All posts by Steven

Digital Branding

4 Strategies to Build Brand Awareness for Your Ecommerce Business

In the digital world, when someone says “Apple,” you’re more likely to think of the brand that gave us the Mac, iPad, and Siri, instead of the fruit. 

That’s how effectively a brand name can leave a mark in our minds.

Now imagine having that kind of brand power for your ecommerce business.  

Although the journey to establishing a successful brand can be unique to each business, there are techniques you can use to get your brand to your target market successfully. 

In this post, let me share with you four strategies to build brand awareness for your ecommerce business. 

Let’s dive right in.

1. Share Your Brand Story

The concept behind why storytelling can be an excellent marketing technique is simple: people love hearing a success story. 

Your brand’s story gives your brand more depth and something your audience can connect with, which makes it an excellent element to add to your marketing efforts. 

For instance, technology company GoPro wrote on their website how the company founder Nick Woodman “started with a 35mm camera and a wrist strap made from old wetsuits and plastic scraps.” 

Now, the company has grown internationally and “has sold over 26 million GoPro cameras in more than 100 countries.”

Weaving this kind of narrative into your marketing strategy lets your audience “feel” the experience in your story, which helps build a connection and establish trust with them. 

When people trust your brand, they are more likely to come back, buy again, and tell other people about you. 

Your brand’s story can be anything. 

It can be a narrative of your product development journey, founder, or how the idea for your product was born as a solution to a problem.

People like hearing stories, and you can use that to your advantage with a narrative that gets your message and brand across to your target audiences.

2. Develop Your Brand Identity

Your product can leave a lasting impression on your customers even after they make the purchase and your brand identity shapes that impression.  

For instance, when someone mentions M&M’s, you’ll immediately think of those red and yellow button-shaped characters frequently shown in their commercials.

Through their iconic characters and marketing campaigns, M&M’s brand personality presents their product as fun, creative, and witty, plus, it’s something that people can easily relate with. 

There are plenty of ways to put a “face” to your brand, but one of the best ways to establish your identity is through your logo

If you’re on a tight budget, you can use online logo generators to help design your logo, or you can hire professional designers to do it for you.

Here’s a tip: If you want to tap into the creativity of the people on the internet, you can get your logo through design services such as LogoMyWay Designers.    

Through the service, you can run a logo design contest and select the best design of your choice. 

Your logo is also crucial for your other marketing efforts – such as using it for your ecommerce website and ads – since customers associate it with your brand and products. 

When designed appropriately, your logo can help you leave a good impression on your target audience, build trust with your potential customers, and ultimately lead them to buy. 

3. Create Interactive Content

In today’s digital age, there are many things to consider, such as building an effective business website, your customers’ needs, and the latest trends. 

More and more people prefer using visual mediums to communicate and interact. 

Thus, you need to shift your brand awareness strategies to cater to this kind of customer preference and improve how your customers interact with your brand.    

An excellent strategy to engage your target audience is through interactive content like videos.

With videos, you can create interactive and fun product demos that show your target audiences how to use your products and the benefits they can get.

For example, makeup brand FentyBeauty posts “Tutorial Tuesdays with Rihanna” on their YouTube channel, which shows viewers makeup looks that you can do with their products.

This is a great way to engage your target audience, offer them value that your products can give, and raise your brand awareness by giving them a unique experience with your brand.

Also, through videos, you can convey your message creatively and interactively that help make your target audiences feel like you’re talking to them personally, which helps you build a relationship with them.    

4. Run Social Media Contests

With social media, running a contest to boost your brand visibility can be easier now more than ever. 

Picture this.

You’re scrolling through Instagram to see what your favorite celebrities are up to and suddenly you find a post that asks viewers to “tag a friend” to win a contest. 

That got your attention, right?

From scrolling through your newsfeed, you’re suddenly interested in the brand, what the contest is all about, and what you can win.  

Now imagine applying that same strategy to your target audiences. 

With a social media contest, you can draw your target audience’s attention to your brand without being too promotional.  

It’s also a good marketing tactic because it offers the chance of getting value with the least amount of effort. 

After all, who wouldn’t want to win a contest just by sharing a post and tagging a friend, right?

You can use hashtags like #tagafriend for your social media contests, have the social media influencers your work with share the post, and run your it across your multiple social accounts.

That being said, social media contests can spread like wildfire, which makes them effective marketing tactics for your brand visibility throughout your social media accounts. 

If you want to target specific audiences or know the kind of content that they are looking for, you can use social media monitoring tools to improve your social marketing efforts.

Social media contests are also highly effective at creating user-generated content (UGC) from customers, which holds a lot of marketing power. In one study, consumers say they trust other people’s recommendations more than they believe in curated content by marketers.

That is why UGC is essential for any business’s marketing campaigns. Whenever you promote a new product or seasonal brand custom packaging, generate a buzz around it by organizing a social media contest where customers create content featuring the product.

What’s Next? 

Building your brand awareness for your ecommerce business requires more than just the strategies in this post. 

However, by employing these techniques, you are on the right track to raising your brand visibility, building trust with your target audience, and establishing relationships with your potential customers.

Legal BrandingLocal Branding

Top 7 Jobs Where You Can Help People

There are a lot of Australians who find helping others to be a high priority. They do their day jobs and use the money that they earn this way to help others by donating or funding certain organizations. Others wait for their day off in order to volunteer at a charity organization. However, what if you didn’t have to lead a double life? What if your main source of income was also in agreement with your life-long passion for helping others? For all those who have asked the same question, here are the top seven jobs where you can help people on a daily basis.

1. Counselor

There are many different ways in which counseling people can help them turn their life around. For instance, you can become a substance abuse counselor. You could also specialize in becoming a behavioral disorder counselor. Other than helping people with problems of these formats, you can also opt for becoming a career guidance counselor and help people figure out what they want from life. Either way, through education, you’ll acquire the knowledge necessary to help others. By honing these skills, you’ll drastically increase your ability to help them out.

2. Teacher

Pursuing a career in education is a noble call which is probably best described in Taylor Mali’s poem “What Teachers Make” (they make a difference). Skilled teachers can not only help one unlock their full potential but also help people develop a passion for learning, which is a trait that will benefit them throughout their life. Language teachers can help them peek into a whole new world of literature, jokes, wordplay and new contacts. Either way, regardless of the field you opt for, you’ll definitely be making a difference.

3. Healthcare

Working in the field of healthcare is one of the most upfront ways to help others. The best thing about it lies in the fact that there’s so much room for specialization. For instance, you can become a hospital nurse or a nurse that specializes in taking care of the elderly or people with special needs. The last two especially leave some room open for alternative employment options. For instance, you could look for work in retirement villages or find individuals who need your help. The demand for professionals is widespread and you can even narrow down your search to a luxurious retirement village in Central Coast.

4. Nutritionist

Being a nutritionist is about more than helping people lose weight. It’s about helping them learn how to improve their health on their own, as well as how to better understand their own nutrition habits. What you need to bear in mind is the fact that being a nutritionist is a job that requires constant self-improvement. This is because there are new studies emerging every year, as well as due to the fact that dietary supplements that are flooding the market are getting more and more numerous. Some of them are incredibly beneficial but it takes an expert to learn how to tell the good from the bad.

5. Personal trainer

Other than being a nutritionist, you can also help people by becoming a personal trainer. This, however, is not an easy thing. First of all, you need to understand that your own body is your own best self-promotion tool. Second, you need to learn a thing or two about warmup, safety, and recovery. This is the only way in which you can protect your clients and deliver reliable results. Finally, you need to become a psychologist and motivational speaker, at the same time. This is in order to help people give their very best.

6. Artist

Sometimes, the way in which you help others doesn’t have to be direct or conventional. Think about it, what people need after a hard day is a mental getaway and the best way for them to receive it is through art. This is why becoming an artist is one of the best ways to help, not just individuals, but humanity as a whole. Becoming a photographer, a writer, a musician or a designer has never been easier. This is due to the availability of online tools and platforms that specialize in these fields.

7. First responder

For those who need to see the immediate effects of their actions, those who want to do something more physical and those who aren’t afraid to risk their lives to help others, becoming a first responder is always an option. There’s nothing nobler than being a firefighter, an emergency medical responder or a police officer. Keep in mind, however, that this is only for those who have the strongest will and determination. Images that you see in the line of duty are not something that will leave you once you head home. Still, someone has to do it, so why not you?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, like with any other career choice, you have to choose what is best for you. This is why you have to be as honest as possible and try to understand your own needs and wants. Not everyone is built for the above-listed seven career paths. Fortunately, there’s plenty of other options out there for you to choose from, even if none of the above-discussed items suit you. 

SaaS Branding

5 Tips To Help You Build A SaaS Business

Validate Your Idea

It doesn’t matter what kind of software product you are interested in creating, everything starts with an initial idea. It is always a bonus to be original. However, the success of your Saas business will mainly depend on the quality level of your software system as well as the market need for the product you want to develop. After all, insufficient consumer interest in a product is the main reason why 42 percent of all startup businesses fail.

Imagine that you want to launch a beacon proximity marketing platform for medium- and small-sized retail businesses. What is your plan for it? The first thing you should consider is a feature set that can help you stand out from your competitors (which includes some high-profile vendors including Beaconstack, Swirl, Moca, and Google) and get multiple use cases created for your product. The second thing you should do is determine the number of companies that actually use beacons and figure out what their pain points are (being unable to measure customer satisfaction and engagement, high volumes of sensor data, and the high cost of getting a dedicated mobile app developed, etc.). 

You should also address the concerns of shoppers: 64 percent of consumers choose not to opt into in-store tracking due to potential infringement of their privacy and message overload. You probably realize at this point that it is simply a dead-end to get hung up with proximity marketing. Is your product able to address needs such as monetization of beacon-generated information and smart asset management? Does it make sense for you to have a dedicated app created that supports your analytics platform (and try to challenge giants such as RetailMeNot)? Find it is a good idea to develop an MVP, gather feedback from customers, read our guide on SaaS KPIs, and adapt the scope if necessary. 

Develop Your Monetization Strategy

Although a majority of Saas companies prefer giving their product away for free to get a solid user base established, more forward-thinking SaaS entrepreneurs like Chris Savage (Wistia) and Tom Kuzler (Aweber) recommend that you start out using a paid plan, and then study consumer behavior, get your product polished, and then proceed to offer a freemium without running into the risk of underpricing your SaaS product. Having a small amount of paying customers (and lots of time to spend on your customer service) is an excellent way to keep advancing your business, get your product tailored to the needs of your customers and retain users.

Develop a Strong Tech Team

Let’s return to the beacon analytics platform: There are other similar Saas offerings (the joint project by Swirl and Mist, for example) that incorporate innovative technology such as virtual beacons, machine learning algorithms for analyzing sensor data, GPS tracking solutions, mobile SDKs that allow customers to connect current mobile applications with the system, and Cloud-based business intelligence apps.

Therefore, you need to develop a strong and skilled in-house team (six to eight senior and middle developers) for handling software development as well as ongoing maintenance for several months in a row – and it may take years for trails to be converted into paying customers. To eliminate or reduce insurance costs and office space and obtain access to new pools of talent, EU and US SaaS entrepreneurs frequently hire overseas software developers (with Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe heading the list of the most popular destinations for outsourcing). Also, going offshore is an excellent way to lower your software development costs (which can be an issue for startup companies that are on a shoestring budget). That said, your team needs to have a CTO – otherwise, you may have a difficult time raising enough VC capital for your business.

Keep UX In Mind When Creating High-Performance Software

Be careful with Fixed Price contract. You will most likely need to make changes to the scope of your project. The only that you can ensure cost-effectiveness and flexibility is to choose the Time and Material pricing model.

Second, it is a good idea to partner up with a leading Drupal/WordPress/IoT/mobile development services company with an impressive portfolio and then stay hands-on with the entire project. Don’t underestimate a UI design’s power: a few years ago there were three experienced nurses who failed to determine how to set a medication reminder set up properly and as a result, a patient was dehydrated to death. Your customers are non-technical people who expect user-training videos, short registration forms, clear calls to action, and contextual menus. As long as your customers are able to solve setup-related issues without having to speak with a customer support specialist, then that means you have done a great job.

Market Your Product Correctly

You should actually start to market your SaaS solution well before your product goes live. Get a good explainer video and landing page created. Launch a Facebook or Google AdWords campaign to drive traffic over to your website. Another good idea is to get several informative articles published on your corporate website as well as reputable third-party websites that highly the benefits that your product offers. It also can help to get involved with startup events and get press coverage from some leading IT portals. Spread the word as much as possible and you will be successful.   

How Can You Start a Successful SaaS Business?

You are probably thinking that it’s going to cost you a fortune to get a decent SaaS product developed and years to recover your marketing and software development expenses.

Before giving up on your SaaS business, you should read this incredible Kissmetric posts written by Ryan Shank who was able to develop a SaaS business (analytics and call tracking software) for under $40,000. In particular, I want to compliment the decision made by Mr. Shan to contract a company employed developer (instead of freelance software engineers who don’t always have the necessary PM skills and expertise to ensure your project is delivered in a smooth manner).

Then there is Dropbox. This multi-billion company took a non-traditional approach to MVP development. They created an inexpensive but highly informative and creative explainer video which helped the company grow its beta waiting list overnight from 5,000 up to 75,000 users.

As long as you are able to come up with a fresh concept, develop your software project requirements that are based on feedback from customers, and get a reliable vendor contracted for creating an MVP, then you should be able to get angle funding to raise money via Kickstarter. Then follow up using the tips provided above!

Digital Branding

How to Reset WordPress Website with WP Reset Plugin?

We all know how difficult it is to reset a WordPress database completely. If you are looking for options to instantly reset your WordPress website and are a non-developer who is trying their best to manage their WordPress development, the WP Reset Plugin is your ideal companion. We know that tasks like Debugging, testing and developing often raise the requirement of hiring an experienced developer which might be not feasible or possible at all times. This is where the WP Reset plugin is going to help you out.

The WP Reset plugin is specially designed by developers for the non-developers to help them debug, test, and develop the features of their website. In short, the plugin is pretty helpful for the plugin and theme developers.

The Functions of the WP Reset plugin

The WP Reset plugin is a fast, secure, and premium WordPress development tool. This plugin serves to help you instantly reset your WordPress installation. Once installed, the plugin quickly resets the site’s database to the default installation values. It speeds up testing and debugging by providing a quick way to reset settings and re-test code.

As opposed to the common action where a reset often causes the loss of data which was not intended, the WP Reset plugin has its multiple fail-safe mechanisms in place to protect from this accidental loss of data. Here is a detailed breakdown of what the WP Reset plugin resets and what elements it skips.

  • The reset deletes all customizations and content but does not modify any files. 
  • The Reset will delete all posts, pages, custom post types, comments, media entries, users
  • The Reset deletes all default WP database tables
  • The Reset deletes all custom database tables that have the same prefix table prefix as the one defined in wp-config.php and used by default tables
  • The Reset does not delete any media files. These media files remain in the wp-uploads folder untouched but will no longer be listed under Media in admin
  • The Reset does not fiddle with any files, plugins, themes, uploads 
  • The site title, WordPress address, site address, site language, and search engine visibility settings remain
  • All the currently logged in users are restored with the current username and password after the reset

Setting up the WP Reset Plugin

Setting up the WP Reset plugin is a very easy process. Here are the directives: 

  • Open WordPress admin > Plugins > Click ‘Add New’
  • Enter “wp reset” in search and locate the plugin. 
  • Click “Install Now”
  • Now activate this plugin
  • Access WP Reset admin page via the “Tools” menu

You can also upload the WP Reset plugin manually:

  • Download the plugin version from downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-reset.latest-stable.zip
  • Now you must unzip this and upload to /wp-content/plugins/
  • Go to WordPress admin > Plugins > “WP Reset”
  • Click “Activate” 
  • Open plugin’s admin page located under the Tools menu

Once you are in the zone to reset your WordPress website in an instant, you can click the ‘Reset’ button after setting up this plugin. Once you click on the ‘Reset’ button, the plugin will ask you to confirm the action. You will find the two options; ‘NO’ and ‘UNDO’ button. However, once you click on the ‘Reset’ button, the actual Reset will take place.

Features of the WP Reset Plugin

The WP Reset plugin comes with some great features to help you work with full-fledged features. Let’s check them out.

1. One-Click Site Reset: The plugin makes website resetting such an easy task with its one-click site reset experience. All you need to do is click on the reset button to reset your WordPress website instantly.

2. Post-Reset Setup: The WP Reset plugin remains an absolute favorite for its users because after resetting the database, it reactivates all your themes and plugins.

3. WP-CLI Compatible: If you are someone who is looking to speed up their process, then the WP-CLI support is of great use to you. You can access the WP-CLI commands of the plugin via wp help reset.

4. Database Snapshots: You can employ the database snapshot feature of this WP Reset plugin to save some demo data or custom tables before resetting your site if you would like. You can use snapshots to find out what changes a plugin made to your database. This feature also helps you restore the development environment after testing database related changes.

5. Database Diff Viewer: Using this feature, you can find with one click if any plugin or theme has changed anything with the database. You can find complete information through the visual representation of the data.

6. Selective Reset Tools: The plugin lets you partially reset certain elements such as choosing to reset only transients, plugins, themes, custom DB tables, wp-uploads folder, .htaccess file or your site’s media. You can also delete .htaccess file. If you are looking to edit .htaccess without FTP, you can use the free WP Htaccess Editor plugin.

7. Webhooks Integration: WP Reset is fully integrated with WP Webhooks plugin. The Webhooks plugin lets you connect your WP to any 3rd party systems and enables you to initiate actions both from WPs end.

8. Plugins & Themes Collections: Once you are done with the reset, you can collectively install your favorite plugins & themes using this plugin. Just make sure that you already have a collection of these themes and plugins.

9. Multisite (WP-MU) Support: If you are going to be using this plugin for resetting your multisite, you can carefully do that with the sub-sites.

10. In-house Support: The support facility for this plugin is top-notch. Hence, if you ever get stuck, you will be able to ask your questions and have them resolved.

11. WP Version: The WP Reset plugin also lets you downgrade or upgrade WordPress to the older or a new version with just one click. In this manner, you will be able to test your themes or plugins on various WP versions.

The plugin is also testing a ‘Nuclear Reset’ feature. The onset of this feature will help you delete all files, all custom database entries, and tables. This feature is still under development.

You can download the WP Reset plugin, here.

Digital Branding

What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company?

Every business looking for a top SEO company to improve their rankings should know that just as a good company can make your business thrive, a bad one can make your traffic crash and burn. With so many SEO companies offering their services, choosing the right one can sometimes turn into a real minefield. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of tips that will help you navigate it and ensure you always pick the right SEO company for your business.

What to Look for

Many high-quality SEO companies will have similar features that make them stand out from the crowd. These can help you identify when an SEO company is a good match for your business.

They Have Specific Ideas

A good SEO agency will treat the work they do for your business as a partnership. This usually means that they will suggest improvements you can take to increase your ranking, but you will have to be open to suggestions and actually implement these changes.

These suggestions will hopefully come in the form of concrete, fleshed-out ideas. An SEO company will often ask you to add or improve a part of your business website. And if you’ve chosen the right company, following these suggestions will see your organic traffic and ranking increase.

There are a number of things a good SEO company may recommend:

  • Opening social media accounts and integrating them into your website
  • Adding a blog section
  • Adding or altering content on your homepage
  • Creating a network of internal linkbacks
  • Optimizing the SEO performance of your content
  • Improving site speed and performance
  • Doing a link audit and removing spam links

They Use Transparent and Proven Methods

The first and most important thing you can ask a prospective SEO company is exactly how they will improve your rankings. Even though you’re basically asking them to describe their whole job, the answer should still clear and concise.

A good SEO company will answer in a way that describes all the things they will do, how and why they will do them, how long it will take, and what results you can realistically expect.

They Deliver Concrete Results for Known Clients

As mentioned above, a good SEO company will be able to show you the results of their work. Even though that work won’t always be amazing (remember, even the best can’t really offer any guarantees), their work should show a clear impact on their clients’ rankings.

Here are some of the things you can expect to see from a good, well-prepared company:

  • A list of sites that can add backlinks to your webpage
  • An audit of your website with actionable suggestions for improvement
  • Recommendations for new content
  • Regular reports with clear results of their work

In addition to this, be sure to ask an SEO agency for a list of their previous clients. Although you shouldn’t expect to get their entire contact book, they should be able to name a couple of high-profile clients on the spot.

What to Avoid

Of course, all SEO companies weren’t created equal. Sometimes you’ll run into a company that simply isn’t the right fit for your business. Any of the following points could be a huge red flag and you should avoid a company if you spot them.

They Offer Bought Linkbacks

Touching on what we mentioned earlier, if an SEO company offers a pitch containing a ‘secret method’ they use, you should look for someone else. By now, SEO is mostly a level playing field, where the best practices are widely known and are based on Google’s search algorithm.

Mentioning a secret method is usually just an evasive way of saying the company uses ‘black hat’ methods. These are the methods that go against the Google algorithm’s rules and include things like buying a large number of backlinks. Sure, you may see a temporary increase in traffic, but eventually, Google will catch up to you and your site will get penalized.

Also, Google is under no obligation to regularly report on any changes they make to their search algorithm. This is simply a time-saving measure since they can make as many as two changes per day. Therefore, the SEO company’s ‘secret method’ could very well become obsolete tomorrow.

They Don’t Ask for Your Website Info

Every good SEO company will do their prep work and ask for access to some of the vital information about your website. This info will let them identify strong and weak points and let them for an SEO strategy to increase your rankings.

They will usually ask for things such as the credentials to view or edit your Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, CMS or social media accounts. An SEO company might also ask for a list of target keywords or reports and audits done in the past.

If an SEO company asks you for access to this type of info, it usually means that they’re taking the work they do for you seriously. On the other hand, if a company asks for complete admin access to all your data, logins and reports, beware. They might be trying to trap you by holding your data and credentials hostage in order to keep the contract going in the long term.

They Guarantee Top Results

No SEO company worth their business can guarantee you the top spot on the Google search results page. The ones that do are either flat out lying to you, or are simply exaggerating the fact they can get you on the first page of a Google search.

The Google algorithm is an ever-changing math equation devised by a machine learning AI that analyzes our searching habits. This very fact makes it so no one can guarantee to get you to the top spot of the results page. And if they do, you should give them a wide berth.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the tips above have helped you on your journey to finding that perfect SEO company that will unlock your website’s full potential. If you know any useful tips and tricks we may have missed, please post them in the comments below.

Digital Branding

3 Benefits of Shoppable Instagram Posts for Your E-Commerce Business

There are numerous features of Instagram coming up over the last few years. One of which is the shoppable posts of the photo-sharing platform, among others. The feature will take your e-commerce business to another level and boost your sales. The shoppable post option helps brands in tagging their products on sale within an Instagram post. It will make the life of online shoppers easy because they can shift from your Instagram post to your e-commerce website’s ‘Add to cart’ section with a few simple clicks. 

According to an article published on https://www.inc.com, big brands like Vogue, GS as well as Elle USA will test the tagging products option in their posts, which can be purchased via Instagram. Read on to learn about the three benefits of shoppable posts for your online store. 

1. Beneficial for small e-commerce businesses

The photo-sharing site will benefit small e-commerce brands if they use one-off and bespoke content. Make sure you post simple but appealing pictures and videos relevant to your business. Your shoppers will love viewing such posts. Apart from photos or videos, interesting or funny captions interacting with your prospects will help you grow your e-commerce business. The use of apt and related hashtags that your customers use will boost engagement level for your e-commerce business. Use not more than 4-5 hashtags! It will help in growing your community and once you realize your business objectives, including a couple of shoppable posts into your feed. It will result in a better fan following and leads. Besides, you can gain накрутитьлайки в инстаграм. What more do you want? 

2. Improves your storytelling abilities 

Shoppable posts will boost your sales, especially if you are into the beauty, food, furniture, art, crafts, and décor business. Spend some time creating attractive Instagram posts related to a context that will enhance your natural storytelling cachet. Moreover, the story will make sense to your targeted audience. You need to build a narrative with your Instagram shoppable posts. All you need to do is collect products you want to sell, brainstorm ideas, and create a narrative theme for your shoppable posts. 

Weaving a good story will drive user engagement, thus piquing consumer interest to shop for your products. 

3. Positive impact on your audience 

Instagram’s new shoppable posts feature will help you outshine your competitors in the e-commerce landscape provided you know the rules of the game. Then, determine what your potential customers want from your e-commerce website. Reap the benefits out of Instagram Stories in a creative way to produce a positive impact on your current and potential customers. Consult with micro-influencers, test with video content, including a couple of vertical video content. 

Try testing every Instagram feature to help you to expand your e-commerce business and improve the bottom line. The top brands are doing it and so can you. It will take some of your time and effort to see positive results. 

Conclusion 

Shoppable Instagram posts are the best that can happen to any e-commerce business, small or big. Make the most of this new feature to generate leads and turn them into your loyal customers. 

Author Bio

Ariya Stark is the owner of a fashion brand, and she has admitted to using her social media profiles for gaining website traffic. She also visits накрутитьлайки в инстаграм for getting more likes on her posts.

Digital Branding

10 Autoresponder Benefits For Business Marketing Strategies

These days, you should use an autoresponder for your local marketing strategies. This marketing tool will send your messages out automatically to individuals who have an interest in your business. It is also the best way to stay in contact with your customers and prospects. The key is inviting them to become subscribers for your messages about your services, products, and business. It is automatic, easy, and one of the best returns on your marketing investment that your company will ever achieve.

1. Turn anonymous visitors to your website into subscribers.

When people show up at your website for the very first time, one of the best ways to start a conversation with those visitors is to offer something valuable to them in exchange for them providing you with their email address and name. The best marketing automation software services usually recommend that this is a trial offer, a no-obligation consultation, a free report, or anything else that is of high quality and has a high perceived value. After a visitor subscribes to your autoresponder series you can keep sending them email messages for as long as you want, or until they unsubscribe.

2. Easily build long term relationships with your subscribers.

Since you are able to write automated messages ahead of time and have your messages scheduled to be sent automatically to your subscriber list on whatever date and at whatever time of day you specify, you can send a message to all of your subscribers very easily any time you want to Your autoresponder can do all of your work automatically for you on a 24/7 basis. Whenever subscribers hear from you regularly it builds that expectation that they will continue hearing from later in the future as well.

3. Allow you to do continuous marketing without needing to hire additional people.

Since your autoresponder can send out marketing messages to your customers and prospects regularly, it won’t be necessary for you to hire additional staff to do the marketing. That can save on marketing dollars and your marketing department investments will enjoy a much higher return.

4. Follow-up error-free without missing any customers.

It can be hard to follow-up with everyone you meet. However, when you use an autoresponder to send marketing messages about your products, services, and business, it won’t ever miss a single customer or prospect who has subscribed to your mailing list. They will always receive the messages that you send out to them.

5. Constant communication generates repeat sales

It is very likely that people who like doing business with you will continue doing business with your company regularly. Especially if you have services or products that they basis often. When you use an automatic messaging system to send out messages about your services and products, it will remind your customers to purchase what they need from your company automatically and regularly. An automated selling tool is the best thing that a business can have!

6. More subscribers will be led to your website or blog.

When you sent out messages to your subscribers, one of the things that you can do is direct them to your website, your blog, your video channel, or articles. These are all different channels that provide useful information on your business. If your business has things that people want, they will want to know how they can obtain your company’s offerings. They can be directed by an autoresponder message to the precise location that they need to learn more about what they know to know to make their purchasing decision.

7. Receive measurable results.

There are measuring devices built into autoresponders that will tell you the locations of your subscribers. You also will be provided with information that shows you which of your messages have been ready by the most people so you can format messages in the future in ways that get more subscribers to open them. You can determine the best time of day for sending out your message so that your subscribers read them right away. Your autoresponder will track how many new subscribers you get each day. These results can be used to determine what future messages and information you want to send out to your subscribers.

8. Ensures improved e-mail delivery.

Autoresponders have been specially designed to deliver emails on time to your entire subscriber list. Specialized autoresponder systems work a lot better compared to other types of e-mail delivery systems. That allows you to be confident that your subscribers are getting your messages delivered to them.

9. Use your e-mails to help brand yourself.

You can brand your company and yourself in the e-mails that you send out to your subscribers by adding your contact information, your tagline, your logo, or anything else you would like to emphasize about your business.

10. Allows you to duplicate your efforts very easily.

All of the above tasks can be duplicated after you have done them once for your list. You can have separate lists for different product lines, groups of subscribers, other services, or whatever other reason you might have for wanting to have separate lists for sending out messages.

Digital Branding

Key Tips on Creating an Ecommerce Marketing Strategy

Ecommerce is one of the most revolutionary transformations ushered on the internet. It has streamlined the virtual exchange of goods and services across different industries globally. Because of its capacity to streamline business processes, many established and budding entrepreneurs have shifted the majority of their transactions online.

However, given the volume of ecommerce websites in the market today, it’s crucial for you to develop an effective marketing strategy to stay top-of-mind with both existing and prospective clients. If designed correctly and with the help of the right ecommerce marketing agency, such an initiative will help you optimize your advertising and sales process.

In this article, let’s learn surefire tips on creating a marketing strategy for your ecommerce business.

Sign Up for a Google+ MyBusiness Profile

One of the primary ways to establish a web presence for your ecommerce business is Google’s My Business Profile. It’s the internet giant’s free web platform that streamlines the dissemination of information between business owners and their customers. It provides an outline of your business right when people are searching for you on Search or Maps. Among the critical information your customers can access instantly are the product’s price, reviews, and location if you have a brick-and-mortar counterpart for your online business.

Google prioritizes listings uploaded on Google+ My Business Pages in local searches. Thus, optimizing your profile will help boost your local search results ranking.

Here are other vital ways of how this platform can help you enhance your marketing strategy:

  • Having a Google+ My Business Profile increases your chances of getting into Google’s most sought-after local three-pack. These are the search results that appear even before the organic results, thus increasing web clicks for your business.
  • Aside from having a fuss-free platform on top of your website, you also get to enjoy creating content in the form of texts, photos, and videos. It also has an Insights feature that’ll allow you to track your customers’ essential site activities, such as inquiries, calls, or web visits.
  • Since Google runs multiple verification steps before allowing businesses to get listed for local searches, potential customers can make sure that your company is trustworthy.

Educate Customers with Useful Blog Content

Content is king when it comes to ecommerce marketing. However, in a data-saturated marketplace, you need to ensure that the content you put out adds value to the lives of your potential and existing customers.

With thousands of blog posts being published and circulated online daily, how do you intend to win the hearts of your target audience?

  • Showcase your expertise in the industry by creating content that’ll help your audience make informed decisions. Remember to write for humans and not merely for keyword ranking.

For example, if you’re running a clothing website, outline tips that’ll help users find the right fit and style for their budget. Don’t make it sound like your shoving down the products you sell to your customers’ throats. Ensure that your brand voice remains friendly and reliable, not intrusive. You can also publish easy-to-follow hacks that’ll guide your customers, or inspire them to produce some organic user-generated content.

  • Play with relevant visuals. Given a person’s diminishing online attention span, it’s essential to capture your audience’s attention through compelling visuals. Whether you’re into B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Customer) business, you can bank on appealing and useful infographics to simplify complex topics relevant to your brand. With the right ratio of text, image, or moving graphics, you can establish brand authority across different market segments.
  • Remember to write blogs with high EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). These three principles are significant benchmarks by Google’s content raters, as indicated in their Quality Rater’s Guidelines.

Reach Out to Relevant Online Influencers

Suppose you already have the right product and service, a functioning website, and a smooth distribution channel. How can you then outshine competitors who promise the same marketing offerings as you?

  • Although in-house content marketing for your ecommerce business is a good step towards attracting quality leads, it’s also essential to enhance your content distribution channel to achieve maximum exposure.
  • Today, people hold in high regard online influencers’ reviews on specific products and services before making a purchase. Many people, especially the millennial market, find their candid first-hand experience reliable and value-rich as opposed to the outbound content most brands distribute.
  • With the level of influence these so-called “everyday experts” have over your potential buyers, it’ll undoubtedly play to your advantage if you consider tapping them to create and publish content for your product or service.
  • Look for online influencers that’ll best represent your brand. As a rule of thumb, remember not to rely on the number of their following alone. Instead, choose an influencer that you think will generate quality engagement for your product or service.

In a Nutshell

When finding ways to create an ecommerce marketing strategy, remember not just to sell but add value to your customers’ overall experience. Kick-start your campaigns with concrete, realistic, and measurable marketing plans today. Define your goals and develop tactics that’ll help you achieve it!

Local Branding

Why Finding A Full-Time Job Can Be So Difficult?

Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

The times are changing. It’s now becoming much more difficult to find a job, especially a full-time one. In fact, a study conducted last year showed that 50% of Australians aged between 15 and 25 years were not working full-time, and it’s taking around five years for students to find work following the completion of their studies. What’s strange about these statistics is that this generation is often considered the most educated, with more than 60% holding post-school qualifications. So why is it so difficult? 

Promotion from within

For many businesses, promoting from within is often much more attractive than hiring external candidates. The biggest reason for this is that the business knows more about the employee as a worker, and the employee already has an understanding of the business culture and processes. This means they can spend less time on training if they hire from within. However, often this means there are only junior-level jobs available, some of which many job seekers will be overqualified for.

Issues with resumes

Companies and job websites generally use tracking systems that only forward on resumes that include certain keywords. 75% of resumes are actually rejected purely on this basis, meaning they’re never even seen by the hiring company. This means that following this process, only a handful will be brought in for an interview.

 

On top of this, many job seekers are relying on outdated resumes. Employers want something that stands out from the crowd and showcases the potential value of the employee to the company, regardless if he or she bought a professional resume.

Tight selection criteria

Many companies are also becoming overly selective. Just a few decades ago, companies would hire candidates with the assumption that they would stay with the business for life and therefore would be happy to invest, both financially and educationally, in a junior candidate. However, now employees often flit from job to job throughout their career. Consequently, companies are less willing to invest the time or money into training or upskilling and are instead looking for immediate value for their business from highly skilled and qualified individuals.

Related: Glassdoor Alternatives to Find Jobs

Lack of vocational and practical experience

In a recent survey of 14,000 people aged between 15 and 25 years old, about three quarters of respondents said they didn’t believe they had the relevant practical work experience required for certain advertised job. The problem here though is that practical experience is often prioritized over educational qualifications; it becomes a chicken and egg scenario. An applicant’s educational requirements are meeting the job description but their practical experience is not. However, how are they actually going to get the practical experience if no one will hire them? 

Are there even enough jobs?

Another reason why people are questioning their ability to get hired full-time is simply a supply and demand issue. Are there enough jobs for the number of applicants? This is greatly affecting new graduates especially, perhaps because it has been shown that there has been a decline in the level of employment of new graduates. On top of this, more and more people are completing tertiary studies, meaning it’s possible that the market is flooded with junior-level job seekers.

Alongside this comes competition. While previously graduates and junior-level job seekers were competing against only one or two years of tertiary leavers, now they’re competing against several years’ worth.

 

On top of this, many employers are actually looking to fill part-time, contract, or even freelance positions, rather than offer full-time employment. “Full-time work is often difficult to find in certain industries where it is more attractive to employ part-timers. Employers are looking for innovative ways to reduce costs and make it easier to dismiss employees,” says David Alexander, Director of Student Services at The International Career Institute

Recent years have seen a substantial rise in the numbers of older workers in Australia and globally. For example, the number of over 65s in employment in Australia has more than tripled. There has been a similar increase in over 65s in employment in the UK. Since employers must abide by age discrimination laws, it means increased competition for roles.

Tips and tricks

Of course, there are several things you can do to land that dream full-time job you’re seeking.

  1. First develop a solid job search plan including target industry, timelines, and expectations.
  2. Second, look at your resume and skillset from a manager or HR perspective. This doesn’t mean you should put skills on your resume you think they’re looking for or answering questions in the way you believe they want. It means looking at your strengths and weaknesses against the job description. What can you bring to the job that no one else can? Remember, you’re more likely to be hired if you can add value to the organization.
  3. Be persistent. Just because you don’t get the first job or even the sixth job doesn’t mean you won’t find anything. Job searches take time and some employers take weeks to fill a position. This is frustrating, but patience pays off.
  4. Revisit your resume and cover letter. Don’t send the same cover letter to each job application, and adjust your resume when necessary. Different employers from some of the best rental businesses for example will be looking for different things, so tailor your cover letter and resume to the unique opportunity.
  5. Check your digital footprint. In this day and age, our social media profiles, even if set on private, can be accessed to some degree. Make sure your digital footprint is clean and accurate. Do a search online for your full name to see whether you have been tagged by another company or friends in images. If they’re inappropriate, you can request to take them down.
  6. Get your foot in the door. Even a small job can make a world of difference. It may take time to build up to your dream job, so don’t expect it right out of the university gates. Remember, the first-ever female commander and pilot of a Space Shuttle, Eileen Collins, began her career as a part-time math teacher.
  7. Seek remote employment. If you live in an affordable city like Minneapolis, don’t be afraid to cross state lines when looking for jobs; remote work is out there if you search hard enough for it!

Finding any kind of employment can be tough, and finding a full-time job can be even tougher. The freelance economy is upon us and for the first time, less than 50% of employed Australians are in permanent full-time jobs. However, if you do want to secure full-time employment, there are still ways to get there. It’s just about being patient, creative and persistent.

Digital BrandingLocal Branding

How to Nail Your Small Business Branding 

Do you believe that branding is only meant for large corporations and companies in the world? If your answer is yes, then you will be surprised to know that small businesses need branding just as much as the market leaders. However, you should also know how to get it right. 

Remember- starting a small business is only the first step but you can take these additional steps to take your enterprise to the next level with branding:

1. Start with a Logo

One of the most important aspects of a brand is the logo- there is no question about it. You can study various examples like Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple, etc. All of them are considered top brands and they all have iconic logos. What this goes to show is that even if yours is a small and generic business, you can project it as a big and trustworthy brand by creating a unique logo. Then, once you are happy with your logo you can work on improving your brand awareness. This can be done in several ways. For instance, you may wish to Create Stickers with Cricut as this can be a great marketing tool, especially for small businesses.

2. Work on Your Relationship with Customers 

You can’t build a brand without bolstering your bond with your customers. So, learn how to build strong customer relationships online and apply methods that can help them trust you more easily. These include improving your public messaging, becoming more accessible to the customers, and providing better customer service.

3. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media provides you one of the most inexpensive ways to market your business. You can use it to connect to your target demographic and also open a channel for them to communicate with you i.e. share feedback and complaints. This can go a long way in establishing a brand.

4. Find Your Voice

Let’s say that you sell handcrafted wood furniture in a particular city. If you have competition, then how will you stand out? If all the businesses sell handcrafted furniture, then what makes you special? Well, branding is the answer.

By finding your unique voice, you can attract new customers easily no matter how crowded the marketplace is. There are various ways you can go about it too. For instance, you can create a brand that’s all about providing employment to the veterans, or you could be a brand that appeals to the college students who need affordable and long-lasting chairs, tables, etc. 

5. Don’t Let Your Customers Down

Small businesses often take unethical measures to fight competition which is the opposite of what you want to do if you want to create a brand. For instance, some businesses start offering subpar products or ignore the complaints of their customers which only hurts their reputation. 

Strong brands have strong customer bases because the customers take pride in being their patrons. That’s something which can only happen if you offer exceptional customer service and treat them with the best products that you can provide.

6. Never Take Your Eyes off the Target Demographic

As a business owner, you want as many customers as possible. However, you simply can’t sell to everyone. There is only a small portion of the market that you can target for your products/services. So, it’s important that your messaging, logo, slogan, etc. are appealing to the kind of individuals you want to focus on. 

Brands are important to small businesses, and there is no way around it either if you want to maintain your market position. That said, the tips shared above are quite effective and proven to work. So, apply as many of them as possible and you will see a considerable rise in foot traffic/online traffic to your store/website. Good luck!