pay per click analytics

It’s worth your effort to watch out for unusual changes in your PPC analytics. There’s a reason for you to suspect fraudulent activity if your ads are getting more clicks than usual. At the same time, you notice that you aren’t receiving customer conversions during these increase in your clicks. A bit more diligence such as this goes a long way to avoid payment fraud.

Of course, looking out for unusual patterns requires that you have internal reporting. Collect pieces of information such as the IP address, click timestamp, action timestamp, and user agent. Make sure that you report your findings to search engines so that your account will get credited.

Leverage a software that fights click fraud

The DIY route to preventing and solving cases of click fraud can only go so far. Which is why brands realize that they need to invest in an automated solution. ClickCease is a click-fraud detection software that monitors your campaigns round-the-clock.

As an advertiser, you have the flexibility to decide on a threshold for the clicks that you get. Personalization is a plus factor to consider in Clickcease as you can ensure that you target the right audiences at the best place and time.

Fully automated to scale your PPC efforts, it hides your ads from potential attackers. See all your data at a glance with its intuitive dashboards to show how your campaigns are performing

Alter your targeting campaign

Sometimes, it will help to change your targeting campaign to do away with those unqualified clicks. For example, ifyou find out that you’re receiving a ton of clicks from a specific country but aren’t getting conversions, you can exclude this location in your AdWords settings.

Usually, click farms are found in poorer countries. In click farms, a click master pays workers for a very low fee to click on paid advertising links. Once the advertising budget of a brand is depleted, competitors will then be able to display their ads at a lower cost.

Better yet, program your AdWords right from the start to eliminate the possibility of click fraud in certain places. You need to remember though that weeding out countries also eliminates the good traffic you will get in those locations.

Run your ads on reputable websites only

Sites that are of low-quality are common places where click fraud occurs. The lower the quality of the website you run your ads on, the higher the risk of fraudulent activity to happen.

Search engines like Google allow you to tweak your ad campaigns so that you limit your ads to trusted websites only. This way, you protect your advertising budget and showing up in front of the wrong audience. Always prioritize websites you know have a huge number of real audiences who are likely to become paying customers.

Advertise on social media instead

Launching ads on social media networks like Twitter and Facebook is another way to prevent and fight click fraud because you do away with third-party platforms. Another benefit of advertising on social media is that you’re able to take advantage of more advanced targeting options.

These targeting capabilities allow you to choose specific demographic criteria and other personal details about your audience which result in more qualified leads. However, choosing social media over search has also a disadvantage. On social media, there is the lack of user intent.

Consider a remarketing campaign

Last but not the least, a remarketing ad campaign is another solution to stop click fraud. Remarketing is a form of online advertising in which you display your ads to people who’ve visited your website in the past. As they move on to other sites, seeing your ads reminds them of your brand, enticing them to complete an action on your site such as an email sign-up or a purchase.

Since search engines provide you with a tracking code to follow users who’ve interacted with you previously, you can reduce the incidence of fraudulent clicks. Remarketing is also beneficial since it lets you achieve specific goals such as a purchase when users abandon their shopping carts.

In Conclusion

Any business, your business, can be a potential target of click fraud. But you don’t have to eliminate PPC advertising from your marketing arsenal simply because malicious competitors and bots are out to undermine your campaigns.

Using the strategies we have just discussed, you’ll be able to prevent and stop click fraud right in its tracks. To sum them up, make sure that you monitor unusual changes in your analytics and report them, tweak your ad campaign, pick reputable sites to show your ads on, advertise on social media, use an automated software, and consider remarketing.

With consistency and vigilance, you can attract your best customers and enjoy a higher ROI.

The post Actions Your Business Should Take Incase of Click Fraud appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using an email marketing platform will greatly improve your results, as well. However, more and more organizations are adding Salesforce to their email marketing assets to win far more conversions than with just a single platform.

Using Salesforce to Improve Your Email Marketing Platform’s Results

Email marketing platforms, such as GetResponse, will still be in charge of automating the next email message in a chain, but you can use Forms integrated  to send much more customized emails based on where they are in the sales funnel, information you have about them and actions they’ve taken such as purchase history.

The combination of these platforms will also give your marketing and sales team a far more comprehensive view of how your leads behave. This, too, will make it easier to improve everything from your actual emails to the offers you use to nurture these leads. If you have no experience in marketing then you can contact Conversant Media for professional assistance.

2 Ways to Use Field Change Triggers During Your Email Campaigns

Fortunately, this is actually very easy to do when you use Salesforce. Any time a change is made to a value field on the lead or contact form, you can use automation to begin an email nurturing process that targets recipients based on these changes.

Here are two examples to show you how easy this can be.

1. Bringing Cold Leads Back to Life

Often, a lead will give you every indication that they are on their way to converting and then – all of a sudden – fall off the face of the earth.

Reviving these cold leads is difficult when all you have is your traditional email marketing platform, but when you combine it with Salesforce, you can easily reroute these recipients right back to a “Nurture” status. Then, use the Field Changed trigger to begin nurturing them anew.

Just be sure you give these leads some breathing room before sending them the first email in this new sequence. For example, if they went cold on you right after a trial service offer, give them five days before sending out the email.

Also, that new message should be educational in nature. Even after waiting five days, it is too soon to try again for the conversion if a lead has been unresponsive.

What happens if the lead still is not opening the email?

Do not cut your losses quite yet. Give them about 10 days and then send an email that will reconfirm your mindshare and position as a thought leader. Again, it should be educational, so something about industry trends would be the perfect choice.

You may still not get the conversion, but by reestablishing yourself with the recipient, you will be top-of-mind when they do decide to purchase.

Now, for those leads who do click, send them a nurturing email for a webinar or some other offer that requires a substantial investment of their time. A deeper commitment will bring them closer to converting.

 2. Load an Upsell Campaign for Qualified Customers

Upsells are vital to increasing profitability over time. With Salesforce, you can establish a threshold for when a subscriber becomes a “Power User.” When that happens, an email goes out to your marketing team to let them know about this opportunity.

An upsell email is then sent to this recipient with all the relevant details about this new offer. An account manager is also notified to follow up with this user in the near future over the phone if they do not place an upgraded order.

Getting the Most Out of Your Email Campaigns Is Easy with Salesforce

These are just two examples of how you can use Salesforce as a force multiplier to improve your email marketing campaign. While a high-quality email automation platform is still as important as ever, Salesforce can increase your ROI further by helping you better target your recipients with less work.

The post How Email Marketing Platforms Combine with Salesforce to Boost Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Increase website security

Many small business owners don’t know that a website, no matter how secure it seems, isn’t as secure as you think. The reason why is that when the site is placed on an unsecure server with various websites, there is a chance of one being hacked. It’s frustrating to know that no matter how secure your site is, it’s not fully protected and poor security can destroy your business. A minecraft server hosting will take preventative measures to reduce risks of privacy violations with the help of firewalls and other electric barriers between a site and those trying to access it with malicious intent. If your site is compromised due to a hosting issue with a well-known company and you chose a low tier plan, the chance of a speedy solution is slim. Business owners sometimes fail to realize the importance of knowing the types of web hosting available and choosing the most reputable providers. Both decisions have a direct influence on the success of your business. We are an IT support services company in Houston that constantly strives to provide dynamic, innovative, and practical consultative design and IT services that will save you a lot of time, reduce costs, and improve the key deliverables for all information technology teams. 

Receive better customer service

When your small business site goes down, you’ll get to know the customer service team of your hosting platform. The difference between good and bad hosts is the speed at which the issue is resolved. A good host offers knowledgeable representatives who will assist you with your problems and answer your questions, whether by phone or chat. Clients with a more profitable account will likely take priority and earn immediate attention. If you went cheap on hosting, you’ll probably be faced with longer wait times, less than stellar assistance, and a fix to your issue that won’t last long. Many small business owners wouldn’t associate customer service with a hosting platform, but it is something you need to think about since it actively affects the experience.

Offer your customers reliability

Your business website often makes the first impression – you want to make sure your customers see a website that runs well and best represents your brand. Visitors may not notice that your website is good when they’re browsing around, but they will notice  if your site is consistently down or isn’t user-friendly. There is always a possibility a website will crash, it’s far less likely if you have a good host. Good hosts are consistently backing up data and cloning sites to ensure they can always provide a fast solution to get your website back and running online so you can sell more products. Less expensive hosting often leads to a slow website – a frustration for many users. There is never a guarantee your website will consistently run without a glitch, but better hosts provides better care to their clients and more efficient web speeds with enhanced security. Reliable hosts minimize many risks involved with your site, which means you’ll have less of a headache if the site experiences any problems.

Small business owners don’t always realize how much hosting matters. There are various options available to everyone who launches a website so make sure you educate yourself before you select your host. A reliable host is the key to overall functionality of a website leading to happier customers and more sales.

The post 3 Reasons Hosting Matters appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you’ve searched by name for a local home goods store, automotive dealer, or a medical practice in recent weeks, you likely noticed special offers or other content on the right side of the first page of results. Curious about what is behind these up-to-date business posts? You’re not alone.

Dubbed Google Posts, this new feature “allows businesses to create content directly on Google, which appears highly ranked in Google search results for their names.” The benefits of Google Posts for consumers are pretty clear: they are receiving fresh and timely content from companies, without having to dig through pages of website content.

But consumers aren’t the only ones benefiting from this new tool. Local small to medium businesses (SMBs) are also getting increased visibility through this free marketing tool, which until recently was only available to an elite few organizations such as celebrities, politicians and large organizations.

And it couldn’t have come at more critical time: With 82 percent of shoppers turning to search engines to find information about local businesses according to Google, it’s critical for SMBs to take control of the content that appears on the first page of search results.

Creating Your First Google Post

Since June, local businesses that claim their location at Google My Business (GMB) can now control the messaging that appears inside their business profile on the first page of search results when people search for their business name. Google My Business users can start by going to the Posts tab in their GMB dashboard.

With the new feature, local businesses can provide details about offers or specials, show off new products, or share helpful how-to information, all in front of an audience that is already interested and searching for this product or service.

First, add a link to your business website containing information about a special offer of sale, complete with a photo of the product or service. Swap it out with a new offer each week, while layering in links to your blog or videos on your business website.

Making the Most of Your Post

Before you post, remember that not all content is created equal. Here are some best practices for creating a winning post:

• Inspire action with your headline. You have 58 characters for your title, so choose your 4-6 words wisely.
• Make your post stand out with vibrant images and videos that are well-lit and high-quality. Images should be 720 pixels tall by 720 pixels wide in JPG or PNG format.
• Make your post brief and only include the necessary details. You have up to 1,500 characters for the details of your post, but the ideal length is between 150-300 characters.
• Choose a clear call-to-action. Make your CTA a simple instruction for action. Think Buy Now, Learn More, Call, or Visit.

Take Your Google Presence to the Next Level

The Internet provides a promising opportunity to grow your business even bigger. this is often through the assistance of what we call ‘digital marketing,’ which involves the utilization of varied Internet marketing solutions.

When your company decides to take a position in online marketing, there are variety of strategies you’ll try that are proven effective within the past. And, whether your business is local-focus (targeting certain geo-locations) or not, you’ll surely get in touch with SponsoredLinX, which will assist you in putting your plan into action. Such companies can assist you with the following:

Developing an internet site for your business – having an internet site that would best represent your business is important for online marketing. as an example , if the character of your business is to sell products then having an e-commerce site might be an enormous help for more sales. Although this might cost you some amount of cash , it’s vital for the inspiration of the reputation and online presence you’re trying to create .

Working for program optimization – once you’ve got an internet site , you’ll probably work for organic program marketing (SEO). New York SEO involves strategies to extend your website’s presence within the eyes of major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing). When your site is more visible on SERPs (search engine results page) the more visitors your website could receive.

To increase awareness of your local business, you must also understand the words consumers are typing into Google to find your products or services. Google’s Keyword Planner works to find the keywords that are most relevant to your business by showing you how often keywords are searched and how their search volume changes over time. You can then implement these keywords into their messaging, website and paid advertising campaigns – and your Google Posts.

Once you understand your keywords, consider implementing a paid digital marketing strategy to get in front of your customers. For example, tactics such as paid social media advertising alongside search engine marketing can improve business awareness with nearby customers, giving them a digital roadmap to your store.

Using these tools and insights, small businesses must remember to keep their marketing strategy true to their brand. With that in mind, along with a few SEO tips and tricks, local retailers can rise to the top – of the market, and the search engine.

The post Google Posts Give Businesses Free Tool to Reach Local Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Website design and development is an important tool which helps you build your brand, penetrate the market and to stay ahead of the competition. Atlogix, provides 360 degree website development delivering dynamic solutions like website design, Graphic Designing, B2B and B2C Services. Push your business towards the global, Get training from experts jimmy liautaud for how to succeed in your training.

So check the following criteria to select an organization to develop your site:-

Check the portfolio of the company offering website design and development services.
The organization should have all hi-tech softwares and tools to execute innovative designs and develop a tech savvy website.
Check the team of designers and IT professionals working for them. Only experts will design and develop a site which will deliver results.
Check the rate card vis-à-vis with some other website design and development workshop.
View their earlier multimedia presentations to get a feel of their work.
Contact other organizations whose website is designed and developed by them.

With the multitude of marketing options in today’s world, it is easy to find yourself spending most of your budget simply testing campaigns and not making any serious headway. Having a clear strategy for starting, maintaining, and analyzing your marketing plan is vital for success. Here are five simple tips to help get you on your way.

Having a great looking website is just the beginning. It takes more than that to create a high demand for your offer. According to the  clickfunnels review given by the Stephen Esketzis, website developed with the help of clickfunnel leads to the increase sales with different types of marketing funnels.

It takes planning, marketing & organizing your business to expand your reach and handle the demand. The choice of hiring a business plan writing service who focuses on the writing of the plan and preparation of the final documents only, versus a business plan consulting firm which can take you through the entire business plan development process, depends on where you are with your understanding of what the plan should express. If you have a strong handle on how to do the research required for your plan (research into the industry, customers, competitors, startup costs, etc.) and on what a successful strategy for this business will look like, you are probably just in need of an experienced business plan writer to draft it into convincing narrative and prepare the final document. When you can answer the questions required of each section of the standard plan outline, even jotting it all in bullet point format, a writer can take you the rest of the way. Furthermore, if you know how to read financial statements and can evaluate the work of a writer you hire to prepare them, you are in the right situation to work with a business plan writer.

Here are a few strategies to help you along your way.

Planning and preparation is at the heart of all of your strategies. It is where you determine the most effective approach to creating a successful internet marketing campaign.

Marketing Plan Development – All great marketing campaigns start with a clear, concise & effective plan with specific measurable results. As the old saying goes – “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.” For this reason, we recommend to go through a affiliate training course from the Affiliate Institute to better understand all the concepts.

Keyword Phrase Analysis – Identifying the keywords or keyword phrases is the next step in creating an effective internet marketing strategy. Starting with a few root terms or phrases, conduct an extensive analysis of at least 100 keywords and how frequently they are search for over the internet each month.

Keyword Phrase Selection – After conducting the initial Keyword Phrase Analysis, you are now prepared to begin identifying the absolute best words and phrases for your marketing strategies and content development.

Website Theme & Description Development – By focusing on a major theme, your website becomes more that just another dot com. It because a valuable resource for your customers and visitors. It improves the overall experience and delivers high value.

Core Marketing Strategies

These strategies are the building blocks for your internet marketing success. They are fundamental to producing cost effective results and have stood the test of time. Each core strategy is a proven method for generating targeted buyers or users to your website. When combined with a comprehensive marketing plan, you are literally guaranteed success!

Search Engine Optimization & Placement – Winning at the Search Engine Game is one of the most effective ways to promote your website and build your company! However, it is not the easiest game to play. It takes planning, preparation and patients. It takes completing the above internet marketing preparation, then creating website content that is keyword focused.

Keyword Landing Pages – In addition to selecting the best possible keyword phrases, you need to create 10 – 15 content rich website pages that focus on the terms. These pages could be articles, tips, advice, in-depth case studies, expanded product or service descriptions, etc.

Strategic & Reciprocal Links – As you know, “No Man is an Island” and neither is your website. Finding the right sites to link to yours is a very powerful strategy.

Pay-Per-Click Internet Marketing – Performance based marketing is one of the most cost effective marketing strategies available. By displaying targeted ads to targeted prospects, pay-per-click advertising allows you to pay only if a prospective visitor actually comes to your

Targeted Email Campaigns – Every business needs to communicate with their customers and prospects, and any business can get results quickly, easily and cost effectively using permission-based email marketing.

It’s Inexpensive… It’s Effective… It’s Immediate… It’s Targeted… It’s Easy!

“54% of small businesses surveyed rated e-mail as the top online promotion to drive site visitors and customers to their web sites and storefronts.”

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses of all types and sizes. No matter how you define success, you can achieve outstanding results with email marketing while investing only a small amount of time and an even smaller amount of money…

If you want to learn how to make money blogging , you need to ditch the cookie-cutter advice you’ve been reading.“Expert” bloggers tend to give you generic advice like write about your passions, stay consistent, form good writing habits, and create great content. Then, a few years from now, you’ll finally have enough website traffic to monetize your blog with affiliate programs, Google AdSense, online courses, podcasting, or selling digital products. Affiliate Partner Programs – Starting your own affiliate program is a very powerful way leverage your existing website and generate revenue for yourself and others. In short, it is a very simple concept. You give your affiliate partners a special link that is unique to them.

They place it on their website, include it in their newsletters, and/or promote it in their email campaigns. When one of their visitors or readers buy something or sign up for something, you will pay them a commission. This complete affiliate marketing guide from Factschronicle is among the best ones we have found in the recent times.

Set a Budget, Timeltargetine, and TargetMarket
When trying to figure out where to start with your marketing strategy, it is essential for you to identify your budget, timeline, and TargetMarket. With so many marketing options available, having these three things clearly identified will help you focus your efforts and pinpoint what will work best for your company and current objectives. If you have a small budget, focusing your strategies around social media and bottom funnel efforts will have the most impact for your dollar. If your budget has a little more room in it, then you can look towards ad campaigns that focus on branding, which may include display and awareness campaigns.Having a clear timeline for your marketing plans will help you stay focused and will assure you complete the necessary steps before moving on to your next objective. If your marketing efforts are time sensitive, PPC is one of the most impactful channels when it comes to seeing immediate results. If you have others helping you execute your marketing plans for difficult to rank niches, be sure to keep communication open and regularly check-in with them to make sure everyone is on track and your objectives remain aligned.Being clear on who your TargetMarket is will help reduce wasted and unnecessary ad spend. For example, while a comprehensive Facebook ad campaign may look impressive, if your TargetMarket audience is B2B and not using Facebook in a professional capacity, then even the best campaign will not yield positive results. Likewise, if you’re trying to TargetMarket teens and young adults then allocating your ad budget towards traditional radio as opposed to Pandora and Spotify may be a missed opportunity.When thinking about your marketing initiatives it is essential that you don’t just focus on what you can afford, but also how you can fully maximize your ad spend via the most effective and highest converting channels. Design your success with our expert custom logo design services and professional logo animation for your company.

Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Content Marketing Plans
Having a strong marketing plan using a Rank Jacker SEO Company Tools Centre sentence rewriter is similar to Paraphrase Tool that includes SEO and content marketing will help fill the gaps in your marketing efforts says our seo gurus. With today’s increasingly competitive landscape it is often not enough to just build a few Google Ads focused on popular keywords; there is a much larger audience that can be captured via a strong search engine presence – making SEO an essential piece of the digital marketing puzzle. High quality, keyword specific content can help increase the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, while also providing value to your customers, placing your brand in high regard within your target audience. 

Integrate Social Media Marketing
To say that you are going to post to Instagram once a day or make a comment or two on Facebook is not an actual social media marketing plan. Take the time to sit down and come up with a clear and consistent messaging strategy across all social media outlets, integrating a mix of various content types, such as promotional, educational, and community engagement.As with any strategy, an effective social media plan will be well thought out, organized, and include goals that are measurable and time sensitive. If you are working with a team, make sure that all necessary stakeholders have a clear idea of what your goals are. More importantly, be sure everyone knows what your desired social media message is. Make sure that your brand stays true to itself and is identifiable from one platform to the next.Evan LePage points out that, “Having these objectives also allows you to quickly react when social media campaigns are not meeting your expectations. Without goals, you have no means of gauging success or proving your social media return on investment.” Earn and go an affiliate marketing company based out of South London! They primarily work with influencers on social media platforms such as Facebook & Instagram. These influencers range from the top ten-percent of verified accounts to local users like you.

Use Paid Search Marketing to Jumpstart Your Efforts
When done correctly, paid search advertising is one of the most profitable marketing channels and can quickly increase the number of qualified leads coming to your website coz ultimately the aim is to find ways to drive traffic to your website by organic traffic or to buy website traffic. Start by doing keyword research to determine what your customers are searching for in hopes of finding the type of product you provide. Tools like Ahrefs Keyword Explorer are extremely useful in coming up with strategic keyword searches that hone in on your target market and their purchase intent, rather than casting a wide net that is likely to produce a lower ROI.Once you have pinpointed your keyword focus and have your ads set up, you can change gears and move on to your next marketing initiative, right?Be sure to track and analyze your data regularly and adjust accordingly, for this you can use marketing services which could help you analyze all your marketing data and take the best decision accordingly.

Track and Analyze Data and Adjust Accordingly
There is nothing more important than making sure your marketing plans are on track and effectively working to accomplish the goals originally set. As per WTS, regardless of the different strategies and marketing channels, all data should be tracked and analyzed regularly.Tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush are essential for keeping track of your various marketing campaigns and website performance. These analytics tools can provide valuable insights to where clicks are converting to sales, how customers are being acquired, and where they are being lost.As this data is collected, be sure to analyze your campaign performance and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do with something as overwhelming as creating a market plan is just knowing where to start. By beginning your plan with a clear idea of your budget, timeline and target market, you can then work to understand where to focus your attention. From there you can move on to the remaining four steps with confidence and success!

The post 5 Tips to Building a Successful Marketing Plan for Your Start Up appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What is Google AdWords?

Leading search engines like Google are the first thing online users see upon opening a browser from their device. As a business looking into boosting your online presence, you wouldn’t want to miss this marketing opportunity. If you want to dive into the world of Google Ads, make sure to get into Google AdWords. This is the pay-per-click (PPC) online marketing platform by Google. It lets you display your advertisements on the search engine results page. 

What does availing Google AdWords mean to your business? Every time an online visitor tries to search for something on Google, your advertisement pops up. If the user clicks it, you have a higher possibility of converting the visitor into a customer. Since the system works through PPC, you’ll only have to pay Google when a user successfully clicks your advertisement. 

An essential element to the success of this advertising technique is choosing the right target audience. Since everyone may not be interested in your ad, you’ll have to find a way to narrow your audience down. Having a digital marketing consultant like Claire Jarrett can help you with that! Along with picking your audience, you’ll have to learn several tips and tricks to ensure that your Google Ads campaign will be seamless, converting, and profitable.

Structure & Quality Score

How many campaigns do you have running simultaneously? How many ad groups do you have per campaign, and how many ads do you have per ad group? The structure of your account should be carefully balanced to ensure that not only are you running the correct number of campaigns for your business but that those campaigns are well-organized to optimize your spending and bring in the highest ROI. Well-organized accounts will also keep your quality scores high. If a single keyword can trigger ads across multiple ad groups, your ad scores will lower, causing your ads to fail to show and wasting your ad spend.

Actionable tips: don’t have more than 2-3 ads per ad group to allow for the most robust A/B ad testing, and write your ads with keywords represented in the copy to keep ad quality scores high.

Ad Creative

Recently, Google introduced a new ad type called Expanded Text Ads which provides more information and thus takes up more room on the search engine results pages, giving your brand more visibility. They phased out their old ads, called standard text ads. However, many companies still use the standard ad text format without upgrading to Expanded Text Ads. Ad copy is also important to consider, as ad copy without your keywords lowers quality scores and prevents your ads from showing to searchers.

Actionable tips: make sure your ad copy is relevant to the keyword being searched, and keep your ads updated in the latest formats to be sure that you take full advantage of the opportunities Google AdWords offers.

Keywords

Keyword segmentation is of critical importance in keeping an account organized and reliably serving ads to all searchers. That is, separate your keywords properly by topic, category, and campaign in whatever way best suits your product or service. This includes using negative keywords, which will prevent your ads from triggering irrelevant searches, saving you money. Constant keyword and query research is needed to ensure that the most relevant keywords are always being used in your ads. Additionally, make sure your keywords are not too broad or too narrow for the audience you’re trying to reach.

Actionable tips: implement negative keywords, conduct constant keyword research, and add keywords as needed to help drive your conversions higher.

Bidding Optimization

Many marketers allow AdWords to automatically set bids for them. However, automatic bids don’t necessarily take into account performance, demographics, or device performance. Allowing automatic bidding, or setting the same bids for all keywords, results in wasted spending. It can also drag down your conversions and ROI if high-performing keywords aren’t given the budget they need to reach the greatest possible audience. All bids should be set manually. This accounts for individual keyword performance, the demographics of your audience, and the devices that your audience prefers using.

Actionable tips: start using manual bidding as soon as possible to control your spending, pull back bids on poor-performing keywords, and increase spending on the keywords and platforms that are bringing in the highest conversions.

Shopping

Though not applicable to all advertisers, shopping is essential to implement if your business is retail or direct to the consumer. Google Shopping is a powerful tool. It allows your audience to see you even more times on the search engine results pages: in a text ad, in the organic results. Then it shows in the Google Shopping results at the very top of the page or in the right column. The more real estate your brand name can claim, the more your brand will stay top of mind. So, utilize shopping to beat the competition.

Actionable tips: make sure your shopping campaigns are properly segmented. Also, make sure you account for the keywords you’re using and the category the product belongs to.

Traffic/Device Targeting

This topic is related to bidding optimization but is specific to device targeting and traffic. Google AdWords allows advertisers to raise or lower bids. This depends on which platform the ad shows on, ie. mobile, tablet, or desktop. These bid adjustments can have a huge impact on how much your ads show on these platforms. Plus, it impacts knowing which platforms your audiences are using the most. Moreover, it lets you know where audiences convert or make their purchases. All help you save money. If you target devices your audience isn’t using, you could be missing out on impression share. Even conversions that would contribute to your bottom line.

Actionable tips: pay attention to the amount of traffic each platform gets when searchers are looking for your brand and keywords. Optimize your spending to focus on the platform that sees the highest conversions.

Growth Opportunities

Even when advertisers have solidly built accounts with great segmentation, appropriate bidding, and organized structure, they can forget one last critical aspect: future opportunities for growth. Don’t be satisfied with just coasting by or breaking even. To keep your brand top of mind with current customers and also reach new audiences, your brand needs to focus on growth opportunities. AdWords affords this. This can include YouTube advertising, dynamic search ads, and remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA). As well as it can include display prospecting and Gmail Sponsored Ads targeting. The possibilities are nearly endless. It just depends on your resources and what options will work best for your products or services.

Actionable tips: Consider converting existing videos into paid YouTube ads, building remarketing lists out of emails gathered from your site, or building a prospecting display campaign.

With these seven pillars of AdWords fundamentals, your account should be robust, organized, targeted, and built for growth in the future!

The post Dominating Google AdWords: The 7 Key Fundamentals appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Building a successful channel does take time and effort but following these rules of thumb will help you maximise the appeal and subscriber base of your channel, as well as the wider reach of your YouTube content in general.

Video Optimisation

YouTube operates like a search engine, and a properly considered search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy is vital if you are to increase the reach of your channel, as well as the videos you host on it.

The first thing to do is to research the types of video content likely to go viral within your niche or sector and ask yourself if you have incorporated any of those elements within your video. This will ensure that you will have a captive audience but your content needs to get found, so it’s important to ensure you also use relevant keywords in your video titles, as well as throughout your channel description.

Successful implementation of keywords in video titles and description boxes will ensure YouTube ranks your content appropriately, and will provide users with an understanding of what to expect. There are many tools for keyword research with Google’s Keyword Planner one of the most popular (partly because it’s free). Tools like SE Ranking, SEM Rush, Moz’s Keyword Explorer are also all excellent, but do require you paying for a subscription.

Top Tip: always avoid keyword stuffing and instead, make sure you maintain a natural tone throughout, incorporating 3 or 4 hyper-relevant keywords, with the first present within the first 20 words.

Thumbnails

When constructing your thumbnail, your core aim must be to create an image that will attract attention and entice your audience to click through to watch your video. We’ve laid out some simple do’s and don’ts for thumbnails, which will form the visual candy for your YouTube channel.

Do:

• Include the title or a few words to provide context for that section of your audience who just look at thumbnails when scrolling through their subscriptions.
• Make sure your design is eye-catching and relevant to the video and your brand.
• Ensure it’s visually interesting, but avoid excessive clickbait techniques, don’t forget that you also buy real YouTube views in order to gain more popularity.

Don’t:

• Settle for a generic aesthetic – you need to stand out from the crowd.
• Become too repetitive, but do try to establish a signature style, so your audience instantly knows it’s a video from you.
• Be afraid to switch your thumbnail for something else, if it isn’t working as well as expected.

Monitoring and Tracking your YouTube Channel

Keeping track of your analytics data is one of the most important elements of any digital strategy as it allows you to identify what works and what doesn’t and to focus budget where it’s best served. Picking the perfect metric or KPI to do this with video marketing isn’t easy and YouTube is no exception. Here are some key considerations when it comes to YouTube metrics.

• Views are excellent, as they demonstrate the reach of your channel and effectiveness of your optimisation strategy.
• Average viewing time will allow you to keep an eye how long people are watching your content. Are viewers getting to the end of your videos, for example? If not you might want to think about making shorter or more attention grabbing videos.
• Another important metric is how often your audience is sharing your content across other platforms. This is extremely important if engagement is key to your campaign or CTA.

Alongside your website and wider smm panel presence, YouTube should be an essential pillar of your video marketing strategy. With so many well known brands failing to establish a convincing YouTube presence with a properly organised YouTube channel, the opportunity to really make an impact is there for taking.

Adopting these techniques to your YouTube channel will help you create the best possible platform for your burgeoning video campaign and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

Channel Structure

YouTube traditionally isn’t the best platform for driving referral traffic but it is an incredibly powerful brand building tool. In this sense, it might help to think of your YouTube channel as being like the homepage of your video content; a hub that should effectively communicate who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer through your videos.

Below are three golden rules when it comes to actually constructing your YouTube channel.

1. Separate your Consumer and Commercial Content

Understanding how your audience wants to engage with your videos will help you to correctly segment your video content. When creating each video, you should always have a clear idea of who your message is for. Presenting a consumer with content intended for a more corporate audience won’t go down very well, which is why taking the time to understand your audience is key.

Top Tip: understand exactly what you want your channel to help you achieve, and think about how each decision you make will push you closer to your goals.

2. Don’t Order Your Content by Popularity

Wanting to demonstrate how many views one of your older videos achieved is natural, but don’t give into temptation. Instead, focus on promoting the content that effectively reflects your current message. Ensuring that you still have something relevant to say will encourage your audience to keep coming back to your channel regularly. There are many ways you can learn how to get more views on youtube channel or videos.

Top Tip: you never want to look or feel stagnant. Recognise when you need to switch things up and act quickly.

3. Keep Creating Consistently

Consistency is integral to every strategy and its importance here cannot be overstated. Whether you’re going to upload every day or once a week, your audience need to know when they can expect to see something new from you. Establish a schedule and stick to it.

Top Tip: check in with your analytics data and see when your target audience is most likely to want to watch some new content. Tailor your upload schedule to the most popular times and days of the week, to ensure your message reaches as many people as possible.

The post How to Build a Powerful YouTube Channel appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As a freelance digital marketer consultant and Facebook ads specialist, this is THE most frequently asked question I hear.

It’s a really bad question (I’ll explain why) and also impossible to answer with a specific monetary value.

When it comes to advertising on Facebook, or even social media in general, it seems like many business owners and entrepreneurs have heard too many stories about ‘going viral’ or some other miracle.

In reality, advertising on Facebook is just plain old business. Forget about digital marketing metrics like reach or virality or impressions—money spent on advertising is supposed to create revenue for you. If the ROI on your Facebook advertising campaign is good, you’ll spend as much money as you need to.

But to figure out the ROI of your Facebook ads, you’ll need a few things:

1. A quantifiable goal (or goals)
2. A digital marketing funnel
3. A hypothesis to test

With those three things in hand, you don’t have to ask me how much money to spend on Facebook ads—you can know and spend according.

And I’ll show you how, right now.

How to set a business goal for Facebook ads

One of the great things about Facebook advertising is that you don’t need an ecommerce store, or even a way to accept payments online, to have success. You can generate business results offline, too.

To make it interesting, let’s use lead generation as your business goal—you want an email address or a phone number to follow up personally and close a deal.

Before you launch your first Facebook campaign, come up with a goal for lead generation by asking yourself these questions:

1. How many leads do you currently generate in a month?
2. How many leads does it take to close a customer?
3. How many leads can you realistically handle?

If you currently generate ten leads per month and close one of those into a customer, but you can handle four more paying customers, your goal for Facebook ads is to generate 40 leads per month with Facebook ads.

10 organic leads + 40 leads from Facebook ads = 50 leads

50 leads x 10% conversion rate = 5 customers

Too easy. Now for the tricky part.

Setting up your digital marketing funnel with Facebook ads

Web visitors aren’t exactly begging to become leads, especially if your website isn’t optimized for conversions. Think about your own online behavior—do you fill out a form any time somebody asks? Probably not, or your inbox would never see the light of day.

So if you want somebody to become a lead, you have to nurture them through a marketing funnel.

Start by using Facebook ads to send paid traffic to an awareness-level blog post. By “awareness-level,” I mean a blog post (or other content, like video) that helps them clarify their problem or need.

Once that person has read your blog post, you can retarget them to a more conversion oriented asset, like a landing page or better yet, a Facebook Lead Ad.

Because you’ve already introduced your brand and provided value for free with the awareness-level content, these retargeted visitors are far more likely to convert than if you had sent them straight to your landing page.

Note: In order to use retargeting and conversion tracking, you’ll need to have your Facebook Pixel properly installed and configured.

With either landing pages or Facebook Lead Ads, you can set what information you get from your lead—email, phone number, etc. If you’re taking in a large volume of leads, you can add additional qualifications to help you prioritize.

Digital marketing funnels are not as complex as they seem, and you can start with a simple one like the example above to test the viability of Facebook ads for your business.

Now to create and test your hypothesis…

How to create and test your hypothesis

You should never invest a significant amount of money into ANY advertising channel without testing it first. Here’s how you would test the viability of Facebook advertising; we’ll continue to use the same example from above.

Let’s say the average lifetime value (LTV) of a customer for your business is $1,000.

You create Facebook ads, drive traffic to a landing page, and measure conversions.

Your budget is $500 and your cost-per-click (CPC) is .50¢—this means you drove 1,000 visits to your landing page.

200 people (of the 1,000 visits) filled out your form, so your conversion rate from landing page visitor to lead is 20%. (Which would be incredible!)

Of those 200 people, 5 of them become customers (10%, again, very good).

Using your LTV, you’ve just made $5,000 of a $500 investment in Facebook ads.

That’s a 900% ROI.

By using the process described in this blog post, the question “How much should I spend on Facebook ads” now seems like a really, really dumb question. The answer is obvious:

If you’re seeing a 900% ROI on an advertising channel, you spend every penny you can get your hands on.

Now here’s the fun part—by breaking your digital marketing funnel down into individual pieces and looking at the metrics associated with each piece, you can improve on them one at a time with A/B testing:

• CPC too high? Try different ad creative or different targeting.
• Coverversion rate too low? Spruce up your landing page with better images, more compelling copy, fewer form fields.
• Leads not converting into sales? Try adding another qualifying step in your marketing funnel to not waste time on bad leads.

Start seeing ROI on your Facebook advertising campaigns by asking the right questions.

The post How Much Should I Spend On Facebook Ads? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Social Media giants like Facebook, twitter and instagram have not only reduced distanced but provided an opportunity to entrepreneurs to connect with real audience.

Social media is not just an opportunity to market your brand but a game changer for your online business. You will find many entrepreneurs like you, who have built a huge audience and run a successful business. You can also follow tips of aboriginalbluemountains to become a successful businessmen

The trick is to learn from their success and use social media to drive your own online business.

This article aims to help those entrepreneurs hunting to understand the behavior of social media traffic and measure the success of their social media campaigns through google analytics.

Getting Started With Google Analytics

The internet is full of guides on how to install google analytics, so I am not going into the very basics. I would rather outline the important prospects to get started with google analytics. Below are the few simple steps to to follow which will direct your website traffic to google analytics.

1. Create a google account
2. Sign in to google analytics
3. Fill your website information
4. Get the analytics tracking code
5. Paste the code on your website
6. Verify setup

Once you complete the above steps, you should be able to see the real traffic coming to your website.

Why Every Website Owner Should use Google Analytics

Google analytics is a free traffic analysis tool and is used by millions of website owners to segment and analyze user behavior. Below are few most important reasons why every website owners should use google analytics:

1. You can measure your website’s objectives by defining goals
2. You can track specific actions on your website like pdf downloads or video plays
3. The user interface is very simple and easy to navigate between different reports
4. You can track your ecommerce transactions
5. You can track your social media campaigns and see the most engaging social channel
6. Measure how users interact with your site content
7. You can see the geographic location of your audience
8. You can create your own customizable reports
9. You can use your google analytics data for remarketing in adwords

There are several more important things you can do in google analytics according to the type of your online business. All you need is to get along well with metrics and dimensions.

Tracking Social Media Campaigns

Social media campaigns play a vital role in driving valuable customers to your business. The crucial point is to figure out which social media campaign performs exceptionally and which doesn’t.

Tracking social media campaigns is a painless and straightforward process in google analytics. The only requirement is that you should be tracking your website traffic with google analytics.

UTM tags in google analytics come handy when you are tracking any custom campaign. It consists of three very important parameters which send visitor information to google analytics. These tags are embedded at the end of the campaign, beginning with a question mark(?) and separated by ampersand(&).

http://example.com?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=winter_sale&utm_medium=facebook

The parameters utm_source, utm_medium and utm campaign builder are required for every custom url and the order in which they are placed doesn’t matter. While tracking your custom campaigns, it is recommended to use a url builder tool.

One of my favorite url builder tool is utm.io, because it is more user friendly and easy to shorten urls once you tag them.

Using a tool doesn’t only embed utm tags but also shortens long customized urls. When you start your social media campaigns, you can then view campaign reports in google analytics by navigating to Acquisition >> Campaigns >> All Campaigns.

Understanding the Analytics Reports for Social Media Marketers

For a social media marketer, it is important to be able to understand the google analytics social media reports. It contains data related to traffic coming from all social media channels and how different social media channels contribute towards a conversion.

Segment Social Media Traffic

The social media reports are already included within the channel reports(Acquisition>All Traffic>Channels), but to get a better understanding of your social traffic you can create a segment to isolate all of the traffic originating from social sites.

Identify Top Social Media Channels

One of the biggest challenge would be to determine the top social media channels which drive more conversions. The Google analytics social media reports feature is useful in determining which social channel to focus on and which to say good bye to.

As you can see in the above picture, YouTube is driving a huge chunk of traffic as compared to other channels. But, when we look at the avg. session duration and pages/session it is clear that youtube visitors don’t interact much with the content.

Although Facebook, reddit and google groups have less sessions their users have a higher interaction percentage with the site content. From the above data, we can assume that our potential customers are coming from channels with more website interactions. We would tend to focus more on these channels to drive more traffic and hence conversions.

To verify which social channel drives most conversions navigate to Acquisition >> Social >> Conversions.

Understand behavior of Social Media Visitors

A catchy title and a picture is enough to drive traffic from social media channels but understanding what this group of visitors do on your website is a bit difficult.

Luckily, user flow report in google analytics displays the journey of social media traffic on your website. What was the landing page for the particular session, where they navigate next and finally the exit page.

You can access user flow reports in google analytics by navigating to Acquisition >> Social >> Users Flow.

This chart displays the social media channels which are driving traffic and the behavior of each channel’s visitors across your website.

From the social network drop down menu you can change the dimension to set ‘Campaigns’ and see which campaign is more engaging. In the essence, you can determine which channel works out for you and which one is only consuming your valuable resources.

You can further explore user flow reports to build funnel for any page and understand which set of pages a user views to achieve a specific goal.

The post How to Measure the Impact of Social Media on Your Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

On top of the traditional foundation you’ve created, it’s vital to expand and grow beyond the basics. Rather than experimenting with tasks or ideas that do not work, stick to the list below for a few modern, non-traditional techniques, to grow your business like never before.

Use Daily Deal Services

Using websites like Groupon and Living Social can drastically change the brand awareness for your small business. For example, within the heating and cooling industry, offering services, such as duct cleaning, energy audits, or tune-ups, can help you find new customers who will consider using your company beyond the initial visit if the service is performed well.

In addition to long-term customers, there are also going to be some coupon clippers who are only looking for discounts, but don’t get discouraged. Use Groupon for what it is and make the best of it as a customer acquisition tool. Budget the daily deal service like you would advertising dollars to see if it’s worthwhile for your company.

Once you have determined if a customer is around for the long run, make sure to train your team on how to offer and introduce additional services. In addition to considering the expense of the purchase, also plan for the best-case scenario. This means that you’ll need to be prepared for a massive influx of customers. Before selecting a commercial dryer repair company, look carefully into the background of each possible hire so that you’re completely mindful of their talents and shortcomings. Feedback and reviews are essential tools that you could use to evaluate the appliance technician candidates. The suggestions we’ve assembled below can be instrumental in helping you find the ideal appliance service technician.You can discover more here about the Commercial Dryer Repair for Pittsburgh. When you are within the marketplace for a chiller rental, trust Alliance Comfort Systems as your source to locate cooling equipment. It doesn’t matter whether you would like a chiller for a billboard or industrial facility, CTCA will assist you find an appropriate unit or multiple units that fit your requirements. Avoid the difficulties involved searching the web for a supplier and get in touch with CTCA Systems.

Your look for Rent A Chiller solution will likely reveal that it are often a touch bit more complicated than expected. In fact, chillers are complex machines so there are several various factors that you simply should confine mind when shopping around for the simplest option. While your application are going to be an enormous determining think about what equipment will deliver ideal results, you ought to also consider your budget and therefore the length of your time during which you’ll employ the equipment.

Due to the very fact that there are many various manufacturing brands on the market, you ought to always keep your budget in mind when buying rental equipment. make sure that all of the required features are included and avoid adding elements that you simply don’t got to maintain your costs. remember of any additional requirements which will be necessary to finish the installation of your unit.

Pay-for-Performance Advertising

Online advertising is much different than putting up a billboard and hoping for the best. Pay-for-performance advertising is a measurable, real-time method that can target specific customer demographics. It’s also known as “direct-response advertising,” which means the cost varies as the results grow.

The most common method of performance advertising would be pay-per-click (PPC). You’ve likely seen these ads on the side or at the top of your search engine. When potential customers click on those ads, it means they have seen the ad and they are interested in the service. It’s also a great way to measure conversion rates.

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The financing companies provide financial assistance to acquire HVAC at low interest rates. Hence the companies do not find it difficult to repay the amount in low monthly installments. Since there is no red tapism, the company can get loan at any time they want. Sometimes, HVAC financing can be obtained on the same day itself. Since there are no cumbersome procedures, many companies find it a great relief to get financing HVAC. In fact, it is often difficult to get financial help for stand alone or roof top HVAC. But the genuine financing companies make it possible for almost all companies to have HVAC in their buildings. Click here if you want to get more detail about the heat pump repair company.

Google Adwords is perhaps the most common way to begin PPC advertising since most people use Google over the other search engines. Determine the best target keywords for your business. Landmark Air company provide the best aircon repair service. For service companies, long-tail keywords such as “Heating & Cooling Contractor Nashville” could work. Facebook ads are another option.

Advertise Locally or Within Your Industry

Media outreach is a technique that most HVAC business owners do not really consider.  It might not bring immediate phone calls, but it can be inexpensive yet profitable if performed correctly. More eyes on your website mean your site will rise higher in search rankings, so you can beat the competition. Creating comfortable indoor temperatures is a delicate balancing act between equipment, air flow, and mechanics. A qualified licensed HVAC contractor is crucial to quality installations and repairs. You can read more here about HVAC service and repair.

To take this route, start by simply sharing news about your company. Send out newsworthy press releases about your business. If you’re not sure what to write about at first, go online and read what articles the website or publication is currently printing so that you’ll know the accepted style and format for outside queries.

Then, take some time to really contribute to the conversation. Spend some time reading what others write or what comments are being written on past articles so that you can gauge what the audience is interested in reading. Furthermore, demonstrate your ability to be an online leader, so that future customers will know that you are a pioneer in your respective field.

Conclusion

You’ve most likely tried everything to grow your home services business. Whether you’ve spent too much time posting ads on Craigslist or wasting time and money hiring someone to spin a sign, there are marketing methods that will expand upon the current marketing practices that are already working for you.

Using daily deal service sites can help thousands of people discover your business. People love a good deal and while there are some discount-seekers who may not come back, there are just as many potential customers who will try your service and stick with it for the long haul.

Beyond this route, there are two other methods to target those within your demographic. Using techniques like PPC advertising or inner-industry advertising will help you build authority and advertise to those directly in your market. Don’t shout into the virtual abyss when you can speak to potential customers directly.

The post Marketing Tech Tips to Grow Your Home Services Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Which Extensions Are Available?

This article is not long enough to list every Extensions hat is new in the industry, and you may find one that works for you based on how your site is designed. You must check on all the extensions before you make a choice, and you must use domains that you believe work with your business theme. The theme of your business and your site is an important part of the domain choice, but it is not the only thing you must consider when buying a new domain. You are using the domain with an extension that you likely chose yourself, and you must think beyond the simple extension to how you may market your business using the extension.

How Does The Extension Fit Into Your Domain Name?

The extension you choose must fit into the name of your site in some way, and you will find there are many extensions that look as though they did to the name of your business. The domains that you choose must have a bit of a promotional feel to them. They are much easier to remember when they are chosen in this way, and they will look better when you print them in advertisements. Each of the extensions you may choose from will give their own connotation, and you may buy more than one to round up as much real estate as you need online.

Improving Your Image

You will improve your image by using a new extension that was designed for people such as yourself. You will note that the domain extension may have part of your company name in it, and you will find there are many that finish off your company name when you build a site. The website that you are building must be a memorable place to come, and it must have a memorable name. Your customers will be impressed with you because you have chosen something that is easy to remember, and they will come back because they remember the name of the site.

Where Do You Shop For Domain Names?

You may shop for domain names at any time, and you will find there are large catalogs of extensions that will help you when you wish to put together a proper site. You are attempting to build something that will help you grow your business, and you must continue to search for what you believe is the perfect thing to use. You may begin to shop at any time, and you may come back to the hosting site when you are ready to purchase your domain.

Who Needs A New Domain Extension?

Anyone may shop for a new domain extension when they like simply because they need more real estate online, and it is quite important for someone to ensure that they have more places online their customers may find them. A company that has many different extensions that are attached to their site will have many people coming to their site because they found the site by accident. Anyone who finds a site by accident will be happy to have found you, and it will be because you bought a few extra extensions.

What Is The Purpose Of Specific Extensions?

The extensions that are new are often used to ensure that they may categorize sites in different ways. The site may be part of a particular industry, and it will help people find the site because they realize the extension has to do with the industry that you are associated with. There are many different people who are searching for simpler ways to note what their site is about, and they will purchase these extensions because they know the site is associated with what they saw in the extension.

Extensions Provide Value

Extensions will provide value to your site because they allow you quite a lot of specificity that does not come with a normal extension. The extension is important as it will help your site look better, and it will draw more traffic. You are not guaranteed to sell more on the site, but you will likely do much better because of the way the site looks. You may market around the extension, and you will own a product someone likely wants to purchase. Everyone who is shopping with you will fall in love with the specific name that you have chosen for your site, and they will begin share your site with others because of the way the site was named.

Plan For New Extensions Often

You must continue to plan for new extensions, and you will find it quite simple to ensure that you have something new to add to your arsenal of domains when you are working online. Your online presence is important, and you cannot survive in the modern day with a single extension that you purchased long ago. Let your customers know that they may find you in many different ways, and you will notice there are many different places where you may place your new domain extension because it is fun to look at.

Market yourself in a way that is profitable to your business, and begin to shop for more extensions than you currently have. You will earn more money on your site, and you will potentially save money when you are using domains and extensions that spell out the purpose of your business.

The post Are You Aware Of These New Domain Extensions? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With so much to see, read, and sign up for — it makes your head spin. If you’re even fortunate enough that someone lands on your website, you had best be prepared to grab their attention, and quickly.

A smart marketer knows you need to first be marketable before marketing. If you want to save a ton of time, money and frustration, make your website work for you before you start shouting about it to the world.

If your website is just an online brochure, you’re missing a golden opportunity. Before sending traffic to your website, whether organic or paid, get all your ducks in a row.

Your website needs to immediately grab visitor’s attention, but is best to take them on a journey as well. Hold their hand, and take them on this journey.  You can do this by design, with specific and relevant calls to action.

People need to be told what to do when they land on your website — so tell them, show them and guide them through what you think they need to know.

Here’s my top 7 recommendations that should be implemented on everyone’s website.

• Clear Message You want an immediate connection with your viewer; you get this with a very clear message. Don’t make people guess about what you do. You will lose them fast. Be yourself, and when they land on your page let them connect with you and know what you do and what you have to offer.
• CTA (Call to Action) What do you want them to do next? Any page can be the first page a visitor sees, so what makes the most sense for them to see or do next? Visitors want you to tell them, they want to be taken on a journey. Don’t make them hunt for it: your CTA should be front and center. Make it easy for them to stay connected with a newsletter subscription or get on your email list with a lead magnet.  Maybe you want them to watch a video, or direct them to a Facebook group, or lead them down your sales funnel. One CTA per page, and make sure it’s attractive and easy to engage with.

• Organized Your website needs space to breathe. A website that is too busy and cluttered will not get read. You take a huge risk of your visitor closing your page before they even get through the first sentence. Think clean, crisp, organized. Don’t worry about using up all the space, you want “white space” — it gives eyes a place to pause or focus. Take them on a pleasant journey that doesn’t lead to a jungle.

• Have a Lead Magnet A lead magnet is something of value you give away in exchange for the person signing up to your email list. This is huge. This lead magnet can be showcased on every page and very visible. Capturing email addresses is to build your email list — one of your most valuable assets.  If you don’t have a lead magnet you’re leaving money on the table. Grow and nurture your list and the results will amaze you!

• Testimonials As a very powerful marketing tool, use what others are saying about you. Use your best testimonials, ones with hard facts, and a real name behind them (industry dependent — some industries don’t allow testimonials or it would be unwise to reveal the identity of your clients). Ask for permission to identify your clients if you are able to use testimonials in your industry, and only put live links to their website if they’ll open in a new window, and it won’t compete with your web visitor’s attention on you.

• Social Media Links Make it easy to find your social media links on your website so visitors can follow you. They will scan your social sites to see what you’re saying and how you interact with other people. Make the links easy to find so people can connect with you in as many ways as they are comfortable.

• Media Links If you have radio or podcast interviews, or have had articles published on your business, add these to your website. This is a credibility builder that places you in the “expert status” category in your subject matter.

The success or failure of your web site depends on how you have defined your website goals. If you don’t know what you want your website to accomplish, then it will most likely fail to accomplish anything.

With goals to guide you in developing and monitoring your website, you can generate new business, grow your mailing list, make online sales, grab marketshare, and build relationships.

The post Does Your Website Pass the Market Test? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Facebook Ads

One of the best options offered by Facebook Adds has to be audience targeting. Facebook currently has over 1.86 billion active monthly users and over the years, it has collected a massive amount of data about them. Google targets its users based on keywords and topics, but Facebook has gone a step further than that. Third ad system targets people based on their beliefs, behaviors, habits, demographics, ideologies and particular set of values they uphold. Facebook interest targeting allows for a very precise audience targeting based on a number of different characteristics.

Another strong point of Facebook Ads is the social engagement aspect. The platform itself encourages potential customers to interact with, comment on and share numerous types of interest based content. With this information in mind, advertisers can create entire campaigns focused on generating more comments, likes, and shares. This makes the Facebook platform rather effective when it comes to not only company branding but also interacting and engaging with current customers, as well as potential ones.

Although Google has a lot of potential when it comes to local marketing strategies, Facebook has specific ad types such as Lead Ads and Local Awareness which offer some exclusive opportunities for marketing which aren’t easy to replicate with Google AdWords. Furthermore, Facebook Ads have a far lower cost per click (CPC) when compared to Google AdWords, with the average CPC rarely costing more than $2. Granted, AdWords do have a somewhat higher conversion rate, but it is possible to regulate a decent conversion rate using Facebook, especially due to cheaper clicks.

Facebook Ads Pros

To summarize, the pros of Facebook Ads include:

• Easy setup
• Capability to reach users early in the buying process
• Cheap cost-per-click
• Easy to track campaigns
• Excellent control over maximum CPC and daily budgets
• Instant traffic influx
• Immediate ROI
• Numerous targeting options
• Use of graphic and video Ads in order to pique the interest of the target audience

Cons

• It can be far more expensive than Google AdWords if not setup and maintained properly
• Lower conversion rates due to reaching customers so early in the buying process
• No option for Ad timing (times of day, week, month)
• Only really applicable for B2C companies

Google AdWords

Keyword targeting is one of the main points separating Google from Facebook. Being the biggest search engine on the internet, Google also has the most available users. This allows for targeting customers which are looking for your service or product specifically and those with high intent for purchasing. With AdWords, you can create ad groups and campaigns which revolve around a certain keyword and produce ads relevant to the search queries users actually make.

And that is exactly the main difference between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. Facebook helps customers find you, while AdWords helps you find potential customers. And locating potential customers is fairly easy for Google, as its Display Network currently covers over 2 million individual websites. Potential audiences can see the Ads in mobile apps while browsing their emails and while watching videos on YouTube.

Creating video ads is simple with Facebook, but the one feature which distinguishes Google from it is, of course, YouTube. It currently has around 1 billion active users and AdWords allow you to create specific marketing campaigns based on interests, demographics, particular ad placements, specific keywords people use, etc. Not only are video ads excellent four generating brand awareness, but they can also allow users to interact with them in numerous ways. Although Google AdWords allows for better reach and higher conversion rates, some of the keywords you target can be rather expensive when compared to Facebook Ads.

Google AdWords Pros

• Enormous potential audience
• Easy-to-track campaigns
• Excellent control over daily budgets and maximum CPC
• Instant traffic influx
• Immediate ROI
• Better conversion rates
• Different targeting options such as time of the day, week, specific regions and websites
• Numerous advertising options

Cons

• Very costly if not set up correctly
• Time-consuming setup and maintenance
• Limited ad space
• Depending on the industry in question, very high CPC

Remarketing and Retargeting options

Google AdWords remarketing allows advertisers to display their ads to users which have already visited their website. It’s a powerful marketing technique which ensures that advertisers stay connected to their target audience even after they leave the website. With Google’s vast network, marketers can present ads to potential customers even when they’re browsing different parts of the internet, which further improves brand exposure and increasing trust in your product or service. With the cost per click being lower for remarketing than it is for normal marketing campaigns, Google remarketing is an excellent tool to further increase the conversion rates.

Facebook also has a remarketing solution called Facebook Custom Audiences. Similar to Google, the Custom Audiences platform represents a lists of users who have already interacted with your brand. These include past buyers, current customers, high-value customers, etc. The biggest strength of Facebook Custom Audiences is the narrowness with which potential customers can be targeted, allowing for carefully created ads to be displayed to a number of selected individuals.

Both of these advertising platforms have their strengths and weaknesses. Picking one over the other can be quite difficult, as both offer unique results which mostly depend on your specific advertising goals. Facebook allows for very narrow targeting options, but Google’s keyword targeting is hard to beat when it comes to offering your products and services to a much broader audience. Instead of choosing one specific platform, it is best to use them in a complementary way. The best advertising strategy is one which uses all available assets in order to produce the best results.

The post Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads and Remarketing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Define your goals

To succeed in anything you do, you need to set goals. Your content marketing campaign is no exception; it should be aligned with your small business goals.  Before you start recreating content, you need to define what it is you hope to achieve through content marketing.  Goals often include raising brand awareness, increasing brand loyalty, educating and engaging your customers, and building connections. As you highlight your goals, it’s also vital to make sure you created a winning content marketing strategy.

Define metrics

Once your goals are in place, it’s time to figure out how you plan to track and measure the performance of your campaign. Each goal will have a different way to measure its success, but common performance indicators include the time users spend on your site, the pages per visit, the bounce rate, conversions, and social shares.

Create content personas

As you try to develop a content marketing campaign, you must take the time to figure out who your audience is. It’s essential to understand what your readers want and what type of content they will consume.

When you have solid content personas, you can better model your users buying behavior and target content at the various stages of the sales funnel.  Without personas, you will be mostly guessing what content your audience hopes for – so more than likely you will share content about what you know instead of what your audience is actively seeking.

Generate content ideas

Many marketers are like a deer caught in the headlights when it comes to generating new topic ideas for their content.  There is a high demand for one-of-a-kind, valuable content that will stand apart from the many posts that are like ten others already out there.  Some ideas to help you come up with posts include focusing on your passions and writing about areas you know.  Build off others content – take what they write and expand on it.  You can also ask your customers and social media followers and fans what they want to read more about.  Let their suggestions fuel ideas for new, innovate posts and capitalize on one of the many ways to grow customer trust and loyalty – through powerful content.

Develop a content calendar

Track your content creation with the help of an editorial calendar.  Calendars will help ensure the content is posted at the right time and offer insight into content personas, keywords and topics.

In smaller organizations, a content calendar isn’t too tough to oversee. If you have a business that has more than one department making contributions to the campaign, a content calendar becomes essential to manage them all.

Don’t let content marketing paralyze you – it doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds and the more you do it, the easier it gets. Implement key strategies to help you develop a content marketing campaign that allows you to reach your target audience, build a strong online presence, and stimulate interest in your products and services.

The post 5 Ways To Get Started With Content Marketing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

eBooks.

These are great for B2B companies or businesses that work in a technical space where people love to read more and gain knowledge about their industry. Remember that it’s crucial that you write about things other than your products and services. People do not like to be sold, but instead, prefer to be informed. Write from a neutral perspective and give insight about current events or other relevant, engaging content. Share your eBook on social media and your network can share it for you.

When you build your eBook, ensure your landing page is set up where visitors are required to share their name, phone number, and an email address for the chance to download the eBook.

Newsletter.

If you don’t have a newsletter yet, you are missing out on one of the easiest ways to generate more leads. Put a newsletter sign up in multiple locations on your website to grow your email list.

A great thing about your newsletter is that you have a captive audience since the recipients choose to receive it. Email pathways are also a great way to avoid getting lost in the noise of the Internet.  Don’t make the newsletter all about your business – share your insights and other industry-related and helpful information with your audience.

Blog.

A blog is one of the best lead generating tools a business can use, yet many fail to understand the importance of it. It allows a company (the writer) to have complete control of what is said and the opportunity to have the undivided attention of the audience. It’s essential to find ways to drive action and measurably grow business outcomes.

Add a section to the blog where readers can sign up for your newsletter and use the margins to promote your products and services.  Share links to the blog on your social platforms – this is one of many ways social media can benefit your business.  Remember, don’t make the blog all about you – instead, share valuable content with your audience.

Networking events.

A lot of action happens in the digital world, but the real world has its advantages, no doubt. Networking events – even those that may not pertain directly to your business – can provide you with valuable leads. Attend so you can meet new contacts, expand your network, and gain referrals.  Events are also a great way to build your brand.  Don’t forget to pass out your business cards!

Infographic.

Infographics have been used a lot, but people still share them and stop to read them when they are able.  They aren’t expensive to produce either. You need to start by coming up with an original idea that isn’t about you, then hire a quality graphic designer, and share the finished infographic socially so your network can pass it along.  You should also submit infographics to publications that cover your industry.

Make sure to put your logo and website URL on the infographic so readers will see it and can visit your site.

Strong branding.

Customers want to support authentic companies and prefer that a company have a strong message that’s consistent across all of their platforms.  Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Be who you are.  Customers want experts and want to support the business that is the best in the industry. Focus on communicating that through your strong branding to make your conversion rates go up.

Many business owners are familiar with the common ways to generate leads online and are used to navigating those platforms. There are countless ways to build relationships, boost exposure, and increase interest – probably even ways that you have yet to try. The key to generating leads is to act consistently and work to provide relevant information to your audience instead of just trying to sell them.

What other methods work well when it comes to generating leads?

The post 7 Ways Your Business Can Generate Leads appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Video.

Video humanizes your brand and builds trust.  There are countless tips to use video for your business if you aren’t sure where to begin. Video boosts conversions and sales and shows great return on investment.  Plus, Google loves videos – your business is 53 times more likely to show up first in Google if you have a video embedded on your website, according to Moovly.

Credit Management.

If you have poor credit, you aren’t doomed. It is never too late to find ways to build strong business credit.  It’s smart to use a credit-monitoring service to monitor your credit to ensure you don’t lose money to fraudulent activity.  Make sure to open your credit statements as soon as they come in the mail and review the statement carefully. Most small business owners aren’t accountants and often fail to realize how important managing business credit is to the success of their business. Hence it is highly recommended to contact the personal tradelines to manage your credit.

Social media and blogging.

Social media sites are the perfect place to showcase your business, products and services. It’s also the place where brands and customers can have meaningful conversations and build a real relationship, which leads to customer loyalty.

Blogging is the ideal way to speak to and engage with your target audience. It gives you the unique opportunity to inject your personality into your blog posts and provide valuable insight to prove yourself as a thought leader in your industry. These actions will help your business acquire more customers.

Security

Thе uѕе оf HID access cards hаѕ bееn prevalent nowadays, аѕ mоrе companies realized thе benefits thеу соuld gеt оut оf іt. Sized like a credit card, thе access card works nоt just аѕ аn identification tool but іt саn аlѕо validate аnd store data. Thе HID card саn аlѕо bе uѕе fоr different application processes. Alѕо referred tо аѕ smart cards by some companies like Smart Card Store, thе HID cards саn аlѕо bear a photo оf thе wearer fоr added security аnd аnу оthеr information typically seen іn аn ID card. Aside frоm thаt, thіѕ small plastic card hаѕ embedded electronics like a microchip, custom barcode labels оr magnetic stripes. Thіѕ feature іѕ whаt makes іt different frоm уоur typical company ID.

Customer service.

More customers than ever are turning to social media to get their customers service requests answered.  Make sure someone checks your accounts regularly – your consumers expect you to be able to help them promptly when they have questions or problems related to your products or services. I. Remember that today, customer service is more important than pricing. Customer service needs to be at the heart of your business model if you want to be successful.

Invoicing software.

Track time, request online payments, and create recurring invoices with invoicing software. Save yourself time and effort and ensure invoicing is done correctly every single time.  Nothing looks as unprofessional as bad invoicing – and it’s essential to come across as a professional at every touchpoint so you don’t lose your customers.

Online payment services.

It was reported that 66 percent of mobile users carried out at least one form of transaction in 2015.  By giving customers the choice to pay in a way other than cash, check and credit card, you can capture more sales. Electronic payments can make the process of getting paid convenient for both the small business owner and the customer.  This form is payment is one that will be big in the future due to the convenience and security of the method.

Email marketing.

Email marketing is a great way to send people the content that they want. You can use email marketing to build credibility and strengthen relationships – people prefer to do business with those they like, know and trust. Email marketing is also a great way to get in touch with people on any device – something that is crucial now that more than half of all emails are being opened on a mobile device.

Running a small business is no easy feat – it’s often you and a few trusted members of your team working diligently around the clock. Turn to technology to help you build your business, take better care of your customers and streamline your operations.

What ways has technology improved the flow of your small business?

The post 7 Ways to Use Technology to Efficiently Run Your Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

You woke up at 2 in the morning after having dreamt of an epic business idea.

“It’s one of those mind-blowing ‘Aha!’ moments again!” you say to yourself.

At this point, your brain is running at 274 miles per hour taking in more ideas, figuring out the possibilities, and calculating the risks (among other things).

Simply put, you’re dead excited about the new business idea that you’re practically obsessed by it. You then reach out to your phone to contact your business partner to tell him what’s up.

Just minutes after your conversation with him, however, all hope and enthusiasm you had in you have been extinguished. #CompetitionProblems

Your business partner was very quick to point out how GINORMOUS and well-known your competitors are, that it’s borderline impossible for you to succeed.

*sigh*

“How on earth do I succeed at marketing this new business if I’m going against established brands?” You asked yourself.

Friends, if you’re asking that very question right now, then I’m glad that you’re here. I will share with you five effective marketing strategies that will help you dominate even the most established of brands.

If that’s what you’re trying to do right now, then you absolutely need to read on.

1. Focus on what makes your brand special.

There is no point in playing the marketing game in the big brands’ homecourt. I mean, there’s just no point in fighting them in something that they are already well known for.

Instead of going on a suicidal mission such as that, you can focus on highlighting the things that make you special. That way, your competitors will somewhat become irrelevant to your audience as they read your marketing materials, since you’re talking about the things that are unique about your brand.

A solid example would be how VIDGO is slowly but surely gaining some traction despite them competing against a ginormous brand like NETFLIX.

If you check out VIDGO’s content on the internet, you’ll notice how they won’t fail to mention the fact that they’re taking Live TV Streaming to a whole new level — something that NETFLIX doesn’t quite have yet.

NETFLIX only allows its users to watch TV shows or series once it’s available in their library of movies/shows. VIDGO, on the other hand, gives their users the ability to watch TV shows, news, and channels live.

VIDGO’s marketing strategy has proven to be so effective, to the point where reputable websites with millions of monthly traffic like HuffingtonPost, Mashable and Tech.co have written about them.

2. Show genuine concern for your customers.

You’ve heard it, right? Customers feel that their concerns are ignored.

Customer A bought a product from a ginormous company. The product ended up being defective, so customer A experienced truckloads of inconvenience.

When customer A complained to the company, he/she didn’t get a single reply.

An even worse scenario is when the company does reply, yet the kind of message that they send to their customers are generic or borderline cookie-cutter/useless messages.

Scenarios like these often make the customers feel unappreciated.

This kind of scenario is quite typical for huge brands for a lot of reasons.

Check out the majority of Upwork’s reviews/feedback. You’ll notice how the freelancing site isn’t taking the time to address their community’s complaints.

Here’s another comprehensive review of Upwork. You will know what it does, how it operates, what are some of the pitfalls and how to avoid them so you can hire the best talent for your business (at the best price!).

Here’s a question: How do you think their customers feel when no one from the company is answering their complaints or problems?

If you’ll take the time to show genuine concern for your customers by providing amazing support, there’s a good chance that they’ll choose you over the huge brands.

3. Don’t be everywhere.

You don’t have to be on FB, LI, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter (among other social media sites) if you don’t have enough resources to stand out on the platform.

Instead of spreading yourself too thin, you should try focusing on 2 – 3 platforms (maybe even one if that’s the only thing your budget allows), that way, you’ll manage to stand out and create a profile that has a decent number of followers.

Don’t be obsessed with being all over the internet. Just like in most things, focusing on quality and not so much on quantity can pay you dividends.

Important note: I am not telling you to ignore the other social media sites. What I am telling you is you need to consolidate your resources and focus on 1 – 3 platforms for now. Once your resources allow you to pursue other platforms, then you hands down need to grow on other sites as well.

Remember that the internet is continuously expanding, if you aren’t trying to expand your visibility as well, you’ll end up getting left behind.

4. Embrace being the underdog.

You can bet your family jewels that humans have the inclination to like the underdogs. A study conducted way back in 2007, and 2009 is a good proof of this claim.

Both studies tell us that there is value in embracing your role as being the underdog. When you emphasize this point to your audience (while not sounding like a beggar or a company that lacks self-esteem), this can inadvertently cause your audience to support you instead of the existing company that they are transacting with.

5. Give incentives.

Huge brands won’t bother with giving incentives that much since they’re expecting their audience to chase after them — mainly because of how established they are. Because they have an existing pool of customers and they have a sense of “stability” in their company, they don’t bother to pursue new customers as much as new companies would. In short, some established brands often do not give as much “love” to their prospective customers.

That’s what you’ll exploit.

You can set yourself apart by giving away meaningful incentives to your prospective customers to win them over.

Notice how I highlighted the word “meaningful?” I wanted to highlight the word because a meaningful incentive can work wonders for you. It has the ability to bring in more sales, leads and even influence your customers to share your products their network of connections proactively.

On the flip side of the coin, however, giving away craptastic incentives will either get you ignored, or worse, your prospective customers might end up getting really annoyed at you.

That being said, should you decide to follow this tip, be sure to make your incentives worthwhile for your prospective customers. Otherwise, the whole thing can backfire on you.

What’s next?

Are there marketing strategies that you can share with our readers that can help them dominate their niche, despite them competing with reputable brands?

If you answered with a “yes,” please share your marketing strategies in the comments section below. Cheers!

The post 5 Marketing Tips to Help You Dominate Bigger and More Established Brands appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Ever been on a website and noticed it’s featuring an advertisement for another website you had just browsed moments before? It’s no coincidence. You’ve been retargeted.

The online marketing tactic has really gained momentum over the past few years and allows businesses to re-engage visitors as they leave their brand’s website and browse other places online, including social. Some say creepy, but it is a smart move, especially for small businesses in today’s digital, social and mobile world as it keeps your offerings top of mind. And as a small business owner, you need that extra push now more than ever to get in front of consumers and battle competitors in your space.

I’ve asked Erika Jolly Brookes, CMO at Springbot to share her insight on this with us.

When done right, retargeting can transform window shoppers into customers. In fact, generally two percent of shoppers convert on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting brings back the other 98 percent, according to AdRoll.

However, retargeting can be challenging, especially for first-timers. Without a good strategy in play, you run the risk of developing ads that won’t resonate with your target prospects and end up wasting money. The following are tips to help you overcome those challenges and master retargeting for your small business.

Let Data Guide Your Campaign

First things first, in order to execute a successful retargeting campaign you will want to come up with a killer offer that’s going to drive clicks and conversions. Struggling for ideas? Look no further than your customer data to devise a genius idea.

Analyzing the purchase data trends of your customers can give you a better handle on what will pique the interest of similar consumers. When reviewing the data, ask yourself:

• What items are these customers purchasing most frequently?
• When are they purchasing? Does seasonality play a factor?
• Where are they purchasing, online or in-store?
• What marketing campaigns and offers are driving traffic and conversions?

Another opportunity is running seasonal and promotional ads to reach a cyclical group of site visitors. You might find your most loyal customers purchase twice the amount of gift sets during the holiday shopping season, for example. This would indicate that a holiday focused retargeting campaign with ad creative featuring a special offer on gift sets with a unique coupon code has tremendous potential for new sales.

Additionally, today’s consumer likes options. Small businesses operating online storefronts and brick and mortar should look for ways to integrate special offers into their retargeting campaigns that can be taken advantage of both online and in-store.

When it comes to Retargeting, Looks Matter

Once you have your offer nailed down, it’s time to think through compelling ad format and creative. In the world of retargeting, the visual attractiveness with a strong call to action is critical.

In order to create click-worthy ads, here are 5 tips small businesses should follow:

• Make your logo on each ad stand out. You want viewers to know exactly what they’re clicking on and drive brand awareness in the process.
• Have a strong, clear call-to-action on each ad. This can come in the form of a button or graphic, with text like “Shop Now”, “Click Here”, or “Learn More” to prompt customers to click back to your site and purchase.
• Keep text minimal but impactful. Balance text with engaging images that reinforce the copy on your ad.
• Steer clear from using ads with a white background, as they will easily blend in with the colors of a webpage that has a white background.
• Make typography bold and engaging to contrast with standard webpage text and draw attention.

To take things a step further, advanced retargeting through dynamic ad delivery will also allow you to increase appeal to consumers through personalization. Dynamic ads leverage visitor website behavior once they leave to another site within the AdRoll ad network to show the exact products previously viewed along with your logo. That feels like a win-win for the retailer and consumer.

Run Retargeting Ads Across Web AND Social

While web-based retargeting is very powerful, within the past year, social retargeting has really opened the doors for small businesses, especially those struggling to reach customers via mobile. Social now represents nearly 20 percent of total time spent online in the U.S. across both desktop and mobile, so it’s important that you ensure your marketing plans include these channels.

By running retargeting ads across the web and social networks, small businesses can cast a bigger shadow, meeting shoppers where they are and reminding them of the great products they offer. Our research, in conjunction with AdRoll, suggests adding social to your retargeting strategy can increase conversions up to 73 percent.

Not a Silver Bullet, but Part of a Powerful Marketing Plan

Ultimately, it takes a smart strategy and back-end work to make retargeting successful. Before diving in, it’s important as a small business owner to really understand your customer base and develop offers that will appeal to them and others like them. You also want to create ads and leverage ad technology like dynamic retargeting that will stand out to consumers and pull them back to your site. Moreover, it’s becoming increasingly important to ensure your ads display across social and web channels where your customers spend their time.

Putting these tips into play can generate real retargeting results and elevate your marketing efforts to drive consumers to your small business.

About Erika Jolly Brookes

Veteran technology and marketing executive Erika Brookes is chief marketing officer for Springbot, a marketing automation platform for eCommerce businesses, and her responsibilities include leading all brand, product, marketing campaigns and communications. Find her on Twitter at @ebrookes.

The post What Is Advertisement Re-targeting and Why Does It Matter? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using content is how you educate your audience, build your tribe and increase brand awareness. You can get your content to a wider audience a few ways.

Once it’s posted online you can use email marketing via an email newsletter, share it via social media, write content so good that others share it and finally invest money to have it shared more widely.

You can do this via social media (such as Facebook “boost post”) or use a service that I’ve recently used, Outbrain.

Outbrain is a service that syndicates your content to major websites such as Fox News, CNN and lesser known web sites as well.

While having your content organically shared is great, it’s also ok to invest in having your content shared widely via “for pay” services.

The post 4 Good Ways To Promote Content: One Tool Is Outbrain appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Clicks to your website equal customer engagement. If you’ve got a decent social media following, are publishing content regularly, and are continually increasing your email subscribers, but aren’t seeing a high click-through rate, it’s time to ask yourself a few key questions.

Are Our Headlines Engaging Enough?

Whether you’re writing a blog post, a press release, or an email, your headline (or subject line) must grab people by the eyeballs and get them to click to read more. If yours aren’t getting the kinds of clicks you want, you need to assess why.

Start by reading other headlines. Which pique your interest? Which make you want to click them? Do you see a theme? Some strategies for improving your headline engagement include:

• Use a statistic or number (“Get a 58% Boost in Reads with This Simple Trick”)
• Ask a question (“Could You Use More Money?”)
• Make a list (“7 Things You Didn’t Know About Cats”)
• Keep them short (5 words is a good average)

Test out different headlines to assess which show an improvement in clicks, then use those strategies for subsequent headlines.

Are Our Emails Putting People to Sleep?

You work away on your company newsletter and promotional emails, but people aren’t clicking to buy your products. What gives?

First, look at the data. What percentage of people are opening your emails? (this is called your open rate) Average open rates vary by industry, but you want to see somewhere between 17% and 20%. If you’re not getting that, look at how frequently you’re sending emails. It’s possible that you’re sending them more than people want to receive them, and they’re just deleting those emails you spent so much time developing. Scale back and measure results to see if they improve.

Within the email, assess what you’re trying to communicate. Ideally you have one call-to-action per email, so if you want them to buy a product, don’t confuse them by giving them eight products to consider. Keep the language short (just a few paragraphs) and include several places with the same link you want them to click.

Are People Ignoring Our Ads?

If your digital or pay-per-click ads aren’t generating interest, turn your focus to what the reason may be. Remember: whether you buy advertising on Facebook, Google, or somewhere else, you’re competing with a lot of other activity. Your copy and image, if you have one, need to be eye-catching so that people want to click your ad to learn more.

Keep the copy benefit-focused, meaning you’ve got to boil down the perks that people get by clicking your ad. Special offers and deep discounts, such as free shipping, 30% off, and buy one get one free are sure to generate clicks.

If you use an image, make sure it’s professional-quality. If the ad is for a product, the image should be of that product, not your headshot or brand logo.

You can A/B test ads to see which copy generates more interest, and tweak your campaign accordingly.

If your marketing efforts aren’t getting the engagement you’re looking for, don’t give up. Just assess what you’re currently doing to find places you can improve for better results.

The post Increasing Customer Clicks: Here’s the Secret appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Cloud-based software allows everyone on your team to have real-time access to in-progress work. Plus, there’s no expensive IT maintenance required, so you can save money while also increasing productivity. Win-win for everyone.

Project Management

Having a solid project management platform is critical to the success of your team, whether you’re all working locally from the same office, or you’re spread out all over the globe. No matter your industry, there are lots of moving parts to coordinate. Project management software that integrates with your CRM keeps things simplified. Quickly and easily manage clients, projects, to-do lists and calendars from a central location – accessible from anywhere there’s an Internet connection.

Live Video Chat

Sometimes, business will call for live video chats with a small group of people. With tools like Google Hangouts, Blab, and Skype, there’s a way to host video conferences with small groups of people for free. Blab works great if you need multiple hosts with mostly viewers.  Skype is popular, but not an ideal choice if you want to record the call for later viewing. If your team is all over the world, chances are you won’t find a time that works well for everyone to attend live, so you’ll want the option to view the chats later.

Editorial Calendar

When you’ve got a team of people working, it only makes sense to use an editorial calendar. CoSchedule offers a robust calendar that teams can work on together, ensuring everyone remains on the same page. As an added bonus, it features a WordPress plugin so you can keep your editorial calendar right inside your company blog. You can automatically schedule your posts to go out to Facebook and Twitter, too.

Social Media Management

While CoSchedule can help with social media management to a degree, it can be a hassle to load all of your other social content in the platform if you’re working from your WordPress blog. Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite allow for multiple team members to access your social accounts, schedule posts, and more.

Buffer includes the ability to schedule Pinterest posts, a nice bonus for businesses that need to maintain an active presence on that network.

File Sharing

If you need to quickly and easily share files among coworkers, there are many options – Dropbox and Google Drive are simple and effective. OneDrive, Microsoft’s answer to their competition, is another good solution.

OneDrive is the better answer for small teams who also need cloud-based access to Microsoft Office, because an Office 365 subscription includes the ability to share with other users. Each user on the shared account gets their own 1 TB OneDrive space, plus 60 free Skype minutes a month.

No matter which of these platforms you choose to use, you can download them to your computer and mobile phone so files and folders can be shared directly from your hard drive or mobile device. And, if you have multiple team members who need access, you can control what is shared with whom in just a few clicks.

Screen Sharing

Skype is great if you want to share a screen with a small group, but when more than one person needs control, it’s not ideal. That’s where ScreenHero comes in. Share a single screen, but allow multiple people to work on the document together – each with their own cursor. With the voice chat feature, it’s like working in the same room together.

With the variety of cloud-based tools available today, there’s no reason your remote team can’t operate as a cohesive unit regardless of distance. When there’s something that needs to be done, you’ll be able to find the tool you need to accomplish it.

The post 6 Tools for Unified Teams appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

While many brands all over the world are reaping the benefits of their content marketing efforts, just as many are puzzled as to why it’s not working for them.

If you aren’t getting the results you want, there are 6 common reasons why your content marketing isn’t working. We’re going to look at each cause and solutions for how to fix them.

1. You’re Doing Content Marketing with No Goal

Most brands take on content marketing because they believe it will help their business, but sometimes, that’s as far as their strategy goes; they pump out blog posts and cross their fingers and see what happens. They don’t have more specific goals for their content marketing strategy, which is ultimately why it fails.

You need to ask yourself what you specifically want to achieve with your blog posts. Do you want to increase your sales, or get more leads? Showcase your industry expertise? Boost SEO rankings?

Caption: Trunkclub’s blog provides visitors with fashion advice, like how to pick out a pair of boots. In order to see their collection and full recommended outfit, users need to create an account and login, driving conversions and sign-ups. 

You need to know what you want your content marketing strategy as a whole to accomplish, and then optimize each post for the specific goal you want it to accomplish; you can’t just go on autopilot and hope for the best.

To address this problem, you need to take a look at what you want your content marketing to achieve and come up with ways to optimize for those results. Doing thorough keyword research, using alt tags in images, and specifying meta descriptions can help you increase the changes of your content being indexed, for example. Placing clickable CTAs throughout your site to learn more about a product or sign up for your newsletter can drive sales and leads, and providing consistent, high quality content educating your readers can build your credibility.

2. You’re Content is Stagnant

If we find something that works once in our content marketing, it’s easy to want to stick to that, whether that’s a style of post or a certain subject. While this might work for a little while, but long term, users are going to get tired if they don’t feel like each post is offering them something fresh and new. Whether you’re only posting too-similar listicles or going over the same topic with little variation, you might lose viewers in favor of competitors that are more diverse.

While it’s important to figure out what works well for your audience, you still want them to feel like they need to read each post for fear that they’ll miss something if they don’t. Some strategies to prevent stagnation in your content marketing include:

• Featuring high quality guest posts from other industry experts
• Add infographics or videos
• Place interactive features (like polls or quizzes) in your content
• Share a mix of case studies, how-to information, and breaking industry news
• Check what’s trending now; Clearvoice has a great database of trending articles if you’re stuck and can connect you with high quality freelancer

Keep an eye on what’s working for you, and check in to your analytics frequently, as it can change before you know it.\

3. You Aren’t Tracking Results

Some businesses will run entire content marketing strategies without ever thoroughly tracking any of their results. Monitoring analytics of your content can tell you what’s working and what isn’t, and it can often give you a lot of insight into how to product better content over time.

Some important metrics to track include:

• Conversion rates, including leads or sales
• Bounce rate
• Engagement rates
• Page views

Tracking the activity on your website is important, but it’s also just as important to see how your content marketing is affecting your social media and email marketing campaigns. They’re all intricately linked together, so looking at the big picture is important, too.

There are a ton of great tools available to help you track all of this information about your content marketing; Google Analytics is a great go-to tool for all businesses, and will even show you where your best traffic is coming from and how they move through your site. Other tools let you create dashboards that pull analytic information from multiple sources, including Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and ecommerce tools like Shopify.

4. Your Content is the Same as Everyone Else’s

There are tons of posts being put out every day; in this current climate of content overload, the question becomes how do you stand out? With a million posts about Facebook Ads or how to choose a wedding cake or best interview questions to ask, how is yours going to be different?

Ultimately, you need to decide how you’re going to be different, and what you can uniquely offer readers that no one else can. Even if it’s just your writing style and your voice that’s unique, something has to be special.

There are a few ways you can write unique posts and lead magnets. One way to do this is to comb the internet and message boards for unanswered questions; if one question keeps getting asked over and over again, there’s clearly an audience and a demand for content that addresses it. Another great method of creating new posts is to take a broader idea, like “Ten Classic Wedding Menus” and focusing in on one niche idea that fits within it, like “Six Wedding Menus to Keep Your Gluten Free/Vegan/Paleo Friends Happy.” 

Sometimes, creating content that’s different from everything else will rely on a combination of research and understanding (and fully embracing) your specific niche.

5. It’s Not Actionable

This is one of the biggest problems most content has; it’s so heavily theoretical, or there’s so much information overload, that users walk away from content thinking “well I still don’t know how to do any of that.” It’s like the manager that keeps telling salespeople “just sell more! Try harder!” As anyone who has ever worked in sales knows, this doesn’t actually ever help anything.

If you take a close look at a lot of how-to posts (or even content in general), they’ll talk about a problem or an idea but won’t show you to actually execute it. It therefore is rarely actually useful, and still leaves your readers wanting.

Your content should offer specific actionable content that users can make use of. This post, for example, is actionable by offering solutions to the problems that prevent success with content marketing. It’s the difference between the manager saying “you need to sell more” and saying “By showing the complementary product and showing them as a set, you’ll have bigger sales.”

Actionable content is valuable content, and that’s what will drive results.

6. It Feels like a Sales Pitch

While you can feature your products and place information and snippets of content to drive conversions, your content should not read like one long 1,000 word sales pitch. It doesn’t feel genuine, and in the age where “authentic content” is king, you’ll lose readers quickly.

We’ve all seen content that is so clearly created only to promote a product or an affiliate link, and the result is that readers are automatically less likely to trust it (and you).

Trademark Universal Stone’s blog post about whether granite is worth the return on investment is a great example of how to promote your products (theirs is granite) without making it read like a sales pitch.

If you’re going to promote a product or place affiliate links, it should almost never be the center of a blog post or lead magnet. Content marketing is about building a relationship with your customers, and if it reads like an advertisement, it won’t be effective.

Instead, subtle mentions of a product and a link and/or CTA to learn more are all that’s needed. You can also place a call to action at the very end of the post, encouraging users to contact you to learn how you can help them more.

Final Thoughts

Content marketing can work, and if you’re putting regular, consistent effort into it, it should be working. Even if your content worked for you in the past, maintaining an effort towards adaptability will keep you up to date on best industry, marketing, and SEO practices, keeping you moving in the right direction and giving you better results long term.

The post 6 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Sucks appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Businesses large and small love free marketing, where customers are willing and eager to sing your praises based on the positive experiences they’ve had with your company. But besides just providing great products and services, how do you drum up word-of-mouth marketing? This article explores five actionable things you can do to get more people talking about your business.

Click to read 5 Ways to Get People to Talk about Your Business

Instagram for Business

As a newer social media platform, Instagram still has many business owners scratching their heads. How exactly do you use a platform that focuses on pictures and hashtags to grow customers and awareness? The launch of “Instagram Stories” is actually opening up new marketing potential for small businesses, provided you know how to use it. This article explains what Instagram Stories is and how you can leverage it for your biz.

Click to read How to Market Your Business with Instagram Stories

Small Business Video Marketing Ideas

If you follow marketing tips, advice and news, then chances are that you run into the subject of video marketing all the time. Unfortunately, many small businesses aren’t sure where to get started. We’ve covered basic tips in other articles, but this one gives you specific videos you could create to promote your business, including new product teasers, customer feedback, and more. It is sure to give you some great ideas to help create your first marketing video.

Click to read 6 Engaging Video Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Bonus Article: Must-Have Financial Roles

As promised, we also wanted to share an informative article for business owners who feel like they already have control over their marketing – and who couldn’t use a finance lesson now and again? This article, written by finance expert Jonathan Ankney, covers the three financial roles that you must have for your small business – and what happens if one of these crucial roles is missing.

Click to read 3 Financial Roles Every Business Needs to Maximize Success

Smart Hustle readers asked for more marketing articles, and we have been happy to deliver pieces on word-of-mouth marketing, Instagram, videos and more. What other topics would you like to see us cover on Smart Hustle? See what’s available on SmartHustle.com then share your opinion over at the Smart Hustle Community.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Marketing via Word-Of-Mouth, Instagram Stories, and Videos appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Protecting Your Small Business from Security Threats

Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, and new threats are popping up every day. How can you keep your small business safe? In this interview with Norman Guadagno from Carbonite, Norman shares three small steps any small business owner can take to prevent security threats including viruses, malware, ransomware, and hacking attempts.

Click to read How Small Business Can Prevent and Recover from Security Threats: An Interview with Norman Guadagno

Generating Buzz with Your Branding

Branding is one of the most important elements of creating a successful small business. Can customers immediately recognize you when they glance at your logo? How do you set yourself apart from the competition? What sort of conversations are customers having about your brand? This article shares five secrets of becoming a brand that people love and want to talk about it.

Click to read How to Develop a Brand People Will Love to Talk About

Selling Your Home-Based Business

When we think of selling a business, many of us picture a business that has a physical location in which the keys are literally passed on to the new owner. However, many small businesses in the United States are home-based. Is it possible to tell a home-based business too? Yes! This article covers some of the basics of selling a business as well as factors that are unique to home-based businesses. Follow these tips and you’ll be prepared to sell when the timing is right.

Click to read How to Successfully Sell Your Home-Based Business

The articles above will give you a lot to think about, whether it is protecting yourself against security threats, improving your branding, or preparing to sell your small home-based business. For other intriguing discussions on topics like operations, finance, marketing, technology, and sales, head over to SmartHustle.com to get the scoop.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Security Threats, Branding, and More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using Google Analytics to Track Social Campaigns

Even though there are several social media management tools, the richness of Google Analytics reports make it ideal for tracking your social campaigns. Did you know that you can use Google Analytics to track network referrals, conversions, landing pages, and social plugins? This article tells you how to get started with Google Analytics, set up goals, and five top Google Analytics reports to look at to understand how your social media campaigns are going.

Click to read How to Track Social Media Analytics with Google Analytics

Recovering from a Sales Slump

Unfortunately, everyone will experience a sales slump at some point in his or her career. Biz expert Adrian Miller says the first important thing is to understand why the slump happened so you can address the cause! However, if you find yourself in a slump, there are plenty of things you can do to recover. Adrian reviews four of the best things you can do to get the sales ball rolling again.

Click to read How to Revamp Your Business in a “Sales Slump”

Small Biz Owner: Don’t Focus on Going Viral

The gold standard in content marketing is a phenomenon known as “going viral” – when your content (whether it is a blog post, video, social media message, or something else) gets the attention of mass audiences who flood to your site and “discover” your company, making you an overnight sensation. While going viral is definitely a good thing, there are many reasons why small business owners should not focus on going viral. This article explores the reasons and what small business owners should do instead to make sure their content is a hit among the target market.

Click to read Content Marketing 2016: Why Small Businesses Shouldn’t Focus on Going Viral

Smart Hustle Magazine is committed to helping small business owners through all the twists and turns of running a business – the high points (like going viral), the low points (like experiencing a sales slump), and all of the experimentation that goes on in between (including tracking campaign analytics on platforms like Google Analytics). For more advice – no matter what stage of the game you’re at – check out SmartHustle.com or join the discussion in the Smart Hustle Community.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Google Analytics How-To, Recovering from a Sales Slump, and More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Why You Need Video

You should be using video to get more customers, but what makes it different from other marketing approaches? Customers get more information in a shorter amount of time by viewing one well-made video. Videos give your customers an impression of you and your business. It’s more personal than an email or blog post. Video is used in marketing in many ways today. Short videos posted to Vine and Instagram are short and easily shared. Tutorials and vlogs on your website or YouTube are a bit longer and more informative. Whether you film it yourself or hire a professional, video is one marketing tool you need.

DIY Video

Small businesses often take the DIY approach to save money where possible. Apps such as Vine and Instagram make it possible to create short videos. They’re free and simple to use. You can make new videos quickly, edit clips, and reach all your followers instantly. This option is excellent for things like contests, previewing new products, and even speaking directly to your followers, such as Q&A videos. Doing it yourself isn’t without pitfalls, however. While apps make it seem easy, they can’t make a poorly shot video look good. Take a few steps to make your DIY videos look their best.

Storyboard. Use paper or software to plot out each scene for your video and the dialogue or narrative that goes with it. Come up with a few versions, then narrow it down to the best one.

Lighting. Poorly lit videos look awful. Make sure you have at least one bright light source. Whether it’s sunlight through a window or a floor lamp aimed at your product, be sure the thing you’re filming is brightly lit.

Script. Stumbling over your words makes you sound like a novice and increases editing time. It helps to practice speaking a few times before shooting, even if it’s only a few second clip for social media. The script is even more important when filming a longer video, such as a tutorial for YouTube.

Sound. Tiny smartphone microphones aren’t the best at capturing clear sound in your film production. Be sure there is silence when you’re filming (unless background noise is intentional). Try using the earbuds with mic that came with your phone for clarity. You can also purchase a microphone that plugs into the 3.5 mm jack on your phone or a clip-on mic.

Stability. Don’t make your customers nauseous with shaky video. Invest in a tripod before shooting videos for your business. Choose a full size tripod or a little Gorillapod^® depending on what and where you’ll be filming. Some lower end tripods can droop or slowly move while filming, so look out for that while testing it out.

Image licensing. Avoid getting sued by only using commercially licensed images and video clips. You’ll either need to purchase a license, get permission from the creator, or use Creative Commons (CC) images. Be aware “free to use” and CC works are not always commercially licensed. Read the fine print to be sure you’re allowed to use the image.

Professional Video

Even if you’re able to film a decent video yourself, you may not realize just how labor intensive video editing is. It can be a lengthy and complex process to get to the final, polished version of your video. While you may be capable of doing the editing yourself, it may make more sense as a business owner to pay a professional to spend hours creating a great video for you while you focus on other responsibilities.

Hiring professionals to create your video will ensure a polished final product. The obvious difference in quality gives the impression that your business is trustworthy. When it comes to video ads, tutorials, help videos for your product, and any video featured prominently on your website you’ll want to consider investing in a professional to create your videos. The impact it has on your customers is invaluable.

The post Video Production Tips for Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Do You Need a College Degree to Start a Business?

Instead of going to college, Charles Bonfiglio went to work for a franchised automotive company right after high school. He worked his way up to becoming the top performer, then became a franchisee himself. After decades of experience in the franchise, he left to start his own company in 2007. So can experience alone set you out on the path to success or do you need a college degree? Join the discussion by checking out this article.

Click to read Do Entrepreneurs Need a College Degree? An Interview with Entrepreneur and Franchisee Charles Bonfiglio

How to Grow Through Clever Use of Content

Is content a tool for every business, or does it only work in certain industries and areas? In this interview with Julie Tupler of Diastasis Rechab, she argues that everyone, regardless of industry, can use content to grow. Julie is a nurse who focuses on one specific ailment – diastasis recti. Using a combination of books, DVDs, guides and more, she has created a booming business in this specific niche. The article explores how you too can use content to grow, even if you don’t consider yourself a writer or a videographer.

Click to read Boosting Your Biz through Content: An Interview with Julie Tupler of Diastasis Rehab

Your PR Cheat Sheet

Every business owner wants media coverage, but getting the attention of PR is another thing entirely. If you’ve ever tried to navigate the scary world of PR, this article for you. This cheat sheet covers all the basics of how to get your business in the spotlight, including developing a story, finding media contacts, writing a pitch and following up.

Click to read The Power of PR: Your Cheat Sheet to Getting Media Coverage

So what do you think? Do you need to go to college to start and run a successful business? Is content a good strategy, no matter what industry you’re in? Could adopting the right approach help you get the media coverage you’re looking for? Come contemplate these issues with us by reading the fore-mentioned SmartHustle.com articles – and if you have a comment to share, join the discussion in the Smart Hustle Community.

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Establishing Culture in Your Business

Culture is what differentiates those companies where the employees love to come to work from those where the employees dread ‘punching in.’ How your employees feel about their job is then reflected down to the customers, which is why every business owner should think carefully about the kind of culture and the core values they want the business to represent. Need a little guidance? This article offers four great tips for how to improve your work environment.

Click to read How to Build a Rock Slid Company Culture

Making Analytics Work for Your Business

Business data provides valuable insights into how to improve your business, but many times, business owners collect data and then aren’t sure what to do with it. Ideally, analytics should be the driving force behind the decisions you make, and all employees should understand how to use analytics. This article will help, with four training tips that will teach your whole team how to use analytics effectively.

Click to read How to Train Your Team in Better Analytics

Upgrading the Point of Sales Experience

The point of sales is that final moment in the journey where a person officially becomes a customer. Think now to the point of sales experience in your business – does it positively add to the customer’s experience or does it hurt your chance of making a sale? This article has a valuable lesson on what not to do, then some tips for improving the experience, like upgrading your point of sales technology and empowering your sales staff.

Click to read 3 Ways to Improve the Point of Sales Experience

Business Tips for Artists

Although artists funnel their passion into their artwork, interview guest Crista Cloutier says that artists are also entrepreneurs and they must learn how to build their business if they want to be successful. An artist herself, Crista also runs a program called The Working Artist which teaches artists the business skills they need. In this interview, Crista gives tips for how people in creative industries can plan out their business and execute their marketing.

Click to read The Working Artist, Crista Cloutier, Shares Business Tips for the Creative Industries

Successful business owners know they have to pay attention to those important details, including creating a positive culture, listening to analytics, and giving customers a good point of sales experience. What little details in your business could use some TLC? Chances are you’ll find the tips and advice you need on SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Establishing Culture in Your Business, Better Analytics, & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Overall, the power of social media is so important for all businesses to understand and do more of. I’ve asked Kati McGee, SMB Brand Development for Instagram to share her tips on how to get the most out of Instagram.

Small businesses around the world turn to Instagram to capture and share the moments, products, and services that matter most to their business. The community on Instagram is over 500 million strong, more than 300 million of whom use Instagram every single day. Small businesses have always been an important part of this community, using Instagram to turn their passions into livelihoods. Take Janine, a woodworker that turned her hobby into a well-run business of selling custom-made art and furniture creations, or Stance Socks, which breathed new life into a traditionally unremarkable category by dedicating its brand to art and self-expression, posting playful imagery to its Instagram account.

With nearly 50 percent of people following businesses on Instagram and 60 percent of people learning about a product or service on the platform, Instagram is a natural place to introduce people to your business, connect with your community and acquire new customers. It’s never been easier to get started — Just recently Instagram announced a new set of business tools that will help you develop more meaningful relationships with your followers, better understand how content performs and find new customers on mobile

As we introduce these new tools in the coming months, we want to share 10 tips for how to use Instagram to help your business be successful. From creative content to community mentors, we encourage you to experiment and learn in order to identify strategies that work for you and your business.

1. Showcase your passion — Think of Instagram as your virtual shop window where you can demonstrate what makes your business unique. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words. It’s the perfect place to showcase your passion and inspire existing and future customers.
2. Engage your community — Play an active role with your community. Engage with comments and questions on your own posts and use hashtags, location tags and view content your business is tagged in to discover and join the conversation on other community members’ posts. A lot of great small business accounts feature content posted by followers, which helps strengthen the relationship between a business and its most enthusiastic customers.
3. Establish your voice — Instagram is where people connect around their passions so be authentic and create a visual voice that reflects that of your business or band.
4. Take your customers behind-the-scenes — People come to Instagram to get a behind-the-scenes look. Use Instagram to tell the world how your business operates, the team that makes it all happen and the effort that it takes to bring your product or service to market.
5. Get creative with video —The total time people spent watching video on Instagram has increased 150% over the last six months.  That said, lots of people aren’t able to consume sound when on mobile so ensure your video will be engaging with or without sound.  And don’t forget to try out our new video tools like Hyperlapse and Boomerang to create simple and engaging videos.
6. Choose quality over quantity — Instagram is where people go to connect around their passions and interests. Developing content that is authentic and well crafted will help businesses stand out by fitting in.
7. Experiment with advertising — To find new customers, consider experimenting with advertising on the platform. Instagram introduced ads to businesses of all sizes in September, and offers all of the same targeting capabilities as Facebook while utilizing the same simple ad buying interfaces. We also offer many ad formats – landscape, up to sixty-second video and multi-image or videos for example. When our new business tools roll out soon, you’ll also be able to promote a post directly from the Instagram app.
8. Search for inspiration — Businesses have been a part of the Instagram community from the beginning. Follow your business partners, advocates, and influencers in the community whose content may relate to your business or inspire you. What do they do well that you can learn from?
9. Seek advice and feedback — Your community of fellow entrepreneurs on Instagram domestic and abroad is one of the best resources you can go to for advice.
10. Keep your eyes peeled for Instagram Business Tools — These tools will give small businesses like yours the support they need to grow. Profiles with a contact button, insights on your posts and audience, and the ability to promote a post from your account on Instagram will make it easier than ever for your business to find new customers.

With these 10 tips in mind, you’ll be able to continue to build your business on Instagram, which is a place to turn your passion into livelihood.

The post 10 Ways Instagram Can Help Your Business Find New Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Snapchat Announces a New Advertising Option

If millennials are your target market, you probably know about Snapchat by now. This social media platform is a hit among 18-34-year-olds, who use the platform to share pictures and videos. Snapchat has offered various advertising options for a while now, but on June 13^th, they announced a brand new option that shows promise for reaching the millennial market. This article explains your new Snapchat advertising option, and also presents an infographic full of tips on how you can use Snapchat to market your business (both organically and paid).

Click to read New Snapchat Advertising: Target Millennials with Video Ads

Pitching the Media

Another way to market your business is to get coverage in the media. Although small business owners typically don’t have the budget to hire a PR person, the DIY strategy can work when executed properly. This article shares tips on how to pitch the media, including where to pitch as well as the length and timing of your pitch.

Click to read 3 Ways to Pitch Your Small Business to the Media

Improve Your Sales with Negotiation Skills Training

Sales are the most important aspect of building a successful business. Think about it – no matter how great your marketing is, you won’t get very far if your sales team can’t seal the deal. In the days of fierce competition, your sales team must be able to build a strong argument for your product and service, but they also must be prepared to negotiate the final terms and price. This article presents six reasons why you should provide negotiation skills training to your sales team to set them up for success.

Click to read Negotiation Skills Training: Why Startups Need It

Growth Hacks to Try in Your Small Biz

Growth hacking refers to a wide range of activities spread across marketing, sales, programming, and design that help a business grow FAST. Taking examples from successful startups like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Pinterest and more, this article shows you how you can also use growth hacks like referrals, email signatures, communities, piggybacking and more in your small business.

Click to read 9 Growth Hacks from Your Favorite Startups (And How to Use Them)

What do you say – are you ready to market your business and bring your sales to the next level? Get guidance in the articles above and for more ideas and inspiration visit SmartHustle.com.

The post SH Recap – Market Your Business, Improve Your Sales, and GROW! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Google AdWords is probably one of the first and most well known advertising platforms that many small businesses have used. While TV, Radio, Newspaper advertisements and other platforms are not “do it yourself” – Google Adwords has almost from the beginning enabled any small business owner, with a small budget, to click, buy and have their message spread all over the Internet.

Whether you own an SEO tools website or you run an SEO business, the ability to track and report to customers the Google ranking for their specific keywords will be an essential part of the service that you provide. Zenserp API enables you to obtain location based and geolocated search engine results. Of course, you could always do a manual Google search and then sift through the results to find put where a client’s website is ranked on the Google SERPs, but no one wants to have to do that, which is where a Google Rank Tracking API comes into play. To know more about Google search API go through zenscrape.com .

At the Google Performance Summit, where we unveil new updates to our AdWords and Analytics platforms, we announced ways we have redesigned AdWords for this mobile-first world. Last year alone, our search and advertising tools drove $165 billion of economic activity for over 1 million businesses, website publishers, and nonprofits across the U.S alone. These tools have an incredible impact on businesses from the largest Fortune 500 company to your favorite mom-and-pop shop. Here are 5 AdWords developments small businesses need to know about:

(1) New local search ads across Search and Maps

Nearly a third of all mobile searches are related to location. To help advertisers reach customers searching for business locations, we introduced local search ads across Google.com and Google Maps, on both the desktop and mobile versions of the site as well as the app. Businesses using location extensions in AdWords can display their business location more prominently when consumers search for things like “dentist” or “car repair shop near me” while on their mobile phones.

(2) Branded, customized experiences for businesses on Google Maps

We are testing new local ad formats that will allow your business to strengthen your brand presence in Maps. These ad formats will also make it easier for your customers to find local businesses as they navigate on Google Maps. For example, Maps users may start seeing experiments like logos on Maps or promoted pins for gas stations or restaurants along their driving route. Local businesses pages are also getting a fresh look so customers can explore your store, special offers, and product inventory – before they arrive.

(3) Expanded text ads to help your ads work harder across screens

New expanded text ads are evolving to be optimized for smartphone screens. With more ad space, businesses can provide more information for the on-the-go mobile customer who wants to know what you offer before tapping through to your website. And this will be available for both mobile and desktop.

Expanded text ads in AdWords will offer a more prominent headline with two 30-character headlines versus one 25-character headline. They will also allow for longer descriptions. Instead of two 35-character description lines, you can have one consolidated 80-character description line.

This gives you the chance to showcase more unique details about your business, like if you are family-owned or only source from local purveyors.

(4) Responsive ads for display, designed to adapt to various screens

With responsive display ads, it will be easier to access inventory for the different formats available on the Google Display Network. These ads will automatically adapt to the diverse content, shapes and sizes of the more than two million publisher sites and apps on the Google Display Network. You can just provide headlines, a description, an image, and a URL, and AdWords will create beautiful ads for you that looks good on every device and site.

(5) More control and flexibility for bidding on AdWords

In today’s mobile-first world you increasingly need more control and flexibility to optimize bids on different devices. Currently, advertisers set mobile bids as a multiplier of the base bid for desktop.

Later this year, you will be able to set individual bid adjustments for each device type – mobile, desktop and tablet – separately and optimize with greater precision, while keeping it simple to reach customers across devices. We also announced a wider range to adjust bids – up to +900%, offering even more flexibility.

Look out for these updates, coming soon. And that’s not all. We gave a sneak peak of the new AdWords Interface, coming in 2017. AdWords is continuing to evolve to work harder for you in this mobile-first world.

The post Google AdWords Is Evolving: 5 AdWords Developments for the Mobile-First World appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Nimble CRM has upgraded its software solution in a powerful way. Enable its users to not just do a search based on basic contact information but also by information curated from social media and public database.

Nimble’s blog post on this has more details.

Their blog post reads, ”

Nimble automatically enriches your contacts with actionable details from public and private databases, including social profile information and company demographics.

We put the enriched people and company data into the Social Profiles section of Nimble and now with Smart Segmentation, you can use it to find contacts to connect with.”

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Small Business Week Events

Small Business Week is an initiative of the SBA so they are running a special series of Small Business Week events which includes live events (with live streaming online) and webinars to educate small business owners. However, many other companies are joining in on the fun with their own events, including contests, promotions, training, and dedicated content. This article covers all the main events so you can participate.

Click to read Small Business Week 2016 Events.

The Importance of Follow-Up

In this interview with SCOTTeVEST founder Scott Jordan, he tells us about what he says is the “one reason for my success” – following up on every opportunity that comes his way. He explains how follow-up is important in nearly every aspect of your business, whether it is customer and advertising inquiries or daily business operations. The informative audio interview is bolstered with a list of Scott’s top 6 tips for successful follow-up.

Click to read Follow-Up: The Most Powerful Tool for Your Small Business Success.

New Tool to Generate PR Buzz

As it stands right now, the PR process is pretty messy. Businesses want media coverage, but reporters often feel ‘spammed’ by PR teams who fill up their inboxes with pitches. At SXSW 2016, Ramon learned about a new tool called Babbler that is aimed at improving the process. Babbler works like a social media site and helps to connect business marketers with right reporters who are looking to cover stories on that topic. The result – reporters get content they need to make great stories, and businesses get the media coverage they are looking for.

Click to read How Babbler Can Help You Generate Buzz about Your Business.

It’s Time to Grow Your Business

In this video interview, Ramon gets the opportunity to chat with Amanda Holmes, CEO of the business growth company Chet Holmes International. The video full of tips on how to take your business to the next level. In the article, we’ve also pulled out some of Amanda’s tips as the must-follow rules for business growth. This article is sure to put you on the path to success.

Click to read 5 Rules of Business Growth from CEO of Chet Holmes International.

What Small Business Week events will you be participating in? Which interview are you going to check out first?  Let us know in the comments and check out SmartHustle.com for help on your other small business questions.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Small Business Week Events + 3 Amazing Interviews appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

There’s 4 big pillars of advertising – print (newspapers, magazines), radio, TV and Facebook. End of story. It’s not …and social media…it’s “and Facebook”.

Facebook’s $5.2 billion of advertising revenue in the first quarter, 1.7 billion users, profit of $1.5 billion continue to make Facebook a POWERFUL contender far beyond it’s rivals such as Twitter or Snapchat.

Dear business owner ensure your business is getting all you can out of Facebook organic posts and paid advertising. Hire a consultant or agency who can help you navigate the best way to use Facebook.

Sure, depending on your audience, definitely look into other digital advertising options, but Facebook is the frontier everyone’s playing in. If you’re not there – you’re making a mistake.

Read the WSJ’s coverage of Facebook’s earnings here.

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If you’re still looking for marketing ideas to try (and master) then this is the Smart Hustle Recap for you! Today we will be featuring a number of marketing strategies that work for small business owners, including developing a return on relationships, designing personalized products, creating a stunning business logo, and using hashtags to your benefit.

Marketing Strategies that Work #1: Return on Relationships

You have likely heard of ROI, or return on investment, but what about ROR? ROR stands for return on relationships, and in this Smart Hustle interview, Ted Rubin (who coined the phrase) will tell you what it is, how you can grow ROR through social media, and how ROR will impact your bottom line.

Click to read Ted Rubin on How to Maximize Your Return on Relationships (ROR)

Marketing Strategies that Work #2: Personalized Products

In this second Smart Hustle interview, we hear from Gustav Reyes, who has found success creating wooden rings. In addition to inspiration, the article will teach you about the benefit of creating your own niche, including personalizing the customer experience with customizable, intimate gifts that are sure to draw the customers in.

Click to read How to Pursue Your Business Dreams – An Interview with Gustav Reyes

Marketing Strategies that Work #3: Business Logo

Your business logo gives your company a visual identity. It sends a message about what your business is about, and it helps customers recognize your brand when they see it. Certain elements of the business logo, (like meaning, color, representation, design contrast, and a timeless appearance) should be planned out in advance to get the biggest impact. If you’re just starting out (or looking to rebrand with a new logo), this article has the essential design information you need.

Click to read 5 Essential Elements of an Eye-Catching and Memorable Business Logo

Marketing Strategies that Work #4: Hashtags

Hashtags were made popular on Twitter almost a decade ago, but now they are a staple of all social media sites. Used correctly, hashtags can help categorize and publicize your social media messages to reach a wider audience, but if done wrong, they can scare your followers away. If you’re still struggling with hashtags in your small business, this article offers 3 simple ways to use them effectively.

Click to read Hashtags Can Help Your Small Business Be One of the Big Guys

Marketing will always be somewhat of a mystery because it is not an exact science, but if you take the time to do your research, you can create a solid marketing plan for your small business. Explore the above articles to learn about these marketing strategies that work, and for help with other marketing and business questions, check out the Smart Hustle homepage.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Marketing Strategies That Work Including Return on Relationships, Hashtags, Logos & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How to Use Landing Pages

Landing pages are an important tool to use in the middle of your marketing funnel. They help you capture website visitor information so they become leads that you can contact – and then they help move those leads into paying customers. In this interview with Robert Nendza of LeadPages (a landing page tool), he explains how to use landing pages, detailing the process so you can replicate it in your own business. This article (and the accompanying audio interview) is sure to change the way you think and execute your marketing.

Click to read How to Build a Powerful Marketing Machine: Tips from LeadPages VP of Marketing

The Inspirational Story of the Kauffman Foundation

The Kauffman Foundation is a philanthropic organization that is devoted to the advancement of education and entrepreneurialism. As a small business owner, you may have come across the name before and even visited the website for resources like the ‘Founders School’ which provides valuable information to entrepreneurs. In this article, we get the full story of the man behind the Kauffman Foundation. In an exclusive Smart Hustle interview, Matt Pozel from the Kauffman Foundation tells the inspirational tale of Ewing Kauffman whose sales expertise and business savvy helped him earn the money to start the foundation. This is a tale that is sure to inspire and motivate your own journey.

Click to read Matt Pozel of the Kauffman Foundation Shares the Story & Legacy of Ewing Kauffman (Interview)

Stop Aiming for Perfect

Small business owners are a highly ambitious group, a fact that makes many of us prone to perfectionism. While ‘perfect’ may be the standard you have set in your business, this article explains why perfectionism can actually hurt, not help, your business. If you need convincing, this article has 5 reasons why perfectionism isn’t a good model. It also offers help to those perfectionists who have to learn how to let go.

Click to read 5 Reasons You Need to Stop Aiming for Perfect in Your Business

Knowledge, inspiration, and reality checks – that’s what we are offering you in this edition of the weekly Smart Hustle Recap. For help on your other small business issues and questions, make sure to check out the full Smart Hustle website here.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: How to Use Landing Pages, the Story behind the Kauffman Foundation, and More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

I am a serial entrepreneur. I started my first business in 1981 and it is still operating. Over the past 35+ years I own or have owned 6 businesses. Some did extremely well. Others failed. All provided or continue to provide learning lessons that I implement to increase productivity and profitability of the businesses we work with as well as my own businesses. I’ve shared my learning experiences in my books, The Courage to be Profitable, The Ugly Truth about Small Business, and The Ugly Truth about Managing People.

I have also learned from many entrepreneurs and authors. My favorites, which I call the classics, may not be the most popular or well known. All have solid business advice including why you need Library Solutions. These books should be in your library, not sitting on the shelf collecting dust, instead dog earred, highlighted, and used as guidance for your profitable business.

Sales

You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, David Sandler

David’s sales processes are tried, true, and will help any professional sales person. Follow his funnel , implement his suggestions, and your sales closing ratio and dollar volume will increase. You will know when to walk away before you spend your valuable time on a potential sale that will never become reality.

How to Master the Art of Selling, Tom Hopkins

This is a basic primer for sales. Definitions, practices, and methods to sell almost everything, including Tom’s famous bird bath example. Learn words and phrases to use and ones to avoid in this practical, down to earth book.

Marketing

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Dan and Chip Heath

Whether you are marketing to customers, potential customers, or your employees, your messages must get out. They must break through the clutter and be memorable. Dan and Chip show us how to get our ideas to stick. Hint: tell a story. The sticker your messages, the better chance of increasing your customer base.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott

David constantly revises this book to keep you abreast of the latest changes in marketing and PR. He offers a step-by-step action plan to help you invest your marketing and PR dollars wisely. The latest version includes social media, video, and mobile applications that you can use to reach buyers directly.

Finance

The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clayson

Give back. This book shows you an easy formula to do it so that you don’t break the bank. It also shows you an easy way to handle your business finances. If you are profitable, handle your cash well, and give back, then you will have a nest egg and cash reserves when you need them.

Personal Development

Think and Grow Rich and Laws of Success in Sixteen Lessons, Napoleon Hill

Napoleon is the granddaddy of business personal development books. Andrew Carnegie tasked Napoleon Hill with studying, interviewing, and writing about how the habits and routines of rich and powerful business magnates to discover what made them successful. The result: these two books which give insight into the thinking patterns and actions of successful businessmen. Copy them and you have a great chance of being successful.

Author Bio: Ruth King is the CEO and founder of Profitability Revolution Paradigm, an internet-based television program that provides information to help small business owners better run their businesses and maximize their profits. A serial entrepreneur, she also wrote the book The Courage to Be Profitable, a resource that helps small business owners get and stay profitable in less than 30 minutes a month.

The post Business Classics That Should Be in Every Small Business Owner’s Library appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How to Get Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Small busineses can fork over a lot of dough for marketing, but arguably the most effective type of marketing is free: word-of-mouth marketing. This article is based on an interview with Olga Kay, owner of a business that makes fun socks for millennials, called MooshWalks. Olga has successfully engaged her loyal customers and social media followers to do the marketing for her company. This article combines advice from that interview plus extra tips so you too can activate word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

Click to read Simple Ways to Get your Customers to Do Your Marketing for You.

Just in Time for Filing: Tax Tips for Small Business Owners

Small business tax filing is not something that most of us look forward to – but once again, we find ourselves nearing the deadline for 2015 tax filing. If you are still gathering your documents, you will appreciate these small business tax tips from Candace Klein of Dealstruck.

Click to read 5 Solid Tax Tips for Filing as a Small Business.

Become a Better Manager Today

When you start a small business, you inevitably throw yourself into the role of ‘manager,’ whether you are leading a small team of employees or working with freelancers online. How the manager handles employees and work situations can greatly impact the success of the business operations – and no matter how good you are, we could all stand to improve our managerial skills. This article shares advice from Michael Riley of Vayner Media – ten tips that will help you successfully lead a team of workers.

Click to read 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Manager.

Marketing, managing, tax filing – what is on your small business to-do list this week?

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Tax Tips & How to Become a Better Manager appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Video is an essential engagement tool for the social world we live in. Video brings you closer to your audience, helps explain topics better and so much more. There are three ways to shoot great video – with your phone, with a professional camera or with a pro-sumer camera. Of course ensure your audio and lighting are good and that what you’re saying or video taping is relevant to your anticipated audience.

Once you’ve recorded video, the next step and what’s most challenging for people is editing it. To edit video, you can use an app on your phone, use

To edit video, you can use an app on your phone, use Apple iMovie, Microsoft Movie Maker, Adobe Premier or one of a number of other video editing tools.

Magisto is an app that I used a few months ago, which works on your smart phone. They’ve recently launched Magisto for business.

The secret sauce of Magisto is that once you upload your video (or videos), select your music and select the TYPE of video you want to be created.Magisto’s artificial intelligence automatically creates a master piece – edited video – for you.

Magisto’s artificial intelligence automatically creates a master piece – edited video – for you.

Sure, you can edit your own video or hire someone to do it for you – but if neither of these are options – give Magisto a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.

The post Magisto for Business: Easy Way To Create Good Videos With Minimal Effort appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Valentine’s Day Marketing

If your business hasn’t done any Valentine’s Day marketing yet, you probably think it is too late to capitalize on the holiday. Not so fast! This Smart Hustle article shares ten Valentine’s Day marketing ideas that you can try at the last minute. The list includes ideas for boosting sales and customer engagement, applicable to both online and brick-and-mortar stores.

Click to read 10 Last Minute Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas

Tech Twitter Chat

Did you hear the news? Staples has recently unveiled a new feature called Staples Tech Services where you can get next day service on PCs brought to their store by noon. To explore the topic of how technology downtime impacts businesses, they are holding a tech Twitter chat on February 17, hosted by Ramon Ray and Denise O’Berry. This article will tell you everything you need to know to participate in this tech Twitter Chat – including some helpful information for those who have never participated before.

Click to read Staples #MakeMoreHappen Twitter Chat: Avoiding & Reducing Tech Downtime

Tips to Compete With – and even BEAT – Bigger Businesses

As a small business owner, you probably feel that you are at a disadvantage compared to the power and resources that your bigger business competitors have. While bigger budgets and more manpower are to their advantage, there are also several advantages that YOU hold over THEM. This article explores five key ways that you use your own small business strengths to your advantage.

Click to read 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Beat Bigger Businesses

Making Pivotal Changes in Your Business

After you’ve established your businesses, making changes can be a risky endeavor. However, if planned carefully, pivoting your business can lead to greater success. This article gives a few examples of companies that have successfully pivoted and outlines how you too can use pivoting to give your business a fresh start.

Click to read Why Your Small Business Needs to Pivot

Marketing, technology, sales – what is your business focused on at this particular moment in time? Click to explore the articles that will help you the most, and stay tuned next week for another Smart Hustle recap.

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The survey involved gathering opinions from more than 1,000 small business owners from across the United States. The ten-question survey asked about small business marketing in 2016, including goals, priorities, challenges and tactics.

Results show just how tough small business marketing is. Some of the interesting findings include:

• Nearly 47 percent of small business owners handle marketing on their own. That’s a big duty for someone who already wears so many hats.
• Nearly one in five small business owners don’t plan on using digital marketing in 2016. Digital marketing includes things such as websites, social media, digital advertising and email marketing – techniques that are popular among larger businesses but harder for some small businesses to manage.
• Over 20 percent of small business owners don’t store customer and lead information at all and only 24 percent use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
• Small business owners are challenged with measuring the results of their marketing campaigns. Almost half aren’t sure if their efforts are effective, and 13.9 percent know for sure that they aren’t.

Despite these statistics, small business owners are well aware of the potential benefits of a good marketing strategy. About half will be using digital marketing in 2016 to drive sales and brand awareness, and about one in three will focus on goals such as collecting leads and retaining customers. There are many one of the top agencies in legal firm marketing that specialize in working.

The survey clearly shows how difficult small business marketing is. One potential reason is demonstrated in the following finding: “Most small businesses are still using a fairly unsophisticated digital marketing stack.” Fourty-one percent use only one or two software applications, and another 26 percent use three or four.

However, there are plenty of tech tools available for small business marketing, including tools to help manage customers and leads, tools to help measure marketing results, and tools that make specific strategies (like blogs, social media, and emails) easier to implement. Small business marketing is definitely one of the biggest challenges your company will face – it’s time to embrace the technology that will make it simpler and more effective.

The post Overwhelmed by Marketing? New Survey Shows Just How Tough Small Business Marketing Is appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

However, one thing is missing – an app.

Why should my local Honda dealer have an app? I’ll tell you and maybe you can learn from them.

The buy here pay here near me Dealer has a repeat business – customers come to the dealer to get their cars fixed – on a regular basis. I recommended that they have an app which reminds customers to come in and get their cars checked – oil, tire rotations and etc.

This is one big reason I recommended that they have an app. One that reminds customers to come in and get their cars checked – oil, tire rotations and etc.The best feature of the app is that, they provide the service of collision repair at anywhere anytime. This app will further impress on customers that their local Honda dealer is there for them.

What about your business? Should you have an app?

I don’t think every business needs an app – but every business should evaluate if they need one for sure.

An app is a way to “reach out and touch” your customers, to serve them better and serve as a reminder of the services you can provide to them.

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