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As a small business owner, having a website is crucial to your success in today's digital age. If you don't already have a website, or if your current website is outdated or hard to use, it's time to consider investing in a new one. Here are 5 reasons why your small business needs a new website:

1. Reach a wider audience: With a website, you can easily share information about your products and services with potential customers from all over the world. This can help you expand your customer base and increase sales.

2. Improve your credibility: A professional-looking website can establish your business as an expert in your field, which can help you attract more customers and build trust with potential clients.

3. Save time and money: A website can streamline your customer service process by allowing customers to find answers to common questions on their own. This can save you time and money, so you can focus on running your business.

4. Stay competitive: In today's market, having a website is increasingly important for small businesses. Without a website, you may be at a disadvantage compared to your competitors.

5. Gain valuable insights: A website with built-in analytics can provide valuable data about your visitors, such as where they are coming from, how long they stay on your site, and what pages they visit. This data can help you understand your audience better and make informed decisions about how to improve your website and marketing efforts.

In conclusion, a new website is a crucial investment for any small business looking to stay competitive in today's digital age. With a new website, you can reach a wider audience, improve your credibility, save time and money, and gain valuable insights about your customers. Don't let your small business fall behind, take the first step towards a modern and effective website today by scheduling a demo with Webware. Our team of experts will work with you to understand your business needs and create a website that will help you reach your goals. Don't wait, schedule a demo with Webware today and take your small business to the next level!

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and as we move into 2023, there are several trends that small business owners should be aware of.
 

Video Content:
One of the biggest trends in digital marketing is the continued rise of video content. More and more businesses are using video to engage with their audience, and this trend is only set to continue in 2023. Whether it's live streaming on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, or creating engaging videos for YouTube and Vimeo, video is a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with potential customers.

Personalization:
Another trend to watch out for in 2023 is the increasing importance of personalization. As consumers become more savvy and more selective about the content they engage with, businesses will need to find ways to tailor their marketing messages to individual customers. This could involve using data and analytics to create personalized email marketing campaigns, or using AI and machine learning to personalize the customer experience on a business's website.

Influencer Marketing:
In addition, the use of influencer marketing is also set to grow in 2023. Influencer marketing involves partnering with social media influencers who have a large following in your target market and using their influence to promote your business. This can be a powerful way to reach a large audience and build trust with potential customers.

Chatbots:
Finally, the use of chatbots is also set to increase in 2023. Chatbots are AI-powered software programs that can simulate conversations with customers in real-time, providing quick and convenient answers to common questions and helping to improve the customer experience.

In summary, digital marketing in 2023 is all about video content, personalization, influencer marketing, and chatbots. Small business owners who want to stay ahead of the curve should consider incorporating these trends into their marketing strategies.

Need help with website and digital marketing for your small business? Join over 4000 business owners like you that are a part of Webware. Book a Growth Session with us and let’s look at your current efforts and if Webware is the right fit for you.

At Webware, we create and send out thousands of email campaigns a month for our customers. After building newsletters on the usual email marketing platforms, we felt the options available out there were too complicated. So we decided to make our own. 

Today, we are announcing the launch of "Newsletter".

"Newsletter" is the easiest email marketing platform you have ever used and it's available for free to every Webware customer right now!

Say goodbye to using those other complicated email marketing tools. Webware’s Newsletter platform makes it easier than ever to send out beautiful, engaging email newsletters. Stay in touch with your customers using our user-friendly newsletter platform right from the Webware dashboard.

First and foremost, it's simple to use. With "Newsletter", you can select the customers you would like to send an email to, write your email, upload images, style your text and click send. You can use an existing template or build your own format with "click and drag" boxes. Or if you know HTML, you can customize away. 

Once you've sent out the email, you can track the success of your newsletter. With Webware’s Newsletter, it’s simple to see if your newsletter is reaching clients and how effective it is. Easily keep track of how many people have opened your newsletter, clicked on the content in the email, or unsubscribed. Easily create a follow-up campaign to customers who showed the most interest by creating a new list based on clicks.

To learn more about how to use Webware's "Newsletter" email tool, please click here. To learn more about Webware's complete digital toolkit for business, please click here. 

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With the holidays upon us, so too is shopping season. While big brands always do well during this time of year, small businesses are in a great position to grab a piece of the spending action.

With more and more people starting their holiday shopping online to research products and services and find stores nearby, small businesses can use their website and online strategy to reach customers who are ready to buy now.

If you’re a small business looking to make the most of holiday season shopping, here’s four ways to get customers through your door, all backed by Google research.

1. Be mobile-friendly. Mobile searches for “where to buy” grew over 85% in the past two years. Shoppers are switching out in-store browsing for online browsing. Even if they eventually head to the store to make the purchase, consumers are starting their research online, and they’re using their phones. Don’t miss out on the action with an outdated, unresponsive website.
2. Help customers with their online research with store and product videos. “Shop with me” videos are soaring in popularity on mobile—growing over 10X more in watch time over the past two years. Customers want to be sure they’re buying the perfect gift for their loved one (or themselves). Shoppers want more details than product specs. When Google calculated the amount of time people have spent watching unboxing videos just on their phones, it’s the equivalent of watching the holiday classic “Love Actually” more than 20 million times. By creating a video showing customers around your store, highlighting popular gift items, “unboxing” favourite products, or demonstrating a service in action, people can get a better idea of their potential purchases. You can upload the video to YouTube and your website, and share it on social media to reach your fans.
3. Be ready to help. With their online research complete and shopping list in hand, customers are prepared to buy ASAP. Make sure your website’s online chat is up and running, your phone number/contact information is visible, and there is staff ready to answer questions, offer suggestions, and expedite shopping. Whether you have an e-commerce store or not, being on-call to help customers can make all the difference.
4. Make your business easily accessible to last-minute shoppers. Mobile searches for “store hours” peaked on Christmas Day. Even with the best of intentions and hours of online research, procrastination and busyness prevail. Ensure your hours and location are very visible on your website, and your Google+ Business Account info is up-to-date, so when customers are looking to make that last minute purchase, they know where and when they can find you. Top Google searches include: “what stores are open near me on Christmas,” and “what stores are open right now.”

Get your small business on the holiday shopping map with these Google research-backed tips. Are you missing a strong online strategy or a mobile-friendly website? Webware has all the tools your business needs to get online and be seen by potential customers. Get in touch with the experts at Webware to get your business online, today. Visit webware.io for more details.

A Webware website and digital marketing package also makes a great gift for the small business owner in your life. Get started here.

Article source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/holiday-mobile-shopping-assistance/

One of the great benefits of the Webware platform is the ease of use. It’s very easy to make changes to your website yourself – to edit your content, change images, add blog posts, even create your own web pages.

To make it easier for you to add great-looking web pages, Webware has added 14 new web page design templates! Now your inner website pages can look just as great as your home page, and you can choose from a wide variety of styles that include images, videos, product collections, forms, and more.

Scroll down to see all the new page types you can select for your website:

Collection Page

Mostly Image Pages

Menu Collection Page

Text & Image Pages

For details on the variety of page types available, see our Help Center article here.

To learn the basics of how to add a page, view this article.

Great news for Webware customers! Use our latest product update, customizable forms, to help you get the most out of your website.

Now you can create custom forms on your Webware site, to collect exactly and only the information that you care about from your customers.

There are three types of forms available on any Webware site: Registration Form, Profile Form, and Newsletter Form.  Each of these forms gives you an opportunity to find out more about the people who visit your site.  

Your site will be created with each of these forms already included and with standard fields such as name and email address.  

 You can now customize your forms by adding or removing fields, even creating custom fields, to collect the information you want to know about your customers.

For example, if you’re offering B2B services, you may want to know Company Name or Website URL.  

If you’re an ecommerce apparel store, you may want to know Gender or Shoe Size.

There’s all kinds of information you might want to collect, such as:

• Company name
• Phone
• Address
• Neighborhood or zip code
• Website
• Preferred store location
• Shirt size

For details on how to customize your forms, see our Help Center article here.

For more on the types of forms on your Webware website, see this article.