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The Foundations Of Business Growth

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Business Growth|The Foundations Of Business GrowthTrying to expand your business during a global pandemic may seem like madness. However, you are an entrepreneur and you don’t want to rest on your laurels. Your ambition means that you want your startup to be able to compete with the already established industry rivals and you are eager for your venture to have a global presence. However, when the world is on more of a go-slow, people are less likely to part with their cash, and the economic markets have plummeted, it can be a challenge to see how you can grow your business. Follow this guide to the foundations of business growth.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Business Growth|The Foundations Of Business GrowthWebsite

Your online presence will really come into its own as more people stay at home and spend more time on the Internet. Online shopping was always a factor of the millennial market but now all demographics are partaking. If you are a retailer, you need to morph your business model into an online venture. The website that you produce is crucial to attract your potential market. Rather than opt for a flashy all singing all dancing website, you need to focus more time on your SEO. If you don’t know your keyword from your meta tag, you need to consider outsourcing your web design to a WordPress developer who can create a site that will emulate your brand and your ethos while appearing high up the Google search rankings. Make every section of your site within three clicks and easy to navigate to hold a potential customer’s interest. Overhaul your website and you could find your customer base growing.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the perfect vehicles for online marketing when considering your business. However, you also need to hone your social media platforms to grow your business. If you want more followers, you need to post meaningful and relevant content on a daily basis. The Twitter feed that you craft is the ideal way to communicate directly with your clientele. If a potential customer has a query, they will tweet you. This comment will be in the public domain so it is crucial that you respond promptly. Use an informal and chatty tone. The corporate hard sell doesn’t work anymore. The better the content that you post, the more shareable it becomes, thus increasing your follower numbers and global presence.

Trade Shows

If you can attend a trade show, get registered. These amazing events provide you with a readymade footfall of individuals who are eager to source your services. Go to a niche and industry specific event. By utilizing your pitch effectively, you can show off your wares, products and services. Place branded banners across your stall and encourage people to take a look at your products in action. Enthuse with your ideas and business acumen, and have some on-the-day deals that potential buyers can’t refuse. Ensure that you create an email list and follow up any leads on your return to the home office. With any luck, your clientele will grow.

These foundations of business growth will enable your venture to thrive and not merely survive during this pandemic.

4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail Stores

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresBrick & mortar retail stores are a vital part of the communities in which they exist. By having an established storefront, they’re able to interact with the people who pass by on a daily basis. This interaction makes it easy to improve engagement, as people can stop in when they’re walking by or once they get off of work, walking in to see what this small business is all about or to purchase a product out of support.

Yet, having just a physical location only goes so far. While some small businesses might be staunch about avoiding the digital realm, to the point of being labeled a Luddite, there is a lot to be gained by entering digital spaces. Social media has particularly changed the way that small businesses sustain themselves. In some cases, it has allowed these small brick and mortar stores to survive, as they’ve been able to develop digital audiences that support them in times where the storefront isn’t performing. The benefits are far-reaching, too, where social media marketing techniques like influencer and affiliate marketing measures help to improve the success of business. Interested in how you can start? Here is an explanation of social media platforms and four ways social media marketing can benefit your small business.

The Main Social Media Platforms Simplified

For brick and mortar establishments unfamiliar with social media, here is a basic breakdown of the major platforms and how they can be beneficial to your business:

  • Facebook – For small businesses like brick and mortar retailers, Facebook is the perfect platform for basic marketing and advertising opportunities. If you can develop a following from your local community, you can transform your business’s page into something of a blog, where you can keep local consumers in the loop about products, sales, events, and more. The platform’s “Live” feature also allows you to capture footage from around your storefront, letting you interact with customers by showing off staff and everything going on.
  • Instagram – If your company is more based on aesthetic, Instagram might be the place for you. You can curate a feed where images with a specific color scheme and look can be shared, letting consumers know what products you have to offer, all while hinting at the lifestyle your brand represents.
  • Twitter – Looking for a way to communicate with customers? Twitter can be a good avenue, where the site can be treated as a form of customer service, helping you stay in touch with customers throughout the day.
  • YouTube – If you’re looking to show off the look of your brand, it might be best to move from Instagram photography to video. Minute-long videos can make for great content, where you keep followers in the know concerning your business. You can even take it a step further and film 10-plus-minute videos where you review products or provide educational information to viewers.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresKnowing which platform is right for you will involve studying your business to better understand what it wants to say to the community, and on which platform your audience is most likely to be found. But, with all of this in mind, here are some of the essential ways that marketing on these social media platforms can benefit your brick and mortar business:

1. Utilizing the Internet to Build a Digital Relationship

One of the greatest things about creating social media profiles for your business is that it allows you to develop digital relationships that can transcend to real-life transactions—if you’ve never had a website, this isn’t likely to happen, so that’s something you should do sooner rather than later.

The best part about starting out is that you don’t have to do much, in terms of marketing and advertising. Rather, work to start following other businesses and begin communicating with fellow social media users. On top of this, start posting content that is going to develop a following on its own: Post pleasing pictures to Instagram with relevant hashtags; follow other local businesses on Facebook to start growing a local community that can grow from there.

Once these relationships are established, you can begin moving onto more complicated features of the apps, all while your initial community continues to provide you with long-lasting engagement.

2. Using Referral Marketing

When starting out, one of the best ways you can get yourself up and going is through the help of referrals. Technically known as affiliate marketing, this is the establishment of relationships with other businesses, where a company/person is paid to endorse and promote a business.

This can be an essential way to get your feet on the ground as a new social media user, as you can utilize influencers and fellow businesses to your advantage, having them promote your business’s page to their own larger audiences. In turn, this will hopefully lead to new followers and potential site visitors, helping you gain traction and a digital following of your own. The best part is that this can still be done even once you have an established following, as there will always be room for growth in the digital world.

3. Posting Content That’s Relevant and Eye-Catching

One of the most important things to gaining a following online, and remaining relevant, is posting content that people want to see. Your posts shouldn’t just be pictures of your products followed by a description of what they do. Rather, a story should be told.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Social Media Marketing|4 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Benefit Brick & Mortar Retail StoresIf you’re a local business, you can talk about how your community’s character is a part of everything you do. If you’re promoting health and wellness products, you can craft a story related to how this product is intended to improve a person’s life by developing a healthier daily routine. The options are endless, but you want to find something that will resonate with social media users, as that’s what is going to entice them to follow your business and stick around.

4. Making an Inviting Website

As mentioned before, you need a website if you don’t currently have one. While you can rely on getting business in-store from local followers, that won’t translate to the national or global market. Instead, you need a website that is reflective of your business—a place where social media users can be directed to make purchases with your retail store. This will be essential to your business’s longevity, as it will allow you to create a profitable digital audience, giving you an extra level of protection if anything were to ever happen to your storefront.

Improve Your Business’s Security with Social Media Exposure

The methods you explore when developing a social media presence, from affiliate marketing to website development, will vary, but they’re all intended to improve the security of your business going forward. Think about the ways social media can help your business, and begin posting sooner rather than later.

 

The Marketing Tools You Need to Succeed in 2021

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, The Marketing Tools You Need to Succeed in 2021

Marketing is something of an art form, and its success often depends on the personnel involved and the toolkit that’s used. Your company might spend millions on a marketing campaign that doesn’t nearly reach your expected ROI. On the other hand a little honesty and savvy marketing know-how can accelerate your campaign beyond your wildest dreams. You will have to hire the best people for the job but you can narrow the chances of success by knowing the right tools to use as well. In this article we take a look at some of the marketing tools you need in 2021.

Buffer or Hootsuite

Both Buffer and Hootsuite give you more control and better data when managing your social media accounts. Your website host will probably allow you to schedule posts to social media but there are limitations and the data you receive back may not be sufficient. That’s why a third party software option like Buffer or Hootsuite is effective.

Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to schedule posts to multiple social media accounts at once and give you valuable response data, such as clicks, retweets, likes, favorites, mentions, and potential views. While the free version is limited to one social media account and 10 posts at any given time, a subscription can link you up with every major social media channel.

Social media was once a friendly platform for connecting with people around the world, it’s now a commercial enterprise integral to the success of brands and businesses. Around 3.8 billion people globally use social media everyday which means your business needs to engage with the medium effectively. Buffer and Hootsuite can help you make those important strategic decisions.

Wishpond

Is your website landing page looking dated or not achieving the results you expect? This might be the case with other aspects of your website as well, such as your mailing list or CRM system. Whatever the issue Wishpond can step in and help you out. It’s an affordable digital marketing suite with more than a dozen tools on offer that make your website sing like it should.

The aim of Wishpond is to help you grow your business online by making your website modern, functional, and attractive. Wishpond’s multiplicity of tools allows you to build and publish responsive web pages quickly and across all devices – you can also add various forms to the pages that popup when users visit a landing page. Wishpond will also integrate well with social media and allow you to set up promotions and contests.

If you want an all-in-one software solution that takes your online presence to the next level then consider Wishpond. It’s not only affordable but it provides you with essential software tools like departing employee computer forensics investigations, in a user-friendly format. These tools can be found in other places too but individually, and they are often more expensive.

Instagram

Are you a small business looking to gain a foothold in social media this year? If so then Instagram is your friend. Unlike the big hitters in social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit, Instagram has remained untouched by big business advertising. Major social media sites might be awash with established brands but Instagram manages to make space for smaller voices.

How is this possible? The answer lays in the way Instagram manages its advertising. It’s difficult for smaller businesses to gain traction on social media sites dominated by the loudest voices in the industry, and even if they do ‘get-in’ it’s next to impossible to maintain the progress. However, Instagram has an affiliate program that seems to cater more to these smaller voices.

There is nothing stopping corporate giants joining the affiliate network and proving products but for some reason they don’t gain the same traction or attention. Instead, small fashion lines, makeup brands, and esoteric products are more appealing to an Instagram audience. The Instagram audience is much more favorable to the personal connection with products rather than a slick corporate appeal.

Facebook Post Boost

Like Instagram, Facebook Post Boost is a way for smaller brands and companies to slip through the cracks of corporate advertising and gain effective traction at a lower cost. In the coming year the dominant trend for corporate social media advertising is to run high cost campaigns with long run times, this opens up possibilities.

Facebook Post Boost has been introduced to combat the decline in organic reach for businesses on the site. In recent years Facebook has moved more towards posts from friends and family. The result of this is more competition with bigger brands for reaching your target audience. With Facebook Post boost you have an alternative to big budget advertising that still reaches the people who matter.

Facebook Post Boost allows you to set up parameters for a promotion post to reach your audience. You can select a range of demographics along with your ad duration and budget. These ads are not as straightforward as scheduling a campaign with a long run time but they are just as effective at reaching your audience and helping smaller businesses compete with the big guns.

Twitter Explore

In recent times Twitter has become less favorable to marketers and many are moving away from it, opting for Facebook and Instagram instead. The platform is generally perceived as good for marketing if you have a few major influences, but is otherwise difficult to reach your target audience effectively. As more small and medium sized businesses seek conversions elsewhere it might be time to move against the tide.

The reason for this trend is fairly obvious. While it is not impossible to gain new followers on Twitter and benefits from retweets, the platform doesn’t lend itself well to conversions – getting people off Twitter and onto your website is not as slick as other platforms. Still, the site has much to offer, especially if more of your competition is making the shift.

In 2021 it’s more than worth the effort to investigate your potential reach on Twitter. With less competition in your industry and some concerted effort promoting your brand with retweets, lists, and relevant connections, you might see some Twitter ROIs you have for some time relinquished.

People Per Hour

People Per Hour is an excellent freelancer website that connects talented freelancers with businesses and brands. There is so much on offer through this website that it would be silly to ignore the possibilities in 2021. For instance, you could hire influencers to visit your YouTube channel to build subscribers or have product reviews written.

Building a brand online is not always easy or straightforward. There are a concert of things to consider, everything from how to post content, where to post content, and what content to include. You might want written material or something more sophisticated like graphic or photographs. Whatever it is you ‘need’ to take your business forward online PPH has the freelancers to help.

Using freelancers might not be your first solution. It’s tempting to learn the tricks yourself and save the investment for other areas of the business. But realistically, a freelancer who spends all their time doing what you need done will turn around an effective product for you far more quickly. This saves you time and most likely money as well.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console might not be the most sophisticated analytics software on the market, but it is free and extremely useful – especially for small and medium sized businesses that need to know the vital stats for website traffic. The software does have its flaws – it is not quite as accurate as similar products – but it’s extremely user-friendly.

With Google Search Console you can analyse, maintain and improve your website’s position in SERPs, all from the convenience of a free easy to use software system. The Google Search Console allows you to confirm that Google can locate and crawl your website, fix any indexing problems you may have, analyse Google search traffic for your website, and much more.

There are some drawbacks to the Google Search Console. It works on a verified setting which means that only some activity is recorded. If someone searches for your website with a VPN or third party app it may not register. Still, it’s a small price to pay for a range of free features to help your business succeed.

Sprout Social

If you’ve already done the groundwork with your social media presence and need something to take your brand to the next level, Sprout Social is the tool to use in 2021. Sprout Social collects information from all your social media channels and helps you manage and engage with it efficiently – integrate your social media enterprise and forget about the hassle of sporadic emails.

When you’re running a social media enterprise you need to have updated responses to new messages and schedule content across your channels. Without a social media manager like Sprout Social you will be all fingers and thumbs. Needless to say this software is for the more advanced social media users. In order to collect data Sprout Social will need access to several channels and many followers.

Improve Your Local SEO For Optimum Success

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Local SEO| Improve Your Local SEO For Optimum SuccessDo you know that by improving the Local SEO positioning , you will have the possibility of reaching clients who are close to your business? For several years, the main search engines and especially Google, show personalized results for each user. These results are based on our location or if we do a local search, and they will allow us to quickly find what we need. That is, if your business is in a certain physical location and you want to attract customers from your locality or nearby, you have no choice but to appear in the first local search results. Interesting, right? Well, let’s not waste any more time and let’s start by seeing what actions you should apply to optimize the Local SEO positioning of your business.

Why is it important to improve Local SEO positioning?

Do you remember the order in which Google shows you the results when you do a local search? First, the paid ads (if there are any), and then the Google Maps map with 3 location pins. Well, in one of them your business can be, therefore, it is very important to be well positioned in your city or province. For example, if we search for hotels in the city of New York, Google shows us this map and these results.

How to do Local SEO

I can tell you that, in order to achieve a good web positioning in your locality, and you must work on internal aspects , over which you will have full control and other external aspects, which will no longer depend only on you

1. Always use the same NAP

In order to properly work on Local SEO positioning, something very important is to always use the same and identical NAP (Name-Address-Phone) data on all the websites where you register your business. It is recommended that you write them down in a Word document or in Notepad, and from there you copy and paste them. This way, no characters will be missed ( this information must match letter by letter and point by point).

2. Create a profile on Google My Business

Now you can register your business in Google My Business. You just need to have a Gmail account and start filling in the data that the platform requests. Try to enter the maximum number of possible, real and updated data (no padding or irrelevant data). As such, it will allow Google to show your listing to potential customers in your area of ??action.

By creating and optimizing your profile in this service offered by Google, you will be providing the search engine with a detailed, personalized and updated file of your business. Without a doubt, this point is essential so that you can appear on the Google Map as a local result, and you will also appear in the organic results of the search engine itself.

3. Get reviews and comments on Google My Business

If a business does not have positive reviews, it will hardly be able to climb in the local search results. Truthful reviews and opinions will do nothing else, but demonstrate your good work and increase credibility and trust with the user. Given the importance of reviews, you must encourage your satisfied customers to leave their assessment about you and your business . It is a good method to contact them and invite them to leave their opinion and thank them for the high value for us that they do this action.

4. Register your business in local directories

If you register your business in local directories, you will be letting search engines know that your field of action is in a certain geographical area. In addition, another benefit that you will get when you register in the directories will be a link to your website, a factor that will undoubtedly help you improve the overall SEO of your website and at the same time the Local SEO positioning of your business. Once you have selected the most relevant local directories in which you are interested in being present, start the work of getting reviews, scores and comments from your users. As we have seen previously, this factor is one more in determining the position in the search results. Always use the same NAP. If there is a slight difference, in a punctuation mark or in an upper and lower case, it will be a reason for a penalty and all the work that you would have done so far to achieve a good local position could be ruined.

5. Add more information using Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are micro data that provide additional information to Google about our website. In this way we make it easier for you to understand our content better. Google will show these rich snippets in search results if it thinks they can provide information of interest to users. Surely in searches that you have been able to do you have noticed:

  • The stars that indicate the rating given by users.
  • In the thumbnail images or videos that accompany the description of the content.
  • Or in the information about the author of the content, events, opinions.

These are all examples of enriched fragments and just as they have been able to draw your attention, they do it with other users, do you see their importance now?

6. Optimize your business profiles on social networks

It cannot be said that the presence in social networks where your target audience is, is more than necessary and cannot be absent from your Digital Marketing plan. You will imagine that not only being present is enough, your profiles must be active and properly optimized . With this I want to tell you to publish regularly and include the maximum information regarding the description of your business. And remember, no fillers, just important information:

  • Schedules
  • The different ways a user has to contact you ( E-mail, telephone, etc.).
  • And of course your location

Also make sure to include links that point to your website from each of the social profiles. This way you will soon be immersing yourself in the incredible world of local SEO and creating a successful future.

Discover The Best Ways To Boost Business Conversion Numbers

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Boost Business Conversion|Discover The Best Ways To Boost Business Conversion NumbersAre you interested in earning more with your business? If so, then you need to think about how to boost the level of conversions. It’s not enough to boost the traffic to your website. You need to make sure that people are buying from your business too. Here are some of the ways to do that.

Think About Structure

You should make sure that your site is following the three click rule. Ultimately, a client should never be more than three clicks from the page, product or service that they are looking for on your site. This can require a full reshake of your web design so it can be worth hiring a professional. Alternatively, you can cut a few corners by adding links to your site. You just need to make sure that this doesn’t end up negatively impacting SEO and that can happen if you’re not careful.

Content Is Still King

If you want to make sure that people buy from your site, then you need to keep them on it for as long as possible. The best way to do this is to focus on adding high quality content to your site. This needs to be targeted and reflect what your customers want from your business. Be aware that creating appealing and engaging content can be quite tricky. The best way to do this is to tell stories and present customers with something that they can follow to the very end. You also need to make sure that you are adding content to your site regularly to guarantee that it stays fresh.

Upgrade Your Web Design

It’s important to understand that first impressions do matter. That’s why you need to think about upgrading your website design where possible. By boosting the design, you can guarantee that you are sending the right impression with your website and your brand in general. You can ensure that it looks more professional and appeals to your target audience. For instance, websites for hair salons should be stylish and modern to reflect the type of service that clients can expect.

Speed It Up

Finally, you should think about how fast your site is able to load. Ideally, you should ensure that every page on your site loads in a couple of seconds. If you are struggling to do this, then there are a few options that you can consider. For instance, you can think about converting your photos and video files so that they are smaller. This means that you won’t have to worry about problems with files that are taking forever to load, particularly on phones. Don’t forget, this is where most of the traffic for your site will be sourced these days.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key ways to boost your conversion numbers online. In doing so, you can avoid the dreaded issue of the abandoned basket and ensure that your company is on the right track for a big revenue stream that will ensure the longevity of your company.