The story of the “kidfluencer” phenomenon began humbly with a three-year-old boy named Ryan Kaji, who simply played with a Lego “choo-choo train.” His mother, Loann, uploaded the video to a newly created YouTube channel called “Ryan ToysReview.” Little did they know that this innocent recording would skyrocket them to stardom. Now 11 years old, Ryan, under the rebranded channel “Ryan’s World,” boasts an impressive 35 million subscribers, establishing himself as YouTube royalty.

Joining Ryan in leading the charge are other young influencers like nine-year-old “Like Nastya.” According to Forbes, Ryan earned a staggering $27 million in 2021, while “Like Nastya” made an impressive $28 million. These kidfluencers create content that directly appeals to their fellow youngsters, engaging in make-believe play, showcasing new toys, and even offering tutorials on various subjects. It comes as no surprise that a Pew Research Centre survey revealed that 81% of American parents allow their three to four-year-olds to watch YouTube.

Brands and marketers have taken notice of the lucrative potential of kidfluencers. Ad revenue from videos and brand partnerships have become significant income sources for these young stars. Companies are willing to pay substantial amounts to collaborate with these influencers and tap into a very young audience. For some families, this newfound revenue stream has become an opportunity for new experiences or funding their children’s education.

Initially, these kid-influenced accounts felt like family-run businesses, but now production companies are stepping in to seize the opportunity. For instance, Ryan’s World has partnered with pocket.watch, an entertainment studio collaborating with 45 top kid creators. This strategic alliance has allowed Ryan to land lucrative deals with brands like Nintendo and Mattel. Additionally, pocket.watch has expanded Ryan’s content to children’s television channels and streaming services, while also creating his own branded merchandise, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales worldwide.

Despite the thriving success of kidfluencers, regulatory concerns have surfaced. Watchdogs accuse some creators of not adequately disclosing sponsored content in toy videos. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cracked down on targeted advertisements on YouTube videos aimed at children and accused the platform of illegally collecting data from underage users. As a result, channels must now label content specifically for children. The FTC is also reviewing research on advertising disclosures, as current practices may not be effective for kids. Potential regulatory action could significantly impact kidfluencer marketing.

Some child influencers find themselves inheriting large followings from their “momfluencer” parents, who document their lives online. Families like the LaBrants have amassed millions of followers, even for their youngest children. Other mini influencers emerge, serving as ambassadors for clothing lines or represented by talent agencies traditionally working with actors. This shift in advertising is evident in the remarkable projected growth of influencer marketing, expected to reach $21.1 billion this year, up from $1.7 billion in 2016, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

However, the landscape of social media is continually evolving, making it more challenging for new kidfluencer stars to rise rapidly. While the industry once believed anyone could become the next overnight sensation, experts like Greg Alkalay emphasize the increased difficulty. Critics also raise concerns about the potential exploitation of child influencers, who lack the legal protections afforded to child actors under the Coogan Law.

As kidfluencers grow older, their interests and aspirations may shift, leading to changes in their content. Families like Ryan’s prioritize their well-being and pivot into educational content and cartoons. Some kidfluencers seek transitions to platforms like TikTok and Instagram, exploring new opportunities. However, maintaining audience engagement during these changes can be challenging, as followers may have initially connected with them for different content. Moreover, some kidfluencers might eventually tire of creating videos and opt for a return to a more ordinary reality.

In conclusion, the world of kidfluencers is a rapidly evolving phenomenon. New stars are continually emerging, supported by their parents and partnering with production companies. Brands are keen to tap into the influence of these young social media stars, but regulatory concerns loom on the horizon. As the industry evolves, child influencers will continue to shape the marketing landscape, with their futures influenced by changing regulations and the ever-dynamic realm of social media.

FAQs

Q: Are there any regulations in place for kidfluencers? A: Yes, there are regulations in place to protect children involved in influencer marketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires channels to label content specifically for children and is reviewing advertising disclosures to ensure they effectively work for kids.

Q: How do kidfluencers make money? A: Kidfluencers make money through ads on their videos and by partnering with brands. Brands see an opportunity to reach a young audience and are willing to pay for collaborations with these influencers.

Q: Are there concerns about the exploitation of kidfluencers? A: Yes, there are concerns about the exploitation of kidfluencers. Critics argue that child influencers lack the legal protections afforded to child actors, such as the Coogan Law.

Q: What is the future of kidfluencers? A: The future of kidfluencers is uncertain. As they grow up, their interests and aspirations may change, and they may transition to different platforms or pursue other careers. The impact of regulations and the ever-changing landscape of social media will shape the future of this industry.

First reported by The Economist.

The post Regulation and the Booming “Kidfluencer” Business: What Small Businesses Need to Know appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Staying Motivated

This could go for any top performer in any field. It’s an underpinning of success and necessary for any objective completion. Action completes tasks and motivation is the ability to rev up the engine.

Motivation on a goal-oriented mindset allows for the top salesperson to focus-in on the task’s achievement and level up their game accordingly. Served as “the desire to act in service of a goal,” being motivated translates into often relentless action (given the degree of motivation) towards the ascertainment of a given outcome. Being able to stay in this state is what allows for greater completion and thus more tasks being completed over time.

Being Goal-Oriented

If motivation is the hypothetical ability to drive forward, being goal oriented would seat itself as the destination to where you are heading. Motivation is the drive, but that in and of itself will not complete the puzzle. The capability to move does not mean productivity.

The top salespeople set lofty metrics, often both in terms of results and of expectations. Think I will make thirty calls in the next hour, or I will close three deals this week. Regardless of the particular metric in which they work the top sales individual focuses in on mapping a high objective and then working relentlessly toward it.

It is often better to fail at greatness than achieve at middling mediocrity.

Stay Focused

Top sales performers need to hone in on their objective, then be willing to work toward it. If both of these are achievable then the premiere salesperson will need to stay on track until the objective is met.

Focus is the ability to tailor your course to your goal and then shrug off distraction and detraction until the objective is achieved. It can help to take time to break down the bigger goals into readily available and achievable milestones. The point is to find whatever beats you as a salesperson require to stay involved.

Time Management

Another top habit of sales performers is time management, as everything you do in life will require time to complete. Everything. Making your bed, brushing your teeth, and reaching your goal. Feeling existential yet? Not to worry. While each task that is undertaken will require a specified amount of time this also means that the salesperson can allot the time needed to accomplish the task. Likewise, remaining time conscious allows the top salesperson to keep the objective in mind and be mentally available toward its completion.

Surround Yourself with Better Salespeople

Networking is huge. Via the top salesperson’s network, there are mentors, competitors, and potential clients that can all add benefit and status to the aspiring salesperson. Regardless of what the developing individual needs to up their sales acumen, it can be found in the network.

Sales mentors can offer advice. Competitors can push the salesman to dominate the market. Clients offer the saleswoman a chance at honing the craft and potentially closing the sale. Networking is huge for salesmen of all levels. Learning to properly network can be what even land you the deal in the first place.

Reading and Listening

The top salespeople are always concerned with how much information they know. Specifically, in what ways they know can help present them with the information or opportunity to lock in a deal. Listening and reading help the top salespeople know what to do, in potentially pivotal situations before they ever occur.

Many sales professionals have either spoken or written at length about their process, perspective, and nuances that have appeared to them over their tenure in sales. The shrewd sales-minded individual recognizes this and pulls from that pool of knowledge.

Remain Consistent

Often starting something off is deemed the hardest part. This typically holds true for sales. Yet, there is the discipline required to keep production high even after sales numbers begin to take off. The top salespeople are able to maintain a high level of action, motivation, and performance throughout their careers through focus and dedication. Keeping an eye on the level of production is a tip many salespeople advise. This is especially imperative as the sales novice starts down the road to becoming a veteran.

Knowing the Product

One of the top habits of sales performers is also the best advice. What the salesperson is selling can vary greatly, and while there are many philosophical outtakes to help a general sell-all mentality there is no makeup for knowing the thing that is being sold. The top salespeople on any given product need to have a thorough enough grasp on the thing and system in which they are selling to answer whatever questions a potential buyer may address.

Understanding the common thoughts, typical questions, and their frequency as well as the common woes of the individual on the opposite end of the sale allows for great closing rates among the top sales professionals. This also can offer insight into what areas of the product they should understand most thoroughly.

Persistence

In essence, persistence combines motivation, focus, consistency, and passion. There is no remedy for persistence. Passion is persistence’s best bedfellow. Passion and persistence make sales.

Persistence will often close whatever deal the top salesperson is facing largely off the point that no is not an operable answer until it is the only answer. Not conceding until necessary is an often unbecoming aspect of the typical salesman, but absolutely critical to a goal-oriented, top sales focus.

Mentality

Finally, the last top habit of sales performers is perspective. The lens through which you see the circumstances inform how you may address the world. By tailoring sales to produce agency, the top salesperson can put him or herself in a place where they are ready to look on to the next sale. Whether previously met with triumph or defeat, a strong mind creates the top salesperson’s most versatile weapon.

The post 10 Habits of Top Sales Performers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As entrepreneurs build their tech stacks, though, they need to be aware of a couple of potential issues. The first is security. Cybercrime continues to be a legitimate concern for anyone online. Businesses should take necessary measures to improve and maintain cybersecurity.

Second, owners must make sure that they’re optimizing their small business technology. With so many options available, it’s easy to become buried under an avalanche of 21st-century solutions. This is true even if they aren’t all benefitting you the way they should.

Here are a few suggestions for ways small businesses can both optimize and secure their digital activity to ensure that they’re getting the most out of their tech.

Start with your Wi-Fi.

Your Wi-Fi is the digital gate to your company. In a tech-heavy world, this makes it the main entrance to your tech stack, your files, your data, and your business as a whole. If you want to optimize how your small business works, you need to start by setting the stage with a quality Wi-Fi solution.

The Wi-Fi experts at Plume point out that this obviously includes the need for a strong and dependable wireless signal, but it shouldn’t stop there. As is the case with the company’s small business-focused WorkPass Wi-Fi solution, a good Wi-Fi network should also be safe, easy to use, and intimately woven into the fabric of your business.

By using a quality small business Wi-Fi solution, you can simultaneously tap into the simplicity and ease of residential routers as well as the firepower of an enterprise-level internet connection.

Small business Wi-Fi has the potential to double as a business intelligence (BI) platform that collects and turns data into actionable insights. This can help you manage your workforce and communicate with guest users. It can also keep your entire team engaged with adaptive connectivity that is fast, reliable, and ultra-secure.

If you want your small business to be productive and secure at the same time, make sure to start by using a reputable and capable small business Wi-Fi solution.

Establish solid cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity can be intimidating. The need to keep your technology safe and secure from outside threats is an ever-present concern. Many solutions can also be prohibitively expensive — but not all of them.

There are many small-yet-effective ways that you can secure sensitive data while optimizing your small business technology. Intel suggests half a dozen ways to do this, such as:

• establishing a solid private Wi-Fi setup (see the previous step) that doesn’t require logging in on any public Wi-Fi connections;
• keeping hardware upgraded at all times — and, of course, making sure your team installs all software patches and updates in a timely manner;
• using strong passwords and implementing MFA (multi-factor authentication) whenever possible;
• utilizing apps like Windows 10 Pro security and Norton Antivirus to block unwanted malware; and
• teaching your staff to use proper digital hygiene (maintaining strong passwords, installing updates, etc.) at all times when using office tech.

If you feel like overseeing all of these steps is too much, consider using a Device as a Service (DaaS) solution to increase security. This is a new kind of service that bundles the distribution, management, and IT support for a business’s tech. These are then overseen by a third-party provider, taking the perpetual responsibility off of your plate.

Manage your marketing.

Marketing is one of the easiest areas to bleed cash and ooze inefficiency. This is partly due to the subtle and intangible results that marketing can generate.

If you have a sales team, you can measure their success in dollars and cents. You can apply the same simple math to other areas. These include manufacturing, paying an accountant, or shipping and handling costs.

When it comes to marketing, though, it’s easy to pour endless money into things like content creation and brand awareness without really knowing how effective they are.

If you want to optimize your marketing activity, the first thing you need to do is set up analytics tools to track your results. There are many ways to do this, including free tools, like Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics. In addition, many tools, like Shopify or Mail Chimp, come with built-in data collection dashboards.

The top companies in IT are often admired for their innovative products, cutting-edge technology, and forward-thinking leadership. These companies not only shape the future of the tech industry but also have a significant impact on the global economy.

Of course, tracking data in a dozen or more applications is challenging. That’s why you may want to consider an additional third-party tool to unify your analytical marketing data. AI-powered solutions like Hawke.ai can bring all of your marketing results into a single dashboard where you can find insights to help you make informed, optimized decisions.

Optimizing and Securing a Small Business (Without Panicking)

There are many factors that go into keeping a business both efficient and safe. For small businesses, this task can feel time-consuming and expensive.

However, if you approach things with a strategy in place, you can manage both concerns without too much trouble. Start by putting things like a solid Wi-Fi solution in place and establishing key cybersecurity protocols. From there, focus on conducting ongoing digital hygiene training. Use the tools available to gather data and turn it into actionable and efficient business strategies, too.

Optimizing small business technology is an assumed aspect of any startup venture at this point. The critical factor is making sure that your tech stack is helping, not hindering, your small business.

The post How to Begin Securing and Optimizing Small Business Technology appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Create a website

First things first, start a website if you don’t already have it. If you don’t have a website nowadays, it’s like you don’t exist at all. Then, adapt it for smartphones as many people use their phones for browsing and making purchases. Moreover, you should also be mindful of how you present your merchandise. You should collaborate with prominent influencers, to boost your online presence as well as sales. And finally, another crucial thing you can do is start a blog – more on its importance later.  

As we already mentioned, having a website for your fashion business is the first and utmost important step in advertising. It is the base. The pandemic outbreak has brought upon us a specific situation. Namely, physical stores have been closing, while the revenue in the fashion business has been increasing. That means that many people have moved their business online, which puts the focus on websites.

Your website should be appealing in a few aspects. It should look nice, modern, and suitable for the niche. It should also be highly responsive and user-friendly. Customers should be able to navigate it easily and find the necessary information quickly. Remember to include all the important pieces of information.

Adapt it for smartphones

When you have finished setting up your website, you should also make sure it is suitable for smartphones. Nowadays, people around the world use their phones for almost the same things as their computers. The only difference is the fact that we always have our phone on our hands and we can use it for shopping, ordering things, paying bills, and so on. We use them while waiting for the train, bus, or subway to finish these little things.

So, one of the great ways to get more customers is to offer them either a smartphone-friendly website or a smartphone app. In this way, you can make sure that your customers can always access your website and order things, wherever they are and regardless of whether they’re using a phone or a computer.

Present your merchandise in the right way

After you finish with the technicalities, you should work on presenting your merchandise in the right way. Start with getting quality fashion wholesale from reliable vendors. It is essential to have quality things to present to your customers. When it comes to the fashion industry and presenting merchandise, it is an industry that is highly visual.

So, you can do several things. First of all, you should get quality photos. You should present your fashion items genuinely, as realistically as possible. Make sure to use flattering lighting and take photos from various angles. Also, you can even make a catwalk video – it would mean a lot to potential customers. It is a great way to boost online sales.

Collaborate with influencers

Besides having a website that is suitable for phones, you should also work on your social media presence. That means being active across various social media channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, among others.

Many of these campaigns involve working with an influencer. So, it is something you should consider as it has been proven highly successful. You should find prominent influencers and collaborate with them. There are different influencers based on the number of people that are following them, so that affects their pricing.

Start a blog

People sometimes overlook the importance of having a blog. Blogs are an essential part of every business as they keep the customers engaged. Writing blog posts for a fashion business is creative and fun as it could be about anything related to fashion. You could write about the newest fashion trends, style guides, how to take care of specific types of clothes and so on. These could be things people come back for.

Also, it’s a good way to build internal and external links, which boost your SEO. In turn, a great SEO strategy can bring your website to top search results. And that would mean, higher revenue for you.

Final thoughts

Being in the fashion industry and having such a business is creative, insightful, and amusing if approached in the right way. Hopefully, these practical tips and tricks can help you in boosting your online presence and advertise your fashion business.

The post How to Advertise Your Fashion Business in the Right Way appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Still, you should consider carefully before making accounts on several platforms just because you can.

1. Pro: You gain a channel of communication with your customers and leads.

Social media is the easiest way to connect with would-be customers these days. Nearly every customer who has worked with or purchased from you in the past likely has a social media account.

You can reach out to them to tell their friends about your new presence on social media. Also, you should have messages open so people can contact you with offers of collaboration or questions about your products and services. Open yourself up to conversation from people.

Publicly thanking consumers for their praise and admitting shortcomings in response to criticism can be an excellent way to showcase your strengths. It shows that your business listens to and cares about what consumers think of the brand. As 47% of customers find brands more favorable when they answer questions and respond to complaints via social media, you’ll simultaneously be positioning your brand in a more favorable light.

2. Con: You might rely on ads.

Of course, to find those aforementioned would-be customers, you have to grab their eyes on social media.

Word of mouth might be the most popular and effective advertising tool. However, if you can’t reach new groups of people through it, you’ll have to branch out.

Ads on social media often aren’t expensive, and they can draw plenty of people to you via demographic targeting. You may find ads worth the investment. But, if leads start to see your ads too much, it could backfire on your business quickly.

3. Pro: Your page can unite like-minded people.

By running a social media account for your business, you can draw your customers together in one place.

They all have something in common: a love for your business! People may be able to identify a support system full of people who understand their stage of life by simply interacting with them in the comments.

You can bring together new friends and create a community that adores your business and everything you offer.

4. Con: Social media is time-consuming.

There’s a reason why being a social media manager is its own job.

First of all, you have to choose someone who knows how to curate certain content for any kind of audience. You also have to have someone make graphics and content for your page.

You also have to have that person on standby to reply to any questions in the comment sections or direct messages. They should also research the latest trends or changes in the app and algorithms. You should start with one social media platform instead of all of them.

5. Pro: You can answer frequently asked questions.

Having information on your social media accounts can help you answer the hot questions your leads ask without taking it to direct messages right away.

Restaurants and food services can include their menus on their social media pages, thereby answering any questions on what they offer and the exact price a customer should expect to pay.

You can explain more about your business by linking your website to your social media. Highlights on Instagram can be great for FAQs, as you can save a permanent question sticker that allows people to go back and ask questions whenever they feel like it — and you can post the answers to your story when applicable and save them to the FAQ highlight.

Similarly, you can put more information about your company in a lengthy about section on Facebook, which also supports direct menu uploading for any business that provides food or beauty services.

6. Con: Social media requires extensive monitoring.

You shouldn’t allow a conversation in your comments to spiral out of control.

When someone has a legitimate criticism, it’s common for brands to reply to let them know their voice has been heard and thank them for the new perspective they brought.

You’ll also want to monitor the comment section for any arguments that break out. You don’t want to give off the impression that your business tolerates hate speech or other inflammatory and offensive things.

You should have a community moderator keeping an eye on your comment sections — or limit them so that only people who follow your account can make comments.

What’s the verdict?

As a business owner, whether your company chooses to use social media should be your decision alone.

If you decide to create accounts on social media, try to focus on the platforms that give you the most return on your investment rather than spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms.

When choosing the person who will run your social media accounts, make sure to pick someone who knows what they’re doing and understands the algorithms. The more you invest in your social media game, the more payoff you’re likely to see.

The post 6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These technologies are more important in 2022 than ever before, especially as the eCommerce industry continues to grow. Most eCommerce businesses need the right tools and technologies to achieve their goals.

So…what should you be investing in?

Take a look at some of the new technologies entering the eCommerce space. Make a decision for yourself that is worthy of investment based on how you operate your business.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an interesting type of technology when it comes to its place in the eCommerce world.

Once thought of as a solution for high tech, it’s now more readily available than ever. It allows many organizations to adopt it as a way of minimizing costs and enhancing operations.

AI may help to fill in the one gap that consumers have when it comes to making a decision about purchasing online. It creates the opportunity for virtual assistants to work and connect with consumers in a realistic experience.

That can help with improving personalization and customer service. It increases the connection between the company selling the product and the consumer buying it, filling an all-important gap.

2. All-Inclusive Fulfillment Systems

It’s a fact of eCommerce. The faster you can fulfill orders, the more orders you can take. And that means more revenue streaming into your company’s account.

Yet it can be challenging to keep up with all the warehousing, picking, packing, and shipping needs of a growing business. It can also become expensive, bringing down the profits you make on each item you sell.

Newer fulfillment systems that leverage the latest software advancements have been a huge boon. This is especially the case with startups operating on limited capital.

These systems are typically offered on an outsourced basis, as in the case of third-party logistics (3PL) providers. These providers can have technology that can help with warehouse management, order management, and product information management. They can pull it all together in one spot making an eCommerce retailer’s life much easier.

As a complete eCommerce solution, Tradefull points out that automation through those types of tech is making warehousing more efficient. As a result, this is helping retailers get products to customers faster and faster.

3. Hyper-Personalized Experiences

Hyper-personalized experiences piggyback on the use of AI in eCommerce environments.

AI can help to gather information about shoppers during their visits. That data proves valuable because it can then be used to create personalized experiences for customers.

Consumers desire a personalized experience that speaks directly to them and values their time. Likewise, a tailored experience like this also allows companies to present consumers with more of the products they are likely to want, improving sales.

The adoption of hyper-personalized experiences through the use of AI can empower eCommerce brands beyond the competition. As a result, it creates an opportunity for a one-of-a-kind experience that consumers desire.

4. Voice Assistants

There’s no doubt that checking the weather or playing music using a voice assistant like Google or Alexa is the easy way to go.

Voice assistants like this can also directly contribute to the needs of eCommerce businesses. Consumers want to rely on their devices to help them make purchases, especially when buying online.

In an eCommerce environment, consumers want to ask their voice assistant of choice to help them find what they need. That may allow companies to set up tools that also allow repeat purchases.

All the consumer has to do is to ask their voice assistant to purchase a specific product from the store of their choice. Many of these assistants remember past purchases. Additionally, they may even help with marketing products by sending reminders to consumers to buy again.

5. Chatbots

One of the concerns for many organizations in managing their eCommerce operation is being accessible to customers 24 hours a day.

It’s simply impossible to do this without the use of technology. New technology, such as AI chatbots, is working to provide a solution.

These more advanced chatbots allow consumers to type their messages directly to the company. The chatbots respond with reasonable questions and can retrieve customer information, product shipping data, and even product information, answering most of the consumers’ questions.

The benefit here is in improving customer service. Consumers get the information they need whenever they need it, even in the middle of the night. That leads to increased sales.

At the same time, eCommerce companies don’t need to pay the high cost of using people to answer those questions. This type of technology has improved significantly so that it creates a more personalized, realistic experience for the consumer while gathering data and supporting the needs of the company.

6. Augmented Reality

Unlike at a brick-and-mortar store, consumers have no way to look at a product from different angles, handle it, try it on, or otherwise explore it.

Augmented reality (AR) opens the door for this opportunity. While it has a long way to go in terms of texture and truly experiencing what a product is like, consumers can use AR to visualize products more realistically before they make a purchase. They can try on clothing virtually. They may be able to place furniture in their living room to see just how well it would fit.

AR is rapidly changing and morphing into a valuable tool for many eCommerce businesses. It’s also a fantastic tool to embed into social media to help build brand recognition and help encourage sales.

Technology Continues to Improve eCommerce Success

Business owners looking for ways to grow and build their operations may need to pay close attention to new technology like these.

Not only can technology help to create new opportunities for sales and better customer service, but it may also provide opportunities to streamline costs, improve operations, and improve efficiencies throughout the company.

In the growing eCommerce industry, it’s essential to have every possible tool available to ensure the best possible return on every sale made.

The post 6 Types of New Technologies in eCommerce appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

In fact, the entire field of online marketing wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for technology. But up until recently, most of the tech influencing marketing was simply a tool. A human had to decide how to use that tool, what it should do, and how it should function.

Recently, that has begun to shift.

Artificial intelligence has started to find applications in the marketing world. While it’s still very much in its infancy, AI is quickly becoming a popular option for many marketing activities — if you know how to use it.

The Benefits of AI in Marketing

Before considering specific applications of AI in marketing, it’s worth taking a minute to lay out why a marketer should consider doing so in the first place. After all, marketing is a business activity. As such, marketers should only apply technology if it has a specific (and profitable) outcome.

So, how does AI benefit marketing? To properly understand that, it’s important to differentiate the concept of artificial intelligence from other forms of modern technology. For instance, things like data collection and automation aren’t necessarily AI.

According to Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google’s AI acquisition DeepMind, AI is the “science of making machines smart.” In other words, when you give technology the ability to make decisions based on the information that it’s given, it becomes artificial intelligence.

Marketers can apply technology that doesn’t just operate digitally but can perform tasks and functions on its own. When they do, it has a number of powerful benefits.

• AI can have a dramatic effect on the efficiency of an organization. Activities can be truly outsourced and left for computers to handle.
• The use of AI can also impact the quality of your work. It does this by maintaining strict standards and providing a sense of consistency and predictability to your outcomes.
• AI has proven itself capable of lead generation. It accomplishes this through things like increasingly sophisticated chatbots and virtual assistants.

From efficiency to quality to lead generation, AI can have a big impact on how effective a marketing campaign can be. One question still remains, though. How can you incorporate AI into your marketing strategy to start benefiting from these advantages?

How to Use AI in Marketing

AI is an exploding field. As such, it can take a little bit of work to uncover its most beneficial applications in an area like marketing. Nevertheless, there are plenty of ways that AI can make a difference.

Here are two of the best areas to explore. Start here to discover the various ways that AI can impact your marketing strategy in the months ahead.

Use AI in your content.

Make no mistake, AI isn’t at the point where it can flawlessly mimic a human’s inherent creativity. Nevertheless, it is still possible to employ AI when it comes to creating content. This is especially true if you find that you’re generating things that are more mundane and have a predictable format.

For instance, consider MarketMuse, a company that develops AI-powered content optimization tools. They point out that popular online publications are already using AI “in various low-level ways.” They also add that companies often do this with data-heavy content that tends to follow a highly structured format.

Nevertheless, the opportunity to use AI to create content is certainly becoming a reality. Not only that, but its growing capabilities can apply to content creation. This works in many different ways, from machine learning to automated reasoning, and beyond.

Use AI with your data.

Data and analytics are already one of the most powerful ways to apply technology in marketing.

However, adding AI into the mix can create a synergistic effect. According to the marketing text and analysis tool Monkey Learn, “Using AI-guided systems in your data analysis allows you to automatically clean, analyze, explain, and ultimately visualize your data.”

This application of AI can transform multiple areas of your marketing. For instance, by applying artificial intelligence to your current marketing data, you can identify gaps and issues. Addressing problems is suddenly much faster and simpler.

In addition to cleaning up problems, AI-driven data analysis can help you find potential opportunities.

This can come from areas that you thought were successful but still have more room for growth. It can also come from completely new considerations that you wouldn’t have been aware of without a thorough analysis of your data. You can even use this kind of data analysis to help you better understand your customers and create more effective buyer personas.

The time to embrace AI marketing is at hand.

Using tech in marketing is nothing new. However, many marketers are still cautious about the idea of applying artificial intelligence.

This hesitation may have been warranted in the past when AI was still too underdeveloped to help in the high-pressure marketing world. But the situation is changing as AI continues to increase its capabilities and more third-party software solutions incorporate AI into their tools.

All that remains is for marketers to find the tools that can help their particular situation and then create a strategy that allows them to tap into the powerful benefits of AI. This shouldn’t be done five or ten years in the future, either. It’s time to start right in the here and now.

The post How to Use AI Within Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

It’s now or never to move your automation marketing to the cloud and gain added security.

According to marketing expert Clare Price, global corporations have been investing in automation for decades. During the epidemic years of 2020 and 2021, that investment paid off handsomely. During the early lockdowns, companies were able to swiftly convert to remote work thanks to automation. Price is the founder and CEO of Octain Growth Systems, a worldwide strategic planning consulting organization that helps businesses increase profits, productivity, and operational efficiency.

Because they had the automatic systems in place, she says, major organizations were in a better position for the hybrid work environment, which includes both in-office and remote employees. Small businesses and solopreneurs, according to Price, did not do as well. When the lockdowns came, they had to scurry to regain momentum.

What’s the end result? Small company owners increasingly see the value of automation in driving operational efficiency in their businesses, adds Price. Today’s technology can help company owners and marketers in any sector move all or part of their activities to the cloud. The following five marketing functions, according to Price, should be automatic.

Appointment Scheduling

Taking your appointment scheduling online allows you to escape the monotony. It provides clients with flexibility and ensures that your time is inviolate when you need it. These are definitely worth a look.

Individual client appointments may be done using calendaring software such as Calendly and Calendarwiz. Try TimeTap for a more comprehensive appointment-setting solution, as well as virtual administrative help for class scheduling and training. Multiple locations, class scheduling, customizable booking forms, and automated payments are all in TimeTap.

Simplybook.me is a professional services booking system that includes online booking, alerts, payments, and marketing incentives such as discounts, gift cards, memberships, and product sales. SimplyBook.me also provides a presence in their professional services directory.

Automation Software for Creating Proposals

Invest in proposal software if your organization sends job proposals manually. Particularly in professional services. Proposal software not only reduces the amount of non-billable time you spend crafting your proposal, but it also keeps track of the prospects’ responses by recording when, what, and how they look at what you supplied them.

Instead of guessing and sending blind follow-ups, imagine knowing when your prospect read your proposal. Imagine knowing which pages piqued their interest.

Was it because of the advantages? Features? Pricing? Knowing this will let you deliver a follow-up message that is tailored to their individual interests.

Proposal tools such as PandaDoc, Proposify, and BidSketch may help you achieve just that. The majority of them provide a limit-free free version or trial. This can help any small business.

Systems for Email Marketing

If email marketing is your major marketing strategy, there are a plethora of efficient and low-cost options available today.

Many basic marketing operations are automated by marketing automation software, allowing your team to thrive in demand and lead creation. Email marketing systems to sophisticated demand and lead generating and prospecting platforms are all available. Marketing automation is an important part of digital and social media marketing’s success.

Management of Customer Relationships (CRM)

One cloud sales enablement tool that no company should be without is a solid CRM solution.

Building customer connections is at the heart of CRM software solutions. They allow your sales force to engage with prospects and monitor their interactions with your company. From start to finish. Contact management, lead management, opportunity management, and sales forecasting are all features of CRM systems.

Integration with Marketing Automation Systems

To make remote work succeed, you must keep customers pleased by providing a consistent customer experience (CX) to each client. They anticipate receiving assistance as soon as possible via a variety of channels and gadgets.

Every provider must now provide an Amazon-like experience to their customers. In today’s trying circumstances, phone and email help are no longer sufficient. With two online CX investments, every small company owner can drastically improve their customer service experience.

Live Chat

Live chat transforms your website from a static informational resource to a real-time customer support center. It helps you to cut reaction times down to seconds rather than hours.

Most significantly, it aids in the growth of your business. According to the American Marketing Association, B2B organizations that employ live chat witnessed a 20 percent boost in conversions on average. Live Chat, ZenDesk, and Olark are the three suggested live chat software options.

Simply said, automation provides both top-line and bottom-line advantages that help your team, no matter how small, increase earnings, productivity, and efficiency.

The post The Best Marketing Automation Tools for SMBs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Why spend time on an organizational chart when the world is coming apart?

That is an excellent question. Most firms see it as a time-consuming corporate activity. And, in the aftermath of shutdowns and a pandemic, it’s more complicated than ever to figure out who is responsible for what.

We all had to make a significant shift in our workplace in 2020, and it seems like everyone has had the same job description since then, namely “additional responsibilities as appropriate.”

Should small companies bother with an org chart in this day and age, when the world and our enterprises are constantly changing? By the way, how’s your tech branding coming along?

Here are several contradictory facts, as well as a preliminary conclusion.

Appropriate business requires reasonable limits. People have seen that clear lines of duty and procedure differentiate the best from the others.

That’s what an effective organizational chart does. Chaos reigns supreme when there are no limits.

Clarity has a nice side to it.

Org charts might be challenging to create, but they give definition and clarity. The loudest voice triumphs when no one understands who reports to whom and who is accountable for what.

And the most pressing need receives attention, even if it is a different voice and a minor requirement.

Is there another advantage? Coworker relationships benefit from clear limits.

How are you navigating The Great Resignation?

And while we navigate the Great Resignation, wise leaders will do everything possible to keep their teams together.

Tight limits result in an inflexible corporation that cannot adapt to changing times and crises. During the chaos of 2020, thousands of firms needed assistance with staffing, payroll, and other pivots.

Agility was a common denominator among the firms that survived (and even thrived) throughout that year. They could all shift, which meant abandoning the formality of “the way we’ve always done things” and the statement “that’s not in my job description.”

The downside of organizational chart technology is that it might make the team excessively inflexible, which doesn’t work in an era when agility and flexibility are becoming more critical.

So, the issue is whether to use an org chart or not. It would be nice to provide a general response because, you know, each team is different.

What works for your team in 2021 may not work in 2022. It’s an art, not a science, to set reasonable limits while avoiding rigidity. And technology can help.

Do employees understand their roles and how the organization runs as a whole?

Is your company’s organizational chart assisting or limiting your ability to complete tasks in a changing environment?

Is it a servant who helps you be more productive or a master who hampers you?

Teams are living entities that evolve throughout the season. Every year, ask yourself these questions.

You’ll figure out the solution and be able to lead your squad to the most excellent decision for the season.

Consider employing QR codes to get feedback from customers.

Almost all customers do internet research before selecting to deal with a company.

An astonishing 79 percent of customers believe internet evaluations of local companies are as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family!

When it comes to a lack of online evaluations for companies, the technology-driven world we live in today provides no room for error.

Getting 72 percent of customers to agree to submit an online review is as easy as asking them and providing a direct link, but how can a company owner be sure that the consumer will follow through? After all, time presses consumers.

QR codes make things easier for everyone.

Convenience is the solution, as it is with almost everything else in the realm of customer service.

No matter how pleased consumers are with the service they received, they are unlikely to look for the company online and submit a review. Some customers may not even know how to use the internet to offer favorable comments.

By using QR codes to collect client feedback, you may prevent these issues from occurring in the first place. Here are three compelling reasons to use QR codes:

• QR codes may be placed everywhere your consumer could view them. They can scan them quickly and easily.
  • Place a QR code on the front desk if you have a physical location.
  • If not, you may place your review-gathering QR code on the side of business cars, on stickers or magnets, or even as wallpaper on your technicians’ phones so clients can scan it after service.
• You may customize QR codes to direct people to the relevant website, whether it’s Google, Facebook, or Yelp, depending on where your company would benefit the most from a review.
  • This is also an excellent approach for a company to see which QR codes clients are more likely to scan.
• QR codes are becoming more popular and helpful.
  • According to a Statista poll conducted in June 2021, 45 percent of U.S. consumers had used a marketing QR code in the last three months.
  • 59 percent expected them to remain permanent.

Why wouldn’t small companies embrace the convenience and accessibility of QR codes to promote good internet reviews?

Who can read QR codes if they don’t have a smartphone?

Even if QR codes get wide use for business and consumer convenience, there will always be a few skeptics.

That’s OK. We all want to make life simpler for our consumers, even those who don’t have smartphones or aren’t acquainted with QR codes.

To avoid any complications, having an employee assist these consumers through discovering your company listing online and getting to the correct page is an intelligent solution.

Using QR codes to generate online reviews is one method to profit from their growing popularity. The fact that 87 percent of customers read evaluations of local companies online should be a primary focus for your small company in 2022.

The post Use an Organizational Chart or QR Codes for Reactions? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Data is now undeniably a key driver of corporate success. The ability to get insights from the ever-increasing volume and complexity of accessible data increasingly separates market winners from losers.

One of its most effective advantages is its ability to help us better analyze and respond to changing customer behavior.

On a social level, it has helped us comprehend the activities and movements of individuals during the Covid-19 epidemic. In finance, corporations have excelled at recognizing outlier behavior that might indicate something shady is afoot.

A “360-degree consumer view” lets marketers identify people ready to purchase and place items and services directly in front of them.

Data helps address client demands (and catch tuna).

The more you know about your consumers, the better you anticipate their needs. You may also convey it to them in a manner that suits them.

An excellent comparison is tuna fishing. Initially, fleets of boats would set out, with no more information than historical success places.

Our capacity to discover and capture fish increased as technology advanced — first by learning to navigate the stars, then by predicting the weather by meteorology, and finally by GPS and sonar. We can now track fish using satellites and underwater sensors.

Commercial tuna fishers must stay up with the latest technological advances. If they don’t, they’ll be out-fished and go out of business.

Customer fishing follows the same rules. Others will surpass you if you don’t keep improving your capacity to utilize data to locate them and understand their behavior.

What data do you need to know your clients?

Many organizations start with transactional and point-of-sale data. So we can identify broad consumer patterns as well as local preferences.

This helps us build goods and services that consumers will pay for. It also allows us to price our items at levels where we are sure they will sell.

These are also quite precious. We can understand who buys what once we know what individuals purchase.

As usual, combining multiple forms of data is much more beneficial than using them alone. Working with personal data has certain dangers and duties.

Therefore, it’s essential to grasp data governance principles, i.e. how to comply with all legislation and earn your customers’ confidence by protecting their data.

Attitude data is just another basic form of data.

You can obtain this data via simple market research or more sophisticated social media sentiment analysis.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) – mainly machine learning – advanced analytics systems may develop automatic reports showing us who is using our goods and what they say about them.

Customer data collected via schemes like loyalty programs or activity monitoring may also be considered internal data.

You may also purchase consumer data and other external information to get further insights. This may contain economic statistics, GDP growth, climatic data, and local and global events.

One innovative window installer and maker allegedly pioneered a certain practice. He began using publicly accessible data on crimes like vandalism to determine where to best deploy its rapid-response window repair services.

It also combines data from services like Google Trends to identify what people are searching for online. More recent advancements like Facebook’s Custom Audience service utilize people choices. Users may input information about their consumers, and algorithms display their ads to other customers who share their profiles.

Putting all of this information together needs a sophisticated analytics infrastructure.

Target, for example, was able to anticipate when consumers were pregnant before they ever began shopping for baby things. Amazon has lately discussed adopting anticipatory shipping. Currently, this allows it to guarantee things are at the distribution facilities closest to clients, but it aims to ship items to customers before purchasing them.

Observations and micro-moments are the new drivers.

The goal is to capture “micro-moments” — split-second purchase opportunities that exist for just a few seconds but may be tremendously lucrative if spotted and acted on at scale.

Walmart collects petabytes of consumer data, but they consider only the most recent transactions in its prediction engines. Because it recognizes how quickly consumer behavior changes, only current data can tell us what’s occurring now and shortly. Don’t make mistakes. But if you do, learn from them.

A micro-moment is someone getting off an aircraft after a trip. They may need a hotel room, a cab, or simply a meal.

Previously, firms may have anticipated seeing an advertisement in the arrivals lounge. Marketers may now target them with a targeted text message, phone notification, or Facebook pop-up when they check in to let their friends and family know they’ve arrived safely.

Today’s data technology provides firms unparalleled insight into their consumers. We can better forecast client needs by merging transactional, demographic, and behavioral data from internal and external sources.

The post Use Data to Better Understand Customer Needs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Retail technology industry funding hit a new high of $29 billion in the first quarter of 2021. In other words, retailers and tech firms tried to merge online. Likewise, in-store experiences, customized interactions at every touchpoint, and speeded up delivery operations had their influence.

And boy, did the industry smack the ball in 2021! Can small businesses keep up?

Yay for Tech!

We’d be writing and reading till 2023 if we analyzed every retail innovation that took place in 2021. After all, some failed.

It’s easy to choose the few technologies where merchants will likely spend more this year.

“Untouchable” invention. The industry expects touchless technology to grow from $6.8 billion in 2020 to $15.3 billion in 2025. The projection may be an overstatement due to pandemic-related safety precautions. By 2020, 67% of merchants would accept no-touch payments, such as tap-and-go credit cards and mobile wallets.

According to Raydiant, a producer of in-store digital signage, by spring 2021, 72 percent of customers were utilizing contactless payments. Expect more frictionless options, like Amazon Go cashier-less stores. Step 2: Software that can read hand signals and other motions.

Niche Industry Quick-Replies

QR codes seemed consigned to the “Island of Lost Tech” for a while. Therefore, the pandemic has altered that by driving demand for touchless technologies QR codes.

The projection, according to Juniper Research, consumers will redeem 5.3 billion QR-coded coupons by mobile in 2022. Starbucks and 7-Eleven feature QR codes in their payment applications. Like Lacoste and Zara, merchants utilize QR codes to deliver customized smartphone offers in-store, advertise goods in windows.

Likewise, connect to web purchasing. And luxury companies have found them helpful in preventing product counterfeiting, a rising concern.

Always-On Cybersecurity

All online shopper data is as essential to fraudsters as to retailers. Corporate and government data breaches increased 17% a year until September 2021, surpassing 2020.

In 2021, the average retail data breach cost $3.27 million, up from $2 million in 2020.

Because hackers are growing more intelligent, merchants must invest in proven, faster-detecting solutions. They must also utilize these services more wisely, gathering the data required to achieve specific objectives. Securing it like Fort Knox…and then destroying it as carefully as plutonium.

Streaming Industry Upstream

Another popular activity for consumers is celebrity-hosted internet sales events.

Some say they will gain popularity in 2022. Experts warn merchants not to anticipate a boom yet — and therein lies the opportunity.

According to Coresight Research, the U.S. live streaming industry will hit $11 billion in 2021. A considerable increase to $35 billion by 2024, but still just 3.3 percent of anticipated U.S. eCommerce, according to Coresight.

You should thoroughly test themes, product mixtures, and marketing. A broadcast might remind viewers of a hard-sell QVC pitch, so be careful with your content.

Dark Shops That Shine

Demand for speedy delivery has put new technologies to the test in the last 24 months. Converting out-of-business shops into fulfillment centers has become common.

Online research shows retail online purchases as of 2021, about 21% of all retail purchases (and hence fulfilled). Compelling fulfillment centers will demand more precision technology as the worldwide same-day delivery business grows. Experts project going from $8.4 billion in 2021 to $10.2 billion in 2022.

Good start! However, many dark businesses now provide curbside and in-store pickup in addition to delivery. For example, these consumer-centric technologies position dark shops to dominate the industry in eCommerce growth until 2022.

Vaimo says that global eCommerce sales will hit $6.5 trillion by 2023.

Two Wait-and-See Technologies

With trillions at stake, merchants should take a chance on tech. But even those that merchants may offer in 2022 are bold and maybe ahead of their time.

Virtual Fitting Rooms

Virtual fitting rooms make the cut.

Just as merchants needed time to discover the proper match for QR codes, it may take another year or two for virtual fitting rooms to establish themselves in shops.

Levi’s introduced its “Virtual Stylist” in 2017, while Gucci and Macy’s have lately experimented with the technology.

A virtual fitting room requires excellent product images and augmented reality to create a 3-D illusion. Also, the customer’s technology (for example) will influence the experience. You will remember 2022 being the Year of Lost Tech for these reasons.

Shopbots

Until proven otherwise, the in-store robot’s utility and profitability place it in the “cute gimmick” category.

Meanwhile, an app is likely cheaper to locate things on the shelf or order out-of-stock items, and it is more convenient for consumers.

However, robots can also clean floors, check stock levels, and transport merchandise at a reasonable cost.

Encouraging shoppers to buy something is one thing, but blocking their way is another. Walmart has been trying robot-enabled last-mile deliveries aside from Tiny Mile’s charming self-driving delivery carts. Wal-Mart plans to deploy fully autonomous trucks in late 2022.

Keep Up With Retail Tech Industry

We may be scratching our brains about in-store robotics or the unexpected decrease of live streaming in a year.

Creators of technology and shops prepared to take in a “cute gimmick,” or lost technology are in control of such situations.

Most importantly, for smaller shops and their technology to be successful in the future, customers must be digital. If they don’t, you may forget their ideas in a flash.

Remember, a little plaster can cover a big eyesore.

The post Retail Industry Tech Trends to Watch This Year appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Were you a small business thrown into chaos when the Covid-19 outbreak? If you were hit, you may just now be starting to recover more than a year later. In a post-pandemic environment, small-enterprise owners must be aware of the changes and key trends driving business.

1. Empathy and Emotional Intelligence

We cannot overstate the importance of emotional honesty and modeling emotional intelligence.

Empathy is no longer a luxury but rather a valuable tool for coping with life’s and work’s obstacles. You don’t have to know or reveal every detail of an employee’s (or your own) circumstances, but detecting moods or actions and responding with care is appreciated. “If we inquire, ‘How are you doing?’ we genuinely want to know.” Adopt that slogan.

2. Social Media Influencer Marketing

The power of influencer marketing is a key trend that small companies should be aware of if they aren’t already.

Small companies may use online platforms and social media channels such as Instagram and TikTok to communicate their stories and raise awareness and enthusiasm. Influencers of all sizes (even micro-influencers) provide credibility to the article by adding context and endorsements.

3. Large-Scale Business Processes and Systems

Small firms must begin adopting large corporate systems and procedures to succeed in 2022.

What we mean is that small firms should set up toll-free phones, IVR systems, and automation to organize their operations. Act as if they were much more significant than they are. It will be critical to their success if they can do this.

4. Increased Recruitment Efforts

Companies will be able to broaden their recruitment efforts to be more far-reaching than in the past.

As the globe is more linked than ever, more individuals choose remote work locations throughout the world. In a tight labor market, organizations have purposefully established their culture. They are defined purpose, values, and norms will be more effective in recruiting the appropriate personnel.

5. Workplace Values That Put Family First

Over the past year or two, many individuals have reviewed what they value in life, resulting in family-first key trends.

As a result, company owners must establish a workplace that prioritizes people or risk losing their most exemplary employees. Small-business owners must develop a set of workplace principles with their employees and ensure that supervisors, in particular, lead by example.

6. Building Relationships with Business Owners

Don’t miss out on 2022’s hottest key trend: networking!

Small company entrepreneurs may increase their efforts tremendously by networking with other business owners rather than expanding alone. As a result, networking allows you to get business lead referrals and hear new market views. Learn from other people’s experiences, improve your game, and pitch. Team up and establish partnerships that motivate and drive each other’s development.

7. Digital Marketing’s Effectiveness

Digital marketing is here to stay, and small company owners should embrace it.

However, digital marketing may not completely replace in-person profile development. While it did during the epidemic, its cost- and time-saving benefits cannot be overlooked. Consequently, utilize these advantages to reach a large audience constantly.

8. Cloud and Digital Technologies for Business

A robust digital presence is lacking in many small firms.

Your ability to utilize and use today’s digital and cloud technologies will determine much of your success. Similarly, key trends like this bolster your commitment to keeping on top of whatever technology your customers use. That is to say, it will add to your success in the next ten years. It’s Slack, Teams, and Twitter trends these days. Who knows what the situation will be like in three years?

9. Product Development and Agile Service Delivery

The ability to stay flexible in client service delivery and product development will provide you with an edge.

Flexible delivery trends assist in creating a personal brand with a recognized competitive advantage. Likewise, creating a range of solutions and understanding the effect of these solutions on various customers can help your small company stand out. To clarify, your small business can stand out in any market by allowing you to provide variety, creativity, and strategic innovation.

10. Employee Business Coaching and Mentoring

Small firms will need to develop unique, new methods to recruit and retain talent to keep their employees happy and enhance retention.

Trends toward providing coaching or mentoring to workers exist. Consequently, it is considerably more beneficial to a person’s growth than a break room with a ping-pong table!

11. Synchronous and Delayed Video

The use of both synchronous and asynchronous video will be crucial.

The use of video to prospect, sell, service, and meet with people across the world has increased dramatically in the previous 18 months. Everyone has access to a phone, tablet, or laptop, and we are just a click away from engagement. Video is the new “new” thing, and its popularity will only grow. There are several free platforms to choose from. Get started!

12. A Business That Is Both Traditional and Hybrid

As we balance security and insecurity with a healthy home and working environment, we have options for workers.

Having a hybrid workplace where workers may pick their best work schedule will be a key trend for the future. In conclusion, employers must accept multi-generational staff with various value systems and life-learned skill sets.

The post Key Trends: 12 That Will Drive Small Business in 2022 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With the right email marketing software and a strategy to win over the hearts (and wallets) of your contacts, you could be raking in some serious cash this holiday season.

How to Boost Your Christmas Sales

Before we officially head into the New Year, we mustn’t gloss over the last major shopping season of the year. Consumers are ready to buy and they’re looking for the best deals on the internet. So how do you get their attention?

1. Shout out your website with a sense of urgency.

With wishes of “Merry Christmas” from family and friends filling up the inbox, there’s even more competition for your subscribers’ attention. For a successful bout of buying from your store, you’ll want to adopt a strong sense of urgency.

With copy that captures the essence of time is running short (but also points to a solution), your target audience will get the picture — your site is the perfect place for fulfilling any last-minute shopping this year.

2. Problem? Solution!

You want to create copy that’s clear and to the point. Keeping your email brief means your contacts are more likely to read it in its entirety and act on a compelling call to action. For the best results, we return to the problem-solution strategy.

The end of the year sets the stage for a major bout of last-minute shopping. The problem is clear…your shoppers are running out of time! Give them quick gift ideas by showcasing your best sellers or outline a current sale with helpful links.

3. Show off your customer knowledge.

It’s time to break out the flattery. With Christmas sale competition eating up valuable inbox space, your email campaigns will need to stand out with a bit of personalization. There are a few ways to go about this.

• Personalize product recommendations that capture your target audience.
• Capture cart abandoners with the old “get it before it’s gone” technique.
• Better yet, encourage would-be customers with a discount on the things they nearly purchased.

Personalized messaging goes a long way in email campaigns as it makes it easy for a customer to feel confident about a buy. Feeling like a company truly understands them takes the guesswork out of finding the perfect product to purchase.

4. Make your campaign website mobile-friendly.

Now more than ever, it’s important that your email message is compatible with multiple devices.

In this day and age, it’s likely that a good portion of your contacts will be shuffling through their inboxes on the go. With visually enticing and clickable CTAs, you invite your clients to swiftly follow through with an effortless click of the thumb.

5. Free shipping = a shopping cart follow-through.

Have you ever wondered why shoppers abandon their carts so frequently? The greatest influence is unexpected shipping costs.

The best way to get customers to complete their purchase this holiday season is clear: offer free shipping.

6. E-gift cards are here to stay (and for good reason).

They’re super convenient and don’t require any shipping wait time! Contacts that are really cutting it close with their last-minute shopping will be hoping for a solution this simple.

Give them a shout-out in your subject line, to the tune of, “We’ve got your last-minute gift right here.” With a clickable link that goes straight to your e-gift card options, consider the sale complete.

7. Go a different email route…with a huge shopping success rate.

SMS campaigns typically host an ultra-high open rate, so if you’ve had the opportunity to collect your contacts’ phone numbers, launching SMS automation might be the thing you’ve been missing when it comes to closing that sale.

Sending an automated text won’t do much good without a clickable link attached, so be sure to include one — and maybe even a photo if your platform allows!

In conclusion, what’s the moral of the story? Christmas isn’t over yet! Your customers still have time to buy! Employ those snappy CTAs. Whip up some attention-grabbing copy. Create clear, concise messages to get your point across. When it comes down to the final hours before Christmas, your contacts will be glad they opened your email.

The post The Best Ways to Enhance Your Pre-Christmas Sales appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What can a small company owner do to prepare for growth in the New Year, given that 99 percent of all U.S. enterprises are tiny, almost 32 million as of March 2021?

What kind of small enterprises is growing now? It’s possible that now is the best moment to start a new business. In the New Year, certain services and goods may be in higher demand than ever. This list is by no means exhaustive, but if you work in one of these fields or want to, this may be a good year for you.

• Physical Therapy
• Wellness
• Mechanic
• Carwashes
• Curricula
• MBA Marketing Courses
• Business Advice and Coaching
• SM Management
• A/R (Accounting)

If indeed these careers are now the most successful, it’s clear that customers are intensely focused on self-improvement and business-to-business services.

So, you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and are joining the ranks of other business owners who have gone solo. Are there risks to becoming your boss? Sure. You can’t expand without bruising yourself a few times. But do the rewards justify the effort? Ask the almost 32 million small firms that comprise 99 percent of all U.S. businesses.

Where do you expand if you’re new?

Then how do you go about it when you don’t know what you don’t know?

Decide on a business structure.

The importance of choosing the correct sort of company entity cannot be stressed. Consider it to be like cooking. Before you start, decide what you’re going to make and what utensils and supplies you’ll need. Not every tool or instrument will work for you.

Make a stew on a grill to understand.

When beginning a firm, you must explore several business structures and choose which one best suits your needs. Understanding that each entity type has unique legal requirements is critical, not just during the creation phase but also as you develop and expand.

If you’re like most people and motivated more by ambition and caffeine than a solid business strategy, you’ll need to decide if you want to do it alone or with a partner. Whether you need investors. How much ownership do you want to give up in exchange for financial aid?

You must also decide how you will run the company, who will make decisions and over what, and how you will be compensated and share in the profits and losses.

A wise business owner also learns about putting up precautions such as insurance and hiring professionals such as lawyers for contracts, employment difficulties and guidance, and accountants for tax and bookkeeping.

Very often, companies fail to create procedures and processes for handling conflicts, differences in management style, and settling disputes, which harms the business, earnings, and relationships. Every facet of a business is influenced by how it is legally created.

Expand systems to address roadblocks.

Sole proprietorship or joint ownership of a firm involves a shared commitment to doing activities that strengthen the business.

Running a business requires following local, state, and federal regulations. Establishing internal processes that help you succeed.

Consider how you greet customers in person, over the phone, or via email. The information they have access to when considering signing up or buying. Then the policies you create and implement communicate the business’s objectives.

Consider whether you will train employees to deliver the intended customer experience or handle problems that arise. Billing practices complicate things. Also, use the information that appears on a website or social media to showcase and market the business’s strengths. These are all essential touchpoints that may make or kill a business.

These moments also shape its reputational identity, which is how the public and rivals see it. Customers and clients alike expect and require an experience worth their time and money.

Get set…grow!

If you’ve been around the block at least once and can include a successful business among your accomplishments, it’s time to pause and reflect on your past and future growth.

Uncertainty has taught American firms that they are more susceptible than they believed when it comes to the epidemic and all the issues it brings. To prepare for future difficulties, company owners may take action to ensure their workplaces are safe for employees and customers and to comply with local government regulations.

How can an established business owner make up lost ground or stay up with the changing tides long enough to see a better New Year?

Love your squad.

Remember that creating relationships pays off. If you have loyal employees, remind them why they joined in the first place. As things improve, a motivated workforce with high morale is an organization’s most important growth asset.

Everyone will remember that the unit survived difficult circumstances by working together toward a shared objective.

Get assistance where needed.

Our reliance on technology may have made the world smaller due to increased access to information. But be aware that not all information is good information.

Don’t rely on social network pals or generic web forms to inform you what your business contracts state or what standards to follow. Do yourself a great favor and get legal advice that is conversant with the subject and can assist you in avoiding legal growth issues. And, when it comes to taxes, be sure to consult a financial specialist.

“Professional services” are not a misnomer as long as you spend time finding trustworthy assistance.

The post Are You Ready For Growth in the New Year? appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Before we go further, it’s essential to highlight two distinct types of direct mail solutions: solo mail and shared mail. Shared mail involves advertisers coming together in a single piece of mail to reach the same audience. In contrast, solo mail represents a single business entity.

High Return on Investment (ROI)

You probably don’t believe that direct emails can yield a higher ROI than online display and paid search ads. As far-fetched as it may sound, it is true. Statistics indicate that direct mails are almost as effective as social media marketing, with the latter being only a single percentage ahead. This means that a business that uses direct mail alongside other marketing strategies will likely achieve high conversions. One study found that most donations received by non-profit organizations come from direct mails. Research has also established that over 80 percent of millennials love receiving mails and are more likely to respond to direct mails than other generations. Millennials are said to favor physical media over other media channels.

Cost-effectiveness

For-profit businesses are always looking to improve their profit margins by reducing operational costs. Some marketing methods can be very costly. Direct mail is a cost-friendly way of reaching customers. It does not need investment in terms of money, digital infrastructure, and technical knowledge compared to other methods such as paid search. You only need a good copywriter and designer to help craft your emails. Some organizations resort to shared direct mail marketing over solo direct mail marketing to save on costs. This is because the difference between shared and solo mail marketing lies within the costs involved.

Versatility

Direct mails can be sent in different formats. Depending on what you desire to communicate to your customers, you can send direct mails in various forms such as newsletters, magazines, postcards, catalogs, and brochures, among others. It means you have a range of options to choose from for various purposes. For instance, if you want to inform your customers of your new line of products, you can use a brochure to provide your audience with the product specifications. Direct mails in the form of company newsletters effectively establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers and improve their loyalty. Direct mails can also collect vital information from customers through questionnaires and surveys sent to them. The results can be analyzed and measured against targets and goals. Direct mails are perfect for newly set-up businesses hoping to generate quick revenue and capture customers.

Personalization

Personalization is critical in marketing because it boosts customers’ experience. Research shows that customers are more likely to be associated with businesses that provide personalized experiences. Experts also suggest that personalized recommendations attract more conversions than non-personalized offers. Direct-to-consumer mails offer an opportunity for business owners to personalize the messages they send to customers. A well-personalized marketing campaign is likely to spark interest among customers who become more receptive when they feel valued and respected. As a business owner or manager, you must segment your audience and understand each segment to know what content attracts them.

Targeting

Customers have different characteristics. Hence, their needs, expectations, and demands also vary. With direct mail marketing, you can target your audience based on their past purchases, demographics, such as age, income levels, level of education, etc., or psychographics, such as interest, hobbies, and consumption patterns. Good practice within an organization is to keep a list of customers who share some characteristics. It is also crucial to keep a list of customers who have previously responded to marketing messages, such as those who have filled our warranty cards or requested more information. Readers can be targeted through direct mails with messages tailored towards their needs, behavior, and expectations. Because customers have demonstrated willingness to buy products or be associated with your brand, they should be prioritized with direct mails.

Stealth Marketing

As opposed to methods of marketing, direct mail marketing allows business owners to build campaigns without drawing the attention of competitors. Other online marketing methods have loopholes that rivals can ‘spy’ on you, but direct mail is impossible. In contrast, They cannot know the scale of your campaigns, how often you market to customers and the strategies you use. They will not know what your conversions are, so they cannot copy your strategy. This way, you stay ahead of the game in keeping your existing customers and acquiring new ones.

Scalability

You can quickly scale your business through direct mails. This is possible when you continuously test additional lists of prospective customers. Out of these, you find responsive lists to build marketing strategies to grow your business. Hence, as a business owner, you must actively seek new ways to target your prospective lists.

Final Thoughts

The above benefits achieved through direct mail can result in higher leads and sales. The method is quick, easy, cost-effective, and offers a high return on investment. It begins from identifying your audience, strategizing on the process, and hiring a good marketer who understands customer experience dynamics. It is also essential to put in place a system for tracking and measuring the performance of your marketing efforts. In the post-pandemic era, many customers spend more time at home and equally have more time for your direct mails. This is the time to get it right with your direct mail tools. Efforts should be geared towards finding new innovative ways to keep customers engaged and more interested. The goal is to win. In contrast, their loyalty.

The post Why Direct Mail Remains an Effective Way to Reach Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Additionally, native advertising platforms support the creation and distribution of ads or paid content that match the form, style, and function of the media in which they appear. By blending into the native content of the target platform, these ads are perceived as being less intrusive and sometimes readers are even unaware of the promotional nature of the post.

Native advertisements are typically presented as in-feed ads that appear in social media, are promoted via search listings, or show up as related content recommendations. They can even be blended into social media platforms, streaming services, and news sites. Oftentimes they get picked up by ad agencies and affiliate marketers.

These types of ads are becoming an increasingly popular format for advertisers. Native advertising can be considered a part of any company’s ad distribution operation. They are often part of a company’s overall content marketing strategy.

The majority of native advertising platforms will offer A/B testing, ad inventory management, affiliate management, AI/machine learning, analytics/ad attribution tracking, audience targeting, automated publishing, behavior analytics, and bidding strategies. Some services offer even more features. It’s worth noting that these types of platforms typically support Cloud, SaaS, and web-based implementations.

Native Ad Networks Can Help Boost Brand Awareness Rapidly

If you’re looking for an effective way to generate increased awareness for your brand, product, or service, native advertising is worth consideration. Native ad networks represent an opportunity that can provide a lot of bang for the buck. Listed below are nine of the top native ad networks.

1. Taboola

Taboola has a global reach of 1.4 billion monthly visitors, approximately 44.5% of the global population of internet users. Roughly 50% of Taboola’s traffic comes from countries such as the United States, UK, France, and Japan. Taboola partners with 10,000+ top websites including Fox Sports, NBC, USA Today, Business Insider, Bloomberg, MSN, CBS News, etc. Their ads are delivered as recommended content and in-feed content across partner platforms.

2. Outbrain

Outbrain ranks among the top three native advertising platforms in the world. It currently boasts a reach of 1.2 billion monthly visitors. The company partners with premium publishers across different countries including the United States and UK, delivering ads in the form of recommended content, in-feed, search, and promoted listings.

3. MGID

MGID has been in the business of native advertising for 12 years. It’s ranked among the top three advertising networks in the world and MGID’s reach equals 850+ million unique monthly visitors from the web. MGID partners with top websites and blogs around the globe.

4. Revcontent

Revcontent delivers native ads in the form of recommended content and in-feed content across premium publishers such as USA Today, Tribune media, Nasdaq, and the like. Their ad inventory encompasses e-commerce, finance, health, beauty, and politics. 50% of the companies’ traffic comes from the United States and UK.

5. Yahoo Gemini

Yahoo Gemini has a reach of over one billion unique monthly visitors, with 50% of their traffic coming from the United States, UK, and France. To begin advertising with Yahoo Gemini, applicants need to have a minimum of $25 deposited in a Yahoo ad account.

6. Admixer

With over 10 years of experience, Admixer is another veteran in the native advertising industry. Their ads are delivered as in-stream, in-article, native display banners across top publishing platforms.

7. Plista

Plista partners with over 1,500 websites around the world. Approximately 80% of their traffic comes from Germany, Poland, Russia, and Australia, so this distribution makes Plista appealing to advertisers who are interested in driving high-quality traffic from these countries. The company charges clients using a cost-per-click billing model.

8. TripleLift

According to their business statement, TripleLift promises to help advertisers generate 3x higher brand awareness and consumer purchase intent. TripleLift targeting is based on country, region, browser, operating system. They partner with top publishers such as USA Today, BuzzFeed, eBay, BBC, and the like.

9. Nativo

Nativo boasts approximately 220 million unique visitors from the United States alone. This makes Nativo one of the top native advertising platforms for targeting audiences in the United States, UK, and Canada. Nativo further targets audiences based on country, device, region, and operating system.

Native Ad Networks Can Help Cut Through the Noise

In today’s media-saturated world, native advertising should be a pivotal part of every successful marketing strategy. Native ads mimic the surroundings in which they appear. This makes sure your message is delivered as discreetly as possible and allows you to catch and hold a user’s attention.

There are many native advertising networks out there, so doing some research is definitely in order. The nine listed above are the top networks you can trust to help you get your brand message in front of your target audience. Depending on your niche, you stand a better chance of converting and generating quality leads when ads are not perceived as interruptions.

The post Native Ad Networks: Top 9 Services for Advertisers and Publishers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Two decades into the 21st century, things have changed. Technology has streamlined and even cut out the need for many traditional marketing activities. Online marketing, in particular, has made an affordable and effective promotional world accessible to many SMBs (small- and medium-sized businesses.)

If you’re considering bringing your marketing in-house, though, you want to make sure that you set the stage before you make the switch. Here is some of the most important software that any modestly scaled in-house team will want in its tech stack to operate productively.

1. Communication Tech

One of the biggest upsides to an in-house marketing team is the communication factor. Removing a third-party agency can simplify your marketing communication and make it more efficient. 

Marc Anidjar, partner at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine, highlights “cutting out the middle man” as a critical part of his firm’s streamlined, in-house marketing efforts. Anidjar explains that “An in-house marketing team enables the firm to be nimbler and make quicker, more effective decisions.”

The business owner goes on to explain that removing the middle man enables his team to create relationships directly with advertisers. However, he also highlights that it added new costs in the manner of having to manage their own accounts.

In order to keep these additional costs at a minimum, it’s important that you utilize technology. Whether that comes in the form of emails, phone calls, video chats, or any other communication channel, you want to set clear guidelines for your marketing communication. 

This should be codified both for internal and external marketing interactions. Smooth, effective communication is ground zero for in-house marketing staff to manage its various advertising accounts.

2. Collaboration Tech

There are many facets to modern in-house marketing. SMBs and larger corporations alike must learn to organize and streamline their marketing activities if they want an in-house effort to be effective.

One of the best ways to do this is to find technologies that can bring a multi-pronged marketing activity into a single location. A DSP (demand side platform) is a great way to unify a critical marketing activity: buying and managing marketing inventory.

A DSP provides a single interface where you can formulaically purchase, scale, and optimize advertisements. The ability to do this in a single location can save your in-house team endless hours spent moving from one advertiser to the next. It can also help them maintain greater consistency throughout marketing campaigns.

3. Creativity Tech

The creative side of a marketing campaign is rife with an endless procession of various creative tech tools. Most of the creativity-driven applications you need will vary depending on the size and scope of your marketing strategy. For instance, a small, regional business can create a local ad for their Facebook page using a free content creator like Canva or Picmonkey. 

However, a larger company will likely need to utilize a more comprehensive CMP (creative management platform) software throughout its creative efforts. A CMP is a powerful tool that integrates many aspects of content creation into a single platform. 

CMP provider Bannerflow describes its platform as one that enables “small, in-house teams to produce complex digital campaigns, for multiple markets.” The goal with a quality CMP is to go beyond the mere creation of the content. The program should also integrate the rest of the process into the mix as well. 

In other words, if you’re creating a banner for your marketing, your CMP should help you through the entire workflow process for the campaign. You should be able to use the single tool to create, personalize, optimize, and distribute the piece of marketing collateral.

Whether you’re utilizing smaller tools or larger CMPs, you want to have the right creative tools in place. This will enable your in-house team to produce internal content that is consistent and effective.

4. Data and Analytics Tech

Data is a key component of modern marketing. You want to collect and analyze data as you operate. This can help you perfect future marketing efforts and maximize your ROI.

Many CRM (customer relationship management) platforms can provide some of these key insights. However, you also want to consider setting up a CDP (customer data platform).

A CDP can aggregate customer information from across your organization in a more marketing-focused manner. A CRM manages limited, manually input customer data. A CDP goes further by gathering data from across the various customer touchpoints in your company. From there, it organizes it in a manner that yields critical marketing information.

Along with a good CDP, you also want a solid EOP (experience optimization platform.) An EOP considers a customer’s interactions across the entire marketing experience. It can implement testing and personalization tools that can perfect your marketing efforts over time.

In-house marketing has many impressive advantages. It can cut costs, improve creativity, promote transparency, and solidify your brand’s messaging. However, if you bring your marketing in-house, you want to do it the right way. 

Make sure you build a tech stack that is personalized to your company’s specific marketing needs. Use your tech to streamline time-soaking activities and fill employee skill gaps. If you can create a robust in-house marketing team that is equipped with the best MarTech for your needs, you can truly tap into all of the benefits of in-house marketing.

The post 4 Tech Needed for In-House Marketing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Instagram is primarily a photo-sharing platform packed with features that help businesses sell their products. According to statistics, more than 72% of users purchased a product they saw on Instagram. With the right marketing strategy, any size brand can increase its reach, find new customers, promote products, and generate more sales.

Whether you want to grow followers for your eCommerce brand or earn more clients for another company, there are several Instagram marketing tools that help you promote your products or services and generate more conversions. Here are 11 top picks.

Increase Your Reach With These Instagram Marketing Tools

Awario

Awario is a brand monitoring and social listening tool that serves up instantaneous brand mentions from the web and social media. It helps your company reach new audiences, create relevant content related to your product or service, and participate in discussions. With Awario, you can better understand your prospective customers and create results-oriented Instagram marketing campaigns.

Awario acts as a great Instagram marketing tool for small and mid-size companies to connect with their target audience. It helps you discover prospective customers by allowing you to provide immediate solutions to their problems. Awario also enables you to find industry influencers and develop beneficial relationships to market your products. You can identify industry trends, perform hashtag research, and delve into competitor analysis to create more engaging Instagram content.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a social media analytics tool that helps businesses make well-informed and data-backed decisions for Instagram. It helps you increase Instagram engagement by visualizing the important metrics and improving your content marketing strategy.

Iconosquare includes many useful features such as the best time to post, geolocation, user targeting, user tagging, and more. These features help you post content automatically and reach the right audience at the right time. You can also schedule your comment along with hashtags to increase engagement and reach. Iconosquare helps you keep a close eye on your competitors and share your performance report with your social media team.

Sked Social

Sked Social is a great tool for brands, enabling marketers to plan visually engaging posts for an Instagram feed. You create posts for your Instagram feed in advance and see how your feed will look. It lets you automatically publish posts to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can schedule Instagram posts along with relevant hashtags, location tags, and product tags to boost engagement and generate more sales. You can even schedule user-generated content.

Later

Later is an Instagram platform that helps marketers visually plan their posts. The tool allows you to automatically publish content and get useful insights to connect to the right audience. With Later, you can create a visually appealing feed for your Instagram audience using a drag-and-drop interface. Later helps you select the best time to post and also allows marketers to find on-brand content to create more engagement. Its in-depth analytics enable you to track exactly which posts are driving traffic and where your followers are converting.

Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool that helps marketers stay organized. From publishing posts to reporting, social monitoring to getting insightful analytics, and team collaboration, Agorapulse is packed with useful tools. You can plan your Instagram feed in advance, giving you the freedom to create better strategies for your business and reach more clients.

Kicksta

Kicksta is a powerful Instagram growth tool that uses artificial intelligence technology to acquire authentic, organic followers. With this tool, you can find your competitors, industry influencers, and complementary brands. Kicksta lets you engage followers who follow profiles similar to yours. It will help you engage with a similar audience and increase the chances that they will follow you back. As a result, Kicksta helps you improve brand awareness and boost your follower growth.

Gleam

Gleam is a powerful tool designed for running Instagram giveaways and contests. It assists you in running campaigns that boost your audience engagement and business growth effortlessly. You can run hassle-free campaigns with features such as automatic entry validation and random or manual winner selection. Gleam also allows you to embed their mobile-friendly widget onto any webpage or create your contest on their free hosted landing pages. With Gleam, you can collect photo and video submissions from Instagram through hashtags, mentions, or manual selection. Additionally, Gleam integrates with all the email marketing tools and social networks you use. With its flexible design, you can drag and drop any of the supported actions into your campaign within seconds.

Picodash

Picodash is an Instagram marketing tool that helps marketers find the right audience and industry influencers for their brand. It provides useful data and helpful analytics to create your social media marketing strategy and outreach more efficiently. Picodash allows you to export your Instagram followers to a spreadsheet to filter for influencers by checking their followers and searching for relevant keywords. You can also filter users based on likes and comments received to find the right audience for your brand.

Hopper

Hopper is a scheduling tool that helps brands plan content for Instagram and drives maximum user engagement. With Hopper, you can create up to 50 posts and upload them with its bulk upload feature. You can then choose your favorite time to publish posts. Hopper’s planning and analytics feature allows you to drag-and-drop posts and create social media calendars. It also enables Instagram video scheduling with Hopper HQ.

Smartly.io

Smartly.io is an Instagram marketing tool that automates social advertising to improve audience reach. It combines media buying and creative automation to help brands succeed. The automation tools and templates help you develop creative copies, plan localized offers, and make different prize and copy variations. Smartly.io allows you to instantly publish ads on your Instagram account and update ads in real-time. It optimizes your targeting, budget, and bidding to make sure you achieve the maximum conversion rate.

Grum

Grum is an Instagram marketing tool that helps marketers schedule posts to automatically go live at the preferred time on multiple Instagram accounts. You can schedule video posts with Grum. One of the best parts about using Grum is that it allows you to upload content from your desktop, ultimately eliminating the need to use your phone to post content to Instagram.

Wordswag

Wordswag is an Instagram marketing tool that allows you to add captions to your posts. Its smart typing engine lets you create custom text layouts for Instagram posts. You can choose from hundreds of quotes, thoughts, and funny text to make your posts more creative and interactive. Wordswag helps Instagrammers create interesting content for their audience. In due time, this increases engagement and creates brand awareness.

All kinds of businesses, ranging from eCommerce brands to media, mobile app development companies to design agencies, healthcare organizations to travel businesses, are harnessing the power of Instagram. Whether your business is working to increase its reach, find new customers, promote products, or generate more sales, it’s the right time to use one or more of these tools to better promote your brand.

The post Top Instagram Marketing Tools to Supercharge Brand Growth appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This helps explain the growing reliance on outsourcing. In 2019, roughly a third of small businesses already outsourced some business function, and 52% were planning to do so. In 2021, the number of small businesses planning to outsource has shot up to 80%. 

Outsourcing is perfect for growing companies because it offers extreme flexibility, saves time, and allows you to work with top experts without the hefty price tag. Of course, you should never outsource anything related to your competitive advantage. (If it’s your stellar service that sets you apart, for instance, you would never want to outsource customer support.) 

But there are certain core functions that every company must handle — things like accounting, legal, marketing, and cybersecurity. Certain businesses may also need to deal with shipping and fulfillment or data entry — things that keep your business running but don’t impact your end product or service. 

According to Gregg Landers, director of growth management at CBIZ MHM, there are a few categories of tasks that are ripe for outsourcing: tasks that require a high degree of skill or specialized knowledge and highly repetitive tasks.

Here are four areas you should consider outsourcing to cut costs and see better results:

1. IT Training and Certification

If the pandemic taught us anything, it was the value of a highly competent IT department. With many teams still working remotely, you need to ensure that your IT person or team has the training they need. But trying to do that in-house is simply not cost-effective. According to a survey of learning development professionals, it takes an average of 132 hours to develop a single hour of online learning content. That’s more than three weeks’ worth of work!

This is why it’s better to invest in third-party training and certification programs. Outsourcing your group training to a company such as IBEX Business Experts reduces costs and ensures that your team is consistent and unified. You can choose instructor-led courses or virtual learning so individuals can work at their own pace.

2. Business Accounting

Any business that hopes to stay in business needs the help of a bookkeeper, accountant, or both. You need someone to keep your records up-to-date, track expenses, run payroll, file quarterly reports, and do your end-of-year taxes. Trying to manage all these tasks yourself is a recipe for disaster — or at least an audit. You may also want someone to do an in-depth analysis of your business or help you with financial planning, but that doesn’t mean you should hire a full-time CPA.

In the United States, the average base salary for an accountant is $54,127. That’s not counting bonuses, healthcare, and other costs that come with a salaried employee. Then there are the hidden costs of training and management for an in-house accountant. For most small businesses, it’s much more cost-effective to outsource this role. You can use software like Gusto for payroll and pay a licensed CPA to do your taxes, or you can work with an accounting firm to handle all these tasks.

3. Outbound Sales

If you’re trying to grow your business quickly, you’ll need to scale your sales team. The trouble is that it’s extremely difficult to develop a repeatable sales process, find the right talent, and train them to be effective team members. Hiring aggressively is also risky — especially in sales, which has the highest turnover rate of any sector. It can be devastating (both emotionally and financially) to invest weeks or months in training only to see those people leave.

A more sensible approach for many businesses is to outsource certain sales roles, such as outbound sales or business development. Outbound sales encompasses tactics like cold calling or emailing, attending trade shows, and selling door-to-door. Hiring a third-party company to do this for you will give you a steady influx of new leads while freeing up your in-house reps to do more high-value work. Because they know your company inside and out, they’re best suited to develop those relationships and close deals.

4. Marketing

Marketing is a broad term for a highly specialized and complex industry that changes each and every year. The type of marketing you should be investing in will depend on your business, your budget, and your target market. 

For instance, if you’re an online retailer, you may need to invest in pay-per-click ads, social media, influencer marketing, or all of the above. If you’re a service-based business with a long sales cycle, inbound marketing might be your focus. If you’re a mom-and-pop shop that only serves customers locally, you might focus your attention on search or on traditional media channels.

The kicker here is that your marketing tactics should change if you’re not seeing results. Hiring a full-time marketing person is risky because no marketer is an expert in everything. If you hired someone on the assumption that you’d be creating bus-bench ads and direct-mail pieces, that person is not likely to be as effective if you shift your budget to SEO and paid search. Unless you’re planning to build out an entire in-house marketing team, you’re nearly always better off hiring a firm that specializes in whatever tactics you’re pursuing.

As your business grows, it can be exciting to imagine what you could accomplish if you only had a team member dedicated to X. But outsourcing business functions that aren’t your core competency is almost always a better choice. It allows you to work with the top professionals in the industry — without paying their entire year’s salary. It also means you can invest in talent that can help you grow your business faster.

The post 4 Key Business Functions You Should Consider Outsourcing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Content marketing has evolved into a critical component of any digital marketing campaign for any company operating in the online world. Original content is essential for blogs, and yet many content authors ignore this guideline and continue to plagiarize. Since the internet is crammed full of content, “authors” grab what’s already available rather than generate new ideas.

Writing can be challenging, no doubt about it, especially when the topic is unfamiliar to the author. However, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an experienced writer or a novice. One thing is sure: we all face the task of preserving originality in the material we create.

First and foremost, if you want your content to shine — and trend on Google — you must focus on making it exclusive.

Search engines are scanning for plagiarism-free content.

If you don’t want Google to blacklist your website, publish original content. It’s that simple.

Google recently updated its algorithm to make it easier for them to detect imposters and plagiarizers. If you’re caught plagiarizing, you can count on your website being blocked. Depending on the seriousness of the issue, Google might even push your site down to obscurity on its search engine result pages (SERPs).

All authors and website admins must recognize the significance of plagiarism detection. Failing to underscore the seriousness of plagiarism is an invitation for your brand to take a serious hit in terms of credibility.

Why is it necessary to provide unique content for content marketing?

Plagiarism-free content will attract a wider audience.

The primary goal of marketing is to attract customers to your company and raise revenue. You must create original content if you expect potential customers to prefer you over your competitors. Plagiarized material undermines a website’s reputation and jeopardizes all of your content marketing activities, online or otherwise. If your company can’t be trusted not to plagiarize, what else can it not be trusted for?

It’s always better to post nothing at all than to post something damaging. If your content is being supplied by an outside writer, make sure you run everything through a plagiarism checker before you post. The stakes are too high and you’ll be held accountable even if you were unaware that the material was not original.

Plagiarism-free content gives a serious boost to your SEO efforts.

Content promotion is also essential for a site’s search engine optimization; its pages would not score highly on search engine result pages without it.

If the website’s content is of high quality, it can help to improve its search engine ranking. Originality is a core component of high-quality content, and search engines like blogs with content free of plagiarism.

High-authority sites will be quick to disown plagiarized content.

Backlinks are essential for increasing your search engine exposure because they represent the level of trust that others place in your content. If your company gets dinged for plagiarism, it typically creates a stampede of other sites removing their links to your material.

High-authority course, in particular, will be quick to disown content that is plagiarized and place that website on a blacklist. One of the ways that those sources earned their authority in the first place was by not directing their readers to spurious content.

If you have something of value to offer, offer it in your own words and trust that interested parties will respond by inviting others to see for themselves. As long as you are producing marketing content that is free of plagiarism, those backlinks will stay in place for a long time.

Consistently providing original content builds trust.

Well-executed content creation should aid in the development of a partnership of sorts between the company and its target audience. Great content connects with consumers and answers their questions. When you offer value, without asking much in return, your audience is more likely to trust your advice and recommendations.

Over time, as your messages hit the right spot at the right time for the right audience, you can reasonably expect that the reputation of your brand will grow. Potential customers are far more likely to come away with a favorable impression of any brand offering high-quality material.

Plagiarism-free content helps build a positive social media presence.

Social media networks are one of the most powerful ways to engage with your target audience. Social networking offers your company a venue to post videos, hold meetings, and get real-time feedback. Moreover, social media channels push new leads to your website. They are an effective platform for building genuine partnerships with your client base.

Much of the power of social media networks, however, is fueled by excellent content production. The immediacy of feedback allows you to dive deeper quickly and make adjustments to your message on the fly. You might only hit so many eyeballs with a Tweet or Facebook status update, but if your content is original and engaging, you’ll gain more views through link-sharing.

Publishing original content helps builds your brand.

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to help you raise brand awareness, and you don’t want to do anything to detract from your efforts. Consistently publishing original content is a marketing approach that achieves more than just a first-page ranking for your blog.

Original content will be more visible to prospective consumers as they search the web for products and services that are of interest to them. This is why it’s so important to find out which questions your potential customers are asking. When you publish something that meets a genuine need, it’s a shot in the arm for sales, yes, but also a boost to the credibility of your brand.

What are some strategies for avoiding the temptation to plagiarize?

1. Modify existing content.

You shouldn’t plagiarize, obviously, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, either. Start by searching for content similar to what you are trying to write. If you’ve ever read something online and thought to yourself, “I could do better,” well, now’s your chance.

The hardest part of writing can be coming up with ideas. Reading existing material will help you clarify what it is you are trying to say and can be useful for developing a bulleted outline of the points you wish to address.

Coming up with marketing content that is plagiarism-free is much easier when you write to an outline. Read what others have said, make notes where you have something different to say, and focus on bringing your own unique perspective to the topic at hand.

Write to your own individual context. Don’t try to please everyone — that’s impossible — but do speak to your core constituency in a way that’s winsome and informative. If you can do so without denigrating your competitors in any way (or even mentioning them by name) so much the better.

2. Feel free to use quotes, as long as they are properly attributed.

There are times when any author — experienced or otherwise — can find it difficult to paraphrase a piece of material. This is where knowing how and when to quote comes in handy.

When you quote someone else, make sure you give proper attribution to the original source. You might need to link to another resource to demonstrate its validity. You might even need to provide footnotes if you use several sources in the same post. Whatever you do, make it obvious that you are treating the original source with respect and good intentions.

If someone else has said something perfectly, maybe you shouldn’t try to improve on it with your own paraphrase.

3. Consider using a paraphrasing tool to keep your content free of plagiarism.

If you’re still struggling to say something in your own words — it happens! — check out some of the paraphrasing tools now available. These online tools can be used to paraphrase content to help you create unique, plagiarism-free content for marketing.

Especially if you’re a relatively new writer, you may find this tip for producing original content helpful. Even if you need to tweak results from a paraphrasing tool, it can be much easier to edit something to your liking as opposed to coming up with all-new ideas.

Paraphrasing tools replace plagiarized words with synonyms, creating at least some difference between your writing and the source material. Some paraphrasing tools remove plagiarized content completely and replace it with unique content.

Parting Reminders

Content marketing is critical for companies of all sizes. Customers are using their smartphones to find you (or your competitors). You’ll want to leverage all of the advantages of online content marketing without shooting yourself in the foot by publishing plagiarized content.

Content marketing using original content can help you not only increase exposure but also strengthen partnerships with your leads and clients. Keep your communication efforts focused on originality, even if that means a reduction in your publication schedule.

The post Content Marketing Using Plagiarism Does More Harm Than Good appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

They need a fool-proof strategy to move ahead in 2021. A strategy that is not just built from the lessons learned in 2020 but also an improvised version that will be able to tackle the challenges that they may have to face. 

If you also aim to succeed with marketing in 2021, you must have a strategy in place. And that’s where this write-up would come in. It will help businesses craft a successful marketing strategy for 2021. So, let’s get started. 

Analyze the Past Year’s Marketing Strategy Results

Creating a new marketing strategy for 2021 doesn’t mean you start all afresh (unless you are a startup launching in 2021). Instead, analyze the past year’s digital marketing efforts and metrics before getting started for 2021. 

This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. 

Analyze the data from the past year to assess the results. Google Analytics, SEMRush, and other analysis tools can help you conduct an in-depth analysis. You need to have pointers for each effort put in, campaigns launched, and the results derived from them. 

Also, check what channels drove the most value in the past year?

Analyze each channel, be it social media, blogs, ads, outreach, link building, email marketing, and all others. Check for the marketing qualified and sales qualified leads received from each channel. 

Depending on your business goals, categorize each channel driving the most marketing qualified and sales qualified leads. This will help as a base for your next year’s marketing strategy. 

Define Current Year’s Objectives

The next thing that businesses need to define while drafting a marketing strategy is the objectives. 

• Is it sales? 
• Do you want business visibility? 
• Is your business looking to achieve more profits? 
• Do you aim to expand your business? 
• Or do you seek to expand your service horizon?

You need to know what your business goals are for the year. This is what will shape your marketing strategy. 

Once you have determined your goals and objectives for the year, it is time to analyze the multiple factors and market differentiators driving you towards that goal. 

Conduct Competitor Analysis 

The next step to take for crafting a fail-proof marketing strategy is to analyze the competitors. It means not just going by the marketing efforts they have put in but also analyzing the results. 

An in-depth competitor analysis can help discover strategies, keywords, demographics, and much more for your next marketing strategy. 

A SWOT analysis of the competitor is the way to go. Look for the following:

• Strengths of the competitor that you can also capitalize on. 
• Weaknesses of the competitors that you should avoid.
• Opportunities in the competitor landscape that you can clutch.
• Threats from competitors in regards to their digital expansion.

There are several marketing tools to analyze such data. This includes SEMRush, Quick Search, SimilarWeb, UberSuggest, and many more. Such tools can help you analyze your competitor well and use the data to shape your strategy.

Define Marketing Funnel and Channels

From the first step, you must have already shortlisted the most effective channels driving the most values for the past year. This will be very helpful in solidifying your marketing strategy for 2021.

You need to plan ahead and define the marketing funnel for the year. Any typical marketing funnel as four stages: awareness, engagement, conversion, and loyalty or advocacy (in the same order). This is the direction you need to take to draft a marketing strategy. 

Start with creating a strategy for building brand awareness. This could include social media presence, blogs, newsletters, guest posts, and much more. Once you have a presence, you can move ahead to convert those visitors. The funnel helps create a step-by-step process for getting more visitors, buyers, and advocates for your brand. 

For each phase or stage in the marketing funnel, make sure you have defined the right marketing channel. These channels are where all your promotions will happen. In order to define the right channels, you need to start by digging your data and analyzing what channels your user personas are most active on. Pick the channel that would be the right fit based on your business and offer amazing content. 

Invest in Great Marketing and Automation Tools

There are several marketing and marketing automation tools available in the market. A marketing strategy would be incomplete without using the right tools. Here are some marketing and marketing automation tools that you should use:

• Google Analytics: for analyzing the complete performance of the content and campaigns
• MailChimp: for automating email campaigns and close more leads
• HubSpot: for total marketing automation from creating and publishing to analyzing, campaigns, and email marketing
• HootSuite: for managing social media and scheduling posts across all channels
• SEMRush: for monitoring keywords, position, brand, and other things for your marketing efforts
• SharpSpring: to optimize conversions and boost sales and pass sales qualified leads forward
• KISSmetrics: for tracking, analyzing, and monitoring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts
• Google Keyword Planner: for choosing the right keywords and researching the competitor keywords

Marketing Strategy Recommendations for 2021

When it comes to marketing strategy, there are several marketing recommendations that one can use. Here are some recommendations that businesses can follow in 2021. 

• Re-check For Core Web Vitals

This is one of the latest Google updates, and businesses not optimized for this algorithm will suffer. It is imperative that businesses get their website optimized for this update or else they could be penalized and their SERP ranking might drop. 

• Revisit Your Interaction Tactics

The way businesses interact with customers is changing. A digital experience platform can be great in helping businesses increase their digital interactions. Make sure the message is consistent and is being considerate of the events around. 

• Invest In Social Media

Social media is not going anywhere. Instead, it will balloon in 2021. So, if businesses want to have a stronger impression on their visitors, connecting with them on social media is a must. 

• Optimize Site For Voice Searches

With Siri, Echo, and Alexa becoming common in every home, there will be a definite increase in voice searches. Businesses would have to optimize their content to be ranked for keywords with voice-search intent. 

Have a Marketing Plan for the Unforeseen

If 2020 taught everyone one thing, it is to be ready for the unforeseen. Everything is extremely unpredictable and the ability to pivot with the situation is what keeps a business going. Many businesses had to launch their website in a hustle. Those who afforded to bypass their digital presence had to outsource software development to be where their customers were – on digital channels. If they wanted to reach their audience even during the global lockdown, pivoting the marketing strategy to boost their web presence was imperative. 

So, coming 2021, businesses have a digital presence but they still need to have a plan of action for the unforeseeable circumstances as well. 

Innovative businesses survived the pandemic with an out-of-the-box marketing strategy. They found an opportunity even in the worldwide lockdown. This is what every business has to learn. Sometimes having a fail-proof strategy can also fail, owing to the situations around. This is why one needs to have a back-up plan or a plan for unforeseen times. 

Bottom Line: Go Digital for Successful Marketing Strategy

If we leave aside the chaos that 2020 created, it paved the way for massive digitalization for most businesses. It brought two years’ worth of digitalization in just two months. Businesses pivoted the way they marketed and sold their products and services. No wonder, 2020 became the year of digital sales.  

And this is not going to change anytime soon. Despite the vaccine, customers are still not confident to step out and make physical interactions. They are consuming more information through digital-only channels. 

The marketing strategy for 2021 would be about the end-consumers who are now on digital channels. To succeed in marketing this year would only mean strengthening the digital marketing game. 

The post How to Create a Successful Marketing Strategy appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Build and grow your community

Your website is a source of income and a perfect platform for creating a community. Building your users’ database is one of the most used affiliate marketing tools. Use your website traffic to grow your loyal society on other channels constantly:

–   Social media accounts. Redirect the audience from your website to your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by placing a “Follow us” widget or social media icons on the main page. It will help you increase your presence on social media and build a stronger relationship with your audience.

–   Newsletter. Email marketing is free advertising. Create a captivating signup form on your website and place it in a visible position. You can acquire contacts directly through lead generation (a form on your landing page, Facebook group, and so on). Offer incentives like a free product or trial in exchange for a subscription (guide, checklists, gift cards, etc.) to raise attention and stimulate people to leave their contacts. 

–   Blog. Fill your blog with valuable content to generate readers’ interest. Post the links to your blog articles on your website and social media channels. Use eye-catching headlines for your posts. We live in the click-bait era, so it’s important to attract users’ attention in this initial stage. 

Soon you will be able to monetize each platform individually. If you are not using your website to grow followers on other marketing platforms yet, start now.

2. Use affiliate links

A basic tool in partner marketing, beginners often miss affiliate links on their websites. Affiliate links connect websites and help generate income.

When choosing over a wide variety of affiliate marketing tools such as widgets and search forms, always use links. More familiar to website visitors, the link is perceived as a recommendation or call-to-action (CTA). 

In contrast, widgets require more time for users to understand all the details, while banners could be considered ads. Internet users often ignore web page zones likely to contain display ads (sometimes called “banner blindness”).

The link should be inspiring. That’s why it’s important to add a motivational call-to-action anchor to it. For example, you can use CTAs such as “learn more about car rentals,” “generate higher income with these tips,” etc.

3. Keep your audience

 Use retargeting campaigns to reach users who have interacted with your website in the past. It turns out that 97% of people who visit your site for the first time leave without buying anything. However, you can bring them back and raise your total income. 

Check out Google Ads, Facebook retargeting, and LinkedIn Ads for building retargeting campaigns. Although this form of online targeting advertising requires skills, you will be able to remind your website visitors of your products and services after they leave without buying once you have learned it. 

4. Even if you found the best, always try new

 Having tried a great number of affiliate networks, you probably chose a few that work the best. However, that does not necessarily mean you should stop. The key is to always keep it under the radar. Keep trying new affiliate platforms and tools, even though you are satisfied with current partners and total income. 

During the pandemic, travel advertisers are changing or even closing their affiliate programs. Now is a good time to review your offers and check out alternative programs on the market or more lucrative niches that you can join. 

The constant search for the best practices will keep you on board, help to know what is trending and always earn on affiliate marketing. Choosing the right affiliate program will allow you to hit the nail on the head in affiliate business from the start. 

Therefore, diversify your income sources, find advertisers with higher commissions on products you already promote and explore other niches. For example, you can apply your knowledge to parts of the travel, software, or finance industries that seem lucrative.

5. Mix the topics and niches

You can always find other related niches and earn from them. Let’s say your website is focused only on travel, but your audience might need more services. For instance, travelers from Europe to the U.S. will need an adapter for charging their devices as the outlet is different. Think ahead and offer your audience such products.

During the pandemic, many affiliates rushed to other niches that offered more views and better conversion. Online entertainment, food delivery, finances, e-commerce and healthcare are among them. While the whole economy seems to be in depression, some niches have experienced an uptick and, in all likelihood, will continue on this path, including:

• Finance and Remote Work
• Health, Fitness, and Well Being
• Household Staples and Meals
• Entertainment
• Communication Software.

Switching to a new niche or combining different ones, you can use the same platform you used to run your affiliate campaigns but broadening the scope of topics and promoting offers in a different niche. For example, you don’t have to become a food blogger to start promoting grocery and meal delivery affiliate programs in the current situation. You can simply tell your audience about your social distancing experience and share how you have coped with the problems everyone is facing. For example, food delivery service reviews may be quite valuable to your audience.

The same is true about other niches. Thus, to promote finance-related offers, you don’t necessarily need to create a content-related website and limit yourself to this niche. This is because financial well-being is one of the most topical issues and almost everyone seems interested in it, especially now.

Remember that part of your audience needs extra services and goods besides your main offers. It could be an extra source of income for you.

6. Grow your brand

You will be able to increase your income faster if you build a brand. You can use PR and get your company or yourself featured in well known publications and develop a content plan for your social media platforms. This will reduce the cost of attracting visitors. If you can keep the audience on your website rather than switch them to other platforms – go for it. Use White Label solutions or work through API. In this scenario, a user will buy a service on your platform and more likely to be back in the future. 

However, keeping users on your website is not always beneficial. In some cases sending users to advertisers’ websites could bring more sales. For example, when the purchase is expensive or your affiliate partner has a well-known and more trusted brand.

7. Think about your income in advance

When deciding which content to post on your website, choose the one you can monetize. It is clear that everything isn’t about income. However, monetization will lead you to more results than increasing traffic. You might have hundreds of visitors coming to your website every day, but traffic won’t convert into sales without the right placement of tools and links. To earn money, you need to give preference to the content you can implement to affiliate links and cause the intent to buy something. Writing itself won’t bring income unless you monetize the website with affiliate marketing or by selling your product. 

Think in advance about what you can sell through your content. Pick a product or service you want to recommend and include an affiliate link to it on your website. A commission will be paid upon a successful deal: namely, your visitor purchases the promoted product/service via your link. For example, such stories as “How to book a bus ticket in New York City” will be harder to monetize through affiliate transfer programs than “How to get to downtown from the airport.” 

Any website can make you a profit if you know how to monetize it. But don’t focus just on a high income; instead, focus on the quality of your website and use monetization methods smartly. Traffic, type of promoted product/service, and placement of the affiliate link increase monetization. 

Summary

There are many ways to boost your affiliate marketing strategy, and to increase your exposure as best you can try to combine various methods.

Always experiment, look for different options and pick the ones that work better for your audience. Try to involve versatile channels, such as social media, email marketing, webinars and others, to gain and engage with your audience. 

The post 7 Ways to Boost Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Currently, this marketing method is shaded by social media dominance. The capability of this type of marketing campaign is often ignored by marketers. Of course, social media can boost your marketing strategies and give the results you wanted. However, marketing via email can produce instant results for your business in comparison to the social networks.

Want to know how? Check out these eight reasons why marketing through email is better than social media:

1. Personalization for improved outcomes

Email messages can be personalized more than a social media post. They allow you to easily segment audiences and send them personalized messages with more specific outcomes with CTAs.

2. Segments messages to boost conversions

You can easily slice and dice your mailing list per your strategic actions based on their prior actions. Details about the emails open and links they click let you use that behavior in segmenting the audience further. This should lead to better conversion rates.

On the other hand, social media will only give you some control in demographic targeting. It’s also troublesome to track at the individual level. Even though some social media channels allow demographic segmentation, none will work like email marketing.

3. Email builds relationships and credibility

People wish to do business with those they know, admire and trust. Email offers a direct connection to the customer, making it more personal rather than social media marketing. Customers can also quickly connect with you in case of questions or concerns via email.

Also, the personal appreciation messages you send will strengthen customer relationships and open the doorways for more future business.

4. Customers favor email for promotional messages

You can send promotional offers via email based on customers’ shopping patterns with this type of marketing. Rather than just sending a generalized promotional offer, you can embrace that opportunity to send special offers for the products and services customers are interested in. Besides, you can run a permission-based promotional campaign to improve sales and keep the customers attracted to your business.

5. Email reaches more mobile consumers

Undoubtedly, the number of smartphone users increases daily. Many of them check and respond to email on their phone. Unlike building an app or SMS marketing, email marketing does not require small businesses to invest a significant amount in new technology or various software.

6. Email is more cost-efficient

Email is an inexpensive way to reach people interested in hearing from you and regularly communicate with them. Plus, whether you want to run a marketing campaign or send promotional offers, it’s relatively cheaper than advertising on social media platforms. If you can get better results at an affordable price with email, why would you spend more?

7. Seamless integration with other marketing tactics

Another top advantage of marketing through email for small businesses is that it blends well with other marketing tools. Companies can craft emails to reach a variety of goals and promote a number of other campaigns.

For instance, you can combine email marketing with a CRM system. If you are running a precise campaign and want to measure analytics, marketing through email works. On the contrary, you have to be dependent on the network you choose for social media and the facility they provide.

8. Own your email list

With your own email list, you have a direct route to potential customers and interact with them. Also, everything you communicate with them is under your control, unlike other platforms. More specifically, you need to make communications with the target audience as per the social media network’s rules, regulations, and features they provide.

Reasons to make email part of your marketing strategy include:

• Email efficiently drives more traffic to your company website

• Email helps in generating higher ROI

• It can be an effective tool to generate brand awareness

• Emails improve customers’ engagement easily and quickly

• Marketing via email is useful for testing the various strategies

If you make email part of your marketing strategy, you will have a lot more benefits than choosing social media. The most common advantages of marketing through email include owning an email list, most personalized and one-to-one communication, inexpensive, audience segmentation, and much more.

Whether to choose marketing through social media or email, it should be your decision. Nonetheless, when you want to increase brand awareness, boost sales, or retain brand-loyal customers, the power of marketing through email should not be overlooked.

The post 8 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Better Than Social Media appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

However, there’s no point in making a video just for the sake of it. Here are six common video marketing mistakes to avoid when exploring this opportunity.

Lack of Quality or Professionalism

One of the benefits of modern technology is that almost anyone can create a great looking piece of video content. However, it’s important not to make the mistake of sacrificing quality for simplicity.

Ensure that your video has the basic professional qualities: good lighting, decent sound, and decent editing. You can create great corporate promo video ads with pre-set templates and simple editing software. While businesses no longer have to spend thousands of dollars to create great videos, they should still look professionally made.

Lack of Brand Alignment

Every piece of content produced by your business should be in congruence with your brand. While hopping aboard viral trends is an effective way to expand your reach and build engagement, there’s no point in doing so if it doesn’t appeal to your target audience. Having a follower base of more than one million people doesn’t matter if none of them are interested in your products.

Ensure that each video you publish is in alignment with your brand. This approach will give you a better return on investment when creating video content.

Start by taking some time to understand your target demographic’s expectations from your brand. For example, Budweiser customers expect to see something comedic and engaging when they view a Budweiser ad. The advertisements are crafted to appeal to a specific demographic: men aged 45 and over that make less than $65,000 per year. Does this segmentation mean their video marketing doesn’t appeal to anyone else? No, but it makes it more likely that the content resonates with the people they’ve determined are most likely to consume their product.

Don’t be afraid to niche down and segment your larger customer base to create videos that appeal to subgroups as well. This exercise helps identify the potential for market expansion (as Budweiser has since attempted to do with Millennial-centric offerings). Outline the customer journey to determine how they learn about your product and how you can use a video to navigate them to a conversion.

Creating a Long Video

Long videos have a time and place in your business’ marketing plan. Video webinars and live information sessions are fantastic ways to connect with warm leads and mid-funnel prospects. However, long, drawn-out advertisements and clips aren’t practical for daily marketing efforts.

When creating a video advertisement, the quicker you can get your message across, the better. Facebook recommends videos of five to 15 seconds in length for in-stream ads and 15 seconds maximum for stand-alone promotional videos. Aim to cap your videos at 15 seconds when looking for shareability and audience reach. 

Considering the video length often leads to another question: how short is too short? If you’ve spent time scrolling through YouTube or other social media platforms, you’ve likely seen quick car advertisements that last under five seconds. These quick spots are relatively new.

The “Get a Load of Milk” campaign of 2009 revolutionized commercial length during an era where air time was still paid for in 15-second, 30-second, and 60-second segments. These ads were designed to span a mere five seconds, with eye-catching visuals and a clear, concise message. This allowed the Dairy Farmers of Canada marketing team to triple their number of video advertisements on television without tripling the cost.

There’s no clear answer for how short your video should be. Some companies may be capable of conveying an effective message in three seconds, while others need five. The key is finding the balance between duration and message quality.

Keep in mind that longer one-minute videos are a great way to showcase visually compelling product profiles and behind-the-scenes looks at your business. However, it can be a fine line between an exciting video and an infomercial. Walk that line carefully. 

Convoluting the Messaging

Keep your messaging short and precise. Know what you’re trying to convey in the limited time available, and say it clearly. Many businesses will erroneously try to pack too much information into one clip. This approach leads to information overload and leaves viewers feeling confused and overwhelmed. 

Keep in mind that a piece of video content will rarely lead to a sales conversion; they’re meant to build awareness and attract people into the sales funnel. Create a quick video that makes people want to learn more, then provide information in a more appropriate setting, such as a webinar or landing page.

Forgetting the CTA

Don’t forget to tell your audience what to do at the end of the video; otherwise, the next clip will load, and you’ll be lost in the noise. A CTA (call to action) closes the clip and tells viewers what they should do next. 

The CTA could invite them to “buy now” or “click to learn more” or “follow us on Instagram.” The message ultimately depends on your goals with the content. The important part is clarifying and communicating that goal effectively at the end of your video. Remember to make the action as simple as possible. Include a live link or button to take your viewers to the goal destination.

Not Adding a Hook

Finally, don’t forget to add a hook at the start of your video. You have two seconds to stop someone from scrolling and convince them that you’re worthy of their time. A hook could be a visually compelling opening or thumbnail or a brief preview of what’s to come later in the video. Think of this as your live-action headline. 

Learn from the mistakes of other companies who have forayed into video marketing. Avoiding these mistakes will save your business time and money.

The post 6 Common Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Until now, most companies have only relied on automation for sales and marketing. Automatic sales and marketing campaigns free up a lot of time and resources for content creation and other internal departments.

With that said, automation can do so much for your business. Just take a look at this list:

Integrations

In the digital age, your business likely uses a number of programs and online tools, not to mention the list of automation that you might be implementing soon after reading this. Wouldn’t it be great if all of those tools were built into one? While there’s no one-tool-fits-all, you can use automation to put your programs in better sync together.

Companies can use an iPaaS, or Integration Platform as a Service, to build integrations between their programs. For example, you can set up your team’s communication software to automatically upload shared files and images to your email. 

Simple steps like these save a lot of time in the long run, and can be completely customized to fit your company’s needs. Start with a few integrations and then build up as you get the hang of the process. The more tasks that can be automated, the more focus that can be diverted to larger and more complicated projects.

Payments

Humans have to keep track of a lot of bills, payments, and card information. Miss a payment because of the complicated mess of finances, and an unfortunate penalty will ensue. Automation not only makes it easier for businesses to receive payments, but for customers to keep their finances in check.

Automated payment software takes recurring payments as they are due. This is helpful for companies that work off of subscriptions, or those that provide monthly services, such as utilities for house cleaning. As long as there are sufficient funds in the account for withdrawal, the process is as simple as can be for both parties. 

More complicated payments can be automated as well. A company that uses contracts to bind sales can use digital signatures to automatically gather commitments from customers online. Set up an entire sales system this way, and deals can be signed, sealed, and delivered in no time. 

Hiring and Recruiting

The recruiting process is long and expensive. Choosing a candidate from a pool of hundreds is a daunting undertaking. Luckily for HR managers and recruiters, automation can improve this process as well.

Algorithms can scan resumes, picking out keywords, alma maters, and work history in seconds. This organizes candidates quickly and effectively, allowing recruiters to narrow down their selections as soon as resumes are submitted.

The one drawback to automatic resume scanning is that some programs rely too heavily on keywords. You could overlook an incredible candidate who simply doesn’t have the experience of your other applicants — but does have the soft skills needed to develop quickly and remain loyal to the organization. With this automation, be sure to give outputs a second glance.

Analytics

If your business isn’t incorporating data into its strategy, you’re already a step behind the competition. Data is gold in today’s business landscape, providing insights that can transform your organization into an efficiency powerhouse.

The amount of data your business produces each day is astounding. In fact, it’s practically impossible to scour through it by hand and pick out anything you can use. To take advantage of your data, you need automated tools.

Automations such as ETL tools extract data automatically. They use triggers to transform and load the information into storage systems for your viewing pleasure. Use this data to define target audiences, tweak supply chains, and even alter product prices.

Customer Service

Seventy percent of customers will stop doing business with a company due to a poor service experience. With that in mind, your customer service strategy should be important to you. The better you care for your customers, the higher your retention rates and the more referrals you’ll get.

Some large corporations run an entire office of customer service agents who field calls and messages all day. Small businesses typically can’t afford that. They can only answer questions in person or when someone is available to respond.

For companies large and small, automation can bridge the gap. Setting up a customer service bot on your website is simple. This bot can answer frequently asked questions and direct customers to the products and pages they’re looking for. This simple addition will boost your customer service around the clock.

Data Security

Bank robberies are so 1800s. Today, you need to be on the lookout for hackers and pirates that try to attack you from the inside. Digital information is extremely valuable and much easier to swipe.

Even with a dedicated IT team, your security posture could benefit from any help it can get. Automations like firewalls thwart attacks around the clock. Breach notifications can point out problems the moment they occur. 

Are you sold on automation yet? Give it a try. Start with iPaas to streamline your workflow. Then, try out automations that can revamp your strategy and security. You won’t be sorry.

The post 6 Areas Besides Sales and Marketing Where Automation Wins appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Focus on your people — all of them.

Do you have a sales superstar who brings in the numbers but doesn’t get along with the team? If so, your reliance on that person could end up costing you more than a headache.

Research published by Harvard Business School found that results achieved by toxic employees don’t offset their negative behavior, even when the toxic employee performs in the top percentile. Your company would sell more if you fired that toxic “best employee” and employed a team of average people who know how to work together.

The longer you let the bad dynamic go unchecked, the more trouble your team will have. “Behavior is contagious … we find that when a toxic person joins a team, others are more likely to behave in a toxic fashion,” says Dr. Michael Housman, co-author of the Harvard study. 

2. Show some love to the marketing team.

The sales team celebrates the final reward, but no sales department lasts long without marketers pulling in qualified leads. Align your sales and marketing teams more closely to ensure both sides do all they can to ensure mutual success.

Get your salespeople to talk to the marketing team about the questions prospects ask most frequently, then make sure the marketers deliver content that matches the need. Build a demand generation strategy that frees up your salespeople to spend more time closing and less time qualifying. When marketers and salespeople work in harmony, good things follow.

Better yet, make use of a sales coaching software to analyze effective strategies, identify areas that need improvement, and monitor progress weekly. This software uses artificial intelligence to listen to your best sales reps, learn from them, and imitate their behavior. You can think of it as a self-service training coach.

3. Appreciate your current customers more.

While nothing beats the thrill of earning a big new account, your current customers deserve love, too. Communicate more frequently with your existing clients to hear about their experiences with your products and find opportunities to upsell.

Even if you only offer one product, don’t sleep on the value of your customers as lead sources. A good relationship with a small customer could lead to a massive partnership with a new client down the road. You never know how social circles connect, but by treating everyone with respect, you can boost your word-of-mouth marketing and up your chances of earning new business.

4. Check out chatbots.

Chatbots allow prospects on your website to ask questions without the pressure of a human salesperson on the other line. Take advantage of this dynamic by using chatbots to qualify leads through your website and on social media. With a little robotic help, customers who were “just browsing” could end up speaking with a salesperson in a matter of hours.

“The decision to deploy virtual agents can be complex,” says P.V. Kannan, co-founder of AI company [24]7.ai. “Even so, we think this sort of conversational interface to companies is destined to displace the current app and web interfaces over the long term, simply because it’s faster and in many cases, better for the customer.”

5. Evaluate your products and markets.

Provide customers with options to deepen their engagement with your company before you lose momentum from your existing line of products. Your niche may be successful for now, but every niche grows more crowded over time. To maintain your position at the front of the market, you must either offer something new or offer the same value to a different group of people.

Look at your current buyer personas to find similar groups who might enjoy your products. Could someone else use your product for a different purpose? With a few small tweaks, you may discover an entirely new marketing opportunity. Regularly evaluate your best markets, and think about how you could provide more value to current and prospective fans.

6. Experiment with email.

Email is a double-edged sword for small companies. Yes, it might be your best lead source — but how many hours a week do you spend in your inbox? Try techniques like time-boxing to keep email from eating up your schedule, but also consider your copy. Could less formal emails take less time to write and boost conversions? 

“Change the length, change the focus, try sounding cheeky instead of polished,” suggests TJ Macke, who handles go-to-market strategy for sales enablement company Regie.io. Although Regie uses AI to recommend copy that’s likely to resonate with your audience, Macke makes it clear that there’s no substitute for manual experimentation.

The 2020s will be here before you know it, so don’t waste time on sales tactics that belong in the 2010s. Use this opportunity to evaluate your sales strategy and achieve your sales goals next year — and the years beyond.

The post 6 Essential Tips to Reach Your Sales Goals in 2020 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

• • Brent Leary, Master Analyst of CRM Essentials,  
  • Rieva Lesonsky, from SmallBiz Daily,
  • Laurie McCabe, co-founder at SMB Group, and Tech-analyst at Laurie McCabe, as well as,
  • Anita Campbell, publisher of Small Business Trends CEO of bizsugar.com.
    

The Path to Small Business Growth

Ramon kicked off the conversation with a key takeaway from a speech from Zoho’s CEO, Sridhar Vembu: Lot of start-ups want to go big, be the next Facebook, Google, etc. But, it’s essential to make sure you:

“Don’t forget the people who made you what you are, and make sure that you always take care of them as well as serving your new customers.”

And what do you say to people who are saying to the start-ups who are like, ‘I need outside VC. I want go big, I want to go large. How do I fund my operations if I don’t have public money? Jeff Bezos did it, why can’t I do it?’  

Anita Campbell believes in,“the power of a long-term vision. Having it and sticking with it, and not second guessing yourself. “

Higher Education & How It’s Changing

What’s more important: going to a 4 year university or learning a specific skill to get into the workforce sooner? As mentioned in a previous article, Zoho employees are no strangers to these topics – Zoho houses its’ own University, dubbed, “The Meaningful Alternative to Conventional College Education.” “Earn while you Learn”, is the middle ground that many post high school age kids have been yearning for. Zoho University prepares its’ students for the real world by teaching skills  like other tuition centre that hiring managers find attractive and companies need more of. Plus, students don’t pay any tuition – instead, they receive a stipend and after successful completion of their program, are inducted as an employee into the Zoho Corporation.

In American Society the assumption is usually that it’s necessary to go to a 4-year college to get a worthwhile job. But, is it necessary?

Reiva agreed that people have more options now and can enter the workforce with less debt, due to some of the new options available, especially since it’s not a one size fits all system.

She gave a nod to education in general, saying, “That’s the tea: You need to learn the skills.”

The panel all agreed from their personal experience as past students, and current business owners, that education should help students learn skills to bring into the workforce, making them more attractive to future employers.

Small Business Technology and Finding the Best Solutions

Brent gave us some insight into smaller businesses and their relationship with technology. He explained that there are a lot of smaller applications built specifically for small businesses. But, most of the applications do ONE thing well. Then, you end up needing a number of different applications from different vendors to get everything done. Having so many applications “…adds a layer of complexity. It makes it harder to get things done, it takes longer to get things done.”

Brent explains:

When you have the opportunity to have a platform that has a lot of functions, you don’t have to keep going in and out multiple applications building integration. It makes it easier for you to get the stuff done so that’s where […] the power is. And that is a big thing for a small business.

Words of Advice to Small Business Owners

With 1 month of 2019 already gone,what should small business owners know: Rieva’s advice to small businesses is that “you just need to pay attention.  Are you a local business? Then pay attention in your local market. What do people want? What doesn’t exist? And can you fill that niche if you’re a start-up?

Rieva Lesonsky also went to the idea of a business plan, and how to look at it so it can work better for your business.  

“What can I do today to make my business better tomorrow? Think of it like that. And just come up with some action steps that you can do now that don’t freak you out, and then do them. Don’t think about it, don’t stress about it, just actually do them.”

What are 2-3 things that can help a small business, TODAY?

Brent’s advice was focused around your business website and how to easily improve it. He explains,

“Get a tool and do an audit of your website. So there are lots of tools out there, SEMrush is one of them, but there are other ones you can use. And they’re very easy, they’ll do it automated for you. They’ll tell you what you need to fix. And every website needs to fix things.”

Another common business issue? Working on the business instead of it in. Brent Leary explains,

“If you have to think about your business, don’t bury yourself in the details. You’ll get further ahead if you spend that equivalent time thinking about your business and some goal you’ve made. “

Like Rieva said, take action today.

Didn’t catch this Facebook Live? Make sure to follow them on Facebook and set your calendar for the next one.

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Jeff Leitman and Killer Concepts

Jeff Leitman, CEO, and Founder of Killer Concepts understands the retail world and has built a company that thrives in the tough retail marketplace. His company is on the Inc. 500 list and is continuing to see growth in the world of retail.

Leitman’s start in the retail world began just after he finished college. In the late 90s and early 2000s, he worked as a buyer during the computer boom. Later, he worked in the growing field of retail supply-chain logistics. The experiences in all aspects of the retail world helped him develop his own company, Killer Concepts, in 2011.

How Killer Concepts is “Killing It” in Retail

His company does it all. They design and manufacture their own products which then transport thanks to the cheap and handy used scissor lifts for sale any manufacturer can get online. Then, they move them around the world and sell them. Leitman understands the role of being a buyer and seller and all of the operational and compliance-related steps in between. “We make it, move it, and sell it.” His insider knowledge of retail, inside and out, gives him an advantage over his competitors.

“Know What You Know”

When it comes to entering the retail marketplace, Jeff asserts that the most important thing is to, “Know what you know, and know what you don’t know.” Take advantage of what you already know about the world of business and retail. Secondly, he recommends surrounding yourself with mentors–people who know more and can share their experiences with you.

Leitman says, “the most important thing in understanding retail is to understand the numbers.”

• Start with developing products around the prices you want consumers to pay
• Know blind costs–deductions, expenses, supply-chain costs, commissions
• Know that different channels require different numbers
• Understand that retail and online channels need consistency

Over the past 16 months, Leitman and his staff have been investing in e-commerce. He is still learning, but he also had tips to share with other small business owners. He shared that everything in business is a growing process,

“You start with making the wrong decisions, and then the next time you get to make that decision, you get to make a better one.”

It’s going to be tough. Jeff shared that they are on their 6th version of their website and are still refining it. You’re also going to have to spend some money to get your product in front of buyers. “Having a higher price point and higher margins means you have to have something different.” It’s going to take some trial and error and Jeff admits, “ultimately, you’ve just got to get your hands dirty.”

As a small business owner, Leitman sees himself as an investor. He recognizes that when something works he tests, learns, scales, and refines. The other part of being a business owner involves building relationships, which brings positive energy to his business and his products. There are so many hats that small business owners need to wear if they plan to be successful.

Jeff’s Guide to Retail

Leitman shared more advice for people who have yet to even build a small business, who may still be at the idea level, looking to get into the retail marketplace. He suggests that people just starting out ask good questions about their potential products. According to Jeff, the first step, “once you have your passion, your vision of your product…you’ve really got to shop the market.” Then, ask, “where are you different, how are you different, and where is the value?”

• Can you sell your product?
• Is the thought of a differentiated product realistic?
• Will buyers give up established relationships with other vendors to sell your product instead?

Leitman explained that business “isn’t always fair. There are politics involved.” So, to stay abreast of retail politics, he constantly hopes for loyalty from buyers. But, that can’t always be the case. Therefore, Jeff is always keeping his eye on the ball and maintains that “positive energy, a good plan, and an understanding of the landscape are critical to succeeding in any business.” Leitman also emphasizes that “retails starts with relationships,” and it’s important to develop good customer service by interacting with the people who are involved in buying and selling your products.

Fulfillment Logistics: To Outsource or Not?

After the idea becomes a product, logistics becomes an issue that needs thoughtful consideration. Products can be sold in brick-and-mortar locations and in the online retail marketplace. Both have pros and cons and the balances are still changing. Whatever you choose, understand that your plan will most likely change.

Jeff understands that most small businesses will use outsourcing for their logistics. Killer Concepts outsources their shipping to transportation companies like FedEx because they do not own their own trucks. But, they do their own supply-chain work and they have their own warehouse.

While Killer Concepts does most of its own logistics work, Jeff knows a few things about outsourcing logistics, because of his experience working with 3PL solutions in his younger years. Third-party logistics supply chains come in all sizes and are all over the country. They can help with:

• Filling containers when small businesses do not have enough product
• Supplying warehouse space
• Taking care of inventory
• Packing and shipping

Take Charge of Quality Control

Leitman also shared his experience with quality control, which is constantly a struggle. He advises that small business owners constantly stay involved so products are always to your standards. Small business owners need to be clear about standards. “If you can’t do it in-house, at least be very, very engaged…You have to hand-hold to set the standards, otherwise, they won’t know which standards to follow.”

Taking Quality Control into the Hiring Process

Jeff uses his own version of quality control when it comes to hiring new talent. As an executive and CEO, he said that the “happiest day…is when we hire a new person. We love growing, we love hiring new people” and “when you do it right, it’s so rewarding.” He has learned that looking at the character of the candidates he is considering allows them to be themselves. “We give them a good working environment, we trust them, and they flourish.”

What doesn’t work for Leitman is thinking he’s found the right candidate just because the candidate said one little thing that sounded good. That one little thing won’t be enough and the hiring will be disruptive. “When you get it right, it’s liberating and you know that there are people doing things the things you need to do better than you can do it because you’ve made a good hire.”

Getting Eyeballs on Your Products

Marketing is a necessity for businesses that want customer eyeballs on their products. Leitman has had a range of experiences with marketing. The one constant: he never really knows if he’s doing it the best way or not. Marketing is constant trial and throttle in the retail world, but he does understand that an important aspect involves the presentation on the shelves.

Jeff saw 1000s of products when he worked as a buyer, so he is confident that Killer Concepts has festive packaging designs. When it comes to packaging, he also knows that price point involves where the products will be placed in the store. In some cases, Killer Concepts has been lucky with its real estate inside of stores, but no matter what, the best places do come at a price.

Marketing Advice for New Businesses

“You have two decisions: Am I marketing to sell a product to you today? Or I am I marketing to build a brand and build product awareness?” Businesses that are trying to do both have to value both aspects of marketing. There is constant learning happening, especially when it comes to marketing to different price points. A $17 product requires different marketing than a product that costs $50 or $100.

Killer Concepts has outsourced marketing and Leitman always pays attention to what marketers do and say. He looks for patterns and asks questions. He continues to outsource some aspects of marketing but is doing more in-house. The goal is to get the right message on the right vehicle to customers at the right time. His marketers have found the right path with a few products but shared that, “every day is a challenge about what we are doing tomorrow. It’s a brand new challenge.”

Ask Questions and Always Strive to Learn

The biggest takeaway that small business owners can learn from Jeff Leitman is to constantly be a learner. He finds value in not being the smartest in the room. His value comes in asking questions so that he can understand at his level. “The more you can understand, the better decisions you’re going to make.”

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Who is Animoto?

           Animoto is a web-based company aimed to empower small businesses and individuals who are looking to branch out and work towards using video to better their business. Animoto uses a collection of tools and experience to make it simple for people with a small budget and no experience in this type of marketing or with little time to do it for themselves.        

By providing easy to use templates, called storyboards, that users can drag and drop their content into, Animoto makes video marketing easy for the average business owner. Someone who is less familiar with the most up to date technology can even use these templates to create a professional and appealing video for their business.

Animoto has been in business for about a decade. With over 100 employees who work to video production services, the diverse background and experience that Animoto offers are truly unparalleled. The experience and diversity is what has allowed Animoto to be successful in providing these tools for small businesses.

How can video really help your business?

           Video truly amplifies what already works for you in your current setting. There is nothing really new to adding video to your repertoire of marketing strategy other than enhancing what you already do. With the business world shifting to be more supportive of small business as well as the increasing audience, video could be a more powerful advertising and marketing tool than ever.

        Video can be used for a number of things to promote and advertise your business. Whether an informational clip, a testimonial, product demos, or even recaps of an event a business hosted, Animoto can help to create a video that packages this information in a clean and a video deposition to use for marketing.

To the Nay-Sayers       

Some people are still not on board with branching out into something new. People actually see video as being a newer form of communication and marketing, but this is not true. Video has been around for quite some time, the platform on which the video is used is just newer and more innovative. Video is perhaps the most quickly growing form of communication, but it has been around nonetheless.

Video vs. Social Media

        With nearly every social media platform having an option for live video, you may question why video marketing would be the better route to take over these live options. This is largely in part due to the ability to cross over platforms and to generalize your audience. Each social platform has an unofficial yet unique atmosphere, so each and every live video would have to be adapted to fit the platform.

Rather than the stress of a live feed (we’ve all been there – some of us are still there, not wanting to be in front of the camera), video marketing streamlines your information, can still use a clip or two that you put together, but can also simplify your approach so that it isn’t choppy or overwhelming for the viewer. One of the worst things someone can do when making a video is providing too much information that the main ideas get bogged down in the overabundance of detail.

Social media can also be trickier to navigate. Depending on the platform as well as the direct audience, a live video could be ignored or overlooked. A well-placed video with the right frequency of occurrence could prove more successful than an occasional live video.

Tips for making video work for you

Some ways that small business owners could focus on to make video work for what they need could include the following:

1. Make the first few seconds eye-catching – in a world of scrolling, make sure the initial clip captures the viewer’s attention so that they watch the entire video and are wrapped into the message being provided in your video.
2. Use what already works for you, and use the video tool to enhance and optimize this area of your business. For example, if you host a blog about your business, you can create a small teasing video that draws the viewer in to read the blog and then ultimately learn about the business.
3. If you already have popular images or phrases, use them! Go ahead and turn your most viewed things into these videos so that you may continue to grab that attention that these images and phrases have already done.

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Improve the customer experience

Many small businesses use data capture tools to better understand and subsequently meet the demands of their customers. Analyzing customer behavior and paying attention to reviews and feedback allows businesses to modify their presence online and alter products and services to best suit the marketplace. There are many secrets to good customer service, and one of those is using what you learn about customers to cater to their wants and needs and improve the shoppers experience.

Refine the marketing strategy

Contextualized data allows businesses to grasp how consumers engage with and respond to marketing campaigns, then make adjustments accordingly. This will give you what you need to know to ensure you offer consumers what they want. Marketing is evolving and now focuses on personalization. Businesses today need to personalize the customer journey on websites and social platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Segmenting data effectively will allow you to market to the people who are more likely to engage with your content. Keep in mind that fewer more profitable customers is the key to growth.

Make smarter business decisions

Businesses that utilize data gathering also profit from it. A survey by Helical IT found that relying on data to make a decision instead of intuition boosts the chances of success by 79 percent. This means that the implementation of a data collection process allows a business to make decisions based on data. Once you have a system up and running, the quantity and quality of data the business will collect over the years will influence its sustainability and competitive advantage.

Boost sales

Customer behavior data is so important today. This is why your business needs to glean valuable data to better understand your customer. When you can identify your customer’s buying preferences, you will increase conversions and drive revenue.

Optimize pricing

Pricing is often a challenge when introducing products. When you price items too high, you can drive customers away. Pricing them too low can negatively impact your profit margins and even skew the customer perception.

This is why you should use data from your CRP to segment your customers by different price points. It allows you to narrow down the ideal price range based on the group’s behavior, demand and price tolerance. When you combine internal and external data points, you’ll be armed with the insights you need to determine the optimal pricing structure to maximize your sales potential.

Before the digital age, traditional one-way mass marketing communication was a thing. The customer experience and personalization didn’t really matter. However, in today’s customer-centric world, our customers expect more. By using customer data, you can learn more about the customer and use the information to better your marketing strategy and increase sales.

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Excuses to avoid making powerful videos

When speaking to people who are shy, they give me plenty of reasonable excuses why they don’t want to make videos. Of course, the number one reason is that they are shy. But, there are several other reasons why they choose not to make videos:

• They don’t like how they look
• They don’t like their voices
• They don’t know what to say on camera
• They don’t have the confidence to appear on camera

Shy People are Missing out on marketing opportunities

As an empathetic person, I understand that these reasons and many more are valid, but there are so many reasons to make videos as a way to grow your business. Check these out fivebough .If having an opportunity to grow your business with a marketing tool that works isn’t enough for you to start making videos, then maybe these reasons will get you in front of a thermal camera:

• By not doing video, you are missing out on a proven revenue stream.
• People want to hear your message, knowledge, and insight.
• The more videos you make, the easier it gets to make more videos.
• Shyness will decrease.

On top of that, it is helpful to know that video is powerful. People watch videos. Then, they watch more videos. Once you start making them, your inhibitions should decrease and you will eventually become more comfortable with the red light in front of you.

If you are still too shy to make your own videos, there is another option: you can make videos with other people! Maybe you can interview someone, so you aren’t even facing the camera. Or, you could make videos with other people in your business. You could also hire someone to be in your videos.

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How does geolocation work

Your smartphone has positioning capabilities that use RFID (radio-frequency identification). Additionally, your computer has an IP address that can be used to give your location. These positioning capabilities are known as geolocation, as they provide a location of your position on earth. Because people use their geolocation services on their smartphones, businesses have figured out how to access the information and use it to their benefit.

How we use geolocation on our smartphones

Businesses of all sizes rely on apps like Foursquare or Yelp to help customers find their locations. If you’ve ever searched for pizza near me, you’ve probably received results from Yelp and Foursquare. If you’re near businesses that use geolocation apps, they can actually send you information when you are nearby or when you walk through their doors. That information can include promotions and specials or offers and rewards.

Social sites like Foursquare, LevelUp, Ibotta, and more use geolocation and social sites to find out when their customers are nearby. Then, they can update you,

• with offers,
• provide badges,
• and suggest other places you might enjoy.

All of the information is gathered by and delivered to smartphones. Most of the apps connect through Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram.

How you can use geolocation to grow your business

If you want to use geolocation to help market and grow your business, there are a few things you can do. First, you can work with popular apps like Foursquare, Yelp, and Google Maps. This way, you can easily be found if someone is in your area. If you have the appropriate tool, you can gather data about the customers who visit your store. This could help you with future visits and potential sales.

Geolocation technology for small businesses is still developing. Currently, geolocation apps can do a few things for businesses and customers. Stores with a large online and brick-and-mortar presence use these features, but small businesses are beginning to access them and use them to their advantage:

• Provide location-based offers (offer coupons or
• Connect Internet shopping with brick-and-mortar stores
• Provide a customer’s location
• Push a value exchange
• Create a sales territory
• Analyze data
• Share location-based photos

Small businesses that have the financial resources could develop their own apps that use geolocation to provide offers to customers.

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Much like what newspapers, radio, and television did in the past century, the internet has transformed the way brands communicate with their audience. However, generating awareness and increasing sales has become increasingly competitive even with so many forms of digital media at their disposal. Businesses leveraging email marketing campaigns to promote their brand are seeing less ROI as most customer’s inboxes are flooded with spam from dozens of other companies.  In fact, 49% of emails are considered spam and only 34% of marketing emails sent in the U.S. are actually opened.

Small businesses need cost-effective solutions to reach consumers, but how can they do this without expensive digital advertising?  Mobile messaging is a largely untapped channel brands are just starting to turn to and is a great way to start a personalized interaction to reach customers, particularly for small businesses.

The Mobile Effect

With 99% of all text messages being opened and 90% of them being read within 3 minutes of receiving them, it’s interesting to see that brand marketers are just starting to explore this channel over the past few years.

To stand out this holiday season, mobile messaging can help your local business reach local customers to drive them in-store. Nowadays, consumers use their smartphone to research everything, from gift ideas to deals and coupons, hence why small businesses should consider reaching out to their customers via text message, to save them time and money in the process.  Making these deals easy for customers to share with their friends and family via text or social media is an important and easy way to grow your customer base. While it’s great to leverage text messaging to bring customers in, it’s also an excellent opportunity to deliver a personalized customer experience they won’t be able to get at a big retailer this holiday season.

The Value of Shopping Local

Supporting local businesses, particularly during the busy holiday shopping season, has become more important than ever as large corporations and e-commerce businesses are taking potential revenues out of local communities.  In 2017, more than 300,000 SMBs started selling on Amazon, but 0% of revenues went back to their local market.  It’s critical to support brick and mortar small businesses to keep communities running as those revenues and tax dollars to help fund local fire departments, parks, schools libraries and more. You can follow Butterfly Releases for more updates.

The Future of Mobile Messaging

Over the years, there have been many milestones with mobile messaging from emojis to gifs, but there’s still so much more potential for the future, particularly for brands. Today’s consumers, especially millennials, are mobile-obsessed and 89% of people always have their smartphone easily accessible. Texting is still the #1 form of communication amongst Americans younger than 50, thus, it is imperative for businesses to tap into this channel to engage with consumers.

This holiday season, small businesses don’t need to spend millions of dollars on advertising to compete with big retailers – just focus on channels where local customers are more engaged: in text messaging.

Authored By: 

Katie Wilson, Founder and CEO of TapOnIt

Digital advertising veteran Katie Wilson co-founded TapOnIt with her sister Sara Castillo in their home state of Iowa to help bring customers to small businesses while providing them with an easy way to save money.  Katie’s background in advertising and passion to serve small businesses inspired her to create TapOnIt to support local communities through simple, visual text messages.

Prior to starting the company, Katie was the Digital Advertising Director for a media company, The Quad-City Times where she built a $2 million per year revenue generating 1/2 priced deals program similar to Groupon. As the digital landscape evolved, Katie realized how important it was to preserve small-business culture in cities across America, especially as large e-commerce platforms continue to grow taking potential funds out of local communities.

Katie was named one of Editor & Publisher’s 25 Under 35 People to Watch and her digital program was named one of the top ten in the country that same year by the same publication. She has spoken at Advertising Week, DMA &Then, and other leading conferences to share her expertise on the future of mobile marketing and messaging.

The post How SMBs Are Using Texts to Engage Customers During The Holiday Shopping Season appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Emily’s Goal

Emily works to help companies tell their brand story. Her is social media marketing and creating a social presence. She also contributes to the continuing education and training of current employees and clients seeking to better their grasp on social marketing.

What is Zoho?

Zoho aims to become the primary operating system for small businesses. Offering over 40 products to help run businesses entirely from the cloud, Zoho aims to allow anyone to do business from anywhere. Many of these products also come with complementary mobile capability that even runs offline. This allows you to take your business anywhere, even where internet service is less than stellar. Once you reach a better internet connection, these products and apps allow you to sync your information to the cloud.

Email Marketing and Auto Responders

What exactly are email auto responders? Emily explains that many small businesses actually already use these when a customer buys a product or signs up for an email newsletter. That first welcome or thank you email is an auto response.

Emily mentions that if used correctly, email marketing can be incredibly efficient at pushing potential customers down the sales funnel, ultimately getting them to become a customer.

Emily tells Ramon that most companies stop there and only use the one email auto responder. She mentions that companies should easily be using three to five marketing emails each and every week. This doesn’t mean that each and every email needs to push product or sales, though. Emily explains that your first two or three emails need to focus on building a repertoire with potential customers. She explains that these could focus on related subjects that remain entirely informational.

Most customers expect to build a relationship with a business prior to signing on or buying. Instead of pitching product from the start, businesses should save the sales pitch for the fourth or fifth email. By this time, these emails are going to those people who have shown the interest in the business by clicking through three or four emails, so the sales pitch can sell them on the products or services. By using this method, you are able to build brand credibility and brand recall.

Brand Voice: How to Stay Unique

Emily explains that a small business has to be consistent in their branding from the very beginning, but especially in the very beginning.

Small businesses need to have their branding on anything and everything that goes out. Cards, emails, invoices, and anything that you send to a potential or existing client should have your branding somewhere on it.

While building your business and clientele, this helped with coherence – knowing what your company is about – and with brand recall.

How can you truly find a brand voice that works for your business? Emily thinks its ideal for a business to go with something that is uniquely them, representative of what they have to offer, and that is sustainable over time. She mentions, “Being hilarious works if you’re a hilarious person,” but offers that you have to be able to remain hilarious if that is your brand voice choice. She says that you can’t fall flat just shortly after starting or you will not have a successful brand.

Find what speaks to your company including your unique values and products, and build from there. Examine what you want your brand to say about you. Emily suggests surveying your current customers and seeing what they perceive your brand to be. If this is something you aren’t in agreement with, change it. Mold your brand into what you want others to see. If the current clientele aren’t getting the information directly from your brand, you have to change that. You can do this by using social media or blogging, but keep in mind that you have to remain consistent to the brand you hope to unfold.

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Facebook Community Boost is an initiative of Facebook to educate 1 million businesses in how better market their business using Facebook.

Sure, Facebook is educating customers who will buy billions of dollars of advertising, but we small businesses NEED and WANT easy to use and low cost solutions to drive customers to our businesses.

The all day event, opened with a keynote from Facebook executives and local elected officials. The best part was a panel discussion with Two Blind Brothers and Charleston Gourmet Burger.\

The panelists shared a few core insights in using Facebook:

1. Start with a narrow audience. Don’t target “all women” – target women in a small town, who have certain demographics or interests. From there you can expand your market.
2. Use your own lists. Take your email list, upload it to Facebook and begin to target messages to that list.
3. Test your messaging. Spend $5 or $25 and test what advertising works.

There’s so much more to using Facebook but overall it’s a powerful platform to drive new business or strengthen your brand with existing customers.

After the morning sessions we broke into workshops. Some people were experienced and some people were new to Facebook. We learned how to create effective ads, we learned how to better use Instagram and more. Overall, it was a great experience and I was very glad I went. I met great people, learned quite a bit, and now have a better idea of how to position my businesses using Facebook.

The post My Experience at a Facebook Community Boost Event appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Use Social Media to Connect with Customers and Their Values

64 percent of customers say having shared values with a company is the number one factor in winning their loyalty. Combine that with the fact that consumers spend more time than ever on mobile devices and social media, and you have a simple recipe for connecting with them.

First, identify what values go into the products or services you offer, things like quality, ease-of-use, individuality, sustainability, and enjoyability. Next, come up with creative, engaging campaigns to showcase those values on social media.

• Create short Behind-the-Scenes videos showcasing the passion you put into your business.
• Do a Fact-of-the-Day highlighting a fun detail about a product or service.
• Write a social media post about industry-trending topics and seasonal content, or simply wish everyone a good weekend.

2. Provide Top-Notch Customer Support In-Person and Online

Customers want to know that you care about their experience, no matter where they interact with you. Many small businesses get this right when it comes to face-to-face interactions, but neglect to consider online environments, such as review sites and social media. With so many consumers online now, this is a sure way not only to lose a disgruntled customer but also any potential customers who see a damaging review.

• Train employees who interact with customers in-person or over the phone on proper customer service practices.
• Assign someone you trust to be in charge of responding to negative reviews and complaints online, and follow the best practices for responding to negative reviews.

3. Engage Your Customers to Encourage Loyalty

Customer engagement takes customer service one step further. Rather than reacting to issues and problems that arise with the customer experience, you’re proactively reaching out to customers to see what they want and what you can do better. Once again, the prominence of social media gives you an easy way to do this.

• Do a poll on your business’ social media pages to see what new products or services customers would like you to add
• Ask customers to post their favorite photos of your business online and tag you—incentivize the campaign by offering up a free deal or award to a random participant

4. Implement a Loyalty Program

For many business types, a loyalty program is a perfect way to keep your customers coming back frequently, and spending more when they do. With modern digital customer engagement platforms like what SpotOn offers, it is quick and easy to set up your loyalty program that utilized mobile technology rather than old-school loyalty punch cards.

• Create different tiers of rewards, including an easy-to-achieve reward to turn first-time customers into regulars, and then more lucrative rewards for your VIP customers.
• Get creative with your rewards—in addition to offering freebies and discounts, you can devise personalized rewards, like letting a loyal customer pick a menu item or get exclusive VIP access to special events.

5. Use an Automated Platform to Do it All

As a small business entrepreneur, you probably don’t have the luxury of hiring a dedicated marketing and social media team to accomplish all the tasks above. That’s why it’s essential to take advantage of the technology available to you, such as marketing email services and social media management software.

As a company founded by small business entrepreneurs, SpotOn has done one better and created an integrated customer engagement platform that streamlines everything: social media campaigns, marketing emails, review management, and loyalty. By putting it all in one intuitive dashboard and utilizing time-saving automation tools, it allows you to effectively do the job of an entire marketing team in minutes and for a fraction of the cost.

In the end, it’s about doing whatever it takes to keep your customers happy and coming back as lifelong, loyal regulars.

Authored By:

RJ Horsley is the President of SpotOn Transact, LLC, a cutting-edge payments and software company redefining the merchant services industry. SpotOn brings together payment processing and customer engagement software along with industry-vertical software, including best-in-class POS software for restaurants. 

The post 5 Ways to Boost Customer Retention appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With 87% of online marketers using video content to improve their marketing strategy, 51% of them have claimed videos to be the best content to give you ROI.  Also, viewers retain 95% of the information you give in the form of a video as compared to 10% when reading it in a text. But the fact is, that kind of success is not very easy. Your video marketing should also be bang on! With plr videos being the superhero of marketing, you will always get back what you put forth in your video marketing strategy. Avoid any mistakes and you will be on your way in producing a video that surely captivates the world.

Without further ado, let’s get into the details of various mistakes you are likely to make in your business’s video marketing strategy, how to get rid of them and rise like a star!

How to avoid 10 common video marketing mistakes

Let’s face it! Video marketing costs money. And when you are willing to lay a budget on this marketing strategy, a mistake is something you cannot afford. Below are the most common video marketing mistakes that even experts can sometimes make.

1. Choosing the wrong partner

Today, anyone can make a video easily with just a smartphone in hand. But, is that what you want? The customers of your business might equate the quality of your video to the quality of your business. Thus, you need to consult the experts. In order to save the budget, you might either try and cut a few corners of the video, or opt for the cheapest company. But, that’s like marrying the wrong person. Embarking any of this will be a huge mistake on your side so you should consider having a partner who has gone through marketing to students training.

When your customers see your video, they should feel comfortable spending their money on your business. For that, it is important to choose the right video production partner and create a high-quality video for your business. Taking the right professional help is your first step in video marketing. If you make a mistake here, it’s a mistake that can’t be taken back!

2. Creating extra-long videos

Well, today people are either busy, or they don’t have enough patience. Probably, it is both of these. However, the shorter the video, the better it is. That is the new thumb rule in video marketing. And keeping it too long is an easy mistake for you to make. So stay away from it. Too much of anything is always boring. It is best to keep your video short, sweet and to the point. A video that lasts between 60 – 90 seconds does the best magic work in your video marketing strategy.

The longer your video, the less likely are your viewers to finish watching it. Also, ensure to put the meat first. That is, mention your key points in the beginning and cut out any irrelevant content that extends your video length. Remember, your video is not a manual, but a hook to entice your target customers in video marketing.

3. Jamming your video with messages

What would happen if you stuffed your suitcase with too many things that it can’t hold? It would burst! Now, that is a mistake you can also make in your marketing video. Don’t pack all the messages you need to convey into a single video, but instead make multiple videos for different messages in your video marketing strategy. Cramming too many messages into one video will mean that none of them was conveyed properly. This will dilute and confuse the message, making your audience unable to follow up.

Hence, stick to one video-one message format. At the end of the video, your viewers should know what you have conveyed easily. Overload of too much information in a single video might result in them losing interest in your video, or even worse, trust itself. So pace yourself, and avoid the mistake of overloading your videos.

4. Poorly branding your business

Many times, chances are that you remember a great video, but forget who produced it. A similar mistake can happen in your video marketing strategy as well. It is important to effectively brand your business in the marketing video you make. Placing your company logo, mentioning the tagline, URL etc. are essential to convey your brand identity successfully. Sometimes you might get completely wrapped up in making the video that you forget about branding aspects. Don’t make this mistake. Involve in successful branding because that is what sets you apart.

Ideal location to include your business’s branding is at the beginning of your marketing video. By doing so, the viewers will remember your video as well as your business’s name and identity. Now, brand recall is something you might not want to miss out on due to poor branding right?

5. Don’t overdo your sales pitch

How many customer support calls have you hung up on? How many promotional emails have gone into your spam? Well, quite a few numbers? The reason could have been that they were too sales-pitchy. The truth is, nobody likes the feeling of being sold to. So ensure to not make such a mistake in your video marketing.

Don’t force feed your customers about purchasing because they might not like it. Customers wander in looking for things that are beneficial to them. So, that’s what your video should be about. Empathize with their need more than pushing your product into their viewership. Sales will automatically happen then. Build a relationship with them, understand them and make them feel that you understand them. Only then dive into your sales aspect. It’s a huge mistake if otherwise!

6. Avoiding a strong CTA

“Get in touch with us”, “Click here to download our app”, “Visit our website”. Have you used anything like this at the end of your video? If you haven’t, it is more of a sin than a mistake! Without a proper closing statement or a call-to-action, you are leaving your viewers in a dilemma about what’s next. Your video might just fade into the black like that. Also, this might mean that you just lost a valuable lead, a click or a sale. You do not want that happening for sure.

So, ensure to include a strong call-to-action at the end of your video, guiding your viewers about what to do next. This closing statement is as important as the quality of the video you make. After all the hard work you did to get your target customers on your website, you do not want them going in vain just because a strong CTA didn’t exist.

7. Disregarding the usage of SEO

Now that you have made your marketing video, next big thing is to get your target customers to see your video. Earlier, video meant Youtube. But today, that is not enough. There are several video optimization tactics and techniques, that can be provided by the best SEO agency in Singapore, you need to follow if your video needs to be seen by the masses. In order to see your video rank #1 on the internet, you need to optimize it with the right keywords, right metadata and good thumbnail image. Disregarding such factors of the video SEO will be a huge mistake because those who use them will go up.

Today, video SEO is a major part of every marketer’s life. If you wish to see your video popularize and become number 1, do not ignore SEO based marketing for even a minute. The results they can bring in are remarkable.

8. Under using available platforms

Notice anybody using a device, and you are likely to find them watching a video. Video lovers are so many now. But, it is not true that the video each of them watches is on the same video hosting platform. With every other platform hosting a video to increase their business, it is important that you make use of the right platforms for your video marketing.

Earlier it was either Youtube or Facebook. But, not anymore. There are so many social media platforms and business-oriented platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. where you can upload your business video to make it go viral. Also, uploading videos on homepage or landing pages are also in trend. Taking into consideration factors such as your target audience, type of video, objective etc., you need to make your hosting platform choices.

9. Expecting instant results

It is said that great things always take time. The same applies for your video marketing strategy as well. If you are looking forward to some amazing marketing results overnight, you are more likely to be a little disappointed. Not everybody is lucky enough to get a million views for their video within hours of being uploaded.

The work does not finish once you make a video and upload it. Rather, it is after that the work actually starts for the marketing team. As a marketing individual, you need to understand that a good video marketing strategy requires time, patience and dedication to outperform competition.

10. Not using video analytics

Once you have a well-planned video marketing strategy, begin executing it. But, how do you know if it is working for your business? That’s when you need to get an analytics check done for your video marketing strategy. You can obtain information about who watches your video, what do they watch, how long do they watch, which part of the video did they watch more etc. This will give you an idea about your target customers interests which later become your leads.

Stats don’t lie. Hence, revamping your marketing strategy after a regular analytics check is always best. Not doing so will only result in you regretting about the mistake you did later on.

Final Verdict

Mistakes can happen to anybody. But, once you know that it is a mistake, you can always refrain from not committing them again. After reading this article, you know what not to do to get your video marketing strategy right. Also, keep yourself updated about the video marketing trends. Things that don’t seem like mistakes today can become catastrophic errors tomorrow. Definitely, you would not want to be a part of that. Avoid these errors and your video marketing is all set to fly high.

Koushik Marka is the founder and CEO of an explainer video production company titled Studiotale. With strong entrepreneurship and professional skills, his qualities do not end there. With expertise in Vector Illustration, 2D Animation, Motion Graphics, and Digital Marketing, he loves what he does. Apart from being a work enthusiast, his off-work preferences are playing video games and traveling.

The post 10 Video Marketing Mistakes A Good Marketer Should Avoid appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This widespread adoption of learning online has also created an opportunity for small businesses to connect with their customers in an authentic way. By utilizing video to package up your expertise, product tips, best practices and more into an online miniseries, you can offer a valuable resource to your current customers and attract new ones.

One example is Patch, a plant and garden delivery business. As an added benefit to its current customers and to get discovered by new ones, the team at Patch developed a free online course on plant care tips. By signing up for the course, Patch’s customers receive daily emails on a new lesson in the form of a helpful video. Each video is less than two minutes in length and housed on the company’s website. Many small businesses, like Patch, are experts in their industries, products or services.  And they’re using this expertise to help grow their customer base and bolster their brand reputation.

As a small business owner juggling a variety of responsibilities, the idea of creating sleek videos may feel out of reach. In reality, modern video creation tools are turnkey with a low cost of entry. These solutions, like Camtasia, allow even the most novice of users to easily create engaging and eye-catching videos with things you already have, including webinar recordings, video clips, images, and PowerPoint presentations.

Creating professional quality videos is easier and more affordable than ever. Here are five ways you can use video to help boost your sales and enhance your marketing activities.

• Get in front of the right audience.

  By registering for your online mini-course or video series, your customers are opting into receiving more content from you. This allows you to continue targeting them with relevant marketing materials, offers, and more as they move through the sales funnel.

• Learn more about your customers.

  By analyzing the top performing videos and using this youtube video editor, you’ll gain powerful insights into what resonates with your customers and what they may want to see more of in the future. For example, if a video received significantly more views, comments or shares, consider creating additional pieces of content, such as social posts, blogs, or paid ads, with the same theme.

• Increase repeat visits to your website.

  Housing your videos on a specific landing page or centralized location gives registrants a reason to continue returning to your website. Use a website traffic tool, like Google Analytics, to track where they go and spot trends.

• Reuse and recycle.

  Consider the videos you create for your online course as evergreen content. Use them elsewhere in your sales materials or marketing campaigns. Videos are also favored on newsfeeds and therefore can be helpful in breaking through the clutter on social media as well.

• Give them a reason to come back.

  Most importantly, you’re offering a valuable resource to benefit your customers. By helping them learn more about your product, sharing your expertise, or providing best practices, you’re giving them a reason to return.

Sleek and engaging videos are no longer reserved for large enterprises with equally large budgets. Thanks to modern solutions, businesses of all sizes can easily create engaging video content. If you’re looking to grow your customer base and increase purchases, consider creating an online video series.

Want more information about how visuals are changing the way we learn and work? Check out our recent study.   

By: Matt Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador, TechSmith

The post How to Use Video to Attract New Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Evolving Advertisement – Because who even reads the newspaper anymore?

Probably not you, because newspaper sales have been down 11% respectively to the previous year, which might not seem like a lot until you translate that number to 31 million weekday newspapers. How many of us still watch T.V. normally? Wait, do you mean Netflix or Hulu?  Not even close, because most people have begun to steer clear of standard cable packages altogether, relying instead on streaming services. If you do subscribe to cable, you likely DVR your favorite shows, so you fast forward through most commercials anyway, eliminating a former key source of advertisement. Traditional sources of marketing and advertising, like print and television, have had to take a backseat. Out of necessity, marketers have had to become creative to ensure their products or services are being appropriately seen through effective advertising.

Hello, “sponsored ads,” is that you? We have all seen how often pop-up ads get in our way or how strange it was that a product we viewed before is now being advertised on the side panels of our favorite sites and apps. We have become well trained in averting our eyes from these ads. We are living in a society of disengagement. If something doesn’t grasp our attention and keep it, we will continue to scroll, and scroll, and scroll.

Video Ads Slide-In

Gif or video? You tell me, but either way, video ads have become more and more common. They typically appear when we’re waiting to watch a video or when we click on a popular website. The ads pop-up and we have to watch them in order to get to our requested content. Typically, they’re brief and it’s not even worth going to another tab. But for both music and video ads, you have to pay the premium services or else you hear and see ads for just about anything. Game of Thrones or Bejeweled? Pass on both. Consider yourself lucky if they’re only audio, because many are accompanied with video in an attempt to further engage the listener and to push their product or service that much harder.

Videos in Politics

Shout out to all the politicians in HD — a deviation from typical door to door campaigning, candidates are getting down to a relatable level by using a documentary style commercials for both TV and video streaming channels. This method has become a hot commodity in campaigning to make candidates more friendly, relatable and viral. As both primaries and a new presidential election approach, seeing your fave (and least fave) candidates on video is sure to continue to grow and light up the campaign trials for years to come.

Viral Videos in Marketing

In marketing, video has significant potential to greatly change the way that businesses, well, do business. Viral videos can increase sales and product interest by leaps and bounds. If companies have a video on their landing pages, they are more likely to land a lead and a potential customer.

A Wise Investment

Video isn’t always the cheapest advertisement option, but it is fairly reasonable and can be easily done.  Video offers a high return on the investment and allows for a deeper connection with the consumer. Depending on the subject matter, a video can pull at the heartstrings of a future customer far better than text or images alone. There is a level of intimacy a truly engaging video can use to build trust.

Some say that simply adding animations into online ads can increase your productivity and success significantly. Simple advertisements are the most basic (read: cost-efficient) and easy to work with when getting started. Social media platforms also have the offered option of live video broadcasting, which can easily be a second step in adding videos into your business model. Live videos can be intimidating at first, but once you’ve established a familiarity with the camera and an engaged audience, you’ll rock the red dot.

Video Funneling

Once you’ve mastered live videos (ala Facebook & Instagram), you can venture into the realm of video funneling–hello YouTube eternity! Consider this the ultimate goal of every ad and video you’ll create. This requires more work and likely outsourcing services, but it is purely the divine intervention that will take sales from 500 to 500,000.

All in all, it is wise to think about adding video content to your online business campaigns. No matter what end of the business spectrum you may land on, odds are video and animation ads could greatly impact your success. It’s easy to be afraid of change and new technologies, but it’s important to remember that we’re in a technological world and we need to embrace technology as the new business platform.

The post Why Video Matters In Marketing appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Here are 7 tips to help you start marketing your products:

1. Know Your Customers

One of the easiest traps to fall into when you start to market a new invention is assuming that your product is for everyone. While it may reach wider audiences as time goes on, your marketing power lies in starting with a smaller customer base.

Think about the purpose of your invention. Who is the ideal customer? That is where you want to start. Begin by using marketing strategies that will target your base customer. Once you start building a following of loyal users, you will be able to expand your target range.

But remember: your original customers give the best indication of your product’s value and impact.

2. Start Narrow

Make your marketing plan specific. This ties in with knowing your customer base. Rather than trying to reach every person in a certain radius, identify specific characteristics like gender, age, occupation, interests, and send your product marketing their way.

When you start narrow, you’re able to grow a certain client base which is more likely to be a consistent and solid foundation. With an established following, your product will gain more credibility. That way, when you decide to branch out, potential customers outside of your original target group will be more interested in learning about your product.

3. Iterate, Evolve and Listen to Your Superfans

Be willing to go back to your product time and time again to see what can be improved. Your initial prototype may be the best possible version in your eyes, but once it hits the market, the people using it will offer you valuable insight into how you can enhance your product’s significance.

This is where your superfans come in. You’ll know them when you see them. As you begin marketing your product, you will attract superfans who truly believe in your product’s value and want to see it evolve in ways you may not have even thought of.

Be willing to listen to the advice of those who believe in your product and adjust accordingly.

4. Don’t Let Perfection Stop You

This is a good tip for all inventors. Perfectionism is a trait that challenges the best of us. At the end of the day, waiting for a product to be perfect before starting to market it is simply impractical.

Get your product to a testable stage and put it out there! The feedback you get from consumers is the juicy information you need to move your product closer to the perfection you seek.

5. Tell Your Story

The market is full of just about everything you can imagine. How do you make your product stand out in a crowd of similar prototypes?

Connect it to a human feeling. Tell your story!

Modern consumers don’t want to know how your product was made and what parts it includes. They want to know your personal connection to your invention. What makes you tick? Why did you feel compelled to share your product with the world? This is how you engage potential customers.

6. Get Media Attention

You can take your marketing to a whole new level if you get media attention. If you’re new to the marketing field, it may feel intimidating at first. Take small steps and start putting yourself in the position for media features.

Seek podcast opportunities. See if you can talk about your product on your local radio or news station for a few minutes. Media attention is a useful tool because it brings instant focus to your product and can lead to more traffic on your website and social media accounts.

7. Leveraging the Power of Video and Social Media

Last but not least, do not underestimate the power of social media and connecting through video. This era is all about instant gratification. People want to see the person behind the invention and feel that they’re buying from a real person.

Use video and social media to start building a personal brand.

Remember, the most important step in the marketing process is to get started!

Authored by: Cara Chatellier, reporter for Smallbiztechnology.com

The post 7 Ways Inventors Can Market Themselves (and Their Products) appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Her number one tip, and what Birchbox does so well, is that we need to create fans – raving fans.

Small business growth comes from our current customers. Selling one customers is “easy” but getting the customer to come back again and again and refer others is so important and essential.

Ask yourself, what does your brand stand for and how can we deliver an experience to our customers, way beyond the product itself.

If you do this right, your brand’s products or services will become something that they care about so much more for their lives that they can’t help but tell other people about their experiences.

In this way you not only have a customer but you now have a fan.

How to do this? Know your customer. Find out what motivates them to buy from you and why they picked you as opposed to the competition.

It doesn’t take any money to do customer research, just pick up the phone and ask five customers. Five customers is better than no customers.

The post Create Raving Fans Says Birchbox Chief Customer Officer appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Paychex regularly conducts polls to analyze the business climate. Their most recent poll can be found here. Paychex polled businesses with 500 or fewer employees regarding issues relating to human resources, finances, and customer relations. In the poll, respondents could answer on a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being completely pessimistic and 100 being totally optimistic. The overall business outlook was good, except when it comes to finding employees.

Paychex will continue to poll businesses on a trimester basis, with the most recent poll representing 500 randomly selected businesses for Summer 2018. These businesses were polled during the week of June 18 and June 27, 2018. The business outlook overall was 65/100. They felt that they were most optimistic about finding new customers, which was rated 69/100. Other optimistic ratings were about access to capital 62/10, capital investment opportunity 59/100, and the overall economy 60/100.

In the academic world, 60/100 is a D and a below-average score. But in this poll, 60 is a good number. Of course, it is not as high as 100, but it is closer to 100 than to 1, which is why it is considered an optimistic number. In the poll, businesses in the Midwestern and Southern states were more optimistic than in other areas of the country.

On the flip side, employers were not optimistic about finding new talent to fill their empty positions. They rated finding part-time or full-time employees at 31/100. Interestingly, they were notably pessimistic about finding contract or temporary employees. This rating was 16/100. There are ways to become more optimistic about finding new employees through recruitment and other “outside of the box” ideas.

According to the respondents, manufacturing businesses have the most difficulty finding qualified employees. For those companies to find skilled employees, they are turning to the schools that prepare them. They are looking for recent graduates with the skills and they are working with the schools to develop programs to train future graduates.

Some industries may have more success finding new employees, especially the restaurant and hospitality industry. They will be able to use the Shared Tip Law so employees in restaurant kitchens can also be tipped for their hard work. This will make kitchen jobs and other formerly non-tipped restaurant jobs more desirable. This new law does not apply to management and supervisory positions.

If the Business Sentiment Report shows the feelings of business owners, there is real optimism. Other than the trouble with finding hiring candidates, now might just be the time to start a new business and get in on the optimism about the economy, capital investments, and access to capital.

The post Paychex Survey Says Entrepreneurs Optimistic About Business Outlook, Ability to Find New Customers appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Instagram is not only one of the most popular social media apps, it’s the second most popular app for younger demographics, just after YouTube. Advertisers with money to spend on digital advertising can almost always find their target audience on Instagram. According to a recent survey we conducted of over 200 small to medium business owners, the companies that focused their ad spend on Instagram do so because it’s easy to use and to identify their target audience. Everybody wants to get popular on social media. Having a lot of followers on Instagram, meant a lot to some people. Want to buy instagram followers cheap, then You are in the right place.

What are some best practices?

While Instagram may not be the best platform for every company, the ones that do run Instagram campaigns typically follow these best practices:

• They have a product or service that can be displayed effectively with imagery and videos
• They utilize the many targeting capabilities available to find their target audience, such as geotargeting, demographics, and behaviors.
• They use additional data sources, such as opted-in customer lists, to create custom audiences to target for a campaign.
• They test out new features, such as in-app shopping to make online shopping easier.
• They upload multiple images for their products & services, and frequently use a service to make them more visually appealing or to animate the ads.
• They use hashtags to increase the discoverability of their campaigns.

Ingramer info helps by combining geotargeting data with custom audiences to create relevant audience segments. This enables advertisers to reach their own shoppers, as well as their competitors, increasing the effectiveness of the campaign and the efficiency of their ad budget.

Can I measure the effectiveness of advertising on Instagram?

Effectiveness of an Instagram campaign depends upon the client and their desired outcomes. They can also Buy Instagram Followers (takipci al crovu) for better instagram campaigns and better reach. From our survey results, we found that most companies strive to generate ecommerce sales directly from Instagram campaigns, or to drive in-store sales.  Additionally, many clients are simply trying to generate brand awareness, which can be measured by profile visits or more standard engagement metrics. Facebook’s reporting tools also provide a wealth of information about campaign performance, and most smart marketers will use some additional tracking parameters to track conversions from all of their digital campaigns. You always think of  how to buy likes on Instagram  no matter how hard you work the fact of the matter is this: sometimes it just takes a little push to get you over the edge, and that’s where we come in!. Think of get instagram likes from mrpopular as online advertising – and if you think the big companies out there aren’t doing it you’re wrong. Investing a little of your hard earned cash in growing your likes will result in a multitude of benefits to you. To grow your instagram traffic  you can buy Instagram followers.

What difference does a personal account or business account make?

Unless you are trying to build up a personal brand, advertisers should run their campaigns through a business account on Instagram. This allows for the campaign to take advantage of all of the targeting features and product integrations that the platform permits, whether that’s through boosted posts or stories.

I want a video ad. Is it better to be short or long?

The new IGTV format that launched in June 2018, allows for videos up to one hour to be posted.  Because this feature is so new, there is not enough data yet to confirm its effectiveness. Standard video posts may be up to one minute in length, and it’s up to the advertiser to determine what will work best for them. The Vine app proved that engaging and entertaining videos can be short and sweet and still keep a consumer’s attention. However, stories that are compelling and need more time will also resonate, as long as they capture and hold the viewer’s attention. Here you will get the best video converter software to change file formats.

Authored By: Brian Handly

Brian is currently the CEO of Reveal Mobile. He was previously a GM of Microsoft’s Online Services division and possesses more than 20 years of technical, operational and executive management experience. Brian was co-founder and CEO of Accipiter, which was acquired by aQuantive in December of 2006 followed by the acquisition of aQuantive by Microsoft in 2007.

The post 5 Tips for Instagram Advertising for Small Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you don’t know how to market, sell, hire and manage your finances, it’s pretty tough to run a business, you will most likely need help from a company like the Ypick Seo Agency in order to take your business to the next level. 

Black and Latino businesses, who make up many in these underserved communities, often have it just a bit tougher than other ethnicities, for a variety of reasons.

Facebook is partnering with the National Urban League  to spread more educational opportunities to 13 cities across the United States. Digital marketing is one of the best ways that a small businesses can spread the word about their businesses and Facebook is one of the dominant platforms to make that happen.

Sure, Facebook makes its money through businesses buying ads on Facebook, but if they don’t know how to harness the basics of digital marketing they’re not going to have successful businesses and won’t be future Facebook customers.

Two other organizations, providing great education to small business owners are – SCORE, Small Business Development Centers

Here’s an FAQ which explains the partnership:

Q. What are you announcing?
A. From 1-3 August we will host Facebook Community Boost in Columbus, Ohio. There we will announce partnerships with Columbus State Community College and our first national partnership with the National Urban League (NUL) as we work towards our goal to train 1M people and small businesses by 2020. Sheryl Sandberg, who will keynote the FCB main-stage, will also speak to the NUL partnership at a fireside chat with Urban League president, Marc Morial, at NUL’s annual conference, in Columbus, Ohio.

National Urban League Partnership: Facebook will offer in-person trainings followed by online support at 13 NUL locations in 2019.

Hubs are Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Houston, TX; Jacksonville, FL; Kansas City, MO; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; New Orleans, LA; Philadelphia, PA & Washington, D.C.)

The NUL will also join us as a national advisor to help us create more opportunities for small businesses from underserved communities as we work toward our 2020 goal.

Columbus State Community College Partnership: We’re working with CSCC to establish a Digital Marketing program so students can have access to digital marketing and social media strategy courses.

Q. What type of training will small businesses receive through the NUL partnership?

A. Small business participants at the NUL entrepreneurship hubs will receive trainings similar to what we’ve been offering business across the country (through our Boost Your Business Program) including the most up-to-date tools, insights, and best practices for growing your business on Facebook and Instagram.

Tools you can use: Learn about the tools available (Business Pages, Messenger, Instagram and more!) to help you connect with customers, manage your digital presence, and grow your business.

Ads you can create: Whether you want to increase conversions on your website, drive more people into your store, build awareness of your brand, or something else – advertising on Facebook and Instagram can help you achieve your unique business goals.

Ways to be creative: Behind every business is a story. Learn how to tell yours on Facebook and Instagram with just a phone, creative apps, and great lighting! Every business can create beautiful content and we’ll show you how.

Q. Why only 13 National Urban League hubs? Why not more?

A. These 13 hubs are tied most closely to the National Urban League’s Small Business Matters initiatives to offer support to small business entrepreneurs. This is just the beginning and we look forward to even more opportunities to offer resources, support and training to communities across the US.

Q: Why is Columbus not one of the partner cities?

A: We’re starting our work with the 13 cities that have entrepreneurship hubs that are tied most closely to the National Urban League’s Small Business Matters initiatives. We’re hoping to expand the program to more chapters in the coming months.

Q. How many African-American small businesses do you plan to train?

A. We know African-American-owned, Latino-owned and Veteran-owned businesses have had particular success on Facebook. Working with organizations like the National Urban League, who have such a strong commitment to civil rights will help ensure that we continue to reach small businesses and communities that most need support and contribute to their continued growth and health.

Q. Who is eligible for the training?

A. NUL will be marketing the trainings – those interested in participating can contact their local chapters about opportunities to participate.

Q. How many cities has Facebook visited for trainings?

A. Columbus marks the 25th city we’ve visited this year alone.

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This article is published in partnership with DesignBro, the world’s highest quality and affordable design service.

But branding can be costly. There’s a lot that goes into it, from designing a logo to marketing, and when you start adding it all up, you can end up with a six-figure number that can have you squirming in your seat. So, how can you brand on a budget? The key is putting in time, where big businesses put in money, and using the tools you already have.

We’ve compiled some different ways you could work towards branding your business, without blowing your budget.

Before you start

Before getting into the specifics of what you can do, make sure you have a clear message you’re sending, and that you know who you’re sending it to. Do your research, and spend some time in figuring out your story, what your brand is like, and what message you want to transmit.

You might also want to research your target audience. They’re the ones that need to care, so find out what makes them interested in certain things, and what doesn’t catch their eye. This way, you know what to do, and what not to do.

Another good idea is to check up on your competitors and learn a little about your industry. This might give you some ideas as to what you could do, while shedding light on what everyone else should be doing, but isn’t. That way, you can fill in that gap.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do this research, just take some time to do it yourself, and look up the best ways to locate this information. The resources online are endless, it’s just a matter of digging in.

Get the right look (logo, brand identity)

Everything associated with your company should be identifiable. This means that people should know when something comes from your company, based solely on how it looks. This is why you need a great logo, and a coherent and consistent brand identity.

There are a lot of different options for getting a logo made. The key is in finding the balance between quality and cost. Free online logo makers are best avoided as often they can lead to copyright issues and lack in quality.

If you know a freelance designer likely to give you great quality for a good deal, that’s probably the direction you should go in. But it might be a risky choice, since you’ll be fully dependent on the individual.

If you don’t know a freelancer, design contest sites offer a cheap, and quality, alternative, when done right. Design contests offer you the opportunity to receive work from designers all around the world, give feedback, receive updated versions, and take home your favorite. Just do your research and make sure you end up with a platform that is sure to give you quality. Consider DesignBro, since they invest considerably in quality control, and maintain the same price as other similar sites.

Remember to take your target audience, your competitors and your brand’s story into consideration when developing, or choosing, a logo. It should communicate your brand’s message effectively to the people you want to pull in.

Once you’ve gotten the right logo for your brand, invest some time in developing brand identity guidelines. Brand identity guidelines are where you set out the requirements for how anything coming from your business should look. In it, you should probably include:

1. Overview of your brand identity – include a couple of words to describe your brand, and perhaps a philosophy to give employees an idea of what your company stands for. This is where you ensure everyone knows what your brand stands for, and what message should be communicated.
2. Logo specifics, styles, and practices – when to use which variation of the logo, what size, etc. If you use sites like DesignBro, they can help you determine the different variations of your logos.
3. Typeface details – which font should you use for what? What should header 1’s look like, versus header 2’s?
4. Color specifications – what’s your brand’s color palette, and are there any specific times when some colors should be used instead of others?
5. Image style – what kind of images should be used on the website, or online? Think whether the images should be minimalist and with light colors, or darker and blurred? Consider adding a sort of “mood board” to inspire your employees as to your brand’s overall look.
6. Consider including corporate stationery, so your employees know when to use which stationery.

After you’ve finished up with your brand identity guidelines, you are ready to get going.

Social Media

We mentioned that the key is putting in time, and using the tools at your disposal. It’s 2018, and luckily a huge tool, social media, is free for your use. All you need to do is put in time. Create content that your target audience would like, and be consistent with your updates. Doing so will allow people to get a better idea of what your company stands for, what makes your brand different, and why they should care. The type of content you post says a lot your brand, so choose wisely. Social media marketing is a great way of getting your name out there, so invest the time and do it well, and it’s likely people will become familiar with your company.

Content Marketing / Blog

While you’re going about using social media, you might want to consider starting your own “blog” section in your website, and writing some relevant content. Write what you think your readers will be interested in, and write well. Content marketing is all about providing useful content for your audience. If it’s done well, it can create a very loyal base for your brand.

It’s also a great way to improve your position in search engines, which is likely to get you pop up on your audience’s screen. It can be time consuming, but it’s free, and if you’re consistent and producing quality content, it’s likely to reap rewards.

Email marketing

Although social media has created a storm of new marketing techniques, going a more traditional route, like email marketing isn’t a bad choice. With email marketing, you’re not subject to the influence of any algorithm, and you speak directly to your customer. Consider a newsletter, or sending articles via email from time to time. You might be surprised with the results.

Ebook

The eBook is a powerful tool in the realm of content marketing. If you combine the most useful content you’ve created, into a sort of guide, your audience is likely to be appreciative. Creating templates or worksheets to help them achieve their goals, is likely to catch their attention. Consider using this to up your email marketing techniques, by having people put in their emails to access the content.

Once again, the eBook can be really effective, and it can be free – as long as you put in the time to make it a reality.

Customer service

Great customer service is often how you keep your customers coming back. If you invest in this wisely, your customers are more likely to help you get the word out about your business by telling their friends, or giving good reviews. Plus, speaking directly with your customers is a great opportunity to better understand where you can, and should, improve and what they especially love about what you’ve created. If you prioritize customer service, you’re likely to be investing in creating the best possible reputation for your brand.

All of these different ways of branding your business were time-consuming, but completely affordable. It’s up to you to decide how you want to invest your time, but make sure you don’t underestimate the power of branding your business.

This article is published in partnership with DesignBro, the world’s highest quality and affordable design service.

The post Branding Your Business On a Budget appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Here are three digital marketing tactics that most small-businesses forget to utilize and how you can leverage them to get your business growing again.But before we begin let me tell you that whenever you are making callback to unknown number which was not received by you,You should know about him see this here it will help you.

Display and Social Remarketing

Remarketing efforts are still the number one tactic I see small-businesses leaving on the table. Remarketing is the relatively simple process of tagging site visitors and then remarketing to them based on what pages and content they may have viewed.

The two primary ways to deploy remarketing are Google Remarketing with the Google Remarketing Tag and Facebook Remarketing which utilizes Facebook’s Pixel code. Both allow you to implement better-targeted display ads across Google’s display network and targeted social media posts on Facebook and Instagram.  While the backend coding can be a little intimidating, an effective remarketing campaign, via Google Adwords or Facebook’s ad platforms, is easily managed. If your business is still not taking advantage of this tactic, reach out to an agency or freelance resource.  They can quickly set-up a remarketing plan for you, and it will be the marketing expenditure you make all year.

Developing Content That Speak’s To Your Customers

While the site content you’re providing might be helpful to your visitors, often it fails to convert because companies forget to customize their content to match the ultimate intent of your most ideal customers, the ones who are already somewhere in the conversion funnel.

Developing a comprehensive content strategy is more a case of hitting-up the right people with the right message at the right time. Too often, companies post content that is too general, thus failing to be relevant.

Take what you’ve learned about your customers’ various buying personas and figure out what the trigger points were for each.

After that, develop additional content that specifically addresses their needs and intents during the buying process (do they, for instance, need the reassurance of reading customer testimonies, reviewing detailed specifications about your products, or a thought-leadership piece that convinces then you are an active and expert participant in your space).  Through your inbound and outbound data, create some typical buyer personas and then produce content that will be especially attractive to them.

Interactive and Mobile Friendly Email Campaigns

With a growing majority of your customers now accessing your site from mobile devices, it’s essential that one of your most powerful digital marketing tools, your email marketing campaign, is also designed for mobile consumption.  Creating emails goes beyond simple responsive design, though that remains a challenge to many small companies. You must also audit your email campaigns and include more interactive features within them.

The goal is to make the user experience as frictionless as possible.

Now that they’ve opened your email, can it direct them to features or products that are of particular interest to them?  Can they browser your latest product offerings, launch a video, contact customer service and initiate a shopping cart from your email? Regardless of what your email’s original intent was.

Some Final Notes  

Before diving into any of these tactics, small businesses should be ready to commit to the following:

• Develop and grow your email marketing list. Provide potential customers opportunities to win a service each month in exchange for their contact information, or deploy customer feedback cards with a promise to get specials and discounts.
• Treat your customers like the fans of your brand you want them to be. Engage with them and encourage them to share content on Instagram and Facebook.
• Automate, automate, automate. Tools like MailChimp help you to make almost any marketing activity automated. Birthday messages, stop back in reminders, thank you for frequent visits or follow up for a “how are we doing” review.
• Commit to being consistent and ready to maintain a campaign. You can’t just go hard and heavy for three months and then die off and go silent. Any sound digital marketing campaign requires consistent and constant attention and activity.
• Organize your website in a way that allows you to identify customer segments easily and to customize the remarketing message. (i.e., If you are a restaurant, split your breakfast, lunch, and dinner messages onto separate pages to quickly identify the visiting intent of a customer. If you are a salon, separate men’s, women’s, and children’s haircut services to speak more to the scheduling and style needs of the customer.)

Christopher Mohs is a digital strategist and founder of Cora+Krist  he has been strategizing and deploying digital marketing initiatives for some of the world’s most well-known brands for over 16 years.

The post The Three Most-Overlooked Digital Marketing Hacks Small-Businesses Forget To Utilize appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC has also launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Executive Branding

Executive branding is crucial. That means your personal image on social media as an executive or a professional. It becomes a currency anywhere you go. High-profile marketing accounts are more attractive to employers. It’s only going to become more important. – Derek Broman, Discount Enterprises LLC deguns.net

2. Partner Marketing

Many B2B marketers overlook the power of leveraging partners to drive new business. Partnerships can be forged with other businesses who sell to similar customer personas, and it is a great way to drive brand awareness and increase leads from a core customer demographic. – Jeff Epstein, Ambassador

3. Mobile Optimization

B2B marketers should abandon the idea that most business owners conduct research on desktop devices. Business owners are busy and use mobile devices to find solutions anywhere, anytime. To ensure customers have a streamlined process on any device they use, content must be mobile optimized. – Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

4. Structured Data

Google will be expanding its focus on structured data, featured snippets, the Knowledge Graph and answering voice searches. You should implement structured data wherever you can today so you’re prepared, but also listen closely for any new updates, so you can get there before your competitors. – Francois de Lame, Policygenius Inc.

5. Education Marketing

Use education marketing that positions your company as a helpful resource, especially if you’re in an industry (like the legal services industry) that is riddled with unscrupulous vendors. Creating great educational content and sharing it without pushing for the sell positions our company as a partner. – Todd Richheimer, Lawfty, LLC.

6. Social Network Adoption

Most B2B marketers are focusing on channels such as webinars and events, but the focus needs to be more toward the social networks, because they are equally as powerful when it comes to generating market-qualified leads. If more B2B focus on channels that humanize them, they will be able to win big. Plus social proof is going to be everything — if people don’t know about you online, your business is dead. – Sweta Patel, Silicon Valley Startup Marketing

7. Micro to Macro

Micro moments, where customers turn to their devices to look for information, are set to reshape the online B2B marketplace. This is because an increasing number of people now make purchasing decisions after interacting with brands through multiple touch points. B2B marketers will need to anticipate probable points of contact and produce content accordingly. – Derek Robinson, Top Notch Dezigns

8. ABM Targeting

B2B marketers need to learn how to target their prospects on the same platforms as B2C marketers. B2B marketing is targeting humans, the key is to find those needles in the digital haystack. To get the targeting right and eliminate waste, they’ll need to leverage first- and third-party data to ensure their ads and content are hyper-targeted to B2B buyers. – Dan Golden, BFO (Be Found Online)

9. Artificial Intelligence

You’ve got to look at AI. Artificial intelligence is still infiltrating business, so it becomes critical to leverage it in your marketing. Understanding customer behavior, proclivities and what have you, allows marketers to streamline their efforts. Moreover, it allows decision makers to close the gap between insight and execution. – Philip Michael, New York Equity Group (NYEG)

10. 24/7 Live Chat

Live chat is no longer a nice-to-have for B2B businesses, it is a must-have. In this highly competitive world, you’ll stand out if you communicate with customers the way that they want to chat. It could be the difference between them purchasing your product or going with the competitor. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

11. Intelligent Analytics

It’s important to understand intelligent analytics and what it can do for the marketing campaigns that a B2B marketer may develop in 2018. It’s there to improve what analytics was trying to do. – Peter Daisyme, Calendar

12. Enhanced B2B Marketing Precision

The idea that marketing needs to be targeted and backed by solid data is already popular in B2B marketing, but this is also important. Rather than simply reaching out to businesses in your industry, it’s important to get more precise and seek out the companies (and specific individuals in each company) who are the best prospects for your message. – Shawn Porat, Scorely

13. Focus on a Single Vertical

When we started our B2B marketing, we were just reaching out to everyone in the local area, and we did not get very positive results. We realized that customers were looking for industry-specific capabilities, even though we were local. So we changed it this year based upon industry. Showing our customers that we have experience in their industry is providing better results. – Piyush Jain, SIMpalm

14. Amazon Entering Your Space

One of the top objectives Amazon had in 2017 was to begin expanding into the B2B space. In 2018 we will start seeing Amazon make some significant strides in reaching companies, and those of us who currently sell B2B should start taking notice. Amazon is not currently a threat to our businesses, but in 2018 they will begin to inch into our markets and we must choose to fight or join them. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

The post 14 Trends B2B Marketers Need to Become Familiar With in 2018 appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Email Outreach

Reaching out with positive messages and stories within an email or email newsletter still works exceptionally well and doesn’t cost much money. People are still shopping and seeking information, plus they like to hear festive and engaging stories, and they are sure to be checking their email in those long lines in shops. They can connect with you while they do.- Drew Hendricks, Buttercup

2. Targeted Text Messages

As long as you get customers’ permission to send them texts, this is one of the best ways to reach them. Studies reveal that people are more likely to open texts than emails, especially during a busy time like the holiday season. The key is to send them offers and content that match their interests. For example, you can text them special promotion codes that they can use to buy gifts.- Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting

3. Direct Phone Calls

As the world and the world of business have become increasingly digitized, I have come to observe that fewer and fewer people in the workplace are comfortable speaking to people over the phone. Stand out from the crowd of email marketers and engage or re-engage your customers by picking up the phone and calling them. The connection will be more meaningful and impactful.gh- Adam Mendler, Beverly Hills Chairs

4. Making Customers Smile

Everyone appreciates a good laugh or a kind gesture. The holidays are the perfect time do that. Reach out to your customers in a different way than everyone else is. Don’t be boring and typical. Make them happy, make them laugh, make them remember you because you made them feel good.- Jeff Cayley, Worldwide Cyclery

5. Facebook Advertising

Create a Facebook ad, targeted against your customer list, and remind customers why they decided to use you in the first place. Talk about the changes/improvements that you’ve made, and how much you’d like to win their business back. It’s inexpensive to target your existing customers, especially on a channel like Facebook. Regardless if the clicks are low, you’ll get plenty of impressions.- Corey Eulas, Factorial Digital

6. Clever Remarketing

Facebook retargeting is a great way to re-engage customers without spending a lot of money. All you need to do is add a retargeting pixel to your website and Facebook will create the custom audience for you. You can even narrow your list of customers you would like to retarget with Facebook’s custom audience. Google also has Dynamic Remarketing, one of the best features in Google Adwords.- Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

7. Retargeting Those Who Purchased Last Season

Create a database of customers who have purchased from you in previous holiday seasons — these are customers who showed interest in your products previously and are quick, low-hanging targets for this year’s campaign. A customer who has already sought out your products during a previous holiday season would most likely be interested in doing so again. Create this segment and reach out to them now.- Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

8. Website Optimization

Optimizing your website is a good way to ensure a successful holiday sales season. Consumers don’t have the time or the desire to wait for a site that is difficult to navigate or slow. One of the main reasons people leave sites is due to slow site loading times. Many more shoppers are using smartphone and tablets to buy items, so this is also a great time to make your site mobile-friendly.- Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

9. Team Meeting

Depending on the size of your team, it’s really important to bring everyone back up to speed on what’s going on in the company and what the goals are. Be transparent, if things are not going so well, don’t hide it, invite people to rise to the occasion to pull through for the team.- Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

10. A Relaxed Event for Target Customers

Host a relaxed event at your business and invite the customers you’d like to re-engage to a special holiday treat. It can be as inexpensive as soup and grilled cheese or hot chocolate and cookies. However, the thought will go a long way with your customers, who will feel valued. Make the most of this time to get to know them better and understand their wants and needs from your business.- Jared Atchison, WPForms

11. Postcards Signed by Your Team

Every holiday, we gather the list of customers from the last 12 months, including those who bought during the previous holidays, and write handwritten “thank you” notes. It costs about $1/customer but has multiple benefits. First, it’s a WOW experience for them to receive an actual “thank you” in the mail. Second, it’s fun for our team to connect with old customers! – Aaron Schwartz, Passport

12. Personalized Gifts

A lot of your customers are going to have a table covered in gifts from vendors, so you want yours to stand out. Think about each client and the culture of their company, and come up with something that’s unique to them instead of sending out mass amounts of the same gift. You can tier your clients and decide which ones you’d like to single out, to make the work easier on yourself.- Kevin Conner, BroadbandSearch

13. Coupons

Give them coupons to come back in the near future so they know there are still deals and bargains to be had, even after the holiday sales are over. Be sure to include some information that goes with the coupon as a double value.- Murray Newlands, Sighted

14. Client Meetings

We like to meet with our clients at the end of the year to have a casual and candid conversation centered around our customer service and product quality. In this conversation, we ask three questions: What should we start doing that we aren’t currently, what should we stop doing that we are currently, and what should we continue doing that is adding value to their business.- Jarred King, Swagger Media

The post 14 Cost-Effective Strategies to Re-Engage Your Customers End of Season appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Great Marketing Divide: Online vs. Offline

Since the inception of the internet and the introduction of social media and a plethora of other tools built to help businesses promote their services online, many companies have abandoned traditional marketing efforts. Price plays a major factor in why many have transitioned solely to online marketing. Yet, another major reason is the reach and sheer volume of people they can get their products in front of.  But as we often know, bigger (reach) is not always better. Nowadays, people are becoming more mobile when they use the internet. Moreover, over 46% of Google searches are location-based. The local community needs to know where they can fulfill their needs. For tourists, it is about them finding your establishment when they arrive, and how to know when you need an SEO company that specializes in local services.

What traditional marketing provides to businesses is a more targeted and localized reach. This is of particular importance for brick-and-mortar brands looking to capture the audience within their community. The power of advertising in local newspapers or magazines and on local radio or television integrates a brand with its local audience. Thus focusing the dollars spent on a higher value target versus casting a wide net, hoping to gain a few ideal customers.

What many savvy businesses are beginning to understand is that integrating the best of traditional marketing methods with the best of online marketing techniques into a cohesive strategy can have tremendous value and ROI.

Creating a Cohesive Online and Offline Marketing Strategy

Businesses looking to maximize their marketing efforts need to develop a cohesive strategy. A strategy that integrates their online and offline efforts to create a seamless brand experience.

According to an article from Marketing Land Notes:

“Marketers can capitalize on that feeling of a seamless brand presence to drive a stronger interaction between online and offline channels. What’s needed is a marketing system that integrates offline display promotions and print advertising with digital marketing such as paid ads, banners, and social media posts.”

It starts with driving offline audiences to online channels and conversely driving online clients to offline outlets to leverage reach and conversion. An example of this would be a radio ad that drives people to a website or a television ad that includes a social media hashtag. This type of cross-channel strategy proves highly effective since it can lead to both offline and online purchases.

How you #smallbiz can maximize its #marketing efforts with a cohesive offline and #online strategy.
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Don’t Forget Marketing 101

One thing that marketers need to keep in mind when looking to develop their online/offline marketing strategy is marketing basics. Or, what we refer to as Marketing 101. No marketing will be successful if you fail to follow simple marketing rules such as:

• Be relevant
• Create a customized experience
• Stay true to your brand
• Know which outlet works best for each part of your audience and create your ads accordingly

While many marketing basics remain the same, the methods used to promote products and services has changed dramatically. Many colleges and universities have recognized this and have created specialized programs to help educate on the changes and in ways that work for today’s busy professionals.

To find greater marketing success, take a look at your current marketing initiatives. See how you can improve your ROI by integrating your online and offline

The post How to Create an Effective and Cohesive Online and Offline Marketing Strategy with a okr coach appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

1. Ask Upfront 

I ask many of our customers during an initial conversation for a testimonial if we do a great job. Everyone will always say “yes,” so when the time comes you have a reference point of a soft commitment. Additionally, it reaffirms our commitment to put our customers first so they have a great experience. – Krish Chopra, Nurse Practitioner Clinical Rotations 

2. Be Concise 

When asking for a testimonial, no need to ramble on and on before getting to the point. Keep in mind that time is valuable, and you don’t want to annoy people with a drawn-out request. Keep things short and to the point, let them know that you value their opinion, and direct them to where they should go to write a short review, plain and simple. – Jared Brown, Hubstaff Talent 

3. Come From a Place of Gratitude, Not Pressure 

When we ask clients for a testimonial, we let them know how much it means to us. Every review has the ability to really help our small business grow and is so impactful to the company. “Your review would really mean a lot to us, we are so thankful that you’re considering it” goes a long way. – Rachel Beider, Massage Greenpoint, Massage Williamsburg 

4. Find Your Quantifier 

Explain metrics. When it comes to testimonials, you need to find a way to quantify what you did for a business to justify their spending. We live in a world where people have more information at their fingertips more than ever, and finding ways to prove we do what we do will only help our cause. – Kenny Nguyen, Big Fish Presentations 

5. Show Your Appreciation 

Tell them “thank you” for taking the time to do the testimonial and give them something after they have done it, like a discount or other promotion. Wait until after so it doesn’t seem like you are buying that testimonial.- Cynthia Johnson, Ipseity Media 

6. Offer Past Testimonials to Motivate and Guide 

It’s not always easy to get a testimonial, even from a happy client. We show them our past testimonials to motivate, as well as to make it easier on how to word the testimonials. We show them both the video and text testimonials. A video testimonial is always better. Sometimes we have to follow up several times to get it, but the client will provide it as long as you pursue it. – Piyush Jain, SIMpalm 

7. Make It Easy for Yourself 

From my experience, I think the best way to ask for testimonials is to use what people are already saying, like when your team finishes a project and the client can’t stop raving about how wonderful your team and their work is. That’s the ideal time to ask, “Would you mind if we write this down?” Obtaining outstanding testimonials is only as tough as you make it.  – Zev Herman, Superior Lighting 

8. Request a Video Testimonial 

Not everyone is comfortable giving a video testimonial, but the immense value makes it worthwhile to ask. Let them know that it doesn’t have to be long: It usually only takes a couple of minutes to give a summary of their experience. When people can see a satisfied customer talking into the camera, it’s much more persuasive than text. Let them know a written testimonial is fine as well, of course.- Shawn Porat, Scorely 

9. Make the Request Personal 

When reaching out to users for testimonials, we’ve had big success when the request comes directly from me or from our community guide and has a personal touch. Perhaps you mention their state, number of logins or some unique piece of data they’ve shared when they signed up. Aside from being more likely to get a testimonial, your customer will feel more connected with your brand. – Mark Krassner, Expectful 

10. Look for Honesty 

Many times, business owners view testimonials as a free review of their product or service, and so they tend to approach negative testimonials as detractors. The reality is, the more honest the insight from your consumer, the more constructive and helpful the testimonial is for you and your company. Testimonials should be honest, candid and help your company learn and grow. – Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

11. Know When and Where to Ask 

Know when and where to ask for a testimonial. Use a data-driven method with a platform like CLIENTpulse to know where your best and happiest customers are. Asking for a testimonial at the wrong time could sound tone deaf and hurt your relationship. Then, once you receive a testimonial, send a thank you card or do something out of the ordinary to show your appreciation. – Dan Golden, BFO (Be Found Online)

12. Have the Right Group Make the Request 

Whoever communicated with the customer last or most frequently, such as an account manager or customer support employee, should be the one requesting the testimonial. When a CEO or marketing person emails out of the blue, it seems very one-sided: You’ve never talked to them before, and the first thing you ask for is a favor. There’s no need to dilute the goodwill they’ve already naturally built with someone else. – Roger Lee, Captain401 

13. Offer Incentives for Photos 

When a testimonial is accompanied by a photo of the person who sent it, the text will have a much higher conversion rate than one without a photo. Offer incentives to people to send in testimonials along with a photograph. We offer $20 gift cards to customers who include a photo along with their testimonial and make it easy asking if we can use their Facebook profile pic.- Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors 

14. Use One of Their Online Reviews 

Ask your customer if you could publish their online review of your product on your site. Paste the review in the email to make it easy for them to remember and mention their business in the signature of the testimonial. – Jared Atchison, WPForms

15. Offer Pre-Written Testimonials for Them to Edit or Approve 

The best way to get a few testimonials is to make it easy by offering to prepare them for your customers. Reach out to a few power users or loyal customers and ask if they would be willing to provide a testimonial or approve a pre-written one. If it’s easy, they will be more inclined to help. – Christopher Swenor, East Coast Product 

The post 15 Tips Small-Business Entrepreneurs Should Keep in Mind When Asking for Testimonials appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

People lose this part of themselves when livestreaming for the first time. If you are naturally energetic, be energetic! If you are naturally informative, share insightful information. There are many types of people doing livestreams and they all have their own style. Highlight your strengths from the start and then work on masking your weaknesses later on. 

– Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers 


2. Watch Other Livestreams 

Watch as many livestreams as possible first to see what you like and don’t like so that you can either incorporate them into what you do or avoid certain things. This benchmarking can vastly improve your delivery. 

– Angela Ruth, Due 


3. Consider the Impact of Background Noises 

Setting is huge. One thing I underestimated was the amount and intensity of the sounds you can tune out in a normal office that suddenly come through like wasps in a recording. Grinding road sounds and construction can ruin a whole take. You need to be somewhere as silent as possible when you begin. 

– Adam Steele, The Magistrate 


4. Script It and Practice It 

You don’t need a full Shakespearean monologue, but you should have a well-rehearsed outline of what you want to communicate. Practice a few times with your video camera in front of you to get a good feel for what you look like and how you are conveying your message. Remember, 80% is how you say something rather than what you are actually saying. 

– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now 


5. Create an Outline 

If you’re going to livestream for the first time, it’s very important that you’re fully prepared. Have a set outline with key talking points that you’d like to address to stay on topic. There’s a lot of things that could go wrong when livestreaming, but being prepared will likely lead to a successful stream and help prevent any potential issues. 

– Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS 


6. Don’t Skimp on Technology 

Just because livestreaming removes the need for post-production editing and inherently communicates a more immediate, laidback method of communicating to an audience, don’t try to cut costs by using low-cost equipment. Professional cameras and high-quality audio equipment will easily increase the professionalism of your livestream, check this speakers to have a good sound trough all the video. 

– Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors 


7. Plan for a Longer Video 

We’ve learned that if you’re only livestreaming for five to 10 minutes, you are not likely to get a large chunk of your audience. We recommend doing content that spans from 20 to 30 minutes, as people regularly check streams in intervals and you’re more likely to catch someone in the middle of your stream (especially for those just checking their Facebook). If your content is good, they’ll rewatch it. 

– Kenny Nguyen, Big Fish Presentations 


8. Invest in a Camera or Phone Stand 

Invest in a stand for the camera or phone for a steady video recording. Second to bad audio quality is shaky, fuzzy video, which gives the viewer a headache. Also, know which format you’re streaming in and position your camera for horizontal or vertical streams appropriately. For example, Facebook Live videos are horizontal but Snap Stories and Facebook Stories tend to be vertical. 

– Adelyn Zhou, TOPBOTS 


9. Keep Practicing 

If you haven’t done it before, being on camera might feel awkward. It’s OK, you’ll figure it out. The more you do it, the easier it gets, and you’ll find out what works and what doesn’t. 

– Karl Kangur, MRR Media 


10. Go Through Some Basic Media Training 

Before livestreaming, invest some time and money into media training. Hire a professional or watch tutorials on YouTube. You want to have some idea of what you are doing before broadcasting yourself to the world! 

– Leila Lewis, Be Inspired PR 


11. Make Sure Everything Is Working Beforehand 

Test your sound and your camera. Ensure you have a reliable internet connection. Avoid making last-minute adjustments, and set everything up how you want it in advance of starting. That will help you get down to business. 

– Erik Bullen, MageMail 


12. Use the Right Lighting 

A camera, any camera (not just an SRL or mirrorless camera) needs light in order to create vivid images. Just by playing around with lights, you can change the mood of a video, which is even more pertinent in a livestream. Most livestreams look dingy and miserable (with yellow undertones), and while I stick around because the content is interesting, it’s irritating. Invest in three-point lighting. 

– Cody McLain, SupportNinja 


13. Think of It As a Conversation 

Make it fun and throw yourself into it so you come across as natural as possible. It’s easy to get nervous, but you will appear so stiff. Go with it and remind yourself that you are just having a conversation with someone you know well. 

– Cynthia Johnson, Ipseity Media 


14. Have Fun 

No one likes watching someone who is rigid and clearly reading a message. Get on camera, have fun and be yourself. People like seeing real-life, authentic faces — it allows them to relate to you even more and can inspire them in their lives. 

– Abhilash Patel, Recovery Brands 

The post 14 Important Things to Remember Before Your First Livestream appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

7. Social Media 

Social media marketing is especially cost-effective as it really only involves an investment of your time. Plus, it’s a great way to engage millennials. Respond to each and every comment and run interactive contests and polls as well. 

– Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 

8. Giveaways and Contests 

Giveaways and contests still work to engage an audience of all ages, including millennials. Offer experiences, rather than products, that millennials can take videos and photos of to share with friends over social media. They will also tag you and help generate awareness of your brand. 

– Adelyn Zhou, TOPBOTS 

9. Segmented Marketing Campaigns 

Millennials, like all generations, do not comprise a single demographic. It’s shortsighted to assume they share preferences and interests across the board. Look at the real characteristics of your actual customers instead of targeting according to age bracket. Run marketing campaigns that center on age, income level, gender and other potential variables. 

– Erik Huberman, Hawke Media 

10. Giving Back 

At our company, it’s the small, human touch points that really drive success within our client base, and most importantly our millennial staff (which represents 95% of the company). We do bi-weekly charitable “give back” sessions and volunteer with organizations like The Road Home, Ronald McDonald House, Rotary International, etc. 

– Kelly Ehlers, Ideas That Evoke 

11. Video Content 

Video is a great way to have a lot of content that is driven toward millennials. Once you become comfortable with the camera being on and your phone being at the ready to shoot some content, it can become part of a routine as normal as sending an email. To become more comfortable with this without hiring a coach, try mini-shoots daily. Editing becomes the biggest battle! 

– Matthew Capala, Search Decoder 

12. User-Generated Content 

We rely on user-generated content to reach millennials. This audience prefers to learn from their peers and doesn’t trust advertisements, so the best way to reach them is to let their peers do the talking. We do this by getting customers to create testimonials (written and video), as well as posting on social media and tagging us. This is an endorsement of our brand to all their friends. 

– Brooke Peterson, Causely 

13. Partnering With Niche Influencers 

Influencers are a great way expand your reach and connect with millennials, but many people make the mistake of trying to find influencers with a wide reach rather than a deep one. Focus on influencers in a relevant niche and prioritize high-quality content. Get specific and focused in order to stretch your dollars and efforts further. Nurture those influencer relationships and you’ll see great results. 

– Kyle Goguen, Pawstruck 

The post Want to Reach Millennials? Try These 13 Marketing Tactics appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Scrolling through a list of endless leads, reaching out to them and then trying to customize and craft a suitable follow-up are all tricky tasks. Fortunately, computer software has stepped in to save the day.

Although marketing automation has been around since the eighties, the days of sending out mass emails with a single click are gone. Today, marketing automation pools a variety of tasks into a single platform. From email, website tracking, lead scoring, social media and campaign tracking, the top marketing automation packages will do everything for you.

We’ve partnered with Incapsula to bring you some tips on how to best choose a marketing automation solution.

Finding the Right Marketing Automation Provider

Naturally, with so much choice out there, choosing the right provider requires a little knowledge and a little research. In this article, we’re going to address some issues to consider as you do your own research and find the solution that works best for you.

Budget

Although some would say that price should be lower down on the list, we think it’s important to get the most bang for your buck.

Yes, having a system that has all the bells and whistles you could ever wish for is great, but if you can’t afford it then it’s not worth blowing your budget.

Each provider will offer their own unique features and, depending on how sophisticated they are, they will have a different price tag. When you’re assessing a provider’s package, consider how essential some features are to your business and whether they’re worth the cost.

Features

Every marketing automation package, whether it’s hosted or web-based, will offer something different. However, if you really want to make a sound choice then you need to make sure it covers the following basics:

• Email Marketing – the software should handle all your email needs.
• Web Visitor Tracking – without getting an insight into your traffic, a package is useless.
• Campaign Management – make sure the software allows you to control multiple campaigns.
• Lead Management & Scoring – ranking leads and customized content based on scores is essential.
• Social Integration – beyond emails, make sure the software gives you marketing insights across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Security

When you’re dealing with a third-party software supplier in any sphere, it’s critical that you assess their security credentials.

This is especially important in marketing automation because you’re essentially giving up your business contacts and marketing capabilities to the provider you choose, and allowing them to email your database. Before you hit the buy button, make sure the provider has tested its code for vulnerabilities. According to Security Week , 121 million records were hacked in the US in 2015.

When it comes to staying safe and web application security, Incapsula suggests using a web application firewall to filter incoming code to protect against SQL injections, cross-site scripting and other potential attacks. If a provider doesn’t review its code and utilize this sort of technology, then you should avoid the provider or do it yourself.

Specificity

What is your business and how does this define your marketing strategy? Let’s assume you’re a digital marketing agency providing content to tech companies. In this instance, you’ll want a provider that offers high levels of website tracking data as well as social media integration so you can keep track of each new article’s performance.

Conversely, if you’re a health supplement supplier, then promotional emails and lead nurturing will be of more importance. Before you choose which provider you’re going to go with, make sure you understand your own needs. Once you’ve done this you can then start to select the companies that offer the best solution for these needs.

Ease of Use

Finally, after you’ve chosen a package that’s secure, has all the features you need and comes in on budget, you need to make sure it’s easy to use. Having a myriad of powerful tools at your disposal is great, but if you can’t navigate from one to the other without having to refer to the user manual then it’s not worth having.

When all is said and done, marketing automation is all about ease, efficiency and ergonomics. Each move you make should be intuitive and, more importantly, have a purpose. Therefore, if a provider doesn’t make it easy and intuitive to improve your marketing and generate more sales, it’s not one you should waste your time or budget on.

The post 5 Tips To Choosing Your Marketing Automation Provider appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

2017 Small Business Marketing Forecast

The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are growing colder, and although we may not want to acknowledge it, 2016 will soon be drawing to a close. In this article, we’re sharing a little of what 2017 holds in the way of small business marketing. It covers 10 of the trends you should look out for – and enough forewarning that you can get ahead of the game today.

Become a Super Boss

A recent Gallup poll found that only 32 percent of American workers are actively engaged at work, while the remaining workers are either not engaged or actively disengaged. You can break the trend in your business by becoming the best boss you can be – one that inspires, leads, and manages workers to be their best. This article explores several things you can do to be a better boss and encourage accountability in the workplace.

Get Going on your Mobile App Startup

The growth of mobile shows no signs of stopping, and research finds that consumers spend 85 percent of their time on smartphones in apps. Could YOU be the next big app developer? If you immediately said no because you don’t know programming and coding, we have news for you: you can indeed follow your dreams into the world of app development – just follow the tips in this article.

An End to Procrastination

It’s the beginning of the week, but if you are like most people, you have already worked a bit of procrastination into your schedule. Whether you’re actively avoiding a task or simply bombarded with other things that seem more important, procrastination can hurt your productivity and your business’s success. In this article, productivity expert Hugh Culver explains how you can lower your procrastination by blocking your time. It’s a simple time management hack that you are sure to love.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Small Business Marketing, Operations, Technology & Lifestyle appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Tips for Improving Your Likability

In this intriguing Smart Hustle interview, Ramon Ray spoke with Dave Kerpen who shared the many ways that becoming more likeable can improve your business – building trust with mentors and business colleagues, developing a company culture that empowers your employees, and listening to your customers so you know what they value and how to help them.

Click to read Dave Kerpen’s 5 Simple Rules for Being More Likable and Successful in Business

Must-Have E-commerce Tools

There are around 110,000 e-commerce stores online. How can you stand out in the crowd and grow a profitable small business? By using the right tools! This article covers six of the most important e-commerce tools that will help your online store run smoothly.

Click to read 6 Essential Tools for Every E-commerce Business

The Importance of Non-Revenue Assets

When asked what drives the value of your business, most small business owners say it is revenue, but in fact, much of the value of your business is locked up in non-revenue assets – whether it is equipment, processes, intellectual property, customers, or something else. These assets are particularly important when selling your business to a strategic buyer, so it is essential that you understand the non-revenue assets that will drive up value. This article shares three tips for doing so.

Click to read The Hidden Value of Your Business in Non-Revenue Assets

Boost Your Startup Valuation

Valuation is essential for startups because it helps build buzz and draw in potential investors and lenders. However, it is now easier than ever to start a business, so competition is fierce. This article teaches you how to guard the value of your startup with three important tips.

Click to read How to Make Waves with a Startup Valuation

At Smart Hustle, we strive to provide tips and insights on all aspects of running a business – advice specifically for small business owners.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Increase Your Likability, E-commerce Tools, and More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

What’s a small business owner to do?

If you’ve rode this roller coaster before, you have likely realized that you must take a slightly different approach depending on the season. While you always want to provide customers with a pleasant and positive experience, each season requires its own unique spin on promotions and marketing in order to lure shoppers into your store, whether physical or online.

In a recent article on The Business Journals titled How Staples Helps This Retailer Weather the Doldrums after Holiday-Sales Rush, I read about how one company uses Staples Print and Marketing Services to adapt to the seasons and give customers a positive experience.

A wise small business owner knows the value of planning in advance. Check out The Business Journals’ article to learn how a fellow business owner relies on Staples to boost sales through the holiday season and beyond. It is sure to spark some creative ideas for how your business can successfully ride the holiday sales roller coaster too.

This article was written in partnership with Staples; however, all opinions and experiences expressed are my own.

The post How to Ride Holiday Sales Through January and Beyond appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Businesses large and small love free marketing, where customers are willing and eager to sing your praises based on the positive experiences they’ve had with your company. But besides just providing great products and services, how do you drum up word-of-mouth marketing? This article explores five actionable things you can do to get more people talking about your business.

Click to read 5 Ways to Get People to Talk about Your Business

Instagram for Business

As a newer social media platform, Instagram still has many business owners scratching their heads. How exactly do you use a platform that focuses on pictures and hashtags to grow customers and awareness? The launch of “Instagram Stories” is actually opening up new marketing potential for small businesses, provided you know how to use it. This article explains what Instagram Stories is and how you can leverage it for your biz.

Click to read How to Market Your Business with Instagram Stories

Small Business Video Marketing Ideas

If you follow marketing tips, advice and news, then chances are that you run into the subject of video marketing all the time. Unfortunately, many small businesses aren’t sure where to get started. We’ve covered basic tips in other articles, but this one gives you specific videos you could create to promote your business, including new product teasers, customer feedback, and more. It is sure to give you some great ideas to help create your first marketing video.

Click to read 6 Engaging Video Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Bonus Article: Must-Have Financial Roles

As promised, we also wanted to share an informative article for business owners who feel like they already have control over their marketing – and who couldn’t use a finance lesson now and again? This article, written by finance expert Jonathan Ankney, covers the three financial roles that you must have for your small business – and what happens if one of these crucial roles is missing.

Click to read 3 Financial Roles Every Business Needs to Maximize Success

Smart Hustle readers asked for more marketing articles, and we have been happy to deliver pieces on word-of-mouth marketing, Instagram, videos and more. What other topics would you like to see us cover on Smart Hustle? See what’s available on SmartHustle.com then share your opinion over at the Smart Hustle Community.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Marketing via Word-Of-Mouth, Instagram Stories, and Videos appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

10 Biz Expert Tips on Video Marketing

Video marketing is a hot topic right now, and we know that many small business owners are eager to hop aboard the trend but are not sure how to get started. In this article, marketing expert Roberto Blake shares some of his best tips. His advice will answer all of your most frequently asked questions, including what sort of video content should you create, how to tie it in with your website and blog, and how to use video to generate leads and grow your list.

 Click to read 10 Simple and Effective Tips to Grow Your Business Using Video Marketing

Biz Expert Tips for Time Management

Do you ever feel like there are never enough hours in the day? That distractions are eating into your productivity, and you’re always a few steps behind where you’d like to be? In this article, productivity expert Hugh Culver argues that how you manage your time is tied to the stories you tell yourself about time. In a three-step process, he’ll walk you through admitting that you make up stories, changing those stories, and then making them stick so you can get more out of every workday.

Click to read Why You Need to Change Your Story About Time

Biz Expert Tips for Small Business Blogs

A blog can be the key to getting more business, closing more deals, and generating more leads. However, as a busy small business owner, you might wonder if it’s a good area to focus your efforts. In this article, biz expert Megan Totka shares three important ways that a blog can help your small business. Before you officially say “no” to blogging, you definitely need to read this article.

Click to read 3 Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit from a Business Blog

If you like biz expert articles like the ones you see above, stay tuned because Smart Hustle has been reaching out to more biz experts for contributions and we are going to start sharing at least one each week on SmartHustle.com!

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Biz Expert Tips on Video Marketing, Time Management & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Do You Need a College Degree to Start a Business?

Instead of going to college, Charles Bonfiglio went to work for a franchised automotive company right after high school. He worked his way up to becoming the top performer, then became a franchisee himself. After decades of experience in the franchise, he left to start his own company in 2007. So can experience alone set you out on the path to success or do you need a college degree? Join the discussion by checking out this article.

Click to read Do Entrepreneurs Need a College Degree? An Interview with Entrepreneur and Franchisee Charles Bonfiglio

How to Grow Through Clever Use of Content

Is content a tool for every business, or does it only work in certain industries and areas? In this interview with Julie Tupler of Diastasis Rechab, she argues that everyone, regardless of industry, can use content to grow. Julie is a nurse who focuses on one specific ailment – diastasis recti. Using a combination of books, DVDs, guides and more, she has created a booming business in this specific niche. The article explores how you too can use content to grow, even if you don’t consider yourself a writer or a videographer.

Click to read Boosting Your Biz through Content: An Interview with Julie Tupler of Diastasis Rehab

Your PR Cheat Sheet

Every business owner wants media coverage, but getting the attention of PR is another thing entirely. If you’ve ever tried to navigate the scary world of PR, this article for you. This cheat sheet covers all the basics of how to get your business in the spotlight, including developing a story, finding media contacts, writing a pitch and following up.

Click to read The Power of PR: Your Cheat Sheet to Getting Media Coverage

So what do you think? Do you need to go to college to start and run a successful business? Is content a good strategy, no matter what industry you’re in? Could adopting the right approach help you get the media coverage you’re looking for? Come contemplate these issues with us by reading the fore-mentioned SmartHustle.com articles – and if you have a comment to share, join the discussion in the Smart Hustle Community.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Do You Need a College Degree? Plus Content and PR Tips appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Establishing Culture in Your Business

Culture is what differentiates those companies where the employees love to come to work from those where the employees dread ‘punching in.’ How your employees feel about their job is then reflected down to the customers, which is why every business owner should think carefully about the kind of culture and the core values they want the business to represent. Need a little guidance? This article offers four great tips for how to improve your work environment.

Click to read How to Build a Rock Slid Company Culture

Making Analytics Work for Your Business

Business data provides valuable insights into how to improve your business, but many times, business owners collect data and then aren’t sure what to do with it. Ideally, analytics should be the driving force behind the decisions you make, and all employees should understand how to use analytics. This article will help, with four training tips that will teach your whole team how to use analytics effectively.

Click to read How to Train Your Team in Better Analytics

Upgrading the Point of Sales Experience

The point of sales is that final moment in the journey where a person officially becomes a customer. Think now to the point of sales experience in your business – does it positively add to the customer’s experience or does it hurt your chance of making a sale? This article has a valuable lesson on what not to do, then some tips for improving the experience, like upgrading your point of sales technology and empowering your sales staff.

Click to read 3 Ways to Improve the Point of Sales Experience

Business Tips for Artists

Although artists funnel their passion into their artwork, interview guest Crista Cloutier says that artists are also entrepreneurs and they must learn how to build their business if they want to be successful. An artist herself, Crista also runs a program called The Working Artist which teaches artists the business skills they need. In this interview, Crista gives tips for how people in creative industries can plan out their business and execute their marketing.

Click to read The Working Artist, Crista Cloutier, Shares Business Tips for the Creative Industries

Successful business owners know they have to pay attention to those important details, including creating a positive culture, listening to analytics, and giving customers a good point of sales experience. What little details in your business could use some TLC? Chances are you’ll find the tips and advice you need on SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Establishing Culture in Your Business, Better Analytics, & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Snapchat Announces a New Advertising Option

If millennials are your target market, you probably know about Snapchat by now. This social media platform is a hit among 18-34-year-olds, who use the platform to share pictures and videos. Snapchat has offered various advertising options for a while now, but on June 13^th, they announced a brand new option that shows promise for reaching the millennial market. This article explains your new Snapchat advertising option, and also presents an infographic full of tips on how you can use Snapchat to market your business (both organically and paid).

Click to read New Snapchat Advertising: Target Millennials with Video Ads

Pitching the Media

Another way to market your business is to get coverage in the media. Although small business owners typically don’t have the budget to hire a PR person, the DIY strategy can work when executed properly. This article shares tips on how to pitch the media, including where to pitch as well as the length and timing of your pitch.

Click to read 3 Ways to Pitch Your Small Business to the Media

Improve Your Sales with Negotiation Skills Training

Sales are the most important aspect of building a successful business. Think about it – no matter how great your marketing is, you won’t get very far if your sales team can’t seal the deal. In the days of fierce competition, your sales team must be able to build a strong argument for your product and service, but they also must be prepared to negotiate the final terms and price. This article presents six reasons why you should provide negotiation skills training to your sales team to set them up for success.

Click to read Negotiation Skills Training: Why Startups Need It

Growth Hacks to Try in Your Small Biz

Growth hacking refers to a wide range of activities spread across marketing, sales, programming, and design that help a business grow FAST. Taking examples from successful startups like Apple, Google, Dropbox, Pinterest and more, this article shows you how you can also use growth hacks like referrals, email signatures, communities, piggybacking and more in your small business.

Click to read 9 Growth Hacks from Your Favorite Startups (And How to Use Them)

What do you say – are you ready to market your business and bring your sales to the next level? Get guidance in the articles above and for more ideas and inspiration visit SmartHustle.com.

The post SH Recap – Market Your Business, Improve Your Sales, and GROW! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Smart Hustle Conference – A Must-Attend Event

Ramon Ray recently announced the 11^th Annual Smart Hustle Small Business Conference, a day-long event specifically for small business owners and entrepreneurs. On October 20, 2016, over 400 will gather to learn from some of the smartest small business minds of our time, including Peter Shankman, Joe Connolly, Gene Marks and more. The Smart Hustle Conference will feature lessons, seminars, and an exhibit of the latest small business products and services. Early bird pricing is available until August 20, so click to learn more about the event and buy your ticket.

Click to read 11^th Annual Smart Hustle Small Business Conference Launches October 20^th – NYC

B2B Marketing Mistakes

We often cover marketing from a general perspective, but if you’re a B2B business, you’ll want to check out this article that is just for you. Mobile marketing is hot right now, but it’s only effective if you do it correctly. The article covers the seven top mobile marketing mistakes that B2B businesses make – and how you can avoid them.

Click to read 7 B2B Mobile Marketing Mistakes that Chase Away Buyers

Digital Tools for Small Business

Let’s be honest – there are way too many digital tools available for the average small business owner to sort through. However, choosing the right digital tools is important to the success of your business. This article is meant to help by offering a three-step system for evaluating, choosing, and implementing digital tools (such as CRM social media managers, project management systems, etc.). If you want to cut right to the chase, Ramon also offers up his five favorite digital tools for communication and connection.

Click to read How to Choose the Right Digital Tools for Your Small Business

The Conversations You Need to Have Before You Start a Business

Starting a business is a decision that will impact the whole family, and we’ve all heard stories of families who have been torn apart, unable to withstand those hard start-up years. To ensure your family makes it through the hard times, there are several conversations you must have upfront. This article covers the three most important discussions to have before you dive into entrepreneurship.

Click to read 3 Important Family Discussions to Have Before Starting a Business

At Smart Hustle, we like to cover a range of topics including marketing, technology, lifestyle, sales, operations, finance and more. If you like staying up-to-date on these topics, then I know you will also love what we have planned for the Smart Hustle Conference! Get more information by clicking that link above, and for other information and inspiration, check out SmartHustle.com.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Smart Hustle Conference, Digital Tools for Small Business & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

This article is brought to you in partnership with Verisign, the global leader in domain names and internet security

When today’s customer wants to learn more about a business, the first place they usually turn is the Internet. This has made an online presence essential to a brand’s success. Setting up both a website and social media accounts means when customers enter search terms in Google, information about your company will appear.

But merely having an online presence isn’t enough. Studies have shown that businesses that actively engage customers can expect to grow 40 percent faster than they would if they didn’t have an online presence at all. The first step is to online success is choosing a domain name, but the work only begins there. Here are a few steps you should take to build and maintain an active online presence.

Putting Your Domain Name to Work

Once you’ve registered a domain name, you’ll likely begin immediately working to publish a winning website. But there are several different ways you can use this domain name to build your business’s online presence. Building and launching a new website that shows off your products or services is one of the most common ways. But there’s another option.

Instead of building a new website, you can actually redirect your domain to an existing website. This could be an existing platform for your business, like a WordPress or Blogger blog. However, you can also redirect a new domain name to a social media site, which can act as your business’s temporary landing page. While having both a website and social media presence that work together is ideal, sometimes new businesses can’t realistically do both in their early, more formative days.

Starting on Social Media

For any new business, social media is a great way to set up on an online presence at no cost whatsoever. Social media sites come with a built-in base of potential customers, making them the perfect outlet for testing the online waters. However, unlike your own website, you won’t have the level of control you’ll have with your own website. By registering your business’s web address and directing it to point to one of your social media accounts, you’ll be able to set up your online identity, build your brand, and market your business with a professional web address that customers can easily remember.

Of course, social media is at its best when it’s being used as a marketing tool. As soon as possible, though, brands should begin working on developing and deploying a website, which will give a brand optimum control. With so many drag-and-drop-based website development tools, businesses can create their own websites without even calling upon a design professional to help. Once a website is in place, a brand will have the benefit of a scalable online presence that can be updated as needed.

Once designed, your business’s website should serve as your central hub, providing a place for customers to go when they need information. All of your other marketing efforts should drive customers to that website to engage, learn, and, hopefully, buy. Over time, your website and social media presences will serve to complement each other, offering similar information but in different ways; At https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2019/01/how-to-create-a-customer-centric-experience.html you can learn how to take advantage of it to provide a good customer centric experience.
Your business should use its website alongside its social networking efforts to connect with customers and get the word out about the great work you’re doing.

This article was written in partnership with Verisign, the global leader in domain names and internet security. All opinions and experiences expressed are my own.

The post Social Media and Websites: How Businesses Can Get it Right appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Humans of New York photographer Brandon Stanton is using his viral fundraising prowess to help pediatric cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, reports Crains NY.

Sure, with 17.6 million Facebook users and 5.3 million Instagram followers it’s pretty “easy” to raise millions for a cause.

But there’s a lesson here for ALL of us small businesses.

Instead of trying to “sell” (or raise money” first seek to build a community, build a tribe. You do this by educating your audience and by being a publisher.

Build your email list – it’s one of the most important assets every business owner can build and nurture.

While social networks and search engines can change their discovery algorithms at well – your email – no one can touch.

The post Build A Tribe And Sales Will Follow. Learning From “Humans of New York” Photog appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you’re still looking for marketing ideas to try (and master) then this is the Smart Hustle Recap for you! Today we will be featuring a number of marketing strategies that work for small business owners, including developing a return on relationships, designing personalized products, creating a stunning business logo, and using hashtags to your benefit.

Marketing Strategies that Work #1: Return on Relationships

You have likely heard of ROI, or return on investment, but what about ROR? ROR stands for return on relationships, and in this Smart Hustle interview, Ted Rubin (who coined the phrase) will tell you what it is, how you can grow ROR through social media, and how ROR will impact your bottom line.

Click to read Ted Rubin on How to Maximize Your Return on Relationships (ROR)

Marketing Strategies that Work #2: Personalized Products

In this second Smart Hustle interview, we hear from Gustav Reyes, who has found success creating wooden rings. In addition to inspiration, the article will teach you about the benefit of creating your own niche, including personalizing the customer experience with customizable, intimate gifts that are sure to draw the customers in.

Click to read How to Pursue Your Business Dreams – An Interview with Gustav Reyes

Marketing Strategies that Work #3: Business Logo

Your business logo gives your company a visual identity. It sends a message about what your business is about, and it helps customers recognize your brand when they see it. Certain elements of the business logo, (like meaning, color, representation, design contrast, and a timeless appearance) should be planned out in advance to get the biggest impact. If you’re just starting out (or looking to rebrand with a new logo), this article has the essential design information you need.

Click to read 5 Essential Elements of an Eye-Catching and Memorable Business Logo

Marketing Strategies that Work #4: Hashtags

Hashtags were made popular on Twitter almost a decade ago, but now they are a staple of all social media sites. Used correctly, hashtags can help categorize and publicize your social media messages to reach a wider audience, but if done wrong, they can scare your followers away. If you’re still struggling with hashtags in your small business, this article offers 3 simple ways to use them effectively.

Click to read Hashtags Can Help Your Small Business Be One of the Big Guys

Marketing will always be somewhat of a mystery because it is not an exact science, but if you take the time to do your research, you can create a solid marketing plan for your small business. Explore the above articles to learn about these marketing strategies that work, and for help with other marketing and business questions, check out the Smart Hustle homepage.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Marketing Strategies That Work Including Return on Relationships, Hashtags, Logos & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How to Use Landing Pages

Landing pages are an important tool to use in the middle of your marketing funnel. They help you capture website visitor information so they become leads that you can contact – and then they help move those leads into paying customers. In this interview with Robert Nendza of LeadPages (a landing page tool), he explains how to use landing pages, detailing the process so you can replicate it in your own business. This article (and the accompanying audio interview) is sure to change the way you think and execute your marketing.

Click to read How to Build a Powerful Marketing Machine: Tips from LeadPages VP of Marketing

The Inspirational Story of the Kauffman Foundation

The Kauffman Foundation is a philanthropic organization that is devoted to the advancement of education and entrepreneurialism. As a small business owner, you may have come across the name before and even visited the website for resources like the ‘Founders School’ which provides valuable information to entrepreneurs. In this article, we get the full story of the man behind the Kauffman Foundation. In an exclusive Smart Hustle interview, Matt Pozel from the Kauffman Foundation tells the inspirational tale of Ewing Kauffman whose sales expertise and business savvy helped him earn the money to start the foundation. This is a tale that is sure to inspire and motivate your own journey.

Click to read Matt Pozel of the Kauffman Foundation Shares the Story & Legacy of Ewing Kauffman (Interview)

Stop Aiming for Perfect

Small business owners are a highly ambitious group, a fact that makes many of us prone to perfectionism. While ‘perfect’ may be the standard you have set in your business, this article explains why perfectionism can actually hurt, not help, your business. If you need convincing, this article has 5 reasons why perfectionism isn’t a good model. It also offers help to those perfectionists who have to learn how to let go.

Click to read 5 Reasons You Need to Stop Aiming for Perfect in Your Business

Knowledge, inspiration, and reality checks – that’s what we are offering you in this edition of the weekly Smart Hustle Recap. For help on your other small business issues and questions, make sure to check out the full Smart Hustle website here.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: How to Use Landing Pages, the Story behind the Kauffman Foundation, and More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Small Business Administration Interview

Maria Contreras-Sweet is the administrator of the SBA. In this interview, she is sharing information about SBA resources and the general mission of the SBA – “to amplify the voice of small business.” She also gives some small business advice and speculates about the future of global business. Take a few minutes of your day to listen to this important information.

Click to read SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet Shares How the SBA Can Help Your Small Business Succeed.

How to Make Your Marketing & Sales Work Together

In this article by Biz Expert Adrian Miller, she explains that marketing and sales should go together like peanut butter and jelly. Only when they work together can you see the results you want in your small business. Why is an integrated strategy so difficult – and what can you do to make sure they work together and you don’t waste your marketing budget? Find out in this article.

Click to read Don’t Waste More Money on Marketing.

New Social Media Marketing Option – Facebook Instant Articles

Facebook Instant Articles has been around for about a year, but up until this point it has been restricted to certain large publishers, like the New York Times. However, on April 12, 2016, the platform will open to ALL publishers – meaning that if you have a business blog, you can publish and gain new readers and followers on this platform. Normally that would be tricky to do, but there is a new WordPress plugin (also launching on April 12) that will make it super simple. In this article you can learn more and ready your business for the launch date.

Click to read Facebook Instant Articles WordPress Plugin Makes Small Businesses Reach Bigger Audiences.

Seizing Small Business Opportunities

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you need to be ready to grab unexpected opportunities when they appear. However, you also need to go out and make those opportunities happen! This article features four ways that you can prepare, thus allowing you to grab the next opportunity that falls in your lap.

Click to read When Opportunity Knocks: 4 Ways to Grab Small Business Opportunities.

This week’s Smart Hustle Roundup is full of valuable advice, including how the SBA can help your small business, how to get the most out of your marketing budget, how to take advantage of the latest Facebook marketing tool, and how to grab those important small business opportunities.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Small Business Administration Interview, How to Seize Small Business Opportunities, and More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How to Get Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Small busineses can fork over a lot of dough for marketing, but arguably the most effective type of marketing is free: word-of-mouth marketing. This article is based on an interview with Olga Kay, owner of a business that makes fun socks for millennials, called MooshWalks. Olga has successfully engaged her loyal customers and social media followers to do the marketing for her company. This article combines advice from that interview plus extra tips so you too can activate word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

Click to read Simple Ways to Get your Customers to Do Your Marketing for You.

Just in Time for Filing: Tax Tips for Small Business Owners

Small business tax filing is not something that most of us look forward to – but once again, we find ourselves nearing the deadline for 2015 tax filing. If you are still gathering your documents, you will appreciate these small business tax tips from Candace Klein of Dealstruck.

Click to read 5 Solid Tax Tips for Filing as a Small Business.

Become a Better Manager Today

When you start a small business, you inevitably throw yourself into the role of ‘manager,’ whether you are leading a small team of employees or working with freelancers online. How the manager handles employees and work situations can greatly impact the success of the business operations – and no matter how good you are, we could all stand to improve our managerial skills. This article shares advice from Michael Riley of Vayner Media – ten tips that will help you successfully lead a team of workers.

Click to read 10 Tips for Becoming a Better Manager.

Marketing, managing, tax filing – what is on your small business to-do list this week?

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Tax Tips & How to Become a Better Manager appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

SmallBizTechnology has a long history of promoting technology use among small business owners. In the years since our launch, we’ve covered small biz tech tools for just about every aspect of businesses, and we love to spread the message that leveraging technology can help you pull ahead of the competition.

Okay, you read the news everyday and follow how things are going on around the world. You go on holiday and see some beautiful hotels in other countries. But, most likely you haven’t experienced other parts of the world like Digital Nomads do. As the experience of living somewhere is very different than taking a vacation in the same place.

Luckily, all that changes when you become a digital nomad blog. You travel to any part of the world to feel how living in other countries feels like. Once you do that, you either confirm some of the many things you may have heard about a country and its people, or totally realise that all that you heard (or maybe most) are rarely true. You are given the opportunity to learn a lot of languages and live with a lot of people that will reshape how you see the world. Indeed, the Digital Nomad Lifestyle really opens your eyes to a bigger world outside the places that you already know.

Yes, we Digital Nomads work, and often work hard, sometimes harder than in an office job. But on our days off we don’t have to visit every birthday party, mow the loan, clean our houses and fix the long waiting tasks. We go and climb mountains, volcanoes, see one of the world wonders. We go and explore new cities, in my case I go and look for abandoned houses to explore. There’s a whole new world in front of your doorstep, a world which needs to be explored.

In this week’s Smart Hustle Recap we have an amazing article covering the top 50 small biz tech tools available – no more searching and wasting time trying to find out what works, this list has taken the guess work out of the equation so you can dive right into the technology that will help grow your business. Our other stories feature creative marketing ideas and tips for using market segmentation to grow your business. Check out our top Smart Hustle stories below.

50 Small Biz Tech Tools

Stop wasting time on dead ends – this list provides the ultimate small biz tech tools that have proven effective for small business owners like you. The list is broken down into:

• Productivity Tools
• Collaboration Tools
• Project and Task Management Tools
• CRM & Email Marketing Tools
• Financial Tools
• Website Design Tools
• Social Media Sharing & Management Tools
• Webinar Tools
• Video Creation & Sharing Tools
• Travel Tools
• Hiring & Outsourced Help Tools

Just choose the area you most need help with to learn about the best tools that will help you reach your goals.

Is there a ‘Right’ Kind of Marketing?

Our next story will have you rethinking the type of marketing you think is ‘right’ for your business. Each business may rely on its own type of marketing, but sometimes when you expand beyond your comfort zone you can achieve bigger results. This article has three examples from the Business Circle solutions that will jumpstart new ideas on how you can market your small business.

Market Segmentation Can Help You Grow Your Business

Segmenting your market involves looking at all the different types of customers you serve and trying to find other ways to reach them and drum up extra business. This article will give you tips on developing a strategy so you can understand your market segments and use that information to grow your business.

So which article will you explore first this week? Get more information via the links above, and for other current stories visit Smart Hustle here.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: 50 Small Biz Tech Tools & Other Hot Stories appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Valentine’s Day Marketing

If your business hasn’t done any Valentine’s Day marketing yet, you probably think it is too late to capitalize on the holiday. Not so fast! This Smart Hustle article shares ten Valentine’s Day marketing ideas that you can try at the last minute. The list includes ideas for boosting sales and customer engagement, applicable to both online and brick-and-mortar stores.

Click to read 10 Last Minute Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas

Tech Twitter Chat

Did you hear the news? Staples has recently unveiled a new feature called Staples Tech Services where you can get next day service on PCs brought to their store by noon. To explore the topic of how technology downtime impacts businesses, they are holding a tech Twitter chat on February 17, hosted by Ramon Ray and Denise O’Berry. This article will tell you everything you need to know to participate in this tech Twitter Chat – including some helpful information for those who have never participated before.

Click to read Staples #MakeMoreHappen Twitter Chat: Avoiding & Reducing Tech Downtime

Tips to Compete With – and even BEAT – Bigger Businesses

As a small business owner, you probably feel that you are at a disadvantage compared to the power and resources that your bigger business competitors have. While bigger budgets and more manpower are to their advantage, there are also several advantages that YOU hold over THEM. This article explores five key ways that you use your own small business strengths to your advantage.

Click to read 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Beat Bigger Businesses

Making Pivotal Changes in Your Business

After you’ve established your businesses, making changes can be a risky endeavor. However, if planned carefully, pivoting your business can lead to greater success. This article gives a few examples of companies that have successfully pivoted and outlines how you too can use pivoting to give your business a fresh start.

Click to read Why Your Small Business Needs to Pivot

Marketing, technology, sales – what is your business focused on at this particular moment in time? Click to explore the articles that will help you the most, and stay tuned next week for another Smart Hustle recap.

The post Smart Hustle Recap – Valentine’s Day Marketing, Upcoming Tech Twitter Chat & More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The survey involved gathering opinions from more than 1,000 small business owners from across the United States. The ten-question survey asked about small business marketing in 2016, including goals, priorities, challenges and tactics.

Results show just how tough small business marketing is. Some of the interesting findings include:

• Nearly 47 percent of small business owners handle marketing on their own. That’s a big duty for someone who already wears so many hats.
• Nearly one in five small business owners don’t plan on using digital marketing in 2016. Digital marketing includes things such as websites, social media, digital advertising and email marketing – techniques that are popular among larger businesses but harder for some small businesses to manage.
• Over 20 percent of small business owners don’t store customer and lead information at all and only 24 percent use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
• Small business owners are challenged with measuring the results of their marketing campaigns. Almost half aren’t sure if their efforts are effective, and 13.9 percent know for sure that they aren’t.

Despite these statistics, small business owners are well aware of the potential benefits of a good marketing strategy. About half will be using digital marketing in 2016 to drive sales and brand awareness, and about one in three will focus on goals such as collecting leads and retaining customers. There are many one of the top agencies in legal firm marketing that specialize in working.

The survey clearly shows how difficult small business marketing is. One potential reason is demonstrated in the following finding: “Most small businesses are still using a fairly unsophisticated digital marketing stack.” Fourty-one percent use only one or two software applications, and another 26 percent use three or four.

However, there are plenty of tech tools available for small business marketing, including tools to help manage customers and leads, tools to help measure marketing results, and tools that make specific strategies (like blogs, social media, and emails) easier to implement. Small business marketing is definitely one of the biggest challenges your company will face – it’s time to embrace the technology that will make it simpler and more effective.

The post Overwhelmed by Marketing? New Survey Shows Just How Tough Small Business Marketing Is appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Intercom

Intercom allows us to understand how our customers are using our product and to communicate with them directly in the application, thereby improving our customers’ experience and giving us valuable product feedback.
– Arjun Arora, ReTargeter

2. Conduit Mobile

Conduit Mobile (renamed Como) has a DIY mobile app builder that allows you to create your own loyalty app. You can brand the app and set up coupons and loyalty cards. Foursquare is actually a great way to build loyalty to your brand/local business. Foursquare will provide you with promotional material to showcase at your business locations.
– Gideon Kimbrell, InList

3. Smarter Remarketer

If you want to to really scale your customer loyalty program, look into Smarter Remarketer. The founder, Angel Morales, is quite possibly the most brilliant mind in online retail and his product proves it. Smarter Remarketer allows you to build detailed customer segments, score customer value and automate actions that will drive true brand loyalty.
– Matt Hunckler, Verge

4. InfusionSoft

I’ve been through several SaaS products and none can compare to InfusionSoft. There’s a reason I’ve used it for years, when often I pick up and drop so many other SaaS systems simply because they promise something flashy and fail to follow up. InfusionSoft allows me to interact with my customers intelligently.
– Rob Fulton, Matikis

5. Curebit

Curebit is one of the best customer referral and loyalty programs on the market. They’re a relatively young startup, and have a very simple-to-use program to enable brands to get their customers to share products. We find incredible value in rewarding advocates who spread the word, and Curebit makes this easy.
– Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

6. LoyaltyMatch OnDemand

LoyaltyMatch is easily integrated, has mobile apps, is customizable and has a gamification feature.
– Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

7. RelateIQ

RelateIQ is a best-in-class CRM, or as they call it “relationship intelligence” tool. I use RelateIQ to keep in touch with all of our customers. Their insights and organizational tools really make it easy to build better relationships and increase loyalty.
– Adam Lieb, Duxter

8. Loyalty Gator

Loyalty Gator offers tons of options in setting up your loyalty program to best suit your business. They offer reasonable pricing and unlimited transactions as well.
– Josh Weiss, Bluegala

9. Index

Index is a brand new, mobile-friendly tool now on the market that helps build multi-channel customer loyalty programs for online retailers.
– Rameet Chawla, Fueled

10. Pirq

Pirq has a simple, easy to use mobile app for on-the-spot punchcard loyalty programs. What makes it great is that it encourages repeat customers and it’s digitizing a concept that’s been around for ages, thus making it relatable to people.
– Andy Karuza, Brandbuddee

The post 10 Great SaaS Products for Building Customer Loyalty Programs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Gary V. on Marketing and Doing Business

You have to market and do business for the year we actually live in. Gary demonstrated this throughout his career in many ways. In 1997 he knew that computers were starting to get big. He focused his business on creating a website, doing email marketing and using Google Adwords. Nowadays what you have to do is get a gmb listing verification.  Always focusing on what is relevant at the moment has led to his success. Let the team help you develop an online marketing strategy to drive more qualified visitors to your site and convert those visitors into leads and sales.

Gary V. on Patience and Persistence 

Gary has gotten a lot of emails from entrepreneurs over the years who claim they are being patient and wonder how long until they should just throw in the towel. Basically you just have to keep at it, and don’t quit! Want some inspiration? Consider that Gary did Wine Library TV for 19 months before it was really recognized on a large scale.

Gary V. on Criticism

Before writing his new book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, Gary was looking through Amazon reviews of his first two books – getting angry about one and two star reviews. But he used that anger to fuel himself to do something better. He listened to the reviews to figure out what people were looking for, and then delivered it to them in his latest book.

Gary V. on New Trends

Although Gary started his Wine Library TV using Youtube, he let it go and ended up moving to another platform instead – a move he admits was a mistake. He did vow that he wouldn’t let the next big thing pass him by though, so when Twitter came out he recognized it as something great and decided to angel invest in it right away. And if you’re going to go into a new trend he says go ALL in. He spent hours every day when Twitter came out, just talking to people and answering their questions in order to build a following.

Gary V. on Family Business

Frustrated with your family business partners? Gary loved working with his father, currently loves working with his brother, and hopes to have the chance to work with his kids someday. “Family businesses, if you over-communicate and you care about the other person more than you care about yourself, are the single best thing you can ever do.”

Gary V. on Social Media Strategy

Social media platforms aren’t a place to just push your business out there and expect to get results. You have to create quality content that is native to the platform – for example, great pictures for Instagram, infographics for Pinterest, hashtags on Twitter, etc. You have to know who you want to reach and go to the platform where your target group is spending their time. If you know what you’re doing and understand the nuances of that particular social media platform, you can create stories about your business that are a perfect match for the platform…and that you engage with your target customers.

Gary V. on Social Media Content

Social media isn’t a place where you should run to beg for business or to brag about yourself. The point of Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is that you should GIVE, GIVE, GIVE to your followers and fans. It’s a way to gain leverage with them. When you give and keep on giving, it gives you permission down the road to ask for business. It’s all about developing the relationship with all the key components that you want in any good relationship – trust, respect and connection.

Gary V. on Entrepreneurial Entitlement

With the creation of Facebook by college student Mark Zuckerberg, now everyone thinks they can create a startup. And when they have a business they believe that they are entitled to everything that comes along with it, including customers. But you aren’t entitled to anything – you have to work for it.

Gary V. on Storytelling to Make Sales

Storytelling can help you sell a product or a service to a customer. “You have to understand what’s the commodity and what’s not. What’s not is where you need to story-tell.” And a good story WILL translate into sales.

Gary V. on Social Media for Start-Ups

The first thing you have to do is figure out who you want to reach. Narrow it down to the demographic that you want to target, and then use social media to find them. You can use Facebook ads to find that exact demographic. You can also use options like Twitter search. But you have to win new followers and fans with interesting and quality content. You could start out by running an offer, but then you’ll get the “lowest common denominator fan” – the one who is following you to just get the offer. Instead you want to find people that are interested in your topics and truly want to connect with your business. Giving them the content they want will get them in the door, and you can market to them later.

Gary V. on What Social Media Platform You Should Start With

There isn’t one place that everyone should start if they’re looking to get into social media marketing. You have to look deep into what you want to accomplish and who you want to sell to – then go where those people are. So, for example, if you want to sell to 12-18 year olds you should start on Vine, but if you want to sell to 42 year old women you should start on Pinterest or Facebook.

Gary V. on Gaining a Twitter Following

You have to work to build a loyal following. Gary V did it by spending a lot of time on his Twitter profile, then searching and finding people who were interested in wine. He then took time to answer their questions – to jump into the conversations they were having and provide information and advice. Those people began to follow him and with time the base grew.

Gary V. on Facebook

Whereas some social media platforms are best for certain things – like animated gifs on Tumblr, real life pictures on Instagram, infographics on Pinterest – Facebook gives you a lot of freedom to do what you want. One new feature he recommends is Facebook dark posts – unpublished posts that can be used to target specific groups. That way you can send relevant, targeted posts to different groups, even if they’re not fans of your site yet.

Gary V. on Social Media Tools (Hootsuite, Google Analytics, Buffer, LocalResponse, etc)

All of these tools are fine and can work for your business if there is a good match between what you need and what the tool offers. You also have to know how to use the tools properly or you’re never going to see good results. You should also weigh the tool properties to what you want to achieve. For example, Hootsuite allows you to send out your messages to all networks at a click of a button – but Gary is completely against that because he believes you have to match the content with the specific platform to get the best results.

Gary V. on Investing

Gary has made a lot of investments in the past. Some are successful (for example, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr) and some not successful. But when choosing who to invest in, he likes to “bet on the jockey, not the horse every time.” That means he likes to bet on entrepreneurs themselves – those that have the fire, the spark, the determination to succeed. One example is his investment in Birchbox, a female-owned startup that got a lot of “no”s before they got a “yes” from Gary.

Gary V. on Business Advice for Women, Minorities, etc

Being an immigrant to the US, Gary understands the difficulties certain groups face. But he boils it all down to execution. If you can execute your plan and make things happen then nobody will care. Underdogs can use their status as a motivator for the climb to success.

These are the main points from Startup Grind’s Fireside Chat interview, but if you’re hungry for more you can watch the full interview here. As you go forth, ready to try some new things in your own small business, remember the most important point – success doesn’t come easy, but if you’re willing to work hard, you may find it – just like Gary V. did.

The post Gary Vaynerchuk’s 16 Tips For Your Success In Marketing, Social Media, Entrepreneurship and More appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.