Starting up your own business is an exciting time. The hard work is worth the success you know you’re destined to have but first, you need to work on building your brand. There’s plenty of groundwork to get done before you hit the ground running and plenty of research that needs to be carried out.
This is particularly true when it comes to talking about your brand and in this blog we look at three ways to go about creating just the right image and name for your business, before you press go.
Image courtesy of Pexels: CC0 licence
Know Your Mission
No matter what type of business you run you’ll have a mission. If you sell physical products from an online store then your mission might be centered around the quality of your products or your customer service. If you sell your services and skills then it will be much the same but with a more customer-centered focus.
Your brand is built around the goals you want to achieve. When you think about what you would like to be recognized for in your industry, that’s where your brand values lie. Get your mission statement down. It’s not a token gesture but rather the information at the core of your brand and your name.
Know the Competition
You want to know how to protect your brand and keep it head and shoulders above a crowded market place? You need to know the competition. Go through their websites with a fine-tooth comb and make a note of the pieces of their brand identity that challenge you the most. Here you’ve got your starting point on how to make your offering stronger, better and more instantly recognizable.
Build a brand logo that is easy to differentiate and resonates with the customer. Build a brand voice that speaks straight to your client and draws them to your brand over and above your competition.
Be Brand Consistent
When you’ve found your logo and your voice keep this branding consistent throughout your website design, marketing materials and in marketing actions you take forward, including your social media and direct email delivery.
Establishing your brand is one thing, now it’s time to build it up. To use your basics as building blocks towards greater brand recognition.
There’s a crowded market place out there for many industries but that’s not to say you should be daunted by the competition. Instead use that knowledge to build your brand to be even more relevant and stand-out even further.
It’s not easy to fit all the pieces of the branding puzzle in the right places but when you do get it right, you’ll see the benefits of having taken your time and of carrying out the relevant research to hit the mark. Then it’s time to get excited as you launch your start-up, complete with a strong image and strong voice. Now you are ready to take on the world and bring quality goods and services to your customers.
In today’s digital age there is an enormous amount of missed opportunity across marketing channels.
If you have good content (SEO) and good outreach (a form PR), you will be able 10x the results if you improve the synergy between the two.
Public Relations (PR), when properly used, can be a powerful source of:
Brand awareness
Traffic
Website authority
However, many brands overlook this third benefit and are leaving huge amounts of untapped potential on the table.
What Exactly is PR in the Digital Marketing World?
Traditionally, PR is the practice of deliberately managing & improving the spread of information surrounding a brand or organization and the public.
Many brands use PR to control the narrative around their company and direct consumer attention to aspects of the brand they want to highlight – and even direct attention away from potentially damaging aspects.
In the digital marketing world, we like these benefits as well.
However, there is something even more powerful PR can be used for. That something is SEO, specifically link building, to increase website authority (domain rating).
How PR Helps Generate Maximum SEO Impact
Now you are most likely wondering, what can PR and media coverage do to help improve SEO?
The concept is simple: PR generates links & search engines love high-quality links.
Public relation agencies work very hard to get their clients mentioned in the press – web, bloggers, influencers, news, etc. These agencies are not cheap – and the work they do is sometimes very difficult to replicate.
Popular publications will write about your business whenever you send a press release. They will link it to your website, which automatically gives a free backlink to your website.
Aside from that, you will also get the chance to receive brand recognition, which in turn, will boost your brand authority. You can even dedicate an exclusive “As Seen On” section in your website to feature all the publications who wrote a story about you.
Bottom line, when people are looking to avail of a product or service from a new brand, they will most likely search the internet for suggestions. Then, they start looking for reviews and articles about the brand before they make the purchase decision. This is where you should be in.
It is all the more valuable if you know how to get PR and SEO to work together. This is where the missed opportunities begin (do not make these mistakes).
Common Problems & Solutions in Linking PR with SEO
Brand mentions in web articles have no links.
Make sure your mentions are hyperlinked.
Brand mentions in web articles have links, but the links are marked as “nofollow”.
Make sure your links are marked “dofollow”.
Brand mentions in web articles have links, and are “dofollow”, but do not strategically point to pages on the target website that need a link boost.
Make sure you have a strategy around target pages on your website that needs links. Getting links to your homepage is good, but sometimes you want those links going to a page optimized for selling a product or making you money.
Not tracking the links you earn.
Make sure you track all your links. Monitor them for uptime, make sure they stay “dofollow”, and build links to those links.
Not tracking the traffic and behavior from the links you earn
Make sure you have Google Analytics setup in such a way where you can measure the ROI from your PR campaigns. Quick reality-check question: Are your PR campaigns profitable?
Linking PR and SEO: How to Get Started
To have a successful PR strategy, you must understand your market and position your tactics so the right publications will give you brand coverage that will help you reach your target audience.
The biggest takeaway for all of marketing (and of course your PR and SEO strategy) is this: Understand your buyer, find out where what channels/platforms they are giving their attention to & become omnipresent on those channels/platforms.
If you do this, you will succeed in growing your brand authority in the eyes of the consumer (the traditional goal of PR).
If you do this AND follow the guidelines up above, you will succeed in growing your brand authority in the eyes of SEARCH ENGINES as well.
Once you find these websites, you can implement these four tactics to an effective PR strategy:
PR Syndication Platforms (for SEO)
Warning: This is where the article starts to deviate a bit. You are now crossing over from using REAL PR for SEO, to using SEO PR for SEO (not the same as hiring a publicist or PR company)
There are several PR websites you can join that will connect you with blogs and journalists. The benefit is additional exposure for cheap, and you don’t even have to write content – starting to sound like “SEO” now huh? “SEO” aka little hacks for lazy people who want results.
Note – these platforms are really for press syndication and not equivalent to hiring a real PR company to get you legitimate placements. This is “SEO PR” and should be done strategically.
The “aha-moment” for SEO for many people is always this – the key to getting links is exclusivity & barrier to entry. If anyone can pay for a link somewhere it is not that valuable. This is the key difference between PR syndication & a PR company. These syndication sites cost $250-$600 (depending on the package) to get listed on 100s of sites.
Not that big of a barrier to entry.
Whereas hiring a PR company is much more expensive, and they have spent a significant amount of time, energy & resources creating relationships with publishers & media companies where you can get placements – a much higher barrier of entry.
Launch a Campaign for Guest Posting
Guest posting is writing or publishing an article on someone else’s blog or website.
It is one of the easiest ways for you to get free media coverage and links back to your website.
First, you have to look for blogs in your niche that accepts guest posts.
Second, reach out to the editor(s) and pitch a blog post idea to the publication. If your pitch is accepted, write the article and mention your brand in it with a hyperlink to the page you are looking to acquire links for – pretty simple.
It is a win-win scenario. The blog gets a free quality content written for them, while you get a free backlink to your website.
Create an Email Outreach Campaign
There are websites who may write about your brand without you even knowing it. You can take this opportunity to build more links to your website. Be notified whenever you are mentioned by setting up a Google Alert.
Reach out to the publications who mentioned you and send a thank you email. In this thank you email, also ask them to link the article back to your website. They will most likely appreciate you reaching out to them.
Make Use of the Skyscraper Technique
Most websites use the skyscraper technique to build links – essentially this a method of creating high quality content & reaching out to industry relevant websites who are already linking to similar content and asking them to link to you as well.
Ever heard the saying “build a better mousetrap”? Kind of the same thing.
Find the content that your competitors are getting their traffic from:
2. Find out who is linking to that type of content already (let’s say for this example we are talking about a piece of content about “search engine optimization for lawyers”
3. Read all of their content and make a more comprehensive & authoritative piece.
4. Reach out to all those “hundreds of websites linking to the top people” and ask them to link to your content as well!
When you are in business, you are for the win. There is no way that you might leave your winning spot for anyone else. So, you need to work out on multiple ways to stay ahead of your competitors and get impressive help from their sides. Just be sure to know more about the ways first and then get instant help, as and when asked for. If you are looking for growing your brand on social media networks, then target Instagram as the first go. With active 1+ billion users, you will probably get the highest business from here only.
Now, when it is about Instagram, it means you are focusing on followers for Instagram. The accounts with more followers are the ones with higher potential customers and amazing growth. So, make sure to work out on ways to get your competitor’s following, which will eventually help in your business growth. Yes, it might sound a bit evil, but it is always what you need to so when it comes to business standing and profitable results in the end.
The ways to follow:
One major way to find and then attract new following is always by seeking the closest competitors and their professional Instagram accounts. Once you have done that, for the next step, you have to start engaging with their audiences in here.
These people are following the accounts of your competitive web designing fields. That means they have already shown some level of interest in your business sector.
If you and your competitors carry the same deal of service or products, that means the client base will be of the same mentality. So, stealing their existing audience is not that difficult. You don’t have to think twice as they are already interested in the field of web design. That’s why they are following your competitors on the first place.
Effectively steal the followers:
Now the real question over here is how you are going to steal the competitors’ followers that effectively. The closest way to do so is by engaging with the followers in your own way. There are multiple ways available in which you get the chance to engage with the IG users.
The more work you get to put in it, the better. There will be a higher follower count with repeat engagement, which will be the results of such practices in here.
The three major forms of engagements for you to follow are, follow one user, like their photos and then comment on their photos.
Most of the followers are local, which is yet another plus point. If they can like the profile of your competitor, then they can surely like yours too. So, you can give them a chance by commenting on such photos.
If you can play the chords right, chances are high that you will end up with more followers than your competitor. They will never get to know that it was you all along who stole their followers.
Author Bio
Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.
The Keyword “ WordPress ” gets 2.8 million Google searches every month.
WordPress runs more than a quarter of the entire Internet.
WordPress powers 14.7% of the leading 100 websites in the world.
WordPress holds a whopping share of 50-60% of the Global CMS (Content Management System) market.
There is a more good reason for this - it’s open-source and easy to use. Adding on, it is a flexible platform that provides you complete access over your website and how it looks. On top of your storefront, you can add a forum, blog, and customize the page as you want.
So, if you are interested in starting an online store, but are sitting on the fence as in “how”, I have created and curated a step-by-step guide on how to develop your e-commerce online store with WordPress.
Before commencing with the insights from leading software development company, let’s have a look at what is making people take a dim view in the same verticals.
How do I setup an e-commerce store on WordPress?
Can you create an online store with WordPress?
Nevertheless, here is a quick overview to help you in every stage of the process and then will have a deep dive:
Include WooCommerce Plugin during the hosting account setup
Log in and put your first product out.
#Step 1:Invest In Personal Passion To Fuel The Niche Selection
Counting onto every successful entrepreneur I have crossed path upholds to the fact that “Passion” is the secret ingredient to the exclusive lifestyle they enjoy.
However, creating an e-commerce online store requires a lot of passion - to be precise, years of effort before you can pay yourself a handsome salary.
To decide on a product that folds over your personal zeal.
Evaluate your past shopping habits. What made you purchase the product and which one excites you the most.
b) Illustrate the different products and their categories. Take up some ideas from your neighborhood store.
c) Do you want to leave an impact on people’s lives?
d) How can you turn your hobbies into monetizing options with the online store?
Remember - The more specific the niche, the more you will be able to let your passion be radiant through online and offline.
#Step 2: Go For A Catchy Domain Name
Domain Name is the best way for customers reach on your website. Probably, if they hear about you somewhere, it turns a little difficult to remember your name. Whereas, it’s easy for Google to use your domain and identify what your website is all about.
Here is the guide to help you pick the right domain name:
a) Go for keyword research. The domains that include these keywords prove as a boon to accomplish ranking on Google.
b) Keep it short. This approach minimizes the mistype by customers.
c) Protect your domain extensions like - .net, .com to keep the shadow characters at bay.
d) Wear a cold shoulder to the words with multiple spelling, as in like - one and won. They sound the same over the conversation.
e) Avoid hyphenated domain names. Chances are customers who forget about the hyphen.
f) Put it into easy words. If a tiny tot can’t say it, change it!
#Step 3: Pin Down Your Business Plan
Planning to start an online store with WordPress?
It seems a daunting task at first. But, reckon on the best software development company and sketch down a comprehensive business plan for your company laying out how exactly you envisage it.
Select the products you want to sell.
Acquire inventory
Create the website
Market the website
Expand your market share and the list goes on.
#Step 4:Remember To Include “WooCommerce” Plugin
WordPress lays the firm foundation of your website. And, adding “Woocommerce” reinvent your site in an e-commerce powerhouse with the base pack free of value. That is, without paid plugins you can implement the exquisite elements of e-commerce design on all your targeted pages.
Select a host for your website that proffers a package designed for WordPress. Pay focus on security and performance scale and if you are not able to find them, it’s the right time to move ahead.
b) Download and install the WooCommerce WordPress plugin. Answer the questionnaire in the setup wizard to bring your site up and run in less than 5 minutes.
c) Select, install, and customize the WordPress theme that is compatible with WooCommerce.
d) Click on the product tab in your WordPress admin center and add your first product for sale.
#Step 5:Elect A WooCommerce Friendly Theme
Theme is the focalpoint of your website design and helps in deciding the feel of your website. Therefore, finding the right theme that allures browser to turn buyers is worth walking the extra mile.
It the official WooCommerce theme. Its sole purpose is to work optimially with platforms and provide you with the best presentation and alluring design choices. It is basically free, but comes along with paid add-ons and customization features.
The only downside is - “Originality”. While using it, you are making your store look like many other online store running on the same theme.
Applause! As far by now you have selected a host, installed WordPress and the plugin also. Now is the time to debunk the real potential of your e-commerce store with some additional plugins. Find the below attached plugins that are personally my favorite.
The famous dialogue from Filed of Dreams “ If You Build It, They Will Come ” was an excellent piece. But, if they were talking in consideration to e-commerce, the phrase would have changed to “If you write a lot, SEO friendly content, they will come”.
All you need to search is the motivated customers which are ready to make a buying decision at your online store.
Find below the right approach to use SEO friendly content to score new customers.
Scrutinize the keywords from your business plan and funnel them into a tool like Ahrefs to have an in-depth understanding of the keywords that trigger the product ads.
Do some additional research work, to find appropriate keywords for each category and product in respect to your site.
Be a little picky while selecting your focus keywords. Try to select the top 10 choices.
Opt for blogging option. It teaches customers about how to use products and focus on things that are helpful. Even, you can take the complex answers, chunk them into simple and easy to understand forms, that has a long way to go.
Be sure, every page on your website has:
Url slugs
Meta titles
Image all tags
Meta descriptions
And, content that is easy to read.
f) Be in the lookout for bloggers who do product review and giveaway your things.
#Step 7:Boom Traffic With Facebook Ads
While shopping for a service or a product, who do you trust?
The possibility is, you will ask your friends for what they have purchased and whether they love it or not.
“Social Selling” is the hot word to cash-in on a shopper's instinct to trust their near and dear ones. Advertising your brand on leading social platforms like Facebook, Instagram or promoting a social portal ad for a particular page of your website is a great way to imbibe your brand into customer’s newsfeed.
So, make sure to create Facebook ads to keep your targeted customer engaged with your products. And, as you move ahead to post your blog, do share the links with an enticing Facebook post to help drive the traffic.
Remember - Keep your list targeted
#Step 8: Last, But The Most Important “Payment Method”
Just in the same manner shopping has a final destination “Payment”, the same holds true for e-commerce online store also. Your E-commerce website requires a means of receiving payment from the customers. So, make sure to include a reliable payment option while discussing the project with your technology partner.
The most financial transaction takes place over trusted payment gateways, which are the services acting as the middleman between your customer and you.
Analysis Of Points While Choosing A Payment Getaways
Value
Every payment getaways charge a certain percentage of amount on every single transaction. Have a look at the service charges for each payment getaway you are planning to opt for.
In some scenarios, a higher fee is acceptable for the best-in-class they provide.
E-commerce Platform Compatibility
Keep in mind, not all payment getaways are braced by e-commerce plugin. For instance, the best offshore software development company make sure your payment getaway is included in the list of e-commerce plugins and proceed accordingly.
Financial Data Input
Payment getaways follow two methods to get the data from the customer for financial transactions. First, is the hosted page and the other is integration.
The hosted page redirects the customer to the payment getaways where they fill their credentials after they checkout. This is a secure option but not matching your e-commerce store theme. Whereas, in integration, the customer put in their financial information in an array of fields directly on your website, which is further processed and sent to payment getaways.
Mobile Friendly
In the present scenario, more and more online transactions are taking place over the mobile. It is vital to provide users with an option to make payments at the store even if they are using their mobile.
So, choose a payment getaway that not only supports mobile transactions but simultaneously has optimized mobile experience with alluring UI.
Support & Security
Safety is the important , especially when it is about your information. In order to be sure, check the payment getaways has encryption, support for SSL certificates and everything else to do with safety considerations.
Make it a point to have efficient and timely support in your payment process that responds to the need timely.
In The End... I hope this blog proves a great help in walking you through every step of creating your own e-commerce online store on one of the biggest platforms in the digital space.
Lastly, install a trusted and compatible payment getaway.
But, if you still have some queries, hire E-commerce developer to have a fully-functional extensive e-commerce website that you can expand and improvise as per your business. After all, success is proportionate to effort.
Technology has really come a long way as compared to a couple of decades back. In the 80s and 90s, the technology we have today was still in its infancy. As such, business was conducted in a way that generally didn’t embrace technology. However, in today’s world, technology has taken center stage. In many modern workplaces, it’s impossible to have the business running smoothly without the appropriate technological backbone.
However, many small business owners believe that since their businesses aren’t very big, they don’t require much investment in this area. This is totally the wrong mindset to have if your goal is to grow your business so it reaches as many people as possible.
When it comes to technology and business, the initial investment might seem to be a little high. However, as time progresses, you’ll discover that the investment was well worth it. Here are a few technologies any serious business person cannot afford to miss.
Data Loss Protection
Digital security is one of the cornerstones of any successful business. Regardless of the type of business, having proper security for your data is paramount for success. Customers, clients, and stakeholders alike want to be assured that your data is safe so that they have confidence when dealing with your business. As such, you can employ various encryptions to your data so that in case there is a breach, hackers won’t be able to access passwords. Also, disposing of sensitive data can help keep your clients safe; such information includes credit card numbers, bank account info, and shipping addresses, to name only a few.
Business on the Go
Today’s business owner isn’t shackled to the office — they can literally do business from anywhere thanks to smartphones and tablets. And although it’s definitely a good idea to have an HQ, you no longer need to worry about missing important calls or emails simply because you were out of the office. Of course, your smartphone is only as good as your data plan, which is why companies such as Verizon offer unlimited data and multiple lines to business owners. By having a good plan that covers all the bases, you won’t have to worry about overcharges simply because you suddenly enjoyed a boost in your business.
Having a Proper Website
A website today is crucial for any business to thrive. Some small business owners think that since they operate a traditional brick-and-mortar business, a website is unnecessary. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Today, most people look up companies before doing business with them. Not surprisingly, the quality of the website and its content goes a long way toward proving that you’re serious about your business.
Unfortunately, some small businesses think that any old website will do. However, when you build a quality web presence, customers are more likely to also believe that you’re selling quality merchandise. On an ideal website, you should have a section that is for customers to give their feedback on products, ask questions, and interact with one another. Not only does this help your rankings with Google, but it also shows the customers that you care about what they need.
While there’s a wide array of DIY website builders on the market these days, it’s essential that you hire a professional such as Throlson to create a website for you. They will customize it just how it should be and make sure everything is working as advertised.
Updating the Point-of-Sale System
Point-of-sale systems have been around for a while. Big businesses have been using them for years, and because of that, they have better understood their business, which has only led them to become more successful. POS systems are critical when it comes to understanding your business and what you need to keep things moving in the right direction.
Today, small businesses can also employ POS systems that are tailored to their specific business. Such systems, including tablet-based POS systems, help the proprietor get a better understanding of what’s moving faster than the rest and then make the necessary refinements.
What’s more, the business owner can get an idea of the business expenses, inventory, and employee productivity without even stepping into the shop. It can all be done online. You can closely monitor the business from anywhere you are without worrying about overage charges.
Getting technology to work for you is great because it will help your business become more profitable while enhancing productivity at the same time. While the latest technology might seem a bit pricey, it’s crucial to understand that it will pay off in the long run. Technology and business are partners — there’s no need to get left behind.
