Category: Marketing
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What to Know About Location-Based Data
For businesses in any industry and of any size, location-based data and the use of a location analysis tool can take your marketing to the next level. Location-based marketing means that you’re targeting your audience based on where they are at a current moment, or maybe where they’ve recently been. For example, you could target an audience that had recently been to a local car repair shop, or maybe you’re using zip codes to target people. Location data can provide a lot of information about what a person does on a daily basis. This could include their shopping habits, where they prefer to eat, and it can even provide information about how they go from looking at a product online to buying it in a store. The use of location-based data means that you can personalize your products or services and be more targeted and efficient with your marketing. The following are some of the big things to know. The Basics Location data is typically a reference to the specific geographic position of a smartphone or another device, or a building. There are coordinates that are expressed as Latitude and Longitude, and these are the geographic positions themselves. As far as marketing, GPS data is what’s most commonly being talked about. GPS provides coordinates gathered by a device. There’s another term to be aware of here too, which is a Software Development Kit or SDK. SDK codes are used by app developers. These codes then tell the app once it’s installed on someone’s device to collect location data from that device. The codes that are installed in an app do require that the user give explicit permission for the collection of location data. The SDK method gives deep insight into the habits of users, but the opt-in element is important. Usually, the opt-in is obtained when a user first interacts with an app after downloading it. In some cases, an SDK can only work when the app is open, and others can run in the background. Legality Location data doesn’t record someone’s identity or any information that could personally identify them. Businesses small and large throughout the world do use location data. There are regulations and legal compliance issues to be aware of, though. For example, data privacy laws dictate how businesses can collect and utilize some customer data. A data collector has to get the specific consent of someone to use, store, manage or share their data. You also have to provide them the opportunity to opt-out any time. Strategies For Location-Based Marketing There are a lot of ways that you can use location-based data in your marketing. Examples include: Geofencing: This is a concept where location data is collected in real-time. With this approach, there’s the creation of a virtual perimeter around a certain location. Then, you’re either gathering data within that or targeting. You can use it for proximity marketing. For example, if someone with your app enters an area within your perimeter, then they might get a push notification letting them know of a sale or event. Geotargeting: This is about delivering ads to people in a particular location, but it’s different from geofencing in that it can use previous location data paired with specific attributes of the audience. It might, for example, use location along with interest or behavioral data. This gives the opportunity for segmented and tailored marketing. Conquesting: This location-driven marketing approach is about reaching your competitor’s customers. For example, you’re using collected data to reach an audience when they are visiting the location of your competitor. What Types of Businesses Are a Good Fit for Location-Driven Marketing? There are broadly a few types of businesses that might find location marketing is a good fit for them. First, if you have retail locations, it can be a good idea to explore the collection of location data. This can include shops, restaurants, or car dealerships. If you’re a business that has special events or seasonal events, you might consider it. This could include event venues, sporting businesses, and businesses in travel or hospitality. eCommerce brands might use location marketing to find shoppers that go to brick-and-mortar competitors. Niche industries such as transportation and real estate as well as education can benefit from location marketing. Location data is really the biggest thing right now in terms of understanding customer behavior and the full customer journey and filling in gaps in that journey or perhaps the gaps between online and offline behavior. Read Also: Crucial Role of Content Marketing in Local Business Tips on Doing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for Businesses 5 Marketing Tips to Help Grow Your Business on Instagram
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Avoiding Sales And Operations Planning Mistakes
When it comes to sales and operations planning, a lot of mistakes can be made throughout the process, and you won’t be successful. Planning for the sales and the operations is going to lead the organization to the peak of success. But faults and errors are going to cost more than this. For beginners, the sales mistakes chances are enormous. Take a look at the common mistakes and avoid making blunders. 5 Common Planning Mistakes In Sales And Operations The organizational structure and the profit are entirely depending upon the organization’s sales and operational system. Therefore, avoiding these sales mistakes can help you execute best practices and reap the rewards. Here are five common sales mistakes which can lead your organization to a dark and challenging state. 1. Lack Of Executive Ownership The big sales mistakes happen when the executive leadership team doesn’t fully own the sales and operations planning process. If leadership isn’t engaged, then it won’t be as successful. If the leaders aren’t involved, it’s essential to understand why. It could be you aren’t giving them the tools to run the company or consider information that is easy to understand. A good technology platform may also be the key. The best processes and people can only take you so far, and technology can help speed up the process and allow the team to shift focus from just calculations to analysis, which is more important. 2.Lack of Cross-Functional Engagement The whole point of using the sales and operations planning process is to make sure the entire organization is moving in the same, right direction. This can be hard to do if there isn’t any involvement from the key stakeholders. If you aren’t having sales, operations, or finance teams engaged in the process, you won’t be successful. Usually, this is due to a lack of a way to translate between the different views of information. To make the process work, you need to have the same information exposed to each stakeholder in the form they need and understand. You can start small and work your way up to more significant projects, but you need to extend the scope to all the different people and provide the required translation to make sure everyone is on the same page. You may go through History and How to Increase Sales in Your Confectionery Shop 3.Focusing On Just One Number For years, the mantra of sales and operations planning was to get to a one-number plan, but this can be too simplified and limits the value of planning for many executives. Executives are paid for predictability, and they are hired to manage sales mistakes risk. Planning can be a great tool to help, but only if you aren’t falling for the one-number trap. Instead, it helps plan in ranges and have a best case, worst case, and expected all in the process. The ability to know what can happen if things don’t go according to the plan is priceless information. 4.Complexity It’s essential to keep it simple when it comes to metrics. Companies can become paralyzed by making the wrong decisions when looking at hundreds of different metrics. On the other hand, having things too complex can prevent companies from asking the right questions. You should pick your big 10 to 15 metrics and then go with them. Then, track these metrics and make the performance transparent. Therefore everybody can understand why these metrics are being tracked, what they are, and how to learn from the numbers. Common sales mistakes can be avoided by knowing the metrics and analyzing the data. 5.Not Having Documentation In order to learn from past mistakes, you have to have documentation. You need to capture all the assumptions and knowledge that goes into the plan. You need to provide a tool to capture this information and make it easy for teams to contribute. For instance, if you are collaborating as a group using social media, then be sure to capture those chats and embed them into the plan, so you are able to understand the context of changes or decisions six months later. If you aren’t learning from history, you are doomed when you will repeat it and won’t succeed. Conclusion: Sales and operations planning can give you great results, but you may not achieve success if you aren’t executing the process correctly. These are the common sales mistakes that may happen at any time. If you want to avoid making these mistakes, always look at the operation and data collection before planning. What is your strategy to avoid making mistakes for the sales and operation plannings? Do not forget to share your opinion in the comment section. Read Also: This Is Why Social Media Is Essential in the B2B Sales Process Getting Help from an E-Commerce Expert to Boost Your Online Store Sales
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What is a Digital Marketing Agency and What Can It Do For You?
A digital marketing agency is not a typical traditional marketing service. A digital marketing agency is a resource that aims to help its client reach customers through multi-channel marketing, single-channel marketing, or omnichannel marketing. To learn more about digital marketing and traditional marketing, visit american-image.com If you desire to hire a digital marketing agency, they will be your ticket to help promote your business, raise brand awareness, build a strong foundation of customer loyalty, and increase your online and offline sales. This can be done through digital marketing efforts using different elements like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media marketing, pay-per-click ads (PPC), stylish website design, data statistic reports, and other online marketing strategies. With the right digital marketing agency, you can utilize many if not all different digital marketing techniques. The right digital marketing agency can give you the flexibility you need to handle many digital marketing components so that you can focus on other important things like running your business. 5 Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency 1. Manage your business more effectively: You may be an expert in your business but not in digital marketing. When you hire a digital marketing agency, they can help you plan and develop strategies so that you can promote your business online. They have experts who will help you manage various digital platforms and help build a strong online presence. By hiring a digital marketing agency, you will benefit from their structure and procedures in marketing your business digitally. 2. More customers: Digital marketing agencies have the right resources to put on pay-per-click advertising on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Instagram. What you just need to do is pay for the ad space fee. It is not just about putting an ad online, you need the right agency who will make your ad look good so that customers will find it visually appealing enough to click on it and find out more. More appealing online ads will reach many potential customers. However, online ads on popular social media platforms are not cheap. But if you think about it, your initial investment now on online ads might yield a high investment as it can have the potential to bring in more customers. If you pick the right digital marketing agency, they already know how to reach your target customers and bring a positive return on the investment you spent. 3. You are in expert hands: If you are the only one running your business you might be overwhelmed with aspects beyond the day-to-day operations of your business. Hiring a digital marketing agency might be the better choice rather than hiring one employee to do the digital marketing aspect of your business. Labor costs and time will be lost to you if you take the time to hire an employee. But, if you hire a digital marketing agency, there is no need to think about training and developing an employee on digital marketing, an agency has all the right resources and marketing professionals who will do the job for you. They have all the necessary skills and industry know-how to bring your digital marketing strategy up. So, save your energy and money and look for the digital marketing agency that is right for you and for your budget. 4. Gain valuable resources: A reputable and competent digital marketing agency will have access to various resources that will help you further your online presence. They have all the necessary tools to monitor and create your online reputation. The digital agencies often have their tools and will be able to give you ideas and technical knowledge from them so that you don’t need to buy these tools. These tools will help your business increase your abilities so that your brand can be marketed online in the best ways possible. 5. You keep up with the latest online trends: It is the digital marketing agency’s mission and objective to know and to stay on top of the latest trends. If your business does not keep up with the latest trends then any potential and current customers may view your business as outdated. This is not a good way to retain customers and increase customer loyalty. An agency whose job is to learn and apply these top trends will help inform you about the latest trends so that you can use them for the benefit of your business. Read Also: Why Should You Hire a B2B Digital Marketing Consultant? Why Email Marketing is the BEST Digital Marketing Outreach in Singapore
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Third-Parties And Supporting Marketing Presence
There always seem to be more things to do than there is time to do them. And the list just keeps getting longer. If this sounds familiar, the answer could lie in working with third-party sources. Your marketing presence is not only bringing you wealth. Your selections of the service-providing companies are also becoming more reliable. More companies like to work with you. Unlike hiring additional staff, outsourcing enables you to bring on extra help as needed. In addition to saving money on staffing, you also get the benefit of paying only for the services you need when you need them. In the context of a marketing department, this can be a real benefit. Many small or medium-sized businesses with a marketing team tend to run fairly lean, with staff required to wear several hats. While this works most of the time, it can create gaps in skills or quality. 5 Tips To Reaching Out The Third-Party Service Providers- By reaching out to third-party service providers, you can fill those gaps. Say, for instance, you’ve identified a need for more quality content. This is, typically, a somewhat time-consuming activity that requires a certain level of advanced knowledge and skill to do well. In this case, it would make perfect sense to outsource writing services to boost your blog effectiveness. Here are the five tips for increasing marketing presence. 1.Enhanced Search Engine Rankings: Well-written blog articles will incorporate SEO practices, such as keywords for items your customers are searching for, as well as other tactics. These methods will help people looking for information to find your website and increase your chances of capturing that coveted first page of search results. When working to improve search engine results, consistency is key. By having writers regularly create content, you’ll notice that your website’s search engine ranking increases over time. 2.Create More Content: When taking on multiple duties, there’s only so much content a small marketing department can create. However, third-party content writing firms have access to various writers and can produce a far larger amount of content than your business could produce in-house. This can be especially valuable if you need to populate a new blog with content. If you’ve done a site audit and identified gaps in your content or opportunities to educate your customer base, the faster you can produce the required content, the quicker you’ll notice results. A third-party resource is often better equipped to do this than your in-house talent. 3.Improved Engagement: As opposed to marketing department staff who writes sometimes, professional writers are experts in crafting a message that gets results. They’re also experts at creating engaging content. That combination is ideal when looking to increase brand engagement. Whether it’s social, email, or blogs, crafting engaging content is the bread and butter of content writing agencies. Starting with social media engagement is the most convenient path to start. To build up the marketing presence. Your brand recognition and social media engagements both are playing an important role. From the social media platforms, you will get the connections of a hundred followers. The interested followers are going to visit your website, and they are interested in your activity. Your engaging post will attract viewers, and when you have a good number of followers, then approaching the third party is becoming easier. 4.Quality Content: When writing content is the sole service offering, producing high-quality work is good for business. This demand to always produce high-quality work ends up being a de facto guarantee that you’ll get the best writing you can buy when outsourcing to a content writing company. Content is the most valuable part of keeping your website and social media page interesting. For the marketing presence, your interesting and quality informative content is like a booster. Every year Google is upgrading its search engine algorithm, and every year, you will need a good source of content. And how you can supply this amount of content. When you take professional help for the content writing, every content will qualify the parameter. 5.SEO And Page Traffic: Every third-party company loves to work with successful and popular companies or influencers. Your Google page SEO and page traffic are quite an essential factor in building up the marketing presence. Your page traffic and the social media followers list is denoting how your engagement is. When you achieve a higher ranking position in the google search engine, the viewer’s visit ratio will also increase. When you want to increase your website page traffic, you have to fulfill the SEO terms in each of your content postings. And when you are taking the help of a professional, every content will be SEO optimized. Wrapping It Up: A company specializing in article and blog writing would be an ideal choice, as they will have a stable of writers to ensure you get someone with the experience to write knowledgeably about your niche. Several benefits are associated with increased marketing presence. Do not forget to share your comments with us in the comment section. Read Also: Top Ways Video Marketing Will Help Your Business Grow The Challenges of E-Commerce SEO Key Components for Your Marketing Stack
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4 points to consider when creating a Great Content Marketing Strategy
The proverbial ‘holy grail’ of digital marketing is a slow but steady increase in your organic traffic, on a day-to-day basis. The key issue is not the fact that one is able to generate numerous hits on the website itself (important though they may be) but the fact that these hits will eventually be converted into actual sales. In this case, a suitably high conversion rate (resulting in actual earning of revenue) is of near-absolute and paramount importance, especially when it comes to the creation of an entirely self-sustaining and viable online business entity. Yes, the seminal importance of generating leads can never really be overlooked, but the far more critical objective of eventually making these sales remains crucial to the success of just about any business at hand. 4 Keypoints To Remember While Creating A Great Content Marketing Strategy For successfully doing content marketing you will go to need to follow some basic strategy. Your goal is to attract as many as possible audiences to your website. More audiences mean more potential customers. If your content is not going to attract audiences to your website. Your content marketing is not going to be successful. For doing this Here are the four key tips for you and along with this enhance your content marketing strategy. 1. Attracting The Relevant Traffic : It is pertinent to note that most such successes are only possible if the website in question is also able to attract the relevant traffic, in the very first place. This is precisely why many hits right at the initial stage, is of such supreme importance. As a matter of fact, the more such hits, the more the potential for the actual kind of leads that will almost inevitably lead to outright sales, either online or even offline (as the case may be). This can of course, only happen with the website itself is also able to ensure that the ‘just right’ traffic not only comes to the site but also stays there for a long enough period of time to enter the ‘web marketing funnel’ (that is, the process that leads an individual to not just the site itself, but also converts him or her into becoming a long-term customer. This entire process is colloquially known as a ‘marketing funnel’). This is the part where a highly effective content marketing strategy can easily come into the picture. That is, the kind of strategy which will be able to deliver both a sustained and an impactful message to the overall target audience. But in such a manner that it will also help them come to a suitably favorable purchase decision. Let us see just what such a strategy actually entails: 2. Understanding the target market : Here, it is very important, to understand that just about any content generation strategy has to come from the point of view of the target audience itself. The more important points and salient features of this aspect include the psychographics as well as the demographics of the audience that the enterprising content marketer is targeting. For example, if a website retails sports-shoes in the city of London, it would hardly make sense to pepper the website with articles on the Vietnam War (for instance). Here the key point to understand and learn is that one has to ‘tailor-make’ the content to fit in with the audience’s very own likes and dislikes, per se. (An interview with an Olympic hockey, for example, will be able to generate a lot more interest in the products on offer, then if the site owner and marketer were to just simply pick up random news items.) Similarly, if you are a heavy equipment dealer and sell used cab-over trucks and dozers, the content on your website should be relevant to the target market. 3. The seminal importance of creating great headlines : When it comes to understanding the importance of the ‘ubiquitous’ headline, the odds are that many if not most, such ‘digital marketing content specialists’ just simply love to write entire reams and reams of their very favorite articles without ever really understanding the gist of their work. In other words, they just simply fail to realize the fact that it is not the long-winded content that really catches the eye, but rather the headline, itself. If the headline is eye-catching enough, then the odds are that it will also vividly capture the imagination of the reader who will, in turn, be so hooked that he will have no choice but to read the whole thing. And once he does that, it will be easy enough for him to slide into the marketing funnel without even realizing it at all. This is why all content writers should almost always opt to go for a truly eye-catching headline if they possibly can. 4. Express and articulate your ideas very clearly : It is an axiomatic enough of an assumption that any article that converts is a winning article! This is why the web content writer should always avoid writing a lot of complicated stuff as well as long-winded and extended sentences that basically look like absolutely indigestible paragraphs, in their own right. Here, the need of the hour is to keep all such writings, both clear and concise. Albeit, having said that it is important to understand that your writings should be highly effective Here, the best policy and practice is to typically use short, concise and fairly simple words that even a child would be able to understand. In fact, the content writer should try to cut out all unnecessary words, if he possibly can. The point to remember here is that being clear is always much better than merely ‘showing off’ one’s own knowledge. Conclusion : In 2021 Content Marketing is the biggest medium by which you are going to convey your message to your audiences. Ultimately, the quantity and the quality of content on your site will easily go a very long way indeed, in effectively ensuring that you can also retain the core interest of your own target market in a manner that will be calculated to generate not just a single sale, but rather to create repeat customers, again and again. Read Also : How To Monitor The SEO Health Of Your Website Best SEO Tools For Ranking The Website Get A Return On Investment With Your SEO
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5 Actionable Mobile Marketing Tips That Drive Sales
Driving sales is the most important task for any marketing department, no matter how large or small your business. Here are five ways to leverage mobile marketing to increase sales immediately: Build Websites With Mobile in Mind Traditionally, websites are built to perform well on desktop and laptop computers, and then later they are optimized for mobile. In today’s business environment, however, it should be the other way around. Take a look at these statistics about mobile search traffic: 70% of searches made on smartphones or tablets result in immediate action. 73% of consumers believe mobile websites load too slowly. 68% of traffic is lost if a website isn’t configured well enough for a mobile device. Clearly, mobile searches are valuable, and your competition is losing out on these opportunities. Take the time to capture them, or you’ll lose out on sales, too. Create a Mobile Loyalty Program One of the best uses for a mobile application is to provide a loyalty program for your audience. Here are the benefits you can expect your brand to immediately enjoy: They’re less expensive than most inbound tactics that focus on finding new business rather than improving loyalty. Companies that run loyalty programs usually enjoy more growth than other companies. Your company’s reputation is improved by simply launching a loyalty program. You’ll have access to a larger portion of your customer’s overall spend. Not only that, but your customers benefit too. On average, 90 percent of all users with mobile devices believe that enrolling in a brand’s loyalty program benefits them. It’s a win-win situation. Start Distributing Coupons via Mobile Instead of Print One of the best tools you have in your arsenal to drive sales is coupons. Sending them out gives customers an instant incentive to make a purchase immediately, but if you want your customers to use them, you need to make it convenient for them to do so. That’s why mobile devices are the perfect way to distribute your coupons — convenience. Instead of having to print or clip the coupons and bring them when they shop, they’ll have instant access. This is the biggest reason that mobile coupons have a redemption rate that’s 10 times higher than print or clip coupons. Use Text Messages to Nurture Your Leads Text messages are extremely effective at getting read, with an incredible 98 percent open rate. Compare that to email, which hovers slightly above 20 percent. With that kind of power, not taking advantage of text message marketing is a huge mistake. [gallery size="full" columns="1" ids="1444"] One of the best ways to use text messages is to nurture existing leads. Text messaging is an extremely personal communication method, so sending out generalized blasts isn’t a good idea; instead, you want to send relevant, timely information to a targeted audience. Because you know that your message is going to be read, delivering the right message at the right time drives incredible results. Make Everything as Easy as Possible Mobile marketing is a great way to reach an enormous, engaged audience, but you need to understand how that audience is interacting with you. Mobile devices are easier to use than ever before, but they still can’t rival the functionality of traditional computers. If you want to drive mobile subscriptions and more business, you need to simplify everything. Don’t require too much information when somebody is creating an account for your mobile app. Let them do it with just a username and password. Once they've created an account, offer incentives, such as coupons or bonus loyalty points, for additional information. Use shortcodes to make text message subscriptions as simple as sending a single word. The fewer barriers to entry mobile users have, the more people you’ll attract and keep. Have you used mobile marketing to drive sales? Share your own tips and tricks below! Read also: 1. App Development Benefits: Here’s why you should go Mobile 2. Role of messaging apps in enhancing a company’s market prospects
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Digital Marketing Classes: What You Need To Know
As an entrepreneur or business-owner-to-be, you have a lot to learn about every aspect of your business. Working knowledge of subjects such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and content marketing is critical to just about any contemporary business. Many beginners attempt to create a sort of DIY digital marketing course, piecing together bits of information from various sources in order to understand the basics of Google Analytics, WordPress, and other vital internet marketing tools. But, in opting for more formalized digital marketing classes, you and your business will have a leg up in the learning process. A lot falls under the digital marketing umbrella: Depending on your unique needs, you might seek a digital marketing course focused on a particular program or strategy. Maybe you’ve felt comfortable working with Google Analytics in the past but find yourself overwhelmed since upgrading to GA 4. You might be looking to better apply those analytics or to begin an email marketing campaign. If you’re simply seeking out a beginner-friendly digital marketing class, though, you’ll find there’s a lot to learn. Amongst other topics, an expert digital marketer will master SEO, social media marketing, working with Google Ads, content creation, email marketing, and a wide variety of other digital marketing skills. If you’re trying to learn all of this through free online courses or resources, it’s easy to end up overwhelmed. By seeking out expert-backed techniques, you’ll be on your way to mastering online marketing with the exact course material and knowledge you need. You do need to put in the work: Whether you’re planning to enter the digital marketing industry directly or you’re learning these skills as part of a broader role, the fact that you’re seeking out a digital marketing course in the first place implies you’ll be a dedicated student. Otherwise, you could hire a professional digital marketer to handle your marketing channels for you. To get the most out of your digital marketing program, being an active learner is vital, as is actually implementing the skills you learn. Take advantage of your instructor’s expertise and ask questions. Learn as much as you can while working through the course, and you’ll learn everything you could need to manage your online presence. Prior knowledge helps but isn’t necessary: If you already have some experience with digital marketing strategies, you’ll have a strong start in mastering your online marketing efforts. That said, if you’re a beginner in the truest sense of the word, that’s okay, too. You don’t need to have a background in coding, search engines, or social media platforms. That’s why a course offered by digital marketing professionals is the best method for new learners. When your instructors are industry experts, you‘ll have the guidance you need at each step of the learning process. Each step teaches you the practical skills you need to get your offer or business in front of your ideal audience. You don’t need to be a marketer to use digital marketing strategies: Digital marketing as an industry is growing at an increasingly rapid pace, but you don’t need to be entering the marketing field to benefit from a digital marketing course. Small business owners can benefit from implementing digital marketing best practices, as can entrepreneurs, content creators, side hustlers, and job seekers. Mastering online marketing is a great way to market your business or yourself, whether you’re learning about how to improve your website’s conversion rate or curate your LinkedIn profile (in which case you’ll want to showcase your digital marketing certificate, of course!). Marketing managers and beginners alike can benefit from a course focused on online marketing best practices. Naturally, digital marketing professionals need to know how to implement strategies across social media, search engines, and other platforms. However, even if you aren’t a marketer by trade, you can take advantage of an online course to learn the basics and promote your business or yourself, so long as you put in the effort to implement all you’ve learned. Read Also: Essentials For Digital Marketing 5 Types of Digital Marketing Exploring The Different Types Of Digital Marketing Strategies
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The Challenges of E-Commerce SEO
SEO is an essential part of running any business with an online presence (which, in this day and age, all businesses should have). Think of SEO like a bright sign with flashing lights, telling people passing by that your business is here and draws them inside to check it out. However, some businesses will find implementing SEO to boost their site's rankings easier than others will. Especially when it comes to businesses in the e-commerce sector, SEO can be quite a challenge. Even if you've been researching how to improve SEO for your company, you may not be able to find resources that apply to e-commerce companies. Playing By Google's Rules The goal of any business with an online presence is to rank high enough on Google's Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to be seen by customers. Although this is a challenge for any business, E-commerce businesses will find it especially difficult. This is because Google prefers websites that rank high on their E-A-T scale, which measures sites based on Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. In other words, Google prefers informational websites over commercial ones and rewards those that highlight genuine knowledge and don't appear to be trying to make quick money. This criterion is part of Google's method of quality control. As an e-commerce business, your website lies in the YMYL (Your Money Your Life) category. This category encompasses websites whose content can affect the reader's financial, physical, and medical wellbeing. Because the stakes are higher, the scrutiny is higher as well. YMYL websites with misleading or inaccurate information can trick users into making an uninformed decision, causing them harm. Your e-commerce business fits into this category by allowing customers to make purchasing decisions that can cause them financial harm. Managing A High Volume of Content Most e-commerce sites offer listings of hundreds if not thousands of physical and digital products. Product listings are not necessarily written with the utmost care, but Google still parses them like it does any other text on your site, and therefore measures them with its E-A-T criteria. This can be an issue because, due to the sheer number of product descriptions required, many e-commerce sites rely on automation to update these listings. While automated services can be helpful in some regards, they can also lead to typos, grammatical errors, dead links, inaccurate information, and other mistakes. All of these issues can be detected by Google, lowering your website's E-A-T score. Although time-consuming, your best option would be to hire someone whose job is going through every listing individually to update and correct any errors, making sure it meets Google's standards. Bouncebacks Based On Loading Time Your website's bounce rate is the percentage of users who visit briefly and then leave using the back button or by clicking on an external link without browsing other pages on the same site. While one reason for high bounce rates can be a dull or outdated website, this issue can also be caused by poor hosting. E-commerce sites often have lots of buttons, listings, and pop-ups. Pages aren't simple and include many elements. Having so many processes that must run simply to present a page can result in extended load times for users. Unfortunately, most people online are impatient. If your site doesn't load as quickly as visitors think it should, they're likely to leave without browsing, let alone making a purchase. The Google algorithm sees the high bounce rate as a sign that people find no value in your website, so it lowers your ranking and sends fewer people your way, resulting in fewer purchases and reduced revenue. Fortunately, fixing this issue can be fairly straightforward. Either make your website's landing page (the first page that loads for visitors) simpler to avoid long wait times, or contact your website hosting service and look into upgrading to more powerful servers. User Reviews User reviews are a great and almost guaranteed resource for building your E-A-T levels. Google prefers sites that let users review products, as this creates a sense of social credibility and allows people to share feedback, building trust. The more positive reviews your products have, the more Google will boost your website up the SERP. However, too many negative reviews have the exact opposite effect, hurting your website's ranking. You can avoid negative reviews using a review posting tool that allows you to read submitted reviews before they are posted. Knowing Where to Start When faced with the challenge of implementing SEO as an e-commerce business, deciding where to start can be overwhelming. Google doesn't give you a gold star for trying, and starting multiple SEO strategies only to quit them midway can even flag your site as suspicious in Google's eyes. One way you can get started properly is by using Ahrefs' Site Explorer to identify SEO opportunities. You can use this particular tool to analyze what competitors are doing in terms of SEO and piggyback off it, or implement a skyscraper method where you do what they're doing but better. Or you can use it to analyze your own site to find new competitors or broken backlinks. Site Explorer also provides keyword research, backlink profiles, PPC campaigns, and more. Still, a great tool is only useful in the hands of someone who knows how to operate it. Having dedicated SEO experts focused on boosting your site can have better results in the long run. SEO strategies are multi-faceted, and high-quality approaches are time-consuming. Staying Up to Date Google's algorithms are constantly changing, meaning your SEO strategy needs to change with them. As the owner of an e-commerce company, you'll need to be particularly flexible and adaptable. Just like posting only a few times on your site and still expecting increasing returns is a flawed strategy, undertaking a half-baked SEO strategy will hurt you more in the long run. Having experts on your marketing team allows you to smoothly ride all SEO waves and grow your website. Read Also: 8 Key SEO Strategies for E-Commerce Websites How to Monitor the SEO Health of Your Website 5 affordable e-commerce shopping carts for small business Best E-commerce Platforms for Your Box Subscription Business
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5 Tips for Creating a Successful Call to Action in Your Business Emails
Email marketing is an amazing digital marketing strategy to drive more sales and retain customers for a longer time. And every SEO reseller is using it in their strategy. It's among the most ROI-driven marketing practices that bring significant results when performed right. However, as we are moving towards a highly-digitized era where customers' inboxes are generally flooded with promotions, standing out becomes difficult. To entice your prospects to open your email and click on the CTA to take any action, you need to rethink how you have been performing it. You need to pay closer attention to details and improve it as your customers want to see them. In this article, we will have a look at the top five tips for creating a successful call to action in your email to drive maximum revenue. If you are just starting out, these tips will help you take the lead and grow your business. 1. Keep it real: For generating trust and improving the overall click-through rate, you need to keep everything real and not some sort of a gimmick or loaded with terms and conditions. Be very clear about what you are offering and what benefits the readers will get if they click on the button. For example, you can highlight text like there are no hidden charges, you pay what you see, and more like them. These types of text not only help you improve the call to action but also help you gain trust faster among your customers. This thing applies to every section of the email — be it the subject line, body text, or the main CTA, there should not be any misleading clickbait that will increase the bounce rate or unsubscribe rate. 2. Short and active: Ask your copywriter to draft every email in the active voice with very short and crisp sentences. It makes no sense in writing long lines or paragraphs and it has the main reason behind it. Many people check their emails on the go from their smartphones and if the email is lengthy, they might skip it save it to read later. However, as an average user receives a lot of emails a day, the probability of opening back the email is very low. That's why you should keep the email text as simple, and short as possible. However, make sure it's conveying the entire message that you want to present to the readers. You can keep the email body text within 100 - 150 words as it's easier to read and incite users to take the desired action. 3. FOMO works: Creating a sense of urgency using the fear of missing out technique works if you implement it correctly. No one wants to miss out on great deals especially when they need that product or services. You need to make your audience feel they will miss out on something really great if they don't take action right now. You can specify in bold text that it's a time-sensitive offer only or you can run a counter on the landing page. This technique will bring a higher CTR and will make your call to action more prompt and active participation. You will find a lot of free FOMO templates for creating your copy more exciting and click-worthy. 4. Use the right colors: This trick sounds ordinary but it brings extraordinary returns and improves the overall call to action of your business email. Pick the colors that reflect your brand and don't change the color theme frequently. Your readers should register a common theme so that when they will open your email, it will remind them of your brand. Apart from colors, don't overdo animations as they might load slower on some devices due to any reason. Keep the color scheme simple, attractive, and clutter-free. You can use email marketing tools and pick any premade campaigns if you are not into designing them. 5. Creativity: Smart creativity is the key when it comes to a successful call to action in your business emails. Be creative because you need to stand apart from the rest and attract your busy readers' attraction in a limited time span. You need to understand the fact that people's attention span is very limited and you need to make every aspect click-worthy without getting spammy. Instead of using a free stock image, ask your graphics team to create bespoke images that can match your custom offer and improve the CTA. Follow these simple steps for creating a successful call to action and drive more sales to your business. Email marketing is not hard and it can drive substantial results to your business strategies. If you are not into emails, it's the right time to get started and drive additional traffic and revenue to your business. Keep experimenting with different formats to check which works best for you. Read Also: Online Marketing: Selling Your Product And Services How to Integrate Email Marketing With SEO 3 Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List Best Way To Earn Passive Income In 2020: Email Marketing
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Content Marketing Mistakes You Shouldn’t Be Making
By now, most people are aware of the value that a content marketing campaign brings to your business. Given the reach and convenience of the internet, most brands are bound to hop onto the content marketing bandwagon. The only problem here is that not everyone who hops onto trends completely understands them. Before you fully commit to a content marketing campaign, it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into so you can avoid making catastrophic errors. Why Should I Consider Investing in Content Marketing? The first reason that content marketing is beneficial is that it significantly contributes to your return of investment (ROI). ROI can come in different forms, such as a customer subscription, better brand visibility, improved brand reputation, increased inbound traffic, and customer loyalty. Content marketing also helps establish your brand as an authority, so long as your content is of good quality. You can even become your niche’s primary source of information. When this happens, customers are more likely to remember your brand whenever they need a product or service that you offer. Finally, content marketing is a potent means to interact with your target audience (and your target demographic). Sharing content helps you build trust with your audience and it also acts as a means to extend your reach even further whenever your audience shares your content. Furthermore, frequent followers and readers eventually become actual customers. Content marketing is a useful method to bolster your business’ performance, but only if you utilize it properly. It’s not a silver bullet that’s going to solve all your marketing problems. Generally, your best course of action is to hire a content marketing agency to launch and implement your campaign properly, but for those who want to try their hand at doing their own content marketing, there are some mistakes that you need to avoid. Publishing Content Without a Goal in Mind: Whenever we publish content, it’s important to always have a goal in mind. You have to determine whether the goal of your content is to sell, generate leads, inform, or engage with your audience. Your goal will determine things about your content such as your call to action and tone (whether conversational, informative, or imperative). For example, if your content is meant to sell a product, it needs to sound friendly yet informative. A post that’s meant to engage with your audience is best written in a sincere, genuine tone. Failing to Utilize Paid Content Amplification: The internet is currently oversaturated and highly-competitive. Content brands are constantly vying to get their message on the feeds of prospective customers. The brand that gets relegated to the background is sure to lose out on customers, even if their product is superior to that of their competitor. Paid amplification helps your content reach your intended audience and they almost always produce quality leads. Consider the fact that even industry giants make use of paid content amplification. This means that you should do so as well if you want to stay relevant in your chosen industry. Forgoing the Use of Social Media Stories: Social media stories are mobile-viewed vertical videos and images that appear outside a user’s regular feed and last only 24 hours. Storytelling will be the key to distributing your content successfully. Stories are perfect for building emotional connections with your audience because they are more casual and are mostly used as a medium for real-time engagement. Stories also have a natural progression. This means that users can arrange their content to be more cohesive to viewers. Stories also allow users to enable their viewers to react to the story, while also helps users determine the type of content that viewers want. Limiting Your Content Form: In today’s market, text and image content alone will not differentiate you from your competitors especially when you consider that users are gradually shifting away from written content because of the increasing popularity of video content, podcasts, and infographics. This is especially true considering how these types of content are also searchable on major search engines. It’s important to invest in other content channels in order to maximize your reach. This also allows your users to choose how they consume your content. The best part about this is that you don’t necessarily have to generate new content in order to fill these channels. In fact, you can repurpose written content and simply change the channel they’re published on. An old blog post can serve as your framework for your video and audio content. Your users will appreciate the variety of your content and this variation will also help improve your website’s SEO ranking. Ignoring Data Analysis: Successful content marketing is not just based on artistic taste and content popularity. It is also heavily influenced by data. Running an analysis of your campaign’s performance grants brands the insight needed to make informed decisions regarding content. The numbers will help you determine which approach is better for a particular demographic. This also allows users to correct a wrong approach. For example, if you’ve discovered that most of your users are active at a certain time, then use that data to determine the best time to publish your content. Simply ignoring the data will not only rob you of the traffic you would have gotten otherwise, but it will also convey that you’re indifferent to your audience, which will eventually spell the failure of your campaign. Content marketing is a boon to business owners because it grants them the ability to grow their businesses quickly. It requires a lot of work and experience to get it right the first time, but since you’re posting your content on the internet, it essentially means that as long as your website is up, your content will continue to do its job. Whether your content becomes effective or not depends on whether you do things correctly. Read Also: 4 points to consider when creating a Great Content Marketing Strategy Crucial Role of Content Marketing in Local Business Required Content Marketing for Your E-Commerce Know Why Content Marketing Is Important For SEO
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5 Ways Marketing Strategies Will Change Post COVID-19
To think life will go back to normal post-Pandemic is a pipe dream. The world underwent a paradigm shift to the new normal, and there is no returning now. The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought many changes we couldn’t have ever predicted. The unheralded health crises impacted nearly everything, from personal affairs to governmental decisions and even corporate matters. Business operations, in particular, faced quite a few alterations. Digital mediums took over the world by storm, and e-commerce businesses experienced a significant rise in demand. These reshaped business activities welcomed a considerable restructuring of marketing strategies. Marketers primarily shifted their focus to online tools, giving digital marketing an unanticipated hype. Given the technological innovations rate, marketers expect to see many more advancements in the marketing department post-COVID-19. Read below to find out how marketing strategies will change after the Pandemic. 1. The Importance of Online Presence: If businesses have to choose one takeaway from the crisis, it would be essential to have an online presence. With strict lockdowns and restrictions on going out, the entire world switched to conducting and participating in businesses online. Many also realized the convenience such platforms bring. Hence, owning a website has now become an essential business marketing strategy. Almost 56% of businesses with a website perform better as compared to the ones without a website. Besides, a website is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools. It marks your presence on the internet and helps you get more reach. A website also lets you upload a customizable flip book or eBook where you can share all necessary details about your products and services. It is an exceptional technique to spread awareness about your brand, attract traffic, and eventually boost sales. A website gives your customers ease of access and costs much less than traditional marketing, and dramatically impacts investment return. It is a proven worthwhile investment. An authentic-looking website enhances your business’s professionalism and adds value to it. Hence, having a website is vital for a business’s success. So, it is safe to say that website marketing will be a critical element post-COVID-19. 2. The Emergence of Social Media: Social media is undisputedly the king of marketing. The world is quickly becoming digitally advanced, with social media users increasing rapidly. Nearly 83.3% of people use social media worldwide, and the figure is likely to grow by 10% each year. Not only that, 71% of businesses have a social media account, out of which 90% experience improvements in sales and growth. 90% of users connect with brands through social media, and 54% of consumers make purchases from brands after scrolling through the brand’s social media account. The statistics above prove the criticality of a social media presence for businesses. The future is uncalled for, but one thing is for sure; social media’s regime will only grow. Social media helps connect brands with potential customers and allows marketers to make informed decisions based on the target audience. It also gives businesses an incredible opportunity to grow. The paid advertising options on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are the easiest, quickest, and most affordable promotion plans for your business. So, you can popularize, promote, and increase your brand’s overall ROI without breaking the bank. Social media is here to stay and quite possibly grow into a platform unimaginable. Hence, social media was, is, and will remain, marketers, fundamental focus. 3. Video Marketing: Video marketing was every marketer’s favorite even before COVID-19 and is still growing phenomenally. Studies confirm that videos interest more users than any other graphics form and carry great potential for attracting customers. YouTube and other video streaming sites are experiencing an incredible increase in usage. These sites allow businesses to market their products and services or raise brand awareness in the form of high-quality videos. Video content also plays an essential role in emails. It exceptionally increases your email’s click-through rates and decreases the unsubscribe rates. Additionally, it boosts your SEO by attracting traffic and increasing your site’s searchability and visibility on different search engines. After seeing how effective video marketing leaves on the brand and consumers, it is likely to grow and remain a powerful marketing strategy in the future. 4. Customer Retention and Loyalty: One major disadvantage many businesses had to face due to the Pandemic was to cut down costs in essential areas like marketing. As a result, markets had to shift their focus to different, long-run marketing tactics like building customer loyalty. Customer loyalty helps you stay one step ahead of your competitors. Loyal customers give you valuable feedback, increasing your business’s rating and eventually attracting new customers. Building customer loyalty considerably reduces your marketing spending, but retaining a customer also leads to a more profitable outcome. Remember, customer retention is what powers customer acquisition. The free word-of-mouth promotion your business gets from loyal customers is one of the most significant benefits of building customer loyalty. Loyal customers are also likely to make purchases repeatedly and trust your business enough to pay premium prices. 5. Less Is More: The Pandemic has stipulated marketers think about innovative marketing strategies without having to go all out. They have to find ways to develop creative marketing campaigns, which are both practical and inexpensive. Moreover, with a limited budget, marketers have restricted resources which they have to ensure to save for more than one campaign. In short, the coronavirus has compelled marketers to do more with less. Marketers need to make efficient use of technology to find solutions and make decisions quicker. The “less is more” trend will continue long after the Pandemic is over as marketers turn their attention to enhancing innovation and improving skills. Conclusion: Businesses will undoubtedly have to deal with the pandemic effects for a long time to come. However, organizations have to push ahead. The Pandemic led to several changes in consumer buying patterns which marketers cannot ignore at any cost. The changes in consumption techniques encouraged marketers to think ahead and think creatively. Even though companies cut down the cost of marketing immensely due to COVID-19, the role of marketing has thoroughly increased during the Pandemic. However, there is still quite a lot of room for growth and innovation. These alterations in marketing strategies are likely to continue and grow post-COVID. Read Also: Key Components for Your Marketing Stack How To Foolproof Your Digital Marketing Strategy? Why Email Marketing is the BEST Digital Marketing Outreach in Singapore
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Performance Testing For E-Commerce Platforms
Are you an E-commerce brand or platform that is looking for experts to run mobile app testing for your channels? Do you how specialized software testing services can help you climb over your competitors in the E-commerce space? Have you looked at enlisting the services of experts like QA Madness that can help you grow your E-commerce platform? Time and again, we see blogs on the internet that suggest running an E-commerce platform is as easy as eating a piece of cake. To be honest, if being successful and generating sales in E-commerce would be so easy, everyone would be acing it. The fact of the matter is that E-commerce is not easy. It requires a lot of effort, time, strategy, and resources. You cannot simply create an E-commerce website and hope to become the next Jeff Bezos! In this article, we look at how performance testing for E-commerce platforms is essential for garnering success. We take help from leading experts and friends at QA Madness to understand what goes into making a successful E-commerce business. What is Performance Testing and why your E-commerce Business should Invest in it? In simple words, without sounding too nerdy, let us try to look at what is Performance Testing. Performance Testing is the process of rigorously testing all the tech and digital components of an E-commerce business. This includes the desktop version of the platform and mobile app testing. The key is to look at and analyze how the entire tech and digital ecosystem operates when exposed to real-world use. Imagine hundreds of people are using the E-commerce platform app at the same time. The questions that then arise are- Is the server being able to handle the heavy load of all the traffic using the mobile app at the same time? Is there a lag or breakdown that any of the users are experiences or are the UI and UX getting compromised under stress? What are some of the benchmarks and standards that should be used to judge speed and whether the platform is exposing some bottlenecks? Performance Testing is more than just looking at loading page speeds. It seeks to test each aspect of the E-commerce platform and suggest the perfect optimization for the same. 4 Important Things to consider during Performance Testing for E-commerce: In this section, we request experts at QA Madness to help us. Specifically, to list down some important things that should be considered during Performance Testing- 1. Testing Financial Transactions- One area where things can go wrong is in the area of financial transactions. With so many people using the same platform at the same time, you need to test to ensure that every transaction is going through. Integrations with Payment Gateways, the ERP, and Inventory Management Software are all areas that should be covered under this software testing services. 1. Checking the Mobile App Exhaustively- Mobile app testing perhaps constitutes one of the most important verticals for Performance Testing. How the app performs, is the search is optimized, whether the graphics are getting compromised are all issues that mobile app testing will help resolve. In addition to the app, the mobile version of the E-commerce platform’s website also needs to be tested rigorously. 2. Region-Based Testing for Different Geographies- If you are starting an e-commerce business, you are looking at a truly global audience. This is why you need to make sure that the internet protocols of the different countries are not interfering with how the customers in those countries are engaging with your platform. Changed domain URLs, IP addresses, and other rules and regulations need to be considered. 3. Data Management Testing- Any successful E-commerce ecosystem is incomplete without integrated data management. For an E-commerce platform, data is the lifeblood that helps all its verticals- marketing, sales, and CRM. Performance Testing needs to ensure that the data collection, cloud storage solutions, and the final outputs are being generated in a systematic and orderly fashion. The Three KPIs of Performance Testing as stated by QA Madness- While there can be multiple KPIs that software testing services can help E-commerce brands with, QA Madness states that the following are the three major ones. They refer to the same as the three ‘S’s of their Performance Testing goals. 1. Speed- When it comes to speed, we are referring to the speed of the website, mobile version of the web, and the mobile application. It also includes the speed with which users are progressing from one page to another on the app and the website. The higher the speed, the better will be the user experience. This combines to deliver the best sales and revenues for an E-commerce platform. 2. Scalability- You do not want your website and app infrastructure to be so weak that it crashes only after a hundred visitors. Your E-commerce website and the app must be tested for scalability to handle massive loads all at the same time. This will help you provide a fluid experience to millions of users and potential customers all at the same time without compromises. 3. Stability- A lot can go wrong on an E-commerce website when it is put under stress. Graphics can fall out of place and payment gateways can collapse. You never want the users to experience these problems on your platform. An E-commerce platform needs to be stable all the time, with or without load. Performance Testing seeks to build the stability of an E-commerce platform. The Bottom Line: There is no set rule as to when an E-commerce platform should go for Performance Testing. Some believe that it should be done at the early stages of development. Others believe that it should be done once the development of the platform is complete to identify the loopholes and then plug them accordingly. No matter when you get them done, Performance Testing is essential for your E-commerce platform. If you want to create a highly optimized and result-oriented business, this is a great investment you should look at making. If you have any other questions on software testing services or mobile app testing, feel free to ask them. Use the comments section to drop your queries. We will once again request, or disturb, as the case may be, our friends at QA Madness to help you out. Read also: The Right B2B E-Commerce Platforms to Sell Your Used Machinery Approaches for Increasing E-commerce Sales Through Inventory Reports 5 Reasons to Use Magento for Your Next Ecommerce Website
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