by Nick Throlson | Feb 26, 2018 | Business, Marketing
A conversion rate is simply the percentage of visitors that land on your website and perform the desired action. Unfortunately, many business owners foolishly believe an aesthetically-pleasing website is enough to encourage sales. If you want your visitors to convert to customers, you will need to optimize your website. Read the five strategies that?ll increase conversions.- Promote a Product with High-Quality Images
It?s impossible for a visitor to touch a product on your website. The best way to highlight the detail of a product is to incorporate high-quality images onto a web page, which will allow your visitors to make an informed decision. You should also allow a prospective customer to zoom in on an image, which could encourage them to add the product to the online shopping cart.- Improve Understanding with Video
97% of marketers stated video helped them increase their users? understanding of their products and services. It could, therefore, be an effective strategy to turn a lead into a conversion. Not only can it improve a visitor?s knowledge regarding a product, but the integration of video can also improve a site?s rank in the search engines, which can also drive considerable traffic to a website, which could increase online sales. Consult Working Beautifully to learn more about creating a professional video for your website.- Provide Free Shipping to Increase Sales
Customers will view shipping fees as a hidden cost, which can lead to an abandoned cart. If you want to encourage conversions, you should seriously consider offering free shipping to your customers. It?s a psychological strategy, as it will make users believe they are obtaining a great deal even when they are not. You can offer free shipping by simply increasing your prices, so you can improve your conversion rate without having to compromise your finances.- Tweak the Checkout Process
Long checkout processes can frustrate or bore your customers, as they may not have the time or the patience to endure complex steps to buy a product or service. As a result, you could lose customers who were originally happy to buy from your business. It might be helpful to perform split testing to tweak the checkout process, so you can prevent abandoned carts and increase sales. If possible, try to provide your customers with a single page checkout experience, which features a few dropdowns and a view of their purchases.- Prove a Website is Safe to Increase Trust
With many unscrupulous websites online, consumers might be wary about who they buy their products or services from, especially if they are purchasing goods from an unknown brand for the first time. If you want to increase your conversion rate, you must indicate on your website that a visitor can trust your company, so they are willing to enter their financial information. For example, you should incorporate small images of credit card payment options, PayPal, and other payment gateways. This will provide a visual indication that you provide trusted third-party payment options, so there will be no risk to their finances when they purchase a product from your website.
by Nick Throlson | Jan 22, 2018 | Business, Marketing
When you start a business, you will probably hear all sorts of advice about how you need to save money in any way that you can to avoid going under. However, there are plenty of things that you will need to invest in to ensure the successful running of your company. It is these that we will be discussing in more detail in this article.DesignThe design of your small business really makes a big difference to the overall public perception of it. A typical customer actually pays a great deal of attention to things like your logo, and this is what is likely to make them trust you over your competitors. And the branding of your company will also be highly visible throughout everything that you do from your business cards to the signage outside your offices, so it is an important decision. MarketingUnless you have a clear marketing background, you should consider outsourcing your marketing needs to a professional agency. This involves clearly knowing the target audience of your product, targeting them in the most effective way possible, and being consistent throughout all your activity. Strong marketing helps to maximise your business sales, so it is extremely important.TechnologyStrong technology can really help to streamline your business and remove tasks which would otherwise be complicated and expensive. Remember, if you are looking for funds for your company, you can always utilize a small business loan online. Obviously, technology encompasses a wide variety of areas including instant messaging systems, website design and an integrated phone system.Accounting ServicesOne of the first and most valuable services that you can look to outsource is your accounting. A professional accountancy firm can help you to optimise your business, as well as reducing waste and inefficiencies. If you try to do everything yourself and you don?t have a great deal of experience in this area, you may well find that you are spending more money than you are saving.InsuranceProtecting your business from all the threats that exist out there is one of the most valuable things that you can do. You never really know when disaster could strike, and if you aren?t prepared to deal with it, your business could end up being affected massively. Legal AdviceJust as accountancy is an area of expertise that is worth spending money on, so too is legal advice. There are a myriad of legal issues that can affect businesses of all kind, so if you are not experienced in this area, you can easily get into all kinds of trouble. You may only need this on a temporary basis or it may be something that is ongoing. Either way, it can be invaluable.So, these are just a few of the things that your business needs to spend money on when you are first starting out. Obviously, you need to create and maintain a clear budget to ensure that everything is properly accounted for. ?
by Nick Throlson | Jan 10, 2018 | Business, Marketing, Web Design
January might mean the time to be making new resolutions personally, but it may also be time for businesses to do the same. One resolution all businesses should pin to their office wall is revisiting and refreshing their current marketing strategy. To continue to grow as a thriving business in today?s busy modern world, keeping track of the newest trends can make the difference between making that 1000th sale or missing out altogether. Below are a few trends that are key to watch out for this upcoming year: ?Hello Siri, Alexa, and GoogleVoice-activated search is becoming increasingly popular in 2018, especially with the introduction of devices such as the Google Home Hub and the Amazon Echo to our homes. These devices have revolutionized the home by allowing consumers set alarms, play music and order shopping using their voice alone. The smart technology means marketers now have the power to create a specialized copy using advanced keywords to help consumers find even more services and products related to their voice command. ????Smartphone TrafficAs millennials become the focus more of marketing in 2018, it?s safe to say traffic sources are currently to be found primarily from smartphones, rather than desktop computers, as they grew up with the power of the internet at their hands. Traffic from smartphones is predicted to continue to rise in 2018, meaning creating engaging, yet concise, copy that?s small-screen friendly is key. Your current content on-site and your search engine optimization strategy may need to be revisited to allow your consumers to read your copy easier on the small screen. It?s time to move away from chunks of paragraphs, each heavy with keywords, and instead craft content people can read and view on the go. This could mean turning more towards videography and infographics, rather than text-centered articles. ?Social Media and Live VideosTapping into social media isn?t a new idea or a new trend, but it?s arguably one of the fastest growing marketing platforms for the digital age. Nearly 800 million users log on and post to Instagram every month. Social media channels are ideal for sharing a variety of rich-media posts, including videography. Live Videos came into their own in 2017, but in 2018, the trend continues to grow. They provide real-time engagement with visitors to your social media channels, with Facebook and Instagram being the ones to watch regarding Live Videos. They can target potential audiences as consumers chose to watch a Live Stream and continue to scroll past advertisements. ??Augmented and Virtual Reality The popularity of smartphone game Pok?mon Go was able to show marketers that there is a channel waiting to be tapped into for their next step in their strategy. Pok?mon Go was one of the first that used AR content to create an immersive game by tracking the users? locations and time-zone to adapt their experience. Augmented Reality offers consumers the opportunity to experience immersive story-telling from their favorite brands, and it?s one to watch in 2018.
by Nick Throlson | Jan 10, 2018 | Business
Changing your career can be a daunting prospect to many people, but there are a couple of life hacks that can help you to make the change seamlessly, and with as little stress as possible. There are some risky way and less risky ways to change your career, and knowing how to go about the change is always really important. Follow these ideas and you will have your new job in no time.So many people are dissatisfied with their job, feel undervalued or underpaid, or perhaps just want to try something that has a bit more impact on the world. Whatever your reasoning, there has never been a better era in which to learn new skills, and try something new. There are lots of ways to find a new career that you love, so soak up some of these great ideas, have an open mind, and be prepared to find yourself a new career.To Quit or not?Whether to quit your day job or not is up to you, and depends on what kind of person you are. Some people find it really beneficial and liberating to quit their current job and use that adrenalin to throw themselves into the job search. This can be fantastic if you don?t have dependents or have some money saved up in the bank.For many though, they are unsure about what they want to try next, or how long it could take to find another income in their new line of work. Taking your time with it, and having an idea can be good before you make any decisions. You can apply, and try out other fields while still having your current job. Being smart, and not rash, can really pay off.Educate YourselfGoing back to school can be a great way to get a taste of the new field you are looking to go into, and looks really good to employers too. If you are changing career, you have loads of experience working, and a qualification on top of that lets them know you are serious. Why not check out your nearest supply chain management masters, nursing course, or law conversion course.There are plenty of courses out there for any field, so see if there are any that are applicable to you. Many courses also offer a hand on experience with work placements working in actual businesses. This looks great to employers and can give you a taste of what it is like working in the new career you want to try. Adding qualifications to your CV is never going to hurt, and you can get a taste of what it?s like working in the new career your thinking of going into.There are loads of ways you can get into a new career, from doing internships, gaining new qualifications, to just asking around. Whatever you do, and whatever you want to go into, there has never been a better time to change careers. Information and opportunities are easily accessible online, and many people change their career many times throughout their lives.
by Nick Throlson | Dec 21, 2017 | Business, Web Design
In this day in age, your company simply cannot survive without a website. Even if you?re a local business who sells products from a physical store rather than online, you still need to have your name out there on the internet to be competing for customers. Even when people are looking for local businesses they will be browsing online to see what?s available, a nice website could possibly snag you a new customer. If you do trade online, it?s even more important since this will be the face of your business. It?s what customers will see first, it?s your chance to make an impression. If your current site isn?t up to scratch, here are just a few of the ways you can go about improving things to improve your business in general. A Professional, Streamlined LookThe first and most obvious change you could make to your website is a new design. If your current layout looks cheap and amateurish this will lead customers to think the rest of your business is the same way. There are lots of talented web designers out there who can create something tailored to your business and make it look incredible. You need the right fonts, colors, headers, the right amount of whitespace on the page. Ads shouldn?t be too crowded or clutter up the page. It?s worth spending the money here and investing since it?s such a crucial part of your business, it?s likely to be the difference between success and failure. A Live Chat FeatureLive chat is becoming more and more widely used. It?s something that customers love and can really help to boost business. It makes your company and site look more professional, and if you have customers that are on the fence about buying from you, being able to have their query answered hassle-free via live chat it could sway them. Not every customer will pick up the phone to resolve an issue before buying, and not everyone has social media accounts to speak to a real team member on there. Live chat makes it easy for them and can do great things for your business. Clear Contact DetailsWhen a customer is thinking of buying from you, one of the first things they will look at is how easy it is to get in contact if anything goes wrong. Make sure the page to your details is clearly linked and visible. It should contain a business email address, a landline telephone number, and your physical address. If you want a more impressive looking address, invest in a mail forwarding address. Here you will appear to have the address of a stunning office block on Google maps, but your mail is just sent there and forwarded on to you. An Easy Verification SystemIf you run the kind of business that requires documentation from customers (perhaps for equipment hire or financial products such as a loan) you could include a real world identity verification option. This software can be easily integrated into your site and makes everything quicker and easier as opposed to having to upload and email information. It allows customers to scan things like IDs, bank statements, utility bills and more. If these are the kinds of things you need from customers in your business something like this could be ideal. A BlogFinally, a blog is an excellent addition to your website. It shows that you are knowledgeable in your field of business. This can help to make you look professional and trustworthy which customers will love, especially if they?re new to shopping with you. A blog can also easily integrate into your website, and over time can help to improve page rank. There are lots of freelance writers online you can hire to write posts for you, they don?t cost much and you get great content to add to your site every week or a couple of times a week. If you?re not on board with blogging for business yet, it?s something you definitely need to implement as a way to boost business. There are plenty of ways you can improve your business website, many of which depend on the specific kind of website you run. However, it should be neat and tidy with a professional edge and blog at the very least. Is your business website in need of an update? What features have you/ will you get installed that is specific to what your company sells?
by Nick Throlson | Dec 4, 2017 | Business, Guest Post, WordPress
Almost one out of every four websites on the internet is built on WordPress. From the smallest of businesses to stellar companies like Time Inc. and TechCrunch that garner millions of visits per day, WordPress remains the choice for all.This makes one thing absolutely clear- WordPress development services are reliable and suitable for businesses of all scales and industries. And it?s perhaps for this reason that despite having dozens of CMS in the market, WordPress comfortably trumps them all. Here are some of the reasons you should use it for your business as well:It?s free
The most basic factor upon which majority of the businesses focus is ROI, i.e., while they do care extensively about the quality, they are equally sensitive about the price at which that is attained. With WordPress, it's win-win. They get to deploy one of the finest CMS with a broad set of features to help them push their business in digital space and the best part, they don?t even have to pay for it.Extensive set of Plugins
Though WordPress is a complete package when it comes to creating and managing decent websites, there are thousands of other plugins and themes that you can use for additional functionality and give your website a unique feel. While most of the plugins are free to use, there are some paid themes as well for premium users.High visibility
Websites built on WordPress are known to be SEO-friendly as they are indexed by search engines much better than other websites. This helps in improving the rank of websites in search results, thus, leading to higher visibility and recognition of businesses.Simple but powerful admin panel
One of the key concerns of many businesses is that though they can get a website developed by hiring WordPress developers, managing them afterward without technical fluency remains a tough task. But with WordPress, users get a drastically simplified admin panel that required no technical knowledge whatsoever for day-to-day management of the website. Sure, having technical efficacy does have its benefits for its ability to edit CSS code for custom design, but it isn?t necessary to manage one?s website efficiently.Task delegation and roles
Websites are generally managed by a set of different people, all of whom do not necessarily need the same set of privileges. For instance, if you have guest-blogging enabled on your site, they should be able to only write and not edit anything else. Similarly, for editors, there should be privileges of only writing and editing the content but not modifying the design or other aspects. WordPress has such capabilities built-in and can be easily managed through admin panel by granting or revoking different levels of privileges.Additionally, since the admin may not be available 24*7 to manage the site, they can easily schedule content that will automatically be posted at a specified time.Social media and community integration
WordPress websites can be easily integrated with most of the popular social media platforms, and even the on-site community like the comments section can be easily managed through a simple interface.To put it simply, it creates aesthetically beautiful websites for free, offers a broad range of functionalities that even a non-technical person can easily manage, and yes, is powerful enough to handle millions of users. The only thing you need is to hire WordPress developers to create give a great start to your website and once it gets onboard, you can efficiently manage your business from anywhere you like.
