by Nick Throlson | Oct 6, 2017 | Business, Social Media
Starting a new business can be very challenging and there are a lot of factors that will affect its success. As an entrepreneur, you can avoid most of those difficulties. Making a good website is the first step toward building a respectable and recognizable brand. Your potential customers will go online and search for your service and product. Their experience while visiting your site will form their opinion about your business. Below are some of the most important aspects you should consider when creating a website for your new company.
Navigation
You don?t want to hide anything from your clients. Therefore, create a website that is easy to navigate through. That simple effort will ensure that people come back and start trusting your company. Every single page of your site should include plenty of breadcrumbs, so visitors can easily navigate around different categories and pages. It is crucial that they know where they are at any time. In addition, navigation should be done the way it looks pretty. Being functional is just not enough. Feel free to play with basic shapes and lines in order to improve aesthetics of your website?s navigation. Keep it simple and appealing and traffic will most certainly increase.
Homepage image
The homepage is the first thing your potential customer will see. Keep in mind that people are visual beings. Because of that, you should pay a lot of attention to your homepage image. Use the visuals to direct visitor?s eyes. You can make people look at any specific area using just simple elements which will cause an immediate reaction. In case you don?t want to have large visual on your homepage, you can do just fine with other design elements available on your site. There are no rules, so go ahead and be creative. The more time you invest, the better your homepage will be.
Recent and popular posts
If you decide to run a blog, WordPress which is highly recommended, you should make sure it is well organized and relevant. That means that you?ll need to push your most popular posts on the top of the page. The same action should be done with recent posts. This simple tricks will help your business in at least two ways. First, you?ll be able to see what are your visitors interested in so you can meet their expectations in the future. The second perk is a better ranking of your website in the search engine results.
High-quality content
Once your customers clicked on your link and found themselves on your website, they?ll want to know what are you about. Make sure you work on high-quality content and web design which will get your visitors hooked on your brand. Keep up with personal tone while writing content since people are more likely to trust an individual than a big faceless corporation.
Before you start creating content, go ahead and find out who?s your ideal customer. Try to define their demographics. Get to know their age, interests, education. All of those will help you to give them the content they are seeking for. Work on keywords, and if you are not into it, feel free to consult one of the available SEO companies and they?ll be there for you.
Social media
Your website can?t make it on its own. Regardless of its aesthetics, functionality, and content, it will need help from social media platforms. The whole internet life is happening there, and if you?re not on social media, there?s a good chance you don?t exist. Because of that, consider adding some sharing buttons on your website, so your visitors can share what they like quickly. That way, the word about your business will be spread out, and you?ll be able to see what people think about your product or service. In addition, you?ll get valuable information about the traffic that came from social media, so you can use it for future marketing campaigns.
Aesthetics
Try to avoid making a boring website. It should be provocative and unusual, and yet simple and pretty. You don?t have to worry about that since there are numerous talented web designers out there and you can make an audition so they can present their ideas. Make sure to hire someone experienced and up-to-date. Trends are changing fast and you don?t want to hire someone who will design and outdated website. Your website will be the face of your company, so make sure it?s representative.
Final thoughts
As you can see, aesthetics is important but not crucial part of your website. Before you start thinking about the looks, go ahead and start working on the content. The best way to lure people to your site is to listen to them and give them what they want. Always meet your customers? needs. Create a place where they can communicate with each other and with you.
Take some time to answer all their questions and address all concerns. People will appreciate your attitude and will be coming back. If you treat your customer base with care, they will share their experience online and your website will get even more traffic and your conversion rate will improve in no time.
by Nick Throlson | Aug 14, 2017 | Social Media, Web Design, WordPress
When it comes to having a modern, up-to-date and, therefore, successful website, many businesses are lacking. Businesses believe that all you have to do is be online, have your products or services available, and customers will be flocking to your website. This is incorrect. To get click-through rates, you cannot simply rely on ?just being there.? You must transition into the digital era and make use of the internet and all the separate avenues available to you. This is how to bring your website into the 21st century.
Update Your Layout
If your website follows an obvious, quite static template, you need to swap it out for one which is user-friendly and more aesthetically pleasing. Modern and minimalist designs are popular, and a ?less is more? approach makes navigating through your website less stressful and more appealing. Have a select few of pages and tabs available, include images, and keep everything simple. Wow them with quality over quantity. Lucid Digital LLC and similar web design companies can offer your user-friendly web design that?ll optimize your sales and revenue.
Additionally, you will need to remove any ?spammy? ads, as Google is likely penalized your site and lower your ranking. Websites solely based on ads and generating revenue are being heavily targeted by Google?s latest update, Fred.
Mobile Friendly
Nowadays, people are more likely to access the internet via their smartphones than their desktop or laptop. This is because people live busier lives, and smartphones can be easier to access and can also run smooth enough for optimal web surfing. Your website need to be available across multiple devices, otherwise it will lead to frustrations and people won?t click through (or they?ll abandon ship when they can?t get to or buy what they want).
Social Media
Have your website linked to your social media accounts, and have your social media profiles link back to your website. Doing so allows you to fully utilize your social media marketing; you can post images of your product on Instagram, for example, and have it link back to the relevant page so people can purchase it easily. If you show your social media accounts on your website, people can easily ?like? your Facebook page or follow your Twitter and Instagram, making it easier for them to see you company updates or promotions.
Onsite SEO
Better your onsite SEO by improving your website?s content. You want relevant and useful keywords, and there?s nothing more jarring than seeing a website talking about outdated or irrelevant products/services. Plus, if you were prone to keyword stuffing or posting empty content, then removing them and starting afresh will better your Google ranking.
Offsite SEO
If your website isn?t easily found or crawling up Google ranking?s, you will need to consider offsite SEO as a means of becoming more noticeable. Competition is fierce, so you need optimal online visibility to become successful. You can implement SEO with content marketing, useful meta descriptions and hiring reputable SEO professionals who understand the digital marketing practice.
by Nick Throlson | Aug 1, 2017 | SEO, Social Media, WordPress
Job hunting is stressful enough. Being rejected is completely disheartening, and being repeatedly rejected can even make you feel like you aren?t worth it. Not only are there simple things that you can fix that?ll hopefully make you more appealing to potential employers, but there are also topics that you should learn and familiarize yourself that will wow them. Being hired is about selling yourself. Knowing these three topics can give you an edge over your competition because it shows that you know the basics of how the world today works.
Social Media
Social media is a topic that is both very easy to learn, and something that becomes increasingly complicated. You can know how to use social media, but the fact is, most people only know how to use it for their personal life. It is how to use it for businesses that can make you instantly more hireable. You don?t have to be an expert, but you learn the best practices.
Know how to increase engagement, how advertising on the social mediums works, and, most importantly, know its limitations. A great way to both practice social media marketing and have an example to show your employers is to start your own blog that you market. Think of it as your guinea pig where you can use trial and error to find the best strategies that work for you.
SEO
Search engine optimization is a digital marketing technique many people have heard about, but at the same time, know very little about when it comes to applying it to their business. Being knowledgeable in SEO strategies that increase page ranking is an incredible selling point for future employers. You can know everything there is about SEO, however, simply learning the basics and proving your knowledge can be enough. Once you are hired, speak to your company about improving their SEO ? lead them to companies such as Click Intelligence, who will help you with your apply SEO and link building into your business?s marketing strategy.
SEO increases page ranking. It means that people can find you when they use a search engine. The guidelines constantly change, so you need to make sure that stay on top of today?s best practices or hire a company to do it for you.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS with over 28.4% of websites using it. It is a versatile tool that most websites are built from, so knowing how to use WordPress is a critical skill to learn. If you want to be even more hireable, know how to use the other top content management systems like Blogger too. Be flexible. Be knowledgeable. Be hired. Knowing the basics of HTML and the other building blocks of the Internet like CSS is a bonus.
Whether you complete a course and get a diploma in them, or simply read up on the topics, they are great to know. Each one of these topics is crucial to any company, the second it goes online. Knowing the stakes and how the online portion of the business works can make you a more effective employee because it means that you can optimize your work for online from the get-go. It shows that you know more about the business than your competition. It will make you more hireable.
by Nick Throlson | Jun 12, 2017 | Social Media
Social media is one of, if not the most important aspects of marketing in today?s world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other platforms can make-or-break a company, determining their ability to thrive on the world wide web.
On the surface, Twitter seems like the simplest social media platform of all. Its condensed messages don?t tell the whole tale, however. The entire business world is competing for followers, likes and retweets, and if you don?t know what you?re doing, you?re practically guaranteed to fail.
Don?t fear! There are some simple and easy ways to boost any business?s reach via Twitter, as we?re documenting today. Let?s take a look!
Media Is King
Incorporating some form of media into your tweets is almost always preferable. Social media users are more likely to engage with a picture, GIF or video than a wall of text, and media?s potential to go viral is much more substantial too. It?s up to you how you do this – factual infographics, how-to videos and even your latest iPhone snap can result in fantastic levels of engagement. Just make sure it?s relevant.
Start Using Hashtags
Twitter?s hashtags are used to categorize tweets by a specific keyword. This helps businesses to extend their reach to those who are either tweeting or searching based around that keyword. You don?t have to use an existing hashtag either. By developing your own tag, you can encourage existing clients to spread the message in a unique and interesting way.
Paid Promotion
Just like Facebook, Twitter offers the ability to promote tweets to a wider range of users with the aid of payment. Tweets are configured to display to users whose interests are relevant to the topic and business, eliminating wastefulness in the process. You?ll want to pick a suitable tweet to promote though, so something advertising a competition, website or brand-new product are just a few advisable ideas.
Share Content, Build Relationships
It?s a common mistake for business owners to treat social media as a promotional tool and nothing else. The social aspect often gets lost, but in Twitter?s case, it?s more important than ever. Don?t be afraid to share interesting content and comment on other company?s posts. By doing so, you?ll start to build relationships, and before long, they?ll start sharing your content as well.
Tell People About It!
Expanding our Twitter reach isn?t just about the actions we take on the platform itself. We need others to know of its existence, and particularly those aren?t such regular users on the social media front. It?s easy to add social media buttons to our websites these days, while incorporating our Twitter handle on a range of physical marketing material is a two-second job.
Engage With Analytics
We all know the importance of analytics, and Twitter?s no different. The company?s own analytical tools can provide excellent insights as to how certain tweets are performing compared to others. Additionally, there are a host of free and paid analytics services for Twitter across the web, including Sprout Social and Hootsuite. Take the time to find what works for you.
Time Your Tweets
Another feature of these analytical suites is the ability to optimize your tweets? timings. This is very much a time-sensitive platform, to the extent that the same tweet could generate hundreds of additional shares if posted at the optimal time of day. If you don?t want to be huddled around your tablet or smartphone 24/7, many of these services can automatically schedule your tweets for a certain time.
Competitions & Giveaways
Everyone wants something for nothing! If you?re going to run a competition, you need to make sure both Facebook and Twitter are involved. By incorporating requirements that entries must include follows, likes and retweets, you?ll begin to increase your reach far beyond its current limitations. And while the costs involved might prove extensive, it?ll hopefully lead to further profits down the line.
by Nick Throlson | Mar 29, 2017 | Guest Post, Social Media
When it comes to social media marketing, it is really easy to get lost in this bottomless ocean of shares, likes, tweets, and news feeds. It seems like opportunities are everywhere, and young entrepreneurs try to get the most out of every single one of them. Facebook and Instagram are the first and the second most popular social network in the United States as of November 2016 (according to Statista). So, it's no wonder almost every brand plunges headlong into this Facebook/Instagram marketing battle for customers.
However, what is the difference between these two social networks and which one should you use for your business?
Facebook is clearly a winner here. It can boast almost 2 billion active users of any gender, age, and nationality, and it looks like this number is only going to grow with time. This is why chances are high that you already have a Facebook business page and are actively using it to promote your brand. This is, definitely, not a mistake. Whether you sell socks or provide accounting services, Facebook won't let you down when it comes to exposure. Instagram, on the other hand, is being used by 600 million users monthly, and its demographics is not so diverse.
Since Facebook is a place where people of all ages, professions, and income levels hang out, it is a universal platform with an extensive pool of potential customers for literary every business. However, according to Pixel Vulture, teenage use of Facebook decreased 45% in 2014. So, if you are trying to market your product to youngsters, better try Snapchat or YouTube. At the same time, Facebook is still effective when it comes to 30+ professionals, teachers, moms, entrepreneurs, etc.
Instagram, on the other hand, is a social network with the prevailing number of female users (38% vs 26% of male ones) aged under 34.
This makes Instagram a perfect place to market fashion, design, travel, entertainment, and other things that make up ?Instagram lifestyle?.
Surprisingly, Facebook with all its billions of users lost this battle to relatively tiny Instagram, with the latter giving you up to 10 times more engagement (according to Jenn Herman's study). She put one and same post on both Instagram and Facebook in order to see how many likes each of them will collect. The study proved that though Instagram's audience is smaller, it is more willing to engage with brands. The post on Instagram won with almost 10 times more likes and comments within the same period of time.
It happened because Facebook is perfect for private use, while we use Instagram mainly for following celebrities, getting inspired, and keeping up with the latest trends. It means that when we are on Instagram, we are subconsciously prepared to like or comment on posts (since that's pretty much all we can do on Instagram). When we are on Facebook, we simply want to text out friends or read the latest news on Donald Trump.
In essence, Instagram is a photo/video sharing platform with a?simple interface and a?limited number of sophisticated distracting options. It makes it really easy for businesses to bond with customers through sharing personalized, inviting?pictures that reflect the philosophy of the brand. Such an approach allows brands to appear?closer to customers. The lifespan of your Instagram post is short, however, so make sure to post regularly. Apart from that, choose only high-quality pictures in order to keep up with the competition.
If your products are more complex or highly specialized, Facebook is, undoubtedly, a better fit. You would probably want to write longer and more informative posts, join groups, create events, share valuable videos or blog articles. You should also focus on Facebook if you are doing content marketing, since, as we remember, Facebook is a place most turn to in order to satisfy their information hunger.
Facebook or Instagram?
Facebook and Instagram are two social media giants that are currently being owned by Mark Zuckerberg. They both allow targeting specific groups of people (e.g people of specific language or gender) and offer paid ads that can help to promote your business.
However, remember that if your customers would prefer?to see your product, not read about it, Instagram will do a better job getting your message across. Fashion, style, travel?and hospitality are industries that would definitely benefit from Instagram marketing.
If you target older audiences, however, or have very specific products and services that a picture cannot explain, then Facebook is your guy. It is also better for marketing more expensive products (since, again, the audience is more mature and solvent).
Author bio:
Jenna Brandon is a blogger, copywriter, and digital marketer at Writology.com.When she?s not busy writing articles and studying modern marketing trends, she cooks pizza or goes hiking with her friends. Jenna is also an avid traveler, and she is secretly Italian at heart.
by Nick Throlson | Dec 15, 2016 | Business, Social Media
Trade conventions are great marketing opportunities, allowing you to network with other businesses and promote your services to those who may be interested in your area of trade. But how do you stand out amongst all the other companies and stalls present? Failing to advertise yourself properly could make it a wasted trip. Here are some ways to make the most out of a convention.
Check competition
Before going to the event, you should receive some information detailing where your stall will be and which other businesses will be attending and located around your area. Research these businesses before going to a? convention. If their trade is similar to yours, they are your main competition! Find out what it is that makes your service stand out from theirs and make that your selling point at the convention public speaking tips. For example, if you're a health and fitness convention and the gym equipment your company sells is cheaper than your competition's? market your stall as? budget gym equipment that everyone can buy? or something along those lines. If your services are more expensive, market yourself as? luxury? or ?professional?.
Creative signage
Don't let your stall blend in with others. A great way to do this make?sure your signage creative. Invest in cardboard cutouts, creatively-shaped signs, and big colorful banners. And of course, your signage doesn't have to be static. Did you know that you can hire pedicabs for convention marketing? These mini vehicles are sure to stand out. Other ideas involve wearing branded t-shirts, hiring a mascot-like figure to carry a sign around and offering branded bags.
Make a speech
All conventions will have an area for talks, whether it be a business convention or a trade convention. Talks can be educational, motivational, promotional or a blend of all three. Communicate with the organizers in advance about the opportunity of giving a speech. Public speaking can be daunting, but it?s the best way to stand out at a convention. Instead of having to give the same lengthy spiel to every passer-by, you can save it all for your talk and tell anyone that visits your stall in brief that you will be on at a certain time. Whilst you may want to shout about you and your business, the best talks commonly aren?t wholly promotional. Use it as a chance to inform people of your area of expertise, or to give advice to fellow businesses, on top of promoting.
Tweet regularly
Many people at the convention will be using social media, whether they?re other businesses or members of public. Let people know of your presence by taking to Twitter. If you?re giving a talk, tell people what time it will be one. Take a picture of your stall so people know what it looks like. Shout about the convention well in advance so that people who follow you on Twitter already can come visit your stall. Keep on top of convention news and what things are trending and link your business in with this.
