All posts by Steven

How to Generate More Sales with Digital Marketing Campaigns

Steven on November 22, 2018

In 2017, advertisers spent 209 billion USD on digital ads worldwide compared to only 178 billion USD for their more traditional TV counterparts. The statistics show that the future of marketing is increasingly headed towards the digital space, as more and more businesses compete, promote and sell their products and services online.

You may have always wanted to use digital marketing to do the same for your business, but you’ll need to initiate a series of actions known as campaigns to convert a potential customer into a buyer. But how can you generate more sales of your products or services with digital marketing campaigns? Here are some of the ways:

Build a website for your business.

Businesses that originated prior to the Internet’s existence had to have a brick and mortar location so that people knew they were around. However, in recent years, it’s easier to start a business of your own even without the initial need for a physical address. All you need to do is to establish your presence on the Internet through the creation of a website where you can sell whatever products or services that you want your target customers to avail from you.

It’s entirely up to you if you wish to build a website on your own, if you have enough coding and web design skills under your sleeve, or outsource it to a web development agency instead. No matter the current size of your business, you shouldn’t skimp on building an updated website unless you want to earn a bad reputation for being out of touch with the times. Remember, the website is the face of the company.

Optimise your business website for search engines’ top ten results.

Even if you already have a business website built, don’t expect it to generate a decent amount of visitor traffic and eventually sales of whatever products or services you offer on its own. To organically increase the number of potential customers visiting your business website, you should make some adjustments to it such that it would consistently appear in the first page of results of every search engine with the use of search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

A few of those adjustments you can make right off the bat include naturally incorporating keywords throughout your website content that your target customers would most likely type, putting descriptive and relevant alt text in all of your site’s images, and ensuring that every webpage of your business website has an easily readable URL.

After all, you wouldn’t want your business website to die a silent death after it gets listed anywhere other than search results page one.

Make your business website mobile-friendly.

In 2018, mobile users make up a majority of Internet users. It only follows that you should make your business website mobile-friendly so that you can attract more customers who might chance upon it while casually browsing on their preferred handheld device. To optimise your business website for mobile, you should use responsive design wherein its layout as well as all images in it would adjust themselves to scale no matter the size of a device’s screen. All buttons in your business website’s mobile-friendly version should also be large enough to prevent anyone accessing it from tapping on the wrong button or link.

Consider setting up a blog for your business as well.

Even if you’ve already established a website for your business, your target customers would want to seek a more genuine connection with you. They want to feel that they’re more than just mere digits to your business’s sales figures. That’s why aside from putting up a website, you should also consider creating a blog for your business as well where you can connect to your target customers and sell you’re your products or services without sounding too cold and distant. You can incorporate it as part of your business website just like how most others do it – though you can also try making a standalone business blog as well if your budget permits you to do so.

Just make sure to craft content for your business blog that’s uniquely yours, interesting, relevant, informative, and of added value to your target customers all at the same time. For best results, combine long-form content that anyone can easily finish in less than five to ten minutes, the occasional infographic, and video posts in your business blog.

Use social media to your advantage.

Assuming you’ve already built a website and blog for your business, you might find their visitor traffic to be quite lacklustre. You can remedy that by tapping into the vast pool of potential customers known as social media.

You’ll very rarely meet anyone interested to avail of a product or service who still doesn’t have any social media account nowadays that it’s only logical for you to set up at least one for your business as well. However, you should identify which social media platform a majority of your potential customers often use. If most of your target market is on Facebook, for example, it won’t make any sense at all to sell your products or services via Twitter.

Conclusion

While traditional marketing has yet to go completely extinct, its digital counterpart threatens to displace the decades-long monopoly it once had, especially as more and more people learn about the products and services being sold by different businesses online. That’s why as someone who has a business of your own, you should allocate a good portion of your budget on doing the above-listed digital marketing campaigns to generate more sales of the products or services that you offer. But in case you find it difficult to implement them yourself, you can consider hiring a digital marketing agency instead – though you should ensure that they use a large file transfer service whenever they send their work back and forth with you.

Digital Branding

Guest Post and SEO Digital Marketing Training: Your Course Review Benefits

Steven on November 15, 2018

Guest posting and SEO (search engine optimization) digital marketing have become relatively common nowadays in the blogosphere. In our world today, both of these have become crucial in driving traffic to your website and business. Guest posting and SEO digital marketing are excellent strategies to build traffic, establish your brand, and boost search engine rankings.

Assuming you’re already aware of guest posting and SEO digital marketing as online strategies, are you also informed of their benefits? Both of these methods are actually useful for any business in all industries. If done correctly, guest posting and SEO digital marketing can lead to unique hits or traffic to your website or blog allowing you to reach more potential customers. If you’re into e-commerce, blogging business, or just any activity that requires marketing on the internet, you may want to consider training in guest posting and SEO digital marketing. In this article, benefits regarding a guest post and SEO digital marketing training course will be discussed.

1. Effective Guest Posting and SEO Digital Marketing

By joining this type of training course, you’ll be able to make use of more effective guest posting. Guest posting is as simple as having someone else write material on your site — or vice versa. Guest posting works both ways for the site owner and writer. Site owners receive more content to publish, while writers get to feature their content to a new audience. Doing guest posts correctly, you’ll be able to reap the benefits by having more views and traffic.

For SEO Digital Marketing, a training course will guide you on which relevant keywords to choose by having a clear website and quality content. Main goals will be:

A user-friendly website
Easy navigation
SEO keywords
Optimized tags and title tags

This course will also teach you to pay attention to details like keyword themes and relevant links to build more web traffic.

2. Guest Posting and SEO Digital Marketing Strategy

Next question you’re probably asking yourself is how posting can earn you traffic. A training course will teach you which ways your guest posting can influence traffic. These include:

Direct referrals
Social traffic
Organic traffic
Name recognition
+ more

These are key strategies that can make your website reach its optimal level.

As for SEO, this makes your website easy to find, navigate and categorize. By helping out customers easily browse through your site, you drive more people to your business and online platforms. Factors that come into play are the selection of right keywords, behavioral marketing, mobile advertisements, banner advertisements, social media marketing, and others. This course will train you on how to achieve just that and more.

3. Increased Rankings

Guest posts earn backlinks that can help you rank higher on Google, which in turn, creates more traffic to your website. SEO will also help you gain higher website ranks in the SERP (search engine result page) by performing well on social media marketing and digital marketing. The perfect guest post and SEO digital marketing training course will help you position yourself as a well-respected blogger as well. The course will teach you how to create the buzz that gets other people curious to look at what your site has to offer.

Digital marketing is a never-ending process, and you must be equipped enough to handle the ever-changing behavior and trends of your target audience — all of which will be taught in the training course. Numerous factors that will affect your site’s popularity and the time viewers spend on your page will be discussed in the training. Be the top ranking webmarketing123.com website by signing up for training today.

SEO and guest post best practices are constantly evolving — and a training course is the best way to stay on the top of the game. Has this article given you a more unobstructed view of the benefits of SEO digital marketing and guest posting? Digital marketing can be challenging and entail a great deal of work, but once you learn the ropes, developing strategies will be a walk in the park. You’ll have a well thought out optimization plan and traffic acquisition strategy once you take a training course if you’re up for it.

Digital Branding SaaS Branding

6 Things to Keep in Mind When Hiring an SEO Expert

Steven on November 13, 2018

Although search engine optimization can be understood and implemented by most people, businesses should still consider hiring an SEO consultant. Hiring an expert is important, particularly for business owners who are overwhelmed with business responsibilities and lack the time for their website SEO. A professional can also help if the basic techniques applied on your website are not yielding the results that you desire. When hiring an expert for your business, here are a few factors to keep in mind.

Experience

Given the rapid changes in the search engine algorithms, it is crucial to hire an SEO professional who has experience navigating the regular search engine updates without compromising or affecting the effectiveness of your campaigns. When it comes to SEO, you should never judge the experience of a consultant based on the number of years that they have been in operation. Be sure to check case studies that demonstrate the past success of the professionals.

Results

With an SEO consultant, you should pay attention to the results that they promise to provide. You should steer clear of professionals who give big promises like getting your site ranked on the first page of the search engine within a short time frame. Unless your business niche targets the uncompetitive keywords, it is impossible for anyone to predict the time frame required to achieve a higher ranking for any keyword phrases. A trustworthy professional will make realistic promises of results that they can achieve.

Customer reviews

When hiring an SEO professional, you should seek customer references. You should not just rely on the testimonials that are published on their websites. This is because it is easy for anyone to make up these recommendations or even pay other people to write biased reviews. Request the SEO expert to give you the contact information of about five references. Legitimate professionals will have this information available for their clients and you should be wary of consultants who refuse to provide this information. Make sure that you get in touch with these clients and inquire whether their SEO projects were successful and whether they would work with the consultant again. You can get a lot of helpful information from these reference checks to assist you in determining whether the consultant will be a perfect fit for the SEO goals of your business.

Industry presence

When hiring an SEO professional, you should consider their industry presence. You need a professional who has established him/herself in the SEO industry. Such professionals will regularly publish guest posts on renowned search engine industry websites, for example, Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Journal. They will also release white papers based on their experience and research and will be present in popular industry conferences. However, this does not mean that you should not hire upcoming SEO experts for your business just because they have not established themselves in the industry. With experts who have established an industry presence, you will be assured of getting excellent results because they already know their work and what is expected of them.

Provide clear expectations

Hiring an experienced and expert SEO provider is not an assurance that your campaigns will be successful. This is because it is difficult to tell whether your SEO plan will provide results just by looking at it. However, a good SEO consultant should explain to you what to expect when your campaigns are running. If you have already provided your needs and objectives, the professional should provide a detailed report on what he/she will do to meet your objectives. When it comes to SEO, metrics are crucial and by setting up clear expectations, you can easily determine the success of your SEO campaigns.

Cost of SEO services

When seeking SEO services, the fee charged by the consultant is a critical consideration. Very few businesses will have unlimited marketing budgets, and this is why you must consider costs when making your decision. You should be upfront about your SEO budget when speaking with prospective consultants. A good professional will offer ideas on what he/she can do with your specified budget and will inform you whether they are comfortable working within this spending limits. You should avoid consultants who are way out of your budget as it may strain your business financially.

Hiring an SEO consultant to help promote your business is a significant investment. As a business owner or website owner, you should mitigate your risks by hiring the right professional to provide quality SEO services. Therefore, keep the above-mentioned factors in mind when hiring an SEO expert to ensure that they have the knowledge, expertise, and experience to boost your website rankings and improve your business earnings.

Digital Branding SaaS Branding

5 Ways How Knowledge Base Software Can Prove To Be Useful For Your Organization

Steven on November 13, 2018

The larger an organization becomes, the more important it is for it to ensure speedy communication between its employees. A customer service representative, for example, is going to need to be able to access information at a moment’s notice. After all, making an informed decision is one of the cornerstones of good quality customer service. A great way to make information readily available to all of your customer service representatives is to use a knowledge base software such as the one offered by Kayako. However, you might be wondering what a knowledge base software is in the first place.

A knowledge base is essentially a hub of information. It is a place where an employee of your company can put all of their findings and data in a way that would make it very easy to access. All it would take is a line of text and all of the information relevant to your search query is going to end up being presented to you. A knowledge base can also be used by CSRs to get their questions answered quickly without having to get up from their seat. There are clearly a lot of benefits associated with using a knowledge base. Here are some of the most prominent benefits that we have found.

#1 Boosts Efficiency at Work

If your employee has to scramble every time they need something, they are going to end up wasting a lot of time. Having instant access to the information they need can allow them to cut down on response and resolution times. This time will add up eventually until your employees are saving so much time that the number of customers they are able to serve will end up increasing significantly. A more convenient way of storing information also helps make work more dynamic. If your employee doesn’t have to scroll through endless lines of bland data, they are going to be more energized and therefore more proactive about the job that they are doing. It’s all about making life easier for your employees after all.

#2 Facilitates Employee Cooperation

One of the most important things to work on in your company is making sure that all of your employees are working together. This creates a sense of synergy that can allow your company to move forward because all of the cogs in the machine will be working in perfect harmony with one another. A knowledge base software allows your employees to communicate with each other much more efficiently. Instead of having to get up and go to where their fellow employee is to ask a question, they can just do that through the knowledge base software. Since cooperating and collaborating with their fellow employees will have become so much easier, your CSRs are probably going to end up doing it a lot more often which will definitely contribute to an overall feeling of synergy in your workplace.

#3 Helps Preserve Knowledge

Not all of your employees are going to treat your company as a lifelong employment opportunity. Everyone wants to move up in the world, and for the current generation working for too long in the same place can end up being a boring experience, so you should expect a lot of your employees to move on to greener pastures eventually. However, just because you are losing an employee does not mean that you have to lose the work that they have done. Through a knowledge base software, you can keep your employee’s contribution to your IP secure and easily accessible for all future employees.

#4 Allows Employees to Work Remotely

We live in a day and age where coming to the office is no longer a requirement in order to be a good employee. Nowadays you can work from pretty much anywhere and do a fine job. A knowledge base software can allow your employees to work remotely. It also makes it possible for satellite employees to communicate with one another, sometimes despite never having met each other! This can really improve your prospects by hiring employees that might have seemed impractical before due to how far away that employee is from your office.

#5 Improves Customer Satisfaction

Needless to say, a knowledge base software is going to really improve how your customers feel after they have phoned in with a complaint. Faster response and resolution times mean that your customers will be pleasantly surprised by how quickly they can get done with the call or chat. This is going to keep adding up over time until your company has a stellar reputation for the customer service that it provides. A knowledge base software can thus contribute a lot towards making your company’s future a lot more secure than it might be right now.

Digital Branding

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which is the Better E-commerce Platform

Steven on November 9, 2018

Photo credits: https://pixabay.com/en/ecommerce-shopping-credit-card-2607114/

Are you in the market for an e-commerce solution? If so, you’ll definitely love this short WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison. I also think you’ll agree creating an online store is a challenging feat. Turns out you can create an online store easily, and in this post, we help you to choose the better e-commerce platform for your needs.

We break down the post into sections such as features, pricing, and support among other things. By the end of it all, you will pick the right platform for your online store. Do you lean towards WooCommerce or Shopify? Let us know that in the comment section at the end.

Without further ado, let us weigh anchor and sail.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Basic Overview

WooCommerce is a plugin that you install on your WordPress-based website. It allows you to add powerful e-commerce features to any WordPress site. On the other hand, Shopify is a subscription-based e-commerce service. You don’t install Shopify; you simply sign up.

WooCommerce requires that you have a WordPress site first. Shopify doesn’t require you to have a website first; it’s a cloud-hosted e-commerce platform. While WooCommerce comes with a long (and often times arduous) configuration process, creating an online store on Shopify is a breeze.

Setting up a site on WooCommerce requires that you’re familiar with web-related things, even though it’s easy stuff once you get the hang of it. Things are a bit tidier with Shopify; setting a store on the platform is akin to signing up for a blog at, say, Blogger.com, or getting an email address at Gmail.com. Well, sort of.

All the same, both platforms come with enough features to launch a highly successful online store, whether big or small. Also, allow me to mention that the e-commerce platform that you end up picking from this comparison post boils down to personal preference and, of course, your needs.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Features

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that ships with enough features to create a basic online store. If you need more features, however, you can count on the wide range of free and premium WooCommerce add-ons.

Out of the box, WooCommerce ships with a ready-to-use cart, a checkout page, shop and a “my account” area where buyers can track orders and view their profiles. On top of that, it comes with five default methods of payment but you can add more.

Other than that, WooCommerce comes with an intuitive admin dashboard that makes managing your online store as easy as A, B, C. And thanks to a dedicated Products menu, you can sell digital and physical products on your e-store like a boss.

In terms of store design, WooCommerce is compatible with most if not all WordPress themes, such as the free BuddyBoss theme, since it’s just a plugin. There are, however, WordPress themes that are specifically made for WooCommerce. As such, designing the perfect e-commerce store is a theme or a developer away.

Shopify, too, shines in the features department what with a slew of nice e-commerce-centric features. Since it is a dedicated e-commerce service, you can expect all the features you need to build small and enterprise-level stores. You also get a free sub-domain (you can add a custom domain later) and free SSL certificate.

On top of that, Shopify comes with a good number of free and premium extensions that allow you to add some nice features to your store. Still, Shopify is incredibly easy to use no matter your experience or coding knowledge.

In the design department, Shopify features hundreds of themes. Well, the number of themes available for Shopify fades in comparison to what’s available for WooCommerce. All the same, the themes are professional and specifically designed for e-commerce.

An intuitive quick-start wizard helps you to set up either, but Shopify’s onboarding process offers you much more convenience. It takes fewer steps and effort to set up a store on Shopify, something we can’t say about WooCommerce.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Performance and SEO

On the web, content is king. Without amazing content, you cannot expect your store to perform well money-wise and on search engines. However, the quality of your content is only one of the more than 200 SEO ranking signals.

Nowadays, page load speed is an important SEO ranking factor. Now, this is where things get tricky, with some users claiming WooCommerce outshines Shopify and/or vice versa. Well, I root for Shopify here because it has dedicated servers that guarantee great speeds and uptimes.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have WooCommerce. The page load times you’ll record on WooCommerce depends on a couple of factors, the most important being the host you choose. Go for dirt-cheap hosts at your own risk – because, come on, what kind of performance do you expect from a host that charges a $1 buck per month.

In terms of performance and SEO, Shopify outshines WooCommerce since Shopify’s engineers do a great work of maintaining the servers for you. You just focus on the business side of things, unlike WooCommerce where you are in charge of site administration among other things.

Both platforms come with great SEO-related features, but that speed thing we just mentioned can be a deal breaker for WooCommerce stores, especially if you end up with a poor host. The chances of getting poor speeds on Shopify are slim.

Photo credits: https://pixabay.com/en/ecommerce-online-shopping-e-commerce-1992280/

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Pricing

As we’ve already mentioned, WooCommerce is a free plugin. However, to add more features, you will need extensions and these don’t come cheap. Your costs can quickly rack up depending on the extensions you choose, and this applies to Shopify as well.

To run a basic e-commerce store, though, you need about $29 bucks a month whether you choose WooCommerce or Shopify. But depending on the time commitment you put towards setting up a store, Shopify is the cheaper option in my opinion.

Besides, Shopify offers you a free 14-day trial to test the waters. You just need a paid plan to start selling. With WooCommerce, you need to find a web host, buy a domain name, set up WordPress, install SSL and then install the e-commerce plugin, before selling.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Support

WooCommerce is open source, meaning you can get help on the support forums at WordPress.org. On top of that, you can sign up on the official WooCommerce site to get support. Shopify, on the other hand, is a commercial e-commerce solution. You get professional 24/7 support via email, chat or phone.

Final Words

Whether you go with Shopify or WooCommerce, running a successful online store is all about providing great value to your users. Endeavor to provide amazing products and user experience, and you’re golden no matter the platform you choose.

WooCommerce has a steeper learning curve compared to Shopify, but once you get used to either of the platforms, the cost, and effort required to run your store depend on the features you need. Shopify is for the entrepreneur who wants to hit the ground running. WooCommerce is perfect for the businessperson who isn’t afraid to play around with myriad settings.

Between WooCommerce and Shopify, which platform do you feel is the better option for your business? Please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Digital Branding

5 Branding Strategies to Adopt for Vape Products

Steven on November 8, 2018

It is true that there have been speculations about vape branding; many of you would feel that marketing vape products and services would be risky. However, the truth is entirely different.

Ever since reports have come out in support of vape products, people have become more inclined towards switching from smoking to vaping. In fact, new bill has passed in favour of E cigarettes which will encourage businesses to promote vape products. It is being also claimed by NHS that vaping is 95% safer than tobacco cigarettes.

How do these ads affect people?

We all know the role of media in today’s world; people are more likely to pick things from seeing ads. According to the studies conducted by university of Kansas, watching advertisements regarding vape can stimulate one’s mind and attract a person to vape even if they have never vaped in their life.

CDC has also backed these facts claiming that expose to the advertisements about vaping products can definitely alter the brain chemistry of people making them vape. Hence, number of vape users is more likely to increase after being exposed to vape ads.

But how we market vape products?

It sounds like a tricky question, but to be honest, it is further from that. There are ways to brand vape products and spread word-of-mouth among people, like one of the best premium e liquids brand LongHornVapor did very well in its branding. Let’s talk about some of those strategies.

Creating an online presence

If you ever make a guess about someone and say they don’t use social media, you will lose that bet. It is one of the most cost effective strategies compared to conventional branding. According to Tobacco Control, it was reported that in the branding of JUUL, millions of dollars were spent online by the people in vape market. No wonder why there is so much buzz around youngsters wanting to add vaping in their lifestyle. What people see on Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms, suddenly becomes a hot commodity. Yes, we are still talking about vape products. Infusing attractive elements of hip-culture, fun and relaxing ads with a bit of sex appeal will do the trick just fine.

Sponsoring events is the game-changer

Be it a movie star, a musician or someone whose who is famous, you can sponsor an event under your company’s banner. Letting a top-performer setting the stage on fire can give the most enthralling experience to the people making them want to vape.

Some of you might think getting sponsorships might be hard because of all the fuss that has been around. At the same time, people have been realizing great things about vaping. And unlike smoking, there are absolutely no restrictions when it comes to promoting vape products in any way you want.

It all starts with the flavor

That’s right! If you are someone who is thinking about spending a huge lump of money on marketing, make sure you set your target market first. You can do that by having the right flavors in your vapestore, Flavors like Cotton-candy, Whipped Cream eJuice, Gummy bear and Candy King can attract the younger lot, while flavors like brain freeze can promise to cater adults’ needs and really increase the footfall.

According to Truth Initiative, more than 40 percent of the people only opt to vape because of the promising flavors.

Go Hollywood!

No, we don’t mean auditioning for roles in a film but fusing your vape brand with the film industry can be the name of the game. Moreover, Product Placement is one of the most sought-after branding strategies in today’s world.

It is not something risky as many have opted to showcase vaping in the movies. Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey and even Zac Efron have been seen vaping on the big screen. When stars vape, Boom! Everyone starts doing it. That’s the magic of right product placement!

Develop an app

Thanks to Google and Apple, a digital platform has been set for you to make your own mark and let your business flourish. But why would you need an app? It’s a very reasonable question to ask.

Many people who are having problems regarding vaping, the apps can be a way to provide them guidance. Apps like Vape Boss, Vaffle and couple more have been committed to providing useful information to beginners and people who enjoy vape-culture. You can also develop something on those lines. For that, distinguishing yourself from your rivals would be the key and focusing on the needs of people is a way to go.

Local Branding

6 Ways to Improve Brand Positioning (Fast)

Steven on November 1, 2018

Brand positioning is essential for any online business these days. It refers to the way your brand is positioned in your customers’ minds. It occurs whether or not you have a strategy in place because your customers will always have an impression of your business.

But you can help to direct your brand positioning by creating a distinct impression on your customer and ensuring they associate your brand with something desirable.

So, how can you set about improving your brand positioning? There are many ways, but here are six to help you get started—fast.

1. Determine Your Brand’s Personality

The first thing you need to do is determine your brand’s personality. Your brand already has a voice, whether you have made an effort with this or not. Customers will encounter this whenever they land on your website, see your social updates, or click your ads.

You should start by deciding what you want this voice to be. Should it be funny, strict, youthful, serious? Your voice will play a large role in your brand’s personality and how your brand is perceived by your customers. If you do not have a clear brand personality, you are increasing the chances that you will be forgotten all too easily by your customers.

Your personality is determined by the words you use, the design of your website, the types of social updates you post, the ads you run—everything that you do.

So decide what you want your brand personality to be. Create a firm idea of your brand voice, then write down exactly what you are going for and share it with all the stakeholders so they can use this to influence their activities.

2. Decide What Makes You Special

Why is your business different? Why would people want to choose you over your competitors? You need to know this if you want to stand out, and that means you need to know your unique selling proposition (USP).

This will help you to differentiate yourself in a competitive environment. Once you know what makes you special, you can communicate this to your customers.

This can be surprisingly tricky, but one good way to start is to look at your competitors and see what they are doing. As you look over their products, can you pinpoint ways in which your products or services are better?

Perhaps your products have something special about them, or maybe the way you do things is superior. If you were trying to convince someone to choose you, what negative aspects would you highlight about your competition? Do they take too long to deliver orders? Do they charge too much?

A fine example can be seen in the chocolate brand M&Ms. Claiming to melt in your mouth rather than your hand is a simple USP that appeals to a consumer desire that they might not have acknowledged themselves. The chocolate market is one that is heavily saturated, and yet this USP lifts M&Ms above the fray.

Create a list of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and determine what it is about your business that would make your customers want to choose you. Once you know, you can start making sure your customers know about it.

3. Know Who Your Customer Is

You also need to know exactly who your customer is. You may think you know, but do you really? You cannot position your brand properly until you know this; you have to position it at someone.

Create a marketing persona, or a few of them, and determine everything about your target customer. This should include their interests, dislikes, hopes, fears, the movies they watch, and more. See what they do on social media and work out what is important to them.

This can have a huge impact on improving your brand positioning. If you know who they are, what they want, and what matters to them, you can position your brand more effectively.

4. Tell Your Brand Story

Tell your brand story based around how you came into being, the problem you solved, and how your product or service was the solution. You will probably have one main product or product line that determines who you are and how your business came into being. Perhaps this is the product that you started your business around.

Telling your story can help to form a bond with your customers and highlight your shared values, which makes you come across as more trustworthy.

You see this all the time with nascent ecommerce businesses looking to get ahead of competitors in the digital space. For example, electronics websites are a great investment for entrepreneurs. There will always be a market for the latest gadgets and tech, but in such a saturated market it can be tough to stand out.

By creating a unique brand story that resonates with customers, brands can position themselves as more than simply a business. Brands can become relatable, friendly, and human.

5. Create a Positioning Statement

When you have done all of the above, you’ll be ready to create your positioning statement. This is a short statement, just a sentence or two, that communicates your value. It should include details of who your business is targeted at, why it is special, how you meet their expectations and how you fulfill their wishes.

This is an internal state for your business, so don’t worry about how snappy it is. Simply use it to influence your decisions, especially when it comes to marketing.

Your tagline is a shorter version of this that is more customer-focused. This is an external statement that you can use on your website or packaging. It’s usually punchier than a positioning statement and more memorable, and it can help you to quickly communicate your brand value.

6. Connect Emotionally with Your Customers

Finally, focus on connecting with your customers emotionally. You will only reach your customers and have an impact on them with an emotional connection.

One of the best ways to do this is with content, which provides you with an opportunity to go more in depth. Use content on your blog, for example, to engage. Don’t just promote, and instead use your content to educate and inform to connect on an emotional level.

These six tips will help you improve your brand positioning in no time at all. But don’t forget one of the most important things of all: consistency.

You need to be consistent with your brand positioning if you want to maximize its effect. Once you have determined your voice and your values, ensure you remain consistent everywhere, including your blog, advertising, social media, customer support, design, use of words, images—everywhere.

This way, you will help to make your brand more memorable and avoid confusion, creating a stronger connection with your customers that will last.

Patrick Foster, Ecommerce Enthusiast, and Entrepreneur

I’m a freelance ecommerce expert & serial entrepreneur. I love to write articles on ecommerce branding and content marketing for ambitious online sellers and hope to share some useful insight that will help to grow your business.

Local Branding

A Guide To Environmentally Friendly Promotional Products

Steven on November 1, 2018

It is our responsibility as humans to care for the environment and keep the earth safe, not only for the sake of mankind but also for the animals and plants. The majority of experts, and the non-experts agree that humankind has not done enough to keep up their responsibility. It is time to improve on our work.

In an effort to continue moving forward regarding environmental care, we would do better to market our efforts. Too many businesses rely on chintzy products that are funneled to landfills; thereby, adding to the problem of environmental destruction instead of environmental reform. Our company advocates an alternative approach where your marketing collateral will help save the earth.

Instead of utilizing paper bags that are as detrimental to the planet as plastic bags, if not more, it is time to modify the bags into items that can be reused. One should also consider clothing, office supplies, accessories and awards that are not created using renewable materials and do not pollute the water or air. To make a dent in the green movement’s objectives, while still impressing customers and generating crucial band impressions, you should consider taking these factors into account.

Promotional Products That Do Not Harm The Planet

This post is going to focus primarily on bags. Why? Well, statistics show that bags tend to build more impressions than any other promotional item. For example, a promotional bag will over 900 impressions per dollar; whereas, writing utensils and shirts receive only 500 impressions, and even billboards receive only 500 impressions.

Taking these statistics into account, brand impressions increase for fewer items overall. This means that you can purchase fewer products and be more environmentally friendly and you can get them at low low prices. So, why do people insist on buying mountains of collateral when they could purchase some promotional bags and see the same level of promotional efficacy?

Of course, not all situations call for bags. Regardless of whether you are sending thank you gifts to a customer, filling out a convention booth or dressing up a gift store, you may prefer other products. With this in mind, below are our top ten favorite eco-friendly items from the baggy side of life and beyond.

1. The rPET Bags

Considered the holy grail of all eco-friendly products, the rPET bag is one that can be reused each day and can be recycled itself. The rPET bag is created using recycled poly terephthalate and is available if a four-color silkscreen. It is developed using 80 percent recycled water bottles, and it comes in both matte or gloss lamination. The 20-inch laminated handles are available for maximum comfort. Use this eco-friendly bag when at conventions, trade shows, at a retail register or to say thank you to customers.

2. Cotton Toiletry Bags

Cotton is one of the renewable and biodegradable resources, making it an ideal option for all types of promotional products. Due to the fact that people require storage bags when travelling, we recommend the cotton toiletry bag as a promotional product. They can also be used for alternative functions, such as a snack pack for health-conscious travellers, so you don’t have to rely on take-away services or as art supplies for children.

3. The Cooler

Coolers are traditional fare for fishing trips, picnics, hiking, and other outdoor activities. With a good cooler at your side, you can keep all beverages and food cold during a long, hot day without relying on an air conditioner or ice. As the majority of people enjoy using a cooler, and keep them on hand in their trucks and cabinets, they are also a great promotional product. Not only are you are guaranteed that the cooler will not be thrown away before their usefulness runs out, but they are a great canvas for store names, logos, missions statements and much more.

4. Clothing

While shirts gain fewer impressions per dollar than promotional bags, 200 impressions is not something to turn your nose up at. Moreover, clothing tends to last much longer than most items, particularly if you order items that are made to fit the human body – say goodbye to shapeless t-shirts for females! When the clothing is made from 100 percent, organic cotton, then the item is also biodegradable.

5. Storable Pouch Bags

The storable pouch bag has become a mainstay in grocery stores and artisan shops, primarily because they are so useful. Our Ripstop nylon fabric with drawstring closure bags is lightweight, strong and cheerful; therefore, they are able to fold into small package for storage in center consoles, glove compartments, drawers and backpacks. The final result? A bag with high durability that will last for years, and will always be useful when travelling. Due to the fact that it is so small, this type of bag is less likely to be thrown away than other bags.

6. Reclaimed Cork Pet Mats

Humans and their furry friends have a long history of comradeship, regardless of whether you are a cat or a dog person. So, what better way of drawing in the pet crowd than by using reusable cork mats? The reusable or reclaimed cork mats are ideal for sleeping, eating and litter-boxing (in the case of cats). They are made from reused cork, so you can use the material to absorb spilled liquids or give the companion a comfortable place to curl up.

7. Kitchen Accessories

Kitchen accessories are an instant hit regarding reusable items ranging from customized bag clips to bamboo cutting boards. The boards are a renewable resource and clips can be used until the end of time. Providing promotional kitchen accessories is a great way of stocking customers with branded items, safe in the knowledge that you are not contributing to their world of rubbish.

8. Beer Bags And Wine

We are not going to step over the line and say that all people enjoy beer and wine, liquor and cider, or even fizzy soda. However, during a survey of family, friends and work colleagues, we came to the conclusion that most people enjoy a cold drink of some sort. This is where beer and wine bags can be beneficial as they make the ideal gifts with value-added advantages and for-sale perks.

9. Small Totes

Not all people enjoy an extra large grocery bag, particularly at a small boutique or trade show where items are less bulky. In some cases, the more beneficial option is a small tote. This tote bag is ideal for holding pamphlets and papers and conventions, clothing and jewelry at boutiques, and jars of truffles or olives at upscale grocery stores.

10. Edible Promotional

The ultimate eco-friendly promo item is the one you can eat. The edible gift leaves no trace, so it is maintaining a green approach to environmental care. Aside from small packaging, nothing enters the landfill. If you want to stack up on promotional items, you can always fill a bag with edibles for a gift basket or package for purchase in the store. The latter offers customers the option to purchase gifts for others, and your branded bag leaves the store to begin generating promotional impressions.

Final Words

Using the information above, you can see that you do not need to look too far to find environmentally friendly alternatives to suit your needs and begin generating brand impressions.

Digital Branding

How to Write Great Emails People Will Love to Receive

Steven on October 27, 2018

Image credit: Pexels Emails are nothing new, but their role in the business world is more important than ever. In this digital age, it’s vital to include email marketing in your overall marketing strategy. Not only will this help to promote your products or service and generate leads, but it also helps to build a community of loyal customers around your brand. Writing great emails is something that every brand wants to do, but not everyone achieves it. Luckily, we’ve got you covered. From writing authentic content to covering the technical basics, we explore 8 ways you can write great emails people will love to receive.

Get the length right

First thing first: send emails that are the right length that people will love to receive. No one wants a long-winded, rambling message that takes half an hour to digest. Depending on your niche, it may be more effective for you to send out shorter emails (perhaps highlighting a single event, offer or new product) more often, or to send longer newsletter-style emails less frequently. Many email platforms offer A/B testing, which will allow you to test different options including the length of the emails you send out. You can send out two versions of the same email to a small percentage of your subscriber list, see which is more successful, and then send the winner out to your whole list. This is great for optimizing your email campaigns to ensure that they perform as well as possible.

Allow your brand’s tone of voice to shine

Email is a great tool for building and showing off your brand voice. Your brand voice is how you express your business’s personality and core values in its purest form. You need to engage with your customers and motivate them into identifying with your brand and buying your products. Align your email communications with brand imaging and tone-of-voice guidelines. This is a good way to ensure that your brand value and uniqueness is conveyed to your customers. Launching a product isn’t enough these days. It’s important to build an identity around your brand that is unique and attractive to consumers. This in turn will create a strong platform for any future products to thrive upon

Build a community

Once your business has established its voice and brand identity, your customers will start to identify with your values. This helps to build a sense of community around your brand, as like-minded customers form relationships with you and each other. Writing great emails plays a big part in growing and reflecting this sense of community. There are a few different ways to make the most of this via email. You can highlight existing success stories within your community, and connecting your customers through their experiences. This is great for putting the spotlight on product reviews and testimonials. Sending out emails with exclusive deals or information will also make your customers feel appreciated and kept in the loop. (It’s sort of like they’re all invited to a private after-party hosted by you). You can also proactively reach out to your customers and encourage people to get in touch with you via your email. This encourages customers to form a relationship with you based on communication and trust. It’s good to include all of these styles in your emails, and you can even merge them all by creating monthly newsletters. You can use email marketing software to create epic templates for your next email campaign.This will help to build your brand community, increase engagement and show recipients that they are valued as an individual.

Make use of strong images

Another important basic to cover is your use of images and other media in your emails. Including strong imagery and design is often a successful part of creating great emails that people will love to receive. Plus, it’s a brilliant way to portray your authenticity and brand voice. But it’s just as important not to use too many images in emails. This could result slow loading (which leads to customer frustration) or in a huge email file people won’t be able to open. Similarly, relying too heavily on these images for the design of the email is not a good move — it can detract from your content and dilute your main message. Again make the most of A/B testing to work out how many, and what kind of images work best for your business. This could be anything from photographs, illustrations, infographics, videos or even gifs.

Research your competitors’ strategies

You can also look to your competitors to see what kind of emails other businesses are already sending out. You can even look to the rest of your mailbox to get a sense of what makes a great email, irrelevant of the market. Some of these might be awesome and really inspire you to include similar elements in your own emails. Look at all of the elements we have covered above when analyzing emails from your competitors — from tone of voice to length. You might also find that some of your competitors’ emails might be terrible, which can help you to avoid making the same mistakes. There could also be potential you spot in emails from other niches which you could apply to your own market — perhaps ahead of your competitors. You can also find attractive content on various social media channels too — check out our post on this for more information.

Check your links

Just when you think you’re getting ready to send, make sure you check your links. It sounds obvious, but have a look at your own personal mailbox and you’ll be able to see that people are still making these mistakes every day. Take advantage of the tools built into popular email platforms which allow you to test-send emails, and check links. Ensure that you have the right tracking in place within your links too. Email offers valuable data and insight which you can use to improve your mailings, giving your subscribers more of what they love most.

Offer an exit

Finally, make sure your subscribers know they have an exit if they want it. Not only might it be a legal requirement in your jurisdiction, but it’s also important for people to know they can unsubscribe at any time. Not only does this show them the practical option is there, but it also highlights that your business takes privacy seriously. Make sure your emails include a link to your business’s privacy policy, and a clear unsubscribe link works. With the 2018 updates of the General Data Protection Regulations in Europe, and daily cyber-attacks on customer data around the world, it’s important to be serious about this. By including the right sort of content in your emails – showing authenticity and your true brand voice – you’re halfway there to writing great emails people will love to receive. Combine this with covering the basics, including length, media and links, and you’re on the path to a successful email strategy. This is a guest post by Victoria Greene: Victoria Greene is an ecommerce marketing expert and freelance writer who loves helping small businesses grow and succeed. You can read more of her work and get all the latest news on ecommerce and marketing at her blog, Victoria Ecommerce.

Local Branding

The Importance of Workplace Branding

Steven on October 24, 2018

Workplace branding or office branding is an important yet underrated element of running a business. Basically, office branding is all about shaping the dynamics, infrastructure, and décor of an office so that it reflects the theme and values of the respective company.

Workplace branding is much more than covering your office in a certain colour or displaying the company logo everywhere. The process is all about creatively designing the office and taking every aspect that can influence the productivity into consideration.

Effective workplace branding changes the entire working environment and can have an impact on employees’ performance, beyond your expectations.

The importance of workplace branding of workplace branding

The Importance of Workplace Branding

Workplace branding is quite important for organizations operating at any operational scale. Here’s how it influences a company.

Boosts Employee Motivation and Productivity

Workplace branding can have a massive impact on employees. A working environment that is not only comfortable but also aesthetically pleasing will be conducive to a more motivated and. therefore. more productive workforce. Simple gestures like providing ergonomic furniture can show employees how important and valued they are, so it’s important when rebranding your office space you take into account the comfortability of the staff and even ask their opinions on the design.

A relaxed environment and a comfortable working experience enhance productivity in order to get more done, enhance creativity, and presence of mind. They’ll put in more effort into completing a task, resulting in greater productivity.

Encourages Loyalty in Employees

Workplace branding reinstates a strong sense of pride in the company. It makes the employees feel proud to be part of an organization that is forward thinking and impressively presented. Subsequently, it encourages loyalty towards the company. Employees will start working with more dedication and rigour due to an increased sense of ownership.

As a result, employee turnover decreases. The organization is able to retain their best employees and avoid spending on subsequent recruitment needs. This saving can be invested straight back into the business and into staff development to reward such loyalty.

Attracts More Clients

Effective workplace branding is also important from a potential client’s point of view. An office branded with the company’s culture, brand value, and theme leaves a massive positive impression on a potential client. It amplifies the company’s ethos, and when done well, an office branding that displays prestige and professionalism will entice more potential clients to do business with you.

More clients mean more business, so subsequently, workplace branding can be a good investment after all.

Standardize workplace branding into your office

How to Incorporate Branding into your Office

Obviously, workplace branding doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have to paint everything in the company’s theme colour. The scope of workplace branding is greater than that.

Initially, you can cover doors, fixtures, and some other pieces in the company’s theme colour. Dependent on the nature of your business you can incorporate quirky, show stopping pieces of furniture, games equipment, impressive lighting, and revolutionary electronics.

Next, you can get the company logo printed on places such as glass, the façade of the building, doors, etc. so clients know where to find you. Keeping your hopes of branding your space in mind when you’re renting a workspace in Shoreditch or its vicinity, an office that can be transformed for workplace branding should be your choice, instead of those where you aren’t really allowed to tweak the décor arrangement.

Toot your corporate horn with workplace branding

Toot Your Corporate Horn

Moving to the more important stuff, highlighting the company’s achievements through award displays, press release posters, or product displays in the building is a great example of workplace branding. You can highlight the achievements and success of the company throughout the business centre whilst also displaying areas of perceived growth and aspiration. World maps showing locations where your business currently trades and highlighting locations of interest are great examples of this.

Apart from showing clients and prospective clients that you mean business, these displays can also act as motivation for the employees and directors to achieve the future targets and objectives.You may also honour the company’s all-time best employees, directors, and the owner of the building as part of your effective workplace branding strategy.

Another brilliant method to incorporate workplace branding into your organization is to highlight the company’s moral and ethical values. It must be expressive enough to convey your organization’s corporate culture and brand value.

Workplace branding is essential, especially for a growth oriented organization. Not only does it influence the employees, but also the potential clients or business ambassadors.

For more information, click here.